Supreme Commander is the sequel to the incredible Total Annihilation. The innovation in the latter was that the entire gameplay was based on mechanized units, which combined with a very interesting story made one heck of a game. When I heard that Chris Taylor is working on a second title I went absolutely berserk. After seeing some of the in-game footage released some time before the launch, I was sure that it will be an instant hit, especially on high-end systems. When I'm saying high-end systems I mean water cooled and liquid nitrogen CPUs and graphics cards. Here are a few hints on how to improve the game performance and what to watch for if you decide to buy it.
Question: Why do I get the "Please Verify System Meets Minimum Specifications" error message when I try to play Supreme Commander?
Answer: Either your system does not meet the minimum system requirements, or you need to update your drivers. The most common solution is to update your graphics card drivers.
Minimum system requirements
- Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Vista
- 1.8 GHz processor
- 512 MB RAM
- 8GB available hard drive space
- 128MB video RAM or greater, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader/Pixel Shader 2.0 support
- Sound card, speakers or headphones
- 56.6 Kbps Internet connection required Recommended system requirements.
- 3.0 GHz Intel or equivalent AMD processor or better
- 1GB RAM or better
- 8GB available hard drive space
- 256 MB Video RAM, with DirectX 9 Vertex Shader/Pixel Shader 2.0 support
- (Nvidia 6800 or better, ATI X800 XL, X 1300 or better)
- Internet connection with Cable/DSL speedsQuestion: Does Supreme Commander require DirectX10 and Vista?
Answer: No, Supreme Commander does not need or require Vista (DirectX10 is built into Vista and will not be available to Windows XP). The game runs fine on Windows XP and DirectX9, including features like split/dual
screen mode and spiffy special effects). Vista and DirectX10 may just have spiffier effects.
Question: I've got two monitors - how do I use both with Supreme Commander?
Answer: First, realize that dualhead mode (two video monitors on a single video card with two video ports) is different from multiple video cards.
Supreme Commander does not support multiple video cards, but does support dualhead mode. Also, bear in mind that dual screen mode has increased system requirements, and you'll likely experience a hit on the game's frame rate.
Second, to use dualhead mode, Windows has to be set up in Span mode, where the desktop extends from one monitor to the other. Running in Clone mode where the same image shows up on both monitors will NOT allow dualhead mode in Supreme Commander.
You enable dualhead from the Video tab in the Options menu within Supreme Commander (note that this will require you to restart SupCom afterwards). If the game can detect a second monitor configuration in Windows, the Secondary Adapter pull-down menu will still list Disabled, but won't be grayed out, and by clicking on it you'll get a set of possible resolutions and refresh rates that your video card drivers say that the second monitor can run at. Your changes will be stored in the Game.Prefs file and retained in future gameplay. Once you accept the changes, Supreme Commander will need to shut down. Just restart using dualhead.
NOTE: The game's UI control focus will be on whichever monitor the cursor is over. So, if you try to zoom in with the mouse cursor on the second monitor, it's the second monitor that will zoom.
Problem: GPGnet is unresponsive, and may display "......" continually.
Answer: Certain ports need to be opened for GPGnet to connect to the master server: port 30340 and 30341 UDP.
Note: GPGnet also uses port 9103 UDP for matchmaking and SupCom uses port 6112 configured for UDP, but they won't affect GPGnet not logging in.
Question: GPGnet won't start or open. Why?
Answer:GPGnet requires the following programs to be installed:
Microsoft Internet Explorer Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0Supreme Commander is a very demanding game for any PC. Many consumers have expressed concerns about running the game adequately on their systems, or even running the game at all. If you find yourself having trouble with Supreme Commander, there are a few things you can do.
- Verify that your system meets the minimum system requirements.
- Turn off any unnecessary programs, such as AIM, Google Desktop. This will free up extra memory the system can devote to Supreme Commander.
- Turn down graphic performance in the game. While doing this may make your game look a little less appeasing than your opponent, your game play will drastically improve.
- Turn down the game speed. If you are having troubles keeping the game from pausing, doing this will help. Game speed is automatically lowered in multiplayer mode, in order for slower systems to keep up.
- Some graphical systems like Shadows and AA take up far more resources than they are worth if you are struggling to play the game. Turning these off can boost performance, as opposed to high/med/low where I noticed no performance difference.
- For those experiencing severe performance problems with sound card issues, try running the game with the '/nosound' command. (Appended to the end of the Target line in the Supreme Commander shortcut's properties, or enabled through GPGNet). This issue is being looked into and a resolution will hopefully be found soon.
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