Huge concern that Classic will require higher end hardware

[wysimdnwyg]

I really hope you're not still using the same computer you were using in 2004.

[Eleccybubb]

Good.

Blizzard are not going to supported outdated, unsupported hardware or software because that's a potential security risk.

You will not be running this on your Windows 98/XP pc.

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I'm trying to wrap my head around what kind of computer can't run WoW. O.o I've run it on absolute potatoes.

Well as of now anything with DX9 or a 32 bit OS upto Vista.

[vulena]

This is the least concerning thing I've read about Classic since it was announced. It god damn BETTER run on newer machines only because that means they're actually updating the game and it's not another Fallout 3 PC situation where everything crashes every 15 minutes.

[Eleccybubb]

This is the least concerning thing I've read about Classic since it was announced. It god damn BETTER run on newer machines only because that means they're actually updating the game and it's not another Fallout 3 PC situation where everything crashes every 15 minutes.

It will.

Blizzard are not stupid enough to support ancient and outdated hardware/software just for "muh authentic experience".

It's a security risk in itself. Especially considering for example MS themselves don't support upto Vista now.

[Zyky]

That's why people like me want WoW Classic

I can promise you, with 100% certainty, no one who wants Classic WoW wants it because they're too cheap to upgrade their computer.

[Eleccybubb]

-snip-

1. Not an issue with your disks. You are just making it up now. Try again.

2. No they weren't "doubled". Try again instead of blowing it out of proportion to prove some non-existent point.

3. DX12 doesn't support that because traditional fullscreen is outdated and Fullscreen Windowed offers mostly superior performance. You still have the option of using DX11 which should be fine.

4. "Loyal veterans" HAHAHAHHA. Mate even the hardcore Vanilla fans from what I've read know better than to want it supported for sofware/hardware that poses a security risk.

Nobody shares your concerns. Or is taking you seriously. Classic will not supported outdated DX9/32 bit hardware or software just so you can get an "authentic" experience.

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Tsnip-

Actually they confirmed they do have it under the version control systems.

They even stated in an update they basically injected that code onto a server and it was a mess because it wasn't interacting properly with the modern tech.

[skumnasty]

I do feel for OP in the sense that $500/mo salary would make affording a good pc a fairly expensive purchase, even though WoW has historically been a very flexible game when it has come to system requirements.

However, the attitude that "it is a 2004 game so it should run on a 2000 machine" is absurd. Retail is not a 2004 game, and the NEW classic will not be a 2004 game, it would be silly to revert to 2004 graphics etc, hence why they made Star Craft remastered and didn't just try to balance it and revive it as it was.

Edit: As an example as to how modest wow has been with sys requirements, I ran it for a couple years off of a pc I bought from goodwill for less than $50...

[Deleted]

Game released in 2004 should be compatible with hardware from the the mid 2000s. Strange, that it works for almost all games, why shouldn't for WoW?

2.4.3 and 3.3.5. basically used almost the same engine, I don't doubt that they implemented some stuff in them to support multi-core CPUs. But everything after WotLK was a steady drop in performance (and general quality of the game, go figure).

Then that's not making Classic as it was before. By providing much better experience, you mean requiring machine from future for 40-men raids? They could just take original client (maybe slightly fixed to support multi-core as another person mentioned), reconstruct only the server script part and build in battle.net support if they really feel they must. If there will be no true Fullscreen, if it will require 2 GB VRAM minimum, and client will have to decrypt thousands of CASC files in real time (yes, CASC sucks, it has extremely horrible optimization), then that's gonna be OBJECTIVELY pure sh!t. People can look how many problems people had in both D3 and WOW when CASC was introduced.

That's why people like me want WoW Classic - to get away from all that sh!t on current retail servers, which also means to get away from constant hardware race, to get away from unoptimized file system. Optimization/performance were steadily going downhill starting from Cata (it also had huge drop in subscribers, no doubt hardware issues were part of it). But it seems it was a futile hope to expect using good old client.

WoW Classic will not be the original game. It'll be the original game (to some extent) redone in the modern engine. So yeah, that's that. ANYTHING regarding performance right now is speculation and gets you nowhere. I don't think there's anything you can hope to achieve with this topic except for maybe a tiny few people who share your concerns. But I doubt you'll find any.

