How did you guys do it?!

[The Tarman]

I am simply flabbergasted at the amazing work done in regards to the overhaul of the graphics alone! My laptop can run games like Skyrim on lowish and Far Cry 3 (with that neutering mod for top speed) but I obviously experienced the famous "Un-Optimization" of the TW series with all the games. Rome TW was always fun but I always dreamed of what it would be like to run it at max.

Well, I can't run it at max (obviously) but whatever you boys did made it so I can appreciate your work in it's grandiosity and I am so grateful I had to tell you. I hope one of the modder's stumbles upon this thread because I could not bear to think I would go on enjoying the fruit's of their labor while never having thanked them properly. So in hopes of that taking place, THANK YOU!!!!!!

Oh and WTF??? How did you do it?!!!

[stupar123]

Black Magic .

[Gnaeus Mallius Maximus]

Quate from http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-first-post%29

[QUOTERoma Surrectum II uses beautiful and high quality models and skins. As such, the mod is more taxing on the computer than vanilla RTW was. Also, despite the graphical improvement, Rome Total War as an engine is six years old. Its age simply does not allow it to take advantage of the improved hardware that have been developed in the intervening years. In fact, a single core processor running at 3.2Ghz will actually show better performance than a Twelve-core with HyperThreading capability running at 2.8Ghz simply because Rome Total War can only function on ONE core. This also unfortunately means that many of the optimizing features of newer model graphics cards are unrecognized by the game and will largely be ignored, making graphics card memory the most important factor in game performance. Finally, because Rome Total War is running on one core only, a large portion of your RAM will be left to side idle because they're simply not accessed.

Therefore, don't expect your brand new Alienware to be the beast it really is when it comes to running RSII. But a more modern computer will still see some degree of performance increase over an older computer.

While the units may look like they are demanding the most resources, it is in fact the vegetation that is the largest resource hog. Grass and trees are far more numerous than units.

The settings in the option menu still function as they do in vanilla, but we have added a few of our own in the launcher so you can have fewer trees on the battlemap without reducing their quality. The model can also be swapped between two options. However, it is the sprite distance which is changed by this option. It would also seem that running the program on compatibility XP SP3 with vista or 7 could remove a few crashes on the battle-map if you have some.

A word on sprites
Sprites are essentially 2D drawings that replace 3D models in the distance.

Most, if not all the Total War titles utilize sprites to a certain degree. What this means is that when you zoom out enough, the game decides it is no longer desirable or efficient to generate the 3D models and instead relies on the 2D drawings that it puts up as to give you the illusion of 3D models.

This explains why when you zoom out enough, you start seeing a strange color sheen appear over your units. This is simply the sprites kicking in to replace the 3D models.

When changing unit detail to Very High, you are forcing the game to render ALL the 3D models, regardless of distance. Needless to say, this puts a heavy strain on both the game and your computer. It's recommended that the highest unit detail level be set to High as there are no differences in model detail between High and Very High, only the sprite generation is affected.

The high quality vegetation option is only recommended for people with Über PC's and may resolute in CTD's when starting a battle for those who doesn't got one of those.


If you want to change the distance the grass is appearing, you'll need to edit the preferences.txt file, which is also available through the launcher.

The best is to fight a few battles, and adjust the different options to your computer and your needs.

Anti-Aliasing
Rome Total War comes with an anti-aliasing option in the in-game menu. However, the option is very buggy and system taxing. If you are using any modern graphics card from either nVidia or ATI, you should have access to a control center. Therefore, it is better for performance to disable anti-aliasing in game while simultaneously enabling it in your video card control panel

To disable anti-aliasing in Rome Total War:

• Go to options --> Video options
• Click the advanced tab
• Locate the anti-aliasing option. It should be the top left of the advanced options
• Select Disable

To enable anti-aliasing in your video card control panel (nVidia card control):

• Enter the control center for your graphics card and locate Rome Total War in the list of programs.
• Once you have done that, change the anti-aliasing levels for RTW to 4x as this will be sufficient.

To enable anti-aliasing in your video card control panel (ATI Catalyst control)

• Open up Catalyst control center
• Go to the dropdown menu and select 3D
• Select the AA tab
• UNCHECK the box that says "Use Application Settings"

Finally, the Roma Surrectum team recommends that terrain detail be set at high to improve tiling of terrain with negligible impact on performance.][/QUOTE]

[The Tarman]

Sorry to double dip here but thanks

Gnaeus Mallius Maximus for the link. I had already read most of that while I was downloading the mod but I now have it saved to my favorites. In case I was misunderstood, I only meant to thank the mod team for overcoming the bad optimization present in Rome TW allowing me to almost max it out now to my hearts content. I didn't mean to sound (if I did) as if I was crying out for help in doing so myself. Thank you for the link though. Sincerely.

[tone]

Thanks. Have read this and appreciation accepted.

