Bioshock PC Demo available now.

[Chone]

For anyone interested, the PC Demo can already be obtained through ausgamers.com, many people have already.

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/download/html/30227
and an alternate link
http://chonnom0.filezaru.com/BioShockPCDemo.zip

I'm downloading but at the speed its going right now I'll probably have the full game before the demo

Anyways, I skimmed through the 2K Forums (trust me, be glad the macrumors community is as great as it is

) and people are reporting the game is playable at 800x600 with high texture/high models and everything else on medium or off on a 6600GT, since the X1600 is slightly better than it, I'm thinking Bioshock will be just fine at 1024x768 with the same settings on X1600 Macs, especially after applying the ATI bioshock hotfix.

I'll report back with results on my C1D MBP when I get the demo or the full game, whichever comes first.

 

[Haoshiro]

Nice, I'm downloading and will test on the new 20" iMac with HD 2600.

 

[Antares]

I'm assuming that I would have to run this in Bootcamp rather than Parallels, right? I have an original CD iMac and am curious to see what results people get with the X1600 256MB. I'm not installing Bootcamp until Leopard comes out....so, I'll have to wait a bit to try it myself.

 

[sikkinixx]

the demo is up on Steam too for the HL2 players around here.

Slow for me.... only 90kbps so looking at about 5 hr download

 

[Tommy Tallarico]

Plays well on high settings at 1280x768 on a new 24" iMac, other than there being no floor textures. It makes it unplayable, but it's a driver issue that'll be fixed in time. ATI has put out a hotfix, but it doesn't work under Boot Camp.

 

[contoursvt]

Just tried it on a C2D 2.4Ghz processor and 7950GT 512MB card and at 1024x768 with everything on high, its fluid and looks really nice. I went to 1600x1200 on high and visually stunning and still playable but I'd say my framerates are in the mid 20's so even though its playable, I would probably step down to 1280x960 - I'm on a CRT so no issues with scaling.

Anyway even at 1024, the game is very nice. Pretty freaking scary too!

 

[Cheesecake]

Just finished playing on a Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB with 2 gigs of RAM. Ran it really well, with a few hiccups here and there. Been messing around with the settings and eventually i'll get it just right. Presentation was stunning, even with some of the settings lowered. Of course, they suggest installing newer drivers for maximum performance but until Apple sends another set of their own drivers in boot camp the ones I have now will have to do.

 

[Chone]

Just finished playing on a Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB with 2 gigs of RAM. Ran it really well, with a few hiccups here and there. Been messing around with the settings and eventually i'll get it just right. Presentation was stunning, even with some of the settings lowered. Of course, they suggest installing newer drivers for maximum performance but until Apple sends another set of their own drivers in boot camp the ones I have now will have to do.

You DO know that you can upgrade drivers regardless don't you?

Anyways, what is your resolution and settings?

 

[Cheesecake]

You DO know that you can upgrade drivers regardless don't you?

Anyways, what is your resolution and settings?

Yeah, I do. But the Omega drivers were always funky and made a bunch of stuff in Source look shiny that wasn't supposed to be shiny. And I can never get the Catalyst drivers to install, it always says my machine isn't able to install them.

I'll grab some screens and post the specs I used in a few.

 

[e12a]

i ran it on a same specced Macbook Pro as the user above, but my game is running like poo. Its too choppy to play (mouse lags) and it crashes randomly...maybe its cause of Vista Ultimate . 1074x768 or whatever resolution, everything on high. Game crashes when i try to apply video changes. (i.e. Vert Sync off, Med. textures, etc.).

Still on the 1.3 Video drivers, dont know how to force the install of different ones. (downloaded 1.4 image already but burned it yet).

 

[Cheesecake]

i ran it on a same specced Macbook Pro as the user above, but my game is running like poo. Its too choppy to play (mouse lags) and it crashes randomly...maybe its cause of Vista Ultimate . 1074x768 or whatever resolution, everything on high. Game crashes when i try to apply video changes. (i.e. Vert Sync off, Med. textures, etc.).

Still on the 1.3 Video drivers, dont know how to force the install of different ones. (downloaded 1.4 image already but burned it yet).

I'm running Windows XP with the 1.4 drivers. They seem to make quite the difference.

 

[0098386]

Colour me unimpressed. Just played a big chunk of the demo, took overnight to download. It's all cinematic and that, but I just didn't find it fun. It felt like Prey 2 right down to plastic-wrap textures.
Mouse lagged but the FPS didn't, it played very smoothly in Low graphics mode. 360 controller lagged too.

