7 replies to this topic

[tomkaz]

This was impressive news for me.  I am posting this for those who may already be interested in purchasing a new computer and seeking information about performance.  I know that most will not buy a new computer just to play Baldur's Gate.  And many are not in the position to afford to spend money on a new computer on a whim.  But to those of you who want some additional information about computers, here is what happen with my installation.

 

I use a fast PC with Windows XP to develop my game.  Then I load it on my iMAC with Windows 7 (last years Christmas gift from my wonderful wife) to play the game.  Last night, I started installing my mega-mod game, which has ~190 mods, on my PC with Windows XP.  It ran all night and finished early this morning.  It took between 7 and 8 hours for the installation.  Today, I installed the same game, with one additional mod, on my iMAC with has Windows 7.  The installation took ~2 hours.

 

This does not include doing the BiG World Cleanup on either computer.  But to me that was impressive.  From my previous mega-mod game experience, the game also plays faster because the load times between segments is faster.

 

Just thought there may be a few out there that would appreciate this information.

 

Tom 

 

[dabus]

Uh, iMac can be anything from 1998 (guess 7 would not be able to run on PowerPCs) and computer even further ago (might not run smoothly with XP though).
Without some specs, comparing those two might be ... uhm... useless?

You could have an SSD in one and IDE in the other, or a Celeron / i7, not enough RAM (512 MB to 8 GB), it would not be as impressive as you say.
And I guess I (personally) would not buy a new computer if I can upgrade my old one to similar specs.

Edited by dabus, 06 September 2014 - 09:46 PM.

[Leonardo Watson]

I use the same computer with Mac and Windows (via Bootcamp) for several years and can confirm that the installation procedure with Mac runs much more faster than with Windows. About three years ago there was available an installer for Mac. Although it emulated my installpack the installation procedure run about 2 to 3 times faster than with Windows. Apart from this, considerably faster works copying large folders, and the most obvious difference is the search function: you get the results already during typing the search word.

 

[The Imp]

 and the most obvious difference is the search function: you get the results already during typing the search word.

You can do the same on windows if you index the folder info.

[dabus]

And as far as I can read in articles, Windows is installed natively by the bootcamp application.
So it creates a windows-partition, put the files in that partition, reboots, you can select with the bootloader which OS to run.
So you don't run an emulator, Mac-Software is not loaded so far. What you see is an out-of-the-box windows.
If it is faster with the same specs, it either has better hardware or Apple provides better drivers for its hardware.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Ref
Run Windows at native speed
You can run the Windows operating system on your Mac at native speed—without the performance penalty that comes with software emulation or "virtual machines."

Edited by dabus, 07 September 2014 - 07:45 AM.

[tomkaz]

I guess I left some critical information out.

 

The PC does have some power as it is a dual core AMD processor.  I have had it about 5 years.  The iMAC is fairly new, about 8 months old.

 

I tried Parallels.  Installed Windows XP in Parallels and did not have good luck with that combination.  Baldur's Gate worked well.  Shadows of Amn crashed the setup.  So I dumped Parallels and switch to Bootcamp.  Older iMACs would run Windows XP, but it is my understanding that now you can only use Windows 7 and 8 and it has to be the 64 bit version.  I should have stated that I used Bootcamp with 64 bit Windows 7 Pro.

 

One other surprising thing happened.  I forgot to run BiG World Cleanup.bat.  I played the game for about 6 hours before I realized that.  However, the game did not hesitate in the slightest.  I ran BiG World Cleanup.bat this morning and it does not appear to make the game play any different or faster.  Tonight I will defrag the hard disk, another thing I forgot to do.  On my PC, I always need to run BiG World Cleanup.bat and defrag the hard drive to get the game play smoothly.

 

We have a Microsoft store in the mall near me.  One of the tech quietly admitted that Windows works better in Bootcamp than on most PCs.  The Microsoft techs still help you no matter what computer you have installed on Windows 7.  More than I can say for the techs at the Apple store in that mall when it comes to help with the Apple programs.

 

I guess I could have purchased a gaming PC and got the same results.  It is just that I really wanted to use Windows XP as the place where I work is committed to that version.  Their custom software will not work on later versions.  They found that out when they hired Microsoft to upgrade their software so it would work with later versions of Windows.  So I bought the iMAC because an Apple salesperson promised I could install Parallels and Windows XP and it would definitely run all Windows XP programs.  It runs most Windows XP programs but not the ones I needed.

 

But right now I am quite happy having both an iMAC and PC in one computer.  The only drawback is that it is uncomfortable to switch from one to the other because it requires you to reboot the computer.

 

I was just sharing some information for those who may be in the market for a new computer.  Something for them to think about.  Before I bought the iMAC, I did buy a Dell.  It came with Windows 7 Pro.  But its performance left a lot to be desired.  I sent it back to Dell.

 

Another thing to note is in Windows XP, it is much faster to use DOS than Windows for operations with large files and folders.  When I load ~200 mods into one folder I can copy the folder faster with DOS than Windows.  The same with packed files.  I can unpack a large file much faster than I can copy the files in it.

 

Since I have no financial interest in either Microsoft or Apple, I do not care who buys whichever computer.  I just wanted to share what I discovered.  At least for me, there will be no more installing mega-mod games during the night while I sleep.

 

Hope this help someone,

 

Tom

[Leonardo Watson]

@ dabus

I was misunderstood. Of course Windows runs nativ with bootcamp.
Because there is no BWP installer for Mac, some guy wrote a tool for Mac that translated the batch file into Mac scripting language on the fly. Nevertheless this worked much more faster than the batch file under Windows. Very sad this tool was not supported any more.

[tomkaz]

Hi Leonardo:

 

It would be great if all the Baldur's Gate programs and mods were compatible with iMACs, but iMACs are not as popular as PCs so that is not too likely to happen soon.  Lately, with GOG and some of the mods being written for the iMAC, maybe there is hope fot the future.

 

But the computer hardware that supports the iMAC, Apple software and Bootcamp appears to be better designed and runs better than average PCs.  That is not to say that no PCs are as well engineered as the iMAC, but those PCs are in the same price range as iMACs.  Average PCs more than meet the needs of the majority of people so it is difficult for those people to justify the added cost.

 

I bought the iMAC for other reasons besides playing Baldur's Gate games.  But I have found out the it does make the game more enjoyable as the game sounds and game colors are better than on my PCs.  Since I find this combination works well for me, I thought I would share that information with others.

 

The game I installed with BiG World Install.bat v14.1.2 using v14.2 install order, is working well.  Still some bugs and crashes, but the game is playable.  Windows 7 tells me the causes of the crash problems are in the Baldur.ini file.  I expect that is due to mods overwriting other mods code in that file.

 

Tom