So yeah, sucks to be you, but you'll have to simply deal with whatever WoW Classic ends up being. Blizzard is NOT gonna cater to those of us who have incredibly old machines. /thread

[Deleted]

People are simply deluding themselves if they think Classic will have different graphics / system reqs from the current version of WoW when it releases. What do you think they're spending all this time doing, just debugging the original 2004 release? Come on...

It will have similar or better compared to live when you are in old unchanged areas in the game. Maybe even better as some features that may influence performance are not present in Vanilla (achievement tracking, questhelper, that kind of stuff).

Also, while I disagree with OP, I did have a similar experience with reduced performance over the expansions. However my last two systems where laptops (not low ends though). I found it trickier to make those last longer, but then again I refuse to make concessions on certain setting, resolution in particular (not native = not playing as it irritates me the most). With my current system (see sig) I expect it to last 5-6 years, without upgrades, longer with. That said, my five year old laptop still plays the games decently and probably better if I lowered the settings a bit more. I only upgraded the msata 32gb buffer ssd with a proper (and not that expensive) 512gb ssd. It flies again, and while it isn't the fastest system, it is still properly usable for most stuff. For the really heavy stuff. Actually with Steam I can actually stream in house and play on full detail on my laptop : p

Weirdly enough it is the first system I never had to add extra RAM. Provided you don't a crap system computers last a lot longer then before. I remember from the 90s & 00s that a system would only last you 3 years and that was only if you bought high end. Also computers have become a lot cheaper since then relatively speaking. These days you can buy a midrange, long lasting(and capable) system for a price that in the past would only buy you a low end piece of s***, that was already useless the day you got it.

[Deathquoi]

We live in a world with very unstable economics, so upgrading PC is done when there is an actual necessity. Upgrading PC to play 14-years old game is nonsense.

And anyway, majority of modern games are too focused on graphics and always-online rather than on gameplay, most of real gaming gems were either made before 2010 or they don't have big system requirements (from post 2010: Minecraft, Terraria, Labyrinth of Touhou 1/2, etc.).

Oh, and Everquest II still is alive and breathing, it still has less or more same system requirements as years ago and there is much more to do there than in modern WoW and it has more depth than WoW at any stage of its life. So if Classic will require higher end hardware than it will be mostly lose situation for Blizzard, because people wouldn't go to upgrade their PC when there is global crisis blooming, they would go to EQ II (if they want WoW Classic-like experience) or play WoW private servers.

I thought you were serious until you mentioned EQ2.

Unfortunately, the tiny minority of gamers in economically unstable countries can’t be the focus of dev staff.

[Dartz1979]

guys guys we need to be patient eventually we will all be playing our treasured pc games in augmented virtual reality via holo decks soon or so one would hope then no more fits over oh no i have to upgrade my computer parts.

[Deleted]

One of reasons I left WoW was constant increase of system requirements. My disks also seem to hate the change from MPQ to CASC format. Basically BfA isn't playable to me right now as system requirements were doubled overnight. And no Fullscreen was like spitting all over the face to many players. I will probably make a huge revelation for some people, but Windows supports all DX, including DX5, DX 6, etc. Just need to install appropriate libraries/modules, but current devs seem to be too much focused on pissing off whatever little of their loyal veterans, who actually helped Blizzard to become as famous as it is now.

There was some blue post saying something along the lines that Classic will use the modern WoW Engine but with reconstructed models and content.

Since then I have worry that it will be a colossal disappointment to everyone expecting that WoW Classic will have mild system requirements (I mean, not everyone can constantly upgrade hardware just for a game). Especially if they will enforce DX12 bullsh!t.

I think that focus on CASC and DX12 must go DIAF and Classic should support all older DX and be based on MPQs. WoW Classic required like 512 RAM and 32 VRAM. But I am afraid that new Classic will have drastically different requirements.

Anyone else shares my concerns?

Every 2 years. Constant? Should I start whining that wow does not utilise my 1080ti and 6700k OC setup with SSD? I know not everyone has this build, but not everyone runs on 10 years old systems. Vanilla fog and graphics looks same as setting 1 currently, if you don't want to play on that how will u like vanilla? and if you can't run even on those settings... I am sorry mate, but you can save a half a year worth of sub+expansion cost and get a better settup.

