Wolfenstein Gameplay Performance and IQ @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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Wolfenstein Gameplay Performance and IQ - Just in case you needed some more Nazis to kill in brutal and entertaining ways, the "new" Wolfenstein is here to deliver your supernatural World War II fix! We'll check it out on a broad range of video cards from the GeForce GTX 295 down to the Radeon HD 4770. Come with us as we find out what sustenance this game has to offer our starving video cards.

Given that it is based on five year old graphics technology, its visuals are presented well and appear surprisingly up-to-date. Performance was spectacular almost across the board, and though the clumsy menu is clearly geared toward console controllers, the game stands up well in spite of its flaws.
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I like the game, but for some weird reason the movement feels laggy... even tho i have vsync off and forced off on control panel
 
Holy frame dip batman! Any predictions if the ATI cards will get better on frame dip with the next set of drivers?
 
MP is a COMPLETE train wreck to say the least. It feels like you're playing at 8FPS as the chop and lag in unbearable. I can't believe they released it in its current state. I had heard that many of the guys who did the MP got the axe and it's obvious why.

The SP was as expected, but still fun, but seeing as though MP is the main draw for FPS this was a serious let down.
 
I have a 4870 and it performs great at max settings with this game. As you touched upon, the game does not go above 60 FPS even though it has options to raise your refresh rate to 70 and 75, both of which my monitor is capable of and use in other games. Normally i play with Vsync on -- i tried it off with these same results, i suppose there is no sense in keeping it off now. The lack of anti-aliasing is also disturbing, although i have to say that i haven't really noticed/been bothered by it.

Nice Review [H] -- you make a good point about the future of graphics cards, although i don't think this game with its older tech is really a great benchmark (aside from the fact that companies are still releasing games today with these old engines)
 
Great article per usual guys. I also really agree with Mark's statement about the current trend of console focused titles primarily using DX9. If my GTX 260 Black Edition can run all the latest games at maximum settings at 1680x1050 (my monitor's native resolution) now and quite possibly the next year or so, what is the bloody point of getting a DX11 graphics card from ATi or NVIDIA? It is a sad day indeed...
 
Yeah, I think the DX11 5870 is going to be my last upgrade for a while and it is competing heavily in my mind with an SSD. I don't see any reason to upgrade my C2Q @ 3.5 either.

No flames please but NV had better hope this gpu computing thing and their little Tegra chip is going to take off because there is soon going to be nothing left for there gpu's to do on the consumer side. Professionals making movies, or designing cars or simulating the weather or whatever they do will still need them I guess. AMD and Intel are going to fuse their platforms and in a generation I see integrated handling at least 1680 just fine, much better laptop gaming is coming for sure. Hmmm, maybe one day we'll select our platform and then add an nVidia "co-processor" if we need one I guess.

My only hope coming to stress my system and give me some true PC gaming goodness and visuals is Stalker COP but there are whispers in the wind that Stalker 2 is going to be on consoles............Crysis 2 is console.............
 
These commands will make you go over 60fps and make the game much smoother.

seta com_unlock_timingMethod "0"
seta com_unlockFPS "1"
seta com_showFPS "1"
 
UnderLoK said:
MP is a COMPLETE train wreck to say the least. It feels like you're playing at 8FPS as the chop and lag in unbearable. I can't believe they released it in its current state. I had heard that many of the guys who did the MP got the axe and it's obvious why.

The SP was as expected, but still fun, but seeing as though MP is the main draw for FPS this was a serious let down.
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Have you played Quake Wars? Is is as bad as that? Worse maybe? I know the animation in that just plain sucks no matter how good your performance is (graphics wise and lag).
 
This game is definitely a disappointment,graphically and in gameplay.Even the cinematic cutscenes are inferior.The display options are a joke,an obvious case of bad consoleitis.Thank god I'm not into MP,it sounds like that part of it is messed up even worse than SP.
 
The graphics are a bit long in the tooth, but it's still the best game to use the Doom 3 engine so far IMO.
 
Hope AMD make enough money to let their graphics dept hang out with the devs and give them ways to optimize for their cards sometime soon.
 
