Some of you in the know are fully aware of how much pain and heartache has gone into getting Evo ready for Desura, not only on the logistics front, but also with the gameplay, features and etc...
I am immensely proud to say that Evolution RTS has finally reached the release point intended for Desura. In this release we have a ton of new stuff, but I'm not even going to spoil the surprise, save for one thing. Dynamic Cover System.
You're possibly sitting there thinking, "big deal..." well, it is a huge deal, and it has a massive effect on gameplay. I can count on 2 fingers the number of RTS games that have done cover systems well. I aimed for it from a different direction and it has succeeded so incredibly well that I can barely contain my excitement!
First of all, let me point out that Knorke did all the hard work, I only made a few edits to his code, and he should be immortalized for writing the cover gadget.
Here is how it works: If a feature on the map (say like a small tree or something) is 2x2 footprint or less, it gains non-blocking status and provides cover for units. Cover causes the unit to cloak (for free), and also causes the unit to gain stealth from radar, meaning that it is totally undetectable. That is until it fires. When units under cover fire, they will lose cloak (but not stealth). This means that you can use trees rock jumbles, etc to set up true ambushes for your opponents. I myself have been playing around with it for a few weeks (had some icky bugs to squash) and I gotta say, it is fun as all hell.
So that was the big news about v1.5, but lets get back to the Desura release...
Some of you are well aware that you could get and play evo before desura came along. No doubt those of you that tried it probably gave up in frustration (and I don't blame you... it never was meant for public consumption to be installed that way. Only for those dedicated enough to make it happen :-)). With Desura I am proud to announce a butter smooth installation. All you need to do is register a nickname with the server, and you're in!
Please remember that if you need help, just ask in the chat and someone will definitely help you. Make sure to mention that you installed the game via Desura (Evolution RTS is released on ubuntu launchpad for linux as well). My name on the lobby is a little hard to miss... I am [Evo]Forboding_Angel (real inconspicuous amirite?). Feel free to private message me if need be. I will try to help you out as much as possible. Please do not ask a question and log off a few minutes later. Sometimes your question isn't immediately seen and so takes a little time to get a response.
And finally, a warning to ATI video card owners... Like Brink, Evolution RTS uses OpenGL. ATI drivers are awful, and unfortunately through no fault of our own, the end user suffers because of this company's inability to produce decent driver support for OpenGL, so your mileage may vary, but if you ask in the lobby chat we will do our best to help you out. If you are an Nvidia owner, don't worry, you will have no trouble.
Thanks everyone! Please be sure to comment here, on our forums, on the site ( Evolutionrts.info ) and post any bugs on our bug tracker!
Giant thanks to the Desura guys for putting up with me, you guys pwn!
yay
Cool.
Of course, in a twist of irony, the main lobby server decides to go bonkers today. I'm sorry guys, it should be fixed soon (I don't actually have anything to do with it, but I know that it's being worked on).
Fixed.
I know ATI has had a bad track record with drivers, but are people really still having those problems with that great of frequency? I find it funny/interesting because I swapped 4 years ago from Nvidia to ATI because I had two Nvidia cards that both constantly had driver crashing issues, and subpar performance in OpenGL. Had 3 ATI cards since then, I've never had a single driver issue and have had great OpenGL performance.
And to solidify my personal stance, I've had two friends buy Nvidia cards recently (GTX 460 and GTS 450) and they both have the exact same driver crashing issues I had 4 years ago with 9-series cards. A quick perusal of the Nvidia forums shows that many many users experience that problem, and Nvidia has released no information nor any fixes for it at all.
I'm not trying to bash Nvidia, that's just my personal experience. I do know people who have had ATI issues, and people with Nvidia cards that have worked flawlessly and even ABOVE spec for some reason. Just saying that it does disappoints me to see a developer make a blanket claim about a manufacturer and claim their competition is perfect and will have no problems, when it's not necessarily true at all.
Also, for an actual question, does this mean that Evolution RTS isn't classified as by-invite only? Last time it said it was released on Desura I tried to play it and it said it was invite install only and I couldn't find more information on that.
Wrt ATI blanket claim... ATI makes awful drivers when it comes to opengl support, there is no denying it, as it is a widely known fact.
Regarding the 450GTS, it isn't a driver crash. Tell him to clock the card back to regular factory specs (in other words, undo the factory overclock) and it will behave normally. How do I know this? Because I have a 450GTS and had the same issues. I came from a 9600GT.
Wrt drivers, it is also widely known and non-disputable that nvidia makes the best drivers. It isn't possible to claim otherwise with a straight face.
The newer ATI cards have less issues with OpenGL.
Evolution RTS is open to anyone to install and play. There was a mixup where it was released way too early, but it was remedied pretty shortly thereafter.
It's worth noting that I don't mean to sound rude, but as a developer that has to continually deal with ATI's lack of proper OpenGL support, you can imagine that ATI makes me quite irritated.
I can imagine so, but the point was that it's become much better, and if they're that bad, to say "Nvidia makes the best drivers" doesn't necessarily say much seeing as they wouldn't really have much competition. I'll agree their driver interface is better, but no, I personally cannot say with a straight face that Nvidia has the best drivers due to my issues with them.
And no, it's not a clock issues. It didn't come overclocked, and he tried underclocking it, but it still occurs. The monitor loses its connection, it'll flash back up with a Windows error saying "The display driver crashed and was rescued" or something similar. Which is the same as I got on my 9 series card, and what my other friend has with his GTX 460.
Glad to hear that Evolution is open to all though, hopefully at some point I'll be able to download it and try it.
Well to some extent we all get shaped by our opinions. I myself have found that even the Same gfx card developed by 2 different manufacturers can be worlds apart. I suppose the moral of the story is that **** happens.
Hmm the driver crashes are odd. Make sure that there is proper cooling in the case. Also it wouldn't be a bad idea to get custom drivers from guru3d (that goes for ATI owners as well). The dump info from the driver crash will tell you why it crashed tho.
Addressing you in particular, you probably won't have any issues if you have a decently powerful card. Thanks to brink, ATI really had to get all of their Crap into one sock, which is good for everyone. If you have any trouble, just ask in the lobby channel. Someone can probably help get you going (that someone may very well be me Hehe).
i suggest ask Twitter.com @CatalystCreator
about the issues with OpenGL and if notice it then there is high chance for fixing the issue next driver(s)