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StarCraft 2 Beta |OT| (Beta Now Reopen, GL HF)

F

Fragamemnon

Member
CcrooK said:
Question: Does SC2 share a lot of the same mechanics from War3?
Click to expand...

Does share a lot of interface mechanics, which is pretty nice since I always thought that War3 had a good UI.

It's a game of macromanagement/economy though. Very different in terms of the style of play than WC3 was. As soon as people start ironing out effective fast expand builds it'll move even more in that direction.
 
Minsc

Minsc

Gold Member
First professional benchmark out!

Starcraft2-CPUs.png


Since it is almost impossible to play the same match over and over again, we made use of the replay feature to run our benchmarks. This means that the A.I. is not calculated, but the effect is negligible. We fast forward our replay to 15:30 and have Fraps record the framerate of the following 20 seconds while more than 60 Zerglings attack a Protoss base defended by several Carriers and other units. This is not a worst-case scenario we usually use for our benchmarks but represents a common gaming situation.

According to the Windows 7 Task Manager the Starcraft 2 Beta utilizes only two cores and our benchmarks confirm this: The Intel quad-core Q6600 is only slightly faster than its dual-core sibling, the E6600. But Starcarft 2 reacts very well to additional cache - especially the E8400 and the two Lynnfield CPUs benefit from that while it is a disadvantage for the Athlon II X2 250. AMD's Phenoms are doing very well, but can't reach Intel's Core i5/i7. The Athlon 64 array is rather slow.

Given our results and the fact that our little brawl isn't a really challenging scenario, a Core i5/i7 is the ideal CPU for the Starcraft 2 Beta. But a lot cheaper and not much slower is a Phenom II X2 545 at 3.0 GHz - our current recommendation. According to reports in the Battle.net forums Core i7 CPUs have performance problems in certain situations and we can confirm this from what we saw during our gamplay tests - our benchmark scene is not affected though.
Click to expand...

Edit: I should add, there's a little humor to be found in this benchmark - that is, no matter how much money you have, it is actually impossible to max out Starcraft 2 @ 60fps without a pretty wild overclock - around 5GHz probably (seeing that it is CPU limited and only supporting 2 cores)! :lol
 
C

coopolon

Member
Minsc said:
First professional benchmark out!

Edit: I should add, there's a little humor to be found in this benchmark - that is, no matter how much money you have, it is actually impossible to max out Starcraft 2 @ 60fps without a pretty wild overclock - around 5GHz probably (seeing that it is CPU limited and only supporting 2 cores)! :lol
Click to expand...

Glad to see the e8400 doing so well. That is what I had also experienced in just doing replays, but was worried that maybe I wasn't watching extreme enough replays to really get a good impression.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
Minsc said:
Edit: I should add, there's a little humor to be found in this benchmark - that is, no matter how much money you have, it is actually impossible to max out Starcraft 2 @ 60fps without a pretty wild overclock - around 5GHz probably (seeing that it is CPU limited and only supporting 2 cores)! :lol
Click to expand...

Called it. Was sure it was CPU limited from my tests.

Looks like my Q8300 @ 3.0GHz is at quite a disadvantage here with its low cache. I still think they should be offloading more work to the GPU. I bet you that 5870 isn't even breaking a sweat, considering my GTX 275 doesn't reach max usage.

This is not good news at all. CPUs are not scaling upwards...this might mean we won't see a PC able to max it for many years to come.
 
A

autobzooty

Member
Is it possible that the engine will be optimized better in the final version than in the beta?

I have an intel core i7 CPU, so I was wondering why I still couldn't maintain 60 FPS. Hopefully it'll support more cores in the final product.
 
LowParry

LowParry

Member
For a game that's Starcraft and not having full details, max settings, etc., is baffling. I mean. This isn't Crysis we're talking about. It's a RTS.
 
A

autobzooty

Member
CcrooK said:
For a game that's Starcraft and not having full details, max settings, etc., is baffling. I mean. This isn't Crysis we're talking about. It's a RTS.
Click to expand...

That's what makes me think that this is a problem limited to the beta. I didn't expect to have any problems running this game on max considering how many other games I can run on max. Even Crysis I can run at pretty high levels.
 
