It is difficult to explain the issues of Sins have without going into too much "technical detail" which some may not understand. The main problem is that Sins is an older generation 32 bit game. With a two gigabyte memory limit. This is nothing new. All 32 bit games have a 2 gig memory limit. However Sins is NOT like other 32 bit games. Most games have an ability to load their assets "on the fly", or only as needed. Some games can also unload assets that are not needed. This is how they prevent themselves from reaching the 2 gig limit. Some games have been patched to where they can use up to 4 gigs of ram on 64 bit systems.
Sins also can load only what is needed at game start up, but Sins does NOT unload what it does not use. Any assets that are loaded remain loaded throughout the entire game! If you use all three factions (Six in the case of Rebellion), Then Sins will load ALL of its game assets at start up. Entrenchment, and Diplomacy in some games loaded between 1.7 to 1.9 gigs worth of assets at game start up! Graphic settings, The size of the Map, and the amount of Players, or AI opponents also determine how much ram Sins will use in any given session.In 2006 when Sins was first conceived 32 bit Windows XP was the standard OS of the time. Single core CPU's were also still the standard. Though dual core CPU's were starting to become mainstream, and 2 gigs was considered to be "plenty" of memory. So most game developers at the time didn't have to worry about hitting that dreaded 2 gig brick wall. As time went on Computers, and Sins itself evolved into their present state which is now Rebellion, and soon to be Windows 10 running in multiple core 64 bit systems. With 16+ gigs of ram. Things have changed so much over the years. However Sins still remained the 32 bit game as it was designed in 2006. That uses only a single core of your CPU. With a two gigabyte hard coded memory limit. Sins WILL CRASH when the game reaches that 2 gig limit.There is some misunderstanding about the 2 gig crash issue. The dump happens when Sins reaches 2 gigs of Ram Usage. That means the ram that Sins uses by itself. NOT what your entire operating system, and/or other programs you are running combined uses. Only the ram that Sins uses. No matter how powerful your system is. If it is 32, or 64 bit, or if it is Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, etc. etc. Sins WILL CRASH when it hits its 2 gig ram limit. It is hard coded into the game.Nobody was aware that this would be a major problem back when the game was first designed, because Sins was designed based on the hardware standards of 2006-2007. Before 64 bit OS's, Quad Core cpu's, and 4+ gig ram systems became the standard that they are now. There is nothing that can be done about it. Except to re-write Sins in 64 bit. Which is out of the question, because it is too cost prohibitive for the developers to do this (Ironclad said so themselves). Sins is a great game, and it is a shame that this is happening. With the Entrenchment, and Diplomacy expansions Ironclad had unintentionally pushed the game over its own hard coded limitations with all of the new added content.
Over the years as of the release of Diplomacy 1.3, and Rebellion. Stardock, and Ironclad did indeed fix all of the major game crashing issues of Sins. Using the fix's from This Project as a guide. However, NONE of these fix's ever made it into Entrenchment, or Original Sins! While the Stardock, and Ironclad developers have fixed most of these issues over years. They can not do anything to change the game itself short of reprogramming Sins over from scratch. The developers can do no more, but there is something that WE can do as modders to prevent Sins from hitting that dreaded 2 gig brick wall, and improve the performance of Sins "just a little bit more". I have taken the initiative, and applied to Sins what i have learned from my Homeworld Modding days. I present to you....
