Matrix Games

It has taken a while, but the wait is most definitely worth it. CPE v2.4, the next major update for Command Professional Edition, is now available for download to all professional users.

The headline feature of the new release is most definitely the addition of Real-Time Multiplayer (RTMP), a brand-new capability to Command. (As a reminder, CPE has offered WEGO-style multiplayer since version 1.15). The new system offers several key features and advantages:

– Real-time execution and UI update means participating players can view progress updates and issue orders dynamically as the scenario unfolds, instead of having to wait for the next “checkpoint in time” as in WEGO.

– Up to 16 players can participate in a single MP session.

– Multiple players can play under the same or opposing side. The importance of this feature (which is not available in WEGO) is hard to overstate: One of the challenges of CPE is that, for any non-trivial scenario, the single payer may wear “too many hats” (from theater commander all the way down to mission planner & weaponeer). RTMP allows players to organize their assets to players, effectively demolishing this limitation.

– Multiple umpires and observers. Umpires have unlimited hand-of-God powers (can edit the scenario at any point in time) and can witness the action from any side’s point-of-view, in addition to being able to see everything (no fog-of-war). Observers have the umpire’s omniscience but none of the editing abilities.

– Time progression is either real-time or accelerated.

– The scenario state can be rewound/reverted to any previous point in time, and resume from there.

– Players can arbitrarily leave and rejoin an ongoing session at any point.

The RTMP feature was until now available only to select early-bird customers in a dedicated development branch based on CPE 2.0, and was demonstrated at the recent CUE. Now, it uses the baseline development path and is available as a license option.
(Contact Matrix Pro Sims for pricing information on a RTMP license)

CPE v2.4 also benefits from the massive “get well” development work over the last year, like its commercial counterpart CMO v1.07. Other significant features of the new release include:

• Significant improvements in stability and performance, in addition to a large and diverse array of gameplay and simulation fixes.
• Further progress on the ATO compliance process. As part of this, various security vulnerabilities have been identified and removed or mitigated. CPE is now included on the USAF Evaluated Products List (EPL), which clears it for deployment on USAF protected systems and networks.
• Significant improvements to UI for heterogenous/mixed groups, greatly facilitating Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) operations.
• A new non-lethal weapon type: Laser Dazzlers. Although subject to the same atmospheric-absorption effects, these are distinct from high-energy laser (HEL) weapons and have different effects.
• A new HTML-rendering backend, using Microsoft’s new WebView2 rendering engine. You should notice improved HTML rendering on the DB-viewer and other UI elements that use HTML sources. This also allows richer custom UI elements at the beginning of a scenario (e.g. to define custom options for the scenario, difficulty settings etc.)
• A new wrinkle on air-to-air refueling: Aircraft fuel on-load rate restriction (requires v508+ DBs). When large tankers such as KC-135s or KC-46s refuel tactical aircraft, the bottleneck on fuel transfer is usually not the tanker’s offload capacity, but the intake rate of the receiver aircraft. This is now properly modelled.
• Indicators for aircraft contrails and ship/submarine wakes can now be displayed on the map, under unit datablocks. This makes it easier for the player to be more aware that his units may be visually detected at significantly longer ranges because of these factors. These indicators can be disabled on the “Map Settings” menu if they clutter the map unacceptably.
  (Clarification: Contrails and wakes have been part of the simulation engine since Command’s original 2013 release. This change adds visual indicators for them.)
• Various “quality of life” improvements across the UI and particularly on the mission editor and various strike-planner windows.
• The latest releases of the DB3000 and CWDB databases, with the completion of a major year-long milestone: The China national review (see this overview for more details). The Command database is now arguably one of the most comprehensive open-source compilations of information on modern Chinese military platforms.

The CPE dev team is already busy assembling the first hotfix update for this momentous release, as well as preparing for a new set of features that will define the next milestone of CPE some time within 2025. Stay tuned!