Stardock and Ironclad have been looking at what's next for Sins of a Solar Empire. One of the big things on our list is to implement a new memory model for the game. The reason this matters is that right now, it's hard to add more ships or structures into the game because of the infamous 2GB memory limit on 32-bit systems.
So in the coming couple of months, we're going to be working on a new update to Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity that implements this. After that, we can evaluate new opportunities in the Sins of a Solar Empire universe.
Another thing:
Please support custom ShaderPipelines (besides the ones supplied in the game). We can create wonderful effect using new shaders but are only allowed to modify existing ones and therefore change things we don't want to change. This should be very easy.
ShaderModel 3 support for the custom shaders would be good, so we could add our own Parallax Occlusion Culling shaders to the game. Or better reflections and more.
Also I'd love (unlikely, but would be a modders wet dream) to see support for a plugin architecture allowing us to add our own custom buff types, probably C++ written dll's the game would load with the mod which allow for more diverse modifications of the game.
for modifyable pacts, that would rock.
Then a bugfix please - when I use the cinematic mode and exit the game to windows, next start all my predefined view settings are off and I have to restore them manually.
Brad, you just made my day....
And, as previously stated in this thread, quad-core support would be much appreciated as well, although i don't know how much more work it would take to do that, or if it's even possible at this point.
Sweet.
Wonderful,
There were a few threads I contributed to last year that discussed the late game lag even on higher-end systems. A great deal of banter and muscle flexing was exchanged over which systems were superior. But the discussion didn't provide anything useful in terms of narrowing down why some systems had more success in running large games and performed better in the later stages. Finally, a few of us were able to determine that it was primarily higher L2/L3 chache and RAM not necessarily GPU or CPU clock speed, that really impacted system performance. The game is just very CPU/Memory dependent.
I upgraded by chip doubling my L2 Cache and this improved game perforance significantly since it is the cache that really houses the processor's fastest mathematical calculations (ship positions, AI etc). But there was still a great deal of late game lag. I was really excited to see first, that the modding communty had started the Sins Optimization Project and now secondly, to see an official recoding of the game. I feel vindicated in one way that there really wasn't anything wrong with my machine (as suggested in the previous forums) and that I will finally see Sins run the way I had always hoped; epic battles with higher than 15fps!
Cheers,
Cepheid
Good news I thought this might have been it for sins.
What happens to players who are stuck on 32 bit systems and 2 GB of RAM? Will it become impossible for them to play Sins in online multiplayer?
Interesting...
Time to join the 20th century and put the abacus in the attic or a museum. That's like saying "Don't make cars go faster, there are still horses on the road".
I doubt there changing the 32 bit system, thats a hole new game.
First Off A Wonderful Thank You to Brad and Company and IronClad, this is Wonderful, Wonderful News!! I am not sure exactly how one would go about heading off the 2GB limit, other than to suggest, that not holding the entire game in memory might be something to consider. I say that because even load screens wouldn't deter me if there was a chance at adding new expansions or even new whole games at full price for the Sins saga to continue.
Another thought might be to reduce the mesh poly's or upper resolutions of the models, and/or if there were a way to suspend planets and or motion, perhaps lowering the memory calculations when the player is not directly observing those areas.
This of course is all just a layperson's suggestions, i have no clue how to build a game, it just seems there might be many avenues for getting memory usage down. Although the re-coding would be a wonderful lease of 64 bit machines. It is just i fear that a complete re-coding is a huge undertaking. Unless there is of course some program that will 'convert', but not sure one of those 'magic' things exist. Though, it would make life a lot easier on you all at IC and Stardock.
Anyway, if i haven't already said it, a thousand thank you's!! You all are great, and we appreciate your thinking of us. It reminds me why i love you all so much anyway! Because most companies don't care, and you keep showing us that you do. Thank you for that!
My budget for games and things isn't huge, but I do want to do my part to support your wonderful team!
Thank you again to Brad and Everyone at Stardock, and to Blair and Craig and Josie and Everyone at IronClad!!
