Much can be said about this game and its clunky control schemes but it is not taxing on the system at all. I have a rather old rig e6750+oc8800gt+4gb and i get *1050 at quality setting nine, and it looks gorgeous
Mobility HD2600 (with sucky and and slow ddr2 vram)
At quality level 9 and 1280x800, and added 2x AF in the drivers. I did have to drop the resolution from my native 1440x900 though. With an overclock, it should run fine at 1440x900, but alas, I can barely overclock. And not at all in win 7.
Despite my current PC problems, which I whine about elsewhere (unrelated to Monkey Island except for the extremely awful timing), I'm always puzzled and frankly annoyed at this strange "rule" that seems to exist in a not-wholly-insignificant portion of the adventure community that every adventure game must be able to run on your great grandmother's Spectrum ZX. Personally, I'd love nothing more than to see a new adventure game be on par visually with the newest shooters. You don't see FPS players complain about how their games are too hard on their computers. It's thinking like this that keeps the adventure genre firmly in niche territory.
And don't talk to me about how "it's about the story". Good storytelling and good graphics are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I'd argue that a great presentation, while it can't save a bad story, will always enhance a good one.
Pretty much every other kind of player accepts that they have to keep their PC somewhat up to date to get the full experience - and sometimes even just basic functionality - out of their games. What makes us so special?
Just to be clear, this isn't a comment on Telltale's games in any way. I'm quite happy with the look of the games here. It's just a reaction to this strange and oddly genre-specific conceit of "This game won't run perfectly on my computer = TOTAL GAME FAIL".
You don't see FPS players complain about how their games are too hard on their computers
heard about crysis? when it came out, few had a system that could actually run that poorly optimized behemoth code. I think the dust from the following quagmire is still hanging in the air. Same with gta4 for the pc. my point is that this particular whine is everywhere. Why cant I put crysis on ultra high settings on my brand new machine?, why is gta choppy on my commodore 128 with action cardrige?.
I have a pretty bad computer, and the game worked perfectly, besides some choppyness during the opening scene. Don't think my computer liked the storm, but even then, it wasn't too bad.
Oh for Pete's sake, this is annoying. It's not a low specced PC, okay? The problem isn't that I'm expecting the game to run on my Atari ST, I'm expecting it to run smoothly on a high end PC, like every other recent game I've tried on it so far.
Judging from the various replies, it runs smooth on some people's high end systems and poorly on other people's high end systems. This suggests some sort of bug or compatibility issue on certain hardware. If we were able to discuss it openly, then Telltale might actually be able to fix it so that everybody can run it properly. But no, let's beat down everyone who complains about stutter with fanboyish remarks about how no ill is allowed to be spoken about this game and that any problem obviously only exists in the mind of whoever is experiencing problems.
Oh for Pete's sake, this is annoying. It's not a low specced PC, okay? The problem isn't that I'm expecting the game to run on my Atari ST, I'm expecting it to run smoothly on a high end PC, like every other recent game I've tried on it so far.
Judging from the various replies, it runs smooth on some people's high end systems and poorly on other people's high end systems. This suggests some sort of bug or compatibility issue on certain hardware. If we were able to discuss it openly, then Telltale might actually be able to fix it so that everybody can run it properly. But no, let's beat down everyone who complains about stutter with fanboyish remarks about how no ill is allowed to be spoken about this game and that any problem obviously only exists in the mind of whoever is experiencing problems.
most people have given there pc specs and how well it runs on there system - and it all does seem to add up from what i've read - what are the specs of your dell?
heard about crysis? when it came out, few had a system that could actually run that poorly optimized behemoth code.
No. Few were willing to turn the settings down to reasonable levels in order to run it. Crysis is optimized just fine and was able to run on quite average systems and look as good as other games on those systems, but everyone wanted it to look as good as it did on high-end systems, and that's where they got frustrated.
No one ever wants to compromise on the settings. Especially with resolution (I blame the advent of LCDs and their native resolutions for this).
most people have given there pc specs and how well it runs on there system - and it all does seem to add up from what i've read - what are the specs of your dell?
