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Guitar Hero III Capability

I have Guitar Hero 3 for my Mac Pro and it runs like crap. I much prefer the smoother scrolling of the PlayStation 2 game. It's too bad because I kinda like the controller better than the PS2 controller. I did try turning down the settings but, the reason why I wanted it for the Mac was because I have a nice 20" Display to play it on for hi-def crisp graphics and I have to use the lowest resolution possible and it still skips and stutters. How the heck do you think this game is playable on a Mac?
 
alljunks said:
just tried it out on my MBP last night, and it lags. Going to return it !!!
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Wait!

I found something that may help you!

Sunblood
Posted: 20 Nov 2007 01:23 Post subject: TUTORIAL: Remove all backgrounds from GH3 PC!

Finally, a way to remove all the flashy unoptimized stuff that slows you down!

-----I have had ZERO problems with my method, but be SURE to back up your files, JUST IN CASE. -----
1.) Find your GH3 directory. Default is C:\Program Files\Aspyr\Guitar Hero III\
2.) Navigate to DATA\ZONES
3.) Back up ALL FILES in this folder.
4.) Find the file "z_viewer.pak.xen". This file is a blank background used for testing.
5.) Make 8 copies of "z_viewer.pak.xen" (Alternately, try using z_soundcheck.pax.xen)
6.) Move/rename/delete the following files:

z_party.pak.xen
z_budokan.pak.xen
z_dive.pak.xen
z_hell.pak.xen
z_prison.pak.xen
z_video.pak.xen
z_wikker.pak.xen
z_artdeco.pak.xen

7.) Rename your copies of z_viewer.pak.xen to replace the deleted files.
8.) Start the game, pick a song. The background should be BLACK, but the note chard and meters will still appear. Play the song as normal, but this time with no lag!
Click to expand...
 
TheSpaz said:
I have Guitar Hero 3 for my Mac Pro and it runs like crap. I much prefer the smoother scrolling of the PlayStation 2 game. It's too bad because I kinda like the controller better than the PS2 controller. I did try turning down the settings but, the reason why I wanted it for the Mac was because I have a nice 20" Display to play it on for hi-def crisp graphics and I have to use the lowest resolution possible and it still skips and stutters. How the heck do you think this game is playable on a Mac?
Click to expand...

I dont understand.
I have a basic Core 2 Duo iMac, and it is perfectly playable.
No lag at all.

This is with resolution down, and crowd off.
 
xXriderXx7 said:
I dont understand.
I have a basic Core 2 Duo iMac, and it is perfectly playable.
No lag at all.

This is with resolution down, and crowd off.
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Seems like it works better on some video cards and worse on others. Mine is practically unplayable on even the lowest settings... then again, I am used to playing it on an analog TV with a PlayStation 2... it's so freakin' smooth on there.
 
xXriderXx7 said:
I can see what your saying.
It isnt as smooth as my friends Xbox.
But it is definitely playable on my iMac, Ive beat it twice.
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I'm trying to play it on Hard and those hammer-ons and pull-offs are killing me but, on my PlayStation 2 I can do it easily. What audio lag setting are you using?
 
I just got it as a Christmas gift, so I went ahead and tried it on my 2.2GHz SantaRosa MacBook (non Pro). It simply will not work. In Leopard, it loads fine but once you try to start a song, it crashes. In Windows XP via Boot Camp, it freezes when you try to launch the game.

No biggie, I'll list it on eBay and buy the Playstation version.

(unless one of you guys wants to buy it from me for 10% off retail price. PM me if interested).
 
Red Sox said:
I just got it as a Christmas gift, so I went ahead and tried it on my 2.2GHz SantaRosa MacBook (non Pro). It simply will not work. In Leopard, it loads fine but once you try to start a song, it crashes. In Windows XP via Boot Camp, it freezes when you try to launch the game.

No biggie, I'll list it on eBay and buy the Playstation version.

