While not relating to the game directly, what would be the minimum requirements to run the thrive launcher?
Windows 7 again due to dotnet runtime, and they arenβt even promising Windows 7 compatibility for the past 2 years so it is just a matter of time when we switch to like dotnet 10 or dotnet 11 that it just totally doesnβt work on Windows 7.
1 Like
So soon enough win10 will become the minimum frontierβ¦
Another one in the HD graphics 4400 gang I see! (Same as my i5-4300U in my Surface Pro 3)
Have you considered upgrading the cpu in the machine? You could probably put in a i7-4770, which would double the cores and probably improve things a lot. I have a pc with a 4770 in it and it still runs quite well. You can get them for $25 easy, so it would definitely be a worthwhile upgrade.
2 Likes
By the way, will Win8 stop being supported around the same time as Win7?
I think this is a new record for oldest computer that has run Thrive:
This ThinkPad T60 from 2006, with T4200 Core 2 Duo CPU, can run Thrive in game at a solid 2fps! The GPU is too old to support even the opengl renderer, so this is actually running in software opengl, completely on the cpu, no GPU involved here!
β¦Sure, it may not be really playable, but it did actually somehow run fast enough that I could get through the first editor cycle. If the cpu didnβt need to also do the graphics rendering it might even be able to get to an almost playable level of performance.
So, anyone else want to join in by posting their computer specs here for running Thrive? Having more data on this is always good for us to know what we should be targeting.
6 Likes
Did you get a stationary microbes score of β1.25β? I didnβt know it could measure parts of a cell needed to reach the fps targetβ¦
New Record: Pentium 4 from 2006 can do 40fps apparently. Averages around 40-60fps in game, and is pretty smooth overall. Had to compile without SSE4.1 in Thrive, but it runs surprisingly well.
Those results use a dual core Pentium 4 Xeon server processor. I also tested a common single core Pentium 4 3.2Ghz and it still averaged above 30fps, but it had some serious stuttering. I used a GTX 970 to make sure there was no GPU bottlenecking the Pentium 4 (what a strange thing to say), but I might try out a period accurate 8800gt from 2007 later which was previously tested to get at least 30fps stable in game.
I was testing on a motherboard capable of having two Pentium 4 CPUs installed, for a total of 4 cores and 8 threads⦠Should I test that out too?
3 Likes
If you want to, sure. I suppose this means Thrive might be able to run on hardware older than we previously thought possibleβ¦
1 Like
Based on how well the Pentium 4 dual core seems to work, I would suspect that the oldest common CPU capable of having a solid 30fps or greater experience might be the Athlon 64 X2 from 2005. Only the highest end models would have much of a chance though.
2 Likes
So that means Thrive could run βacceptably goodβ at 20 year old laptopsβ¦
I donβt think a laptop older than 2009 (16 years old) would have much of a chance of running well, given that my 2009 high end laptop was not enough for stable 20fps. Desktops can be much older because they can have much larger GPUs for the era. It seems like the CPU is not the limiting factor for old laptops.
I would say Thrive can run at a stable 30fps+ on a midrange 10 year old laptop, a high end 15 year old laptop, and a high end 20 year old desktop.
Maybe a computer like the Dell XPS M1730 flagship gaming laptop from 2007 (17 years) would have the best bet for being the oldest acceptable experience on a laptop. Its in the first generation of laptops to support OpenGL 3, which is necessary for Godot.
3 Likes
I suppose then weβre gnawing at what is left there to push the oldest date of when a device could run Thrive wellβ¦ Besides what youβve already suggested in your recent major post, do you happen to have access to any other devices you plan to test Thrive on?
1 Like
Eventually, I want to get Thrive setup to run on RISC-V processors, as it would be very appropriate to have a open source game run on an open source processor. Godot has the capability for it now, but actually getting everything setup to do so would likely be quite difficult. (Especially considering external libraries like jolt physics might not have good RISC-V support) Support should hopefully grow over the next couple of years, so I probably wonβt start working on that very soon.
2 Likes
Do you think itβd run good on such hardware?
1 Like
Hopefully, these results mean OpenGL Mode will be supported for a longer period by Thrive.
2 Likes
So if it was to be discontinued this year should we expect for some machines to still be able to run Thrive on it in 20 years?
Now getting 60fps on the dual socket, quad core Pentium 4 system!
I can now confirm that not only can a Pentium 4 run Thrive acceptably, but it can also run it quite well.
It all depends on the specific RISC-V computer, as they can vary from an original Raspberry PI equivalent up to desktop replacement with normal external GPU support. But I think so, as Thrive seems to be able to make good use of extra CPU cores as shown by this Pentium 4 system. And there are a few RISC-V computers you can get now that are 8 core, and they are decent cores at that.
OpenGL mode has been looking a lot better recently in Thrive, and I donβt think Godot has any plans for the foreseeable future for removing OpenGL support. The resolution scaling option has certainly helped older GPUs to be able to run acceptably now.
4 Likes
So the limits of on how old devices Thrive can run on acceptably well have been not just shrinking but were extended in fact?
2 Likes
This is great news for OpenGL Mode users.
1 Like