thoughts on desktop v laptop
 

Thinking about getting a new PC for many reasons. But when it comes to this game Id like to hear what people think about laptop v desktop.

Ive had desktop for years. But for this game, since I see myself playing in 3D mode almost exclusively, Im concerned a laptop screen may be too small.

Thoughts?

PS will not buy mac

You can always hook a monitor up to your laptop (this is what I do).

Laptop v desktop comes down to portability to me. Do you want to take your game with you? Then laptop. Just playing at home? Then desktop, which will likely be the cheaper option as well.

definitely laptop for me. I could play on the couch for hours!

This. Laptop more comfortable. Plus two things:

• You can buy a laptop these days with a relatively large screen. I think mine is 1920 x 1080, something like that (I am typing this on my desktop at work which I hate for a number of reasons :p)
• With a laptop, you tend to have the screen a bit closer to your face anyway so that 1920 x 1080 is just fine; any larger on a laptop and you would start getting eye fatigue from having to look up, down, and sideways to see everything.

Other guys will weigh in here saying that a desktop with a jumbotron, or two jumbotrons, is the way to go. I salute them but I can tell you that I have enjoyed OOTPB on said laptop for the past several seasons and my heinie thanks me regularly for my thoughtfulness. ;)

I have only played OOTP on laptop ... can take game with you everywhere as I do and even on plane when traveling. Desktop too limiting

I have my complete game on a USB stick. Play at home on my laptop, which I hook up to my 55 inch TV. Play at work on my desktop using a smaller tv monitor of 35 inches or so.
Perfect for me.
Jack

how big is the USB stick as I have always wanted to do that and be able to move it to one laptop to another ?? What zip program if any did you use ... Bottomline is how did you get the game on the stick???

OOTP runs on anything built in the last decade. Just get what is most comfortable/fits your budget.


Just be careful with some laptops running high DPI displays since OOTP has not figured out how to scale properly and ends up looking very off.

I played OOTP on a desktop for years. Been retired for 14 years and about 3 years ago I bought myself a high-end Asus laptop with a 17 inch screen and ever since then I have been playing OOTP on my laptop sitting in my La-Z-Boy recliner while watching television. Life doesn't get any better then that. I play all my games out in 3D mode, it plays very well and I never had any issues.

I played on desktop for years and thought it would be the way I always played. Then I inherited my kids laptop when I got him a new one. The day I played OOTP in the waiting room when my kid had his wisdom teeth removed is when I realized the mobility of the laptop far outweighed anything I thought was a benefit of the desktop.

Also, I had a major major operation that had me in the hospital for a week. The first thing I asked for was someone to bring my laptop.

Since im kind of a laptop noob, can you tell me what is considered high DPI and how it would be noted on the description of the laptop. So i know what NOT to buy. Thanks.

Its hard to define. But if you try and fit a 1920x1080 screen on a 15.4" screen then Windows has to scale it up by say 200% so make everything readable.
Windows and some games handle it well.
OOTP handles it terribly and Markus has indicated it is not being addressed this version.

So wouldnt that be every laptop and youre saying the game wont look right regardless of what laptop?

Or is it just having to get a 17" screen?

That sounds like a cool retirement!!

I would add that while last year's version ran on older machines, there was a massive difference in things like simming an entire season on the new desktop I built last year vs a 2 year old laptop (a MacBook pro). Obviously you can get a laptop that has great specs these days, but simming a season or multiple seasons was so much better on the desktop. So this is obvious, but if you're on a fixed budget, then there is definitely a performance vs. portability tradeoff.

I use a laptop or a 2 in 1 when i am watching tv but if im running a lot of seasons i prefer my desktop.
Maybe its just bad luck but every laptop, 2 in 1, tablet seems to get hot when running multiple seasons. It may be normal but i had to have my Surface 3 replaced when it shut down while playing Civ 6. Never would come back on.

Best device I have ever used for ootp was a surface pro. The portability and pen added a lot to the game for me. This time around I have the surface book 2 so i'm expecting even better results.

Everybody has different needs. I played on a laptop for years. I'm retired now, only play at home, and most importantly, the eyes are showing their wear and tear, so playing on a desktop with a large monitor suits me. I can't focus well enough on a laptop anymore.

Don't even mention tablets to me - my wife bought one, my thumb covers half the screen - ya sure, I'm gonna play ootp on that :laugh:

I don't think that's what's being said, but it would be good to know for sure. I haven't been able to get 3D to work on my older laptop and was considering buying a new one soon. Was told it has something to do with my video card. Obviously, I'm not overly computer hardware literate. :(

So, what are the minimum specs? Minimum screen size? Can you find a laptop under $800 that would work?

People still have desktops, other than at work?

I hear ya, man. I have no use for a laptop. I'm retired, also. Eyes, also. In fact I just got my new computer glasses in the mail today. Love 'em. Eyes feel pretty good with them. I'm happy with my desktop.

What computer glasses did you get Zappa?

I'm likely going with a new desktop myself soon. I have a new laptop but that's a work thing. I pretty much have a new desktop spected-out and picked-out.

On the monitor front, I'm going with a 24 or 27 Dell P2417H. Not sure which I should go with (24 or 27) but I'm leaning towards the 24.

Laptop screen is small for me too. Strange that Earl Weaver II never seemed small on a 14" monitor.
A laptop screen is to small and a big screen tv is to big but a desktop monitor is just right 23-28".

I find 17" laptops good for games. Especially OOTP which is all I have on my laptop anyway these days.

With 1600*900 it looks great.

