Matrix Games Forums

>> We have to cater for a min screen size of 1024 x 768

Have been lurking for a while before I had the temerity to venture a post and noticed your poll on screen sizes. However, some graphics that look a good size at this resolution don't scale too well to higher resolutions.

>> We do expand the battlemap however

I have a 1680x1050 widescreen and was pleased to see the battlemap works at this size on moving from HTTR to COTA!

Might you consider using dockable windows in a future product to cater for different resolutions? When I used MFC (some time ago), there was a UI library (with full source code) called Stingray that implements docking and saved me a lot of pain. At the time it was supported by its author in the same way that you support your products. However, googling, it looks like its been taken over by Rogue Wave now.

M

ORIGINAL: Jim D Burns
One last thought. It would be nice to be able to give units hold fire orders so they don’t open fire at extreme ranges. I’m not saying they shouldn't fire at all, but an order not to fire unless a certain effective percentage was achieved would be great. So for example I could order Unit X not to fire unless it will be at least 25%, 50% or 75% effective.

This is already in the game and you control it by modifying aggressiveness rating of your subordinate units. More aggressiveness longer range fire is used. Low aggressiveness means that unit waits until they almost see eye balls of enemy until they open fire. This is especially on the defense.

On the assault units tend to fire as soon as they see enemy just to suppress it because if you can’t suppress defender you take huge casualties and you are possible beaten back pretty easily. In assault there is no advantage of not to fire as soon as possible. IMHO If you don’t have lots of ammo for massive firing and proper troops to suppress defender it’s generally not wise to assault.

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

One area we would like to explore is using the graphics card for route calculations. This in theory has the potential to reduce cpu load and thus speed up the game, which in turn would allow us to broaden the spatial scope and/or increase the number of units involved. Until we try it I am not sure of how much an improvement this will provide. I would not expect an increase of more than 100%. However, any increase would be welcomed.

If anyone out there knows of a reference to a detailed explanation of how to do this, please email me a link. I would be most grateful. Thanks.

You might want to check these sources:

http://gamma.cs.unc.edu/DB/#
http://www.gpgpu.org/developer/
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/article.asp ... CIID=59427

http://www.gpgpu.org/w/index.php/Main_Page

The department of computer science of the university of North Carolina conducted some performance tests, where GPUs, depending on the task, were up to 40 times faster - comparing a CPU-based algorythm and a GPU-based algorythm. So, it can be done.

Oh and this:
http://www.amazon.com/GPU-Gems-Programming-High-Performance-General-Purpose/dp/0321335597

Thanks Goodguy.

BTW re immersion issue, see this thread:
 
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1344525&mpage=1&#1346892