New Smoothing Code

[Zazen13]

I have always been one to speak my mind and offer constructive criticism when required. I also like to give credit where it's due. I must say the new smoothing code has fundamentally, if not subtely, changed AH2 for the better. It is amazing what a profound effect such a seemingly small change can have on gameplay. Alot of improvements have been made to the core infrastructure of the game in the past couple of months but without a doubt this is the most welcome and universally impactful.

 One of my biggest beefs with the air combat aspect of AH was the loophole of certain manuevers causing the patented, "Floppy Fish", phenomena. What the floppy fish move did was allow a viable substitute for good flying that was simply an accidental or conscious abuse of the old smoothing code. Some people when out-flown and in a compromising situation would simply snap stall or perform nose up barrel rolls to 'lose' their attacker in a sea of warpage. Well those days are by and large gone.

With the new smoothing code the emphasis is back on good flying and away from deficient smoothing code abuse. The 'get out of jail' free card that was the intentional stick-stir snap stall warp will have to be replaced by solid acm. With that single change the entire experience of air to air combat in AH has gained a much higher integrity of experience and fidelity to realism. It was very disturbing to have a fight climax by one person throwing his plane into a wing-over stall and warping all over the screen. Thank-You very much HTC for finally addressing this, the purists of WWII air combat simulation <> you.

Zazen

[Stang]

Sweet, wtg HTC.

[Zazen13]

It also fixed alot of the buff drone warpage, buffs reposition themselves alot more smoothly now. The only buff drone warpage I see is when the lead buff is damaged and is going down and the drones attempt to follow before the pilot bails to one of the other planes. I am not sure if there is anything you could do to fix that as the drones must attempt to follow the piloted lead plane while it's under player control. But, when they follow it, especially when it's going down in a spin due to catastrophic control surface loss, they do so in a VERY warpy way. Obvioiusly, the drones are impossible to shoot and their flight path is impossible to predict when they are doing this, making the risk of collision for the would-be attackers very high.

Zazen

[Virage]

kudos to the smoothing code.  Really made a difference on my pc.

[Widewing]

Originally posted by Virage
kudos to the smoothing code.  Really made a difference on my pc.

Agree. I was also able to push up the graphics to max and still run at refresh rate (85 Hz) in all but the highest clutter/smoke.

Outstanding improvement.

My regards,

Widewing

[fungi987]

Nice avatar:rofl



Fungi

[Balsy]

Ah... the smoothing code has nothing to do with FPS or optimization... Smoothing code deals with what you "see" on your end when the enema changes direction on his end.

What Zazen is referring too is that fact that now when you force an overshoot, and the enemy is in front of you, they cant take advantage of the old smoothing code to stick stir their way out of trouble.

Now stick stirring accomplishes what it should accomplish, which is to slow the plane down for a pursuing aircraft.  Before this patch you were lucky to hit someone on the overshoot as the constant changes in direction were viewed on your front end as  "unnatural" at best.

What you will see, and I beleive this has  already proved itself out, is the better pilots (acm-wise) will be racking up all those "missed" kills, and the gamey pilots (stick stirrering non acm types) will be dieing a whole lot more.  The game overall has become much more satisfying to me, as I am getting the shots I've earned through out-flying the opponents.

Balsy

[EagleEyes]

It has helped my FR a lot.  Its nice being able to fly with a frame rate of 20-50 then 2-10! As far as the warping goes, it never helped me anyways. Im STILL screwed!! lol, but with all seriousness, WTFG HTC, got yourself a winning game!:aok


Egle31

[Zazen13]

Originally posted by Balsy
Ah... the smoothing code has nothing to do with FPS or optimization... Smoothing code deals with what you "see" on your end when the enema changes direction on his end.

What Zazen is referring too is that fact that now when you force an overshoot, and the enemy is in front of you, they cant take advantage of the old smoothing code to stick stir their way out of trouble.

Now stick stirring accomplishes what it should accomplish, which is to slow the plane down for a pursuing aircraft.  Before this patch you were lucky to hit someone on the overshoot as the constant changes in direction were viewed on your front end as  "unnatural" at best.

