Author Topic: Outpost 3: Genesis (Read 5945 times)

Stormy · « **on:** February 19, 2006, 03:35:14 PM »

We have been working hard lately and we now have a demo of the terrain renderer for you to test.

Outpost 3: Genesis Terrain Demo

Give it a try and tell us how it runs

.

Note: Before you run it, read the readme.

lordly_dragon · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2006, 12:10:17 PM »

i will try it out when i will have time stormy...im quite busy these day

Eddy-B · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2006, 12:29:02 PM »

Downloaded it - but it only gives an error and messes up my screen colors

thablkpanda · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2006, 01:30:29 PM »

That's freaking awesome dude!!

I mean considering the project's depth and the length of time you guys've spent on it - it's incredible rendering... I'm THAT much hyped up for the release.

Adding a little gravity would make it a perfect little pre-release 'fun' demo. I think i'ma go play it for a while longer

.

-Chris

Eddy-B · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2006, 01:32:03 PM »

what are you talking about ?
it doesn't run !

Stormy · « **Reply #5 on:** February 20, 2006, 01:57:31 PM »

Eddy-B, what kind of computer do you have? It's probably problems with the OS or the CPU. leeor_net would be able to help you more on this though....

leeor_net · « **Reply #6 on:** February 20, 2006, 02:13:26 PM »

Please read the following thread for some tips on running the demo:

http://forum.outpostuniverse.net/index.php?showtopic=2612

Please note that in order to run the demo, you MUST have Windows 2000 or Windows XP and you MUST have the LATEST VERSION of DirectX (at the time of this writting and compilation of the demo, DX9.0c).

Currently it won't run on any Windows machine running anything less than Windows 2000 SP1.

If you encounter problems with the demo when you try to start it and it generates a dialog box pointing to DirectX, open up the Plugins.cfg file and remove the following line:

Plugin=RenderSystem_Direct3D

This will force it to run in OpenGL mode which is more stable than the DirectX mode (gee... I wonder why that could be). Attempting to run this demo with any other version of DirectX less than 9.0C will most definatly result in an annoying crash with a big dialog box that says this that and the other thing.

Color changes should not take place as its default setting is in 32Bit mode. If you are able to start the program and the Video Config dialog does come up, switch the rendering subsystem to OpenGL. If that continues to give you problems, turn off the Full Screen Mode or even reduce the Color Depth.

As a general note for all Windows 2000/XP users, if you havn't run an update in awhile, make sure you do one right now. Make sure you upgrade your version of DirectX to the latest possible version you can find.

spirit1flyer · « **Reply #7 on:** February 20, 2006, 02:31:06 PM »

very cool looking B)

the only thing that made it not so nice of a demo was how slow you can move the veiw.
It took me 2 minutes or so to get to the cave.
btw the cave has a see through spot

Leviathan · « **Reply #8 on:** February 20, 2006, 02:36:18 PM »

Looking great

Sweetness.

leeor_net · « **Reply #9 on:** February 20, 2006, 03:49:16 PM »

Quote

the only thing that made it not so nice of a demo was how slow you can move the veiw.

That's what ReadMe's are good for. It would probably have been very helpful if you held down the SHIFT and CTL keys while you moved. It accelerates the camera movement.

It moves as slow as it does because of how absolutely huge the terrain mesh actually is.

Oh yeah, another note. While it doesn't look like it, the terrain demo's scene is actually dynamically lit. In the next demos that I'll be releasing it'll demonstrate moving light sources and the shadow rendering abilities. Of course, the shadows can be turned into normal splotches and even turned off for slower machines or machines without GPU Graphics cards.

spirit1flyer · « **Reply #10 on:** February 20, 2006, 03:51:52 PM »

Quote

That's what ReadMe's are good for. It would probably have been very helpful if you held down the SHIFT and CTL keys while you moved. It accelerates the camera movement.

oops

didn't read it :lol:

leeor_net · « **Reply #11 on:** February 21, 2006, 03:53:29 PM »

Maybe I should bold that point... :whistle:

READ THE README! :lol:

In all seriousness though, just in case anyone is having trouble with the DirectX Render Subsystem, open up the Plugins.cfg file and remove the line that reads:

Plugin=RenderSystem_Direct3D

That will force the demo to run in OpenGL mode only. It's corrected a lot of DX compatibility issues thus far.

plymoth45 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 01, 2006, 10:56:23 PM »

I must say, that is quite impressive. It reminds me of Earth Siege II's looks, but a little better with the texture. Can't wait for the full game though.

HaXtOr · « **Reply #13 on:** March 02, 2006, 10:50:24 AM »

its a little laggy on my system even though i have a good system. 64 bit amd turion

leeor_net · « **Reply #14 on:** March 02, 2006, 02:47:03 PM »

It will lag on systems that don't have good support for OpenGL/DirectX regardless of the CPU speed.

I've also found that since it's 32-Bit compiled, it will most certainly run slower in a 64-Bit environment.

As a general note, OP3's refresh engine will make use of GPU programs as much as possible. This takes a lot of the graphic processing load off of the CPU. If your graphics card does not have a GPU, than ALL of the graphic processing (e.g., 3D transformations, etc.) will fall entirely onto the CPU.