The goal of this project is to improve your Vanilla Sins gaming experience, and to eliminate the 2 gig crash issue. No changes will be made to Original Sins, or any of its Expansions in game play at all. No stat changes will be made. Nothing "new" will be added. There are other mods that can do that. Original Sins will remain Original Sins, and the Expansions will remain as they are. What we are doing is taking what game assets that Sins already has, and we are "optimizing" them to improve the performance, stability, and to moderate the ram usage in game. The side benefit will be that some lower end systems can enjoy almost the same gaming experience as the high end users do (Especially Laptop Users).The project initially started out as an idea to reduce the texture sizes, and poly counts of some models. Not just arbitrary reductions. The goal was to maintain the quality of Sins in game. To make it look as if nothing has been changed at all. We started with optimizations to the Planet's, and Skybox's, because they were the "worst offenders" as far as ram usage, and performance was concerned. Unfortunately my modeling skills left much to be desired in Softimage XSI at the time, and there were un-fixable mesh errors on the optimized planet meshes. Despite that the "proof of concept" was established. A lot of ram was saved, and there was a very noticeable increase in performance.Then we studied the Particle files, and Textures. Many of the particle textures in our opinion were way too high in resolution for the purpose that they served. A reduction in texture resolution by HALF showed no visible difference in game at all! There were some exceptions where the particle resolution reduction difference was very noticeable in game, and those textures were reverted back to their original resolutions. Remember the goal was NOT to reduce in game quality. Also all of the particle textures were changed from TGA format to DDS format, because DDS uses a little less memory, and is much more efficient, because DDS format loads directly into video memory. The particles can also utilize the mip mapping features of DDS format. Where TGA format does not. Therefore enhancing in game video performance (increased FPS). As of version 0.07 no TGA format textures load in TSOP. With the exceptions of the Mouse Cursors, and Scenario Pictures. This is due to those textures being controlled by the hard coded exe. When you change the texture format those textures do not show up in game.The developers mentioned something about a Memory Leak. I heard that a memory leak can be caused by a file searching for something over, and over again if it is not there. Example a mesh file calling for a texture that does not exist. Vanilla Sins had MANY particle, and mesh files that had that issue. We removed all of the entries that pointed to non existent textures in the mesh, and particle files. We also removed the entries that have lines like for example "C;\g\main\datasource\textures\effects\aura4.dds", and just used "aura4.dds". This will default the search to Sins, or the Mods "Textures" folder, and speed things up a bit. Also various typo's were corrected in some mesh, and particle files. Some ships had mesh nulls that were Miss-Labeled. For example the Akkan had nulls, and flairs that were miss-labeled. The engine trails, and flairs didnt show up in game. the Marza was missing its bomb nulls. etc. etc. All of this has been corrected as well. If there is a ships mesh file in the mods "Mesh" folder then it had something wrong with it that was fixed. The Soundata, and Galaxydef files had errors too. Regardless if any of these issues caused any memory leaks, or not these issues MUST be fixed! (and they were as of Diplomacy 1.3, but NOT for Original Sins, or Entrenchment).After the Meshes, Particles, Textures, and the User Interface were optimized, and the very obvious issues were fixed there was a tremendous boost in game performance. Sins ram usage was greatly reduced. As of TSOP 0.07 I could run a game of Entrenchment, or Diplomacy ALL DAY, and I NEVER used more than 1.5 gigs of ram! This was using Maximum Settings. Including Bloom enabled. Tested on Huge Random Multi Star maps with 9 AI's. The 2 gig crash problem has been solved! Our primary goal with this project has been achieved! Without having to use any external memory increasing programs! Stardock, and Ironclad took notice, and they used TSOP as a guide in the Diplomacy 1.3 patch, and for developing Rebellion.Now that the Stardock, and Ironclad have fixed the issues of the game as of Diplomacy 1.3, and Rebellion. TSOP has been focusing more on Original Sins, and Entrenchment. Since the Ironclad/Stardock fixes never made it into Original Sins, or Entrenchment. However, That is not stopping us from optimizing Diplomacy, or Rebellion "just a little bit more" You can also use Large Address Aware to give Sins an extra gig to play with, but in vanilla Original Sins, and Entrenchment the Endless Search Loop issues that were never fixed will cause the game to eventually go over that extra gig (Run vanilla Entrenchment, and watch your ram usage keep going up, and up, and up). TSOP is a solution that will stop that issue.
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Downloads
The Sins Optimization Project v1.0
For Original Sins 1.195
For Entrenchment 1.055
For Diplomacy 1.37
Stardock, and Ironclad fixed all of the issues that compelled us to make TSOP. Therefore there is no TSOP for Diplomacy
For Rebellion 1.82
As with Diplomacy, Stardock, and Ironclad fixed all of the issues that TSOP pointed out, and then some in the case of Rebellion. Sins: Rebellion is as optimized as any Sins game is going to get.
