System specs - SB 2013

[daskal]

I am currently contemplating of getting a brand new system, the one that I have is still OK, but is now getting about 4 years old. As gaming platform Steel Beasts is pretty much the only thing I am using my PC for (I'll rather use my Xbox360 & PS3 for the rest). So I was thinking since the next update is going to involve some sort of facelifting for Steel Beasts the requirements for running on high detail are also going to be cranked up. I suppose its still early to know what the recommended system specs are going to be but maybe you can provide some hint.

With regards to OS - I have been using Windows XP ever since it exists and I am really happy with it, I don't even know what kind of new systems there are out there lately Win9, 10, no idea.... I'm just hoping Win XP with SP3 will do the job with Steel Beasts 2013?

[RENEGADE-623]

no, you are required to send me a million dollars so i can build you a system that will work with it. J/K hopefully it doesnt need much of a change as i do not feel like getting a new computer (wife would kill me)

[SeanPatrick]

Maybe a new video card would suffice?

[Skybird03]

I wouldn't worry too much about higher hardware demands. They have to take into account that their professional customers - the military - are somewhat hesitant to kick out all their PCs and get new ones just because eSim has a new update, the military is a conservative, slow-moving bureaucratic monster.

I would recommend you to go for W7x64, though. The difference in handling is not big, compared to XP, but it is so much better than XP, and last but not least:; it is more safe. Last month for the first time ever they counted, worldwide , wore systems running W7 than XP, but the number of infected XP systems is more than twice as high than that of infested W7 systems. Also, XP support - Windows updates and patches for security holes - will close in one year or so.

A system for running current SBP can be had for moderate, reasonable prices. You do not need a specialised gaming rig. I would go for something like an i5 CPU that according to Tom's tables gives you good bang for the buck, a GTX560 with 1 GB, 4 or 8 GB RAM, and that is the fundament. I have something like that since 1 and a half year, some games, a fully modded FSX installation - and I am still waiting for seeing more than just one half of that RAM at max being used.

I really think there is no excuse these days to stay with XP. Not only do you put your own system safety at risk - but that of many, many others as well. Thank you for that. W7 imo is the best OS Microsoft has ever released. Get the x64 version for sure, than you also will have no RAM limitations, if RAM is what you crave for.

But avoid W8 at all cost.

Also, since you will do a clean installation, I recommend this regharding general security: run at least your browser and email client in a sandbox (Sandboxie is free). Use a good browser with small market share only (less attractive for hackers to target it, I personally prefer Opera), have a commercial security suite (firewall and antivir) running, and an additional malware scanner like Malwarebyte that runs alongside the AV. Do not install Java. Keep rights for ActiveX scripts as limited as possible. Deny cookies, allow only manually selected cookies to be used. Keep all software up to date, something like Secunia PSI (free!) does a great job of keeping track of version numbers of all the non-gaming stuff on your system, sometimes it finds outdated Windows stuff even before Windows Update rings the bell! Keep browser settings as tightly closed as feels acceptable for your browsing. The more comfortable your browsing goes, the more vulnerable you are. Have caches and temp files and the like deleted at least once a day, better at the end of each and every session. Switch the deletion to "overwriting" instead of just "forgetting" the files, CCleaner helps in making that easy.

Switch on brain before browsing. Resist Pawlovian reflexes to hit buttons just because they blink and some text makes a promise. Be aware that drive-by threads still can get you, withoiut needing you to do anything at all. If your scanners ring alarm, do not rerpair, but reinstall or copy over an old image. A once corrupted system always remains to be a corrputed system, forever, you never know if your repairs where successful.

[Werewolf]

That is some really detailed and excellent advice re: system security Skybird.

