# argh~i hate playing WC3 for Mac



## i am yujin (Mar 23, 2003)

~~rant~~



 I have been playing WC3 on my iMac 700 MHZ w/ OS 10.2.4 and I seriously cannot stand it anymore..

First off, it's always so freaking slow on my comp. I have the almost all the video settings on low and it still struggles in 1v1 games. I suppose 256 RAM will help but not a lot. I really want to play maps like Aeon of Strife but my computer can't handle it. sad.gif

Also, my computers *FREEZES...INTERMITTENTLY* About every 1 in 3 games, my computer will just freeze. I have to press the power button, which makes it go to sleep, then I have to unsleep it quickly so I don't get disconnected. On custom games, I get disconnected but on ladder games I don't (thank god). This is REALLY annoying being that I'm in like 30 minutes of a DOTA game, and my computer just freezes and I get disconnected. No, this is not because of my cable modem.
I thought OS X would be really stable..but it's not. Constant freezes with no chance of force-quit of quitting happens when I'm just browsing the net or just chatting on AIM.

Seriously, I hate Macs (for playing games). I have lived with them for almost all my life and can't stand it. Unfortunately, my parents are bitches and won't let me buy my own computer.


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## Perseus (Mar 23, 2003)

When you say its slow is it choppy? If so, you probably don't have enough memory on your video card. Even with my computer it was slow cause I only have 16 megs on my card.

-Perseus


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## i am yujin (Mar 23, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Perseus _
> *When you say its slow is it choppy? If so, you probably don't have enough memory on your video card. Even with my computer it was slow cause I only have 16 megs on my card.
> 
> -Perseus *


Well the minimum requirements to run WC3 is 16 vid megs so 16 should run choppy-smooth on the lowest settings, correct?
I have 32 Geforce 2 and it still goes choppy-smooth on the lowest settings.


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## LordOphidian (Mar 24, 2003)

Well, not much help here, but it runs just fine and smooth on my iMac 800 G4, 512mb ram.  It does start getting laggy when the screen is full of guys casting spells, but other than that its pretty good.

Oh, and I have the gfx on about the normal settings.

One thing you might try, if you haven't already, is to remove and re-install the game. I had that problem with D2:LOD.


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## Stridder44 (Mar 24, 2003)

Well, I think its safe to say we can really blame it on an old processor (the G4...not that its a bad processor...its just that its REALLY showing its age).  But other then that, what kinda mac do you have? I know the new imacs have the GeForce4 with 32 megs of ram...but they're running only at 2x (the median is 4x...and 8x is the newest and greatest)! I know this because I have an iMac (17inch).


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## i am yujin (Mar 24, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Stridder44 _
> *Well, I think its safe to say we can really blame it on an old processor (the G4...not that its a bad processor...its just that its REALLY showing its age).  But other then that, what kinda mac do you have? I know the new imacs have the GeForce4 with 32 megs of ram...but they're running only at 2x (the median is 4x...and 8x is the newest and greatest)! I know this because I have an iMac (17inch). *


I have the 32 GeForce 2.
You have the 17' with 64...how is that on WC3?


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## Stridder44 (Mar 25, 2003)

well, to be honest, i dont play WC3 that often...but from just playing it a few times i found that it ran pretty good. It didnt run as smoothly as it could have (being thats its only 2x speed and not 4) but it was fast enough. Q3A  runs very well, better than my PC.


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## scruffy (Mar 25, 2003)

Blizzard went way way overboard with the OpenGL graphics - WC2 used sprites, and was perfectly playable on a much lower end system.  That's fine, it's their choice if they want to write apps that are very demanding...

One thing though - the system requirements on the box are ridiculously low compared to what is really needed.  You can't even play tolerably on the 'recommended' system.  And this is where I think they did something dishonest - they lied  to many of us in telling us we ought to be able to run this game, when the real system requirements are much higher.

It would take thousands of dollars for me to play this game; fine, tell me that and I won't waste the fifty bucks on the game.  Maybe later when I do have a newer Mac I would buy WC4 or something.  Now I don't trust Blizzard anymore, I will think very hard before I buy any of their software.


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## ex2bot (Mar 27, 2003)

If you only have 128 megs, that's GOT to be the problem. 128k is a joke in OS X.

