iEntertainment Central has released a playable open beta version of WarBirds III for the Macintosh. It’s the latest version of the company’s popular World War II-era multiplayer aircraft combat game.
This is the first Macintosh version to support 3D graphics acceleration using OpenGL. iEntertainment Central notes that this version “is not a feature-complete release,” but encourages people interested in helping to test the software to download it.
“The primary purpose of the initial open beta test is to expand the numbers playing WarBirds III, which will help identify problems in the software, which we will then be able to fix,” noted the developers.
The open beta server will be open from noon to 3 pm, and from 6 pm to 9 pm Eastern time. The initial release sports dogfighting, bombing and field capture activities on a European map. The preview release also sports four countries (colors) with any aircraft at any field, and multiple fields per country to choose from. Features to be added will include additional aircraft models and 3D cockpits, the ability to join squadrons, scoring elements, and ground vehicles.
Beta users are required to have an existing WarBirds account — iEntertainment Central notes that Silver plan users will not be charged an hourly rate to test the software.
System requirements call for a PowerPC-based Mac operating at 300MHz or faster; Mac OS 8.6 or higher; 256MB RAM; OpenGL 1.2.1; a 14.4K or faster connection; Joystick, mouse and keyboard (throttle and rudder pedals are recommended); and a 3D graphic accelerator card with support for Apple’s OpenGL. Supported cards include RAGE 128 and Radeon cards from ATI, 3dfx’s Voodoo5, and Nvidia’s GeForce2 MX and GeForce3 cards.
More info and download links can be found on iEntertainment Central’s Web site.