Façade requirements... WTF?
 

I've used my 1.52 GHz computer to run processor intensive shit like Softimage XSI 4, Half Life 2, Rome Total War and many other things and these guys have the gall to present me with this???

Fine.

Consider yourself well and truly uninstalled.

Ooh, that's quite lazy....

What I don't get is why they put in an arbitrary threshold. Why not just let it run with a crappy framerate on lesser systems?

... and, really how much difference is 0.08 GHz going to make?

Haven't they ever heard of scalable settings? It's just stupid... lazy, as you say.

The nett result is that I'm probably never going to bother playing this. If the idea was to spread the word about interactive storytelling they have just failed to reach their audience.

Hey, Ninsie, don't be sore. They're not necessarily Valve, Epic Games, or any of the top developers who have years of experience in the commercial field and all it requires. They're pretty much just academics exploring the applications of a very specific feature in games - artificial intelligence - and they've been working on this for years. So it's not surprising that they haven't considered scalability - yet. Besides, isn't the bulk of the CPU running the A.I.? Would it be scalable, like graphics?

Anyway, maybe a friend has a more powerful computer you can play it on for an hour or so, I'm sure they won't mind. :) They might even wanna play it themselves. Ask them.

We'll see. I might play it someday. Maybe.

You're still sore. Let it go, Ninsie, and just be happy that at least they're exploring a major feature of games that has largely been ignored.

I was really looking forward to playing it... now I can't.

Meh.

Anyway, you're right of course... no point wasting energy on being frustrated about anything. I think I'll go and do some animating tomorrow, and maybe play some more Night of the Raven, which, by the way, kicks ass. :D

It's really great when it says "Facade is running too slow! Try closing some stuff!" and then shuts itself down. Woo hoo.

You have to wonder why anyone would want to make their software so completely patronizing...

Because the're developing it as an academic project and not a commercial product, and can pretty much do what they please because they don't have to worry about sales? They're having fun with it, lighten up.

I wonder if there is a freeware utility out there to fake out the game into thinking your processor is at 1.6 GHz. It couldn't do any harm. I searched for a bit, but I couldn't find anything.

I just don't understand why anyone would design such prompts and restrictions. It's more work putting them in than leaving them out, and it's easier for everyone without...

Of course they can do what they want, but it still seems silly.

:shifty: Ninsie, I thought you got over it. Go play other games for now or borrow a friend's more powerful PC to play Facade.

I am. I just noticed that thing Huz posted about it actually shutting down when it's running slow and that just seemed even stranger than the CPU requirement.

Don't worry, I will play it sooner or later.

Holding Shift+F12 while starting Facade does the trick for me with a 1.4 GHz computer.

It's freeware created for academic purposes by a bunch of people who don't really expect anything in return. To not put too fine a point on it, don't complain. ;)

What are you talking about? What has framerate got to do with it?

Ronnnl: Interesting, I'll have to try that.

sethsez: true.

AJ: if you run a game that's too much for your system, the fps (otherwise known as framerate) tends to go down to a point where you can no longer see clearly what's going on cause the movement doesn't show smoothly enough (like say, 10 fps)... In some cases however having a slightly choppy framerate here and there is quite tollerable, leaving you able to play a game despite a slightly out of date system.

I understand your frustration, Ninja Dodo. The product trying to be wiser than the player (about technical specification) is a pet peeve of mine. The most I should get in such a case is a warning. If I was told that I would risk getting reduced enjoyment out of the game (or even screwing up my computer), so be it. Let me try to run it, it's my decision alone! Especially when the difference between the actual and the required is as preposterously low as in said case.

To those who defend Facade as an academic product: well, it's a game all the same, so I fail to see why should I use different criteria for it. Also note that there are some people who even payed for ordering it on CD rather than downloaded it through Bittorrent.

I didn't say I didn't know what frame rates were, I was asking you why you thought they were involved in the requirements of Façade?