Hands-On Report--Quake 4--How fast is it?

Since no demo sequence is included with Quake 4 and the Mac version for PowerPC Macs apparently does not recognize a "demos" folder in the "q4base" folder, benchmarking the speed of Quake 4 is not an easy task. Worse, one can not even record, play back or timedemo a segment of the game on a PPC Mac. At least we have not been able to do so on our Power Mac G5 Quad or iMac G5.

However, we can record, play back and timedemo segments of Quake 4 on our Intel-based MacBook Pro. While the recorded demo survives quitting and relaunching Quake 4, it is not exported to a demos folder in our q4base folder like with the Windows version of the game. Curiously, Quake 4 for Mac running on an Intel-based Mac does support running demos from a demos folder placed in the q4base folder even though it doesn't create one and export a demo you record to it.

Several console commands (tweaks) do work in the Mac version:

"seta com_allowconsole 1" allows one to lower the console by just pressing the "~" key.

"bind F10 toggle com_showFPS" shows the current frame rate (speed) in the upper right corner whenever you want it to by pressing the F10 key. Pressing the F10 key again removes the frame rate display.

Unfortunately, a very useful tweak to turn on dual core use ("r_useSMP 1") does not. Perhaps it is programmed to be on all the time. Also, there is no config file in the q4base folder that can be edited like in the Windows version of Quake 4.

If you own an Intel-based Mac, you can record your own demo sequence and use it to tweak the settings to get the balance between performance and visual quality that you want.

First, enable the two tweaks above by opening the console by pressing the control-option-"~" keys simultaneously and typing them in without the quotation marks and hitting return.

Second, choose the Quake 4 sequence that you want to record as a demo. We used a roughly 90-second sequence in the MCC Landing Site (5th) level--the action-packed sequence of charging out of the trenches and shooting our way through three doors to the air defense cannon control room and to the cannon's seat.

Third, record the sequence:

1. Press the "~" key to lower the console.

2. At the beginning of the sequence, type "recordDemo name", where name is the name you call the demo sequence, and press the "Return" key

3. At the end, press "~" and type "stopRecording" to stop.

Fourth, set the game's settings that you want to measure the speed of using the demo sequence. Then,

1. Press "~" to lower the console.

2. Type "timedemo name" and press the "Return" key

3. The demo sequence runs automatically and displays the average frame rate at the end.

We used this procedure on our Intel-based MacBook Pro to create a demo sequence called, naturally, macsonly.

Of all of the runs we made, the resolution and shadows settings had the greatest effect on average frame rate. The resolutions supported by Quake 4 go up to 1600x1200 but the MacBook Pro would only correctly run resolutions up to 1024x768. Here is a subset of our results that illustrate the effects:

2.16 GHz MacBook Pro Speed Tests (average frames per sec*).

Quake 4 1.0 Settings
Resolution	Video Quality	Shadows ON	Shadows OFF
.
1024x768	High	24	37
800x600	Medium	35	56
640x480	Low	43	61
.

*Average of 3 runs.Red is fastest.