Rome:Total War Demo released today. It is the engine used for Decisive Battles

[DAPUNISHER]

I can't find what system and/or graphics card/s were used for Decisive Battles and was curious what cards could be used. Which cards can render the huge battles and which are the best at it? What are the limiting factors of r420 and nv50 when using Geometry instancing? Any good articles I should peruse that will illuminate matters for me? Thank you for any helpful info or links Oh! should I say nV sux or somethin' so this thread doesn't take a swan dive unnoticed? :laugh:

I'm downloading R:TW now to bench it with FRAPS and see what I can see from that.

 

[Genx87]

Is it the engine they use for that? I hope not because it isnt that impressive on the History Channel. I downloaded it and will play it in a bit.

Geometry instancing is available to both the NV40 and R420 series of cards. But I am not sure if the game engine will make use of either or both.

 

[gururu]

this game is supposed to be awesome. Now i have to convince my friends to buy systems that run it

 

[Genx87]

Heh it is way better than what they show on the history channel

Runs great on my 6800GT @1600X1200 with everything maxed except AA.

Edit: ROTFLMAO I just played the battle they include and routed the romans. My elephants were launching romans like it was going out of style lol

 

[Kobra]

Tried the demo, graphics are fairly lousy in it. Terrain textures look like old 8-bit textures from the 90's. Trees and Rivers are blocky. No shader2.0+ support, so water looks like garbage.. Everything looks pretty bad except for the units, those look nice!

With that being said, for some odd reason, this game appears to be more dependant on your CPU/RAM more than your graphics card. I downclocked over 100Mhz+ from my 6800GT GPU, and dropped 300Mhz off my Graphics card ram, and my Framerates were UNCHANGED. So somethings up, and about the best I could figure, is it just doesn't require much graphic card power to run this game.

Which isn't hard to believe, since the graphics seem pretty poor.

 

[SneakyStuff]

What do you expect? They have to fit HUNDREDS of units on screen at a time, that are all detailed themselves, who cares about trivial things like grass texture?

 

[SneakyStuff]

Just played it, it looks ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I will be sure to buy that game when it is released. I LOVE the cavalry charges, they just mow down the enemy petalists like grass

 

[Genx87]

You sure that you didnt turn the settings up? The default settings are 1024X768 and it looks grainy. But 1600X1200 looks rather nice.

 

[Cerb]

So, are there any places to download this demo?
Looks like it's only log-in-ware, ATM.

 

[Rage187]

check bluesnews.com, they had several links.

 

[CrystalBay]

Pretty cool , graphics are all right , plays smoothly, fun....

 

[jim1976]

Originally posted by: Kobra
Tried the demo, graphics are fairly lousy in it. Terrain textures look like old 8-bit textures from the 90's. Trees and Rivers are blocky. No shader2.0+ support, so water looks like garbage.. Everything looks pretty bad except for the units, those look nice!

I'll have to agree with that. Of course in games like this, you don't expect to see amazing gfx,but I cranked up everything and it looked mediocre. Gameplay looks fantastic though.
My guess is that they had to sacrifice terrain IQ for the big number of units presented simulteanously during gameplay.
As for the water part you don't need ps2.0 to provide nice water effects(Far cry didn't need it why R:TW should?)

 

[Kobra]

Well I discovered some interesting things about the Rome Demo when poking around... First, TURN GRASS ON! It covers up most of the poor ground textures, and its really cool, your guys trample the grass in a battle and it looks good. =) I believe i'm the first to find the "Grass" setting, its not in the options. See here:

http://p223.ezboard.com/fshoguntotalwarfrm7.showMessage?topicID=6319.topic

Also, i've discovered what I think is a flaw in the auto-detection system for the game. Or they totally disabled any higher settings for the demo. But in another config file, there are clearly marked autodetection levels for Vertex Shaders 2.0, Multisampling and many other things. However, everyone appears to be defaulting to the lower common denominator without the ability to change this. You can set everything to max in the game itself, but the core settings like Shaders and such, remain turn off.

So either they disabled them, or they forgot to do something - like the grass thing. Hehe..

Either way, this game is quite odd.. You can set the graphics to minimum, or set the them high, and it really doesn't effect performance at all. Its almost like they are using some mad software emulation mode for the engine on this demo. I just haven't been able to figure it out... But shaders2.0 appear to be in the engine, just not in the demo, or bugged.

 

[CrystalBay]

splashes seem to be disabled also.

 

[Pete]

Eurogamer.net has a BitTorrent link.

This intense interest in Total War has piqued my curiousity. I'm taking a look at the Shogun demo now.

