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By: hamtastic, Erik Friborg
Jan 02 2008 1:11am
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There has been a lot ofconfusionover features in V3 of late,so Ithought I'd take a fewminutes tofamiliarize you all with some of thethings it cando.  I'veheard statements of:'There's noMarketplace!' and'The cards are toobig!', when in fact there are waysto do mosteverything you're used toin V3, if you know where to look.

For those of you who don't know where to find the installer, it can belocated here:

For technical support, please visit the forums here:




Once you've gotten through all of the installation and updates, you'll may need to create an account. If so, please follow the steps illustrated below:



Once you've gotten your activation code from your email address (be sure to check your spam folder if you don't get an email shortly) return to the login screen. Once here, select the 'Activate your account' link. Then enter the MTGO User Name you registered along with the Activation Code and click OK.

First up, is how to adjust the setting screens.  Themost important part of this is finding the Duel Scene that's right foryou.  Personally I like the Compact screen while I know thatothers like the 'Big Card' scene as it reminds them of the current 2.5interface that they're used to. The first thing you'll need todo is get to the settings ,as shown below.

Settings Screen:



Next, you'll want to choose the duel scene that's right foryou. The changes will take effect as you start your nextgame. Or, you can make the change and then replay a game toseehow it looks.  Here's the settings for the Compact Duel Scene.
Howto enable the Compact Duel Scene:


Once you make this change, you'll probably want to see what the DuelScene looks like.  To do this youcan join a game, or you canreplay a game.  One of the neat features about the compactscreen is that when something goes on the stack, instead of taking morespace it uses the area where the phase indicator usuallyis. This allows for much better use of space.
Compact Duel Screen:


Here's the setting for the Big Card Duel Scene.
How to enable the 'Big Card' Duel Scene:


Again, once you've made the change to this Duel Scene, it's a good ideato take a look and see what you like about it.   Notice thesimilarities to the current V2 User Interface.
Big Card Duel Screen:

In order to turn off the sounds and music, as well as change yourSoftware Rendering settings, you'll need to usethe Display and SoundSettings scene.
Display and Sound Settings:



One of the common concerns that I've seen is that it is hard to findwhere to buy and sell cards.  These concerns stem from achange in the naming convention for these items. 
V3 Marketplace:


One nice new feature to MTGO V3 is theability to 'jump' to commonplaces from the Home Scene. Starting a new Casual game is mucheasier now than in V2, essentially just a click of a button and you'rethere!
New Casual Game:


If you're running at a resolution over1024x768 you can utilize the'Zoom Slider' to change the size of thetext, cards, and items on thescreen.  It's the last button on the bottom row ofbuttons. Sliding it to the right makesthings bigger, slidingit to the left makes things smaller.
Zoom Slider: 


This is pretty straightforward. You can scroll through yourcollection and zoom in on cards with the middle mouse button, or bysimultaneously right and left clicking on the card, or by hovering themouse over it and pressing ctrl + alt. 

Collection Scene:
 


The deck builder is also pretty much the same as before. Filesare now saved as .dek, which appears to use an XML filestructure. It also still reads .txt and .dec files from thecurrent version of the client.
Deck Builder: 



Also available are game replays, and they work about as you'dexpect. Click the game or match you wish to replay and clickthe 'Replay' button at the top of the screen.  If it's amatch, you will be prompted to choose which game of the match you wishto watch.
Replay an old game:

Something else that should beof interest to many of you is theability to disable the chat filteraltogether. Now you and your friendscan chat asyouwant. IMPORTANT!!! There's been no talkofchanging the chat enforcement in the client.  Meaningthatswearing/evading the chat filter in a public room will get you thesametrouble as it does now.

Toggle the Chat Filter:

 

 

 

You'll probably find that overtime you'll want to close ascene that you're no longer using or havean interest in. Whenthis happens you can closethescene. First, you'll need toleave the scene, then you canright click on the scene you wish to closeand select 'Close thisScene'.

Close an unused Scene:
 


So now that I've shown the many smallpieces of tweaks and tips, howwould one actually use them to see whatI'm talking about? Emulate the video below to see foryourself! 

Putting it all together:

 

 


 

 

Troubleshooting:
My Cards look horrible!

