0 A.D. Alpha 25 Released For This Open-Source RTS Game

[phoronix]

Phoronix: 0 A.D. Alpha 25 Released For This Open-Source RTS Game

0 A.D. as the long in development real-time strategy game developed by Wildfire Games is out with its twenty-fifth alpha release...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=0-AD-Alpha-25

[mangeek]

I recently started playing 0 AD and it's great.

[Vistaus]

People complained about Latte Dock releasing 0.10 instead of 1.0. How's 25 0 A.D. alphas for ya?

[ruff]

This and eschalon were the pieces I rediscovered a gaming on linux with, and with which ended dualboot history on my laptops. After that laptops are imaged with linux only and windows was used in VM where wine was not enough.

[aorth]

I recently started playing 0 AD and it's great.

So much fun! I just started too... I always get slaughtered, but I *think* I'm getting better... need to get better at managing all my people and understanding what all the buildings do.

[Lanz]

I've been playing for years and got my buddy into it. I wish they'd make it so you can rejoin a multiplayer game with AI in it and not get desynced.

[mangeek]

Curious about something here. It seems like the devs want the game to be playable pretty far back in terms of system requirements, but the game seems pretty intensive on resources. Would it be reasonable to move to newer baseline graphics APIs and toolchains/libraries (I think it's currently developed for OpenGL 2.1)? With Apple Deprecating OpenGL and Vulkan really taking off, XP and Vista dead, and the realistic requirements to run the game, does it make sense to re-base?

[Vistaus]

Curious about something here. It seems like the devs want the game to be playable pretty far back in terms of system requirements, but the game seems pretty intensive on resources.

… which is why this is alpha 25, not RC 25.

[woife]

I always get slaughtered, ...

There are some excellent videos on Youtube by Tom 0AD.
Have a look at this playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb-_EP6DbcoDEEMpLWWqsWQSyNA5bpJed

I would probably still get slaughtered by human players, but at least I can fend off hard AIs now

[arQon]

Curious about something here. It seems like the devs want the game to be playable pretty far back in terms of system requirements, but the game seems pretty intensive on resources. Would it be reasonable to move to newer baseline graphics APIs and toolchains/libraries (I think it's currently developed for OpenGL 2.1)? With Apple Deprecating OpenGL and Vulkan really taking off, XP and Vista dead, and the realistic requirements to run the game, does it make sense to re-base?

No.

A good graphics dev could probably port the game in a couple of weeks, and a Carmack-class one could do it over a weekend, but for most people it's simply an unknown amount of time for almost no real benefit, and all of that time could be spent on more important things. (Especially if the original dev has long since left the project, or the rendering code is a trainwreck, etc).

Renderer upgrades for something like this are nearly always unnecessary, and nearly always the result of a developer (typically a newbie to the project) wanting to either scratch an itch or pad out their CV. You may think it's "intensive", but I suspect it very much isn't, other than potentially in terms of drawcalls made. There's a very large difference between "optimizing because we absolutely must have <16ms frametimes and all these effects", and code that's just sub-optimal - especially in an RTS.

(Also, albeit in a minor role: since Apple have chosen to be asstards re graphics APIs (and not for the first time), you'd also need TWO new backends, not one. Again, not a problem for an SME, but an additional hassle for someone who doesn't know the stuff, doesn't CARE about it, and would much rather be working on new pathfinding, or unit behavior, or any of a thousand other things).