3.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8600 GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory. I note that this is all well above Telltale's own recommended specs. And it's not even running at 1680xwhatever, it's 1440x900, with graphics quality already scaled down. Performance is poor enough to cause stutter in image and sound during the intro and even the main menu, let alone the rest of the game.
No. Few were willing to turn the settings down to reasonable levels in order to run it. Crysis is optimized just fine and was able to run on quite average systems and look as good as other games on those systems, but everyone wanted it to look as good as it did on high-end systems, and that's where they got frustrated.
No one ever wants to compromise on the settings. Especially with resolution (I blame the advent of LCDs and their native resolutions for this).
i blame intels crummy gfx chips and the refusal of major pc manufactures to educate consumers about the advent of 3d graphics cards and there importance. Instead they advertise there cheap systems to death that are seemingly good with there "massive 4gbs of ram and dual core processor!"
I have a one year old Dell XPS1530 that I bought with all the specs maxed, and I'm getting stuttery graphics and sound at 1440x900. The whole "lol you guys just have old computers of course it doesn't run smoothly on your Atari 2600" thing is childish and annoying.
Oh for Pete's sake, this is annoying. It's not a low specced PC, okay? The problem isn't that I'm expecting the game to run on my Atari ST, I'm expecting it to run smoothly on a high end PC, like every other recent game I've tried on it so far.
Judging from the various replies, it runs smooth on some people's high end systems and poorly on other people's high end systems. This suggests some sort of bug or compatibility issue on certain hardware. If we were able to discuss it openly, then Telltale might actually be able to fix it so that everybody can run it properly. But no, let's beat down everyone who complains about stutter with fanboyish remarks about how no ill is allowed to be spoken about this game and that any problem obviously only exists in the mind of whoever is experiencing problems.
Your XPS1530 might be less than a year old, but its graphics chipset is definitely not up to par to play at 1440x900.
Googling your Dell shows up its graphics chipset as 8600M GT. Now, click here and look at where this graphics chipset stand. Quite down the list. I'd say 1024x768 would be fine for your card, but any game will stutter at 1440x900 with that chipset.
I have a pretty crappy PC, so I had to run it at 800x600 resolution and the lowest graphics setting for it to run smoothly, and to me it still looked beautiful. I would suggest just swallowing your pride and lowering the settings until it runs more smoothly. Yeah, it's disappointing that your high-end PC isn't able to play it at its highest settings for who knows what reason, but, really, lowering the settings isn't going to detract from the game that much.
Is there anyone who can respond with statements that aren't made up?
Recommended specs aren't a guaruntee of maximum settings. Try scaling the settings down some, since the intro and menu in particular are shader intensive.
Also, stuttering can sometimes be a result of disc fragmentation, so try looking into that as well as other general optimization issues (booting clean, closing other apps when running, etc). Your system can definitely handle the game, but it sounds like there might be complicating factors besides the game just randomly hating you.
3.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8600 GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory. I note that this is all well above Telltale's own recommended specs. And it's not even running at 1680xwhatever, it's 1440x900, with graphics quality already scaled down. Performance is poor enough to cause stutter in image and sound during the intro and even the main menu, let alone the rest of the game.
Your vram is probably limiting you to play it at higher resolutions. i reckon your details should be ok at 3-5. what details are you currently playing on?
you could try forcing anti aliasing off in the nvidia control panel in windows for tomi that might enable you to put the details up higher. tomi could use a more advanced in game graphics settings to turn aa off etc, - would probably solve most issues.
I have a two years old Dell business (Vostro) laptop, I ran the game on 9 with a resolution of 1440x900, I saw a slight frame drop when the ship rocked in the starting section, but we're talking between 5-10 FPS here, for a mere two seconds.
I think that a lot of the problems I've seen are down to how people maintain (or quite to the contrary, don't bother to maintain) their computer, and that can have a huge impact on how well a game plays, or even if it plays at all. What I'd recommend is either an install of XP with all the correct drivers and versions of DirectX, or an install of the release candidate of Windows 7, I strongly recommend the latter if anyone is running Vista or bought a computer in the last three years.