 

[jrphoenix]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
I can't find what system and/or graphics card/s were used for Decisive Battles and was curious what cards could be used. Which cards can render the huge battles and which are the best at it? What are the limiting factors of r420 and nv50 when using Geometry instancing? Any good articles I should peruse that will illuminate matters for me? Thank you for any helpful info or links Oh! should I say nV sux or somethin' so this thread doesn't take a swan dive unnoticed? :laugh:

I'm downloading R:TW now to bench it with FRAPS and see what I can see from that.

Hi Punisher,

This game is definately worth the download. I've been hooked on the total war series ever since Shogun came out and garnered cult status in a small group. The requirements are too hefty for the game to my knowledge??? Wish I could tell you more on the requirements

 

[jrphoenix]

Originally posted by: Kobra
Tried the demo, graphics are fairly lousy in it. Terrain textures look like old 8-bit textures from the 90's. Trees and Rivers are blocky. No shader2.0+ support, so water looks like garbage.. Everything looks pretty bad except for the units, those look nice!

With that being said, for some odd reason, this game appears to be more dependant on your CPU/RAM more than your graphics card. I downclocked over 100Mhz+ from my 6800GT GPU, and dropped 300Mhz off my Graphics card ram, and my Framerates were UNCHANGED. So somethings up, and about the best I could figure, is it just doesn't require much graphic card power to run this game.

Which isn't hard to believe, since the graphics seem pretty poor.

Hey Kobra,

The game uses a lot of CPU because each individual unit has its own AI to give realism to the battles. I think the older total war games may have used unit AI but, I'm not sure?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I found some interesting articles and interviews about the Decisive Battles series that implicates the gaming community as the driving force behind it. Wired interview

It is evident the gaming community is so large now that we have far more influence than many suspected.

In particular, the History Channel is hoping the use of video-game graphics will score points with younger viewers. Males between the ages 8 and 34 spend more time playing video games during prime-time TV hours than they do watching television, according to a recent report by Nielsen Interactive Entertainment on the television-viewing habits of gamers.

The research found that 75 percent of television households with a male between those ages owned at least one console video-game system. Nearly as many males surveyed enjoy playing video games (29 percent) as watching TV (33 percent) during their free time. Male gamers spend an average of 9.8 hours watching TV compared to 12.5 hours playing games during the course of a week.

This phenomenon is not a fad as much as a long-term trend, as video-game consoles drop in price and technology propels visuals and cinematic storytelling in games to new levels. While TV can't compete with the visual spectacles created by big-budget, computer-generated scenes in movies like the upcoming Troy, the History Channel can put viewers in the middle of battles with thousands of men hacking and slashing each other to death.

Games can also allow TV producers access to visuals that even Hollywood couldn't stage. While Decisive Battles will tell its stories through traditional interviews, drawings, paintings and re-enactments with actors, the focal point of this series is Rome: Total War

This series may have a tremendous impact on bringing together TV and Games

"We're pioneering something new in this series, and we'll see how it evolves," said Kim. "The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing, and it's likely that we'll see more convergence between video games and programming in the future."

The potential for growth in the gaming industry due to the infusion of capital TV could provide has some potentially awesome ramifications. Game devs could hire more employees which would mean product development cycles could be shortened thanks to more people working on the games. Exposure for titles that are adapted to use in TV programming would enjoy higher sales in all likelyhood. For instance, I would have never given R:TW a second look if not for Decisive Battles, now I may end up purchasing it.

The gaming industry is poised for enormous expansion, and industry analyst project another boom! that will bring millions of new gamers/consumers for their products. The convergence with television programming could be just the "shot in the arm" needed to provide the financial resources necessary to quicken the pace at which the whole industry is evolving. I'm pretty stoked about this "convergence" and their serious attention to gamers TV veiwing habits or lack there of. Bringing aspects of the gaming world into educational programming like this could help propagate a more positive perception of what gaming can be about too. Imagine a parent being able to purchase titles for their teenagers that are both fun and educational, a game genre that is in short supply.

 

[YouAreForbidden]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Bringing aspects of the gaming world into educational programming like this could help propagate a more positive perception of what gaming can be about too. Imagine a parent being able to purchase titles for their teenagers that are both fun and educational, a game genre that is in short supply.

amen. the days of math blaster are numbered.


HAIL CAESER!
Y.A.F.
:wine:

 

[SneakyStuff]

I just had the COOLEST game, I got my poeni infantry, seperated them from the rest of my army, waited for the romans to kill or route those men, then they all marched on my infantry, I killed all but 1 company of Romans. And the end result said "Close Defeat" It was amazing how 3 companys of infantry, held out against a force 3 times their size. GREAT game!!! Can't wait to buy it.

 

[Triforceofcourage]

I played the demo yesterday and the game graphically is awesome. Seems like a great RTS game. ON a side note I am looking forward to lord of the rings battle for middle earth which looks like a kickass RTS also.