SPORE: tweaking graphics settings

[MatchFrame]

I purchased Spore for my Mac Pro, and I was curious what graphics settings people are using on their game.

I'm not used to tweaking graphics settings, and I was just curious what more experienced gaming gurus would suggest.

What are the MOST valuable elements of Spore's graphics settings to maximize when trying to balance quality and performance (that is, if performance lags when everything is maxed out (like it does on my Mac))?

I have a 2008 2.8 GHz Mac Pro with 2 GB RAM and the ATI 2600XT. I know that my video card is not particularly powerful, but I am not going to be upgrading it for a good while.

So I'm looking for suggestions as to what settings you may be using on your Mac, and what are the most valuable/taxing settings to try to balance?

Thanks! Hope this can help everyone get the most out of the game's graphics.

 

[spyker3292]

On my Al iMac (24") I play with mostly everything on high in full resolution. Works fine .

 

[MatchFrame]

What's your resolution and video card? Any advice to all of us on what makes the graphics shine and what isn't worth the resources?

 

[spyker3292]

The HD2600 . I don't know... I just mess around until it looks nice.

 

[IOIIOOO]

I am running a quad-core Mac Pro with the ATI 2600XT as well. Something appears to be broken, though. When I play Spore with the standard settings, I get this:

Only if I turn the settings all the way down on every slider do I even get to see my creature, but the world still looks like this.

My guess is that some textures are broken as there is no ground!

In the cell stage, the problem was different, with every graphic setting buy the lowest showing the entire field of play with a blur texture over it. I was able to get through the cell stage at the lowest graphic settings, but now have a problem as my creature is an herbivore, and the fruit texture appears to be missing, making fruit invisible!

Is anyone else having a similar problem or have any idea on how I might fix it?

 

[MatchFrame]

Is anyone else having a similar problem or have any idea on how I might fix it?

Wow. That stinks. I wish I had a tried-and-true solution for you. Something has gone horribly wrong with your textures. I would recommend re-installing the game. Not sure what else to suggest.

My graphics "problems" were just performance stutters at higher settings, so I think something must have gone very wrong with the install.

 

[IOIIOOO]

Wow. That stinks. I wish I had a tried-and-true solution for you. Something has gone horribly wrong with your textures. I would recommend re-installing the game. Not sure what else to suggest.

My graphics "problems" were just performance stutters at higher settings, so I think something must have gone very wrong with the install.

Just did a full uninstall / reinstall to no luck. Bleh. I'm starting to think it's a driver issue, but I doubt there is anything I can do about that on the Mac...

 

[gavriels]

Just did a full uninstall / reinstall to no luck. Bleh. I'm starting to think it's a driver issue, but I doubt there is anything I can do about that on the Mac...

To be sure, try deleting your SPORE Preferences folder and trying again. That will delete a graphics cache file that the game grows as you play.

But this looks to me like a hardware issue - at TransGaming we've never seen anything like that with the 2600s.

 

[IOIIOOO]

To be sure, try deleting your SPORE Preferences folder and trying again. That will delete a graphics cache file that the game grows as you play.

But this looks to me like a hardware issue - at TransGaming we've never seen anything like that with the 2600s.

Yeah, I did a full Preferences delete before reinstall. No luck. Might be time to go to the 8800.