Vista is a huge problem when it comes to gaming due to how poorly optimised the OS is, this is an issue in and of itself with computer maintenance because Vista makes for a poor base to start from. I'm not saying that Vista is a bad OS, it isn't at all, and as a business OS it can be fantastic, but it's just not worthwhile as a gaming platform, it generally has more cons that pros, and this is why I chose to avoid it as much as possible myself and made the jump straight to Windows 7.
Another boon of the 7 approach is that you don't have to worry about setting up the system, Windows 7 fetches all that the system needs itself, and once it's done you could download Tales of Monkey Island and jump right in! I'd strongly recommend reading up on Win 7 though and considering your options, because there are caveats, such as the system going into bi-hourly shutdowns in May 2010 (due to it being a limited time beta), but an upgrade to the next RC or the final release (if it's out by then) should be possible.
The thing is, with a format like the PC, it's really hard to say that any given problems are with a game rather than a user's system, and if under 30 per cent of the audience are having problems, and the other 70 per cent can run it fine (on whatever settings) then the probability is going to be very high that the problem is either that the user's system doesn't have the hardware necessary, or that the system is poorly maintained.
And for those who don't care to live with the hassles of a computer, it's coming out for the Wii soon, too!
Exactly. I only have a 7600GT and had to play in level 3 at 1920x1200. I'm glad i could play well in that resolution at all.
After playing through the game i made some screenshots of Level 9 and Level 3 for comparison.
It doesn't look different in a way that would really matter to me. It seems to be mainly some lightning and Antialiasing.
Before i played it i considered buying a new Graphic Card, because i wanted to play in level 9 and saw how it ran in the W&G demo. However for now i am fine with my passively cooled 7600GT.
Just for amusement: Besides that really slow GPU i have a Phenom II X4 420. I usually don't play other games than Telltales Adventures.
Looks like i should upload those screenshots after all. You are really not missing much.
Click to enlarge and don't forget to zoom to the original size
1920x1200 on Graphics Level 3
Ok I admit I might have made up that last statement. But yes, I was trying to help. I showed you where the chipset lies on the hierarchy, and it is on the same tier as the top cards of 4 years ago.
Jamiehavok might have a point about anti-aliasing. You might have it turned on at more than 4x at the nvidia control panel.
Please people, we're not honestly suggesting that a game like TOMI requires the latest NVidia card to run it at a medium-quality resolution like 1440x900 when stuff like Far Cry 2 or Oblivion run just fine at that resolution?
Hell, even Telltale's other games run just fine at those settings. It's only TOMI that's having these problems.
VagrantWulf, what kind of graphics card is in your Vostro? Perhaps you'll be able to quell these unreasonable claims that a game like TOMI needs the latest NVidia card to run smoothly.
Ok I admit I might have made up that last statement. But yes, I was trying to help. I showed you where the chipset lies on the hierarchy, and it is on the same tier as the top cards of 4 years ago.
Jamiehavok might have a point about anti-aliasing. You might have it turned on at more than 4x at the nvidia control panel.
from what i have read when the tomi details are higher anti aliasing goes up by default. so forcing if off rather than "use in game settings" may help. Ofcourse this may be a rumour and might not help at all!
from what i have read when the tomi details are higher anti aliasing goes up by default. so forcing if off rather than "use in game settings" may help. Ofcourse this may be a rumour and might not help at all!
I played with that a little yesterday and it looks like there's no AA in Level 3 and 2x AA in Level 4
I played with that a little yesterday and it looks like there's no AA in Level 3 and 2x AA in Level 4
this probably explains why people start having problems after gfx level 3! you probably start getting things like anisotropic filtering at lvl 4 too that all has an impact in performance!
Ok I admit I might have made up that last statement. But yes, I was trying to help. I showed you where the chipset lies on the hierarchy, and it is on the same tier as the top cards of 4 years ago.
You know, pointing stuff out on a list is great, but actual experience with the device is better. And I can honestly tell you that plenty of recent (better looking!) games run just fine in 1440x900 on that machine.