NOTE: TSOP 0.07 is still hosted on ModDB, and it still works in the current versions of Trinity (OS, E, and D), but you will be playing as if Sins was patched to an older version of the game. Plus some Icons and Buttons wont be visible.
Changes in TSOP 1.0
TSOP 1.0 updated to the latest versions of Original Sins, and Entrenchment.
The User Interface is completely overhauled to use pure DDS format.
Trade Ships, Strike Craft, Mines, and Constructor Unit Meshes, and Textures are Optimized.
Starbase Textures are optimized mimicking the Stardock Rebellion Optimizations.
Sounds, and Music are optimized.
All TGA format Textures are replaced with DDS format, and TSOP "force" loads them. The only TGA textures that remain are the Mouse Cursers, and Scenario Pictures. This is due to hard code in the EXE.
"Strategic Texture Reductions" for the Particles return using newer methods to create a better looking texture.
(Original Sins, and Entrenchment) Many Mesh Null issues, and various File Errors were corrected, and Unnecessary Text Entry's were removed in both the Mesh, and Particle files. Entry's pointing to Non Existent Textures in both the mesh, and particle files removed. See the various "Fixed Files" texts in the mods Read Me for details.
(Original Sins, and Entrenchment) The Diplomacy 1.3 graphic fix's have been incorporated into the Original Sins, and Entrenchment versions of TSOP (Pipeline Effects, "White Line" error fix, and Corrected Mesh files).
TSOP 1.0 for Trinity will see the return of Optimized Planets using the planet meshes from Rebellion! but with our Optimized Original Sins Textures!
There will be no version of TSOP made for Diplomacy, or Rebellion, because there is no need for it. Only Original Sins, and Entrenchment need TSOP, because the 2 gig issue, and various other issues were never fixed in those two versions of the game.
This is the FINAL version of TSOP that i will make. If the community wants to take over the project they are more than welcome to.
Community input, and contributions are more than welcome, and they are encouraged! This is a Community Project! All can pitch in!
Note: TSOP does not fix the known issue of "Late Game Lag". It does help prolong the lag until further into the game in some cases, but sooner, or later the lag will happen. The late game lag issue is a CPU issue due to the fact that Sins (including Rebellion) is optimized to use only single core processors. Therefore Sins will use only one core in multi core CPU's. To help with the late game lag issue we recommend the following:
Playing on smaller maps.
Using fewer AI opponents.
Disabling the Trade Ship icons (this actually helps out a lot)
Stacking the icons in the empire tree (same as with disabling trade ship icons the less icons rendered the better).
Using a Strike Craft Reduction mod (The many strike craft in the game are a big CPU hog. There are some good strike craft mods that reduce the number, but maintain the balance. Search for them).
You do not need to download all versions of TSOP. You only need to download the version of TSOP for the specific version of Sins you wish to play. The Retail version of Trinity is just all three versions of Sins bundled into one package. Installation for Trinity versions of Sins are no different than if you purchased each version of Sins separately.
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Other mods are more than welcome to use TSOP. No questions asked! In fact we encourage it! Learn from it! Use it as guide, and an example! Merge it into your projects!
TSOP is intended to be a Stand Alone mod. Run with no other mods enabled. There are issues enabling TSOP with other mods. Enabling with other "Graphic Enhancement" mods is NOT recommended, because the graphic enhancement mod will defeat the entire purpose of TSOP. All of our optimized files will be overridden by that enhancement mods "enhanced" files. Increasing your ram usage instead of decreasing it. Some enhancement mods like Distant Stars are incorporating elements of TSOP into their future updates.
Read the included READ ME text's for installation instructions.
Who's raggin'? And I call it constructive criticism.
Games with mod functionality are intended to surpass the original product in every way. This was intended by the developers.
No harm, no foul. Modders can make a great game into an incredible one.
