I'm a little pissed off...

[Surak]

It's like only selling clothes in a size that only fits the minority of people?

Now the fact is they have released and are charging for an alpha of a game that only runs on high end computers and specific graphics cards, and have been doing so for however many years the alpha has been out.

How?! If only, say, 30% of people who would want to buy it can actually run it well on their computer surely the company would make more money if they spent more time making the game available for a larger proportion of people?

You really don't need a highend gaming computer to play this, but it at least should be midrange. Check out http://wiki.wolfire.com/index.php/Supported_Video_Cards and viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6406. The list doesn't even completely consider the major performance increases of the last alphas.

Most people don't have problems, I don't know why you think only 30% can play this...

[last]

Optimizing a game has limits you know.
Have you ever thought of that old computer graphics cards may not support all the necessary effects to work witch is required to render/draw something in the game world? Like texture buffer(how many textures can this card hold in the graphics memory and how large can they be.)
And not only that. The real time physics calculations in this game is running purely on your computer processor. This means that when your processor can't handle the physics then how do you optimize it? what can you left out to get better performance so that the overall game look don't suffer from it.

[Sephiroth7]

[quote="Jaz"
Oh and also, you never bought the alpha. You bought the final version of the game. That's what a pre-order is. The release threads even state that the releases are unofficial! The alphas aren't even proper releases. They're freebies that we pre-orderers get. They're only really as valid as getting free food when you visit a party. They're not really a part of the party. They're just extras at the side.[/quote]

Yes, true, I have bought the final version of the game. But all I have to show for it at the moment (as does anyone else who preordered) is the alpha. Now, should the alpha not be somewhat representative of the final game? Yes. And i'm not complaining, i'm sure gameplay wise it is. But, this means I have bought a game that the alpha of doesn't even run properly on my computer, let alone the full game. Yes I should have checked system requirements, etc, but i expected the game to actually have somewhat customisable options to improve performance on lower grade computers, just like EVERY GAME MADE TODAY. Another thing that would have made the annoyance scale slightly lower was if the preorder came with some sort of benefit other than alpha. (which i know is quite a big benefit if it actually works) For example, most games that do preorder, or indie games at least, offer a discount if you preorder. Not here. Why? I understand the devs need funding but surely they would actually earn more money if they offered some increased insentive to preorder, at a very slightly reduced price (15% or something)
Listen guys I'm not hating or trying to start an argument, I'm just a) confused at the devs reasoning on some things, and b) disappointed. I'm probably not gonna get a refund, because I can't be bothered and i'm getting a new(ish) computer in a couple of months so maybe it will run on that.

[Sephiroth7]

Most people don't have problems, I don't know why you think only 30% can play this...

Well from the forums there are a lot of "Will my computer run overgrowth?" threads and the answer is often no. 30% was just an example figure, I understand it's probably higher than that but I was making a point.

[Surak]

Now, should the alpha not be somewhat representative of the final game? Yes.

No. A beta should be somewhat representative of the final game, but not an alpha. The game is in the middle of its development. The alphas are not optimized releases of the game, they are snapshots of something that gets heavily modified week by week. To quote jeff:

The unofficial, Overgrowth a197 leaked build is here! Note, you can also download it on your Humble Store page now!

...

A "leaked build" is when I grab the latest development build and package it up for you guys. It has a bunch of known bugs, so don't worry if it doesn't work for you. It is not condoned by David and Aubrey but we want to keep you guys in the loop and give you stuff to play with regularly!

...

*NOTE* Please remember that these are unofficial alphas and they do not represent a finished product. They are not polished builds, just raw development dumps.

[Sephiroth7]

No. A beta should be somewhat representative of the final game, but not an alpha. The game is in the middle of its development. The alphas are not optimized releases of the game, they are snapshots of something that gets heavily modified week by week. To quote jeff:

What I meant was it's the basic structural template for the game, is it not? Also, it's in the 'Middle of it's development'? It's been being developed for 5 years. Yes before you scream at me I'm aware these things take a long time. but from what i've seen the progress being made seems somewhat stunted? I may be wrong here and if so I apologise, but what major changes are in the alpha between now and, say, one year ago? I don't mean a whole changelog, just major changes?

[Sephiroth7]

On a different note, I'm experimenting with config file options to see what runs best and now the game gives me this whenever I try to enter the game

"Number of Fragment Texture Units exceeds HW limits.
Number of combined Texture Units exceeds HW limits."

