Comments on: Supreme Commander Impressions http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/ Random babblings from a few digitally inclined people Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:36:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: blamesatan http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2492 Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:45:17 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2492 To post #13, I'd have to disagree with you. This game was coded in such a way that allowed every single unit to operate with its own AI. As somebody who personally owns both CoH and DoW, I can say that slow framerates for SupCom on normal systems is understandable. First off, the population caps for CoH and DoW aren't near 500 per player. Second, both games utilize a similar RTS style of grouping units, that is putting infantry and similar units in squads, while vehicles remain singular. Processing the AI for a squad of 5 is considerably less stressful than processing the AI for 5 individual units. Correcting this said "bottleneck" would be taking away from what the games original intentions are. And besides, everybody always complains about how some games aren't "next-gen", and yet when a game comes around that really puts that term to the test, people whine and cry that it's too much for their system. One word: UPGRADE! To post #13, I’d have to disagree with you. This game was coded in such a way that allowed every single unit to operate with its own AI. As somebody who personally owns both CoH and DoW, I can say that slow framerates for SupCom on normal systems is understandable. First off, the population caps for CoH and DoW aren’t near 500 per player. Second, both games utilize a similar RTS style of grouping units, that is putting infantry and similar units in squads, while vehicles remain singular. Processing the AI for a squad of 5 is considerably less stressful than processing the AI for 5 individual units. Correcting this said “bottleneck” would be taking away from what the games original intentions are. And besides, everybody always complains about how some games aren’t “next-gen”, and yet when a game comes around that really puts that term to the test, people whine and cry that it’s too much for their system. One word: UPGRADE!

]]> by: Software Engineer http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2433 Fri, 13 Apr 2007 15:34:12 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2433 The major point everyone is neglecting here is the game developers did a terrible terrible job on this game. Performance is something that should be placed at the top of the list when developing any software. Performance was obviously not a consideration with Supreme Commander. It seems almost as though all games in this line including all Total Anihilation games had the exact same problem. This team of developers needs to find an alternative to what is actually causing the lag. They certainly have to profile the application to isolate slow areas of code. Perhaps its the AI, but not to sure since other games like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes run fine with hundreds of units in map on my system (about 65FPS) but I get about only 21FPS with supreme commander. Its obviously possible to improve this games performance but the developers seem to have not taken the time to isolate the bottleneck and correct the issue with replacement logic. Probably due to greed to get to market quickly or maybe even due to lack of ability... The major point everyone is neglecting here is the game developers did a terrible terrible job on this game. Performance is something that should be placed at the top of the list when developing any software. Performance was obviously not a consideration with Supreme Commander. It seems almost as though all games in this line including all Total Anihilation games had the exact same problem.

This team of developers needs to find an alternative to what is actually causing the lag. They certainly have to profile the application to isolate slow areas of code. Perhaps its the AI, but not to sure since other games like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes run fine with hundreds of units in map on my system (about 65FPS) but I get about only 21FPS with supreme commander.

Its obviously possible to improve this games performance but the developers seem to have not taken the time to isolate the bottleneck and correct the issue with replacement logic. Probably due to greed to get to market quickly or maybe even due to lack of ability…

]]> by: Droniac http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2303 Sat, 24 Feb 2007 10:29:50 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2303 Ok, so I tried the demo again with " /nosound" and it boosted my framerate by roughly 10 fps. Additionally it seems that changing texture and level of detail settings has no noticeable impact on performance. I can play in high or low and the difference will be at most 1 fps. The only settings that seemed to matter in terms of performance were fidelity and shadow fidelity. Turning them up would result in a rather significant drop in fps. Anyway, so it's certainly playable when I turn sound off manually like that, but it detracts a lot from the atmosphere of the game. It's also quite well playable with sound turned on (average FPS of 20-30), but I'd rather not buy this game until I can play it in absolute full detail in a nice resolution. That way I'll get to experience it all in absolutely stunning detail at high framerates, rather than eventually getting bored with the game even before I upgrade and never getting to see the amazing detail of Supreme Commander in 1600x1200 with everything turned up high. Besides, I've yet to play through pretty much a dozen games I've purchased/received - so it'd be better to finish those games first... then I can dedicate my time on Supreme Commander goodness when I upgrade my PC (after UT3 is released ;)). I've purchased a lot of games too early before - so I'm working on my patience this time - there's no rush : Ok, so I tried the demo again with ” /nosound” and it boosted my framerate by roughly 10 fps. Additionally it seems that changing texture and level of detail settings has no noticeable impact on performance. I can play in high or low and the difference will be at most 1 fps. The only settings that seemed to matter in terms of performance were fidelity and shadow fidelity. Turning them up would result in a rather significant drop in fps.

