Graphics engine

[Mikeus Caesar]

I am interested as to whether the graphics engine will be the same as RTW's, an upgrade of RTW's or a completely new beast?

Heheh, 3rd topic.

[Antagonist]

The engine used for Medieval 2 is completely unrecognizable compared to Rome's engine. We stripped it down and totally refurbished it to include major enhancements. There's a complete upgrade of the battlefield rendering system, new methods for building and rendering cities and the combat animation system has also been heavily revised.

IGN Interview

Seems like it's somewhere in between your second and third hypotheses.

Antagonist

[Monarch]

I read it was the same one with one heck of a polish.

[Rilder]

I hope my lil ol computer can run the beast

[ajaxfetish]

I know mine won't be able to. I might not be in the first wave of buyers as a result, but eventually I'll have enough put aside to get a new machine, and then I'll certainly be getting it (unless I hear horror stories from those who already have it, which I am fervently hoping I don't).

Ajax

[Ilsamir Lord]

Well, if it's the same engine I'm sure it will be very scaleable within itself. And I doubt that every unit in the battle will be fully rendered at once anyway. I hope that my new system can run it, and I'd be a bit surprised if the final version was much different to the screens they are showing now in terms of detail. Total War games have never really lead the charge in system requirements, and I think MII:TW will be no different.

[SirGrotius]

I think it's a great engine. It seems to have been programmed very well; I can only imagine that the latest iteration will only be better and perhaps even more stable.

[Rilder]

i wonder what the system requerments will be compaired to umm Civilization IV or something if its equal to or slightly more then Civilzation 4 i'm in the clear course my computer will be over a year old by the time its released i bet though so i may award its birthday with a new graphics card... maby a new processor too

[Mikeus Caesar]

My (fairly) new PC should be able to handle it. It was top of the line in November when it was completely rebuilt, and even now it's still top of the line, i think it should still be good to go for another 2, maybe 3 years.

Can't wait for MTW2!

[DarKorg]

Even today's Mid range PCs that were 2 years ago, considered THE best, cannot run RTW smoothly with all the settings turned up. I seriously doubt CA are going to try and push the hardware limit to 2010. With all this graphics engine tearing apart, surely they are going to make it alot better in terms of performance.

[doc_bean]

Even today's Mid range PCs that were 2 years ago, considered THE best, cannot run RTW smoothly with all the settings turned up. I seriously doubt CA are going to try and push the hardware limit to 2010. With all this graphics engine tearing apart, surely they are going to make it alot better in terms of performance.

I have a three year old PC and have few problems running RTW (all archer armies with flaming arrows on is the exception here). It actually runs better than MTW for some reason.

80% of what can be done with a computer is due to programming anyway, that's why games that look like they were made in '96 can run slower than a game with a lot of bells and whistles. The other 20% is due to (video) memeory, that might mean I need a new graphics card

[TB666]

Well I thought I would never be able to run RTW at first but when I tried the demo it ran very smooth and the retail version ran even better.
I use "huge" setting and only have lag on really huge battles.
I don't think the specs for MTW2 will be very different from RTW, maybe a little increase like 1.2ghz processor instead of RTW's 1.0 Ghz.
CA are a pretty good at optimising their engines as well.

[Craterus]

My computer is at least 3 years old. I can't even play big battles on large unit size. I think my limit is 3400 soldiers, and after that I get poor graphics.

I hope to get a new system in time, but it's doubtful.

[Mikeus Caesar]

My computer is at least 3 years old. I can't even play big battles on large unit size. I think my limit is 3400 soldiers, and after that I get poor graphics.

I hope to get a new system in time, but it's doubtful.

Poor Craterus. I have limit of 10000, and once managed to get the absolute max of 29000, but it was like a powerpoint slideshow.

[Antiochius]

i think it will be a great engine

[pyradyn]

my Computer is about 6 months old now and plays it really well and it has shiney blue neon and a clea side pannel :D got to ibuypower.com for cheap good comps wow i made a slogon mabey i will be hired by them and make 1 buck a slogon :D i tried unit size huge and got the bigest units i could i agree it was a slideshow but after of say 10 mins my lines hit the enemys YAY then i exited lol oh graphics were all the way up. I am getting Oblivion when it comes out so i dono how well MTW2 will run lol i may even have to take of Morrowind with my millions of mods not to mention my own......

[Asean]

Does anyone know if a eVGA Geforce 6200 256MB 64-bit DDR Video Card will be able to run this game and Rome Total War?

[Incongruous]

Well considering that the RTW engine will lag no matter what after it exceeds over 8000 men I doubt there is much anyone can do other that get some new RAM.
What could the specs be compared with (at this stage)?
Someone suggested LOTRBFME2 when you have everyone playing max settings. I expect that is a bit of an underestimation but not by much.