Supreme Commander

[ChickenNoodles]

Hello guys,

I'm not sure if anyone has brought this idea/question up, but is it possible to move the warzone 2100 game into the supreme commander engine as a mod for supreme commander? It seems like Supreme commander has some similarities to WZ2100. It would be heck a cool to see this game running on a more modern 3d engine.

[lav_coyote25]

there is a thread somewhere covering that or a similar one... since 1999 - there has been talk of using other engines etc... but the same thing always happens... excitement - then horror at the amount of coding one needs to do to accomplish the task. if not on this forums - it has been discussed on others...

[Zarel]

1. That would increase the system requirements and slow down the game by a ton.

2. It would mean that Warzone would no longer be completely free to play.

3. It would mean that Warzone would no longer fit into 50 MB (or 120 MB plus the terrain textures, or 300 MB plus the FMVs).

4. It would mean that Warzone would no longer run on Mac OS X or Linux.

5. It would mean the end of the complex research tree, unit designing, repair, weapon upgrades, power upgrades, research upgrades, researchable auto-repair, truck upgrades, armor upgrades, VTOL system, damage type system, mobile artillery system, and pretty much everything else that makes Warzone unique.

6. It would mean we'd discard five years of work by many contributors into improving the game to its current state.

Seriously. You could have suggested something that didn't remove everything that makes Warzone Warzone, so I could've just thrown #1-4 at you (the standard objections to a game engine switch). If we ever do switch engines (extremely unlikely), it will not be to the SupCom engine.

[Kamaze]

The other way around would be quite interesting. The 100% Zoom-Out from SupCom would fit very good to Warzone 2100, also gameplay wise.

[ChickenNoodles]

1. That would increase the system requirements and slow down the game by a ton.

2. It would mean that Warzone would no longer be completely free to play.

3. It would mean that Warzone would no longer fit into 50 MB (or 120 MB plus the terrain textures, or 300 MB plus the FMVs).

4. It would mean that Warzone would no longer run on Mac OS X or Linux.

5. It would mean the end of the complex research tree, unit designing, repair, weapon upgrades, power upgrades, research upgrades, researchable auto-repair, truck upgrades, armor upgrades, VTOL system, damage type system, mobile artillery system, and pretty much everything else that makes Warzone unique.

6. It would mean we'd discard five years of work by many contributors into improving the game to its current state.

Seriously. You could have suggested something that didn't remove everything that makes Warzone Warzone, so I could've just thrown #1-4 at you (the standard objections to a game engine switch). If we ever do switch engines (extremely unlikely), it will not be to the SupCom engine.

Err... i never said anything about removing any thing from the game, i was thinking more of an exact replica but using the neat graphics from sup com...

[Zarel]

You said to run it as a mod for Supreme Commander. It would require either a great deal of work in porting, the discarding of most Warzone gameplay mechanics, or both.

Regardless, the Supreme Commander engine is not Free, so it would never happen.

[iMac]

The other way around would be quite interesting. The 100% Zoom-Out from SupCom would fit very good to Warzone 2100, also gameplay wise.

I also like this idea of zooming way out. Another RTS I played was Hegemonia (Haegemonia in UK) Legions of Iron, had a really large zoom area. It also had a awesome 2D/3D overhead map view. That would cool to have in WZ.

Screenshots of 2D/3D overview shot. These are not the normal gameplay screens. Google "Hegemonia" in images.

[Thyranim]

Screenshots of 2D/3D overview shot. These are not the normal gameplay screens. Google "Hegemonia" in images.

what?
These images are definitely normal gameplay screens...

It is in tzactical view, so you do not see the units itself, but an tactical-icon
the angle of view can be tilt up and down
so the first image looks like a complete top view
and the second as nearly maximum pan down for front-view

i can provide you with more (real ingame selfmade) screenshots of it if needed

[spliff]

As an experienced supreme commander mod developer I can tell you that you wouldn't get far. The engine is just not designed for units to be configured ingame. The mod system doesn't support messing with many low-level dynamics (that's done in the C++ engine). Even if you tried you'd be facing an uphill struggle with minimal official documentation and no support.

Your idea of using another engine is sound enough but suggesting Supcom shows you haven't really done your research. The Spring Engine would be a much more valid alternative than trying to shoe-horn a free GPL game onto the back of a commercial, closed-source, outdated, unsupported, windows-only engine.

At any rate, WZ's poor graphics are simply a result of it's system requirements back when it was released. Regardless of the engine you run it on you're still stuck with the low-res models and textures that came with the game. Until they are all replaced (which will take years) the engines graphic system is entirely irrelevant.