Get a 512mb soDIMM for your flat-panel iMac and you'll actually be able to play stuff. All your other apps will thank you too.

I have 256 mb on my iMac 17" (and a GeForce4mx, of course). Even that is _just enough_ for the newest Mac games.


Doug


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## Arden (Mar 27, 2003)

More RAM is never unhelpful, especially in X.  Why Apple doesn't ship their computers with a *minimum* of 512 MB is beyond me.

Upgrade your iMac and tell us how it goes.


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## macguy17 (Mar 27, 2003)

I currently have the default 128 plus a 512 stick in my iMac with the same stats as the original poster, and yet I still get slowdowns, especially if i've been doing other things for a while. Restarting before I play WC3 has definately become a regular thing for me. I remember it running better in classic  though.. Unfortuantly, TFT is X-Only at the moment, so I can't go check... =/


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## Arden (Mar 27, 2003)

If you really like the game, can you go somewhere where you can pay to play?  We have a place like that in town called the Nexus, where you pay by the hour to play games on PC's.  Most of the time, you're too wrapped up in the game to care that it's a Windows XP box.


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## i am yujin (Mar 29, 2003)

> _Originally posted by arden _
> *If you really like the game, can you go somewhere where you can pay to play?  We have a place like that in town called the Nexus, where you pay by the hour to play games on PC's.  Most of the time, you're too wrapped up in the game to care that it's a Windows XP box. *


yeah pc cafes?  i have been to a couple in korea..
you live in california and there a BUNCH of them in california..some for like $1 an hour with lots of games..

but me, i live in boring ol' eugene, oregon where there are no pc cafes...well actually, there's basically nothing other than the U of O.


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## dixonbm (Mar 29, 2003)

Upgrade your RAM.  It played fine on my 400mhz G4 AGP with 512mb at low settings.  It would have been much better with an upgraded graphics card.


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## leperkuhn (Apr 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by i am yujin _
> *~~rant~~
> 
> 
> ...




I have to agree with you that Macs are a huge burden when it comes to games.  However, i'm playing warcraft on the highest resolution all the time and I've never had any problems whatsoever.


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## Trip (Apr 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by i am yujin _
> *I have been playing WC3 on my iMac 700 MHZ w/ OS 10.2.4 and I seriously cannot stand it anymore.*



Then stop.


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## leperkuhn (Apr 2, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Trip _
> *Then stop. *



I would imagine he's also frustrated with paying $60 for a game and not being able to play it.  I ended up buying my new computer mainly because of the performance of wc3.  messed up.


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## Trip (Apr 2, 2003)

Oh please, who spends $60 on a game these days?! Over 80% of the people who own WC3 downloaded it off ******. And you'd think after buying a game like WC3, MOH, THPS3, or SC even people would be smart enough to buy a PC.

Just my 2¢ on a jacked up world.


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## i am yujin (Apr 3, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Trip _
> *Oh please, who spends $60 on a game these days?! Over 80% of the people who own WC3 downloaded it off ******. And you'd think after buying a game like WC3, MOH, THPS3, or SC even people would be smart enough to buy a PC.
> 
> Just my 2¢ on a jacked up world.  *


WC3 requires a legit cd-key to play online (which I do) and is pretty damn hard to find on the internet.

And don't say one of those key-gen. cuz they only let you play single player..


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## leperkuhn (Apr 3, 2003)

> _Originally posted by i am yujin _
> *WC3 requires a legit cd-key to play online (which I do) and is pretty damn hard to find on the internet.
> 
> And don't say one of those key-gen. cuz they only let you play single player.. *



I also support Blizzard (one of the only companies, I used to be a Bungie fan but you know how that goes)  I used to have a g3 450 and when wc3 sucked it up on that then I bought my beast.

It sucked also because I've waited a long damn time for that game.


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## Zanneth (May 22, 2003)

I have the exact same problem and it SO ANNOYING!!!!!!! I have an 800MHZ 17inch iMac with 768MB of RAM and it still runs horribly, even on low settings!!!!!!

I really hope somebody can help me, I play Warcraft often and when it cant run well even on a super computer, than it is very disappointing.

I have also discovered that the problem may be the system bus. the iMac only comes with 100MHZ, thats also why window resizing is a nightmare.

