1.0.0 Release: Mod Release & Performance Guide news - C&C Generals Zero Hour: Enhanced mod for C&C: Generals Zero Hour

*** Attention b̵e̵t̵a̵ ̵t̵e̵s̵t̵e̵r̵s̵ beloved players! ***

It seems like I screwed up quite a lot of things (more than expected.) So a patch is in the works to fix those issues. You can check it out in beta on Discord if you're interested in that sort of stuff: Discord.gg

Hello everyone, this is it; the end of the road. We're ahead of the old schedule (2027) by 3 years so you can use that time to play the mod before the world blows up by late stage capitalism.

But speaking of blowing up, let's talk some nerd shit for a sec i.e. important but ultimately boring technical stuff that will guide you through how not to blow up your PC while playing the mod and release time AKA I can't bring myself to do anything anymore at the moment (I'm super tired.)

Also, a good thing to keep in mind is that despite all the fancy stuff I've added, this is still C&C Generals Zero Hour with SAGE engine after all and the meme above is a proof to that statement. That being said, I'll surely be posting the 2027 meme in 2027 (The meme is from the future so you don't get it yet.)

For those who want a tutorial, check out this article I just wrote right here: Moddb.com

Latest Patch:

Manual mod launch (for those who can't use the launcher): Moddb.com

Game Version Requirement:
Any (1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04)

Total Size: 6.22GB

Specifications:
While I don't have many means of coming up with good recommendations for specification since I only have access to two laptops, these are what I think you'll need to run the mod with minimum being run at vanilla settings preset and recommended being run at high settings preset (with vanilla texture resolution.)

It's undoubtedly more demanding even that the previous release especially in GPU load for obvious reasons so if you have a very powerful modern GPU, I highly doubt you'll run into any performance issues i.e. you can play Cyberpunk Path Tracing at 4K 60 FPS.

But who knows, it's SAGE and I don't have access to such an expensive machine.

Minimum Recommended Specs (Vanilla preset 1080p):
-Nvidia GTX1650
-Intel Core i5-7600K
-RAM 8GB
-SSD 250GB

Recommended Specs (High preset (Vanilla Texture Quality) 1080p):
-Nvidia GTX1080
-Intel Core i5-9600K
-RAM 8GB
-SSD 250GB

My Specs:
-Nvidia RTX2070
-Intel Core i7-9750H
-RAM 32GB
-SSD 500GB

Performance Guide:
‣ Turning off 3D shadows could prevent crashes on bigger maps (3v3, 4v4) and increase performance drastically.
‣ Close any programs running in the background you don't need (Yes, including browser. Listening to Youtube even in background can increase chances of crashes.)
‣ If your PC's running low on performance even on day maps with vanilla settings preset, it's best to just avoid night maps entirely.
‣ If your PC's running low on performance with vanilla settings preset already, don't use ReShade.
‣ If you don't zoom in a lot, just avoid using high resolution texture quality and stick with vanilla texture quality, trust me, it runs a lot better.
‣ Using game patch version 1.00 may yield better performance than the commonly used 1.04 version due to faster pathfinding calculations.
‣ Save often on larger maps (3v3, 4v4) as they tend to crash when you least expected i.e. right at the end of the game.

Final Quick Performance Test:
So the last time I ran a performance test run, the mod wasn't quite cooked all the way through yet. The AI wasn't exactly done and I never got the chance to optimise the mod. The graph you saw was a graph of a game ran with high resolutions and lighter AI scripts.

With that in mind, I think it'll do everyone a service to test on the same map settings but with the final AI scripts and optimised settings that'll be shipped in the release.

On a less nerdy statistics side, from my own personal tests; it seems like the mod is kinda playable at FFA 8 players maps with 3D shadows turned on be it the AI is only in medium difficulty.

On smaller maps like 1v1 or 2v2, there shouldn't be too much problems though team games on larger maps can perform quite poorly predictably.

Known Issues:
‣ Moving trees (moving slowly across the map like a unit) can cause mismatch in multiplayer. If you see such things, please report them to me via DMs.
‣ Deploying units too close to another units (i.e. deployed unit overlapping with destroyed vehicle wreckage or trees) can cause mismatch in multiplayer.
‣ Line cutting through screen in foggy map with reflective water. There's nothing that can be done about it at the moment to due engine limitations.
‣ Trees don't appear in fog of war. There's nothing that can be done about it at the moment to due engine limitations.
‣ Setting options in game requires a restart since it usually forces the game back into 4:3 screen or messes up the DoF effect. There's nothing that can be done about it at the moment to due engine limitations.
‣ There's bound to be water leaking in the maps somewhere due to how the new FX stuff works. If you see water FXs being played in bear ground or vice versa, please report them to me via DMs.
‣ You'll almost always crash on 8 player maps versus hard AIs even with 3D shadows turned on or off. There's nothing that can be done about it at the moment to due engine limitations.

Brand New Launcher:
So back in the 0.9.x days, I wasn't the best programmer for the job which resulted in me using separate .exe files to run the mod with their slow fixed processing algorithm which also resulted in various anti-virus thinking those files are viruses (they're not.)

Well, good news is I've finally learned after all these years to program a launcher a lot more efficiently which runs way faster and self-contained which should no longer alert the anti-viruses. This should decrease chances of mod launch failures due to the files refusing to change their extensions. I've also built in a function that will reset the files every time you open the launcher to prevent the fail launch (it could also be turned off.)

Apart from that nerd shit, it also looks way cleaner and nicer imo.

(For Modders) Graphical Content SDK:
The new version of graphical content SDK will obviously contain the new graphical stuff I've mentioned in previous blogs plus extra stuff. Extra that is in light of some new techniques I've learnt and developed especially for the buildings stuff, I think it's best just to give everyone the sources to my new effects except for the sunrays so they could adapt them to anything they like to their liking if they wish to.

Something I could think on top of my head is something like RA2 Weather Storm. With the new implementation, it shouldn't be too hard to implement something like a relatively seamless transition from normal weather to storm weather than back to normal.

Even though the sunrays are my own version, I wasn't the first to invent such technique. Though, reverse engineering SAGE assets aren't particular hard to begin with if you know how.

The reflective water was also my own reimplementation and improvement until it is what it is today but the original tutorial seems to be lost forever afaik. So, I'll probably gonna write some tutorials on how to make a reflective water and add them to the game for newbies along with other stuff. Sharing is caring after all.

And that's it, no more chirping, I'll stop talking now. Enjoy the mod!