Tiny Tom
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Posted - 2009.01.15 04:32:00 -
[1]
The March upgrade will kill using my second newest machine for dual-boxing, but I can live with that; there won't be any cancellation here.
That said, I would recommend a bit more notice for desupport in the future. If someone does need to look at buying a new machine to play the game, it's reasonable to give them more than two months to save for it, even if their hardware is old. While I understand that the horse is out of the barn with Apocrypha (the schedule is fixed by a press release, which was presumably issued on the assumption that only one set of art would be needed), I'd encourage more notice in the future. The SM2 discussion is a good thing in that regard.
In terms of further improvement, I'd be more supportive of CCP keeping SM2 support for the low end but ditching SM3 support for the high end than just making SM3 the base. My gaming machine is SM3, but I think keeping SM2 at the low end but allowing for improvements on the high end would keep the game the most healthy.
Lastly, I'll be civil, but I have a couple bones to pick with the hardware snobs. First, if you're going to look down your nose and present yourself as an authority, get your facts right.
* The first major SM2 card was the R300, which was launched in August 2002--6 and half years ago, not the 10+ some here have quoted.
* "Upgrading" to a PCI card with a newer graphics chips would almost certainly be foolish. The graphics card needs to receive each frame's geometry data in order to render, and I've observed going PCI-speed transfers having a deleterious effect on the performance of a Q3 mod years ago. I don't want to think about how PCI transfers would kneecap the frame rate of a game with polygon counts scaled the interconnects typical for SM3 hardware.
Hardware is an investment a lot of people can afford to make with planning, and very often the schedule is determined by external factors even when money is available. I assembled my current machine in the middle of 2005 with plans to upgrade it two years later. Money wasn't an issue when that two year time expired, but my current machines has done the job. Since then, I considered it silly to put an old OS (WindowsXP) on a new machine, but I've also preferred to avoid the fetid stench of Vista for as long as possible. Barring a requirement my current machine can't meet or a desire for "gravy" performance, I'll be holding tight for at least several more months.
If users haven't been given enough notice about de-support, I don't blame them for finding an abrupt change hard. |