Codename Panzers: Cold War - Multi-core optimization but no DX10 support

András Acsai, lead engine coder, answered our questions on Codename Panzers: Cold War After 10tacle and Stormregion had to close their gates, the development of Codename Panzers: Cold War is continued by Innoglow. The real-time strategy game is based on the third generation of the Gepard Engine. The questions PC Games Hardware addressed to the developers were answered by the lead engine coder András Acsai who already had been part of the Codename Panzers: Cold War team when the game was still developed by Stormregion.

PCGH: Do you add any new technology to the engine supplied by Stormregion or does the technical base of the game - the Gepard engine remain - untouched? Was it necessary to upgrade/modify/enhance the engine to finish the game?

András Acsai: As we had no opportunity to rescue and bring the SR Techteam of a dozen of developers to InnoGlow, our plan could have been nothing else but increase stability and fix bugs. We have started some experiments for using even more threads in Gepard - also useful for consoles - but these solutions are not yet ready to be released and still need some work.

Codename Panzers: Cold War (picture: Atari) Quelle: atari.com PCGH: When talking to Stormregion's developers we found out, that against first announcements the render part of the Gepard Engine will not support DX10/Shader Modell 4. Is that still the case? If yes why do you decide against DX10 support? If the engine will nevertheless support DX10 what are the reasons to integrate the API into the engine? What are the advantages of the API (enhanced visuals/performance gains)?

András Acsai: The third iteration of the engine was started as and consequently remained a DX9 engine. We felt no need to join the hype around DX10, which was more of a marketing tool targeting hardcore gamers than a must for developers back then. Several games that are released these days are branded as DX10, but contain features that could have been done in DX9 at the same or better level. Our decision was purely technical. We made an engine that uses DX9 at its best, providing stunning visual quality (equaling DX10) for the latest and also for video cards widely accessible on the market. It was also important, that as we designed a multiplatform engine, DX9 was a better choice for the X360, which is based on that.