Pondering installing BZII

[AcneVulgaris]

I haven't had a PC for a couple of years, but have recently come into possesion of a laptop with windows 7 on it, and am thinking about playing again.

Did the 1.2/1.3 battle ever get resolved?
Which has the most games up?
Will it even install from CD anymore?
Is there a writeup and/or zip file around to make the process easy?
Is the framerate steady now? The speedup/slowdown really gets to me now.

[GSH]

You can call me biased, but in checking the list of games up at various hours, 1.3.6.2 has far more games and players than any other versions. You can install and run the 'Gamespy 3D' executable contained on the BZ2 CD to view a list of all games up on 1.0-1.3.5.1; BZ2 1.3.6+ use the current Gamespy protocol and are not visible to that 'Gamespy 3D' browser built in 1999.

As to installing from CD, it can, if you run the correct executable, not the default executable. See the 1.3.6.2 readme file (or same in PDF format) for instructions on which file to run.

It's not hard at all to get to latest-- run the correct installer off CD. Download and run the 1.3.6.2 patch installer. All done.

Framerate should be pretty decent with DirectX 9. You should be well over 60fps with vsync off and triple buffer on for any modern CPU & GPU. A netbook with Intel atom + integrated Intel video does not count in that category of modern CPU & GPU. But, something built in the last 5 years should do pretty well.

-- GSH

[Zax]

Annotated:

The DX9 makes the biggest difference in the world. Due to offloading most of the 3D from CPU to GPU (which is much better suited to the task) there is much more breathing room to work with. FE would be a good example. 1.3 version has a playable singleplayer. 1.2 suffered from horrifying slowdown.

Edit @GSH: I didn't think vsync off + triple buffering would cause performance benefit. I was under the assumption triple buffer was to offset the performance loss from vsync on. Personally I play vsync on at all times, since tearing bugs me.

[Zero Angel]

Triple Buffering is much better than VSync. Both reduce tearing, but surprisingly VSync has a greater impact on performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2794/1

Furthermore:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=928593


I play BZ2 with both of these things turned off because I can put up with tearing.

[GSH]

Zax - go read readme13.rtf (or linked from my first response above) as to why vsync on + triple buffer on is a net win most of the time.

-- GSH

[Psychedelic Rhino]

Nice links Zero.

I never quite knew the minutia of why I liked triple-buffering on and v-sync off till now.

[Red Spot]

Triple Buffering is much better than VSync. Both reduce tearing, but surprisingly VSync has a greater impact on performance.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2794/1

Furthermore:

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=928593


I play BZ2 with both of these things turned off because I can put up with tearing.

Good info. Thanks

[AcneVulgaris]

Thanks GSH, will give it a shot later this week.

[Zax]

Zax - go read readme13.rtf (or linked from my first response above) as to why vsync on + triple buffer on is a net win most of the time.

-- GSH

"vsync off and triple buffer on" is what you said though.

[Red Spot]

That is what it should be, read the articles ZA linked.