Microsoft Surface Pro 3: Playable?

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by pilotrose, July 15, 2015.

  1. pilotrose

    pilotrose Member

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    Has anyone tried playing PA on a Microsoft Surface Pro 3? If so, which configuration did you have?
  2. Going4Quests

    Going4Quests Active Member

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    It should work I think (I cant confirm), and it should for sure on Windows 10 because DirectX 12.
  3. ace63

    ace63 Post Master General

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    DirectX 12 has nothing to do with PA at all.
  4. pilotrose

    pilotrose Member

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    I've seen people playing Civ V and Borderlands 2 on it. So I think so as well; however, I was hoping someone may have actually tried it.
  5. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    @maxpowerz got PA running well on the Surface Pro 2 so yeah it will work :)

    You'll probably need to be on low graphics settings however to account for the weak integrated gpu, also make sure you get the version with 8gb of ram if you can.

    For comparison I run PA quite well on my old Core i5 460m laptop (dual core + HT) with 8gb of ram and a geforce GT 420m gpu. That is running at 1366 x 768 resolution native, with all graphics options (except resolution scaling) on low. The 420m is probably similar in performance to Intel's HD 4600 igp these days, and the modern low power processors are probably faster than my first gen i5 cpu.
  6. andrehsu

    andrehsu Active Member

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    Doesn't PA use opengl for cross platform capability?
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  7. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    Yes it does... so in theory they could port the PA engine to the upcoming 'Vulkan' API which is supposed to have capabilities similar to DX12. That said I think they've already confirmed this isn't going to happen for vanilla PA (although the engine could well get ported at a later date for a future title).
  8. jables

    jables Uber Employee

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    I've played it on a pro3 at the office. I'd avoid large systems, but totally playable.
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  9. pilotrose

    pilotrose Member

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    Thanks guys for all of your input. Now I know if I decide to get one I can play PA on it if I so desire. Cheers
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  10. maxpowerz

    maxpowerz Post Master General

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    My Improve FPS thread is based off playing the game on a Acer Iconia W700 (Surface 2 pro clone).
    I5 3317u, Intel hd4000, 4gb ram. 128gb SSD.
    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/how-to-improve-performance-all-video-cards-driver-links.53165/

    Things to avoid..
    Don't use the stylus (Especially if you update the drivers so you can use it's pressure sensitivity in Photoshop and GIMP) it eats up a lot of CPU cycles handling the touch pressure and badly affects performance.

    Edit..
    Remember to squeeze the most performance out of the PA engine, set your desktop to a lower resolution in windows.. (the game uses the native windows resolution in full-screen, meaning the game runs at whatever resolution the windows desktop is set too...)
    Example..
    set windows resolution to 1280x720 (the minimum the game needs to function properly)
    And then load and play PA, it will improve performance better than only using the resolution adjustment in the game engine.
    Last edited: July 16, 2015
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  11. andrehsu

    andrehsu Active Member

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    Or you could just downsample. Or a even a better idea is to use steam in home streaming, play GTA V on your surface pro 3
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  12. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    Until someone turns on a microwave oven and disrupts the stream lol. Seriously WiFi is about the most overstated thing in history. It's fine for viewing web pages but game streaming needs a wired internet connection in my experience :p
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  13. andrehsu

    andrehsu Active Member

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    Looks like you need 5 ghz:), or an adapter if you insist, which kinda breaks the point
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  14. theseeker2

    theseeker2 Well-Known Member

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    WiFi has always been fine in my experience, never noticed any sort of disruption from the microwave (or anything else for that matter).
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  15. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    Depends on what your doing with it... game streaming on standard WiFi isn't pleasant. I haven't tried it with a 5ghz router yet though.
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  16. theseeker2

    theseeker2 Well-Known Member

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    I did it a few times, my problem wasn't the wifi - it was residential upload speeds, streaming on 6mbps upload isn't pleasant - wired or wireless.
  17. cdrkf

    cdrkf Post Master General

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    If your streaming in the same house (eg from your pc to a tablet using steam) then you w.a.n. doesn't effect the performance at all, it's purely down to your local WiFi which should run 1:1 up / down.

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