Now, this can mean two things: either Telltale's graphics engine is very inefficient and doesn't make very good use of system resources, or there's some sort of compatibility problem with certain hardware.
Now, if we could simply discuss this and have Telltale look at it, maybe there'll be a fix and even more people could enjoy the game at high end settings than there already are.
Or, we could all stick our fingers in our ears and go "lalala, there is no problem, I won't hear of any cons about Telltale games, nothing will run on that resolution." and never find an answer.
Now, if we could simply discuss this and have Telltale look at it, maybe there'll be a fix and even more people could enjoy the game at high end settings than there already are.
For that however there should be an extra thread including all relevant system specifications, especially the GPU, the resolution and the Graphic Level. This one is filled with too much discussion for that.
Or, we could all stick our fingers in our ears and go "lalala, there is no problem, I won't hear of any cons about Telltale games, nothing will run on that resolution." and never find an answer.
My PC's nothing to write home about (a couple of years old now, and the graphics card is the BASE spec for most modern games) - the card is an ATI Radeon X1600 w/256MB, so the bare minimum for things such as Assassin's Creed, Mirror's Edge etc. (still miffed that they haven't put demos out so I can test, but that's another matter) - a pretty low-spec card by today's standards.
2GB RAM, 2.2GHz AMD Athlon X2 64 4200+.
Cannot run games like the Witcher on ANY settings (or with GREAT difficulty), runs with this fine at 1024x768, level 7. A higher detail level than I'd expect for this not to choke & die.
The TTT is not exactly the best optimized engine around, but it works well enough.
What you have to realize is that LVL9 is really, really wasteful and is only really intended for systems were you don't have to worry about performance at all.
I mean, most games don't even allow for 4x Antialiasing in the settings panel.
For that however there should be an extra thread including all relevant system specifications, especially the GPU, the resolution and the Graphic Level. This one is filled with too much discussion for that.
That's my point. Any attempt to create such a thread is futile, because it will instantly be swarmed by people who wish to hear no ill words spoken about their beloved games, or 'experts' claiming that TOMI's graphics are actually the pinaccle of what's possible on certain hardware configurations.
Guys i have a Dual core 6600, 4Gb, and 8800GTS not the worst PC and after playing some minutes the fps go down from 60fps to 30/40fps (in the same area!) and i'm still i don't understand why! i play at 1680x1050 quality 9... (if i go down it's the same...).
I think that this engine it's very very fragile and they MUST put online very soon a patch to resolve a lot of problems...
Ok Bas, I apologise. It does seem like I was quick to go on Telltale's defense.
However, it does seem strange that your machine can run other games fine but not this one. Have you checked your nvidia control panel for the anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering settings? If these are set to override games settings, and are set at ridiculously high levels, it might explain the choking.
Guys i have a Dual core 6600, 4Gb, and 8800GTS not the worst PC and after playing some minutes the fps go down from 60fps to 30/40fps (in the same area!) and i'm still i don't understand why! i play at 1680x1050 quality 9... (if i go down it's the same...).
I think that this engine it's very very fragile and they MUST put online very soon a patch to resolve a lot of problems...
Since your Graphic Card seems to be quite decent you should contact telltale directly with that.
Can you reliably reproduce it?
I have a computer and it ran fine Only thing was 10 mins into the game the whole thing stopped working and my screen went blank.....
Think the power cut had something to do with that though. Was back up and running in 15 mins
The misses then started shouting at me for playing games again which meant I had to stop, but I dont think my computer was of a high enough spec to stop that from happening.
Thank you Tell Tale for a class game that has captured both the look and feel of Monkey Island from what I remember it to be many many moons ago
The game has scalable graphics for a reason. If you have the PC for it, crank up the resolution and quality. If you don't, don't. I fail to see the problem. The complaint that they have lost focus is ridiculous. It is an awesome addition to the MI series, and if you need to scale back the graphics to play it on your computer, you have that option.
Comments
At quality level 9 and 1280x800, and added 2x AF in the drivers. I did have to drop the resolution from my native 1440x900 though. With an overclock, it should run fine at 1440x900, but alas, I can barely overclock. And not at all in win 7.
