Benchmark Demo

Benchmark Demo

Information
Name: Benchmark Demo
World: Achilles
Campaign: Combat Exercises
Details
Faction: NSDF
Enemy: CCA
Scrap: 0
Geysers: 0
Music
None
Chronology (Battlezone Demo)

The Benchmark Demo is a mission included in the second version of the Battlezone Demo, also present as an unused mission in Battlezone. It features no gameplay and loops a short cutscene five times, displaying the average framerates at the end. Like The Playground on the retail version, the mission can only be accessed from the Combat Exercises mission archive.

Details

A skirmish at the CCA outpost

As the name suggests, the benchmark demo was created to gauge the performance of the computer it is run on. It shows a Grizzly, Thunderbolt and Longbow - the former implied to be the player - launching an assault on a CCA  outpost defended by two Stolis, a Tusker and Grendel from a small staging point. The cutscene is controlled by the standard AI system and the combat will therefore play out slightly differently every time. It runs for 55 seconds or until the Grizzly is destroyed (the latter is more common), then resets. After playing five times, the game displays the average and maximum framerates.

Trivia

The Satellite Towers to the south

• The map used for the demo was derived from that used for Tapping the Core and has only a few minor differences (such as the presence of several small lakes and streams).
• There is an NSDF Lightning Power Plant, Communication Tower and CCA Satellite Tower pre-placed to the south of the area where the cutscene takes place, but they never appear on-screen. The player will spawn here if the mission is loaded with the /startedit flag.
• Bug! With every repetition the game redraws building shadows, causing the shadows of previously-destroyed objects to get larger and blacker with each iteration.
• Bug! Dropped scrap from destroyed units and vehicles are not removed when the mission resets.
• Bug! While the map can be launched from a shortcut in release versions of the game, attempting to do so causes 1.5 to lock up.

Gallery

Shellmap

Shellmap when loaded in Battlezone: The Red Odyssey

The NSDF staging ground

The CCA research and communications outpost

Fighting inside the CCA base

An alternate shot of the above, demonstrating the shadow redraw bug

The Satellite Towers to the south, at the player's spawn point

Appearances

• Battlezone Demo (First appearance)
• Battlezone (Assets only)
• DLL Source Pack