What exactly is different in the Beta?

[darkrider400]

So, if I had time to download and play the Beta, I would, but I don't have the time. I know that ground forces has been majorly changed, but if anyone could just quicklist the major changes in the Beta that'd be great, thanks!

[Ack-Ack]

A lot of things are different in the beta, don't feel like wasting my time listing all the changes but it's safe to say that a lot is different.

[hitech]

Air planes still fly and vehicles still drive ,guns still shoot.

Every thing else has changed.

HiTech

[darkrider400]

Air planes still fly and vehicles still drive ,guns still shoot.

Every thing else has changed.

HiTech

Good enough for me. I'll get the download started later

[bustr]

Depending on the skill of the terrain builder and the final friendliness of the cloud engine to our FPS. Other game's players will start whining about why can't our game look like AH3 or better. I tested accomplishing that with a terrain I've kept up to date since alpha 87. Every time Hitech made updates to the terrain editor, it just got better.

I'm only working on a single large island on a map 8x8. I'm not sure how in our world where maps are 20x20 sectors of 25mile x 25mile, how anyone will keep their sanity custom carving and painting that much reality into the terrain. It's easier to do if your arena is 10mile x 10mile and you have a paid staff member making all of the arena's from geo maps and terrain photos.

But, it can be done in AH3, just a lot of work if you do it to every square inch.

[darkrider400]

Well, except for War Thunder players. Cause I'll admit, War Thunder looks reallllly good, it just plays like crap. A team of a few hundred and they can't pull off big, constant sessions like you guys do. Why we don't have more constant players, I have no idea, this game is one of a kind and amazing

[bustr]

I didn't keep track of the land growth to install the features I wanted. This thing is 9x16 miles, designed for offline gunnery training. The most common features are the water tracks from runoff and the idea, what happens to terrain cut by water. Other games maps because they are produced from Geo maps and high alt photos, are defined by weathering, water tracks, rivers and roads. For them it's a no brainer due to the source material. For us, more custom work than you can keep your marbles in the same room let alone your head after awhile. So our terrains tend to be a bit on the fanciful and purpose driven side. I give it to the AvA they try to go the extra mile, which AH3 will expand that ability for them.

Here a high alt capture of my terrain, note the water runoff features.

[Gman]

To answer the op question - a myriad of things. Big things, and a huge scope of smaller things.  Every time I fly in beta I make note of another cool change or addition. 

[Chilli]

1,000 words ......    1 picture.......



...... and then there is their homepage that has a nice list of changes.... not nearly complete... as they have been very busy....  http://www.hitechcreations.com/

The free open beta version adds many major new elements to the long-running game. A completely new graphics engine and a new sound engine headline the new version. New features of these engines include:
 
•    Continuous terrain Level-of-Detail (CLOD)
•    Terrains that exceed a quarter-million square miles.
•    Terrain smooth self-shadowing gives life-like vistas
•    New high resolution terrain mapping
•    Real-time environment mapping
•    Atmospheric light scattering with realistic haze layers
•    An accurate celestial star system complete with real dates and moon phases
•    Award-winning SpeedTree® vegetation rendering system on an unprecedented scale.
•    Completely new ships, airfields and ground objects
•    A new from the ground up custom graphic engine
•    FMOD® Sound System
•    All new sounds including multi-channel recordings of authentic World War 2 aircraft
•    New environmental background sounds

In addition to large-scale open arena play and historical re-enactment scenarios, a new mission system can put players right into the start of air battles ranging in size from 1v1’s to huge air battles with hundreds of planes in either player-vs-player, or player-vs-AI configurations. New alternate game play modes such as Capture-the-Flag and Last-Man-Standing are also supported.

I do recommend listing your dxdiag.txt here before attempting to download beta.  Some systems that are able to run AH2 are not able to handle the GPU workload of beta and eventually AH3.

[Hungry]

Air planes still fly and vehicles still drive ,guns still shoot.

Every thing else has changed.

HiTech

LOL that's why your the boss, well put

[darkrider400]

I do recommend listing your dxdiag.txt here before attempting to download beta.  Some systems that are able to run AH2 are not able to handle the GPU workload of beta and eventually AH3.

I think an AMD FX-8120 cpu with an AMD R9 270x 4GB and 32GB of RAM should do just fine

[bustr]

Chilli,

Remember when it used to be how big the bore was in your small block. Now it's how big your graphics card is......