[Kilax]

I'm currently running WoW on an older black MacBook running OS 10.6. My brother-in-law came to visit so we were raiding next to each other, with him using Windows XP on his laptop. I noticed that on his computer, certain AoE abilities like Rain of Fire or Volley had a huge increase in the number of projectiles from these abilities that were shown on our screens.

I did some changes/testing with my visual settings, but found nothing in game that would cause these differences. Does anyone know if this is caused by the OS difference or something I'm missing in game?

[jettzypher]

sure the settings are the same? also, its possible that your older system could forcibly turn down graphics settings. i know some pcs you can go into the settings for the graphics and tweak stuff there

[Bloodwraith]

He could be using:

TweakWoW : WoWInterface Downloads : Miscellaneous

It turns your settings above the default max ingame.

[Kilax]

Source: jettzypher sure the settings are the same? also, its possible that your older system could forcibly turn down graphics settings. i know some pcs you can go into the settings for the graphics and tweak stuff there

His computer is older than mine, not significantly but it is. I also just tried on a machine that's far better than mine (I average 15 fps minimum visual settings, this computer averages 50+ on max settings) that is running OS 10.6 with no change between ours as far as the projectiles. As for tweaking the graphics, there is little, if no functionality for this on my hardware/OS as far as I know. Also, he hasn't done any changes to his computer that would affect his graphics.

Source: Bloodwraith He could be using: TweakWoW : WoWInterface Downloads : Miscellaneous It turns your settings above the default max ingame.

I didn't even know this existed, but unfortunately he's not. This does offer a good alternative to an answer though, so I'll mess around with it and see how it does. Thank you, for posting it.

[Bloodwraith]

Source: Kilax I didn't even know this existed, but unfortunately he's not. This does offer a good alternative to an answer though, so I'll mess around with it and see how it does. Thank you, for posting it.

Just don't turn spell level detail up too high. I forced it to 2000 with that mod and death and decay lagged me to hell

[Kilax]

Source: Bloodwraith I forced it to 2000 with that mod and death and decay lagged me to hell

It may have lagged you to hell, but it makes for one freakin' awesome screenshot.

[Bloodwraith]

Source: Kilax It may have lagged you to hell, but it makes for one freakin' awesome screenshot.

No doubt

Volley does something similar. (like a million arrows at once)

[Bishoptwo]

I tweaked the terrain distance to where I could see Dalaran from the Argent Tourney grounds.

Then my machine locked up and basically told me to never do that again in it's own special way.

[Helgi]

The Windows version of WoW uses DirectX, while the Mac version uses OpenGL.

Different APIs have different rendering results. And since OpenGL is managed by a non-profit company, and DirectX is supported by the huge financial backing known as Mr. Microsoft, I'm willing to bet DirectX is somewhat ahead of OpenGL as far as development.

Personally, I think WoW looks better on my Mac OS X 10.6 machine than my Windows 7 machine, with similar settings.

If I remember right the Windows version of WoW has an OpenGL mode (they might have removed it since the last time I checked). Should have your friend switch it to OpenGL mode and see if there is a difference.

[Mibu]

WoW for windows can easily run OpenGL.

WoW dir -> WTF folder -> open config.wtf with notepad/wordpad and add ->
SET gxApi "opengl"