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Subject: Re: Chessmaster 10th Edition demo (legalities)

Author: John Merlino

Date: 21:28:27 07/20/04

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On July 20, 2004 at 13:08:21, steven blincoe wrote:

>>
>>I would say that that is so low that it is not even a "requirement". Basically,
>>you're talking about cards that are very old in terms of 3D-chip technology.
>>
>>What video cards are on your machines? I would say that it is more likely that
>>your cards do not have drivers that support DirectX 9, which CMX requires.
>
>
>hi Jim
>well my cards will run CM 9K and the latest versions of Shredder  and Fritz
>i also got Majestic chess to run but with the low graphic option
>
>at home i have a AtI RAGE with 1mb of video ram
>and in my office the Intel 82815
>i have Directx 9 installed on both computers
>
>even if these cards are not brand new..they are able to play all of the newest
>chess software...i just elect the 2d piece option
>
>
>there is no such option for CM10K
>
>bear in mind,that there were several members here that could not load the CM10K
>demo as well...they got a black screen after the title page as i did
>
>something is wrong with this approach of Ubisofts
>
>Steve

Your ATI Rage card is ancient, when it comes to gaming hardware, and Ubi Soft is
a gaming software company. To require that a video card need only have 4 MB of
memory IS already a huge step in making sure that as many people can play CM as
possible, and still retain the new GUI that was part of the design.

Yes, CM9000 merely required "any 3D video card that has drivers that are
compatible with DirectX 8.1". But if you tried to play with any of the more
complex 3D sets, your performance would have been completely unacceptable.
However, the CM9000 team retained the fully 2D option with the idea that we were
going to completely eliminate the 2D sets in the next version, which the
Romanian team accomplished. The CM9000 design team felt that the "flat" 3D sets
were much preferable to the 2D sets, because they were fully resizeable.

So, the CMX000 team has said that Chessmaster is now a 3D product, but it only
requires video cards that are...well...very old. I can't even recall how old 4MB
video cards are. You can find a GeForce4 with 64MB of RAM on ebay for less than
$30, and I would consider it worth the purchase.

As for your 82815 board at work, that chipset caused both Chessmaster and
Majestic Chess to have problems. I believe that there were workarounds in both
cases, but I don't recall what they were.

jm



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