System Requirements for SB Pro Pe

[Duke66Golf]

Does anyone know what the system requirements are going to be? I have a new laptop that I plan on playing off of, just got to make sure that it can handle it.
Thanks
Ric

[dejawolf]

i can play steel beasts pro decently with my 2600+ nividia fx 5900 with 512mb ram on 1024x768x32.
but for a geforce 3 spec computer, i'd recommend only going for desert scenarios, as woodland tends to give framerates around 15FPS.

[fxman249]

Steel Beasts Professional requires an IBM compatible PC with the following minimum configuration: (Recommended specs are in parentheses.)

* 1.0 (2.0) GHz CPU
* 256 (512) MB RAM
* 64 (128) MB, DirectX9-Capable Graphics Accelerator (GeForce 3 class or better)
* 1.6 GB available hard disk space
* Mouse
* CD-ROM
* Microsoft Windows 2000 / XP with Service Pack 1 installed. (Steel Beasts will NOT run on Windows NT.)
* Microsoft DirectX version 9.0 (or better) installed

For better playing experience, a sound card and joystick are recommended.

From the website http://www.esimgames.com/sbprosysrecs.htm

[MasaV4]

We have 10 PCs Steel Beasts Pro classroom here in Finland and here is our system: Win XP Professional, 3.0 GHz Pentium 4, 1.0 GB DDR 333 MHz RAM and Radeon 9800 Pro. We use 1280 x 1024 x 32 bit resolution ja Team Speak 2. Everything works very good. :cvcsalute:

[Wolfman]

but for a geforce 3 spec computer, i'd recommend only going for desert scenarios, as woodland tends to give framerates around 15FPS.

Ha! For 2 and half years I played SB with FPS running between 2 and 10 (average maybe 5-6).

[YdnarB]

Any word on compatibility with XP SP 2?

[Ssnake]

Works for me any everybody else who I asked and who had it installed. We cannot ignore the SP2.

In fact, SB Pro can be played from a restricted user account without any problems.

[Mars]

I may be setting myself up as the target for lots of laughter with this question, but the official system specs neither include or exclude Win98 SE.

Will it run on this operating system please? :)

[Bluewings]

Yes , SBPro PE will run on 98 SE .

(right Ssnake ?)

Cheers . :3starSK:

[burner]

I'm interested as well to find out if SBPro PE will run on Win 98SE?

[Ssnake]

Win 98 has DirectX 9, so it can run SB Pro as well.
Since SB Pro is primarily offered to Armies, and since they will usually prefer secure multi-user operating systems, we focus in our recommendations on Windows 2000 and Windows XP.But that's all there's to say about it - no big secret here.

[jlh]

I'm shopping for a new computer, mainly due to the upcoming release of SB Pro PE and SB2. I'm not a big computer guy, but have been doing some research. I plan on getting a fast computer with a good graphics card, probably a CRT monitor because of the issues wth refresh rates and response times.
I notice that SB runs at only one resolution: 800X600. I assume that one will be able to run SB Pro and SB2 at different resolutions. Am I correct in thinking that if the game is run at a resolution that is too low, then some visual detail will be missing? What will be the recommended or optimum resolution for SB Pro PE and SB: that resolution beyond which nothing is gained visually?

[dejawolf]

it mostly depends on your screen size, but on my 17" LCD screen, i'm quite happy with 1024x768, and windows resolution is 1280x1024.

[Bluewings]

jlh wrote : I notice that SB runs at only one resolution: 800X600

Wrong . SB1 runs at 640x480 .

Cheers . :3starSK:

[jlh]

Thanks for the quick response. I stand corrected: 640X480, but is there an optimum or recommended resolution?

[Hell_Hound]

You're going to get diminishing returns as you raise the resolution, as your screen looks better and better and the frame rates get worse and worse.

With a 1.4GHz machine and a GeForce FX5700 Ultra, I can run high detail at 1024x768x16 and it looks good - but my frame rates start to suffer if I turn on FSAA or AIF. There's a CPU upgrade in my not-too-distant future (to 2.4 GHz, probably) and I'm hoping that allows me to turn up the image quality a bit further.

[ShotMagnet]

At 2.2 GHz with a Radeon 9600 I experience frame-rate dips to about 20 or so. They rebound quickly to about 66, dip to 25-30 when more vehicles/artillery smoke/infantry appear, then rebound to about 45-50. This is at a resolution of 1024X786X16. I experience the occasional stutter when looking through woods.


Shot

[TopKick]

Shot, are the frame rates you mention with SB1 or SBPro?

[Bluewings]

This is at a resolution of 1024x768x16

Shot is talking about ProPE here as SB1 is limited to 640x480 .
I got the same framerate here ...

Shot and HH , why don 't you run it with a 32bit color instead of 16 ???? :shock:
WOW the graphics color !! :hallucine:

Cheers . :3starSK:

[Hector]

so, can sb pro tuned down to medium to high screen size, say 800X600 with low detail, low effects and run in a...say athlon xp 2200, 512 2800ddr, 64mbs pci card mx4000??????

[Bluewings]

Sure Hector , no problem .
But your MX400 will still curse you !! :?

Cheers . :3starSK:

[dejawolf]

well, currently the effects are on a permanent low setting, and detail level is not changeable. i think you could run SB pro quite fine in desert scenarios with low screen resolutions.

[Hector]

thanks guys. all i want is something to start with

Hector

[ShotMagnet]

...are the frame rates you mention with SB1 or SBPro?

SB Pro.


Shot

[Ssnake]

For notebooks, what I have seen from all the Radeon mobility chipsets was quite impressive. Since notebooks will usually not be replaced as fast as PCs, but are harder to upgrade, it may make sense to pay a premium for top of the line products, if your budgets affords it, to buy some longevity. I think that 1024x768 (XGA) is quite OK to run most games, including SB Pro PE. Going beyond this resolution will make the notebook display more costly, and the question is whether other games (especially those of two or three years into the future) will run with adequate speed on these higher resolutions (you would want to run a game with the native resolution of an LC display to avoid the blurring of the hardwired interpolation which is not always convincing).

Generally speaking, SB Pro and SB2 profit more from a better graphics card than from a faster CPU. 2 GHz are really enough, and 1 GHz is still OK. The difference between a GeForce 4 Ti and a Radeon 9600 XT is quite noticeable. The first will run an 800x600 resolution with no antialiasing with adequate framerates. The other would offer 1024x768, 4x antialiasing, and approximately the same framerate. Use an X800 or GeForce 6800, and you can probably double the frame rates in the lower dips (we capped the frame rate to 66 Hz), or increase the screen resolution maybe even up to 1600x1200 and still be OK (I haven't tested this yet, but since I'm still happy with my 9600 XT and 9700 Pro, I guess that the latest generation will offer a noticeable improvement).