AstroCat

Yeah it's the engine, I've been around since CMBO playing and modding since the beginning. The last several years though the CM engine has become dreadfully outdated and broken. It's not my system, believe me, and yes I can do the tweaks to get more fps. But it's still crazy low fps and you have to give up bad shaders and bad shadows for an even worse looking game running still super bad. I would love CM on any kind of even semi-recent engine, it's absurd at this point.

It's the CM engine, my system runs games just amazing, they look fantastic with super smooth high fps, it's dreamy. But CM is engine locked, it's not the hardware. Sure I can do the CM "tweaks", like the display.txt edit, turning off shaders/shadows... reducing draw distance, etc. Then my fps will be higher, but why? Why is this necessary to get over 20-30fps? Engine failure, is why.

Yeah for sure, I play all kinds of games. Back into Stellaris for a bit here and before that I played all through Dying Light 1. But I have a soft spot for CM, it's just such a shame it's basically unplayable for me, and has been for years. I spent so much time playing and modding it early on.

Yeah the standalone and Steam versions both seem equally bad for me. In very, extreme low fps ranges no matter what. Sure you can tweak out a few fps this way or that but really on a 10700k 4090 this game should be hard locked at 144hz not to fry my system at <1000fps!

Haha... I know the engine history of CM but I'm still floored when I try it out again just how terrible it runs on high end hardware. I know it's opengl, and all the in my opinion bad engine choices (remember no Speed tree?) back in pre CM2 days but you'd think through the years some kind of improvements would have been made.

CBMN on Steam to check it out. FPS: 20 !!!! Look at my perfectly tuned system in the specs. 10700k, 32GB, 4090... lol. Come on this is insane even for old CM. So laggy it was insane, as soon as I zoomed up to a higher view I was seeing literally at times 1fps!!!! AHAHahahahaha Seriously?! Medium map with a Tiny battle.

Where do I find my serial numbers in my orders? I only see activation codes. Thanks. n/m the activation codes seem to be working.

Statically I believe almost no one actually plays multiplayer. So I hope the next CM has a much improved more immersive single player experience. And long ago I used to play a ton of both single and multi CM1 and CM2.

I just can't resist...Steam... I can't even.... just, lol. I know what will be said... don't care. ITYS, what seems like eons ago. Now out of bubble the legit criticism is coming, be ready. Oh and cool, BF on Steam, awesome. Now a modern engine and we are set for the future.

We played some CMBO and CMBB together... I remember the last game was a snowy quick battle. She ran her guys into a house and then I blew the house up. That was the last game we played. But she was cool about it, it was all for research, she was doing a game review (for CNN of all places) of the CM series way back when she worked the game industry.

HAhaha! The funny part is the only actual girl/friend or otherwise who I've known to play or try CM games is my wife!

I used to love playing and modding the CM games (gen1 and 2) and still check in once and a while. I still have them installed even but I just can't bring myself to play them any more, for years now. My "criticism" is enshrined in the forums so need to rehash. Needless to say I still have a sadness about how I see the "death" or near death of the series. It's like a gaming relationship breakup, I probably shouldn't even be here, it's like checking in on an old girlfriend from years past, creepy! lol Now, "IF" we ever get a proper version 3 maybe we can rekindle the lost relations!

Yeah it's the full ground extension of the really great flight sim IL2.

Thanks for the reply, I've done so much testing and tweaking through the years it's nuts. One thing though, and it can at times make a big fps difference but I can not play these games without SS/AA, otherwise it becomes a shimmering texture crawl mess that legit hurts my eyes to look at.

We can only hope one day, we get a graphics engine even at this level. I've upgraded to a i7-9700K@4.9GHz and an EVGA RTX 2080 Ti XC Ultra and still get terrible fps! Talking hitting 20fps and below on just a simple medium hills quick battle, not even with many trees. Super sluggish and laggy camera movement. lol! IL-2 Sturmovik - Tank Crew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwkTxyh21-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tQVifFTGKY https://www.facebook.com/il2sturmovik/posts/2026223027455545?__tn__=K-R

I believe it's a lost cause, I got a 2080 which is a super fast card, loaded up CM on a whim after not playing for months/years... small quickbattle (with all kinds of the usual shadow issues and shimmering, etc...), lol a very sluggish and laggy 20fps...bahahahaha. I'll back for CMx3, if?! Honestly I really wish they could stop investing in the current engine, it's so outdated and is struggling more than ever. It's so bad that to me the game is broken, so I really can't justify any more BF purchases or recommendations moving forward unless there is a major engine rework. And I want there to be, the "game" is great it just can't be successfully realized adequately any more for me.

Yeah probably best to run the Mac in Parallels or Bootcamp moving forward because without Open GL, doesn't that mean even all the Unity games out there will stop working. It seems like this is the final nail in any kind of gaming on the Mac desktop. And a benefit would be PC only Direct X support for CM, which would offer way better stability and performance.

I wonder what will happen when Apple drops OpenGL? http://www.pcgamesinsider.biz/news/67163/developers-respond-to-apple-dropping-support-for-opengl/ Being free from OpenGL would probably be a positive for the next version of CM.

The game engine is an issue, modern or even hardware over the past many years makes no difference, it is very hard to get "reasonable" performance out of this game. I've been complaining and helping through the years. Honestly until we get a new engine built to even semi-modern specs nothing can make much of a difference. That's why super old hardware and ultra modern barely move the needle on performance.

Yes CM3 please... modernize the engine, grow the imprint!

My system is in my .sig ... I guess you say CM runs "ok", if you take in to account all the CM engine problems and what it is and isn't. It doesn't run "good" compared to the outside universe but it does, I suppose run well for CM.

I come and lurk once and a while, always fingers crossed something has changed. I was/am a big supporter but the series does appear to be near the end. I get it, no reason to explain why it's not, but really it is. Bummer and really wish they had an investment and resources to re-launch this thing, crowd sourced or otherwise to prove me wrong. Loved the series going back to CMBO but I don't see how the future works in the current state. I know people will come on and say I don't understand game development, etc.. that's ok, let's see how things play out. I hope something changes and I can go back to telling everyone how awesome this game series is.

...and yes of course SD44 and CM are not mechanically comparable, I totally agree. CM is of course much more of a sim, but the concept still stands. Better user experience tied into a sim engine, equals a more fun and wider reaching, and profitable experience for all, including fully supported digital distribution channels like Steam (and Steam Workshop for the mod community), GoG, etc...

I think you underestimate the appeal, especially if properly marketed and distributed.

I bet you're correct. I'd wish it would be BF who could do it, but it might take a new developer to really "get it".