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Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

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Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#31

Post by m463 »

YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #13
jsheard wrote: post #10

An underrated aspect of the SupCom engine was that it natively supported multiple monitors, with independently controllable cameras on each one so you could keep an eye on any two parts of the map, or just zoom the second one all the way out to get a giant minimap. That's something you never see today even though it would be easier to pull off with modern graphics APIs (IIRC SupCom actually runs two copies of the gam…

Slightly less impressive was the minimap, which was also an entire second(third) copy of the game's graphics process. (Although really you weren't 'supposed' to use the minimap, since strategic zoom took its place.)

I find these kinds of bend-over-backward-things amazing. It is probably not a good ROI to get it that correct, but it admirable and makes the game lots of fun.

In a similar vein, I think fallout4 lets you use an ipad as a pip-boy to do maps and other management things.

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#32

Post by m463 »

paulddraper wrote: post #6
liotier wrote: post #3

Enjoy that style ? Go play Beyond All Reason, its free and open-source spiritual heir - https://www.beyondallreason.info

I played Total Annihilation as a kid. Finding Beyond All Reason was amazing. And spectating 8v8+ with tens of thousands of units is something else. It's unfortunate that large scale RTS isn't a more popular genre. Instead it's all Fortnite/CoD/WoW

I still play the CNC games every once in a while.

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#33

Post by deaddodo »

gwervc wrote: post #24
jsheard wrote: post #10

An underrated aspect of the SupCom engine was that it natively supported multiple monitors, with independently controllable cameras on each one so you could keep an eye on any two parts of the map, or just zoom the second one all the way out to get a giant minimap. That's something you never see today even though it would be easier to pull off with modern graphics APIs (IIRC SupCom actually runs two copies of the gam…

As someone who had two monitors at the time (that was more a geeky thing by then than now), it was my favorite feature of the game. Also in-game shields.

Yup, strategic zoom on monitor 2, micro control on monitor 1.

If you never played SupCom, you would imagine that being terrible since most RTSes of the day were so fast paced, but SupCom followed much more of the SiNS/Stellaris/etc flow of gameplay. High level strategy with microcontrol.

Watching your waves of tanks (in strategic view) slowly push back their line of artillery because you simply strategized better as your air force slowly picked off economic resources was so satisfying.

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#34

Post by dumpsterlid »

paulddraper wrote: post #6
liotier wrote: post #3

Enjoy that style ? Go play Beyond All Reason, its free and open-source spiritual heir - https://www.beyondallreason.info

I played Total Annihilation as a kid. Finding Beyond All Reason was amazing. And spectating 8v8+ with tens of thousands of units is something else. It's unfortunate that large scale RTS isn't a more popular genre. Instead it's all Fortnite/CoD/WoW

[dead]

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#35

Post by tobinfekkes »

paulddraper wrote: post #6
liotier wrote: post #3

Enjoy that style ? Go play Beyond All Reason, its free and open-source spiritual heir - https://www.beyondallreason.info

I played Total Annihilation as a kid. Finding Beyond All Reason was amazing. And spectating 8v8+ with tens of thousands of units is something else. It's unfortunate that large scale RTS isn't a more popular genre. Instead it's all Fortnite/CoD/WoW

I still play Total Annihilation. I am not a "gamer" and don't play any computer games anymore, but boy do I still love Total Annihilation.

My cousin was a tester for Cavedog in the late 90s and gave us a copy before it was big. I still have some CDs!

Love to see Beyond All Reason continuing the spirit.

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#36

Post by deaddodo »

mrguyorama wrote: post #23

If you also happen to think SupCom was the most ultimate superior RTS ever made, because it's truly strategy scale with a thousand units PER PLAYER including on 8v8 maps, and the simulated ballistics of almost all weapons means you can defend your base from an incoming nuke by scrambling your jet fighters so that they run into the incoming warhead and airburst it "safely" above your base, and love that artillery shel…

> you can defend your base from an incoming nuke by scrambling your jet fighters so that they run into the incoming warhead and airburst it "safely" above your base, and love that artillery shells can also hit those same planes

Or how you could blip your shields on and off in sequence with artillery bombardments to free up energy for your forward artillery, giving you just that slight leg up on your opponent.

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#37

Post by AndyMcConachie »

mrguyorama wrote: post #23

If you also happen to think SupCom was the most ultimate superior RTS ever made, because it's truly strategy scale with a thousand units PER PLAYER including on 8v8 maps, and the simulated ballistics of almost all weapons means you can defend your base from an incoming nuke by scrambling your jet fighters so that they run into the incoming warhead and airburst it "safely" above your base, and love that artillery shel…

I am a devoted FAF fan. I've been watching games online for about 10 years now. I've probably seen close to 1,000 at this point, but I've never once played it. I suck at RTS games and I don't have a Windows machine.

I probably know more about the game than some of the players but I have never even owned it ;-)

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#38

Post by frozenlettuce »

mrguyorama wrote: post #23

If you also happen to think SupCom was the most ultimate superior RTS ever made, because it's truly strategy scale with a thousand units PER PLAYER including on 8v8 maps, and the simulated ballistics of almost all weapons means you can defend your base from an incoming nuke by scrambling your jet fighters so that they run into the incoming warhead and airburst it "safely" above your base, and love that artillery shel…

I played it for the first time in 2017 and I was somewhat sad to have played only WoW between 2005-2013.

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#39

Post by RGamma »

YurgenJurgensen wrote: post #13
jsheard wrote: post #10

An underrated aspect of the SupCom engine was that it natively supported multiple monitors, with independently controllable cameras on each one so you could keep an eye on any two parts of the map, or just zoom the second one all the way out to get a giant minimap. That's something you never see today even though it would be easier to pull off with modern graphics APIs (IIRC SupCom actually runs two copies of the gam…

Slightly less impressive was the minimap, which was also an entire second(third) copy of the game's graphics process. (Although really you weren't 'supposed' to use the minimap, since strategic zoom took its place.)

And our LAN games became soo slooow over time..

Re: Supreme Commander Graphics Study (2015)

#40

Post by Spellman »

liotier wrote: post #3

Enjoy that style ? Go play Beyond All Reason, its free and open-source spiritual heir - https://www.beyondallreason.info

I thought technically BAR is the OSS heir of Total Annihilation (which then Supreme Commander later developed).

Only 2 sides, no unique Experimental units, etc.

That being said, it's a great FOSS game and really captures the genre feel of epic scale.

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