Author Topic: MegaGlest 3.5.1 hardware and software requirements  (Read 9146 times)

tomreyn

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MegaGlest 3.5.1 hardware and software requirements
« on: 19 April 2011, 02:15:56 »
This is just for documentation, not meant as a discussion topic (but you are welcome to discuss if you feel like it nevertheless).

Hardware requirements:
* 1 GB RAM (1.5 GB recommended)
* Video card supporting OpenGL 1.4¹ or higher (dedicated Nvidia or ATI video card recommended)
* Audio chip supporting OpenAL (or higher)
* Multi-core CPU (modern CPU series with at least two cores of at least 1.5 Ghz recommended)

Software requirements:
* A version of any Linux distribution or Windows version which still receives security support
* Video drivers which work well with this operating system version and support OpenGL 1.4¹ or higher
* Audio drivers supporting OpenAL (or higher)
* Linux: A package of 7-zip providing the 7z executable (p7zip-full on Debian/Ubuntu)
* Linux dependencies include:

Code: [Select]
 
  libSDL 1.2
  libGLU
  libGL
  libOpenAL
  libogg
  libvorbis
  libvorbisfile
  libvorbisenc
  liblua 5.1
  libjpeg
  libpng
  libz
  libgnutls
  libicu
  libdl
 
  *note: libcurl and libxerces are compiled statically and some game tools (like g3d viewer) requires wxWidgets
 

¹ OpenGL 1.3 with GL_ARB_env_crossbar extension will also work.
« Last Edit: 8 May 2011, 04:20:13 by ultifd »
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Omega

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #1 on: 19 April 2011, 04:48:24 »
Hmm... are you sure these are correct? MegaGlest should be fine with less RAM, and I've heard of others playing so, though quality may suffer. And original Glest only need OpenGL 1.3+, what does MG add that needs a slightly newer version? And why is multiple cores *required*? Wouldn't these all be recommendations (except perhaps the OpenGL requirement). You'd also need a sound card that supports OpenAL.

As for software, Mac and FreeBSD are also supported, and I imagine any OS that you can build the prerequisites on, MG should compile on.
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ultifd

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #2 on: 19 April 2011, 05:01:31 »
I think in an "epic" multiplayer game MG uses at least 500k of memory. 1 gig to 1.5 gigs sounds good.
Multicores, probably for particles.
Opengl, I think this was discussed somewhere else before, not sure.

Ishmaru

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #3 on: 19 April 2011, 14:05:35 »
As for software, Mac and FreeBSD are also supported, and I imagine any OS that you can build the prerequisites on, MG should compile on.

MAC is not really supported since there is no one compiled a version for direct download for mac. Theoretically someone can compile for mac but its not really supported in my eyes at least. Not everyone can compile...
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tomreyn

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #4 on: 19 April 2011, 18:47:02 »
Hmm... are you sure these are correct? MegaGlest should be fine with less RAM, and I've heard of others playing so, though quality may suffer. And original Glest only need OpenGL 1.3+, what does MG add that needs a slightly newer version? And why is multiple cores *required*? Wouldn't these all be recommendations (except perhaps the OpenGL requirement). You'd also need a sound card that supports OpenAL.

As for software, Mac and FreeBSD are also supported, and I imagine any OS that you can build the prerequisites on, MG should compile on.

RAM:
1 GB is really not much, I'm referring to total system memory. The operating system and background tasks will also eat a non-neglectable share of RAM. You may be able to play some configurations with just 500 MB total RAM, but if you crash with an error in case you setup or join a multi-player game which has too big maps or too many players or complex tilesets or whatever then things are really getting out of hand. We don't want this to happen, especially not people joining multi-player games with crappy hardware. Lowering the requirements here would just give a wrong overall impression on what is needed. As always, people with lesser RAM can always try their luck.

OpenGL:
The original requirements description for vanilla Glest should still hold true. You are not quoting it entirely correctly, though, since it is actually OpenGL 1.3 and some GL/ARB extension (I don't recall which exactly, but it's in the MG READMEs/docs we shpo with the release, feel free to look it up). Instead of stating this, stating that OpenGL 1.4 is the minimum requirement makes things easier. As always, people with lesser OpenGL versions (those hardly exist nowadays) can always try their luck.