Thanks

I was intrigued by your reference to a sandbox tool and looked up your recommended sandboxie. On the surface it looks like a good way to protect one's system but based on the way the website describes the way it works - well - there are issues. I have games that update themselves - how would that work. Steam updates steam games from within the steam client - i.e. game updates are dl'd and run from the steam client - again how would that work? Seems to me that the sandbox would prevent that from happening. If one dl's a file from within a browser running from inside a sandbox and no changes are allowed to be made by a file running from within a sandbox how does one dl files using a browser?

Probably I don't fully understand the process.

What am I missing?

[Skybird03]

I have Skyrim (steam), and I have several software that looks for updates automatically (though I do not let it auto-update, just tell me that an update is available, I then decide manually when the process should start - I do not want to have done 1 hour of flight just to have my system rebooting or slowing down due to an update process...)

Sandboxie. After installing it, you have to go into the setting up of options, and manually tell it what email client you use, and what browser. You also have to manually switch on the option that sandboxie automatically deletes all temp files that were accumulated during one session. Why that is not on by default I do not understand, since this is the very idea of a sandbox.

I test it since twop mon ths, and so far have not run in a single problem with it. No instability whwatver. When you want to save file, a picture for example, it asks you whetehr you want to "restore" the image, and you have to confirm it, that way it gets transferred form the cache for the sandbox to the ordinary HD space - if you do not confirm this, it will get deleted with all other stuff from the session when you close the browser and the sandbox.

The software runs for 30 days, after that you either buy a license, or as a private user you are allowed to run it for free, just have to confirm when launching your browser that you want to start it - it is a 3 second delay inbuild. Sounds terrifying for purists, but after doing like that since one month, I must say it is no hassle at all, and I am so used to it that I do not even notice it anymore.

The softweare is not difficult but it is not optimally explained and thus takes half an hour to check the options and become aware of what it does, and what is necessary. You may want to trade some safety for the freedom to add links to your faovurites/bookmarks, for example - that option you need to set then, else all links you add get deleted when the session ends.

Also, the free version only runs one browser and one email client, which is the basic idea anyway. If you want more and different software to automatically run in a sandbox, you have to buy a license. I will complete my testing until the first update I experience with the software, if that process runs smoothly, I plan to buy a lifetime license to get that option. You then can have all software you start launching in its own sandbox.

To me, having all internet activities running in a sandbox and be able to start downloaded applications in a sandbox for testing, is the good thing about this all.

I took me 30-60 minutes of occupying myself with Sandboxie to get an idea of all the options, in the end it is not difficult. If you get it at some point, and run into questions, you can ask me, I then can post screenshots of options screens.

Be advised that there are two versions, 32 and 64 Bit. The 64 Bit allows some option during installation that I forgot what it was about, but the advisory text tells you that it is not fully tested and runs the risk of messing up future Windows updates, and you cannot escape that from deinstalling Sandboxie again. I would recommend to trade off some safety and not accepting that option, then. I do not know if anybody really ever run into problems with that, however.

[Ssnake]

Going back to the original question - yes, it is a bit too early to give advice on system specs, except for these things:

1. If you can afford to wait half a year longer, do so.
   By April we should have a good understanding about the system requirements, although efforts to make the new engine more efficient will continue well into May.
   Waiting is almost always a smart move when it comes to consumer electronics, because it's a severely deflationary market. For the past 30 years prices have almost always gone down/better hardware has emerged for the same price over time.
2. If you must buy a system now
   choose Win 7-64 as your operating system. Drivers for consumer hardware are widely available, so unless you want to continue using some exotic legacy hardware, there's no reason to stick with a 32 bit operating system. For the moment SB Pro still is a 32 bit application, and while that is largely sufficient, some limitations are already recognizable.
   Processor
   At least two cores, better four, at the highest clock rate that you can afford. My personal favorite for performance/price ratio is the i5-2500K (notice the K, which makes the difference between two and four cores)), but that's not an official recommendation, just my opinion from about three months ago.
   Graphics card
   Make it DirectX 11 compatible (that is, supporting shader model 3.0), and where given the choice, pick the one with better OpenGL performance.
   We will try to offer graphics options with at least two quality settings for the major engine features, but given that in a network session the visual appearance on all participants' machines should be identical, I cannot promise that we will make everything optional while running a network session. E.g. turning off smoke objects cannot be made an option because it has tactical relevance. Whether making bad looking smoke will offer a tremendous frame rate advantage is an open question, so this is an area where it's definitely too early to say much.
   Memory
   is cheap, so there's no reason why you shouldn't get six or eight GByte of RAM. It's probably overkill, but wasting a few bucks here will hurt less than the alternative. (Being penny wise about RAM but pound foolish about overall system performance.)
   Solid State Disks
   I haven't yet seen a dramatic performance improvement for Steel Beasts when using them. If you can afford one, it won't hurt, but for now I can't say that you really need one. I picked one for my notebook and also for some other computers but the bottleneck isn't so much the loading of huge quantities of data but generating textures and squeezing other data through the graphics bus. I doubt if that is going to change much with the new engine.

