Ground cutter / grass

[Debrody]

Im curious about your opinion about this feature. Is anyone having this option enabled?
I mean, its something real nice as an eye candy, but it limits the hull-down usage of tanks. If you are hiding behind a ridge, there is a position when you cant see (blinded by the grass) but the opponents can see you (grass does not appear at that distance). I "guess", even tho it was a longly waited feature, most of the players just disable it to gain some GV-ing advantage. What do you think about it? Is there any possible way to improve this?

Also. I "think", my computer isnt as bad, quad core AMD phenomII at 3.6 GHz, 8 gigs of system RAM, Radeon HD 5830, AH is on an SSD... runs this game pretty good anyways. But whan i have the ground cutter enabled, and dive down to the deck, my frame rate goes down to 6-7 for a couple seconds then it raises back up to the normal 60. Guessing my system needs some time to load the geometry and the textures to the memory. Would it be possible to get an option to store the ground cutter in the memory even when im flying at an altitude?

Thanks, Debrődy

[lyric1]

I do like it.

Your right though it gives the opponent the advantage by having it switched off.

[olds442]

Im curious about your opinion about this feature. Is anyone having this option enabled?
I mean, its something real nice as an eye candy, but it limits the hull-down usage of tanks. If you are hiding behind a ridge, there is a position when you cant see (blinded by the grass) but the opponents can see you (grass does not appear at that distance). I "guess", even tho it was a longly waited feature, most of the players just disable it to gain some GV-ing advantage. What do you think about it? Is there any possible way to improve this?

Also. I "think", my computer isnt as bad, quad core AMD phenomII at 3.6 GHz, 8 gigs of system RAM, Radeon HD 5830, AH is on an SSD... runs this game pretty good anyways. But whan i have the ground cutter enabled, and dive down to the deck, my frame rate goes down to 6-7 for a couple seconds then it raises back up to the normal 60. Guessing my system needs some time to load the geometry and the textures to the memory. Would it be possible to get an option to store the ground cutter in the memory even when im flying at an altitude?

Thanks, Debrődy

your video card is running out of Vram and that slows things down alot. disable triple buffering. it hogs 50% of your Vram most of the time

[Easyscor]

I agree. I consider this a problem but I won't use the c word. It's a legal option in the game that allows a larger customer base for htc.

As a terrain builder, I asked a few players what settings they were running, and what I found is that some who can run high end graphics usually don't because of the advantage it gives them, both in the air and in GVs.

Full disclosure:
I build terrains so it irritates me no end when players disable the eye candy I spend days installing.

[SEseph]

Remember way back when you could do the same thing with trees? But ground clutter is more of an option than trees.. I turned mine off for these reasons. I don't like being at a disadvantage simply because of my PC, especially when lesser PCs get the advantage, like lower the tree graphics to run, but hey, now we can see all the hidden GVs!

I'd recommend until certain things are refined just shutting it down for now. The eye candy is nice, but we've made do with less. 

[ImADot]

I disable it while in a plane, but keep it when in a GV. I like the eye candy; dying isn't much fun, but it's a game and I just re-up. If people have rigs that can handle it but disable it for an advantage, then I feel sorry for them.

[BaldEagl]

The only way I can run it without frame loss is to run my OC settings on my video card which I only do occasionally so most of the time it's off.  If my machine was just a tad stronger I'd leave it on full time becasue I like it.

[Lusche]

I have it disabled for purely aesthetical reasons. The short range at which it is rendered makes it look as if I'm carrying a rug of grass with me while moving around.

[ink]

I shut it off...my 2.9 GHZ Duel core system, don't like it on(the only thing I can have on is detailed water...detailed terrain..and Bump mapping)....and besides who gives a crap what the ground looks like from 10K.....

maybe if I liked GVing I would be disappointed I couldn't run it on.

[715]

It's not just an issue of someone turning grass off to gain an advantage; the grass only renders at very short range so if you are trying to go hull down just short of a ridge you can't see over because of the grass, but the enemy on the flats beyond the ridge can see you, whether or not they have grass turned on, because they are far enough away that no grass renders at the ridge line.  There's nothing that can be done about it (can you imagine the fps hit if the game rendered grass out beyond ca 3K?)

[RedBull1]

2.7 ghz dual core processor, 3 gb of ram, integrated video card. - only reason I know that is because the little "system properties" thingy told me 
Anyway on the lowest graphics possible I run a max of 25 FPS...soo...yeaaa....about the whole grass thing...must be nice?   
 

[Slash27]

2.7 ghz dual core processor, 3 gb of ram, integrated video card. - only reason I know that is because the little "system properties" thingy told me 
Anyway on the lowest graphics possible I run a max of 25 FPS...soo...yeaaa....about the whole grass thing...must be nice?   
 

No kidding. I run on an AMD 5000+ with integrated graphics. It's so crappy I had to turn off everything and it looks like AH1 10 years ago, yay.

Maybe that's why the F6F fight we had was so good. Battle of the crappy rigs

[ozrocker]

I don't need blades of grass, I turn it off.
Grass is ok, just eats FR and is something I can do without.
                                                                                                                      Oz

[Debrody]

My question was:
is there any possible way not to be a disadvantage using this eye candy? I really like it and looks great but its frustrating when they can shoot you and you cant shoot back.
Also, maybe Skuzzy could help me out with the "texture loading-in" issue when diving to the deck.

[MAINER]

I leave it turned off. I need all the frame rate I can get