[Ticj]

I live in a country with bad economic situation, so we have special regional prices for many foreign stuff including WoW sub. Computer hardware isn't actually part of regional priciing. 500 $ a month is considered a very good salary here, most people receive much less, and there are many locations/countries which have it even worse.

People who treat 100 $ as change money, get off your high horses, you only make it worse by defending such approaches. No doubts that WoW will lose a lot of players in BfA because of this, but I don't care about BfA. I care about WoW Classic, but who will sponsor it (by paying for BfA)? There are much less rich kids than those who barely meet the ends and for whom WoW was like escape from world of oligarchs. ActiBlizzard is cutting the tree's branch where they sit by increasing hardware requirements while more and more people all over the world start feeling the huge incoming global economic collapse.

And it is not only Venezuela which suffers. It is also many countries of Eastern Europe and Asia. And from my experience and experience of my acquaintances, people started spending much less and a lot of small business companies have increasingly harder times nowadays. In other words - big crisis is coming and many people can already feel it. During crisis, if people won't be able to play some video game because of high requirements, they won't be replacing already working hardware, they will move to something else.

I'm sorry dude, but games evolve. You can't expect a game to run on a computer in 2018 when in 2004 it would barely even be able to be considered a medium end rig. It sucks, but bro WoW can run on my shitty laptop for school. It really doesn't require much to run.

[Icoblablubb]

Game released in 2004 should be compatible with hardware from the the mid 2000s. Strange, that it works for almost all games, why shouldn't for WoW?

2.4.3 and 3.3.5. basically used almost the same engine, I don't doubt that they implemented some stuff in them to support multi-core CPUs. But everything after WotLK was a steady drop in performance (and general quality of the game, go figure).

Then that's not making Classic as it was before. By providing much better experience, you mean requiring machine from future for 40-men raids? They could just take original client (maybe slightly fixed to support multi-core as another person mentioned), reconstruct only the server script part and build in battle.net support if they really feel they must. If there will be no true Fullscreen, if it will require 2 GB VRAM minimum, and client will have to decrypt thousands of CASC files in real time (yes, CASC sucks, it has extremely horrible optimization), then that's gonna be OBJECTIVELY pure sh!t. People can look how many problems people had in both D3 and WOW when CASC was introduced.

That's why people like me want WoW Classic - to get away from all that sh!t on current retail servers, which also means to get away from constant hardware race, to get away from unoptimized file system. Optimization/performance were steadily going downhill starting from Cata (it also had huge drop in subscribers, no doubt hardware issues were part of it). But it seems it was a futile hope to expect using good old client.

ya BASE game was released 2004 ... dude your examples of going from 60 fps in wotlk to 20 in cata etc are just dogshit ... there was literally no change to textures/polygons etc there .. its just that your shit hardware gets worn out .. thought about that your potato's HDD is just getting slower and slower every year? that your potato is bloated with shit stuff malware etc everything i bet u have one of these 2000's already complete build PC's from some LIDL store for just 399 bloated full with software yada yada .. if its so hard for you to even play WoW because of shit economics etc and u can't even upgrade your PC over time i mean dude u had 14 years .. one month you buy an SSD save 1-2 month buy the next thing and so on.. and if u can't afford it maybe think about quitting gaming alltogether we don't want you to starve because u use all the money for WoW sub

[Deleted]

BfA still lists as supported Intel iGPUs.

And still runs fine on intel GPUs. My 2013 MacBooks performance has seen notable improvements in performance. Its hitting the 30 FPS cap I set on it much more readily without activating the fans.

(The cap is specifically to avoid excessive fan noise and battery drain; the more efficient the game runs, the less heat is generated)

[Eleccybubb]

You literarly need to have a patato to not run classiv, even if it runs a modern client

True but it'll still use more up to date requirements.

It won't run for example on a Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, Geforce FX 5800 and Windows 2000 for example.

Might not be as heavy requirements as BFA is but it won't be anything 32 bit that's for sure. And considering they just dropped DX9 support I doubt they are going to bring it back so I imagine the API will be 11 and 12.

[Ferocity]

I liked the one poster's quote that gamne works better with turned off shadows... But he forgot that you can't turn off shadows for quite a time, and in BfA you can't even put them at "low".

