Steel Beasts 5.0 Thread

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/16824-4377-performance-issues/#comment-233318

The actual performance, like I wrote, will depend on the terrain theme, and the spot on the map and your viewing direction. "Before" may have been in places where ther number of to be rendered ground clutter billboards was close to, buit still under the limit of what your graphics card could handle. Except, this time it wasn't, and the framerate went down and you noticed it. Or this time, the ground clutter objects were tall, resulting in a massive overdraw situation as an extra load on a hardware that was already at the upper limit of what it could handle.
These are two possible explanations. There isn't enough information to know whether thone of them or both are the explanation, or if there's something else at play. Nevertheless, the 100% slider setting routinely overtaxed beefy hardware in the past. Seems like beefy hardware of the present can almost handle it. By the time that substantially more powerful graphics cards are out, hopefully we can give a roadmap to V5, rendering the whole issue moot (because then we'll have a different engine, with different characteristics).

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/4546-steel-beasts-content-wish-list/page/331/#comment-235758

With V5, all screen elements and text will be scalable. Right now, I can but recommend to pick a lower resolution. Which also sucks (I'm aware of that) - but it sucks in a different way.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/4546-steel-beasts-content-wish-list/page/332/#comment-235907

The problem I'm having is that the lighter and "less tanky" a vehicle gets, the doctrinal role gets fuzzier (or "more versatile" if you wanted to give it a positive spin); therefore, between scenarios, the eras in which they are set, and from one light vehicle to the next whatever one might considered "adequate behavior" will vary, and that's not even taking into account different national concepts of the army (e.g. USMC, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia all have or had at some point a LAV with 25mm autocannon; their doctrinal use will be/was different in each case).
That being said, I'm hopeful that we'll allow for different AI concepts in version 5 that might also result in a step towards more flexible responses depending on what type of equipment a vehicle might carry.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/10258-mouse-pointer-missing-in-4k-uhd-resolution/page/2/#comment-236054
https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/10258-mouse-pointer-missing-in-4k-uhd-resolution/page/2/#comment-236056
I do not know what scaling setting that Panthera283 used, but I do know that setting Windows scaling to 149% works for me in Steel Beasts at 4K resolution.

Hello i just bought the last upgrade version form 4.1 and i have a 4k resolution monitor and i have this issue, I tried to move the text Size in window 10 and still having this issue. I only can play it in windows mode that also doesnt look right. Please this post is from 2016 and now we are in 2023. Did you found a fix?

We call the fix "Steel Beasts version 5", but it will still take some time before it can replace version 4.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17197-fast-or-slow/#comment-236231

I'd love to invest more time in this, but the reality is that the development of the new engine will keep us well occupied for a few years. Once that version 5.x is ready for general roll-out, I guess we'll look at this topic again.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17226-experience-with-intel-arc-gpus/#comment-236242
Information on VulkanSceneGraph: https://vsg-dev.github.io/vsg-dev.io/

V5 will no longer use DirectX 9, but the Vulkan SceneGraph.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17226-experience-with-intel-arc-gpus/#comment-236250

Frankly, I do not expect Intel to achieve more than barely to keep pace, with a small chance of slowly catching up. They have never shown any interest in computer games, barely any in 3D graphics other than "it's necessary because our customers expect it".
If there is no visible support from top management, rarely will the employees muster sufficient drive to do something extraordinary anyway (the Volkswagen Golf being one notable exception to the rule).

That being said, currently our new engine delivers up to 5,000 frames per second. That level will never be achieved again, so please don't read more into this than is actually justified. As we add more and more fancy elements, there's only one way for the framerate, and that's down. Nevertheless, if we could preserve about 200 fps on a then top of the line graphics card in two years, that might still mean 60 or even 90 fps on an Intel ARC. At this point, it's all but speculation. But there's a non-zero, if small chance that the performance on low-end graphics cards may actually turn out to be quite decent.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17197-fast-or-slow/#comment-236263

We got to get the new engine working, write an entire new GUI, replace the network code, develop a new AI, facelift the 3D artwork, and convert all models of the various fire control systems to the new architecture. Once that this is done we can shift our attention to the fancy things again.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17166-fictional-basra-themed-map/#comment-236332

First of all, the tiniest "hill" that the current Steel Beasts engine can render is .78m in radius, and .39m in elevation. That's about 30 times higher in resolution than your "5m hill every five meters" example. Second, at some point we's be talking about mole hills which may block an ant's line of sight, but we're not simulating ants, so that level of detail is completely irrelevant for our task, generating valid simulation results. The current Steel Beasts V4 engine can handle road embankments and similarly small detail without problem, the next engine will improve on that even further, but we don't need to become much better because functionally the current resolution limit is sufficient - we'd just like to have nicer-looking infantry trenches and road ditches.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17292-surround-sound/#comment-236991

Yes.
With version 5 we'll be introducing a new, more capable sound engine. Until then you're stuck with stereo, unfortunately.

[Rinix]

https://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2023/11/streel-beasts-professional-by-esim-games.html
For some reason, the article says that the conversation is made up (I think this is a mistake). What is most interesting is this artwork, which I have never seen before. Will we get towed mortars in version 5.0? https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3miBLQLOVVlgwr9ItdL1R9MiGxKyk2uSgQYPn02xwnw3vkyanvH_2pQXJYnf4389xsZaVCO_UQE0ZWLqadBkP4c0jaR5C0v6RFlUwWALtVdq01sXlZYklIXZWQJzt5ImOm50TDWtaTKldmPKstsmiSG-pwRfP9YMJTAwcQHe_tlDp7JrHgA_c05MH9NE/s1280/Mortar.jpg

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/4546-steel-beasts-content-wish-list/page/334/#comment-237577

In any case, I hope that we'll be able to make certain parts of the AI better that will help reducing the severity of traffic jams ... in version five.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/4546-steel-beasts-content-wish-list/page/334/#comment-237601

The way I see it, the easier we make it to move big formations, the bigger formations you will be tempted to put into your scenarios.

Seriously, up to this point all the things we did to improve performance basically resulted in customers making bigger maps (unless restricted, like the Personal Edition) with more units and more parties until performance dropped again to the point where they are dissatisfied again. Better AI as demanded will require more computational effort. Yes, we'll multithread a lot more in V5, and that alone will widen the neck of the CPU bottle considerably, but if we allow for four simultaneous threads to run everything instead of the current one thread, and the AI will then require twice as much CPU calculations as before, you'll get only twice as much perceived performance out of the new version. At which point you'll be tempted to add another party of combatants (plus layers of civilians) to your scenarios to make things more interesting.
Feels a bit like playing Diablo - you loot monsters for better weapons to help you kill more and better monsters that drop more and better weapons to loot, so you can kill even more and even better monsters that drop more and better weapons to loot. Progress!

[Rinix]

Version 5.0 will have the option to order ATGM units to only target specific types of vehicles: https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/4546-steel-beasts-content-wish-list/page/335/#comment-237637

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17346-version-5-state/#comment-237657

On one hand I'd say that we're making progress about as quick as I expected and we're not lagging much behind the optimistic projections. On the other, for PE users it will still take at least three more years before there's a realistic chance for a release, and there's a non-zero chance that it'll take longer.
There will be at least one more major V4 release, possibly two, before we can offer a version 5 to the general public.