It was a massive bit of work for all of us involved and very much a labour of love. Personally I put hundreds and hundreds of hours into this over about three years.

[tungri_centurio]

i have 3 words to say about it,RESPECT,RESPECT,RESPECT
since i met RSII its the only game i play for long ours at one time

[CrayonVonCaesar]

Seems like a fine time to break my own rule and ask on progress of the new version.

How does it go?

[tone]

Really good.
DVK, Tedric and I have put in a load of hours crafting some improvements. Loads of work done around the rebellion to make the coding tighter and also allow for later mini rebellions triggered by Imperial Jealousy. Lots of economic improvements - the generic one turn campaigns have shaped up no end in challenge level. Further graphics improvements - I spent most of Saturday working on some further improvements in the battlemap to make the terrain less tree dominated.
We've now got a few guys beta testing which really helps.

[CrayonVonCaesar]

Really good.
DVK, Tedric and I have put in a load of hours crafting some improvements. Loads of work done around the rebellion to make the coding tighter and also allow for later mini rebellions triggered by Imperial Jealousy. Lots of economic improvements - the generic one turn campaigns have shaped up no end in challenge level. Further graphics improvements - I spent most of Saturday working on some further improvements in the battlemap to make the terrain less tree dominated.
We've now got a few guys beta testing which really helps.

Sounds bloody awesome. Thanks for the info.

[XxAndrewxX2525]

Really good.
DVK, Tedric and I have put in a load of hours crafting some improvements. Loads of work done around the rebellion to make the coding tighter and also allow for later mini rebellions triggered by Imperial Jealousy. Lots of economic improvements - the generic one turn campaigns have shaped up no end in challenge level. Further graphics improvements - I spent most of Saturday working on some further improvements in the battlemap to make the terrain less tree dominated.
We've now got a few guys beta testing which really helps.

Any estimate on release? ^.^

[The Tarman]

Since I may still have your attention Tone, seeing as you are one of the big heads on RS II's MT. Rushmore, thanks a lot!

[High Fist]

Really good.
DVK, Tedric and I have put in a load of hours crafting some improvements. Loads of work done around the rebellion to make the coding tighter and also allow for later mini rebellions triggered by Imperial Jealousy. Lots of economic improvements - the generic one turn campaigns have shaped up no end in challenge level. Further graphics improvements - I spent most of Saturday working on some further improvements in the battlemap to make the terrain less tree dominated.
We've now got a few guys beta testing which really helps.

Thank you Tone and give my thanks to the rest of the team. We really appreciate what you've done and continue to do.
Generally I don't like to be a kiss ass but you've really put your everything into this mod.

[atheniandp]

Is there any chance we'll see more custom settlements like the hillfort?

[Kirila the Kitten]

Is there any chance we'll see more custom settlements like the hillfort?

Oh, can I ask something too?
How do I disable those damn custom settlements?! I lose battles because of them!

[Sertorio]

Is there any chance we'll see more custom settlements like the hillfort?

Oh, can I ask something too?
How do I disable those damn custom settlements?! I lose battles because of them!

That's why i take my hat off to all the modders of RTW, and in general.

[atheniandp]

Oh give me a break. Those who want an unmodded game can go play vanilla. I almost always win my battles. If the custom settlements hindered my ability to win it would be a good thing.

[dvk901]

The Barbarian Hillfort, which is a custom settlement made by Tone, is intended to be hard....afterall, it WAS hard. Caesar can testify to that.

The new patch is coming along....it has taken longer than I had hoped because we all insisted that the Roman rebellion be fixed and work as it was intended. But it's hard to test.....you need to play long campaigns, and we needed to improvise just to be able to make changes mid-campaign that wouldn't wreck saved games.

We've also do a lot of work....or I should say, TONE has done a lot of work balancing and tweaking both 0-turn and 1-turn campaigns so they play much better than before. I think people will be pleased with the results, no matter which you prefer.

[tone]

Ur Lord Tedric deserves a lot of the credit for helping with improvements by painstakingly running campaigns and making saves and doing detailed financial analyses every 5 years which allowed us to tweak as needed and instantly measure the effects.

He's also improved the organisation of making changes ina logical way.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

Ur Lord Tedric deserves a lot of the credit for helping with improvements by painstakingly running campaigns and making saves and doing detailed financial analyses every 5 years which allowed us to tweak as needed and instantly measure the effects...........

That's most kind - but I've also only tested what you, dvk' and the rest of the Team had already done - and then thrown all sorts of curve balls.

[The Tarman]

Well, all three of you don't receive enough credit for all your hard work in proportion to the many who enjoy the fruits of those same labors. I am glad at least the three of you read my stupid little thread as now I feel as though I have expressed some gratitude to some of the people who have allowed me to do all the fun stuff with your mod while passing on all the long, tedious, annoying stuff. Thanks guys and please pass on the cheesy, lame love fest feeling to all the other crazy people who test mods for fun.