I dont think ranting at Ironclad is an issue, because i do not think Ironclad even exist anymore as a company. No one has heard one word from IC in the months since Diplomacy 1.011 was released. IC dev's no longer respond to any posts on this board like they used to do on a regular basis. No one knows if they are on another project. TBH nobody knows anything. We only heard from blair himself, and word has it that he is "moonlighting" on his free time to work on a sins patch by himself.
Unless someone proves me wrong i think IC has become yet another victim of the recession, and now it is up to all of US to support sins. I have done my part. Have you done yours?
Modding like this does indeed enhance a game well beyond its life expectancy which in todays chaotic market a new game is interesting for perhaps what?.. a few months at best. Sins is still going after almost 3 years (if you include the beta).
If you read through all of the litany of complaints i see on this forum you would think Sins is the absolute worst game ever made. Yet after 3 years people still buy it, and play it. Go figure right Yup, this game REALLY sucks Uh Huh.
If you made it this far and are looking at this post then i assume you have figured out that what i said above is absolute nonsense. Sins is now a classic to PC game standards, and has earned its place beside Homeworld, Haegemonia, Starcraft, GalCiv2, EvE, the MOO series etc. etc. Games that stood the test of time, and won.
It is the fans that elevated Sins to this prestigious place. Now that Ironclads status is uncertain it is now up to the fans to keep sins in that prestigious "classic" game status. Even if it means WE have to fix the game.
We do this for IC because they were not a large game developer like EA, Relic, or Blizzard. If this was published or created by any of those company's i would not touch it. I do not enjoy fixing errors that never should have been there to begin with. Since IC was a new indie company, and inexperienced (as it shows in the errors we fixed) we can cut them a little slack. If this was an EA game i would show them NO mercy for these errors just like nobody showed them any mercy in the battlefield series. I probably would never have bought Sins if it was published by any of the above cash cow company's.
For what it is worth Sins was not near as bug prone as games from the "big 3" i mentioned above. The devs proved to us that they gave a damn about their game by the relentless patches of the early times, and wanted it to work right crash free, and didnt want to just pump a new title out every few months to make a quick buck... who cares if it worked or not.
For all of the negative i see on these boards nobody ever stopped to think about, and look at the positive. We got the support for sins alone what the big 3 supported for all of their titles combined... Now you guys have something new to think about.
Rant away.
Kinda hard to fix sins when some parts of it are hardcoded though
Hardcodes can be worked around as TSOP proved, but you are right. Dev's do need to ease up on their hardcoding.
Speaking of ranting... lol I'll rant all I want because I don't like seeing lazy game developers... know what that says to us players? You want something fixed... do it yourself don't expect us creators and game makers to fix problems we ourselves caused, oh yeah... try getting past our hardcoding at the same time...
I don't pull punches in that area at all, I don't mind if they drop and leave to work on another project but the least they could do is allow modders more freedom, especially considering how modder friendly this game is suppose to be... the only hardcode limit that makes sense is the 2 gig limit and was meant for a 32-bit system.
I remember when I first got Sins, Downloaded it illegally like most of my pc games ^^. But hey I bought it after a half a year and that was 'cause I was so frustrated not being able to use alot of the drool inducing mods that littler this lovely forums. I have probably 20 different mods in my mods folders, all cycled out, up to date and played lol, I've even been getting a few friends to buy this(Even workin on the Mrs.and her sis, they're closet trekies, but a mod fix should get them fairly interested,shhh don't tell about the trekie part.) Playing warcraft 3 , black and white 2, and a few other EA/Blizzard copies I usually ended up walking away from them about 3-4 months at the longest and moved onto the next thing. But Sins now, I still get the "You're still playing that" from the Mrs. and she runs away before I start explaining what new little add-on I've mixed in, that or she pretends to listen, she's sweet like that some times lol. Point is, I think even when I'm 80+ I'll still be playing this game, maybe by then I'll have her in the bed next to me in the rest home whittling away the hours on it too ya never know.
Also, some group of fresh programmers, or even the creators might stumble across this again and see what we've made it into and decide to make another expansion or even a sequel. Wouldn't it knock their socks off if we turned sins into something they didn't even see coming by the time they got back?
