Cloud Fronts

[bustr]

I've attached a zip file with three AHF films showing cloud fronts I've been working with to create weather in my terrain. 90% of the time my FPS stays 59-60. I had to modify some terrain features to be less complex while thinning the cloud layers over them to keep my FPS 50-60. Base ack and the proximity of a strat to a super large airfield with clouds going over is an FPS killer. Drops it into the 40's, another thing to tune for FPS. The film with the TuTu climbing up through a 14k cloud layer then up to 21k above a stratus layer is to show the sun can be used to white out the bomb sight scope and encourage HQ\Strat raids at altitudes everyone can enjoy a "fight" at. And at the same time a layer of protection for strats. At the end of the TuTu film I descend under the stratus layer and the bomb scope can see the strat through the broken layer.

These are best watched in external view with the TuTu film switching to bombsight view to see how the clouds can be managed versus the bomb sight.

There is an F4u and CV Port film to show a 100 Mile wide 1000ft base cloud system covering a task group and port. A 262 film to show using clouds to cover an island and promote low level combat. And the TuTu bomber film to show using the cloud layers against the bomb sight scope.

Google drive download link:  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwrokXEXneUQZmdUZFV2S2FnVEE

[bustr]

After changing the central island caldera rings into one large mass, you still cannot fly through the center mass of clouds opacity .125-.500 over the center of caldera island without an FPS hit. FPS drops to 47 with my GTX760. I set the cloud layer opacity .500 elevation lowest 4000 - max 4000. Flying under or above FPS is 59-60.

The real purpose of the cloud layer is level bomber management 3\4 of the time based on the 24x7 front generation settings. This allows jabo and fighters to maneuver below and above in the open air. The layer starts at 4000 maxing to 7000 at full generation. The time to dive or climb through while furballing shouldn't drop FPS for more than a few seconds. Hiding in the layer will be hard on some machines since my GTX670 drops to 47 while I'm flying inside the cloud layer.

Large complex structures in a 4x4 to 8x8 area combined with cloud layers impacts FPS. Rounding 2000ft tall sharp edges into more loaf like structures removed the problem that flying level over the top of the clouds impacted FPS while a few feet from the cloud structure top in open air.

In the CV, port and F4u film the 1000ft base .500 opacity cloud layer next to the 5000ft rock cliff did not impact FPS as I flew inside of the cloud layer. Looks to be the homogeneous none complex shape of the large cliff structure works better with clouds for FPS considerations. I still need to test moving a strat a few more miles away from a super large airfield to regain FPS while a cloud front rolls over head. At another country's HQ area, I have the same strat super large airfield relationship except they are father apart and the FPS hit doesn't happen there. Seems associated to a combination of how close the strat is and active ack shooting. When I disable the drones the FPS hit goes away.

Note: Since Sunday 1\15 I'm now up to 52 awa files of 27 fronts for my terrain testing cloud fronts and their relationships to FPS, terrain and light. For the most part with my GTX760, other than the two locations I've mentioned, my FPS stays 59-60 in all of the other 20 or so 50-100mile wide fronts I'm testing at .250-.500 opacity.

[bustr]

Was talking to several guys in the MA about how their PC's handled clouds. I guess I'll be the only person who ever gets to see the giant fronts rolling across my terrain up close and personal. They are epic to fly in especially the one that rolls in on the 3k deck on top of a cliff across a 3k airfield as you take off. Think moors with a fog bank blowing through and occasional breaks showing blue sky. Some guys can't even fly close to the port without loosing FPS in clear air because of the trees I was told.

At least maybe I can keep the 20k level bombing management layer bumped up to 22k and leave a 5k layer over the tank island. As long as you fly under or above the 5k layer your FPS will be fine. I was going to put in fog banks down the center of the water ways so the CV's would have a chance to sneak around a bit before someone finds them. A 1000ft base cloud layer over a CV makes landing interesting let alone finding it to get lined up.

Anyone have a minimum for cloud fronts so I don't chase half of Hitech's customers out of the arena for low FPS? Other than the structural problems I identified, I created fronts so my GTX760 stayed 58-60 when I flew inside the cloud layer line. Kinda wish HTC could get some feed back for clouds and FPS with PC and graphics card info to get an idea of how widespread the FPS issues are. I doubt I could get people to fly around in a test terrain with different cloud front configurations in the custom terrain arena just to give me feed back.

It would be nice to have an idea how different graphics cards responded to the same front but starting at .500 opacity, then dialing it down to .100 in .50 steps across a spectrum of video cards. At certain angles from the sun, even a .110 front will look impressive 100 miles across. The scale of the fronts is what makes the terrain look like real life for a few moments at a time.   

[captain1ma]

I regularly add clouds to the AVA terrains. I set them at just below cap altitude. with the "no enemy icons" running, its awesome to have a dogfight with a guy that disappears in the clouds. doesn't seem to be much of a fps hit either.

[bustr]

I can't take the chance I will make half the arena population log out when my terrain comes around because my massive fronts eat their FPS. I'm falling back on protecting strats from 30k pickle barrel snipers.