In order to get the best results out of V3 you'll need tousehardwarerendering in your Graphics Card.  If the clientwon'tletyou turn on hardware rendering it means that either yourcardcan'tdo it,or the card itself has hardware renderingturnedoff. You can check to see if your card has itsrenderingturnedoffby going into your DisplaySettingscontrolpanel. Start->Settings->ControlPanel,Display. Onceyou'veloadedthis control panel you'll need to get to theTroubleshootscreen. The general way to get there is clickingon the'Settings'tab, then the 'Advanced' button,then finallythe'Troubleshoot' tab. Once there you should see a slider baroroption for hardwareacceleration.  Enable it and restartMTGOV3.  Youshould now be able to see foil animations andhighquality card art.

The Compact Duel scene is all garbled:

This has been reported by a few users already and so farthemostcommonfix is to update your video drivers, and enablehardwarerendering. Follow the instructions above forenablingrendering, andsearch google for the latest drivers for youvideo card.

 

 


 

The memory leak:

The memory leak of the V2clientiswell known.  Infact, if you don't keep an eye on it,it canget bad enough to hang yourentire machine.  This is whyit'sone of the top requested fixesin V3.  So I decided to doafewthings that are known tomaximize the memory leak in thecurrentclient:Editing a large deck andsearching a large deck duringagame. The results are veryencouraging so far. WhileV3 did eat alot of memory (450 MegsVirtual and 350 Megs Physical),that's to beexpected as the cards arehigher quality by far. Theimportantthing is what it did withthat memory.  Would itlet it go, orwould it hold on to it likethe current version?

I'm happy to say that it didletgoof the RAM as Iplayed.  Both Physical andVirtual. For those that areaware of my previous findingsregarding the V2memoryleak, it centersaround the client not being ableto free up theVirtualMemory that it'sallocated.  This thenmakes the clientcontinue to eat lots andlots of RAM but never give itback. Eventually your system runsout and stopsresponding.  V3 doesnot sharethisaffliction.  Don't be surprisedif it uses a lot of RAM asyouplay, but be happy that it will give itback as it's needed.

 


 

Conclusion:

All in all, the client looksandacts much better. It'sa solid base to build from as wegoforward.  I'm not sayingthat the clientisperfect. Heck, I'm not even saying that theclient isgreat,as there's clearly a lot of work left to do before it'ssomethingI'dbeproud to introduce to the family.  Butthere'senoughpotentialin these latest changes to make me extremelyoptimisticabout thefuture of the platform.  Card art, Cardtext and theCompactDuel Scene shows that WotC's been listening to ourcomplaintsandtaking action with them.  If they continue to doso we'llhavea much better aClient than our current version once we'redone!

 

54 Comments

site by mtgotraders at Fri, 11/28/2008 - 09:48
mtgotraders's picture

Which site are you referring to?  You should be able to download the MTGO client and put your credit card directly into MTGO which is 100% safe unless you have a virus on your computer

is it safe? by RyLee(Unregistered) 122.2.173.51 (not verified) at Fri, 11/28/2008 - 09:07
RyLee(Unregistered) 122.2.173.51's picture

would someone give me an assurance, cause am gonna use my mom's credit card... is this site hack proof?

just wanna know before i register.. by RyLee(Unregistered) 122.2.173.51 (not verified) at Fri, 11/28/2008 - 08:48
RyLee(Unregistered) 122.2.173.51's picture

i have cards online can i exchange it for a real card? and can i use my moms credit card???

is this type 1 or 2 by Anonymous now man menachem(Unregistered) 75.22.22.65 (not verified) at Mon, 11/24/2008 - 22:02
Anonymous now man menachem(Unregistered) 75.22.22.65's picture

is this type 1 or 2

fix ur videos by Helaron(Unregistered) 208.53.196.35 (not verified) at Tue, 11/11/2008 - 10:14
Helaron(Unregistered) 208.53.196.35's picture

i keep trying 2 watch ur videos theres one for 1:11 and it only goes for 1 second be4 it ends...either my comps messed up or ur vids are...just saying any way...cant watch anything

magic rocks!!!!!! by Bryce W. Clark(Unregistered) 12.215.145.239 (not verified) at Thu, 11/06/2008 - 07:26
Bryce W. Clark(Unregistered) 12.215.145.239's picture

i love magic and when i read about the guy seggesting to have magic:the gathering for ds,it jsut blew my mind!!! im a crazed fan with magic and every fnm tournament there is near me i go to it!!!

 

Forgeting your Pasword by Anonymous(Unregistered) 24.18.150.185 (not verified) at Mon, 11/03/2008 - 17:56
Anonymous(Unregistered) 24.18.150.185's picture

I have A Question what if you forgot your awnser for you Question can Wizards help you with that.