We love you!!
-Teal
p.s. I know its kinda mushy, but hey, That's not always bad.
This is fantastic!
this is amazing!
I have absolutly no idea why they are doing such a huge coding overhaul like this on such an old game, (prepworkforsins2??!!11) but dammit, am i happy about it!
and, hehe, I think i need to collect a bet from someone...
This is my first post and my first year playing the game. I have enjoyed both the original and Entrenchment. I got enthralled into this game late in July and can't stop playing it. Thanks for the continual support of this game. I will buy the final expansion soon since I know you guys are big supporters of your products. The community is also very good at helping out with lots of useful information. This is a very good start to a very good company(ies).
Thank you very much. The late game lag/crash was making the game unplayable. Hope this makes the game experience much better.
That is awesome! I was getting a little depressed that one of my favorite sci-fi games of all time might have been abandoned.
First Frogboy mentions a new update for GalCiv II, and now for Sins...this is why gamers are so loyal to Stardock!
"What happens to players who are stuck on 32 bit systems and 2 GB of RAM? Will it become impossible for them to play Sins in online multiplayer?"
The way I read it, they are intending to implement a new way (more efficient?) for Sins to use memory on a 32 bit system - not ditching them in favor of 64-bit support. Please tell me I'm right.
Well, a "new memory model" can mean a lot of thing.... maybe they can implement a "loadondemand" for everything... or maybe make the game use PAE and 3gb tag along with a code who is largeaddressaware ( not only tag )... will not make wonders, 32 bits system with these trick can use 3gb max for a application but 3gb is already a 50% improvement...
In fact, there is hundred of way for improve something... What is wonderfull is that Ironclad/Stardock will be using precious time for a old game... that they don't give up... few game devs will work on upgrading a already existing game engine unless it is for the release of a fully new game... they call this a "update" , i call it a "revolution"...
I would like to see more 64-bit support. 4 gigs of RAM can be purchased for less than $50. Also in Win 7 x64 Enterprise I do run into freezes with multiple 32-bit programs running. Another thing I would like is to trade in all of my expansion keys for the Trinity key. I hate reinstalling all of the packs individually and waiting for the "Game of the Year" version to be released puts you behind.
So....magic? I never understood this tech priest stuff.
Right! Like I said above, they are even working on a new update for GalCiv II! How great is that?!?
Well done Stardock!I'm seriously thinking on buying this game, now that I've seen is still alive, I thought it was dead, to play it at home. From what I've understand will be released a "Game of the Year" version? When will be released and what will include? Also will be wonderful to make it multithreading as I have a Q6600 clocked at 2.4Ghz and on large maps, I have problems.
Awesome! It's good to see that Ironclad hasn't forgotten its fans.
what i would also like to see is that trinity can be gotten in local stores for those of use that cant buy it online
Most Walmarts have (or had) trinity, though you won't be able to get this patch regardless without internet.
I saw Vanilla Sins packaged in one of those econo disk boxes at a store for the standard econo-box game price of $10 a couple days ago.
any chance the AI will get some love?
What specifically do you want them to improve with the AI? I think there's some room for improvement, but whatever they do, it will always be flawed in various ways. If you think the AI uses bad strategy, is it possible that you might be ready to step up to facing off against real human opponents over Ironclad Online?
Mainly the use/placement and attacking of SB.
This game is so long that I dont have time to commit 2-3 + hours in one sitting playing, so online is out for me.
I'm not crossing my fingers on any update to ever be realeased again. Making the game more future proof would prolly need massive rewriting of the original client (multi threading, quad core support etc, better memory model).
But here goes nothing... maybe i'm wrong.
Oh and while you at stardock making changes, plz drop the stupid impulse whatnot crap... It appears i have lost access to my previous stardock purchase (incl sins) and no way to access it again (which was bought under sdcentral).. And all of this because of changing e-mail addresses.. Thx stardock for ripping me from fully legaly purchased software.
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