I was after another good PC FPS too

 

[JackAxe]

I downloaded it knowing I wasn't even at the entry level and it loaded.... Then I was clipping frame hell with some fire. I saw lots of displacement maps for what was probably supposed to be my water trail.

Oh, the part with the hand holding the cigarette behind the seat looked nice, but after that it was graphic chaos.

I'm going to my friends this weekend to play it on his spare PC. That should hold me until I upgrade my current PC.

<]=)

 

[JackAxe]

Colour me unimpressed. Just played a big chunk of the demo, took overnight to download. It's all cinematic and that, but I just didn't find it fun. It felt like Prey 2 right down to plastic-wrap textures.
Mouse lagged but the FPS didn't, it played very smoothly in Low graphics mode. 360 controller lagged too.

I was after another good PC FPS too

I hate plastic wrap textures. It's been my biggest gripe about 3D renders etc...

I'm going to give this game a chance. They wronged me with SS2, but I feel that this one will have the magic back, since they're centering the story around one person.

The first Shock had very little cinematic scenes. You wake up 6 months after being in a coma and everyone is gone.

<]=)

 

[jmilliron]

Got the demo from Steam this morning and played for about an hour.

Medium settings, 1440x900, FPS drop down to ~25 during fights (fraps). I'll have to play around with the settings and figure out what works best. MacBook Pro, 2.2ghz, 2gb ram and Nvidia 8600M GT.

 

[gloss]

Colour me unimpressed. Just played a big chunk of the demo, took overnight to download. It's all cinematic and that, but I just didn't find it fun. It felt like Prey 2 right down to plastic-wrap textures.
Mouse lagged but the FPS didn't, it played very smoothly in Low graphics mode. 360 controller lagged too.

I was after another good PC FPS too

I dunno, Jimmi. I played it on the 360, but I really didn't see much plastic texturing - if anything, I was impressed at how natural some of the shader effects looked. I guess the goo and gore is a bit rubbery.

I hear things open up majorly after the demo section - you have to keep in mind that in the main game that bit of the stage serves as a tutorial, and so the player is kept on a tighter leash than elsewhere.

 

[Haoshiro]

I dunno, Jimmi. I played it on the 360, but I really didn't see much plastic texturing - if anything, I was impressed at how natural some of the shader effects looked. I guess the goo and gore is a bit rubbery.

I hear things open up majorly after the demo section - you have to keep in mind that in the main game that bit of the stage serves as a tutorial, and so the player is kept on a tighter leash than elsewhere.

I haven't played yet (still downloading), but I've watched lots of the HD video content.

I really don't see much plastic wrapping at all. Most of it looks really good/natural - especially on the characters.

Of course, some his complaints might just be that when you put a water shader over something, it might look lik plastic at first glance. Could very well be that it's just a lot of stuff being wet.

 

[0098386]

Must be my computer, them big drill/hand things had strange blobs of green on their helmet. They're supposed to be lights... right?

 

[takao]

while totally awesome anybody read about the the widescreen bioshock cropping ... guess there goes any chance of being perfect

 

[gloss]

Must be my computer, them big drill/hand things had strange blobs of green on their helmet. They're supposed to be lights... right?

Should look like:

 

[dubbz]

while totally awesome anybody read about the the widescreen bioshock cropping ... guess there goes any chance of being perfect

Ye. I'm no fan of cropping like that, so it was a bit disappointing. Doesn't seem to be possible to adjust the FOV either, so hopefully it will be changed in a patch.

Someone made a nice animation that kinda explain what's going on.

 

[Cheesecake]

System: Macbook Pro, Core 2 Duo 2.33, X1600 256MB, 2 GB Ram, running Windows XP service pack 2 with Bootcamp 1.4 drivers.

Demo ran via steam. Demo settings were at max, 1440x900. Frame Rate was playable in most areas.

Images linked to preserve resolution.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/7591/bioshock1iw2.jpg
http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/7982/bioshock2zo1.jpg
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/76/bioshock3ef8.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4444/bioshock4wl1.jpg
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5169/bioshock5aj8.jpg
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/2290/bioshock6bw1.jpg

 

[0098386]

Should look like:

hah, well that's close. but on mine they were just round circles on it's head. no glow or anything fancy like that.

Movement felt cumbersome too, mouse aiming was cack and the 360 controller had some kind of mad acceleration going on.

 

[PinkZeppelin]

Anyone else having trouble installing drivers for 8600m gt? I tried and it says unable to find devices. For those with 8600m what did you guys do?

 

[Vidd]

Could anyone provide some good comparison between the iMacs for running this game?
I'm so excited about this game that I actually have pre-ordered the limited edition set before getting the Mac to run it!