Supreme Commander

CmdrFly

CmdrFly

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Cmdr Fly
Anyone playing this? have you found any tweaks to get it to run good? Everything I've read thus far makes it sound like this game is more taxing on your computer than Oblivion at max settings.

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=620

Nevertheless, using Windows XP first I did test Supreme Commander with 1GB of memory which was just plain awful and then 2GB’s which, was a vast improvement. However, after having measured the performance with 1GB and then 2GB’s of memory, I noticed the frame rates hardly changed, with results increasing as little as 2 ~ 3fps. Therefore, I did not want to include more pages of graphs that show near no difference in performance and rather decided to discuss this issue. After testing these two memory configurations in Windows XP it was time to compare 2GB and 4GB memory configurations in Windows Vista.

The difference was very noticeable, as the 4GB configuration was far superior, though again benchmark results failed to prove this. With 4GB of DDR2 installed the memory usage went from 1.8GB’s to 3.0GB’s once the action began. With literally thousands of units on the battle field the system did slow down but it did not become choppy like the 2GB memory configuration. While the units did move noticeably slower, scrolling around the battlefield watching everything take place was much smoother. This made playing Supreme Commander much easier and more importantly far more enjoyable.

So while I am yet to upgrade our test systems with Windows Vista and will not be for some time, I have found Supreme Commander to work best on our Vista computer. The game not only played much better but there were no compatibility or stability issues found on our system. The game has been left playing for over a day now without a single crash and there are also no graphic or audio problems that we can find with this full version copy. The only disappointing aspect of the full version is the lack of support for SLI, or at least GeForce 8800 GTX SLI cards.
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Even their dual-GPU test bench was pumping less than 30fps at max settings... at a measly 1280x1024 resolution. Curious if Vista really makes that much difference, looks like I'll be doubling up to 4gb anyways.

I'm running main monitor at 1920x1200 and secondary at 1280x1024 (dual-monitor makes this game a buttload easier by the way, watch two parts of the battlefield at the same time). At near max settings (everything but AA maxed) I start to see some nasty chopping when you get about 200+ units on the screen blowing shit up.

From what I've read, it seems like SC doesn't take advantage of multi-core systems as much as they claim to. Secondary core sits at 10-20% while primary sits at 90%+. Has anyone found a way to tweak this so it will balance the load more?

Onto the actual game, god damn is it sweet. The AI is surprisingly intelligent - there's been a few cases where they've lured my naval defenses away from my base, then when all my boats are out beating on their subs they'd send in a pack of frigates from my blind side.

The unit balance is incredible too... in Total Annihilation, you could pretty much rely on 200-400 Brawlers (Air-to-Air and Air-to-Surface aircraft) to annihilate anything. In Supreme Commander, you'll likely get ripped to shreds. A good balance of 50 units can do twice as much damage as 200 zerg units. I haven't gotten far enough to see if there's a Big Bertha or Buzzsaw equivalent, I do miss the old D-Gun on the commander unit but maybe that gets unlocked later.

All in all, very bitchin' game. If you dig RTS games and have a somewhat beefy computer, it's definitely worth a look.
 
It's unfortunate that the system requirements are so (unnaturally, I'll get to it in a second) high for this game, as I'd been looking forward to it for a long time. The sheer number of features and improvements it brings to the RTS genre are just incredible, and I've always enjoyed the overall look and feel of things.

...then I played the demo. At the lowest settings, I still couldn't break 10FPS. The lowest settings are pretty damn low, too. Looking on the forums, there are a crapton of random bugs that caused slowdown, at least with the demo. Vista made it unplayable, Creative sound cards had a bunch of slowdown problems... People with high-end computers having the game run like crap, and people with mid-lower end machines running the game fine.

I dunno. A lot of people blamed the system requirements, but I'm unsure, personally. If it's got better performance than their demo does, I definitely want to pick this game up sometime. :/
 
I never tried the demo, though I did download the beta (which failed miserably, I never got to play it).

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, never thought that could attribute to the performance though. It's definitely playable on my system (X2 4400+ | 2gb OCZ | X1900XTX) but the performance halts seem to be completely unrelated to GPU power. I tried everything at max, then when the slowdowns started I dropped it all down to lowest - still choppy with no improvement.

However that was a hell of a beefy situation. I had 150 gunships, 100 bombers, and about 20 SS-LRM launchers on screen launching missiles and causing all sorts of ruckus. I'd imagine that this situation was limited by my RAM - that many models and textures crunching at once is ridiculous. One single explosion is comprised of probably 8-25 models, textures, and blending instances... so a couple hundred of them coupled with the units themselves may very well have capped out my physical RAM.

Good thing it's payday today...
 
CmdrFly said:
I never tried the demo, though I did download the beta (which failed miserably, I never got to play it).

I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum, never thought that could attribute to the performance though. It's definitely playable on my system (X2 4400+ | 2gb OCZ | X1900XTX) but the performance halts seem to be completely unrelated to GPU power. I tried everything at max, then when the slowdowns started I dropped it all down to lowest - still choppy with no improvement.

However that was a hell of a beefy situation. I had 150 gunships, 100 bombers, and about 20 SS-LRM launchers on screen launching missiles and causing all sorts of ruckus. I'd imagine that this situation was limited by my RAM - that many models and textures crunching at once is ridiculous. One single explosion is comprised of probably 8-25 models, textures, and blending instances... so a couple hundred of them coupled with the units themselves may very well have capped out my physical RAM.

