Playing on a laptop? Integrated Graphics Card Magicka F.A.Q.

[Paradox__rep]

Integrated graphic cards FAQ

Q: Why a FAQ?
A: We're getting lots of questions about integrated graphic processors (IGP henceforth) and requests to add support for them.


Q: Why cant I play Magicka on my laptop?
A: Most likely because Your IGP isn't good enough to run Magicka. Very few IGPs are good enough. Especially Intel Graphics Cards have very poor performance and can't handle Magicka.

Take another close look at the minimum requirements regarding graphic cards:

• Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce 8800 or ATI Radeon® X1900

Q: But my IGP should be able to run the game!
A:Remember that laptop versions of graphic cards have noticeably worse performance than non-mobile ones. A 8800M is NOT as good as a regular 8800.


Q: But I can can run Starcraft 2! Why not a little game like Magicka?
A: The fine folks at blizzard have dozens and dozens of engineers who've consciously made the effort to optimize the game to run on low end machines.

The arrowhead team, while also fine, consist of 7 developers. Of which 2 are programmers.

When the choice came between additional gameplay features and optimize performance on IGP's we chose the former.

What would you have chosen in our position?


Q: But I can play Crysis with this IGP! Why not Magicka?
A: Again, Crytek probably have even more engineers working on the engine than SC2.

Q: Does this mean you'll never support IGP's?
A: Once the major patching is out of the way (hopefully soon) we'll focus more on adding new feature/polish and of course more content! We will do additional optimization, but the fact still remains that we prefer to create new fun content than to do time consuming optimization. So we can't promise or commit to anything, but we'll look into it.


Q: Aaawww man, that blows.
A: We're very sorry, but the simple fact is that generally speaking IGP's aren't great for gaming.


Let us know if you have any more questions and we'll update the thread.

Sincerely,

/ The Paradox & Arrowhead team

Ok, we understand!! the game runs at 30 fps on my laptop at 800*600 res.... it has an intel T4400 2.20 GHz, with a radeon hd mobility 4500 series, and 4gb of ram. it runs really slow at max resolution....

well, i'm not giving up the hope of someday being able to play magicka on my laptop. but you're right, i would've done the same thing in your position. keep up the good work!

[Feynt]

Hopefully the 100+ post thread will die with this in place. I disagree with the stance that time consuming optimization is less important than new content. Shi...stuff that works is better than lots of stuff. While I still don't expect Intel graphics support, as a team investing so much into an engine of their own one would hope you would find it important to optimize it for future use. You can't keep remaking your engine from the ground up every time.

[ItzzNinja]

Originally Posted by Feynt

Hopefully the 100+ post thread will die with this in place. I disagree with the stance that time consuming optimization is less important than new content. Shi...stuff that works is better than lots of stuff. While I still don't expect Intel graphics support, as a team investing so much into an engine of their own one would hope you would find it important to optimize it for future use. You can't keep remaking your engine from the ground up every time.

I don't expect Intel onboard support either, just better support of onboard AMD or nVidia chips like the Mobility Radeon HD 3xxx and 4xxx series and all onboard Geforce G/GT/GTX series chips.

[LightOfDarkness]

IGP support shouldn't be a priority, since IGPs aren't really meant for gaming in the first place. I do think that additional content should be as bug-free as possible at release though *cough*VALVe*cough*TF2

[anbu15]

understandable, but if you do do the optimization please add a AA/vsync option (if it is already auto enabled that is) that will make speed 2 times better.

Originally Posted by LightOfDarkness

IGP support shouldn't be a priority, since IGPs aren't really meant for gaming in the first place. I do think that additional content should be as bug-free as possible at release though *cough*VALVe*cough*TF2

they're not meant for gaming but they can do gaming. (batman AA, almost any unreal engine game, amnesia the dark descent, any source engine game, crysis, etc) can all run at 20-30+ frames on my 4200 if i tweak the settings. but i do understand that paradox is a small group and might not be able to do this but it just sucks because i really like this game.

[senior pino]

I have an 8800gt in my pc with c2dE6850@3,0ghz and it stutters... the demo ran fine though... so no idea whats causing this.

[ItzzNinja]

Originally Posted by anbu15

understandable, but if you do do the optimization please add a AA/vsync option (if it is already auto enabled that is) that will make speed 2 times better.


they're not meant for gaming but they can do gaming. (batman AA, almost any unreal engine game, amnesia the dark descent, any source engine game, crysis, etc) can all run at 20-30+ frames on my 4200 if i tweak the settings. but i do understand that paradox is a small group and might not be able to do this but it just sucks because i really like this game.