(unless one of you guys wants to buy it from me for 10% off retail price. PM me if interested).
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That sucks. Look at the back of the box... it says that it does NOT support Intel Integrated video chipsets. Sorry. It runs like crap on the computer anyways, you should just get it for the PlayStation 2.

Oh, I noticed that everything seems to run nice and smooth (such as the intro and then as the fretboard pops up) UNTIL the Power Meter and ScoreBoard comes up... then I can DEFINITELY see a dramatic drop in frame rate. Maybe it's the audio that it screwing it up.... cause it seems like it starts lagging when the song starts to play (such as the clicking at the beginning). I don't know... I know that it sucks and it's extremely hard to play on the computer compared to on PS2.
 
If you are going to get it for a console get it for the PS3 or the 360, cause you can download extra tracks! Can't do that with the PS2 version.

From my understanding of the graphics in the game it is heavy on lights (which can crush lots of systems) and it seems like it is heavy on geometry (especially if removing the crowd helps speed things up). What is odd is the lack of instancing, that allows the same object to be drawn tons of times, and would be really useful for crowd generation. Oh well.
 
I have macbook pro, and i tried to use parallels to run Guitar Hero 3, but I keep getting this graphics card not supported message, I got the 8600gt, how could that be? Also more recently, I've been getting a disc not authenticated message.....What's up with that....
 
Mantasis said:
I have macbook pro, and i tried to use parallels to run Guitar Hero 3, but I keep getting this graphics card not supported message, I got the 8600gt, how could that be? Also more recently, I've been getting a disc not authenticated message.....What's up with that....
Click to expand...

Why are you running it through Parallels?
 
xXriderXx7 said:
The only thing I am wondering about is the CPU speed of 2.33 GHz.
How is that going to work?
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There's a difference between minimum and recommended. No one cares if you don't meet recommended, you can still play the game fine if you pass minimum.
 
there is a rating on the apple website that has a person who says that he/she got it to work on their macbook. idk if it is indeed true but i think its worth looking into...
 
X-plorer guitar controller not detected

Has anyone else had the issue of the x-plorer guitar controller not working with Guitar Hero 3 on their Mac?

System Profiler shows it as connected, it works with Frets on Fire, but no response in GH3. Are there drivers to be installed, or should it simply be plug-and-play?

I've found almost nothing online regarding this, and no instructions in the box on setting up the guitar. Anybody have any ideas?? :confused:
 
I'm using Parallels because I bought the pc version of Gh3, which I was going to use also on my desktop pc, but i'd like to have a portable gh3 console with me.
 
Freestar007 said:
Has anyone else had the issue of the x-plorer guitar controller not working with Guitar Hero 3 on their Mac?

System Profiler shows it as connected, it works with Frets on Fire, but no response in GH3. Are there drivers to be installed, or should it simply be plug-and-play?

I've found almost nothing online regarding this, and no instructions in the box on setting up the guitar. Anybody have any ideas?? :confused:
Click to expand...

You have to uninstall the drivers that you installed for Frets on Fire because for some reason it clashes with the drivers that GH3 is using. Once I uninstalled the 360 Controller driver and restarted, GH3 worked again.
 
Freestar007 said:
How did you go about uninstalling the 360 driver? I know how to delete apps, but drivers...?
Click to expand...

Delete the following files and then restart:

./Library/PreferencePanes/Pref360Control.prefPane
./Library/StartupItems/360ControlDaemon
./System/Library/Extensions/360Controller.kext

That's it.
 
Thanks, thespaz. I just got GH3 today and it has been miserable so far. I brung back my first copy to Target after realizing that the controller didn't even work on my iMac where the 360 driver was never installed. Luckily they had another in the back and a same-product-exchange-policy. I just got home and found out that it works on my iMac now, but not my MacBook Pro. Just deleted the /System/Library file (the only one I didn't remove before) and it works!
 
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