I need to know..

[Bluetiereign]

Well, I haven't seen Bane, Reaper or Inso around in quite awhile, but it would be nice to improve the visual aspect of a really fun game, if at all possible. Does anybody know the real limits of C4 ? Here is what I'm asking - and some of these questions may be just plain stupid..


The highest resolution that C4 could possibly use - currently its 1600 x 1200.
What is the highest resolution .dds files we can use ?
Can we get the engine to use a higher version of DX and take advantage of that ?
Can we improve the effects ? The AI ?
The Maximum number of objects we can add ?


There are other questions, but I have something in mind to work on over the next year or so. I've always thought of C4 as a game to simply enjoy. TDM is fun when the servers are full, but I think we can say goodbye to those days. I still enjoy just cranking up the game, hooking up the goggles and the Extreme3D and putting on some tunes and flying.. destroying the occasional AI.

[MasterX(BKC)]

So right off the bat, before anyone goes off half cocked, and makes some 4K textures, i need to point out one crucial piece of information.

The game is 32-bit, which limits its process size to 2 GB of RAM, so if you create high res dds textures, and crank up the resulution too far, even if the file formats and such dont have a set limit, you will slam into the ceiling before long if your not carefull.

I think the most important one might just be getting the resolution higher, and depending on the games architecture, that might not severely impact the memory usage since the renderer, directx, would be handling that part.

The next question someone is bound to ask is, Can we make the game run 64 bit? Nope, not unless we had the full source code, and the development environment used to compile it in the first place.

Bear these things in mind before jumping off any bridges.

[MasterX(BKC)]

ok digging thru some old info, i found a caveat i had forgotten about. If the process was compiled using the /3gb switch, it can address 3GB, BUT if the underlying OS is 64 bit, it can address more memory, depending on how it was written.

The test would be, someone crank up C4, and crank the skittles out of the settings, and see if its memory size exceeds 3GB. If it does, we might be lucky, and nova might have done at least something right with the compiling. If it hits 3GB, or a little over 3GB, and you get a sysdump, or other kind of crash, then its 3GB.

Someone needs to test it. And report back with screenshots so we can see the results. I dont have the game installed atm so....

Reference:
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/tom/2008/04/10/chat-question-memory-limits-for-32-bit-and-64-bit-processes/

[MasterX(BKC)]

One method i used to use to test my video card performance, was i would take one of my modified exes, that you guys came to hate :rofl: You know, the one that turns the nose canon into a stinger launcher with 500 stingers on rapid fire... and i would go onto a map and just spray the stingers like a banshe, and see if the video would lag out in the process, and usually it would after about half way through the full volley, since they were shooting about 5 per second and creating a wall of fire effects, con trails, and spark animation sprites.

I suspect this might also be a good way to pile up the ram load and try to get it up to 3gb and beyond, perhaps also take a custom map, copy it, and then just pile vehicles onto it, whatever it takes to generate a massive ram load.

[Bluetiereign]

I've got it installed - but can't get a windowed mode going, so I'm having to drop out to view my resource monitor (if that's what I'm supposed to be checking). I can't get it to go over 300,000K with aircraft flying everywhere, vehicles moving all over the map and very intensive fighting.

[MasterX(BKC)]

Hmm, i seem to remember this being the other way around, sysdump all the time, but when you want the game to comply and reach a certain point and crash, it decides to be rock solid..... figures....

[Bluetiereign]

I get a sysdump whenever I try to run in 1600 x 1200 mode - after enabling it manually in the .cfg file. 1280 x 1024 is as high as I can go and remain stable.

Well, I'm going to push forward, gather my modding programs together and put them into a pile and see if we can't do something this year. Small, tight, decorated maps with new objects, buildings might be a fun change - even if it is only for 5 people, lol.

Shout out to DAD for dropping into the server to help me sort out a few things...

Thanks MasterX for the info. I'll keep it in mind.