I thought you were serious until you mentioned EQ2.

Unfortunately, the tiny minority of gamers in economically unstable countries can’t be the focus of dev staff.

What is not serious about EQ II? That it runs better than WoW for me now? It can be also played without subscription, though sub definitely provides the optimal experience. Sure, EQ II required PC from the future on its launch and it was perhaps one of big reasons why it failed. However, sys requirements didn't change much (if at all) over time, so eventually EQ II became more playable for me than WoW.

I can't comprehend the logic of some posters, but that's ok. And there was a number of threads on CASC, how it causes big fragmentation of files (and excessive pressure on disks) with all the consequences.

Anyway, my rose glasses are off, I see that Classic won't be real Classic but some remastered version. Also if it is going to be based on BfA client, you will have to say bye-bye to wall-climbing, graphical modding (which is totally harmless), and most likely a lot of Classic addons won't work (like [auto-]decurse, good luck decursing people manually in 40-men raids which will definitely be lagfest for most people).

I also now clearly see why retail WoW is so bad now, it is because white knights try to overyell any kind of concern about the direction of the game. It started from "innocent" things like nerfing sharpening stones, then later - removing weapon skills, removing keyring, and in the end we have something totally different and totally non-appealing to most of the people from preCata era. Now people are white-knighting absolutely horrible system requirements bump in BfA, which are also partly artificial (by removing true Fullscreen, because, according to some stupid people, Microsoft globally banned it).

The only sad thing is those white-knights will quickly realize that Classic gameplay isn't actually for their taste. All you white knights should just stick to BfA where you have your horrible CASC and other perks of bad optimization. Classic was based on MPQs, it had Classic water (hard to describe it), you also had to watch shallow waters as mounts didn't like it (I wonder how it will be realized with BfA mount behavior). There just so many small things come up which just don't seem they will be able to coexist right in the same engine as BfA.

It would also feel good to finally overpower this game in terms of hardware, but guess some people like constant hardware races or they don't mind having sub-20 fps while solo. Technical progress is made exactly so that you could launch older software more efficiently and get more difficult tasks, it isn't so that game from 2004 (it was released in 2004, if you say it is released in 2018+ that's you who have serious mental issues) would require PC from distant future to manage at least 20 fps in solo.

[Eleccybubb]

I liked the one poster's quote that gamne works better with turned off shadows... But he forgot that you can't turn off shadows for quite a time, and in BfA you can't even put them at "low".

Can't put shadows at low hmmm?



You were saying? (Ignore the shit tier cropping from me I just don't like people seeing my character list)

Please don't post misinformation. I can turn them down to Low just fine. The only minor difference is that the new Low is what Fair was. Which is fine. It's low resolution player shadows. Old Low shadows used to be a blob. If going from a blob to a low res shadow is that much strain then it's time to upgrade your pc.

All it sounds like here is you want no changes without actually realising that it is not possible.

They do not have the 2004 hardware anymore to run it on. Hence why it is being remade on modern hardware from the ground up. Nor would they be idiotic enough to run it on a security risk among other factors.

They are not going to support software or hardware that even the developers of them don't support anymore.

And I highly doubt your current WoW computer is lower than Windows 7 or DX9 because they just dropped support for DX9 hardware and Vista/XP recently.

So no. Nobody here shares your concern. Why? Because it's not a concern. You are a minority in this one who want "muh authentic experience" which will not be provided due to them actually wanting to polish the game and run it on a system where they can actually support it. Nor will they cater to said minority who's only argument for wanting to run it on a pc that is essentially a security risk is for "the experience".

They did actually inject the old code into their newer servers. You know what happened? It went apeshit. Because it was barely compatible. Hence why it is being rewritten to work on current servers. They will not pull 2004 server blades or w/e they are out of retirement. In fact I'm pretty sure they auctioned most of the old ones off ages ago.

But by all means. Pull the white knight card when a thread you make goes the way you don't want it to go simply because people explain the realities of the situation to you. Only means we should take you less seriously.

[Echocho]

So what you really wanted to say was...#nochanges?

[Dundebuns]

Blizz have said they'll be using their current engine for classic, so they'll likely have the same requirements.