Your $15 per month

[Bruv119]

what makes me laugh is soon as people get a new machine they go and find the most graphic intensive game they can find to test their new shiny hardware on. 

disclaimer this is not directed at anyone in particular just an observation over the years.   

[tunnelrat]

Shouldn't we have an arena with AH1 and the Beta map just for playability for those of us who struggle to scrape together that $15 to be able to play this game with a P4@2.4 GHz and a Radeon 9800? Wouldn't that be fair?

Yes, we also need to band together and start handing down equipment to brothers/sisters in need... it happens, it just needs to happen more.

[Noir]

I'd be interested to see a stress test done on this map, with a hundred players fighting in the same location, see if the map impacts the frame rate so much.

The supporter's club is a nice idea, an optional extra payment is the way to go IMO

[Kazaa]

Recently, I installed Aces High onto my computer for the first time in many years just to watch a film of Bruv's ToC performance. Just out of curiosity, I went into the offline mode to mess around and the first thing I noticed were the pyramid hills/mountains and the low resolution terrain textures. Also, what on earth has HTC done with the terrain bump map texture!?

Final note: Big up to Raven! He's one of the most talented 2D artists from the Aces High community, if not the most talented.

[ALFAMEGA51]

Wow! i like it, very pretty 

[save]

How long would it take in man-hours to built a main-arena that have these looks ?
What would be the minimum computer to run it processor/graphics ?

I've heard some AH'ers still play on 8 year old hardware, do they expect to run the same hardware in 2 years ?


I would also be interested to hear HTC's view of one-two years future minimum computer requirements.

For me I just love flying in  tank-town MA, with clouds hanging down all the way down to the top of the mountains there.
I also knows these clouds kills some computers frame-rates.

Maybe a split-MA for low-end - high-end so all get their fix ?

[bustr]

Shouldn't you look in your install folder to see what the game is limited by?

D3DX9_40.dll

Then enquire what the projected period into the future is for basing the game to that version of DirectX. The game is written to the Windows DXAPI which is allowing so many divers PC to run it from XP, 2000, vist, 7 and 8. 400 to 500 players in an arena with some of the best aircraft physics in the industry.

Next year March or April extended support for XPsp3 is finished. Right now even ATI has drivers in beta that address an issue with DX9c.

I doubt this pitchfork and torch mob is going to sway HTC. Someone like the OP does this at least once a year to stir up the eyecandy freeks into a mob to assault HTC about maps, custom textures, and seperate arenas for the Mocho PC crowd versus the 10 year old crap PC crowd. Since this is a kiddy game, the class warfare aspect based on the PC haves and PC have nots seems rather narcasistic and puerile while not having any clue to how the program works or the HTC business plans 5 years out.

Can the map presented by the OP be constructed without custom objects? Can that map as is support 400-500 players without killing half the PC's with timeout DISCO's and throtteling down the FPS near custom cities for another quarter of the players? Do any of you remember that the game engine is Windows itself and why so "many"(paying customers) crap PC's can play in the MA at the same time within specific guide lines for map construction?

Same mob, ptichforks, and torches as last year. Same version of DirectX.

From: The Great Act of the Arena's.
by: the Unknown Chronicler of Gaming.

Act156, Scene 5, 13th year of the new era.

The yearly Festival of the Mob Wants is upon the city.

Mob: Caesar, once again you have not given us our own circus with real scenary amongst to frolic. We will run rampant through your streets again and threaten you with leaving Rome while holding our collective breath.

Caesar: The chirping of a cricket. A lone dog howls in the distance. Curtains remain closed. Oh!! Its Mob Wants day.

Mob: Do not ignore us this time as you have the last 13 times. We are more serious than ever. We have a new and more clever leader to remind us of what "He" wants from you.

Caesar: The yearly whine has been duely noted and recorded. Yes, Yes they still want a Holo Deck from the 23rd century. Good and better. Two centuries is a very long time to hold their breath. 

[Babalonian]

I was thinking last night that the map icons and flashing map icons on the clipboard maps look very old-school.  Also, you can very quickly clutter up your clipboard map, there's like over a dozen display enable/disable options (radar, vehicle spawns, field altitude), and it only take enabling 25-33% of them to make a map unreadable unless you zoom in close enough.

[leitwolf]

.. is this the map for the upcoming scenario?

[hitech]

There is nothing in those screen shots that would have any effect on frame rates. Those shots are nothing but different textures that replace the standard texture set. Along with some nice detail work on the beach.

Those screen shots look nice, but I would also need to see what they look like down low.

What terrain are they from?

On the direct x version issue. Microsoft really made it a pita for game developers when dx10 came out not compatible for XP. To date very few developers use dx10 because of this.

HiTech

[Bizman]

Another side note about AH capability: The computer's age is necessarily not the culprit. Every week or so someone asks on the Hardware or TechSupport about their poor frame rates or anomalies in graphics. At least half of them are "almost brand new" which turn out to be a cheap surfboards with integrated Intel graphics, filled and running with all the brand specific bloatware and playing iTunes in the background. The most expensive single component in the system may be a set of 5.1 active speakers...

[Drano]

Another side note about AH capability: The computer's age is necessarily not the culprit. Every week or so someone asks on the Hardware or TechSupport about their poor frame rates or anomalies in graphics. At least half of them are "almost brand new" which turn out to be a cheap surfboards with integrated Intel graphics, filled and running with all the brand specific bloatware and playing iTunes in the background. The most expensive single component in the system may be a set of 5.1 active speakers...

Too true. Integrated graphics on the new intel CPUs just aren't for this. If you wanted a PC for surfing the web and wanted to forego the cost of adding a video card then it'd be fine--for that. I mean if you're gonna be gaming with your computer it might be a good idea to buy a gaming computer. Or at least buy the proper components to get there yourself. That whole right tool for the job thing. You could break up a sidewalk with a regular hammer just fine if you had the time but a jackhammer is just the right way to go. Can't blame the sidewalk for being so hard. It is what it is.

[blazer65]

Too true. Integrated graphics on the new intel CPUs just aren't for this. If you wanted a PC for surfing the web and wanted to forego the cost of adding a video card then it'd be fine--for that. I mean if you're gonna be gaming with your computer it might be a good idea to buy a gaming computer. Or at least buy the proper components to get there yourself. That whole right tool for the job thing. You could break up a sidewalk with a regular hammer just fine if you had the time but a jackhammer is just the right way to go. Can't blame the sidewalk for being so hard. It is what it is.

This happened to me.  I am not really computer component literate.  I just wanted something new, thinking it would be good.  Got a laptop(first mistake) with an intergrated graphics card. I was lucky enough to have gotten the addon AMD Radeon video chip upgrade, but for the first few months I didn't realize that AH was running on the integrated card, and not the radeon.  Had all kinds of issues until I switched it over.

[STXAce8]

Can you post a link to DL this?

[dhaus]

I'm getting quite a bang for my $15, with the game as is.  I just replaced my 7 year old Dell.  For the first time ever, I can play with the hi-res pack and most of the fun stuff turned on - for almost  8 years I played with everything turned down and had a blast.  With the upgraded computer, the game play hasn't changed.  ACM hasn't changed.  Convergence, views, aircraft performance hasn't changed.  I do prefer the eye candy I can now look at on my way to and from a fight.  But the stuff that I really keep coming back for, the white knuckle turn fight that lasts for an hour (only 2 minutes, really?), the base take, etc., that hasn't changed.  I can climb into dozens of WWII aircraft and pretend to be a real pile-it.  That hasn't changed either.  So, the improved looks are nice, but not what keeps me coming to the game.  YMMV