Official system requirements

[Royraiden]

Originally Posted by Cloyd

I run IL2 '46 at 1280x960 perfect. I get ~30fps average on the Black Death track. I have a P4 @2.8 GHz, nVidia 7600 GT AGP 8X 512MB, 2GB of generic memory.

I turn off a lot of stuff:
No Chatter
No AA
No AF
Effects=1
Water=1
Forests=2

Note to you HARDWARE HOs: I have been playing IL2 since the beginning, I have ALWAYS played it on POS hardware, always trying to squeeze out every FPS, or fraction thereof. Don't bother telling me I need to spend $1K on hardware to run $50 software. I KNOW!

I didn't bother with RoF because even people with up-to-date hardware were having problems running it. I will probably buy CloD anyway. I will upgrade eventually, in a year or two.

Care to speculate on what FPS I might get on absolute lowest settings, on an empty map, just me joyriding? Do you think I should just pass, not buy it?

Cloyd

Tough situation you got there.I say wait till it is released and see how budget pc's run it and then decide.

See this?

Originally Posted by Royraiden

Tough situation you got there.I say wait till it is released and see how budget pc's run it and then decide.

This is the answer to all hardware questions posed by people considering upgrades or building a new system. I think it should be posted in a sticky that forces all forum members to view it before posting. Those of you who are still asking, read the following.

Cheapos: If you have a dual core system running faster than 2.4GHZ, and card made in the last two years, and 2GB of memory then you're going to be able to play it, but don't expect much in the way of eye candy.

Midrange: If you have a newer i5/7/AMD equivalent, a card made in the last year, and 4GB of memory then you're going to be playing it pretty decently.

More money than brains: If you spend 1K tomorrow on the fastest processer with 16GB of the most overpriced RAM, a SSD Drive, and 4 of the top of the line cards SLI/Crossfired then you're going to be able to play it maxed with a pretty crazy-large resolution.

FAQs

Q: Should I invest in a new system.

A: Depends on a few things. . . Can you afford it? What do you have now? How do you want to run it?

If you can afford to do it, then go for it. It's your money. If you have a year old gaming system and you don't need to play it on a 27" Dell monitor then you're probably going to be fine. If you want high resolution and everything maxed then you're going to have to spend some money. WAIT AND SEE before dropping a few hundred or thousand on a new system.

Q: Should I SLI/Crossfire to get better performance?

A: To most of you, "No". Luthier said the other day that SLI/CF might not give you any performance gains. Generally speaking Multi GPUs/Cards are for people who will be gaming on multiple monitors or at huge resolutions. We don't know if 1xGPU=20fps and 2xGPU=40fps. Maybe there is a huge gain, maybe you just spent $200 for an additional 5fps? WAIT AND SEE before buying another card.

Q: Should I get the latest and greatest Intel/AMD CPU?

A: All depends on your cashflow and your needs. Are you playing this thing jacked will all things enabled and full object counts? Then yes, spend away! From what we've heard it seems that the CPU might be the component that makes the most difference when upgrading. Will having a 2 core system at 4GHZ be better than a 4 core system at 3.5 GHZ? WAIT AND SEE before buying a new CPU.

Q: Should I get another XGB of RAM?

A: Maybe. Luthier said that COD was pushing 1.8GB of RAM Max, but who knows how streamlined it will get in the next month or how much it will expand in the next year. If you have 2GB, you might want to test the waters first. . . then the land. It's dependent on options enabled, so maybe. Given the price of RAM right now I'd probably go with 4GB since I'm sure additional content will be memory hungry. Should you get 8GB of RAM? It's your cash, but I don't see a gaming rig needing more than 4GB of RAM in the next few years.

Q: I'm going to be smart and wait to build a system, but how will I know what will run COD at 60fps at my ideal resolution?

A: Come to these forums and ask people what they are using and what frames they are getting. Maybe Toms Hardware or another site will use COD as their new "Killer App" to test their rigs. Maybe "Can you run it" will add COD and it will tell you what systems run it decently.

