I just want to say that I am glad there is something like CXG. That said:

The game is slow. Even at the lowest settings (with all the Tips & Tricks done) I'm getting about 20 FPS max--and I don't know if this is normal for the situation or what.

I have a MacBook Pro (3,1), which has the Nvidia 8600GT (256 vram). One time I saw it reach 80 fps on the lowest settings. And the thing is, I get about the same FPS if I run it on 'High'. As I said above, I'm wondering if this is normal, if there's something else that I can do...if there's another MBP 3,1 user out there who's getting better performance, etc.?

Have you set the "DirectDrawRenderer"... see Tips and Tricks... Mac Tweaks, from the Forums ... Use OPENGL as your drawing engine.

Off hand, I don't know what my in-game settings are, but they are nominally "medium" -- I get a pretty wide swing on FPS. Certain areas, like 21st hall in Moria or the Flaming Depths (and any place with "fire effects") tend to be pretty low in the 10s and low 20s, and jerky. Other areas are much higher, but I don't remember the numbers.

William H. Magill wrote:

Have you set the "DirectDrawRenderer"... see Tips and Tricks... Mac
Tweaks, from the Forums ... Use OPENGL as your drawing engine.

Off hand, I don't know what my in-game settings are, but they are
nominally "medium" -- I get a pretty wide swing on FPS. Certain
areas, like 21st hall in Moria or the Flaming Depths (and any place
with "fire effects") tend to be pretty low in the 10s and low 20s,
and jerky. Other areas are much higher, but I don't remember the
numbers.

Yeah, like I have said I have tried everything in the Tips and Tricks section and it's just 'chunky'. I'll be single digits quite often. In fact, it feels like the system in general 'slows down'.

Interesting, on my two systems:

iMac6,1 Core 2 Duo [2.16GHz - 3 GB 667] OS X 10.6.4; NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT- 256MB

MacBook Pro4.1 Core 2 Duo [2.5GHz - 4GB 667] OS X 10.6.4;NVIDIA 8600M GT- 512MB

I did some comparisons.
On the iMac, I get 27-35 FPS routinely with graphics nominally at "medium." (DirectDrawRenderer set to opengl; hardware set to none; vertex shader checked.)

On the MacBook Pro, 35-45 with graphics nominally on "high." (DirectDrawRenderer not set; hardware set to none; vertex shader checked.)

The implication here is that the actual Video memory (and vintage) of the Graphics card seems to make a significant difference in the FPS.

Just to add my 2cp in.

I run on a 20" iMac, 2.16GHz, 667MHz Bus speed, ATI 1600 128MB graphics.

At 1680 x 1050 I get by fine on Medium settings (I sometimes play with custom settings and sacrifice some frill effects for a longer draw distance). This is the same as I used whilst playing in Bootcamp on the same PC. This gives me 30ish FPS, dropping to 20ish in areas with fire/fog. It's not ideal, but it'll do until I retire this iMac and get a new one :).

I recently added 1Gb of memory to take me to 3gb (apparently this is the maximum for this iMac), and it's cut down the 'just loaded' judders I used to get, especially in 21st Hall.

William H. Magill wrote:

On the iMac, I get 27-35 FPS routinely with graphics nominally at
"medium." (DirectDrawRenderer set to opengl; hardware set to none;
vertex shader checked.)

William,

I get the DirectDrawRenderer string in the registry, but what do you mean by "hardware set to none"? And when you say "vertex shader checked" are you talking about the wine configuration gui?

Xaphir wrote:

I get the DirectDrawRenderer string in the registry, but what do you
mean by "hardware set to none"? And when you say "vertex shader
checked" are you talking about the wine configuration gui?

Those two settings are in the "graphics" tab of the "Wine Configuration" "Control Panel" under Direct3D....
I got the verbiage a bit backwards ... should be "Vertex Shader Support" set to "None" and "Allow Pixel Shader" checked.