What you will see, and I beleive this has  already proved itself out, is the better pilots (acm-wise) will be racking up all those "missed" kills, and the gamey pilots (stick stirrering non acm types) will be dieing a whole lot more.  The game overall has become much more satisfying to me, as I am getting the shots I've earned through out-flying the opponents.

Balsy

That's exactly it Balsy. Those 'gamey' pilots will have to learn how to actually fly now or die trying.

Zazen

[shegotya]

Originally posted by Zazen13
That's exactly it Balsy. Those 'gamey' pilots will have to learn how to actually fly now or die trying.

Zazen

Great!! All this time being "gamey" right out the window!! So where is it exactly that I can learn how to "actually fly"? LOL

I have seen a difference to and so far it ha all been for the good.

[TexMurphy]

Golly-geen freekin smoothing code... I have to learn to fly now...

Can anyone point me in the direction of the flight academy?

HTC!!!!!

[Golfer]

Here
or here
here too

All you have to do is fork out about $100,000 and they'll have you driving a regional jet just in time to be furloughed when the bubble bursts.

maybe here

This is a bargain...its only going to cost you around $50,000.

Good luck, Captain.

[Krusty]

I don't know about preventing stick stirring....

I was on last night for 30 minutes or so (great fights you rooks at 184-whatever my field was). There was a La there that wasn't exactly stick stirring, but I could tell he was either flopping in an accelerated stall or trying like mad to cross-control for an overshoot. He was still flopping around.

Oh, and with any more than 6 planes WARP CITY. Net graph? FLAT. Warps? NONSTOP. I was getting killed constantly by planes that were warping into position, until I went to a smaller fight and no more warps. Freaking odd.

Smooth code may need more refining.

[Zazen13]

Originally posted by Krusty
I don't know about preventing stick stirring....

I was on last night for 30 minutes or so (great fights you rooks at 184-whatever my field was). There was a La there that wasn't exactly stick stirring, but I could tell he was either flopping in an accelerated stall or trying like mad to cross-control for an overshoot. He was still flopping around.

Oh, and with any more than 6 planes WARP CITY. Net graph? FLAT. Warps? NONSTOP. I was getting killed constantly by planes that were warping into position, until I went to a smaller fight and no more warps. Freaking odd.

Smooth code may need more refining.

Yes. I saw this last night in an Ostwind. The base was under very heavy attack and the cons appeared to reposition themselves at regular intervals by some strange lateral 'slide' move. I did not have the presence of mind to film it I wish I had. When the number of cons dropped down this phenomena ceased. It wasn't a usual 'warp' per se, but a a lateral 'slide' effect, I would have to attribute this oddity to the new smoothing code. Perhaps HT could look into this as it should be a very easily reproducable situation.

Zazen

[dedalos]

Originally posted by Zazen13
I have always been one to speak my mind and offer constructive criticism when required. I also like to give credit where it's due. I must say the new smoothing code has fundamentally, if not subtely, changed AH2 for the better. It is amazing what a profound effect such a seemingly small change can have on gameplay. Alot of improvements have been made to the core infrastructure of the game in the past couple of months but without a doubt this is the most welcome and universally impactful.

 One of my biggest beefs with the air combat aspect of AH was the loophole of certain manuevers causing the patented, "Floppy Fish", phenomena. What the floppy fish move did was allow a viable substitute for good flying that was simply an accidental or conscious abuse of the old smoothing code. Some people when out-flown and in a compromising situation would simply snap stall or perform nose up barrel rolls to 'lose' their attacker in a sea of warpage. Well those days are by and large gone.

With the new smoothing code the emphasis is back on good flying and away from deficient smoothing code abuse. The 'get out of jail' free card that was the intentional stick-stir snap stall warp will have to be replaced by solid acm. With that single change the entire experience of air to air combat in AH has gained a much higher integrity of experience and fidelity to realism. It was very disturbing to have a fight climax by one person throwing his plane into a wing-over stall and warping all over the screen. Thank-You very much HTC for finally addressing this, the purists of WWII air combat simulation <> you.

Zazen

I am sorry, but I have to ask.  How does all this change cherry picking?












JK