Connection Issues by Anonymous(Unregistered) 71.31.158.127 (not verified) at Fri, 10/31/2008 - 01:44
Anonymous(Unregistered) 71.31.158.127's picture

 Everytime i try to set up a account or log in it says that I have no active internet connection, yet it is still able to update to the current version when I open the program. WHat should I do?

I need to create a assosiation in the control panel but i dont k by Anonymous (Unregistered) 67.185.76.61 (not verified) at Wed, 09/10/2008 - 18:23
Anonymous (Unregistered) 67.185.76.61's picture

Help, I downloaded the game but right before it works is says: "This file does not have a program assosiated with it for performing this action. Create an asosiation in the set assotiations control panel." I can get to the set assosiations control panel but i don't know how to create it. Help please.

Magic rocks! Will this come to DS? by Jill Y NJ, USA (Unregistered) 71.48.96.168 (not verified) at Thu, 09/11/2008 - 19:19
Jill Y NJ, USA (Unregistered) 71.48.96.168's picture

Hello there. I am a big fan of Magic MTG card game. I tried magic online for the first time and it is cool. I really like how you can play against others. But I was wondering like its former TCG gamer Pokemon & Yu-Gi-Oh! cousins, they both have Gameboy Games. I thought as maybe a fandom demand creative idea is to have a Nintendo DS Magic The Gathering Card Game  for the DS System? It would be wicked cool to see people collect cards (like in Yu-Gi-Oh!) and duel other oppenents world wide! Oh and maybe have Magic in maybe 6 languages? The graphics would look 3Dish like in Yu-Gi-Oh! World Wide Editions for DS..... but yeah this is a cool thought idea. I hope you guys @ Wizards will create this game for Nintendo DS... plus it would be a hot seller, since many magic players can play on DS.. and even have  a wifi duel connection ^_^ What'cha think of that idea? Oh yeah, they can build their own decks from every MTG pack sets that ever came out...... let me know if you like that idea... PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO   WOTC COMPANY ^_^ WE LOVE MAGIC! -- Jilly moonjill@gmail.com

I need help by Sanic (Unregistered) 72.171.0.142 (not verified) at Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:44
Sanic (Unregistered) 72.171.0.142's picture

bet you cant fix my problem lol

 

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=16368938#post16368938 

I need help by Sanic (Unregistered) 72.171.0.142 (not verified) at Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:45
Sanic (Unregistered) 72.171.0.142's picture

bet you cant fix my problem lol

 

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=16368938#post16368938

 

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 72.171.0.142 (not verified) at Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:47
Anonymous (Unregistered) 72.171.0.142's picture

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=16368938#post16368938

 

 

fix that :p 

money by Anonymous (Unregistered) 76.123.20.236 (not verified) at Tue, 07/15/2008 - 13:47
Anonymous (Unregistered) 76.123.20.236's picture

do you have to pay for anything, like for the cards that you buy online or anything else, because when i was watching one of the videos, it asks for your credit card

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 72.241.168.71 (not verified) at Sat, 06/07/2008 - 22:05
Anonymous (Unregistered) 72.241.168.71's picture

I have made an acount, get all the information, got everything set up and I keep getting this message: Invalid Login, no account exists for the user name and password provided. What is wrong?

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 75.15.95.5 (not verified) at Fri, 05/16/2008 - 15:30
Anonymous (Unregistered) 75.15.95.5's picture

I've played magic since about alliances with friends but recently moved away and was wanting to start MTGO, I have everything installed but whenever I try to go to free trial or create account it tells me that it could not connect to the server.  My internet connection is fine (as I'm typing this I'm trying again) and it gives me the same error message.  Does this happen often or is something wrong on my end?

Trial acc by Anonymous (Unregistered) 80.202.49.152 (not verified) at Tue, 05/06/2008 - 11:29
Anonymous (Unregistered) 80.202.49.152's picture

How do i make the trial account ?... i wanna try it for free before i pay anything, maybe its me being stupid, but i dont get it..

by one million words at Fri, 04/18/2008 - 15:42
one million words's picture

No.

Paying for cards by Anonymous (Unregistered) 75.128.198.131 (not verified) at Tue, 04/15/2008 - 08:17
Anonymous (Unregistered) 75.128.198.131's picture

I was considering playing MTGO but is it true every time time they come out with a new client you have to buy all of your cards again?

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 77.83.30.12 (not verified) at Sat, 04/12/2008 - 07:51
Anonymous (Unregistered) 77.83.30.12's picture

So much trouble for nothing. Author's favourite point (that  you can see more cards in your collection) in fact is the only USEFUL change. Otherwise nobody really cares about graphics and the rest of the crap created by MTGO in order to pretend that they are becoming better and better.

