Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

[Feb 27, 2010, 2:34 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

A new Flowfield Pathfinding Trailer from Supreme Commander 2 demonstrates a new method of group pathfinding being used in Gas Powered Games' upcoming real-time strategy sequel. The clip is narrated by lead designer Chris Taylor, who shows how a new method based on "crown continuum" research conducted by the University of Washington allows groups of units to seamlessly maneuver around each other. On a related note, Chris Taylor speaks to Ars is an Ars Technica interview with the GPG boss-man, who discusses the setting of the sequel compared with the original, new units, new story elements, features like Eyefinity support, as well as his feeling that this game is a return to the feel of the Total Annihilation series. The embedded HD version of the pathfinding trailer follows.

19 Replies. 1 pages. Viewing page 1.
< Newer [ 1 ] Older >

19.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 15:23

fujiJuice

Funny they didn't show a clip of an ACU trying to walk through a building over and over instead of going around. I don't know why they called this Supreme Commander 2 instead of just naming it something different, since that's what it is.

18.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 15:15

LittleMe

I'm not going to buy this for more than $5.




Perpetual debt is slavery.

17.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 14:36

Grifter

well this song pretty much sums up how I feel about Supreme commander 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Et1siZhTk&feature=PlayList&p=EDEDA5F0D508CE58&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=2

16.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 12:51

mag

...kinda surprising they left the ferry feature in, given how it does not work properly at all. Ferrying worked wonderfully in SC/Forged Alliance. You could tell an army to go to the ferry point, and if the units were far away enough from the point and the transports weren't busy, the transports would go to them to grab them. And they would keep going back and forth until all of the units were moved. It was amazing! Now, you have to click on it about five times before the units will even get into the transports. Then it requires the luck of the gods for the transport to actually take them to their destination. And god forbid they go back for anyone they missed.

15.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 11:17

Prez

Very cool. It's things like this that make me hope someone does a mod for supcom2 that uses a proper economy / tech tree.

Totally agree. Give the community mod tools Chris Taylor! We need the uber experimentals and wonderfully complex mechanics from the original back!




“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

14.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 04:23

Drayth

One (very cool) step forward, two steps back.

13.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 02:39

eRe4s3r

Single unit and transport pickup pathfinding is as retarded as ever yeah... kinda surprising they left the ferry feature in, given how it does not work properly at all.

12.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 02:31

mag

Moreover, try to set up a ferry with a bunch of transports and ground units and watch the new pathfinding system blow a complete gasket.

11.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 28, 2010, 01:10

Creston

It's cool that they fixed that from SupCom1. However, seeing as how you can no longer PUT your units into formations (that I could see anyways), what does it matter? You'll never have two such neatly stacked groups of units opposite one another. (And yes, I realize that was done just to illustrate the new system.) Creston

10.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 23:26

merc248

Anyone know where I could find papers on this "crown continuum" research? This is pretty damn interesting. UW ftw.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 21:05

Lord Tea

Darks wrote on Feb 27, 2010, 19:31:
I’ve been trying to tell you guy how impressive the new game is, but all I’ve been getting is flack. I know there are shortcomings that the game has and there are some things that you all would like to have. but overall the game does kick butt. This video perfectly displays what I’ve been saying about the new FlowTech engine and how awesomely smooth games are now. Yes even in MP.

excuse me?? The proper implementation of a more serious pathfinding algorithm alone does NOT make a game impressive, it takes a lot more IMO.

I've played the demo several times, yes I've noticed the vastly improved pathfinding and I still am all but impressed: You can poop out battleships and experimentals in minute intervals and a couple of standard units will destroy them equally fast.

Basic formations (present in SupCom 1, hold button when setting a waypoint) are completely gone.

Assisted production is basically gone. (Thanks for taking away some flexibility)

Compared to SupCom 1 Fatboys and battleships look like toys - WTF these are supposed to be huge and pack a lot of punch.

If a resource gets limited factory production automatically pauses and must be resumed manually - what a pain.

List goes on and on.




Anytime. Anywhere. Anyone. [Tagline: John Carpenter's "The Thing"] [Tagline: United Police States of America]

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 19:31

Darks

I’ve been trying to tell you guy how impressive the new game is, but all I’ve been getting is flack. I know there are shortcomings that the game has and there are some things that you all would like to have. but overall the game does kick butt. This video perfectly displays what I’ve been saying about the new FlowTech engine and how awesomely smooth games are now. Yes even in MP.




Creator of the Neverwnter Nights Eye of the Beholder Series of Mods. http://www.moddb.com/mods/eye-of-the-beholder-ii-ledgend-of-darkmoon

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 18:56

Ventura

While it looks a bit naff when you have ships move other ships out of the way when they're moving past (as I had happen in the demo), this is still a very impressive showing.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 17:21

Sleeeeepy

Very cool. It's things like this that make me hope someone does a mod for supcom2 that uses a proper economy / tech tree. Hell, I'd help.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 16:24

Silicon Avatar

That looks pretty neat. And since they did it based on a university's research, other game developers should be able to follow suit.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 15:48

Quboid

Empire: Total War needed this soooooo frickin' bad.

It's sad that about 90% of CPU power is still used for pushing polygons while things like AI have only seen marginal improvement, both in terms of processing power and in actual results. I'd like to know how a game like this or Total War would be like if polygon pushing was only 90% of the GPU - in other words, use OpenCL/CUDA/Stream's parallel computing power to do comprehensive pathfinding for each individual entity in a unit. Maybe that's what Supreme Commander 2 does. Maybe using a GPGPU in this way would be a terrible idea. I'd quite like to know either way.




"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 15:36

NKD

Nice. I think I'll be purchasing this one. The demo had some shortcomings, but I still found myself enjoying it overall. I can't wait to see the full game and what the community can do for it.




You mechs may have copper wiring to reroute your fear of pain, but I've got nerves of steel.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 14:34

Tom

Wow, that really is cool! Looks like a great improvement over good ol' A*.

Re: Supreme Commander 2 Pathfinding Trailer

Feb 27, 2010, 14:15

Jackplug

Absolutely Brilliant!

19 Replies. 1 pages. Viewing page 1.
< Newer [ 1 ] Older >