CPU:
I listed multi-core as a requirement since this basically says you need a CPU which is not stone age and provides a certain number of BogoMIPS. In the past it was possible to compare CPUs on similar or same architectures by their operating frequency (as measured in MHz/GHz). This is no longer adequate for a while now. A better comparison scheme is BogoMIPS, but most people (including me) are not used to comparing (or even knowing these values) CPUs based on this unit. As such, I was looking for a readily understandable way to put it. Most somewhat-recent CPUs which provide sufficient power to run MG are multi-core CPUs. And so I came up with this. You are welcome to provide something better and evenly simple.

OpenAL:
Thanks for the hint, this was indeed missing.

OS X + FreeBSD:
Those are not supported by the MegaGlest developers. I am aware (and appreciate) that MG 3.4.0 is supported on FreeBSD by the FreeBSD community, but this is both different people (so we cannot, per se, make guarantees on continued support, and it is a different version than this requirements list is made for, which is 3.5.0+). I am also aware that there are readily-installable MG 3.4.0 (not 3.5.0, though) builds which work (more or less) on OS X. These are, however, not supported by the MegaGlest developers themselves (as discussed and for reasons discussed before) at this time. So, to date, the MegaGlest developers can really only declare to support the Linux and Windows builds, namely the ones they release themselves. Of course ,they will continue to support any community efforts to port MG to other platforms.
atibox: Ryzen 1800X (8 cores @3.6GHz), 32 GB RAM, MSI Radeon RX 580 Gaming X 8G, PCI subsystem ID [1462:3417], (Radeon RX 580 chipset, POLARIS10) @3440x1440; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon (amdgpu) / mesa video driver
atibox (old): Core2Quad Q9400 (4 cores @2.66GHz), 8 GB RAM, XFX HD-467X-DDF2, PCI subsystem ID [1682:2931], (Radeon HD 4670, RV730 XT) @1680x1050; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon / mesa video driver
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Omega

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #5 on: 19 April 2011, 21:57:41 »
OS X + FreeBSD:
Those are not supported by the MegaGlest developers. I am aware (and appreciate) that MG 3.4.0 is supported on FreeBSD by the FreeBSD community, but this is both different people (so we cannot, per se, make guarantees on continued support, and it is a different version than this requirements list is made for, which is 3.5.0+). I am also aware that there are readily-installable MG 3.4.0 (not 3.5.0, though) builds which work (more or less) on OS X. These are, however, not supported by the MegaGlest developers themselves (as discussed and for reasons discussed before) at this time. So, to date, the MegaGlest developers can really only declare to support the Linux and Windows builds, namely the ones they release themselves. Of course ,they will continue to support any community efforts to port MG to other platforms.
Perhaps we can have some sub-note or something that they are supported by 3rd party compilation? The wiki has compile guides for both of these, and even if the only version available is old, it beats not having one at all (by attracting somebody who uses a mac, we're more likely to get someone hooked and turn them into a regular compiler for us). I'm not a fan of either of the two OS's, but hey, bigger audience = good.
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m0ellemeister

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #6 on: 21 April 2011, 12:02:54 »
Regarding FreeBSD:

i'm the one who's supporting MG as good as possible on FreeBSD. I think as long as needed changes for building MG on FreeBSD on the source will be committed by upstream (that is the case till today) FreeBSD is supported as well (generally). On FreeBSD it's the usual way to build the software from upstream tarballs (like Gentoo Linux does someone told me).

I think it will takes some time till i have updated the MegaGlest FreeBSD Port to version 3.5.0. But as soon as this has happend i'll announce this on the announcement Mailing list.
In my opinion it's a good idea to add a link to:
http://www.freshports.org/search.php?query=megaglest
in the download section on megaglest.org for FreeBSD. Just for pointing out that MegaGlest is officially available on FreeBSD.
« Last Edit: 21 April 2011, 12:55:32 by m0ellemeister »

tomreyn

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #7 on: 21 April 2011, 16:14:00 »
I just edited the website. The download page should now say this if you are on FreeBSD:
Quote
The FreeBSD project makes MegaGlest packages available at freshports.org.