Another well done article in any case. Reassures me that my 4890 1gb was a good call =]
 
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Why no GTX 260 or 4850? I would think there were more folks w/ those 2 cards than all the others combined.

So if I freakin' loved Return to Castle Wolfenstein, will I enjoy this?
 
I seem to recall NVIDIA's graphics cards were relatively fast vs. equivalently-priced ATI cards in Doom 3 back when it was released. I'm slightly surprised to see that NVIDIA's cards are still faster on a Doom 3-engined game after all this time, this many graphics card generations later. Is it pure coincidence or is there something that both the 6800GT and the GTX 275 still have in common that is causing this? Or is it simply because of NVIDIA's efforts to work with game developers?
 
here is the location for the SP cfg:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURNAME\Local Settings\Application Data\id Software\WolfSP\base

more things to add would be

seta g_noviewbob "1" \\ takes out head bob
seta g_fov "110" \\ wider field of view

SP is great, I played MP for 5 minutes and was very disappointed, might try agian especially if the patch it.
 
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Jodiuh said:
Why no GTX 260 or 4850? I would think there were more folks w/ those 2 cards than all the others combined.
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inotocracy said:
Might have been answered, but why no GTX260 in the results? :(
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Because I've seen this answered before. The 260 is not in the results because most people are commonly buying the 275 instead of the 260. Furthermore, the purpuse of these reviews is to help people select thier new graphics cards or if they should upgrade. They should know what their current cards can do and where it falls within this range. I'm not really sure why the 4850 isn't included.
 
vengence said:
Because I've seen this answered before. The 260 is not in the results because most people are commonly buying the 275 instead of the 260. Furthermore, the purpuse of these reviews is to help people select thier new graphics cards or if they should upgrade. They should know what their current cards can do and where it falls within this range. I'm not really sure why the 4850 isn't included.
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Somewhat this for the GTX 260 and HD 4870.

The HD 4850 was not included because wanted to include the GTS 250 and HD 4770, and we don't have all the time in the world to get these things done.
 
I am getting to a point with these "PORTED" games from the consoles why should I continue to upgrade my PC?. When Wolfenstein was first announced, it was stated that it would be made for the PC then ported over to the Xbox and PS3. I was expecting a pretty good single player and an amazing multi-player (just like in RTCW) I was expecting big open areas with lush graphics and the rest of the kitchen sink. What happened ID and Raven Software? You guys use to make the most amazing games back in the day for the PC. Jedi Academy, Heretic II, The Hexen series. The one thing I looked forward to was the intense MP expierence that came with those games. The SP was icing on the cake so to speak.

As far as Wolfenstein goes, the graphics are OK. The SP is decent. The MP is horrible. LAG LAG LAG.

Nice review as always from the [H] team. I truly believe that if nothing decent comes out (Hell, even Alan Wake was supposed to be for the PC, now its just a console that will be ported over?) I will stop this insane upgrade cycle on my computer and just go with a decent system so that my *E-PENIS* does not cost anymore money :-(
 
The single player is great. Dont gripe on the multi till youve got a guy with all his upgrades...

I enjoy the mp, depending on which server..of course. Not many servers have players in them as of late, but last week there were a few.

All in all Im happy that I bought Wolf. It caters to the "I just wanna play, save me the bs crowd".
 
prime2515102 said:
Have you played Quake Wars? Is is as bad as that? Worse maybe? I know the animation in that just plain sucks no matter how good your performance is (graphics wise and lag).
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It's as bad as Tribes 2 (initially) was if you gamed back then...

The Cobra said:
I am getting to a point with these "PORTED" games from the consoles why should I continue to upgrade my PC?. When Wolfenstein was first announced, it was stated that it would be made for the PC then ported over to the Xbox and PS3. I was expecting a pretty good single player and an amazing multi-player (just like in RTCW) I was expecting big open areas with lush graphics and the rest of the kitchen sink. What happened ID and Raven Software? You guys use to make the most amazing games back in the day for the PC. Jedi Academy, Heretic II, The Hexen series. The one thing I looked forward to was the intense MP expierence that came with those games. The SP was icing on the cake so to speak.

