Cloud Settings and FPS issues.

[bustr]

I've been testing a cloud bank at 3000ft to protect a caldera from level bombing. I've tried different combinations of clouds, numbers of fronts, patterns of front spawn direction, and transparency. I have tested this at 14,000ft over the super large air base which may be a different issue.

Win7 64bit
I5 16G RAM
GTX 760 Drivers 375.70

The problem:

If the transparency is .250-.500 as soon as my plane enters the cloud bank I get FPS fluctuations 25-45 until I either leave the bank or go just above or just below. At .110-.200 only when I run into a thick cloud group just past the origin face and then it passes quickly.

The super large airbase issue took place while looking at a 14,000ft default cloud configuration front as it was spawning. I was in an 88 set looking up at the sun to watch the front form and move past. Clouds forming in front of the sun dropped FPS to 47, all other directions were fine.

On an aside, if you set the cloud bank speed above the default over where GV will drive, your GV will stutter while in motion when the front over you advances. The faster you set the front speed the worse the stutters. 60-80 mph will make a GV drive like having a weak video card but, no FPS drop. Just a stuttering ride.

What settings are being used for the MA arena terrains that have cloud banks? I do not have FPS problems flying in those unless some of the problem is related the specific terrain topography I've created as in the screen capture below of the tank arena mini caldera. I tested with drones disabled with the same result. You can image the complaints pilots will have while fighting over this tank arena. Even setting the cloud banks higher, while making the FPS fine in the arena still has the problem in the clouds.

Or should I go cloud less for this terrain and hope the trees and buildings will protect the GVers from the bomb griefers?

[ghostdancer]

I would reach out to Brooke with these questions since he has the most experience with clouds / creating them / settings / etc. on the CM team.

[ghostdancer]

You could also try making the mountains around the caldera be the maximum height or close to he maximum height you can. That should discourage some of the bombing griefers since they would have to spend a lot of time getting high alt to just get over the mountains. Hitting GVs from up high is difficult so they would have to come back down to lower alts to do it and then if they want to actually land kills they would have to climb back up to high alt. Most don't have the patience to spend that much time in bombers.

[bustr]

I bet Brooke reads this forum, and I'm not going to destroy about 20 hours of work and testing since this screen capture is a single tiny window looking at a something that is only .99% of the terrain. Hitech and Waffle also read this forum.

If I didn't care about the FPS drops upsetting paying customers, I can create cloud fronts with no issue on my end with the implementation. Or I just put a permanent unmoving cloud cap at 5k and call it a day. Level bombers won't see the tanks to grief them and furballers won't notice the FPS drop during the moments they rapidly dive or climb through the single layer. And everyone else will badmouth the clouds because they will try to hide in them for ambush picks and warn each other to stay out of them because of FPS hits. Which is bad for business having something players find negative enough to warn each other about.

Half the B25H, jabo, and tank busters will hit the 2000-3000ft caldera walls looking for tanks. Level bombers can see individual tanks in the scope as high as 10k if there is no cloud layer. I've had enough griefers rudder over flying level to lay a stick on my wirbel while in the scope. During prime time play bombers will become fighter nummies. Off prime time people will crap on the GVers because they are bored.

I'm looking for an answer to the FPS drop induced by the cloud layers that I've observed as a "process mechanics" issue. Three .110 transparency fronts colliding become a .330 front and so forth. Three fronts starting from the same "loci" pointing out and away at .110 still create the same mess. I wish the editor let you toggle a "master fronts mode" seeing all the fronts overlaid at the same time to help create parallel patterns that don't combine.

I should test a 14,000ft front colliding into the 25,000ft AFK management mountain range on this terrain and see if there is a proximity issue that will hit your FPS from cloud objects touching ground objects. Guess I've got to go ahead and put in temporary air spawns so I cut down on testing time wasted by climbing out to look at things. I spent 8 hours this weekend testing clouds over that screen shot area just like we tested in the alpha\beta before I decided to post in here.

[ghostdancer]

I'll ask him to take a look at this thread because Brooke is involved with creating clouds for events but nothing else when it comes to terrain creation. So there is a good chance he doesn't read this forum.

Wish I could answer some of this but I have actually never done clouds since just building the terrains, as you know, is a ton of work. Especially with porting over the AH2 to the AH3 and then redoing the more detailed elevations.

Agreed on all your points. I just mentioned the massive mountains because that actually has been done in the past to wall off tank battle area from bombers. But as you point out that basically blocks bombers out completely. IN AH2 we did use clouds in an Aleutians event to do what you are thinking. We put a thick cloud layer down that forced bombers to go underneath it to bomb.

I will ping Brooke on this to see if he has any insights.

[Brooke]

Hello, all.

I haven't run into fps hits with clouds in AH3 yet.  However, I haven't done a large number of tests or different designs with clouds in AH3.

It could be that certain cloud types have larger impact on frame rate than other cloud types.

The main type of cloud design I use in events is the craterma-ah3beta file, which is the craterma cloud design, not done by me.

Here are some cloud files you can download, load into the cloud editor, and look at to see what they use as layer types, transparency, etc.

http://electraforge.com/brooke/misc/aces_high/cloudFiles/

[bustr]

I will test them, at this point I'm up for anything, thank you very much.

I want to place a permanent layer over this center caldera island on my terrain to give the GVers "some" coverage but, the caldera walls will help make jabo and tank busters wirbel ready if they want to locate and get at the tanks. And fighter pick available if they do. Level bombers like a box of lancs, knowing the spawns and loaded with 1000lbers, would be an undo griefing factor. I want them to bomb blind or come over at least in osti range alt for their trouble.

I've been talking to my squadmates who GV, about their attention span tolerance for how long they are willing to drive through the new tree tiles to get at a fight. The farm land tiles and village tiles if you put them together as a mosaic, look like the English or Euro country side circa 1940's from the ground and air. The biggest thing missing from the village tiles, "A Pub". They also blend like a glove with the strat objects, city and HQ. I'm getting blends that look like recon photos of 1940's country side around all of my bases. So now I'm pulling my hair out over timing driving a panther and TigerII from the spawn to the combat area against a driver's attention span tolerance and the needs of the defenders. As a rule as many spawns on my terrain as possible are in a portion of a village tile to cut down on spawn camping.