And don't talk to me about how "it's about the story". Good storytelling and good graphics are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I'd argue that a great presentation, while it can't save a bad story, will always enhance a good one.
Pretty much every other kind of player accepts that they have to keep their PC somewhat up to date to get the full experience - and sometimes even just basic functionality - out of their games. What makes us so special?
Just to be clear, this isn't a comment on Telltale's games in any way. I'm quite happy with the look of the games here. It's just a reaction to this strange and oddly genre-specific conceit of "This game won't run perfectly on my computer = TOTAL GAME FAIL".
heard about crysis? when it came out, few had a system that could actually run that poorly optimized behemoth code. I think the dust from the following quagmire is still hanging in the air. Same with gta4 for the pc. my point is that this particular whine is everywhere. Why cant I put crysis on ultra high settings on my brand new machine?, why is gta choppy on my commodore 128 with action cardrige?.
Judging from the various replies, it runs smooth on some people's high end systems and poorly on other people's high end systems. This suggests some sort of bug or compatibility issue on certain hardware. If we were able to discuss it openly, then Telltale might actually be able to fix it so that everybody can run it properly. But no, let's beat down everyone who complains about stutter with fanboyish remarks about how no ill is allowed to be spoken about this game and that any problem obviously only exists in the mind of whoever is experiencing problems.
Maybe for the next one ill install bootcamp instead of Fusion - maybe this is why???
most people have given there pc specs and how well it runs on there system - and it all does seem to add up from what i've read - what are the specs of your dell?
it hasnt been about just ram and processor since 1995 - macbooks usually have bad graphics chips - that is your problem. 3 is probably about right.
No one ever wants to compromise on the settings. Especially with resolution (I blame the advent of LCDs and their native resolutions for this).
3.2GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8600 GT with 256MB GDDR3 memory. I note that this is all well above Telltale's own recommended specs. And it's not even running at 1680xwhatever, it's 1440x900, with graphics quality already scaled down. Performance is poor enough to cause stutter in image and sound during the intro and even the main menu, let alone the rest of the game.
i blame intels crummy gfx chips and the refusal of major pc manufactures to educate consumers about the advent of 3d graphics cards and there importance. Instead they advertise there cheap systems to death that are seemingly good with there "massive 4gbs of ram and dual core processor!"
Your XPS1530 might be less than a year old, but its graphics chipset is definitely not up to par to play at 1440x900.
Googling your Dell shows up its graphics chipset as 8600M GT. Now, click here and look at where this graphics chipset stand. Quite down the list. I'd say 1024x768 would be fine for your card, but any game will stutter at 1440x900 with that chipset.
Is there anyone who can respond with statements that aren't made up?
Also, stuttering can sometimes be a result of disc fragmentation, so try looking into that as well as other general optimization issues (booting clean, closing other apps when running, etc). Your system can definitely handle the game, but it sounds like there might be complicating factors besides the game just randomly hating you.
Your vram is probably limiting you to play it at higher resolutions. i reckon your details should be ok at 3-5. what details are you currently playing on?
you could try forcing anti aliasing off in the nvidia control panel in windows for tomi that might enable you to put the details up higher. tomi could use a more advanced in game graphics settings to turn aa off etc, - would probably solve most issues.
I think that a lot of the problems I've seen are down to how people maintain (or quite to the contrary, don't bother to maintain) their computer, and that can have a huge impact on how well a game plays, or even if it plays at all. What I'd recommend is either an install of XP with all the correct drivers and versions of DirectX, or an install of the release candidate of Windows 7, I strongly recommend the latter if anyone is running Vista or bought a computer in the last three years.
Vista is a huge problem when it comes to gaming due to how poorly optimised the OS is, this is an issue in and of itself with computer maintenance because Vista makes for a poor base to start from. I'm not saying that Vista is a bad OS, it isn't at all, and as a business OS it can be fantastic, but it's just not worthwhile as a gaming platform, it generally has more cons that pros, and this is why I chose to avoid it as much as possible myself and made the jump straight to Windows 7.