As far as Wolfenstein goes, the graphics are OK. The SP is decent. The MP is horrible. LAG LAG LAG.

Nice review as always from the [H] team. I truly believe that if nothing decent comes out (Hell, even Alan Wake was supposed to be for the PC, now its just a console that will be ported over?) I will stop this insane upgrade cycle on my computer and just go with a decent system so that my *E-PENIS* does not cost anymore money :-(
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The MP is a joke, but it wasn't Raven or id that created the MP. The issue I had was that they both had to put their stamp on it and it is either a serious server issue or it's the client, either way, it is 100% garbage and on most servers totally unplayable.
 
idtech 4 is indeed native OGL but raven chose to port to direct X to add new effects but mainly so it could be ported to the PC, it is an xbox360 developed game.

EA hired threewave studios (old CTF mod makers) to make the MP of the game for pc only. it was based on et:QW engine which EA owned alrdy. So threewave made the MP and 1 year ago were fired and endrant studios took over.

MP is horrible, its a cheaply done COD wannabe. The worst part, why I refuse to play MP is somehow threeave or endrant chose to gimp the ET:QW engine somehow and all animations are somehow done at a 10-15hz cycle. Meaning when your player or any others move it looks like a jerking slideshow, even if you're playing at 100fps. it makes the game unplayable.

EDIT: I foresee EA will not chose to fix or update the MP. Because its PC only and the game has alrdy sucked for sales.

IMO if RAVEN or ID wanted to keep their image they'll make a new Wolf:ET 2 based on raven's wolf engine with new net code. A direct port of settings fromRTCW:ET with same gameplay and feel.

That would be a big step in teh right direction. I'd pay 15-20$ for just that.
 
Unoid said:
idtech 4 is indeed native OGL but raven chose to port to direct X to add new effects but mainly so it could be ported to the PC, it is an xbox360 developed game
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That makes no sense as OpenGL and D3D are parallel with each other in terms of features.
 
Thanks for the performance review [H]. :)

Glad to see my 4870x2 will perform well with Wolfenstein. Although, I'm very dissapointed at the lack of graphics options - especially AA - in the game. From the pics, AA is very much needed. Despite these deficiencies I'll still buy the game as I have been a long time fan of the series.
 
Looks like it won't be very demanding, from graphics card perspective.
The Nvidias have a huge leg up in the min fps territory vs the ATIs though. What's up with that? IMO high min framerate makes games look smoother.
 
Why do they bother remaking and upgrading old titles anymore? People want fresh ideas, not the old stale stuff with shiner pants.
 
Mark_Warner said:
Somewhat this for the GTX 260 and HD 4870.

The HD 4850 was not included because wanted to include the GTS 250 and HD 4770, and we don't have all the time in the world to get these things done.
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Fair enough. I suppose I can guesstimate from the 275 and the 250 results and pick what will work. Although it's not even like we have many options, haha. I'm gonna check this game out simply because RTCW proved SO much fun for me. Hopefully I won't be let down...
 
FSAA doesn't work because the game uses a deferred renderer. Lighting is done as a sort of post process effect, so they don't have to do an extra pass for each object that a dynamic light happens to hit.

As such, dynamic lights are cheap to render and a couple hundred (thousand?) at once is easily possible.
 
Sorry, all I needed was a soft-boot go get the graphs and side-by-side comparison
graphics to display.

Duh.......
 
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christpunchers said:
Why do they bother remaking and upgrading old titles anymore? People want fresh ideas, not the old stale stuff with shiner pants.
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Because the games released in the last year or so suck! Unless you're 12, GTA gets old after about 30 mins. Far Cry and Crysis are just boring. I want fresh ideas too but not if the games suck. I'd rather polish up and revamp an old title that's good than play a new game that's a turd.
 
vengence said:
Because I've seen this answered before. The 260 is not in the results because most people are commonly buying the 275 instead of the 260.
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Maybe....
So more people are buying the 250gt then the 260gtx? I doubt many people are doing that in hardforums lol.

At least we have other games to look forward too. :cool:
 
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