Edited November 2, 2012 by Ssnake
Clarifications, fixing a double negation

[dmagnusson]

will the specs be simular to Arma 3?

My computers manage Arma 3 acording to there sys req.

So wonder if the new SB pro PE upgrade will have similar sys req?

/Thx Dan M

[Skybird03]

Wowh, sounds like a completely new graphics engine. Either I forgot that, or I have not heared that at all. That is something bigger indeed, if that is true, and that may consume more hardware indeed.

I second Ssnake on the i5 2500K. I have a slightly older i5 2500 @3.3 myself. Grrreat, performs like a i7, very loud Bang for little money. Serves all my needs (including a fully modded FSX with PMDG's 737NGX on max settings, and Skyrim on full settings). If it lives that long, I'll keep it for many years to come. For even more speed - I simply have no use.

[Ssnake]

will the specs be simular to Arma 3?

1. I don't know what the requirements of other programs are, and can't comment on them.
2. Like I wrote before, it is too early to make detailed statements, for the reasons I explained above.

[dmagnusson]

1. I don't know what the requirements of other programs are, and can't comment on them.
2. Like I wrote before, it is too early to make detailed statements, for the reasons I explained above.

hello Nils

Sorry for before... here is the sys req for arms 3

http://www.game-debate.com/news/?news=891&game=ArmA%20III&title=ArmA%203%20System%20Requirements%20Update

[Ssnake]

Look, I wrote it twice now, and I'll repeat it one last time:

It's too early to make a detailed statement about system requirements.

Everything that I can say at this point, I already wrote in my first post.

[dmagnusson]

Look, I wrote it twice now, and I'll repeat it one last time:

It's too early to make a detailed statement about system requirements.

Everything that I can say at this point, I already wrote in my first post.

Hallo

Sorry , i'm just exited over the next upgrade :-)

even if it's 7 mounths

[Chaplain]

But avoid W8 at all cost.

Windows 8 works fine for me and for several others I know who have upgraded. It won't likely make your current heavy-duty computer games run any better. It won't likely cause problems for them, either. Just remember that you might have to update or reinstall a driver or two if you do an in-place upgrade. I did such an upgrade on two computers already, and both went quite smoothly.

[daskal]

Thanks for the heads up & info Nils - I'll definiately hold back on buying a new rig at the monent - will postpone it till the spring.

[Skybird03]

Windows 8 works fine for me and for several others I know who have upgraded. It won't likely make your current heavy-duty computer games run any better. It won't likely cause problems for them, either. Just remember that you might have to update or reinstall a driver or two if you do an in-place upgrade. I did such an upgrade on two computers already, and both went quite smoothly.

My worries with it are different. First, ergonomy, the ergonomy and design is such that this thing belongs onto a tablet, phone, or touchscreen. On a desktop computer with mouse and keyboard, it is an ergonomy fail, imo. So for heaven's sake, Microsoft, leave this Windows 8 to tablets and touchscreens, and stop enforcing it on regular desktops. Keep it two separate OS, therefore.