Another boon of the 7 approach is that you don't have to worry about setting up the system, Windows 7 fetches all that the system needs itself, and once it's done you could download Tales of Monkey Island and jump right in! I'd strongly recommend reading up on Win 7 though and considering your options, because there are caveats, such as the system going into bi-hourly shutdowns in May 2010 (due to it being a limited time beta), but an upgrade to the next RC or the final release (if it's out by then) should be possible.
The thing is, with a format like the PC, it's really hard to say that any given problems are with a game rather than a user's system, and if under 30 per cent of the audience are having problems, and the other 70 per cent can run it fine (on whatever settings) then the probability is going to be very high that the problem is either that the user's system doesn't have the hardware necessary, or that the system is poorly maintained.
And for those who don't care to live with the hassles of a computer, it's coming out for the Wii soon, too!
Looks like i should upload those screenshots after all. You are really not missing much.
Click to enlarge and don't forget to zoom to the original size
1920x1200 on Graphics Level 3
1920x1200 on Graphics Level 9
Jamiehavok might have a point about anti-aliasing. You might have it turned on at more than 4x at the nvidia control panel.
Hell, even Telltale's other games run just fine at those settings. It's only TOMI that's having these problems.
VagrantWulf, what kind of graphics card is in your Vostro? Perhaps you'll be able to quell these unreasonable claims that a game like TOMI needs the latest NVidia card to run smoothly.
from what i have read when the tomi details are higher anti aliasing goes up by default. so forcing if off rather than "use in game settings" may help. Ofcourse this may be a rumour and might not help at all!
this probably explains why people start having problems after gfx level 3! you probably start getting things like anisotropic filtering at lvl 4 too that all has an impact in performance!
You know, pointing stuff out on a list is great, but actual experience with the device is better. And I can honestly tell you that plenty of recent (better looking!) games run just fine in 1440x900 on that machine.
Now, this can mean two things: either Telltale's graphics engine is very inefficient and doesn't make very good use of system resources, or there's some sort of compatibility problem with certain hardware.
Now, if we could simply discuss this and have Telltale look at it, maybe there'll be a fix and even more people could enjoy the game at high end settings than there already are.
Or, we could all stick our fingers in our ears and go "lalala, there is no problem, I won't hear of any cons about Telltale games, nothing will run on that resolution." and never find an answer.
Which of the two is more helpful?
That kind of reminds me of something.
no it wasn't, but it has become patched for the better and with warhead it is nearly there.
2GB RAM, 2.2GHz AMD Athlon X2 64 4200+.
Cannot run games like the Witcher on ANY settings (or with GREAT difficulty), runs with this fine at 1024x768, level 7. A higher detail level than I'd expect for this not to choke & die.
What you have to realize is that LVL9 is really, really wasteful and is only really intended for systems were you don't have to worry about performance at all.
I mean, most games don't even allow for 4x Antialiasing in the settings panel.
That's my point. Any attempt to create such a thread is futile, because it will instantly be swarmed by people who wish to hear no ill words spoken about their beloved games, or 'experts' claiming that TOMI's graphics are actually the pinaccle of what's possible on certain hardware configurations.
I think that this engine it's very very fragile and they MUST put online very soon a patch to resolve a lot of problems...
However, it does seem strange that your machine can run other games fine but not this one. Have you checked your nvidia control panel for the anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering settings? If these are set to override games settings, and are set at ridiculously high levels, it might explain the choking.
Let's try to figure out what's the problem, eh?
Let's, because the more people enjoy this game the better.
I'm gonna check the AA and filtering settings tonight, when I'm back from work. Fingers crossed.
9600gt 512 ram
opteron 165@2250
4gb ram ddr@500mhz
Since your Graphic Card seems to be quite decent you should contact telltale directly with that.
Can you reliably reproduce it?
Think the power cut had something to do with that though. Was back up and running in 15 mins
The misses then started shouting at me for playing games again which meant I had to stop, but I dont think my computer was of a high enough spec to stop that from happening.
Thank you Tell Tale for a class game that has captured both the look and feel of Monkey Island from what I remember it to be many many moons ago
It's a shame I can't run it on a high resolution, but I can't run -any- games on one.