Q: What's the big deal in waiting? If I build a killer rig now or 6 months from now I'll still have a killer rig, but I won't be playing that game for 1/2 a year.

A: It all comes down to how much you want to play COD and how much you value your money. If you have the cash, build your rig now. If you want to be a bit more frugal, cool your jets and play the waiting game.

On average, waiting 6 months to build a system typically gets you equal or better frames per second at about 1/2 the price for the gaming components. This depends on the speed Intel/AMD/Nvidia/ATI release their new flagship products and how aggressive they want to be in their pricing. Sometimes you have to wait a year to get it 1/2 off, and sometimes a new product comes along that makes everyone want to get rid of current stock.

Monitors, power supplies, RAM, hard disks, and even mainboards don't really drop in price that often or that fast. Usually it takes some sort of radical new format from Intel or AMD to make all these manufacturers drop prices and start changing their products to keep up.

In summation, it all come down to two simple formulas

Interest in Game + Ability to Wait < Money = Upgrade
Interest in Game + Ability to Wait > Money = Wait for Upgrade

If you're not happy with the way COD plays on your system then you're going to have to upgrade. If you can sweat it out and wait a little while then you're going to same some cash. If you can't wait and have some money burning a hole in your pocket, spend spend spend!

[Blackdog_kt]

I think i'm with jockey on this one with regards to upgrades.

Also, on the subject of the activation system: http://www.tagesprotection.com/Guide...structions.pdf

After giving it a quick look, it seems that you DON'T need to use up an extra activation if for some reason you need to format your hard drive.

The activation code can be stored in a file, so as long as your PC configuration hasn't been changed significantly in hardware or software you can just use the previous activation. The activation code is a hash value of your PC's components which, if i understand correctly, is just the result of an algorithm that looks up your PC components, assigns some numbers/IDs to them, does some math and extrapolates a final value in a way that's not possible for a third party to reverse and see what you actually have in your PC (ie, something like one-way encryption and comparison of the encrypted values).

As long as the components are the same, your hash string will be the same. So, if you format and reinstall your OS you can then install CoD again and when prompted to activate select the "i have already received my activation code" option. At that point you will be prompted to copy-paste it from the text file (that's what you should definitely save on some removable media device) and you will be using your original activation instead of using up a second one.

That's all according to how i understood the manual after a quick glance. Also, i don't know what they mean when they say "as long as there's no significant changes to your hardware or software". For software, i guess it means the OS type and nothing more (XP/Vista/7). As for hardware, it doesn't specify in depth. I guess it would definitely look up the type of CPU and/or motherboard as well as the GPU when calculating the hash string, but it would be overkill if it also took RAM and hard drives into account, as that would mean an extra wasted activation if you wanted to do some cheap RAM upgrade or your hard drive died and you installed a new one.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but it's looking more user friendly than most of the other DRM we've seen lately.

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

After giving it a quick look, it seems that you DON'T need to use up an extra activation if for some reason you need to format your hard drive.

The activation code can be stored in a file, so as long as your PC configuration hasn't been changed significantly in hardware or software you can just use the previous activation. The activation code is a hash value of your PC's components which, if i understand correctly, is just the result of an algorithm that looks up your PC components

So if this activation code is stored, is it checked each time you start the game? ie, you don't go online each time you load the game, but your game checks that you have an activation code and that it matches your PC? I assume not, that would mean your game would stop working any time you made a change to your hardware. So what does it do?

[kendo65]

Speculum Jockey > Nice post there. A lot of sensible advice.

You got my vote for making it a sticky



Thanks Blackdog - I'm thinking the drm is probably going to be ok. Seems to strike a good and fair balance between protecting the rights of the devs and flexibility for the buyer.

[mazex]

Originally Posted by speculum jockey

See this?



This is the answer to all hardware questions posed by people considering upgrades or building a new system. I think it should be posted in a sticky that forces all forum members to view it before posting. Those of you who are still asking, read the following.