In all fairness Eternal Requiem has a point. I happen to agree with it. We the modding community should not "have" to fix a broken game because of obvious laziness on the developers part, or because it was rushed out the door months before it was ready for release. Example Homeworld 2. Rushed, and the campaign left more to be desired plus it seemed incomplete. Relic gave it the one patch wonder, and abandoned it.
Another example KOTOR 2. No big secret that game was rushed out the door with content missing, or content was not enabled, but was in the dvd, and your HD installation. Did the developers of those games expect us to "finish it"? I do know there was a mod team that did try to finish KOTOR 2.
It is kind of an alarming trend i am seeing in the pc gaming community. How many games do you know of that have a "community bug fix patch"? SFC 3 has one. Bridge Commander has one. Damn near every game in the Dawn of War series has one. I dont keep up with 1st person shooters, but i have no doubt they have them as well. Especially the Battlefield series. Damn near every game i know of has a "community fix patch" in some way, name, shape, or form.
With the exception of IC.. I give them the exception because of the relentless patching of the early years. I think damn near every developer "expects" the mod community to "fix" their game. FOR FREE. Like i said we did TSOP for sins to help IC because they are relatively new and inexperienced compared to the big guys. Plus they DID support and try to fix the game. The other guys you will be lucky if you see one patch, and that is all she wrote. Its up to the mod community now....
I got a headache now because of hind sight, and the past games the modding community "fixed" for delelopers that had no excuse for releasing a shoddy game to begin with...
Rant on..
Think the only reason these game developer teams "RUSHED" things was because they had corporate greedy fat bastards breathing down their necks, a lot of these big game companies don't think of games as masterpieces of gaming art rather all they see is the dollar signs. It's destroying the gaming developer community and killing support from the fans. They can only crap out so many games to a point where gamers and fans say enough is enough.
Ah here's a thing that ticks Modern Warfare fans off a lot and they haven't fixed it for several games, when you respawn after being killed you respawn in an area where the enemy/opposing team can shoot you on respawn. They haven't fixed that yet and that really, REALLY pissed players off.
"If you're good at something, why do it for free?"
The modding community should ban together and make free open source games which will really put the squeeze on the greedy suits.
Ah spawn camping.... gotta love it. Though that has been around since the days of Quake 3. If you are spawning at an enemy camp i can see why peeps get pissed.
I agree 100% that it is all about the money. That is the point. Crank out this cool looking title.. hype it to death.. Say it will do this, that, and the other thing. Make people pay out the ass to preorder it (because of all the hype). Cha-Ching! Come release date release it.. Ready, or not. Who cares if it works, or not. It can do this, but doesnt do that, or the other thing. It looks cool, Has pretty eye candy, but the gameplay absolutely SUCKS. It is buggy as all hell, crashes left, and right. DRMed to death, and now a days you HAVE to be connected to the internet to play it, but it is so bug ridden that it is unplayable. In the 1st week 500,000 (just made up the number) copy's of a busted game will be sold, . CHIIIINNNG!!
Support will be like "It worked fine on our test machines so the problem must be on YOUR end". Wonder how much the big guys pay people to say that. One patch may be released to fix a major known issue. Then its done. Then the game fades from existence within a month or so. Rinse, and repeat for the next "big title of the week".
Now i do understand that PC games WILL have problems because of compatibility. Making one thing work on a very wide range of systems, and also work with 3 different "supported" OS's is a daunting task. So no doubt there will be issues there. But boasting features to sell a game, but not implementing them is just plain LOW. Example Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. Boasted to be "exactly" like the tabletop game. Along with a host of other features that never made it into the final release.... It is absolutely NOTHING like the tabletop game except for the name, and the artwork. I wont go into detail, because there is too much to list, and have time for a forum discussion. Dont take my word. See it for yourself.
I do look at PC games as "art", and People like SD, IC, and a few other indies as "Artists". In the late 90's PC games were exactly that. ART. Now PC games are "meh, been there done that" with pretty new eye candy. FFS's if the big guys want to suck the cash from the unsuspecting (and uncaring) youth of the world, and pump out titles that have a shelf life of a few weeks to a month, then maybe they "should" switch to all consoles, and let the "artists" take over the PC genre again.