Any idea what is wrong here? I've achieved about 5fps by fucking with settings but now it wont work.

[Surak]

What I meant was it's the basic structural template for the game, is it not?

Sure it is, but from what you write it seems that you expect a game that is similar to a full released final game, which it just isn't...

but from what i've seen the progress being made seems somewhat stunted? I may be wrong here and if so I apologise, but what major changes are in the alpha between now and, say, one year ago?

Yes, you are wrong. The last 2 months: refactoring which resulted in major performance increase. Before that: (level) scripts (very important for the final game). Before that: major ai improvements. Attachment system. Trigger, items, mission objectives and stuff like that... The list gos on and on and that are just some of the bigger things. Also countless bugfixes. But you could just look it up in the blog, they document their work pretty well:
http://blog.wolfire.com/tag/alpha

On a different note, I'm experimenting with config file options to see what runs best and now the game gives me this whenever I try to enter the game

"Number of Fragment Texture Units exceeds HW limits.
Number of combined Texture Units exceeds HW limits."

Any idea what is wrong here? I've achieved about 5fps by fucking with settings but now it wont work.

A hardware limitation. Like last wrote, if your graphicscard has - for example - not enough memory there is no magic way to ignore that. And like somebody else wrote: We could help you better if we would know your hardware specs.

In any way, editing the config values on a wing and a prayer is a bad idea. Probably you have activated dynamic shadows or something like that. At least use the SUMLauncher to edit the settings, it has some descriptions for the different values. You could also activate your forum account as a "preorderer" and search for optimization. There are several tipps on what runs best.

[Sephiroth7]

What I meant was it's the basic structural template for the game, is it not?

Sure it is, but from what you write it seems that you expect a game that is similar to a full released final game, which it just isn't...

but from what i've seen the progress being made seems somewhat stunted? I may be wrong here and if so I apologise, but what major changes are in the alpha between now and, say, one year ago?

Yes, you are wrong. The last 2 months: refactoring which resulted in major performance increase. Before that: scripts (very important for the final game). Before that: major ai improvements. Attachment system. Trigger, items, mission objectives and stuff like that... The list gos on and on and that are just some of the bigger things. Also countless bugfixes. But you could just look it up in the blog, they document their work pretty well:
http://blog.wolfire.com/tag/alpha

On a different note, I'm experimenting with config file options to see what runs best and now the game gives me this whenever I try to enter the game

"Number of Fragment Texture Units exceeds HW limits.
Number of combined Texture Units exceeds HW limits."

Any idea what is wrong here? I've achieved about 5fps by fucking with settings but now it wont work.

A hardware limitation. Like last wrote, if your graphicscard has - for example - not enough memory there is no magic way to ignore that. And like somebody else wrote: We could help you better if we would know your hardware specs.

Hmm, I see... well I guess when I actually get around to playing it I'll be able to enjoy some of those features XD

Ah fuck. Well, I can't be bothered with my specs right now, I understand my computer can't run it and no matter how much that annoys me i'll just have to wait until I get a new computer. Thanks guys.

[underthedeep]

Well if you can you can play Receiver? That comes free with the pre-order of Overgrowth.



Also: Hasn't anyone noticed that this feller doesn't have a pre-order tag????
and is claiming to have downloaded Overgrowth?

I know I'm not a pre-orderer or anything but from what I understood you need to access the SPF in order to download the latest Alphas?

[Sephiroth7]

Well if you can you can play Receiver? That comes free with the pre-order of Overgrowth.



Also: Hasn't anyone noticed that this feller doesn't have a pre-order tag????
and is claiming to have downloaded Overgrowth?

I know I'm not a pre-orderer or anything but from what I understood you need to access the SPF in order to download the latest Alphas?

I have pre-ordered, I just haven't activated the secret forum code yet?

[Retarded Username]

I have pre-ordered, I just haven't activated the secret forum code yet?

Umm, how did you download it then?
Also, I bought the game expecting it to not run at all in my computer, hoping that near release or on beta state optimizations would come and I'd then be able to play it.

[Grayswandir]

Back when I preordered, I was given a login-specific humble bundle style page to download alphas. I activated my SPF e-penis membership afterwards.

[Count Roland]

yeah guys, this has been covered a few times, I think david got sick of people being dickish to everyone who doesn't have a preorder tag so you no longer need to even be a part of the forums to download it.

[underthedeep]

well hey, like i said i am not a pre-orderer so i was just asking if it was peculiar...


MY BAD