Good thing it's payday today...
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It's possible, I haven't really looked into things since the demo. It was kinda depressing, at the lowest settings, textures looked like crap, models had... I don't think some were even models anymore, yet it still played horribly.

You can try /nosound on the command line, see if that helps, but it might just be RAM at that point. I'm tempted to ... get a copy elsewhere before buying it, just to see if it's improved.
 
I wonder if there's a way to limit audio channels. As fun and impressive as it is to hear 250+ explosions at various places on the map at once, maybe a chunk of RAM can be freed up by limiting the max number of channels.

The X-Fi Platinum is a step down from prime (only 4mb of X-RAM immediately accessible, as opposed to the Fatal1ty and Pro edition's 64mb) so it's banking most of the audio-processing instructions in system RAM.

It's definitely worth buying to test it out. I've tried only the UEF so far, but the other two races look like they're gonna be a lot of fun when I get to em.
 
To anyone who has performance issues with this game and is running Windows XP: enable dual-core!

I thought XP took advantage of SMP natively. Apparently it does, but hardly. I installed the dual-core drivers from AMD (and a couple testing goodies they had there) and my performance issues with Supreme Commander completely disappeared.

Vista apparently takes full advantage of SMP from the get-go, but XP only sees the second core but won't automatically balance thread processing to it.
 
Jesus christ monkeyballs, this game is hot. Best RTS I've played in a long time.

Marajade you'd love this. The Monkeylord, one of the superweapons for the Cybran race, has a rapecannon just like the battlecruisers from Homeworld 2. Just shorter range and thicker rape - once it starts firing, it don't stop. They don't even let up on the trigger while switching targets - the hot plasma melting goo peels across the dirt from one target to the next as they all detonate and leave a little pile of wreckage. Not to mention it's mounted on top of a massive mechanical spider.

I haven't even checked, is this multiplayer-able? It'd be nuts to see how these superweapons are handled in head-to-head - the Scathis (Rapecannon 4000) is ridiculous overkill that could delete a player's entire army in a matter of minutes if they don't rush to destroy it.
 
CmdrFly said:
Jesus christ monkeyballs, this game is hot. Best RTS I've played in a long time.

Marajade you'd love this. The Monkeylord, one of the superweapons for the Cybran race, has a rapecannon just like the battlecruisers from Homeworld 2. Just shorter range and thicker rape - once it starts firing, it don't stop. They don't even let up on the trigger while switching targets - the hot plasma melting goo peels across the dirt from one target to the next as they all detonate and leave a little pile of wreckage. Not to mention it's mounted on top of a massive mechanical spider.

I haven't even checked, is this multiplayer-able? It'd be nuts to see how these superweapons are handled in head-to-head - the Scathis (Rapecannon 4000) is ridiculous overkill that could delete a player's entire army in a matter of minutes if they don't rush to destroy it.
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Sadly, my PC wont run it, and i dont have the cash to upgrade anytime soon ; ;

Which REALLY sucks, because I was looking forward to it. And NOW I find out I'm missing out on more Rapecannon action. /sigh
 
The Aeons have a superweapon with a rapecannon in each arm, and a 3rd one in the middle of his chest.

Sell Myrrh's kidneys or something, this game is worth it man.
 
CmdrFly said:
The Aeons have a superweapon with a rapecannon in each arm, and a 3rd one in the middle of his chest.

Sell Myrrh's kidneys or something, this game is worth it man.
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And from here forth I embark apon a mystical quest, full of dragons and magic, to obtain the funds for a new computer in order to play a computer game with giant robots with rapecannons.

Damn all this talk of Rapecannons. Back to Homeworld2 I go.
Although the one in Cataclysim was good too.
 
I don't think I ever played Cataclysm... does it compare to the battlecruisers?

edit: the Commanders get a rapecannon too btw. There's probably about a dozen rapecannon-capable units in this game.
 
In Cataclysim, the Mothership is smaller, has real guns, and about halfway through gets a mamoth cannon strapped to the side. Shoots a ball of energy that blows up somewhere on the map that you select (ultra super range) and insta kills everything friggate and under. Destroyers are almost dead, and Dreadnaughts (equivalent to Heavy Cruisers) are in bad shape.
It also blows up if it hits somthing. Like the interceptor you had flying in to land as it fired, and got clipped. Needless to day, I restarted that mission.
 
Dude, sweet! I never knew they had a rapeball gun. Gonna have to play through that after SC.
 
decidence said:
since THQ publishes this I got to play it months ago... was ok, but not my type of game.
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Stop rubbing the fact that you have an awsome job in our faces. Its not nice ; ;
 
Did you make it to experimental tech Deci? The game was pretty so-so for me during the entire UEF campaign, and most of the Cybran (though the boats that grow spider legs and walk on land... that was a key turning point).

But ultimately it didn't become the creamy goodness it is until I got the Monkeylord and the Rapecannon 4000. That was when I declared it the best RTS I've played in a long time. Depending on how good the Aeon superweapons are, it may very well take the crown as best RTS ever in my eyes.
 
I want this game so bad but my computer can barely run anything new these days T.T it's so old.. *pats the computer* poor computer.
 
I only played it for about 30 mins Cmdfly... enough to get a whiff. I'm not really into playing RTS games on my own time. FPS, RPG, and MMO is much more fun for me.
 
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