Just wondering: There was a discussion forum where we were expressing our ideas about features the new version should have. Did they consider anyone of those ideas? A very popular one was about the deck editor and it is absolutely the same. I really cannot understand how on earth they delayed so much to release the new version since they have added nothing new!!! 

 

by Anonymous (Unregistered) 208.44.158.222 (not verified) at Thu, 04/10/2008 - 08:21
Anonymous (Unregistered) 208.44.158.222's picture

ummm maybe i missed something here, but i've been gone for about 6 months,  i've been playing MTGO since it was first Beta,  am i going to have to buy this game all over again?  if so Magic can kiss my a$$ and reimburse me for the cards i have bought and cannot use any longer.

 Disgruntled MTGO player

 Nice way to scam more money from your customers Wizards.

a 3D version of MTGO by Anonymous (Unregistered) 216.230.124.90 (not verified) at Tue, 02/12/2008 - 00:46
Anonymous (Unregistered) 216.230.124.90's picture

Has anybody seen this - www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY_AP_79JVw

by hamtastic at Thu, 01/03/2008 - 18:30
hamtastic's picture

To say that the automagical article editor hates this article is an understatement... I've redone the spaces and breaks at least a half dozen times.

*grumble*

I'll see if I can get it them to play nicely tonight.

by JXClaytor at Thu, 01/03/2008 - 21:00
JXClaytor's picture

Yeah, I've tried to fix it as well, I'm not having any better luck than you are.  :(

by urzishra14 at Thu, 01/03/2008 - 18:15
urzishra14's picture

i enjoyed it very much... i had no idea of the "big card" display or the "compact".. the cards look GREAT... better than real cards..

 I know you are probably working on it. but it seems the videos may have messed up your spaces for a lot of the words in the "article" part.. some are jumbled together..

by hamtastic at Thu, 01/03/2008 - 15:33
hamtastic's picture

Alright, audio on all but the last video, which was too large to recode and add audio and fit in a video hosting site.  Hopefully all the preceding video's explain what's going on enough for that to be able to be followed.

~Erik 

awesome by mtgotraders at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 23:03
mtgotraders's picture

Thanks so much Eric it makes it much easier to follow with sound.

by hamtastic at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 21:07
hamtastic's picture

Update 1-2-07:

I'm in the process of adding audio to each walkthrough.  I've updated the Settings Screen, the Chat Filter and the Marketplace into talkthroughs instead of walkthroughs.  I'm working on Replay and Close scene tonight and should have the rest finalized tomorrow throughout the day.  I'm also slowing the video down a little.  Hopefully it will make the video's easier to follow.  :)

I'll post another comment when I'm done updating them all.

~Erik 

V3 Error by MechtaK (Unregistered) 75.18.9.76 (not verified) at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 14:39
MechtaK (Unregistered) 75.18.9.76's picture

I downloaded the client like a month ago.  When I try to start it, I get an error.  Just to be sure, since I'm not in on the testing, is that error normal, or should the program load up and just no allow me access to the server?  I just click it to start it up, and get an error with the first loading screen "Could not find a settings files, LoadingScreen.xml", with the only option to shut down the "starting up..." screen.

So, my question here, is that normal?  Or do I need to download it again to find that file?

by hamtastic at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 14:55
hamtastic's picture

That file can be downloaded from http://mtgobeta.wizards.com/LoadingScreen.xml and saved to your Magic Online III folder (should be in c:/program files/ folder).

~Erik 

by tusker at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 09:31
tusker's picture

THANK YOU!!!  What a great article.  This will help the transition go much more smoothly for a computer dunce like me.

 

by RogueDesigner at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 12:23
RogueDesigner's picture

Many thanks.  One issue though.  As I have posted in MTGO boards, I get messed up screens with renderind enabled, not disabled.  And I do have a popular graphics card (ATI 9250) with the driver updated.

Viewing larger videos by hamtastic at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 11:16
hamtastic's picture

The whole gallery of the videos can be found here: http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/jj272/hamtasticMTGO/

For some reason those allow you to click 'full size' and resize them larger than the default.  I have no clue why they're not allowing me to resize the ones linked.  *grumble*

videos by mtgotraders at Wed, 01/02/2008 - 11:00
mtgotraders's picture

How do you make the pictures bigger?

does playing magic online by Anonymous (not verified) at Fri, 02/20/2009 - 17:32
Anonymous's picture

does playing magic online cost money

Payment &Cards by FTP Skyleicht (not verified) at Wed, 03/04/2009 - 02:27
FTP Skyleicht's picture

Hi guys all looks amazing seen it played but never got around to getting the cards jus to much effort with cards lying around now that they have a PC version yoh im keen but the only problem is that i dont have loads of cash to spend but want to! 1) If i purchase will i keep my purchases if a new client comes out? 2)Do u get the actual cards u purchase posted to u? 3)Do u have to keep buying decks?

cant connect to sever by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 03/25/2009 - 00:34
Anonymous's picture

ive just finished download everything, v.3.0.73.2 , when i click the 'creat new account' it will try to connect and then discnnct.. what seems to be causing this? what should i do?

