Spring RTS Engine

tjeck gamespy's 55 screenshots on SC - I can't believe my eyes!
They are having a whole article series on it!

http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/supreme-comman ... 026p1.html

Taylor: The Supreme Commander is indeed a super unit. I don't want to give away too much here, but who said, "Short-range tactical nukes and a Supreme Commander don't mix?"

-Gamespy

Looks nice, even though the landscape looks like it is still 2D.

gamespy wrote:All of your factories can be turned on to simply build units indefinitely, so long as your mass and energy supplies are holding up. The computer will assist you by calculating average build times and the like so you can quickly see where your economic shortcomings are as you build up your war machine

Mongus wrote:a stall estimated time sounds good too..
lets say you are producing 100 but spending 200... if your storage is 20000 you should stall in... ok i dont know.. (20000[m]*100[m/s] = 200 secs= 3.33 [min]?).. that is ai for!.

...

also a build time counter sounds great.
telling you in how much time you get your last unit in queue.
this is pointless with 100+ queues (sometimes i do).
maybe batching queues can be done....
like groupping units by orders..

group A = 6 fidos, 1 radar, 1 jammer, 3 zeus, 2 shooter, 3 pelicans. = 4 min.
group B = 2 adv cons, 1 fark.= 1.8 min.

a bunch of queued units and have time calculated for that group of units.
(btw, a stop btn for labs plz! (ala on off)).

i hope Chris gives me credit on that...

SC just sounds better and better

I hope they dont do a DNF stunt and it never actually gets released , but i doubt Chris Taylor will let that happen

Did i mention the nukes are REAL NUKES!



The outer shock wave flips units over, while the inner one blasts them to BITS! Also the dots are formations, not units!

hrmph wrote:Looks nice, even though the landscape looks like it is still 2D.

No, to me it doesn't. It's pretty clear from the screenshots that they are taken from different angles, not one single angle like TA.

For example:




Although we don't see any relief in the screenshots, I am pretty sure that there WILL be relief in the final game. I can't imagine CT leaving that aside in a game that he wants to be a large scale war simulation, especially since he already has the TA code for that.

But the rendering technique is quite interesting, as it mixes 3D rendering with 2D tiling. I think it's 2D tiles that are drawn on a 3D relief. The explosions and the trees are also interesting, as they are likely to be completely 3D (as we can see them from all angles), but with a (great) 2D look. The good thing about this technique is one can make very varied landscapes without having to write complicated pixel shaders. One only needs to be a very good artist to create new maps. The downside of this is, we can expect pretty long loading times.

Actually i dont really CARE if the terrain is 3D! IT STILL LOOKS GREAT!

Whooo....it looks great

It still has that Starcraft-type view....not just the angle either. units look....drawn......not "real." i think the units in spring look a lot better!

Well remember how EVERYTHING looks worse in screen shots. Also i have this motto "Id rather see a GOOD sprite then a BAD polygon". Of course i made that up when Quake came out, so maybe it has less relevance now. Also I├óÔé¼Ôäóm very heartened to learn, as CT put it

Taylor: The Supreme Commander is indeed a super unit. I don't want to give away too much here, but who said, "Short-range tactical nukes and a Supreme Commander don't mix?"

!!! !!!

hrmph wrote:Looks nice, even though the landscape looks like it is still 2D.

Deffinately doesn't look 2D to me!

Looks just freakin awesome!!

Ill have to agree with that, my good sirs

If the landscape was truly 3D I'm sure they would post some FPS type views. Only time will tell.

The landscape is 3d...

And quit posting shots in here!

First paragraph has you:

Imagine, if you will, a tank. It's a full-on beast: wide base, massive treads, two enormous cannons, independently rotating turret, surface details including antennas and whirling radar dishes, you name it. As it rumbles powerfully along the 3D landscape it leaves twin tread marks in the sand. Smaller vehicles will skitter around it, powersliding across the terrain, but the tank is a rock: it moves with weight and power. Next, imagine taking your mousewheel and spinning it, slowly moving the camera out. Your tank is not alone; dozens more are continually spewing from a factory, rolling out to join the first.

Ted wrote:

hrmph wrote:Looks nice, even though the landscape looks like it is still 2D.

Deffinately doesn't look 2D to me!

Looks just freakin awesome!!

This one is almost too good to be true. I am wondering if it's not an artist view or a slightly revamped screenshot. If that's not the case, then we can credit GPG of a novel (and truely awesome) sort of real time rendering in videogames.

well if the angle of the camera never changes then most of that follage could be done with sprites. It really isn't that impossible

I think the idea is to make 3D that looks as high res as 2d sprite...but from any angle.


Looks beautiful nonetheless.

Actually i think that with manageing everthing else the game is going to be throwing at me, id stick with ONE view point!

Don't underestimate the power of the CT!

yeah but make sure not to overestimate the power of your PC...looks like a long due upgrade is going to have to happen