Taking on Mars with a laptop

[jollysam 10]

Hello everyone,

This game looks very interesting, and I'm very tempted by it. However, I play most of my games on a laptop, since I travel around a lot. My question is; can the graphics/effects in this game be 'turned down' to run okay on laptops or less powerful PCs? Or is it going to be a real 'system-hog' on any graphic settings? I'm talking about both single player and multiplayer.

I have a Sony Vaio E Series, bought about a year ago, if that helps.

Thanks a lot for the help,

Sam

[dram 14]

Hi JollySam,

If your notebook is this one or similar to it, then you should get quite decent performance. The graphics settings can indeed be drastically reduced if required, and I manage to run it on a netbook much worse then what you have :)

http://www.sony.com.au/product/sve14a26cg

I will state, however, that Take On Mars is primarily intensive on the CPU due to the heavy physics simulation (the Large Rover can have up to about 80 individual pieces, all simulated). But even that is highly scaleable, with settings ranginng from 60Hz to 240Hz (how many times it calculates physics per second, high rate = more accuracy).

Hope that helps you decide!

[jollysam 10]

Hi JollySam,

If your notebook is this one or similar to it, then you should get quite decent performance. The graphics settings can indeed be drastically reduced if required, and I manage to run it on a netbook much worse then what you have :)

http://www.sony.com.au/product/sve14a26cg

I will state, however, that Take On Mars is primarily intensive on the CPU due to the heavy physics simulation (the Large Rover can have up to about 80 individual pieces, all simulated). But even that is highly scaleable, with settings ranginng from 60Hz to 240Hz (how many times it calculates physics per second, high rate = more accuracy).

Hope that helps you decide!

Yes, my laptop is pretty much the same as that one, and I can get ARMA 2 running pretty well with what I have. Thanks, that helps a lot. :)

Another question: you say the physics are scaleable from 60Hz to 240Hz, but what determines that in a multiplayer game? The host's settings?

Edited December 15, 2014 by JollySam

[dram 14]

Another question: you say the physics are scaleable from 60Hz to 240Hz, but what determines that in a multiplayer game? The host's settings?

The host can set it up as he likes, but the clients always run at 60Hz :) The reason for this is that the movement is interpolated over the net.

[jollysam 10]

The host can set it up as he likes, but the clients always run at 60Hz :) The reason for this is that the movement is interpolated over the net.

Okay thanks, that's good to know.:)