Remaster Update and Source Code

Fellow Command & Conquer fans,

We hope you had a good holiday season and that your New Year is off to a positive start.  On our side, pre-production is continuing in earnest and we completed our first Milestone about two weeks ago.  This Milestone included many of our documentation plans for how we want to build the game, and effectively laid the foundation for the rest of our pre-production cycle.  Our next step is to begin translating those plans into a first playable prototype, which will hopefully help validate many of those initial concepts.

One of those key items is how we’re going to approach the game from a technical standpoint.  We know one of your core questions has been around the game engine, and we’re ready to reveal some of those details below.  Now, it’s worth noting that as with all software this early – plans can change – so please understand this is a snapshot of our thinking in January 2019, and does not necessarily guarantee how the game will eventually ship.

To kick things off, one of the most important questions from the community has been the following: 

Do we have access to the original source code?

We’re excited to say the short answer is “Yes.”  Over the past few months we have been able to acquire the majority of the source code for both the original C&C and original Red Alert.  I say majority, because what we have is not a complete archive, and it’s going to continue taking some work to validate the full re-usability of the code.  Thankfully, there is no better team than the individuals at Petroglyph to go on this R&D journey. 

So what does all this mean?

Well, it means we’re aiming to re-use parts of the source code to try and keep the gameplay feel as close as possible to the original games.  Again, our goal is to Remaster the original gameplay, not remake it.  That being said, there are many areas where the original source code just cannot deliver the quality or functionality we’re looking for in many of the supporting elements.  That’s where the second piece of the puzzle comes in. 

In addition to Petroglyph’s unique familiarity with the original source code, they have also spent the past 15 years optimizing their own proprietary RTS engine called GlyphX.  This engine has been used to power Petroglyph’s RTS titles, and comes with many of the recent standards the community would expect from a modern RTS engine.  So with that in mind, our goal is to utilize both GlyphX and the original source code to gain the combined benefits towards the Remaster.

To provide a quick example (Not guaranteed but purely for illustration purposes), imagine using the original source code to determine the charge-up behavior of the Tesla Coil, but utilizing the GlyphX Audio system to ensure the Sound FX are fully enhanced for when that Tesla Coil fires.

As you can predict, there are more details which we’ll learn as we begin to execute upon this plan.  But we hope this provides some clarity in the meantime as to how we’re approaching the Remaster from a technical perspective.  We’re eager to share more as we begin to prototype the software, and looking forward to hearing your comments.

Cheers,

Jim Vessella

Jimtern

To join the conversation and provide feedback, follow the Reddit link below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/alisr9/remaster_update_and_source_code