Unsupported Hardware

[onyx oZ Zombie]

alright, we've run into a connundrum recently - MA has introduced anti-aliasing into the EU fonts, and those cards that cannot support AA (mainly SiS intergrated graphics, from what i've read) now give a very strange look to text, to say the least

on the one hand, MA has ALWAYS stated "We test the Entropia Universe on ATI Radeon and Nvidia GeForce graphics cards" and has as their minimum system requirements "NVIDIA GeForce FX series or higher, ATI Radeon R300 Series" ... regardless of this fact, many other cards worked just fine, before the VU, either with their native driver, or with the drivers suggested by MA (nVidea, ATI)

now, after VU 8.12, many peeps cannot see the fonts properly in-game. some are able to simply upgrade their drivers and it works; others, im sure, have updated their video card to get it working; some are not able to do either and are simply dead in the water.

my question: Is it MA's prerogative to do what they will to graphics as long as they do not have to bump up the current system requirements of the game in order to do so, considering that the gfx requirements have been established for quite a long time?

 

[Nai]

Interesting thread

I voted yes but i wish it had been for more than font changes. VU's are an essential part of the ongoing online gaming experience. Its a shame tho it was just for fonts, even tho there is that great theory on another thread (i forget where) about it being necessary to accomodate for Chinese chars..

Hopefully those with this problem (including me!) will beable to upgrade, buy a new PC or get round this problem in others ways so we can be back in the game again soon!

Edit: i may get scolded here because i did mention this in another thread... but its interesting to note that when i checked how well my computer was tuned to EU before the VU and before attempting to play the verdict was green ticks all round... never thought to check anywhere else after that - my bad but u can prob understand my disappointment at not being able to play anymore

 

[NetStalker]

I think the yes response sums it up nicely. If you have been playing on out of spec comps, then you were on borrowed time anyway....consider yourself lucky you were able to play as long as you did.

SiS card....Really??? man thats way out there...

 

[Jimmy B]

Voted yes...

Whilst I sympathise with the people who've just lost compatibility, as EU is constantly developing it has to stay up to date too. Imagine that EU had been running for 10 years now but was still running on systems that were commonplace back then. It'd feel rather antiquated.

Obviously they have to be sensible about it at the same time, but it does have to keep up with the rest of the market, which will mean some older systems becoming incompatible from time to time.

 

[Sionkiewicz]

Yes, you can get this to work with different video cards but you should not expect MA to support that. If it stops working then you are plain out of luck.

If MA told you that the game was supported with an SIS Chipset and then with this release they pulled that support I could see your bitch, but this isn't the case. As far as I know, they haven't changed their minimum specs in a long time.

 

[Eron²]

min spec are fairly low right now but when i started playing the min spec for vid cards was much lower then the FX line and i would hope it will continue to rise making the game better all the time.

 

[onyx oZ Zombie]

alright folks, i appreciate all of your responses and votes (even Nai's lol), and the votes of those that didn't post ... would like a broader spectrum, though ... please give your input if you haven't already, and if you're not burned out on the subject

 

[JDaddy]

An analogy if I could: My Civic can keep up with an Indy car on the track as long as the pace car is out there, but as soon as the green flag drops I'm gonna be blown out of the water.

If you don't have the equipment, you can't play along.

Or

If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch

 

[onyx oZ Zombie]

An analogy if I could: My Civic can keep up with an Indy car on the track as long as the pace car is out there, but as soon as the green flag drops I'm gonna be blown out of the water.

If you don't have the equipment, you can't play along.

Or

If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch

i see your point ... imagine, however, that the indy race organizers suddenly decide that you can only run if you have a minimum of 700 HP - an engine that generates that power cannot possibly be fitted to your vehicle w/out throwing off the "baleance" of your civic ... you always knew this day might come, but you were hoping to finally win a whole race on a yellow flag in your current makeup -now your plans are dashed :|

further thoughts?

 

[JDaddy]

i see your point ... imagine, however, that the indy race organizers suddenly decide that you can only run if you have a minimum of 700 HP - an engine that generates that power cannot possibly be fitted to your vehicle w/out throwing off the "baleance" of your civic ... you always knew this day might come, but you were hoping to finally win a whole race on a yellow flag in your current makeup -now your plans are dashed :|

further thoughts?

Yes, BUT the rule for 700 HP wasn't just added. It's been there all along and I just got by with less.

 

[varjone]

No more playing EU with my laptop then.

 

[Nai]

alright folks, i appreciate all of your responses and votes (even Nai's lol)

Sorry, i dont understand what u mean in this quote? perhaps u could explain?

 

[onyx oZ Zombie]

Sorry, i dont understand what u mean in this quote? perhaps u could explain?

lol was just making a comment that even votes / comments that are contradictory to my own stance on this issue are appreciated

 

[endermigne]

I don't know what's so hard about adding options to the client loader. Then everybody can check or uncheck whatever fits to the PC specs. (I'm not suggesting a hardware recognition thing (right, that's what drivers are for) but e.g. I think DirectX returns information about which of the internal functions are supported directly by the graphics card and which are simulated by software which gives a hint).

Ok, some things are too hard to be maintained for new and old PCs but some stuff is just something that may look a little bit better but it wouldn't hurt to be turned off. Turning off visual stuff also helps old PCs to get higher FPS-count and smoothen up things and also might save bandwidth.

So regarding to the topic it wouldn't hurt to have an option for toggling AA on fonts on and off.