The other problem could be the RAM on the video cards that come with them (the GEFORCE 4 MX!!!!!!). If someone knows how to upgrade on the new iMac, please email me at: zanneth@cox.net


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## Drizzt (May 22, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Zanneth _
> *I have the exact same problem and it SO ANNOYING!!!!!!! I have an 800MHZ 17inch iMac with 768MB of RAM and it still runs horribly, even on low settings!!!!!!
> 
> I really hope somebody can help me, I play Warcraft often and when it cant run well even on a super computer, than it is very disappointing.
> ...



Well I wouldn't consider an iMac a "super computer" perse but we all have different perceptions on things.  Unless you're a hardware genius there's also no way to remove that video card from your iMac.  That's why towers are generally better choices for gaming on a mac.


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## Mac Osxtopus (May 25, 2003)

I have a (blue?) imac that came out mabye about a few months after the generic turquoise ones(you know, the ones where Apple stupidly labeled it "blueberry"). I updated to mac os x 10.1, and I'm not even CONSIDERING buying jaguar, thats just apple after your money. Anyways, i have:
Mac OS X 10.1.5
Built-In Memory: 320 MB (256 + 64)
Video Memory 8 MB //Note, right here, 1/2 the reqs for wc3
Backside L2 cache: 512k // i have no idea what this is... tell me!
Processor: PowerPC G3
Machine 350 MHz

This is the "ancient piece of crap" you people call the old macs these days. 
Mac OS X running WC3:
WC3 works fine in the beginning of games, however the graphics do start to get a tad choppy after a while(due to increased units, people have built bases) 

Mac OS 9 running WC3: 
WC3 works god-like on this, I think it's because although the "memory sharing" is all with good intentions on mac os X, we need raw power to run this baby, and it runs without a glitch, unless i'm playing a ridiculous map that no one can play. I tried playing Aeon of strife, it worked fine, although i thought it was a tad...erm...corny. 

So now whenever i play WC3 (which I don't anymore, i regret wasting all that money on it), I just reboot in OS 9. 

P.S.:
Long Live Marathon, the best first person shooter ever, on ANY platform.


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## hulkaros (May 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by i am yujin _
> *~~rant~~
> 
> 
> ...



-Download (or find from someone) and install Mac OS X 10.2.6 Combo Update (and not that plain 10.2.6 update)...

-Install at least 128 MB more RAM...

-Repair disk (if needed), permissions and prebind your system

-Download Horse Menu from www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ and use it to give higher priority to your running games or if you know how and/or aren't scared do it via the Terminal

-Install ASAP the newest patches/updates for your games

-Run the games (if possible) under Mac OS 9 (NOT Classic)

-As for the modem problem try to change your modem from V92 to V90 or vise versa... If the problem repeats install ISDN or DSL line... When a modem disconnects it usually is because of PSTN limitations or modem hardware failure which I think is not the case

-Apologize to your parents for calling them Bitches  





Let us know what gives...


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## i am yujin (May 26, 2003)

Yes, I did all those except the 128 RAM.

I ran it under OS 9 and it was GODLY.  BUt for some reason, it froze and i had to press the power button to restart and then came the question mark start up.  That worried me so I'm not sure if I should do it again.

And Horse Menu was discontinued.
http://www.nimatoad.com/HorseMenu/


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## hulkaros (May 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by i am yujin _
> *Yes, I did all those except the 128 RAM.
> 
> I ran it under OS 9 and it was GODLY.  BUt for some reason, it froze and i had to press the power button to restart and then came the question mark start up.  That worried me so I'm not sure if I should do it again.
> ...



...email Horse Menu to you?  

As for the question mark if it came up for a brief second most probably you have nothing to worry about, BUT... If it insisted on staying there flashing 100% your Mac has problems be it in hardware or "software" (=you need better hard disk tools to repair those problems).

Still, I think you should take your Mac to an authorised Apple Store! It isn't normal for a Mac to crash when doing ANYTHING in the times of OS X.2.6... Heck once in a month MAYBE just MAYBE...  But always?!?!? NO WAY... Take it there ASAP   

And more RAM is a MUST espesially for WC3 which needs you to have, if I'm not mistaken 150MB of RAM and not Virtual Memory isn't a safe solution


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