Kaos provides in-depth look at Homefront’s PC-specific features

By Stephany Nunneley

Kaos Studios has updated Homefront’s official web page to answer loads of questions pertaining to the PC version of the game. It includes information on DRM, the official PC specs, and support for 32-player multiplayer games.

Let’s just get straight to the nitty gritty.

• Homefront will use Steamworks because according to the studio, it was “simply the best choice to deliver the features we needed on PC.” The studio also confirms that you’ll be able to play the game in 3D on PC due to full NVidia 3D Vision support.

• Additional work has been done on the game’s vehicles, and on PC, you’ll be able to control all vehicles from the first-person cockpit viewpoint as well as third-person. Additional control options for helicopters were added, to “give those players looking for more sim-like controls something to get their teeth round.”

• Other gameplay changes were introduced like a Squad Management system with Squad based VOIP, Clan Support, and Valve Anti-Cheat to counter cheaters.

• A demo will not be released, as it would “detract efforts from the main game,” but the team has “conducted a lengthy private Beta on the PC to help fine tune the game, so any semo would be for promotional purposes only.”

Here’s an FAQ:

• Dedicated Server Executable be provided? – Definitely, we’ve been listening to what the PC audience is looking for and that file will be provided for use. We know it’s been disappearing from the FPS space and want to support the core PC gamer where we can. We need to test the dedicated server infrastructure at ship with the influx of traffic and bug reporting, so we plan to release this within two weeks of the PC title hitting shelves.

• Will there be Mod Tools?- Not at launch, no. Right now the team is hammering away at the game, building those tools for Community use would take away resources that are needed on the final game. The good thing is: Mod Tools don’t need to be in a box, so if the PC Community is supporting Homefront, we have the option post-ship to provide the Community with something like that.

• What’s with the Microsoft deal, why are they getting the extra map and DLC first? What happened to PC? – We’re trying to release a brand new IP in a really competitive space, and we need as much help as we can get to drive awareness for this game. Microsoft came to us early on, loved what they saw, and offered a ton of marketing support. That support will help lift the profile of all three formats. Having them say; We love the game, it looks great & we want to support it – is also a great morale boost for the studio, and really validates all the effort going into the project.

• How many players in Multiplayer on PC?- Homefront will support 32 player servers on PC when the game ships. Our large maps actually play best with that number. We found that the critical factor in delivering ‘Large Scale Warfare’ is less to do with having hundreds of players, and more to do with the density of players in each game. That said, maximum player count on PC is something we can look at and potentially change if the demand is there for it.

• Is there environmental destruction? -Only low-level, mostly superficial destruction. In pre-production we experimented with dynamic destruction, but found that this actually detracted from the experience. We use what we call ‘environmental narrative’ throughout our level design to tell the story of occupied USA, and allowing this environment to be destroyed takes away a lot of what we achieve with this. In multiplayer, because of our focus on lots of vehicles with heavy firepower on the map at all times, destruction would remove a lot of the structures we placed there to support the infantry game and help balance that infantry versus vehicle mechanic. For example, in our map ‘Farm’ there’s a wooden church with a belfry that’s perfect for sniping. If we allowed this to be destroyed early in the game, it would remove that tactical option from the map for the rest of the match.

• What are the server requirements? – Server requirements are actually pretty low, such that more processing power simply yields the ability to run more servers concurrently.

• Will there be Linux Support? – No dice, sorry guys.

• Will there be any kind of tournament support? – Demo recording support will be available on dedicated and listen servers. Also, automated demo recording upload is possible with some simple scripting. There’sSteam-Group based Clan Support, Player Stats, & Leaderboards.

• Will there be Spectator mode?- Yup, via the admin commands.

• Are there server admin tools?- Yes, dedicated server tools and RCON.

• Will there be Eyefinity Support? – Not initially, but this is something we could add if there is strong demand for it.

• Steamworks seems to be the mostly-likely DRM solution for the PC release. Will this mean that Online Pass will not be implemented for the Steam versions of the game? – There will be no online pass for PC Homefront. DRM is something we take very seriously from the end user point of view. While some form of DRM is vital, we want it to affect the user experience as little as possible. Our DRM is Steamworks based, and will require the user to have a Steam client (to which they need to log in during the installation process). Steamworks DRM is the least intrusive that we have seen, and it does not require the user to keep original disks. Since we are also distributing the game via Steam, it is the obvious choice.

Official Homefront Specs:

Minimum Specs

• Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7
• Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2.8GHz
• 2 GB RAM
• Shader Model 3.0 graphics card with 256MB of memory
• NVIDIA GeForce 7900GS or ATI Radeon 1900XT
• 10GB of free hard drive space

Recommended Specs

• Windows Vista or Windows 7
• Intel or AMD Quad Core 2 GHz+ CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce 260 or ATI Radeon 4850
• 10 GB of free hard drive space

NVIDIA 3D Vision Recommended Specs

• 3D Compatible NVIDIA GeForce 480/570 Series GPU
• NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit
• 3D Vision-Ready Display
• Intel Core i7 processor
• 2 GB RAM
• Windows Vista or Windows 7
• 10GB of free hard drive space

We’ve put a lot of what was posted here, but there is plenty more through the link.

Homefront releases on March 8 in the US and March 11 in the UK for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.