Screenshot?

Let's say I'm playing a game, and I would like to take a picture during gameplay, how would I go about doing this? Sorry, I'm a Mac Newb, but a proud Mac Newb!

 

Command + Shift + 3. Yeah, I know, kinda hard to remember , but you get used to it .

However, what is good is that on OS X you have a lot of ways to take screenshots, and you can choose what you take it of (the whole screen; an area you drag out; just the window open, etc.). Read more about it here: http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X

 

Also, this might be a little off topic, but for the sake of a new thread...when I play a game on my Macbook, I get two black vertical lines, on the right and left side of the screen. Is there anyway I can get rid of this? This happens with every game I play. It isin't too annoying, but I would like to be able to change it if I could.

 

This is because the game's resolution is set to standard resolution (such as 800x600), and the MacBook screen is a widescreen display. So to fill up for the space the MacBook will add black bars along the left and right side of the screen . Similar to why you see black bars when watching a movie; the screen is not set for the movie's "length and width", so they add black bars to fill in the space.

Only if the game has a widescreen resolution will you be able to fill up that black space. However, I would not advise to it, as it would "stretch" the screen and make everything unproportionate .

 

The MacBook has a 16:10 aspect ratio with 1280x800 native display resolution. What games are you playing? If the game supports 16:10 Widescreen there should be no issues with stretching. First try 1280x800, then lower (16:10) resolutions/graphics settings as necessary to optimize performance.

 

I am playing the Halo : Combat Evolved Demo.

 

nVidia graphics drivers have an option in the control panel to stretch the screen or keep the aspect ration. I don't know if the Intel drivers have this option, though, or if that would even be supported in OS X.

 

On OS X? Is the Halo Demo Intel compatible? I thought the Halo Demo was for PowerPC Macs only. I know MacSoft released an updated Universal Binary (Intel & PowerPC) of the Full Retail version of Halo, but I'm fairly sure the Demo is for PowerPC Macs only.

In OS X you're able to adjust the resolution in System Preferences --> Displays. I have some options for Stretched resolutions, but anything other than the native resolution is really blurry. I've heard this will be much better in Leopard.

 

You can still run it though, through Rosetta. Rosetta does a pretty decent job actually, I have played PowerPC-only 3d-intensive games on my Macbook Pro just fine with no hint of lag. Haven't tried this one in particular though.

 

Yes it will run, this thread is evidence to that point, but it's not optimized in any way for Intel-based Macs. I'm not a fan of Mac gaming and I certainly wouldn't recommend running any PowerPC-only games on Intel Macs.

 

Wait, so my demo is Power PC based? I just went to google, typed in Mac Game Demos, and it brings you to this cool site where you can download tons of game demos. I downloaded Halo. However, I don't know if it's Power PC based or not. Should I stop playing it if it isin't meant for Intel Systems?

 

It is a PowerPC Demo. There is no Intel version of the Halo Demo, only the Full Retail Version of Halo is available as a Universal Binary (Intel & PowerPC). You can keep playing the Demo, it won't hurt anything. I just meant that PowerPC games don't run as well on Intel-based Macs, if at all.

 

Mmm, okay. Well, if it makes any difference, this demo runs fine for me, just in case anyone else would like to know if they were to download it.