T

traveler

Not Wario
Messed around with the Raven for the first time today. Got a kick out of leveling my opponent's main and FE with about 100 turrets deployed simultaneously, despite losing. :lol

I'd really like to see them in the hands of some pros, though. It seems like they have the potential to be a really good harassment tool if used with the same level of precision as, say, a ghost.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
CcrooK said:
For a game that's Starcraft and not having full details, max settings, etc., is baffling. I mean. This isn't Crysis we're talking about. It's a RTS.
Click to expand...

People think Blizzards games run better than they do. World of Warcraft rapes my system maxed out in Grizzly Hills (<20-25fps). Diablo II slowed even the fastest systems at the time. Starcraft could slow quite a few systems in custom maps.

The point is that the game is scalable. On lowest details it doesn't take much of a computer to run SC2.

Starcraft 2 is a very good looking game. Moreso than Dawn of War 2 and it has the performance requirements to match. Why people thought 2 year old PCs would be maxing the game day 1 at 60fps was beyond me. I always said a 3.0GHz C2D and 8800GT would never max the game at 60fps.

autobzooty said:
Is it possible that the engine will be optimized better in the final version than in the beta?

I have an intel core i7 CPU, so I was wondering why I still couldn't maintain 60 FPS. Hopefully it'll support more cores in the final product.
Click to expand...

They need to either offload some work to the GPU or thread it better. My first core is being used at 100%, but my second core is only being used at 50% or so and I'm still CPU limited. If they can thread it better and make use of quad-cores, then the situation will be looking much better.
 
LowParry

LowParry

Member
TheExodu5 said:
People think Blizzards games run better than they do. World of Warcraft rapes my system maxed out in Grizzly Hills (<20-25fps). Diablo II slowed even the fastest systems at the time. Starcraft could slow quite a few systems in custom maps.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of that has to do with the shadow settings in WoW. Max just does strange things to the game.
 
T

TheExodu5

Banned
CcrooK said:
I think a lot of that has to do with the shadow settings in WoW. Max just does strange things to the game.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's both shadows and view distance. Personally, I just run without shadows and I get a smooth 60fps.

Seriously though, SC2 is a really good looking game. I don't know why people are surprised. I'm just disappointed at the lack of multicore using out of a brand new CPU-limited Blizzard game. Otherwise everything seems fine.
 
oxrock

oxrock

Gravity is a myth, the Earth SUCKS!
GregLombardi said:
I cannot believe the PM I just got.

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

*STARTS DOWNLOADING BETA*
Click to expand...
I'm really happy for you man, you're living all of our dreams.
 
N

NorrenRadd

Member
GregLombardi said:
I cannot believe the PM I just got.

HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.

*STARTS DOWNLOADING BETA*
Click to expand...

Damn, at first I didn't care that I didn't have a code because no one seemed to have one... now everyone has a code.
 
P

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
NorrenRadd said:
Damn, at first I didn't care that I didn't have a code because no one seemed to have one... now everyone has a code.
Click to expand...
i still dont have one. :(

servers are down? I suddenly comprehend Micheal Liberty's use of the phrase "schadenfreude in buckets".
 
D

deathberry

Neo Member
Woke up and checked my emails. First one was the beta invite.

bfeCt.gif


Btw, my WoW account is EU (since we get PAL games over here) but the SC II Beta shows as US on my Battle.net account. Does it show US for all PAL users or did I actually get the US beta?
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAG

Also, no key in the email, it was just a notification that the beta is available now. I thought there were keys...?
 
C

commissar

Member
deathberry said:
Woke up and checked my emails. First one was the beta invite. <snip>
Also, no key in the email, it was just a notification that the beta is available now. I thought there were keys...?
Click to expand...
There's no keys, you use your battle.net logon to validate yourself. Also congrats :)
 
G

GasProblem

Member
deathberry said:
Woke up and checked my emails. First one was the beta invite.


Btw, my WoW account is EU (since we get PAL games over here) but the SC II Beta shows as US on my Battle.net account. Does it show US for all PAL users or did I actually get the US beta?
LAAAAAAAAAAAAAG

Also, no key in the email, it was just a notification that the beta is available now. I thought there were keys...?
Click to expand...

Hmm, sounds fishy, you're sure it's not a phishing attempt?

Edit: Oke, never mind, hehe :p
 
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