Starship Troopers

Post by **skipclarke** » 10 Nov 2005, 06:27

Hey All,

I was playing around with the Starship Troopers demo this evening, and took two screenshots to compare the widescreen view. This is just preliminary of course, the demo isn't optimzed, but in the readme file they tell you how to change the global.settings file in the STProfiles directory.

Here's a shot in 1280x1024:

And one in 1680x1024:

Comparing the screens led me to suspect that the view is simply stretched. The federation containers and their insignias look fatter in the widescreen shot and slightly to the right the the yellow sign on the floor looks wider as well. Also on the far right the mountain range in the distance seems to have gotten stretched partly off the screen.

Hopefully the retail version will support widescreen. If not, I may just pick it up anyway. :wink:

The graphics are actually not overwhelming. Perhaps that was b/c they need to render so many bugs on the screen. I can't seem to get a smooth framerate with everything bumped up to high, so I lowered some settings to medium. Overall it looks like a fun game - To think I was in high school when this movie came out, and have been waiting all these years for a video game on the movie. :)

nightrider · Post by **nightrider** » 10 Nov 2005, 06:38

sif the custom map in warcraft 3 wasnt what uve been waiting for all these years! and there it was all along! =P

^first post^

Post by **skipclarke** » 10 Nov 2005, 22:32

sif the custom map in warcraft 3 wasnt what uve been waiting for all these years! and there it was all along! =P

^first post^

Right on, man. You know come to think of it, there was a starship troopers mod for the original half-life a while back that was starting to look really good. They had meshes and models for weapons, bug and troopers that showed a lot or promise. Unfortunately I think it lost momentum.

I think there is another mod called "Antlion Troopers" that has undergone a few revisions. It's for HL 2.

exus · Post by **exus** » 10 Nov 2005, 22:50

Yup, thats definitely stretched :( ::sigh:: I can't wait for true widescreen gaming.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 11 Nov 2005, 11:21

Yup - stretched. Does it use a custom engine, or something "simple" like the UT one?

Post by **skipclarke** » 12 Nov 2005, 01:11

Does it use a custom engine, or something "simple" like the UT one?

Here's some interesting info I found about the "Swarm" Engine:

5. Give us some information about the development and potential or your SWARM engine.

The technology we're using is all developed in house from the ground up, as other solutions on the market just weren't focused on the large number of enemies we need for the game to bring the movie to life. The engine is designed to give the game that "Bugs sir! Millions of them!" feeling that everyone remembers from the film.

We have a fully interactive environment, physics system and an advanced animation system allowing us to have some spectacular moments and some gruesome deaths. In fact, you will not have seen anything like this previously We're very proud of the 3D engine we have created. It's capable of all the DirectX 9 tricks seen in other games such as Doom III and Half Life 2.

The bugs look amazing because we use an anisotropic shader to give them a chrome and iridescent finish.

We have an atmospherics engine that allows us to dynamically set the time of day which alters the direction and length of shadows and even changes the colour of the light. We are constantly refining the engine, so expect to see even more enemies on screen in the final game than in the gameplay video available on the Starship Troopers game website.

Based on my experience with the demo I have to say that it doesn't look all that great. Good, but not exceptional. I suspect, as they mentioned above, that it might be due to the large number of objects that have to be rendered all at once. Still, i'll keep an eye on this one. It looks like a lot of fun. :)

Post by **skipclarke** » 19 Nov 2005, 03:31

Just a wee bump for anyone else who is interested. A second demo of the game has been released:

http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=8013

deckard · Post by **deckard** » 04 Sep 2006, 04:16

Information about this game is incredibly scarce but if anyone can let me know what this does I'd appreciate it.

ScreenXRes: { "1600" }
ScreenYRes: { "1200" }
ScreenRefreshRate: { "60" }
ScreenFormat: { "22" }

As noted, natively the game does not offer widescreen. Also noted, you can force a custom res by editing Documents and SettingsAdministratorMy DocumentsEmpire InteractiveSSTSettings but it will simply be stretched. However, what does the ScreenFormat value mean?

