| BASIC GAME INFORMATION |
Release date: beta 2012, release 2013
Genre: Action (Shooter) / Simulator (Robot) / 3D / 1st Person / Online-only
developer: Piranha Games
Publisher: Infinite Game Publishing
A free-to-play multiplayer mech simulator with an emphasis on team play and a first-person view. The developers describe their project as a true successor to MechWarrior of the late 90s, “with an awareness of the realities of the modern entertainment industry.” Thus, players will be able to unite in small groups of four people and create entire clans of professional mercenaries. In the release version of MechWarrior Online, the developers will present two modes to fans of the series – Conquest and classic Deathmatch. The first, for obvious reasons, is the leader.
Otherwise, no major changes. All kinds of upgrades, a wide list of customization options, and so on and so forth. The events of MechWarrior Online will develop in real time – one earthly day is equal to one in-game day. To begin with, Piranha Games will introduce fledgling pilots to the universe and only then begin a real war. Thus, MechWarrior Online will become a kind of prequel to the entire series.
| THE GRAFICAL PART |
This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.
| Supported OS and graphics API |
MechWarrior Online is supported by major Windows operating systems, which include Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 and Windows 8. Other operating systems are not currently supported by developers and will not receive support.
The priority and main graphics API for MechWarrior Online is DirectX 9, but in the near future the developers promise to introduce support DirectX 11.
| Game engine |
The game engine for MechWarrior Online is CryEngine 3. CryEngine 3 is a game engine developed by the German company Crytek and is the successor to the CryEngine 2 engine. The CryEngine 3 engine is completely commercial, and the main focus of its development is licensing it to other companies.
CryEngine 3 is initially a cross-platform engine – it is initially aimed at IBM PC-compatible computers and game consoles Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, as well as their subsequent versions. In addition, the engine is focused on the development of massively multiplayer online games.
CryEngine 3 was officially announced on March 11, 2009, and the official release of the engine took place on October 14, 2009. The first game for which the use of CryEngine 3 was announced is the first-person shooter Crysis 2 from Crytek.
| Advanced Game Settings |
MechWarrior Online has both basic and advanced graphics settings. Basic settings are available along with the resolution, but the basic ones become available when you open an additional tab. In general terms, the settings are comparable to the previously released Crysis 2.
It turned out to be very difficult to provide screenshots of the game with different graphic settings, since it turned out to be impossible to select graphic settings directly during the game itself, plus game cards are always loaded randomly.
| General visual design and game physics |
MechWarrior Online is a purely online project, which is shareware entertainment and is based on the CryEngine 3 engine, which is little popular among game developers. The graphics are quite normal, there are not enough stars from the sky, but it does not look like a “poor relative”.
It is very disappointing that at the moment the game does not have support for DirectX 11, which is most likely a consequence of the difficulties that the developers encountered in the process of creating the game. Probably the multiplayer component adds additional stress, so this aspect is left for additional polishing.
Well, then we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware.
| TEST PART |
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Test configuration |
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test stands |
Test bench No. 1 based on the Intel Socket 2 platform011 Test bench No. 2 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 3 based on the Intel Socket 1366 platform Test bench No. 4 based on the Intel Socket 115 platform6 Test bench No. 5 based on the AMD Soket AM platform3 Test bench No. 6 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 7 based on the AMD Soket AM platform2 Test bench No. 8 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 9 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform Test bench No. 10 based on the AMD Soket AM3 platform+ |
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Multimedia equipment |
3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 Dell U3010 monitor product provided by the company AMD 3D Vision Kit product provided by the company Nvidia |
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Software configuration |
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Operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 SP1 |
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Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 310.70 AMD Catalyst 12.11 CAP 11 |
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Monitoring program |
MSI Afterburner v2.2.5 |
| GPU test |
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality by the program MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average FPS was taken as a performance indicator. Below is a video of the test segment:
Our video cards were tested at separate screen sizes of 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 with high and maximum graphics quality settings allowed by MechWarrior Online. Multi-chip configurations from NVIDIA and AMD are not optimized for this game, so they reveal dual-chip solutions only halfway. Testing the game turned out to be very difficult, since arbitrary maps are constantly loading, which is why so few resolutions were taken in the test. In addition, graphics settings can be changed immediately before launching game cards.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080
At a resolution of 1920×1080 at maximum settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 7750 or GEFORCE GTX 650 level again showed an acceptable FPS. The optimal video cards will be solutions Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 460 and higher. The performance of top solutions in this case is limited by the CPU.
Testing at maximum quality settings 2560×1600
At a resolution of 2560×1600 at maximum settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti level showed an acceptable minimum FPS. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 7850 or GeForce GTX 570 and above.
| VRAM test |
Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920×1080 and 2560×1600.
Testing at maximum memory GPU quality settings
The optimal amount of video memory for this game is 1100 MB. for high resolutions, and about 1500 megabytes for ultra-high resolutions.
| CPU test |
We tested processor dependence on 12 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920×1080 with maximum graphics quality settings.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080
The most optimal way for MechWarrior Online is to use at least 4 high-performance processor cores. With two threads there is practically nothing to do in the game.
| RAM test |
Testing of the RAM consumed by the game was carried out by monitoring directly through the Windows task manager. The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 [email protected] GHz with 8GB DDR3 2400 MGz pre-installed memory.
Testing at various quality settings
As we can see, with different quality settings, the amount of RAM consumed in MechWarrior Online ranges from 500 to 1000 megabytes with different graphics quality settings.
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Rate the test |
Rate the graphics |
Evaluate optimization |