Smoothing gameplay for Homeworld 2 classic Complex

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

I have gained some success with smoother gameplay by Unbigging the Homeworld2.big, replacing the larger debris and asteroid HOD files with existing smaller ones located in the resource and ship folders. Complex7.4.4 runs liquid laugh smooth, release 8.4.3 and 9.1 are showing improvements.

**ALC** · Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 12:53 am Post subject: Description:

Nicely done. As i recall, reducing the total number of objects also made for smoother gameplay. Lots of debris in late game could slow things down a bit.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Thank you. Complex seems to be excepting a diet of 42k asteroids and 7k pebble replacements. I'm attempting to reduce some Planet texture map sizes, but my output Mips are 11 and the originals are shown as 9.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Changed the venus HOD markers and replaced the star_sol HODs. A bit smoother on the planet maps. Also removed the feeling I should be vaporized in less than a nanosecond being that close to the sun. The radiation plume animation now cycles in the distance.

**ALC** · Posted: Sat May 02, 2020 11:44 pm Post subject: Description:

Also, the poly count on objects can make a big difference to the smoothness of gameplay—even a relatively small reduction could yield a significant result, as can having effects like shadows switched on or off.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

I do have a copy of okino polytrans on my old Xp system, i'll give poly reduction a try. Thanks for the advice.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Popped in the CD Version of Homeworld2 on my XP, I never realized the changes made by the RM team. It seems a spline control was removed from camera movements. The Ease in/out zoom realy enhanced DOF game play. It also looks like they used multiple background HODs with kinematics, further enhancing the depth perception of stars.

**ALC** · Posted: Fri May 08, 2020 11:54 am Post subject: Description:

The RM team did lots of enhancements on the original. I guess they had to produce something 'new' prior to re-releasing HW.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Compairing the original Homeworld 2 with the RM is like compairing Rachael's from
the Blade Runner movies. The original HomeWorld 2 eyes were green.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Having the modified Homeworld2.big run Complex through its paces.
Even unearthed version 8.2.3 from my xp system, Runs well.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Reluctantly replaced some larger background HODs with smaller sized original Homeworld backgrounds, increasing smoothness.

Trios · Ensign Joined: 17 Aug 2008 Posts: 10

Thank you Team Beghins for the iconic joy of docking with Tanis in the Complex 9 series.

**ALC** · Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 12:33 am Post subject: Description:

Di-Ferr · Ensign Gender: Joined: 08 Nov 2020 Posts: 1 Location: TX

Has anyone found a way to achieve a significant boost in performance?

I love Complex 9.1 on Homeworld 2 Classic.
After years of development, the new EVO does not even come close in terms of unit variety, gameplay mechanics and overall complexity.

However, by the time I reach the fun stages of a big 3v3 battle, my FPS has dropped to 20 or even less, depending on what map I am playing.

But when I check my CPU GPU usage, they do not exceed 30% - and my RAM usage is not even 50%. This seems to be the case across any and all hardware, regardless of graphics settings.

Which leads me to believe that this is a limitation of the HW2 Classic game engine. I assume the various calculations that must go into economy, game year, crew, rank, power consumption, research, and other Complex 9.1 systems must be bogging down the game engine.

If there is any way to optimize Complex 9.1 or port it over to Remastered edition, please let me know...

**ALC** · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 5:28 am Post subject: Description:

Two things occur to me that might be causing your drop in FPS rate.

It could be due to a large number of objects present in the map—debris from destroyed ships for example which tends to build up in a map over time.
Also, some elements on the map might be causing issues.

Turning off shadows and other effects ought to improve it also.

There are some old threads on this which might be worth reading through for pointers.

I do not have these issues playing a 6 player game on very large custom maps, playing Complex on WinXP in an emulator. I have always found XP to be the best, and keep an old installation for the game.