Just picked up a new monitor this morning, does OOTP ever look nice at 2560x1440 :)

Yes, it does doesn't it! I bought a 2k monitor a few months ago. Ended up with this as my in game screen, it has everything :)

Torn on what to do.

I agree about the mobility of the laptop being appealing. But Im concerned about the screen size.

I guess an compromise at home could be to get the laptop and then play it on my 24" monitor when at home.

Never thought of running it to flat-screen TV. That could be interesting.

I'm super jealous!

I love that screen I hope I can get that on mine

I have a surface pro 2 as well. What do you use the pen in the game for?

I have one for my 4k screen. Honestly my laptop I owned previous to my desktop was mostly staying on my desk anyway. I do have Mac laptop on top of the desktop but if anything it helps me separate game-playing from work (which I have a separate laptop for, too, of course, because it's 2018) from writing, which makes it nice. If I want to go and write, I take my Mac into Starbucks and I'm just plain not even tempted by OOTP or Civ 6 or EU4.

Anybody have any comments on trying to remotely connect to a desktop with a laptop in order to play OOTP? My desktop is awesome and I purchased it a couple years ago for gaming, but I now see the advantage of the portability of a laptop and being able to "spend time" with my wife playing OOTP on the couch while she watches her cheesy TV shows. :D

Along the same lines, I know when I preordered OOTP a couple years ago it came with two game keys. Does anyone know if that's still the case?

Also, I've been searching the forums trying to answer my own questions. If I have the game on Steam and download Steam on both my desktop and my laptop can I essentially play the game in both places with the one license? Thanks for any help.

Yes, you can install on as many machines as you want. However, you can only play on one at a time* and saved games won't transfer between machines.

*You can (i think but haven't actually tested) play on more than one machine at a time if launching in Steam's offline mode.

I can't speak for steam, but your OOTP License is good for two (2) copies, meaning you can run OOTP on 2 different computers at any given time.

You can also transfer your league between the 2 quite easily by copying your ".lg" folder.

That is why I asked about thumb drives that way the game is on it and I can play it on my personal laptop then move it to company laptop and not have it on company laptop and continue to play game during the slow periods

From Readers.com. They were the cheapest pricewise. There are more expensive ones from other companies. Mine were 30 bucks but you can easily spend 100. Do a search for computer glasses and check out all your options and reviews. Money was the big problem for me. :D

I run long-term, league/history-building sims on my iMac desktop (eg, starting a league in 1901 and letting it play out with no interference from me until, say, 2016) and then transfer the league to my MacBook to actually jump in and take over a team (preferably one that hasn't won--or hasn't even appeared in--a World Series yet).

No one really answered this. Can we confirm that you must have at least a 17-inch monitor for the game to run (or be viewed) properly on a laptop?

Couple of versions ago I had a 15 inch screen and it was fine for me. When I was at home I would plug in my desktop monitor to it and use that instead. It was a little small and probably hard to read sometimes but it worked for me at the time. Moving up to the 17 inch was a big leap though and I could never go smaller again.

The last several versions have looked just fine to me on a 15-in Macbook retina.

imo, the one advantage I think Steam has is that I can install the same game on as many computers as I have Steam installed, so licenses aren't really an issue.

The disadvantage is that you can only be in online mode on Steam on one computer at a time, so if, say, I wanted to run two different leagues on two computers at the same time through my Steam install I'd have to be in offline mode on one to be able to do it (in theory, as I said in my last post, I haven't actually tested).

Clear as mud? :)

You can install the game on as many computers as you like, with or without Steam. You can only have it licensed on 2 at any given time.

Years ago, way way back, we used to get 3 licenses and I had 4 computers in my house. I installed the game on all 4. It was only licensed on 3 at any given time. If I wanted to use that computer, I unlicensed another and activated there.

Maybe a bit of extra work, but it's not like I was doing it all the time. :)

What matters is the resolution, not the screen size.

OOTP 18 can display as small as 1280x720 (16:9) or 1024x768 (4:3). Unless you're trying to run it on something pre-Windows 95 (in which case it won't run), you'll be able to run OOTP via one of the supported resolutions.

How did you get that screen ??? Can you please take a picture of the setup you have for that screen ???? Thanks
that's what I want to do

I bought a 2k monitor that has resolution of 2560*1440. Without that my setup would not be possible.

Don't have time right now but next time I have the game open (probably tonight or tomorrow) I'll take a screen shot of the widget settings and post here.

I'll say this the games in progress scores with scoring updates down the right side is simply awesome. Both AL and NL have had tight races, division and wildcard, going down to the last 4 games of the season and it's been a blast being able to keep up while playing out my own games.

No more having to wait for the out of town scoreboard to cycle around to try to catch a score, it's just there :) Going to be doubly cool when my playoffs start.

I GM in the NL so this has made the game much more immersive as I am able to keep up much better with the AL. Races, players be it rookies or current stars etc. as scoring updates are in real time. Then there are the other tidbits that appear in the updates like players leaving games due to injury, or posting that someone has struck out 8 batters through 5 innings, or has 2 homers and 6 RBIs etc. etc. etc.

I can't imagine going back to anything less. Totally worth the price for OOTP alone let alone other things I use my computer for.

thanks I appreciate it as I am looking forward to seeing how you did it. My new laptop has a screen resolution of 1920x 1080 on 15.6 screen

My last monitor was 1920*1080 and I have a screen shot of those settings. Here is the setup I used on it. Obviously not as nice but one can still jam a lot of info into it :)