Post by **skipclarke** » 06 Sep 2006, 03:05

Do you know who the developer is? Sometimes I just email them directly if I have a question about changing the config files to alter the resolution.

Sometimes they are very helpful too. :)

(BTW - This game got a 3.8 on Gamespot! :shock: :P ) Despite the poor reception I may just pick it up anyway and play it on god mode. :wink:

Gizmo · Post by **Gizmo** » 06 Sep 2006, 16:49

Ive been playing ST on off over the last few weeks and although i runs poorly with the res at anything above 1024x768 no matter the setting i try (im running a 3800X2 @2.45Ghz with an ATI 512mb 1800XT PE 2Gig ddr400 SATAII HDD Asrock dual939 LG203WT)

i can only put this down to poor engine/lvl design as i have Zero problems with any other game on my rig,its still a fun game and has the same kind of Sci-fi b movie charm of the first film(2nd one id total shit imo) taking down a plasma bug with a RL is great fun as i only paid Ã‚Â£1 (about $2) for it ive gotten my value for money out of it ;) so if you can pick it up real cheap id recommend it for a few hours of bug blasting fun just dont be expectting HL2 quaility gfx & gameplay and you'll enjoy it

main web page for the game is

http://www.starshiptroopersgame.com/games/

empire seemed to have closed the english forums and dropped any support for the game :(

Dev site

http://www.strangelite.com/

I try contecting them about widescreen support but got bounce from the web page admin addy and no reply from the other addy which was on the job page

ive messed with the ScreenFormat: { "22" } setting but cant seem to find the value to trigger 16:9 or 16:10 the game will reset the display to 640x480 ScreenFormat: { "22" } if the ScreenFormat: value is anything other than 22 (i started at 1 and gave up at 44) if you have any luck plz post an update :)

cheers
Gizmo

deckard · Post by **deckard** » 08 Sep 2006, 01:25

Thanks for checking it out, guess we might never know what it means since as noted there isn't much you could call 'support' out there from the developer or publisher.

While we have this modest little thread about this game, here's another useful hint.

Add these to your program shortcut to skip all the intro movies and the movie that plays under the main menu. Makes loading and getting into the game a ton faster.

Example:

"H:StrangeliteStarship TroopersSTGame.exe" -nouimovie -skipmov

Anyone else noticed the absurdly long load and save times? Quick save and quick load are mislabelled, that's for sure.

I agree the game engine doesn't deliver enough visual punch to justify it's relatively low performance. On my high-end system at 1600x1200 and 2x AA the game runs great but if I turn on even the slightest shadows it becomes laggy. Shame as the shadows add a lot to the atmosphere.

Overall I am enjoying playing the game. There are some truly awesome mass-bug-destruction moments that are way more satisfying than the poor reviews of this game would lead you to believe.

Post by **skipclarke** » 16 Sep 2006, 04:22

Thanks for checking it out, guess we might never know what it means since as noted there isn't much you could call 'support' out there from the developer or publisher.

You guys are right about that. I tried emailing Empire Interactive's tech support. After two days I got an auto-generated FAQ. Never got a response from a human. It's almost as if they know how poorly optimized (or coded) this engine is. :wink:

Despite this and its poor critical reception I still may play through it, just b/c i've always wanted a video game based upon the Starship Troopers movies.

"H:StrangeliteStarship TroopersSTGame.exe" -nouimovie -skipmov

Anyone else noticed the absurdly long load and save times? Quick save and quick load are mislabelled, that's for sure.

Thx for the hint. I think we should use this thread to share tips like that in order to make our play experience as hassle free as can be expected from this game.

And yes, I agree, it does have a charm of its own. I bet you if it was released to the open source community they could take this engine and make it shine.

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