To be more precise, I got home from work and found Soldier of Fortune II - Gold Edition propped up against my monitor. She’s a sweetie.
I know absolutely nothing about this game aside from what I’ve read on the box. Heck, I know exactly nothing about computer games in general. The last one I tried to play was the downloadable demo of the first Doom when they were introducing it.
So, I’m admitting that I’m a dumbass, and coming to you people for help. I have questions.[ul]
[li]What, exactly, is a 3D Accelerator Card?[/li][li]Why do I need it?[/li][li]Has anybody played this? If so, how did you like it?[/li][li]I have an old joystick that plugged in to the mouse port on a computer I had two computers ago. I haven’t even checked to see if there’s a port that will accept it on this one. If there is, should I bother?[/li][li]How much time am I going to waste with this thing when I could be doing something productive?[/li][li]It uses the Quake III engine. Is that good or bad?[/li][li]A boatload more when I think of 'em.[/li][/ul] Honestly, I know jack about games. I mostly use this machine for work and the SDMB.
What, exactly, is a 3D Accelerator Card?
a video card
Why do I need it?
It takes some of the graphics workload off of the CPU. If you don’t have it, your CPU probably won’t be up to the task of rendering all that’s contained in the game. This cause the game to be slow and/or jumpy and near impossible to play. A possible stop gap solution is to set the options for the lowest resolution possible, but even at a low resolution the new games ask too much from a system without a accelerator card
Has anybody played this? If so, how did you like it?
I haven’t, sorry.
I have an old joystick that plugged in to the mouse port on a computer I had two computers ago. I haven’t even checked to see if there’s a port that will accept it on this one. If there is, should I bother?
Don’t bother. This game is a first person shooter. The joy stick will be next to useless. Stick with the mouse and keyboard. (keyboard for movement and wepon selection - mouse to aim)
How much time am I going to waste with this thing when I could be doing something productive?
well, that’s up to you isn’t it, chief?
It uses the Quake III engine. Is that good or bad?
errr, in my opinion, neither. I prefer the Unreal engine, but the quake engine was made by the same guys who made Doom. It may be somewhat familiar to you.
It’s a video card that does on-board processing of 3D rendering via special hardware. Almost all video cards sold these days have some form of 3D acceleration.
Because it offloads many of the tasks associated with rendering 3D objects from the computer’s CPU, allowing the CPU to focus on other things. Not to mention that the accelerator has custom hardware for dealing with 3D rendering. The end result is that rendering is faster, and thus frame rates are increased. Plus, Rendering via a 3D accelerator just looks better than software rendering via the CPU.
You probably shouldn’t bother. 3D shooters are almost always easier to control with a mouse/keyboard setup. Joysticks are really only good for flight sims (IMHO).
Eh, neither, really. I prefer the Unreal Engine, but the Quake Engine is good, too. It really a matter of aesthetics as far as I’m concerned.
I realized that the “3D Accelerator card” question was stupid once I read the rest of the system requiements. I could have run this thing on the computer I had two computers ago. If I had the card. Now, I’m not really worried. I suspect she got it out of the bargain bin at FYE. I don’t care, I got it for free.
The engine is so-so? I can live with that. After all, I got it for free.
Mouse and keyboard only. Got it.
Thanks again. When I’m done here for the evening I’m gonna’ install it and blow some stuff up.
When I read the title to this thread, I suspected a malicious intent from Exgineer’s girlfriend (without any reason for such suspicioin; I have moments of cynicism), and was curious as to what the “present” might be.