Hmmm... If I have to name one game that's stuck in my mind so far it would have to be the X-universe series of games, the current game X3 Terran Conflict is by far a very good game heck they keep patching it and it has mods galore to boot especially in the German community part of the forum. Though it is a game that requires a "GOOD" running PC with good specs but it's a damn good finely tuned game. Granted it does have some issues, but so far and I've had this game for over 2 years you would have thought I've gotten bored of it, on the contrary I can't get enough. It is the of the few games that I've come across that I've not gotten bored with. Here's another fact about it, X3TC wouldn't have ever happened if a MOD wasn't released for the previous game X3: Reunion. Yes a MOD formed the basis of a whole new game because it brought so much content into the mix that they just had to make a whole new game to make it even better now the same team who worked on that mod will be releasing a similar mod in the coming months that'll make the game seem like new.
Simply put this is one of the games I considered ART even thought it has it's quirks and drawbacks it's still one that sticks in my mind. If anything with Sins here what you guys are doing with Optimizing the game is a good thing granted it's very sneaky and wrong for IC to not be giving you more incentive seeing how they have asked to use the optimization for the game, be it a future patch and what not. It's not often you actually have a game company suddenly ask to use your mod/alteration to improve the game further.
AMEN!!!!!
Preach it brotha!
I will never ever buy a console. And next year I won buy the new console and 6 months after that I wont buy the latest console with a new bell and a bright red whisle.
CONSOLES SUCK ASS.
I agree that adding a new model or 2 and a couple maps is a very low way to make a lot of money which most games are now. I still play BF1942 which is like 10 years old with lots of on-line play still and to me all the sequels are $70 mods.
SPAWN CAMPERS ALSO SUCK ASS
so true myfist, I will NEVER buy a CON-SOLE, I prefer my soles on my shoes, and 'con's in jail.
harpo
I still play Harpoon ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon_(series) ) which i have begin to play on a Amiga more that 20 year ago...
And i bet that the fate of "Sins Of Solar Empire" can be similar to this game... become a classic supported by fan... Harpoon have die and reborn several time, via multiple game company... in fact, it is the company who have die, not the game... mainly due to a huge fan support and modders...
As today, it is modders,, join by some ex game devs who continue to expand and create new contant ( http://www.harpgamer.com/harpforum/index.php?autocom=portal section "What is Harpgamer" )... with time, i am pretty sure that the modding communauty of Sins will follow a similar way...
About these mod become a official upgrade/patch, why not ? Myself, i hope to start a project next year that i call "dynamic mod"... something who allow to choose a max of 10 races between a virtualy unlimited number of races ( the real limit will be the size of your hard disk )... same with thousand races only the asset of the selected races ( max 10 ) will be load in the memory...
About the game itself, no rant here... Ironclad was victim of his success... themself have never think that so much people will buy it and like it... yes, there was some bugs in the game and almost all of them was corrected... several of the patchs was not for correct bug but balance the game in a way that player asked for...
By the way, i don't think that Ironclad is dead... they are always seeking people... by example a expert in realistic human body animation ( not cartoon style )... so, they are working on something... they need a "level builder" too... i think that they are working on something great...
Let me remind you, unless there has been news somewhere else posted about this, IronClad did not ASK to use the Optimization project, it was suggested to them to include elements of it into their next patch. It is being looked into was the understanding that I have of that situation.
Also, people say the Devs didn't do enough to open the game up for modding, compared to what it was when it released, they have done a LOT to open this engine and it's content up for modding.
Look, we shouldn't be ranting or even really arguing about this in this forum. This forum is to make a great game better. Let's keep on task. I'll be shooting Blair an e-mail tonight to see what's up with things. It may well be that Iron Clad is live and well (which I believe to be the case) but that there is another project along with hoops to jump through between them and Stardock and testing a patch before it's released for Sins.