Cheapos: If you have a dual core system running faster than 2.4GHZ, and card made in the last two years, and 2GB of memory then you're going to be able to play it, but don't expect much in the way of eye candy.

Midrange: If you have a newer i5/7/AMD equivalent, a card made in the last year, and 4GB of memory then you're going to be playing it pretty decently.

More money than brains: If you spend 1K tomorrow on the fastest processer with 16GB of the most overpriced RAM, a SSD Drive, and 4 of the top of the line cards SLI/Crossfired then you're going to be able to play it maxed with a pretty crazy-large resolution.

FAQs

Q: Should I invest in a new system.

A: Depends on a few things. . . Can you afford it? What do you have now? How do you want to run it?

If you can afford to do it, then go for it. It's your money. If you have a year old gaming system and you don't need to play it on a 27" Dell monitor then you're probably going to be fine. If you want high resolution and everything maxed then you're going to have to spend some money. WAIT AND SEE before dropping a few hundred or thousand on a new system.

Q: Should I SLI/Crossfire to get better performance?

A: To most of you, "No". Luthier said the other day that SLI/CF might not give you any performance gains. Generally speaking Multi GPUs/Cards are for people who will be gaming on multiple monitors or at huge resolutions. We don't know if 1xGPU=20fps and 2xGPU=40fps. Maybe there is a huge gain, maybe you just spent $200 for an additional 5fps? WAIT AND SEE before buying another card.

Q: Should I get the latest and greatest Intel/AMD CPU?

A: All depends on your cashflow and your needs. Are you playing this thing jacked will all things enabled and full object counts? Then yes, spend away! From what we've heard it seems that the CPU might be the component that makes the most difference when upgrading. Will having a 2 core system at 4GHZ be better than a 4 core system at 3.5 GHZ? WAIT AND SEE before buying a new CPU.

Q: Should I get another XGB of RAM?

A: Maybe. Luthier said that COD was pushing 1.8GB of RAM Max, but who knows how streamlined it will get in the next month or how much it will expand in the next year. If you have 2GB, you might want to test the waters first. . . then the land. It's dependent on options enabled, so maybe. Given the price of RAM right now I'd probably go with 4GB since I'm sure additional content will be memory hungry. Should you get 8GB of RAM? It's your cash, but I don't see a gaming rig needing more than 4GB of RAM in the next few years.

Q: I'm going to be smart and wait to build a system, but how will I know what will run COD at 60fps at my ideal resolution?

A: Come to these forums and ask people what they are using and what frames they are getting. Maybe Toms Hardware or another site will use COD as their new "Killer App" to test their rigs. Maybe "Can you run it" will add COD and it will tell you what systems run it decently.

Q: What's the big deal in waiting? If I build a killer rig now or 6 months from now I'll still have a killer rig, but I won't be playing that game for 1/2 a year.

A: It all comes down to how much you want to play COD and how much you value your money. If you have the cash, build your rig now. If you want to be a bit more frugal, cool your jets and play the waiting game.

On average, waiting 6 months to build a system typically gets you equal or better frames per second at about 1/2 the price for the gaming components. This depends on the speed Intel/AMD/Nvidia/ATI release their new flagship products and how aggressive they want to be in their pricing. Sometimes you have to wait a year to get it 1/2 off, and sometimes a new product comes along that makes everyone want to get rid of current stock.

Monitors, power supplies, RAM, hard disks, and even mainboards don't really drop in price that often or that fast. Usually it takes some sort of radical new format from Intel or AMD to make all these manufacturers drop prices and start changing their products to keep up.

In summation, it all come down to two simple formulas

Interest in Game + Ability to Wait < Money = Upgrade
Interest in Game + Ability to Wait > Money = Wait for Upgrade

If you're not happy with the way COD plays on your system then you're going to have to upgrade. If you can sweat it out and wait a little while then you're going to same some cash. If you can't wait and have some money burning a hole in your pocket, spend spend spend!

Well written!

[Triggaaar]

Originally Posted by mazex

Well written!

To each their own I guess.