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> shader-based flow simulation for path finding Are you aware of any real world examples that implement this? I've seen a few research papers over the years, b

> shader-based flow simulation for path finding Are you aware of any real world examples that implement this? I've seen a few research papers over the years, but nothing beyond a rough proof of concept. As a fellow TA fan disappointed by SupCom and every other RTS since, this sounds tempting.

CoolGuySteve 7y ago
I am not but it seems like an intuitive solution to the problem where the path is blocked by other units so one of stragglers routes alllllllllll the way around the map and straight through the enemy base.
- qwerty456127 7y ago
  > the problem where the path is blocked by other units Why this should even be a problem? It seems reasonable when a tank can't ride over another tank but as for infantry units - it always seemed bizarre a man can't travel through a cell occupied by another man.
bsder 7y ago
As a Total Annihilation fan, what displeased you about Supreme Commander? I adored TA, but I"m REALLY struggling to come up with anything better than Supreme Commander. TA's ships moved like molassess. TA's planes had enormous turning radii. TA's big units were effectively useless because they took far too much resource to build.
- keldaris 7y ago
  Three things displeased me. First, one of the (many) ways in which TA was revolutionary for its time was that it largely emphasized thinking over rapid micromanagement and SC was a regression in this regard, an unnecessary concession to the RTS scene of the day. Second, how technically underwhelming it was in terms of pushing the envelope in scale, unit counts etc. compared to the gigantic leap in available performance between 1997 and 2007. Third, the unsolvable technical limitation that any game against the AI (including custom AIs) would eventually crawl to an unplayable lagfest - this is still true even on today's hardware.
  - bsder 7y ago
    Well, the primary problem was that Supreme Commander made a bet that "Teh Pretty(tm)" was worth pursuing (probably as a result of complaints about TA). SupCom absolutely murdered graphics cards of the day--and it still plays like a dog on modern integrated graphics. Consequently, unit count was always going to be limited. I suspect that modern graphics cards could probably chew through this--but you need to build an engine that leans into the way modern graphics cards work.
    - keldaris 7y ago
      Emphasis on graphical fidelity was an issue when it came out, but the long term performance nightmares are all single threaded CPU bottlenecks. The whole engine just scaled really poorly with increased unit counts and AI/pathfinding computations. For a game that's basically all about scaling that was something of a dealbreaker.
- qwerty456127 7y ago
  > TA's planes had enormous turning radii. TA's big units were effectively useless because they took far too much resource to build. Can't these parameters be tweaked somehow? Experimenting with unit parameters was a lot of fun in Tiberian Sun where you could just edit a text file to get whatever you imagine. TA has to store unit parameters somewhere too, perhaps these can be edited with a hex editor.
  - brulard 7y ago
    Yes, there are unit parameters like acceleration, building speed etc. in plain text files in TA. I edited the shit out of them back then.

CoolGuySteve 7y ago

I am not but it seems like an intuitive solution to the problem where the path is blocked by other units so one of stragglers routes alllllllllll the way around the map and straight through the enemy base.

qwerty456127 7y ago
> the problem where the path is blocked by other units Why this should even be a problem? It seems reasonable when a tank can't ride over another tank but as for infantry units - it always seemed bizarre a man can't travel through a cell occupied by another man.

bsder 7y ago

As a Total Annihilation fan, what displeased you about Supreme Commander? I adored TA, but I"m REALLY struggling to come up with anything better than Supreme Commander. TA's ships moved like molassess. TA's planes had enormous turning radii. TA's big units were effectively useless because they took far too much resource to build.

keldaris 7y ago
Three things displeased me. First, one of the (many) ways in which TA was revolutionary for its time was that it largely emphasized thinking over rapid micromanagement and SC was a regression in this regard, an unnecessary concession to the RTS scene of the day. Second, how technically underwhelming it was in terms of pushing the envelope in scale, unit counts etc. compared to the gigantic leap in available performance between 1997 and 2007. Third, the unsolvable technical limitation that any game against the AI (including custom AIs) would eventually crawl to an unplayable lagfest - this is still true even on today's hardware.
- bsder 7y ago
  Well, the primary problem was that Supreme Commander made a bet that "Teh Pretty(tm)" was worth pursuing (probably as a result of complaints about TA). SupCom absolutely murdered graphics cards of the day--and it still plays like a dog on modern integrated graphics. Consequently, unit count was always going to be limited. I suspect that modern graphics cards could probably chew through this--but you need to build an engine that leans into the way modern graphics cards work.
  - keldaris 7y ago
    Emphasis on graphical fidelity was an issue when it came out, but the long term performance nightmares are all single threaded CPU bottlenecks. The whole engine just scaled really poorly with increased unit counts and AI/pathfinding computations. For a game that's basically all about scaling that was something of a dealbreaker.
qwerty456127 7y ago
> TA's planes had enormous turning radii. TA's big units were effectively useless because they took far too much resource to build. Can't these parameters be tweaked somehow? Experimenting with unit parameters was a lot of fun in Tiberian Sun where you could just edit a text file to get whatever you imagine. TA has to store unit parameters somewhere too, perhaps these can be edited with a hex editor.
- brulard 7y ago
  Yes, there are unit parameters like acceleration, building speed etc. in plain text files in TA. I edited the shit out of them back then.