Second, the licensing scheme they try to enforce. it aims at turning the open PC platform into a closed app-universe like the appstore of Apple, or Steam. This will do great damage to game development, it will reduce diversity of titles, and due to the financial costs of licensing, it will mean problems for indy developers and modders, too. In the longterm, it can also be abused like many producers abuse the argument of anti-piracy measures for trying to dry out the second hand game market, so that games cannot be sold anymore, but everybody needs to buy new. In music and movie industry, the same intention can be identified. This second worry of mine also explains why MS tries to enforce the app-design of Metro even for desktop PCs were the design makes absolutely no sense.

The third issue is one of personal taste. I think Metro is the most ugly looking thing since Windows 3.0. Terrible.

BTW, somewhere at the subsim forums we had a thread showing a growing list of games not compatible with W8.

I predict business acceptance for W8 to be low or non-existant. Hope this thing explodes inside Microsofts barrel and right into their face, to teach them the lesson. When the hype with low prices ends end of January, W8 maybe will belly-crash even harder than Vista. I certainly hope so.

[Chaplain]

Well, you may be correct about Microsoft's intentions for expanding their profitability. It was something along those lines that led to the death of MS Flight Simulator. :-/

[JamesT73J]

1. I don't know what the requirements of other programs are, and can't comment on them.
2. Like I wrote before, it is too early to make detailed statements, for the reasons I explained above.

SB has always been very good in terms of performance - I hope the trend continues. Please don't compromise on the underlying mechanics for visuals - SB's always been unique in that respect.

Also, I know this is the longest of long shots and as such is in the realm of wishful thinking, but given that you mention OpenGL, if you ever considered a Linux version I'd be over the moon, and would happily shell out of another license.

[Ssnake]

It's too early to say anything about the overall performance. Of course, we want the new engine to be as fast and efficient as it gets. But there is no free lunch in 3D visualization. Better looks will cost some frame rate, that's inevitable. It's a new engine, and we won't plug it in before we're confident that it will perform well for the vast majority of users. But like everything that's entirely new, it's a step into uncharted territory.

[Tjay]

My worries with it are different. First, ergonomy, the ergonomy and design is such that this thing belongs onto a tablet, phone, or touchscreen. On a desktop computer with mouse and keyboard, it is an ergonomy fail, imo.

You are in good company. The magazine Custom PC has just done a comprehensive review of W8 and concludes that it is not worth considering as an OS for a desktop computer.

[Ssnake]

Please don't compromise on the underlying mechanics for visuals

NEVER!

[OldRavenNL]

Isn't it a good idea to use an existing engine like Realtim Immersive does with CryEngine 3?

Or is that way to expensive..

We spoke to Crytek about a license and they are pretty decent people to talk to..

And since you're in germany anyway Nils.. it's almost around the corner..

Go drink a cup of coffee there.. I can help out with assets in cryengine 3:biggrin:

[Ssnake]

Do you really want me to throw the current development process upside down half a year before the next PE release?

These engines cost the equivalent of about three to five man years of development; our new engine will be essentially done within nine months. Other engines can't do all that we need; some modification work is therefore inevitable. Finally, all commercially available engines offer stuff that we don't need, so we'd have to pay for features that we won't touch.

The engine itself isn't the problem. If we were starting from scratch, licensing an existing engine would be up for serious consideration. But we don't: We have a complete product, we're not starting from scratch. The new engine must conform to the product's requirements, or else we'd putting the cart before the horse.

[Hedgehog]

NEVER!

YAY!

Do you really want me to throw the current development process upside down half a year before the next PE release?

We'd putting the cart before the horse.

A RHD Cart? sounds a bit strange.....

(Rear Horse Drive)

Heh, Sounds like a tank,

(The engine in the back)

:biggrin:

[SeanPatrick]

YAY!

My thoughts exactly!