Battlefield 3 Discussion Thread

That belongs to "Effects quality". You get that option low, you'll be set. I believe that'll also turn off volumetric smoke, so it'll increase FPS really drastically.

 

Aww I'm going to miss having to edit the config file every time I want to change a setting...




NOT!

 

not to state a noob question, but can anyone explain what ambient occlusion is? and what hbao means? lol!

 

Oh, it wasn't that bad... I assume you are talking about BF2... and as I recall, the only setting that needed to be "forced" through the config was 1920x1080 resolutions.

type of way to render shadows I believe... makes them look more deep. It's basically unnoticeable except in a side by side comparison with a ton of dynamic lighting.

 

I'm really happy they actually did a BIG menu screen with lots of options, so you can always turn down what's hurting you, unlike Crysis 2.

 

HBAO stands for "Horizon Base Ambient Occlusion".

Ambient Occlusion is basically... Well... The shadows in corners. When you see the Metro map, and you're in the tunnels, you can see these very high def shadows in the corners, walls, floor, etc. That's Ambient Occlusion. Gives a very very nice effect in the expense of a big performance cut off. I always leave AO off in all games.

 

im stoked for this game.... just absolutely stoked...

 

However for the subway battles, AO may be beneficial. Of course us with "low end" laptops will have to do without most likely.

 

What would you consider a "low end" laptop for this game

 

Hope it's not a 5870

 

I would take a look at notebookcheck.net's notebook GPU Class Rank in their website.

Class 1 - 5 (Highest to lowest). I found my GPU to be the middle of the Class 2 ranks.

 

btw any word from AMD on how much their drivers will increase performance in BF3?

im debating on whether or not to buy an area 51 with dual 580's or an m18x with 580s... thoughts?

 

Going from a m18 with crossfire 6970s? you crazy man.

 

Seriously, you might as well just buy a gaming desktop instead. Your laptop will already play this game perfectly well and dumping a few grand into a laptop that will play the game with the same framerate but make it look marginally nicer is a pretty stupid thing to do. If you want higher settings get a proper desktop computer and a cheap laptop with integrated graphics, otherwise you are just wasting a ton of money on something that has no upgradability.
There lies the problem with high end gaming laptops...

 

okay i gotta change my sig because i have NO laptop since i sold it. so get off my butt both of yall!

 

can't wait for this game

 

lol Ok in that case get a sager 8170 with a 580m; it should be enough. Or, get a $1500 gaming desktop with a gtx 580 which will wipe the floor of the mobile counterpart (which is really just a gtx 560 ti downclocked I believe) and then a decent $500 laptop for mobility. Both will do better at their respective duties than one behemoth gaming laptop; you will get a laptop with usable battery life and a desktop that can be upgraded and has adequate cooling.

Of course then you can't game other places, which I do realize is a legitimate reason for owning a gaming laptop.

In other news, WHEN AM I GETTING MY DARNED BETA KEY!!!!!!! No email yet...

 

Of course, you could always get a Clevo x7200 from a reseller/builder... which is, as I know, the most powerful desktop replacement laptop on the market. Slap on your wanted sli 580s and you're all set... and for cheaper than the m18 and arguably as powerful as most custom PCs... this will cost you serious cash though, and the obvious more economical route is to just go for crossfire 6990s in the x7200, or just get a single 580/6990 in the NP8170 as suggested by someone else.
By the way, if you REALLY do plan on getting a desktop... please dont get an OEM built desktop. It pains me to see people do this, you can build a maxed desktop with conservative(but great) parts for 1600-1800... can't say the same for the Area 51.

 

Will you even be GETTING an email with a beta key? Won't they just activate it for download on Origin since it's tied to your Origin account?

and hell, I can build a desktop for < $1000 that will run BF3 just fine (minus monitor):
i5-2500k $220
GTX 570 $320
Motherboard $150
8GB DDR3 $60
1TB 7200RPM HDD $60
Case $80
PSU $100

 

Yeah I am not completely sure; I have seen people saying that an email will be sent. I guess time will tell...

I recently upgraded my desktop and the Z68 motherboard, i5 2500K cpu, and 4 GB of DDR3 cost me $460 total. I doubt you will benefit from 8 GB in BF3 and the significantly cheaper gtx 560Ti should be able to run the game almost as well for almost a hundred dollars less. Its kind of absurd how cheap a very good gaming desktop is these days if you know where to look for deals.

 

There are 11.10 preview drivers for AMD cards optimized for B3. Don't know if I can post the link though... about to install now.

 

Is it the one posted here?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...3813-11-10-live-few-hours-link-available.html

There's no reason you couldn't post it unless you've gotten as a leak directly from AMD.

Well yeah, but 8GB is so cheap, so why not? And I was optimizing for $1000, GTX 560 Ti is absolute best bang for the buck. I will probably go for that if my GTX 460m just doesn't cut it.

----------------------

On another note, there was a BF3 commercial during Monday Night Football tonight! Woot!

 

Do you guys have any idea to what time bf3 will release?

 

Yes. Sorry. Didn't see that thread.

 

And that download doesn't work (yet).

 

Well at the Hard forums, they posted a working link from megaupload that works. That's what I got.

 

Try here (at your own risk). I'm downloading now and will virus scan:
MEGAUPLOAD - The leading online storage and file delivery service

 

That's the one I got. Working great so far.

 

Meh, won't update my laptop video card, doesn't recognize it. Time to download nVidia drivers for desktop.

 

well im thinking it will be released at the earliest at 12:00 california time as their headquarters is in cali. damn you ea you bunch of hippies

 

So, am I looking forward to all lowest at 720p to get 30 fps here on my ASUS?

 

nah im guessing high settings with 720p around 30fps for your card

 

EA_Australia twitted about the early access time for today and for the 29th:

10pm AEST is the time, so about 4h to go! (if i counted correctly)

 

There are already BETA footgae available in Youtube and other sites

 

Anyone receive their email yet?

 

PC footage? Link pls

 

Daniel Matros said that the emaill will roll out at 1-3PM CET.

 

I'm probably going to sell my HP and do this.

Thinking of going with a 6950, though.

 

Good choice. Mine oc's very well.

 

I haven't gotten any email yet either. I don't see how there would be beta footage yet... Perhaps it is alpha footage, but seeing as none of us have gotten our emails I don't see how anyone could be playing the beta yet.

 

The Sapphire one is actually the exact one I was looking at. Glad to hear you like it.

 

I have the MoH Tier 1 and no e-mail here yet...

 

STEAM MEDAL OF HONOR LIMITED EDITION USERS REJOICE!​

The early BETA code is available for STEAM users worldwide!

Right click "Medal of Honor Single Player and press "View CD KEY". It'll display "Battlefield 3 Open Beta key"

Already DL'd 50% in 5 minutes

 

Just got the E-mail started to DL

 

So, they give to Steam users first rather than to Origin ones? ahah
My MoH is just on Origin, so I guess more waiting time?

 

nice... let us know how it plays

 

Go Go Go!
My productivity dropped in the last 10 minutes by about 90%

 

Battlefield 3 runs...


WOW! O.O

Maxed, 1080p... I get 20 FPS! 20!!!!

 

Nice, very nice

 

All maxed out 20 fps? :OO