Homeworld Remastered Collection: Graphics & CPU Performance

Having been a fan of real-fourth dimension strategy games since the mid-90s, in that location aren't many titles in the genre that I oasis't played. The original Command & Conquer had me hooked and I also spent my share of hours with Dune and Warcraft releases. At the time, RTS games were and then similar in look and feel that it was relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to movement between them.

That changed in 1999 with the inflow 'Homeworld', the first RTS that allowed players to move through three-dimensional space. Congenital on the custom Homeworld engine, Relic Entertainment'south 3D RTS was praised for its listen-bravado graphics, gameplay and other features, winning both IGN and PC Gamer's game of the yr award in 1999.

Given Homeworld'due south success (and the positive response to the not-catechism Homeworld: Cataclysm made by Barking Dog Studios), it was no surprise when Relic and Sierra returned in 2003 with a proper sequel, nor was it a surprise when Homeworld 2 received largely positive reviews with features including a modified engine for fifty-fifty better graphics.

Later three successful releases, you may be wondering why information technology's been and so long since you've heard about the series. Roughly a twelvemonth after Homeworld ii launched, creator Relic Amusement was purchased past THQ for most $x million. Notwithstanding, while Relic did develop Homeworld, publisher Sierra Entertainment owned the intellectual holding.

As THQ was considered to be a competitor of Sierra, the prospect of a Homeworld sequel remained unlikely until November 2007 when THQ confirmed that information technology had acquired a license for the Homeworld franchise. Fifty-fifty and then, the company didn't ostend a sequel, maintaining that it had no comments about future games based on Homeworld from THQ .

Zilch much was said in respects to new release for the series until 2011 when Relic confirmed that information technology wanted to brand Homeworld 3, merely without actually saying if the game was in development. Further setbacks crushed the chances of Homeworld making a comeback when THQ went bankrupt and moved to liquidate its avails in early 2013 .

Also read: Homeworld Remastered gameplay impressions, the return of an almost perfect game

The company ended up being sold to Sega, though the Homeworld IP was non included in that sale, instead beingness acquired by Gearbox Software for $i.35 one thousand thousand. Gearbox'southward initial plan was to bring existing Homeworld games to digital sales platforms, only the company as well created a forum for fans to exchange ideas nearly how the series should proceed.

In July 2013 Gearbox announced the release of Homeworld HD and Homeworld 2 Hard disk drive along with the original versions of the games for 2014. In March 2014 Homeworld Hard disk was renamed to Homeworld Remastered Collection, which finally hit Steam last week for $35 and includes the original and remastered versions of Homeworld and Homeworld 2.

Although Homeworld fans oasis't been lucky plenty to receive a brand new game, they are able to relive the magic of 1999 and 2003 at high resolutions with a full graphical makeover. The remastered versions accept loftier-res textures and models, new visual furnishings, recreated cinematic scenes, and support for HD, Ultra HD and 4K resolutions .

Gearbox recommends gamers take at least a basic quad-core CPU and either a GeForce GTX 560 or Radeon HD 5850 (1GB). Homeworld Remastered uses OpenGL3.3 then we don't wait the kind of DX11 features in Evolve for example, but information technology still has the potential to be quite demanding with players having the power to build well over 100 ships.

Testing Methodology

We used the latest AMD and Nvidia drivers on xxx graphics bill of fare configurations covering all price ranges. Our test rig was outfitted with the Intel Core i7-5960X to remove CPU bottlenecks that could influence high-terminate GPU scores.

We used Fraps to record 120 seconds of gameplay for benchmarking. Existent-fourth dimension strategy games are quite dissimilar from get-go person shooters when information technology comes to benchmarking and Homeworld Remastered is particularly tricky.

A well designed first-person shooter should offer fairly consistent frame rates throughout a level. RTS games on the other hand typically start off with extremely high frame rates equally in that location are few units for the GPU to return and for the CPU to calculate. As the unit count increases, the frame rate tends to drop and one time a major battle takes place this is typically when yous will encounter the lowest frame rates.

Homeworld Remastered was tested in a similar style to StarCraft II. Nosotros played a skirmish with seven AI-controlled players in a 4v4 match. The resources were fix to their maximum value and we went with a 15 minute build fourth dimension and then players could attain disquisitional mass. Just moments before the first major battle was set to have place we made a save which could be loaded repeatedly.

As the test starts over 200 of my own ships engage the enemy and all hell breaks loose for two minutes. With the GTX 980 frame rates were initially around 140fps at 2560x1600 but that dipped down to 50fps every bit the ships began to engage each other.

Then if we were to benchmark the game in the building stage, gathering resources and what not, and then frame rates would be around three times higher than what we are going to show during our massive battle scene, so keep that in mind.