Blizzard Launches Free Open Beta Weekend for Diablo III

Thank you Blizzard! You not only make amazing games, but you have been great about supporting the Mac platform.

And from the looks of it, it still looks better on the PC. My bro says its because DirectX is much better compared to the aging OpenGL engine. I wonder how true that is.

I just wanted to clear this statement up for you (not in a mean way, just general information).

OpenGL and Direct X are not equal. OpenGL is a graphics API, where as DirectX is a bunch of different API's rolled into one. (API = Application Programming Interface, its how you program stuff to talk to hardware).

OpenGL can be compared more directly to Direct3D which is the graphics component of DirectX. Also OpenGL has a newer release than DirectX (unless you count DirectX 11.1 but thats only in Windows 8 beta as far as I know).

Now, as far as graphics capabilities, both are about equal, sometimes one comes out with something the other doesn't have and vice versa. For most applications you'll never see a difference.

OpenGL is used by almost all applications out there. High end 3D packages like Maya and Houdini use OpenGL. OpenGL is prominent on Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

DirectX is Microsoft specific and is used mostly for games. I am familiar with programming for both OpenGL and DirectX and I personally like OpenGL better (from both a programming standpoint and a performance standpoint) but DirectX has its merits too. Sometimes graphics card companies have specific DirectX drivers that help improve performance but its usually negligible.

As for Diablo 3 they looked and played identical for me on both OS's. You may have a different color profile on your monitor on one OS vs the other which is why you'd be seeing a difference.

Tried a bunch of times every 15 minutes or so.

Stress test: FAIL!

Next time maybe don't wait 11 years.

You seem to be missing the point of a stress test.

The login servers not being able to handle the load is a "success" as far as testing goals are concerned. This is exactly why they are running this test. They want as many people as possibly hammering the servers to figure out if their systems can handle the load, and they gain valuable data from it which they can use to improve their systems by the time the game is released.

Of COURSE the first hit is free. This is an established practice among dealers.

EDIT: Yea, 'the server is bad' IS the point. they are basically launching a deniall of service attack on themselves.

Have you even tried to get in? It's a complete mess.

It's a pre-launch stress test to find exactly these issues early enough to fix them for May 15th. It's not like they can simulate the load of say, a million+ crazy folk who will spam the login button before, during and after the launch on their own.

And it serves as advertising for those still on the fence (and realize it is a stress test).

Yes you can play any character by itself and then later group up. Party size is limited to 4 players.

Yes, you will need an internet connection to play. Even solo play.

Thanks. Strange that they made it only 4 players since there are 5 characters lol. It would be fun to get a team going with one of each of the 5 classes. They could even have an achievement for it lol. :p