I already have cards, do i by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 04/16/2009 - 19:06
Anonymous's picture

I already have cards, do i need to enter billing info?

two ways to activate an account?? but I see only one by boggoo (not verified) at Wed, 04/29/2009 - 04:21
boggoo's picture

Hi(sorry for my english), I have a problem. In Wizards homepage(in FAQ) I read about activation account. And I read there, they wrote about two ways to activate. First is pay $9.99, and Second is to use activation code wich is add to cards in 9th Edition Core Set. And then I don't get a coupon, but digital version of cards form this deck. By when I tried to create an account, I can't see anywhere, where can I put this code. In their FAQ they write about two ways to activate, but I only see one of them(pay $9.99). It's sick.

Please help me.

The old codes aren't supposed by hamtastic at Wed, 04/29/2009 - 22:41
hamtastic's picture

The old codes aren't supposed to be supported anymore, however, since they didn't put an expiration date on them they still will honor them. You'll have to contact Wizards' Customer Support at http://wizards.custhelp.com (you'll need to create an account there). They should be able to get you set up. If not, please email me at erikfriborg AT gmail DOT com and I'll put you in touch with folks inside WotC who can help you!. :)

Thx by boggoo (not verified) at Thu, 04/30/2009 - 06:19
boggoo's picture

Ok, I will try. If be some problem, I will contact with you. It's good to know a people just like you. For now I sent a message to Wizards Customer Support(show me message: "...NOT submited yet", so I will wait for answer). I'm new in MtG, I've stardted playing on september 2008, but I don't know all rules, but I train, try to remember all of this. If I start play MtGO, it will be new experience for me. This way I will train my skills, tactics etc.

C U :)

Thank you very much for you by boggoo (not verified) at Sun, 05/03/2009 - 17:34
boggoo's picture

Thank you very much for you help. Now I can play MtG Online. It's great game :)

Yay! I'm glad you got by hamtastic at Tue, 05/05/2009 - 13:28
hamtastic's picture

Yay!

I'm glad you got everything set up, welcome to MTGO!

;( by Anonymous (not verified) at Sun, 05/17/2009 - 12:30
Anonymous's picture

Why does it wants credit card code for the email activation ?????? can't i play for free ????

There is a free trial server, by hamtastic at Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:58
hamtastic's picture

There is a free trial server, but it limits you to the current core set theme decks. It's on the login screen, on the bottom.

To play the actual game you'll need to spend 9.99 US (+ tax) and then you'll receive a coupon back for 9.99 to use in the store.

You'll then need to buy all the cards for your decks, as the cost is set up to be precisely the same as the paper version where each card has value and you have to collect them to play them.

Please let me know if you have any other questions! :)

setting up an account by Anonymous (not verified) at Wed, 06/10/2009 - 21:50
Anonymous's picture

Im Canadian, and am wondering if the debit card payment option only applies to Americans because i cant seem to get it to work and i would love to use my debit card because it would make my mtg experience alittle easier.?

It should work by hamtastic at Tue, 06/16/2009 - 09:52
hamtastic's picture

But you may need to contact customer support at http://wizards.custhelp.com and explain the situation. They're usually pretty good at helping people get set up.

trouble with login by AnotherDarkAge (not verified) at Mon, 06/22/2009 - 20:02
AnotherDarkAge's picture

When i go to the login screen the box that comes up in the middle, the one with the option to create a new account is not loading all the way. i can see most of it but the portion with the option to create a new account is cut off at the bottom. is this a known bug? do i need to download it again? i've downloaded it twice, repaired it, and done everything i know but it still doesnt work. any help is much appreciated..

Si si by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 07/16/2009 - 10:16
Anonymous's picture

Carascaca el juego es un timo para que gastes dinero. Si son tan tontos como para dejarse timar de esa manera, bueno....

Well i will contact the by Jan (not verified) at Tue, 08/18/2009 - 08:16
Jan's picture

Well i will contact the support for the problems i have. Thanks hamtastic for the url !