Thomm Posted July 29, 1999 Share Posted July 29, 1999 Dear Big Time Software Team ! Please tell me that your little tanks and little soldiers, and the little planes look as cute as the little ones in Panzer General 3D Assault ! Mom, do I want to play !! God, how great must Combat Mission look in reality ! If the difference is a huge as it was for me between the stills of PG3D and the demo then Lord have mercy ! Wet-Eye-Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted July 29, 1999 Share Posted July 29, 1999 Well, I've only seen screenshots, but we have the models beat hands down. My understanding is that PG3 doesn't let you do stuff like this because, well, it isn't true 3D. Just some 3D eye candy (small onest at that!) driving around on a static, 2D map board. In Combat Mission you can plop your camera right down at ground level 2 or 3 meters away from a big tank firing away, or circle overhead as it takes a direct hit, or whatever. Benefits of a true 3D environment for sure. steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PanzerShark Posted July 29, 1999 Share Posted July 29, 1999 Sorry to correct you there BT, but PG3 is true 3d. All the terrain and units are made out of poly's. You can rotate and zoom. CM beats PG3 when it comes to detail though (which reminds me i still have to preorder the game Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted July 29, 1999 Share Posted July 29, 1999 Hmmm... good to be corrected. I thought I read that you couldn't move the camera around something, like a hill. And that the tanks and such were unreasonably small (even seem to remember SSI saying they would try to fix that). Can you change the camera angle and height? Maybe that was it. Thomm, care to comment? Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marko Posted July 30, 1999 Share Posted July 30, 1999 Steve, PG3D defintely does not have the freedom of movement that Combat Mission has. You can move around the map (x and y coordinates). You can rotate freely in the x and y plane. The camera is always pointed at a certain angle (about 45 degrees) looking towards the ground. Thus, the limited zooming capability does change your z coordinate (height) but also the x and y coordinates in order to preserve the camera angle. It's not too bad a system, actually. This is a beer and pretzels game after all! Marko Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted July 30, 1999 Author Share Posted July 30, 1999 Dear Steve ! To clarify: I was talking about the latest version of Panzer General 3D called ASSAULT. The original Panzer General 3D did indeed have a static 2D map, just as you wrote ! Marko gave a precise description of the graphics engine. It is a parallel projection like it is commonly used in action or C&C type games (I assume !?). Compare it to Syndicate Wars. The PG3D-Assault Engine is definitely worth a look ! Please note the way they represented woods ! About the size of the objects I just can say that small, but detailed-down-to-the-pixel, is beautiful (at least to my eyes). I do not feel the urge to zoom in on a tank in a tactical simulation (at least not yet) ! Due to its relative simplicity the Assault engine is also very fast, another benefit ! As for the game: Like any other turn- and hex-based strategy game it barely survived 5 minutes on my computer (Yeah, maybe I am just superficial, but thanks, no hexes for the next Millenium !). But nevertheless: The high-res, high-speed 3D graphics are worth a look ! Regards, Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted July 30, 1999 Share Posted July 30, 1999 Still a bit confused about what I had been told, but oh well I have only had time to look at the screenshots. Looks like they are stretching one bitmap over a poligonal mesh. It looks quite blurry to me. And I am still under the understanding you can't zoom in closer, or change the camera height position (or much anyways). I assume this is because it would ruin the illusion of the terrain. Also I can guess that their models are using far, far fewer polygons than ours are. And how big are the maps? Because of the fixed camera position (again, correct me if I am wrong) they are artificially limiting how much map you can see. All of these tricks increase frame rate, but greatly decrease user options. Options that we feel are VERY important to gameplay. Keep in mind, Panzer General 3D Assault is still a rock, paper, scissors so there can be no comparison on the game/simulation front Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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