Help plz - Troubleshooting X + games....

TheBattman

TheBattman

I'd rather be fishin'
Ok here's the machine:

PowerMac G4 450 AGP
OS X 101.3
ATi Rage 128 Pro (16MB)
1GB ram
20GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus
40GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus

The games (with latest updates/patches):

4x4 EVO
Giants Citizen Kabuto

Spring break is just starting, so I finally have time to sit down and play some games. Ok, first up Giants - Citizen Kabuto:

Install game, download and install latest patch (v.7). Launch game --- splash screens for several of the contributing developers - then black screen with music. Allow to run for 20 minutes - still black screen. Cannot exit without a hard restart. Through some trial and error I get the game to get all the way through the beginning of a new game and then it freezes hard (but with music still paying - need hard restart). I go this far by manually setting the monitor resolution to 640x480 prior to launching the game.

4x4 EVO - This game worked ok last time I played it - under OS 10.1. Now when I launch it, I get the opening paragraphs on trademarks/etc, a set -up window for setting game resolution and graphics options. Then when you go on, the intro movie plays then black screen with music. Again, leave it for a while and nothing new happens.

I have tried every resolution available, both set through monitors pref pane and via the game. I have yet to get the game to work. Fortunately, I can just exit via the command+Q quit and all is ok - so this game isn't freezing up - just no video.

I have emailed MacPlay regarding Giants with the only response being to manually change resolutions (already tried).

I have found no info for 4x4 EVO - it seems all of the effort there is supporting 4x4 EVO 2.

I welcome any help at all - outside of buying a new machine (both companies claim that my machine more than meets the requirements)!
 
Just played a bit of 4X4 EVO booted into 9.2.2. The game runs ok, but will finally freeze solid after about 2 minutes of actual game play. I have alloted 125000K ram to it (yes - it played a bit longer before lock-up, but still locked up).

Giants Citizen Kabuto will not run under less than 10.0.4, so I can't try it there.

If I should transplant this thread to the software section, please let me know. I am just puzzled that no-one has even offered a guess.....
 
I am having similar problems with Quake3.
My G4 is similar to yours and have to set to 640x480 or my monitor gets out of range or freezes my mac.
I was playing better in 10.1.2 than in 10.1.3 so maybe OpenGL is broken again like it was in 10.1
As always, i think we have no option but wait for a newer patch for our games or our systems.
I am going to download both games you mention and give it a try. :rolleyes:
 
Same problem here, and I'm kind of upset about it. G4/400 AGP (Sawtooth), Rage128Pro, 576 MB RAM, OS X 10.1.3.

• Giants (retail) loads a few logos, then freezes to a black screen, must hardware reboot. Tried 3 different sets of CDs, installed many times, used all the patches and builds, edited the plist, nothing works. After many e-mails back and forth, both developer and publisher are stymied (MacPlay has stopped answering my e-mails about this, guess they gave up).

• Alice (retail) plays for a while then just freezes, must hardware reboot. Most often it freezes on the loading screen, just before the last ball loads. Developer suspects it's a Rage128Pro/OS X issue, and Aspyr very helpfully suggests I run it in OS 9 because it runs better there ("known conflicts w/OS X")!

• Cro-Mag Rally freezes everywhere, but I chalk that up to sloppy coding.

• iPhoto slide show ever and always locks my Mac, too.

• The Aqua Icons screen saver used to produce a lock at millions of colors and "use all icons," but I notice Apple removed that option in 10.1.3 ("look, we fixed the problem, duhhh").

I've seen small numbers of posts about this issue here and there (at Apple Discussions, mostly), but not in the numbers I'd expect. Still, I've done nothing to this machine that should cause it to flake out (only applied "real" OS updates, bla bla)... I'd love to know what the deal is, and I'd like to play the games I've already paid for.

I'm thinking of upgrading my video card (to a Radeon 8500, probably), but I'd hate like hell to shell out the cash and still have the machine freeze up like this.
 
I've not tried the other games you mentioned, but your symptoms for Giants are identical to mine.

According to MacPlay - my machine more than meets the requirements for the game. They claim that they run it regularly on an iMac 500 with OS X and 256MB ram. I find this terribly hard to believe.

Please post back if you find a conclusion.
 
Try this: In iPhoto, click the Share button (near the bottom of the screen), then hit Slide Show. Even with just one or two JPEGs in the folder, iPhoto locks up after displaying only one or two of them.

Sometimes have a normal cursor, sometimes the rainbow, sometimes none. Sometimes the screen goes black, sometimes it sticks on a slide. Can't quit via keyboard, must reboot to recover.

There appears to be a problem with the Sawtooth/Rage128Pro/Open GL/OS X combination. (Never had OpenGL problems in OS 9.) Over the past 8 months or so I've submitted several bug reports about this to Apple, but evidently this is a low-priority item (ie, since the machine's over 6 months old, it's ancient history).

Getting back to the unplayable games angle, I still believe that game publishers should note on the box that the game is unsupported on these machines. Since this freeze is absolutely reproducible on my Sawtooth and others (various related threads exist here and there, including Apple Discussions), the bug appears to be more than a fluke.
 
I have a similar spec machine:

G4 450 AGP 1.5GB RAM, ATI Radeon AGP, Mac OS X 10.1.3 and 9.2.2 on IBM 45GB 75GXP Drive and 9.2.2 only on original 20GB drive (Western Digital).

I have no problems with the screen savers or Giants. However I have had freezes when playing games full screen. This has happened with Spiderman, Unreal Tournament preview 2 and even Bugdom in Classic.
As for 4x4 evolution I get exactly the same symptoms but at least it doesn't crash the system. These freezes are the most annoying OS X bug the other major problems for me are the random long hang when connecting to the internet with the internal modem and not being able to use sleep as my second hard disk spins down all the time when after waking up despite being set to never spin down.
 
Originally posted by mattw
I have a similar spec machine:

G4 450 AGP 1.5GB RAM, ATI Radeon AGP...

These freezes are the most annoying OS X bug the other major problems for me are the random long hang when connecting to the internet with the internal modem and not being able to use sleep as my second hard disk spins down all the time when after waking up despite being set to never spin down.
Click to expand...

It's at its worst with the Rage128Pro. I can't play any of my games.

There's a killer fix for the PPP hang. I've been using it for about 2 weeks now with zero problems, where before I had to reboot daily to avoid that 3-minute hang. Check Apple Discussions when (/if; it's been down most of the week) it gets back up, look for the 500+ post thread, Internet Connect Still Hangs... (something like that). You might find a download link there.

I also agree about the HD spin-down issue, man is that annoying! Click a folder in the dock and sit and wait 5 seconds for the thing to come alive... Apart from the prettiness factor, that's no better than having a really slow, antique computer.
 
In case anyone stumbles across this thread, I took a gamble and replaced the stock Rage128Pro with a Radeon 8500, and now my OpenGL freezes are gone without a trace. At least on this G4, it seems the problem was with the 128Pro and/or its drivers.

Machine and freeze details are outlined above.
 
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