Anyway, so it’s certainly playable when I turn sound off manually like that, but it detracts a lot from the atmosphere of the game. It’s also quite well playable with sound turned on (average FPS of 20-30), but I’d rather not buy this game until I can play it in absolute full detail in a nice resolution. That way I’ll get to experience it all in absolutely stunning detail at high framerates, rather than eventually getting bored with the game even before I upgrade and never getting to see the amazing detail of Supreme Commander in 1600×1200 with everything turned up high.

Besides, I’ve yet to play through pretty much a dozen games I’ve purchased/received - so it’d be better to finish those games first… then I can dedicate my time on Supreme Commander goodness when I upgrade my PC (after UT3 is released ;) ). I’ve purchased a lot of games too early before - so I’m working on my patience this time - there’s no rush :

]]> by: Droniac http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2296 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 07:26:02 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2296 Yeah the Creative drivers do seem to be some troublemakers. I had a fair bit of trouble installing any downloaded drivers myself. Unfortunately I can't test the beta drivers for Windows Vista, because I don't own Windows Vista. I'm waiting for it to become stable - and for upgrading (my PC that is, not Windows) becomes necessary. Which means I'll probably get it around the time Unreal Tournament 3 is released ;) Yeah the Creative drivers do seem to be some troublemakers. I had a fair bit of trouble installing any downloaded drivers myself. Unfortunately I can’t test the beta drivers for Windows Vista, because I don’t own Windows Vista. I’m waiting for it to become stable - and for upgrading (my PC that is, not Windows) becomes necessary.

Which means I’ll probably get it around the time Unreal Tournament 3 is released ;)

]]> by: Holliday http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2294 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 01:30:41 +0000 http://www.aelon.net/2007/02/supreme-commander-impressions/#comment-2294 I've been hesitant to try out those beta drivers. In the demo I definitely suffered performance because of the audio but it wasn't the same kind of crippling stuff I noticed on my brief skirmish trial. Oddly enough in the tutorial I don't recall any noise skips or stuttering so I will have to give it another go when I get home tonight. My hesitation lies in my experience with the Audigy 2 soundcard. I've had the thing forever and with my 5.1 system I just cannot play games without surround anymore. What once I thought was a minor part of the hardware for a gaming PC became crucial, second place to the video card (now probably 3rd due to SupComs CPU lust). However, i've never had a good experience with ANY post-release drivers for the soundcard. By post-release I mean anything released after the initial drivers that came on my sound card's CDs. I've tried updating them at all sorts of different times with different versions and I always get crashes and incomplete installs or screwed up speaker recognition. I've steered as far away from creative's website as I could for the last 2 years. I just install straight from my discs (amazingly I still have them) and I have never had a problem. Until now at least. If you give the beta drivers a go please share your experience. Granted I am flying by just a brief couple minutes of retail experience I would hate for my pretty excellent performance from the demo to go all fubar on me when I switch to retail. I’ve been hesitant to try out those beta drivers. In the demo I definitely suffered performance because of the audio but it wasn’t the same kind of crippling stuff I noticed on my brief skirmish trial. Oddly enough in the tutorial I don’t recall any noise skips or stuttering so I will have to give it another go when I get home tonight.

My hesitation lies in my experience with the Audigy 2 soundcard. I’ve had the thing forever and with my 5.1 system I just cannot play games without surround anymore. What once I thought was a minor part of the hardware for a gaming PC became crucial, second place to the video card (now probably 3rd due to SupComs CPU lust). However, i’ve never had a good experience with ANY post-release drivers for the soundcard.

By post-release I mean anything released after the initial drivers that came on my sound card’s CDs. I’ve tried updating them at all sorts of different times with different versions and I always get crashes and incomplete installs or screwed up speaker recognition. I’ve steered as far away from creative’s website as I could for the last 2 years. I just install straight from my discs (amazingly I still have them) and I have never had a problem. Until now at least.

If you give the beta drivers a go please share your experience. Granted I am flying by just a brief couple minutes of retail experience I would hate for my pretty excellent performance from the demo to go all fubar on me when I switch to retail.

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