CPU's are not built for graphics and thus will perform poorly in comparison. A 300MHz GPU can calculate graphics equally as fast as a 4Ghz CPU. This is due in large part to the ability of a GPU to push and work with three values simultaneously over a CPU's ability to push and work with only one value at a time. Older graphics cards are NOT GPU's and won't have the extra benefits.

Also, the DirectX integration on ATI cards seems to be lacking; OpenGL mode works far better (~30 on DX over ~70 GL). nVidia cards have better support for DirectX but the OpenGL support is also good.

Sirbomber · « **Reply #15 on:** March 02, 2006, 04:05:47 PM »

It is acceptable... I will deem it "average".

Okay, really though: it's pretty good. Just don't forget to add steep cliffs, everything looks pretty passable right now.

Oooh, are units going to get a speed boost if they're going down a steep hill and go very slowly going up a steep hill?
(goes back to pretending to be a scout roaming the barren landscape [I have nothing better to do anyways...])

HaXtOr · « **Reply #16 on:** March 02, 2006, 05:11:48 PM »

looks good though being a semi proof of concept, I would love to see things such as boulders , snow peeks , grass lands. maybe the occational natural tunnel?

Arklon · « **Reply #17 on:** March 02, 2006, 07:07:07 PM »

Quote

looks good though being a semi proof of concept, I would love to see things such as boulders , snow peeks , grass lands. maybe the occational natural tunnel?

You do realize that this is a Venus-like world, right? How the hell could grass survive, much less snow form?

BlackBox · « **Reply #18 on:** March 03, 2006, 07:39:17 AM »

Looks good (from what I could see), even though my system falls far, far short of the minimum requirements. (P3-700 with an nVidia TNT2)

It ran at 2 FPS. Will there be quality / visible distance / etc settings to allow the game to run at a more acceptable speed on such old systems?

zigzagjoe · « **Reply #19 on:** March 03, 2006, 08:52:28 AM »

uh, leeor, you have it completely opposite there.

Even though it is 32bit compiled, it may run slightly faster in 64bit due to the underlying infrastructure also being 64bit (DX etc). Perhaps you are thinking of the Itanium? (which does suck ass w/ 32bit progs in 64bit mode)

The amd64 arch has no such problem; there is no slowdown. (If I remeber correctly the Itanium used a seperate core for 32bit crap. eww)

hacker: doubtable

moogle: check that you are indeed in 64bit mode and have the proper vid drivers. also it could be that the gfx is crap. It is most likely you are running in 32bit mode, though. If you are indeed in 64bit mode it'll report some varient of win2k3

CK9 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 03, 2006, 09:57:29 AM »

standing on a yellow square looking at who knows what with mountains all around...and bits of one directally overhead...

Sirbomber · « **Reply #21 on:** March 03, 2006, 05:59:03 PM »

Try moving up a bit.

Didn't Leeor say somewhere that if you can't run WC3 you won't be able to run OP3?

leeor_net · « **Reply #22 on:** March 03, 2006, 06:32:13 PM »

Quote

standing on a yellow square looking at who knows what with mountains all around...and bits of one directally overhead...

I'll pass on trying to understand this one.

Quote

uh, leeor, you have it completely opposite there

No actually. 32-Bit programs are very much NOT garanteed to run well on 64-Bit architecture (although 64-bit intel chips are definatly crap). Many programs, especially graphic-intensive programs, will not run any better on a 64Bit CPU and some programs will actually run slower. It's kind of a 'defy all logic' paradox really. That's why there's a 64-Bit version of Windows. Running 32Bit Windows on a 64Bit CPU will cause it to run more slowly.

Quote

It ran at 2 FPS. Will there be quality / visible distance / etc settings to allow the game to run at a more acceptable speed on such old systems?

Most definatly. What you're seeing there is what it would be like on the highest quality setting... well, so far. The highest quality setting would probably also include special ambient effects and whatnot which could be turned off.

Also, the scene is prepared to draw shadows which can have the following settings: Complex, Standard, Off.

Complex shadows are shadows that outline the contours of an objects (e.g., stencil shadows). Standard shadows are just dark splotches on the ground where a unit is. Off is... well... obvious.

However, you're going to need at least a semi-recent machine to run OP3. As Sirbomber noted, if you can't run WCIII (which your setup can't), than you won't be able to run OP3.

zigzagjoe · « **Reply #23 on:** March 04, 2006, 04:37:40 PM »

uh, again, you still have it wrong. with a itanium type cpu that is true. a 32bit program in 64bit mode is singificantly slower than a 64bit native program.

with a amd64 type (true amd64, not s***ty intel strapped-on 64), there is no slowdown to 32bit programs in 64bit mode. if you compare the performance of a athlon xp of similar clock speeds to a amd64 one, even in 32 bit itll beats the xp. in 64bit it'll wipe the floor with it.

what "graphics intensive type programs" are you thinking of? none of the programs i have used in both 64bit mode have had a slowdown compared to 32bit, in fact quite the opposite. inventor, 3ds max, and the various 3dmarks run faster in 64 bits of my own testing.

dm-horus · « **Reply #24 on:** March 04, 2006, 09:18:31 PM »

1st generation 64bit chipsets use 32bit emulation. it IS possible to get a 32 bit program running slower in 64 bit mode due to emulation. HOWEVER, emulation is becoming transparent as more progs are 64bit compatible and the emulation improves.

conclusion: yer both right.

(did i say emulation enough?)

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Author Topic: Outpost 3: Genesis (Read 5945 times)