Does it work for you, do you think this meets the purpose and are you ok with the wording? I just don't think we can say that MG on FreeBSD is directly supported by the MG development team unless this team also publishes, at the same time as the other platforms' packages, and next to them, the current MG version for FreeBSD itself, and is able to fully support it. At the same time, it's not at all my intention to make FreeBSD look fully unsupported, since we know you do support it and intend to continue to do so and that you've spent a great deal of time and energy on making it enter FreeBSD. So if you can suggest better wording to properly spell this out, please do.
atibox: Ryzen 1800X (8 cores @3.6GHz), 32 GB RAM, MSI Radeon RX 580 Gaming X 8G, PCI subsystem ID [1462:3417], (Radeon RX 580 chipset, POLARIS10) @3440x1440; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon (amdgpu) / mesa video driver
atibox (old): Core2Quad Q9400 (4 cores @2.66GHz), 8 GB RAM, XFX HD-467X-DDF2, PCI subsystem ID [1682:2931], (Radeon HD 4670, RV730 XT) @1680x1050; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon / mesa video driver
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m0ellemeister

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #8 on: 21 April 2011, 20:40:39 »
Quote
Does it work for you

It does not work for me. I've testet it with Firefox 3.16.13 and Opera 11.01 (Yes, i know, i have to update both ;-) )

Regarding the wording i would change it like this:
Quote
MegaGlest is officially available in the FreeBSD Ports (freshports.org)and is maintained by MegaGlest community member(s).
What do you think about the wording this way?

tomreyn

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #9 on: 2 May 2011, 17:02:24 »
I forgot to note this here: the wording has been updated on http://megaglest.org as discussed with m0ellemeister. Thanks.
atibox: Ryzen 1800X (8 cores @3.6GHz), 32 GB RAM, MSI Radeon RX 580 Gaming X 8G, PCI subsystem ID [1462:3417], (Radeon RX 580 chipset, POLARIS10) @3440x1440; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon (amdgpu) / mesa video driver
atibox (old): Core2Quad Q9400 (4 cores @2.66GHz), 8 GB RAM, XFX HD-467X-DDF2, PCI subsystem ID [1682:2931], (Radeon HD 4670, RV730 XT) @1680x1050; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon / mesa video driver
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Gabbe

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #10 on: 4 May 2011, 04:52:16 »
Hmm, minimum specs? School-coputers with 256mb RAM "runs" Mglest.

tomreyn

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Re: MegaGlest 3.5.0 hardware and software requirements
« Reply #11 on: 4 May 2011, 05:10:50 »
Sure, it may be able to start the process and display the main menu without your computer freezing or crashing. You may even be able to start a 1vs1 game against a CPU of the same faction on a 64x64 map with the desert2 tileset and all effects disabled. But this will not be much fun to 'play'. And if you want to play a network game with two and more users on larger maps then you really need more RAM, and don't want your operating system to start swapping memory to disk half way into the game.

This said, the minimum requirements listed are the bare minimum specifications which will allow you to play the game without major limitations, i.e. where it is not steadily annoying and games can be fun.

I don't understand why schools in a financially well positioned country like Norway (or Germany for this matter) still do not spend enough on education forcing schools to put / keep such computers in classrooms nowadays. This really impacts the learning progress of the upcoming generation and feels like cutting your own flesh...
atibox: Ryzen 1800X (8 cores @3.6GHz), 32 GB RAM, MSI Radeon RX 580 Gaming X 8G, PCI subsystem ID [1462:3417], (Radeon RX 580 chipset, POLARIS10) @3440x1440; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon (amdgpu) / mesa video driver
atibox (old): Core2Quad Q9400 (4 cores @2.66GHz), 8 GB RAM, XFX HD-467X-DDF2, PCI subsystem ID [1682:2931], (Radeon HD 4670, RV730 XT) @1680x1050; latest stable Ubuntu release, (open source) radeon / mesa video driver
notebook: HP envy13d020ng
internet access: VDSL2+

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