You're absolutely correct -- while not meant for it, IGP chips can play many modern games!

I can list off a few myself:

Oblivion, Unreal Engine games, C4 games, Source anything, CryENGINE 3 games (Crysis, etc), XreaL-based games (these are very intensive), many XNA games (which is why when I saw the demo running slow on my 4200 I was like "???"), id Tech 4 games (I wouldn't be surprised if Black Ops could run on this machine), the list goes on and on...

Don't associate IGP chips with little ability to play games, because it has been proven time and time again that it is perfectly doable.

everytime i try to open Magicka i get a black screen then it goes back to my desktop i checked the error reports and it says

Version: 1.3.3.4
Thread: LoaderThread
Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentLoadExcepti on: Error loading "UI\Font\MenuTitle". GraphicsDevice component not found.
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.get_ GraphicsDevice()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.Texture2DReader.Re ad(ContentReader input, Texture2D existingInstance)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Invo keReader[T](ContentTypeReader reader, Object existingInstance)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Read ObjectInternal[T](Object existingInstance)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Read Object[T]()
at PolygonHead.BitmapFont..ctor(ContentReader iInput)
at PolygonHead.Pipeline.BitmapFontReader.Read(Content Reader iInput, BitmapFont existingInstance)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Invo keReader[T](ContentTypeReader reader, Object existingInstance)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Read ObjectInternal[T](Object existingInstance)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Read Object[T]()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentReader.Read Asset[T]()
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentManager.Rea dAsset[T](String assetName, Action`1 recordDisposableObject)
at Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content.ContentManager.Loa d[T](String assetName)
at Magicka.Graphics.FontManager..ctor()
at Magicka.Graphics.FontManager.get_Instance()
at Magicka.GameLogic.UI.MessageBox..ctor(String iMessage)
at Magicka.GameLogic.UI.GamerCustomizeMessageBox..cto r()
at Magicka.GameLogic.UI.GamerCustomizeMessageBox.get_ Instance()
at Magicka.Gamers.Gamer..ctor(String iGamerTag)
at Magicka.GameLogic.Profile.Read()
at Magicka.Game.LoaderFunction()
Please help

[cdaragorn]

Ok, I love your game, but I have particular issue with your idea of what constitutes "optimization". That's not the problem your game has. It's problem is a failure from the core of the engine. Sorry, guys, but this question brings up a MAJOR point:

Originally Posted by Paradox__rep

Q: But I can can run Starcraft 2! Why not a little game like Magicka?
A: The fine folks at blizzard have dozens and dozens of engineers who've consciously made the effort to optimize the game to run on low end machines.

The arrowhead team, while also fine, consist of 7 developers. Of which 2 are programmers.

When the choice came between additional gameplay features and optimize performance on IGP's we chose the former.

What would you have chosen in our position?

You're comparing a highly complex fully featured high performance 3d game with a (relatively speaking) low resolution low performance simple game. XNA and .NET are slower than C/C++, but not by NEARLY this much.

Again, I love your game, but this shows a clear failure in properly designing a half decent engine from day one, not a lack of money/time to add "optimizations"

Thank youuu. That's all I wanted, was a little acknowledgment that it isn't TOTALLY impossible for us to play in the future.

As noncommittal as your answer is, I'll take it.
I'd love to play this game, so I'll definitely keep checking back.

I have a question and that's a deal breaker for me:

My laptop has a Nvidia 8600M GT, I tried the demo and it works fine without slowdowns, crashes, glitches or any other problems. My question is, will the full game work as good as the demo?

Yes, i know my card is below the minimum graphical specs but that's why I'm asking.

sooo all your saying is that you just screwed up out of 10 dollars

[UnderNorma]

Originally Posted by Paradox__rep

Integrated graphic cards FAQ

Q: But I can can run Starcraft 2! Why not a little game like Magicka?
A: The fine folks at Blizzard have dozens and dozens of engineers who've consciously made the effort to optimize the game to run on low end machines.

The arrowhead team, while also fine, consist of 7 developers. Of which 2 are programmers.

When the choice came between additional gameplay features and optimize performance on IGP's we chose the former.

What would you have chosen in our position?

In even more simple terms: "We have your money, you can't play, but... we have your money and you can't do anything about it."

I'm used to this kind of stance. I play Nexon games. I will give credit to Paradox because they actually tell us they might do something about their problems. I will check back periodically over the next 2 or 3 years to see if anything changes. Very fortunately, my desktop is much more adequate to "play games" as Paradox states. I am able to play Magicka on there. I'm not flaming, trolling (except for the Nexon remark).

Death to Yellow,
Jake