I'm eager about the next patch because in all honesty, it will allow me to make truly MASSIVE maps (many stars) etc. Combine that with the Optimization mod (whether incorporated into the next patch or not), well, fun will be had by all.
4 week gaming session anyone?
FORUM:
a public meeting place for open discussion
a medium (as a newspaper or online service) of open discussion or expression of ideas
at least thats my understanding
This has turned into quite the discussion huh, Been a while since the infamous "Major Stress Meltdown" on the old SoA2 topic. A little venting can be good, and can open up into a constructive discussion as long as it is not taken to the extreme. Toss in a little humorous sarcasm for some comic relief
Boshimi is right. IC did NOT ask us to do TSOP. I dont recall anywhere on this topic, or the forums where they even hinted at that.
I started TSOP of my own initiative, and offered what ever we Fixed, Optimized, or found that needed fixing that we could not fix to IC as a guide for their next major patch (if there will be a next patch). First we had to prove that TSOP worked for the main issue that we created this project for to begin with, and that was to fix the 2 gig issue without hacking exe's, or changing the core gameplay, and balance. Which we succeeded in that task.
The reason i say IC disappeared is because they used to post on these boards on a regular basis. Even just to say hi, or kudos for finding this issue. Sometimes they offered guidance to the modders. Lately especially after Diplomacy 1.011 there has been stoic silence. Only Blair has been heard from, and that was a while back.
Entrenchment, and Diplomacy DID open up modding a great deal. In Vanilla sins you still cant enable dynamic ship movement. They increased the hardcoded mesh, texture, and sound counts.
The thing is the reason why the 2 gig issue is present is because Entrenchment, and Diplomacy added so much new content to sins that the game went over its own limits. Vanilla sins 1.191 itself runs at 1.7 gigs, and steadily climbs because of a memory leak. Entrenchment, and Diplomacy damn near hits 2 gigs at game start. This is running at maximum settings. With TSOP we got the Entrenchment/Diplomacy max ram usage down to 1.5-1.6 gigs, and it holds steady. For Vanilla its around 1.3 gigs, and holds. IF IC actually uses anything from TSOP, or not for the next is totally up to them. TSOP will still be here regardless. Finding new ways to smooth out the rough edges of sins
Let the rambling continue while i figure out how to get these mines converted without screwing them up
Hmm, maybe it is best a "no next patch"... almost all needed balance or optimization can be done via mod... you work being a perfect example...
Now, imagine a patch like these after sins 1.05 ... where they have switch the cl alpha with one channel of the da map... it will mean that you need to rework all textures that you have already optimised...
If not more patch are made ( who usually break down mod ), modders can begin work on more heavy and long term mod for the benefice of all players...
Nvm, Fixed it.
Regardless of where things land with IC, TSOP may well have insured this game remains a modder's classic. You would be amazed at the games I hung onto and still play (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, for example).
Here's the reasons this game can be a classic no matter what it's developing company decides:
1) It plays well on lower end systems (compared to current new machines).
2) It is customizable and moddable).
3) It can be played via lan.
4) It is 32 bit and 64 bit compatible.
5) It sits in a niche as a scifi gendre' tactical-strategic space game especially with it's saveable campaign mode.
TSOP is one of the best player initiatives I've seen anywhere--great job guys. Love the new website and hope you will expand it as I got pulled into work and the baby skills I had atrophied. I''ll be starting over and I'd love a centralized repository.
Last note on "why do it for free?"...well, you can be like the internet businesses you despise, get greedy and end with nothing or you can do what the people who made the net what it is today did--give your talent and help to others so they can step up. I am daily grateful to professionals who spent time posting and sharing things that I would have had to go to college to learn otherwise. The open source movement for example has played a great part in forcing the evil empires to continue to have to provide value and not just "packages" to buy for their software.
I can remember when Microsoft was hinting it would be charging for IE in the future...then Mozilla came along and the writing was on the wall. Imagine the price of Windows if Linux wasn't around. Maybe IC will release the source one day and if so it may be because they saw POSITIVE efforts like this. Keep up the good work.
*Bump
...anybody home?
busy with RL atm I think
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