I have 4 stratus layers from 19k-21k that still allow seeing the strat buildings as dark gray objects like looking at the CBM map of a strat. But, not be able to see specific detail or what is damaged. Then I have 18k continuous .500 small fronts 20 miles wide that cycle over each strat with a small open space between 24x7. If they show up during a cloud cover period at 30k, they may or may not be able to pick out the target while in the scope. Chances are from testing at 22k over a strat with a Tu2, they will have to wait for the front to pass and bomb during the small open window period between fronts. Or get under 20k and hope for the best. I kept tweeking the opacity on the stratus layers to make high alt bombing possible from 30k between the cloud layers while tweeking the cloud layers to white out the scope if they were over the target. Things like this were what bombers faced year round over Europe in WW2.

My central caldera tank arena island will be sans clouds sadly since many pilots will obviously want to grief the tank fights down in the 3000ft deep crater. Can't have half of them trying to furball with low FPS due to using clouds to protect the tank furballs from aircraft. With the three tiny GV bases being uncapturable, there will be alot of wirbels and osties available to greet the greifers with. I carpeted the bottom of the crater with village tiles to give them hiding places. And some greifers will just drive a massive bomber mission over the crater and mass carpet bomb the tanks I bet. Hmmm, I can at least put the same kind of cloud layer over the caldera I'm using for the strats so fighters have a chance at the greifer missions to kill something.

Did you know a panther can climb a 70 degree wall forever in this terrain environment? I had to make the walls of the inner caldera almost 2000ft to make the angle near the top steeper than 70 to keep panthers from escaping. They just stop moving short of the top and tumble slowly back down into the arena......

[bustr]

I think I finally got the 20k layer and 18k 20 mile wide front tweeked so most of the time they protect strat and other targets from our low orbital asteroid droppers with sniper scopes. There are two fronts the same size and elevation staggered in their launch time with a gap of a few miles between them. If the bomber shows up between the fronts which is a bit random in their cycling, the 20k layer is opaque enough to pick out specific targets. The more of the cloud front that slips in between at 18k, you get a white out. The cloud front itself has random in between cloud clump gaps but, they are not really predictable. The openings in the screen captures were suddenly there to screen capture through the scope. The arena time is 09:00, as time increases to 12:00 many things through the gaps become clearer.

Here are four screen captures of the radar strat on my terrain. You can see that if there is a gap, the scope can see the strat. Now it's just timing that gap or bombing from say 17k. You can hang around and try to time the gap between fronts, but the nearest super large field has 163s. And elsewhere on the terrain the same issue is in play. What ever I put one of these 18k 20 mile wide fronts over, trying to time the open gap is giving defenders time to climb up to you. Setting the cloud front at 18k 20miles wide, very few players will ever play in them while bombers will fly below or above the layer.

[ghostdancer]

Very nice.

[captain1ma]

I just don't like how the fronts start in a straight line. I get the software has its limitations, but I don't have to like it hehehe.

[bustr]

If you want to drive yourself nutz, you can create a number of very tiny fronts same alt and speed, and place them tucked into the leading edge of a main heavy front and at the ends. Make sure they are a lesser opacity value like .175 so they start up wispy.

What I found from testing, where two fronts combine, it acts like you set the opacity to the sum of the two fronts. And those contact regions are real FPS killers for some reason. At 10k and lower with a heavy front in these screen captures, you start punishing players FPS by just being under them. Some players in the MA stay away from the clouds that are at 12k because of FPS loss by being near them. I started asking a few people about their cloud experiences. But, those were experiences earlier when AH3 came out and Greebo had clouds everywhere. I noticed around the time Hitech changed the water to large wave texturing that my FPS with clouds had improved dramatically except for the situations I've identified in my posts about cloud fronts. 

I wish there was a way to do a test with every terrain in rotation for awhile where the same rapidly recirculating cloud front is placed in every country near one of the uncapturable feilds 7k off the ground and 10 miles wide with .500 opacity. Even the default cloud front from the editor will do. Ask if everyone logging in will take a few minutes to fly through the center of the front and record FPS just as they get to the clouds and while in it.

After 100 cloud front files with up to 30 20-100 mile fronts tested on my terrain, there are many effects we could be doing if we had an idea of how clouds are affecting the general population. Buzzsaw would be incredible if all the water ways hosting task forces had multiple 1000ft base fronts over the water with a few mile open areas between fronts along the line of the water ways. On a 4k cliff overlooking a sea way, I had the top wisps of a 1000ft base front scudding along on the ground through an airfeild and fully emerging over the sea off the end of the runway out of the cliff. Diving down off the cliff then flying along the cliff line face in the cloud front would have been better with cons trying to follow me. Visually finding the airfield and landing was a game of timing openings in the clouds blocking my view of the field and ends of the runway. Reminded me of a foggy day at Dunstable downs in England. Or days on Hokkaido when the cloud base roaring in off the sea of japan was 500ft slamming into the shore highland cliffs that the military post at Wakkanai was built under. 

 

[hitech]

It is NOT a good idea to have fronts at different alts that cross each other. Stick to 1 Status and 1 puffy layer.

HiTech

[bustr]

Hitech,

Thank you for confirming this, I came up with many wonderful ways to kill my FPS by crossing layers. Though the look was fantastic and real world for many of the fronts I setup, but my FPS paid for it even with my GTX760. That's why I started asking players in the MA how their graphics card handled the single cloud layers generated on many of the terrains these days.

For fairness to the community, what is the lowest you would recommend setting up cloud fronts in the MA?

[bustr]

Sticking to 1 cloud layer and 1 stratus layer.

Cloud layer 18k, .500 opacity.
Stratus layer heavy, 21k opacity .530.

These screen shots are at 08:00 and 12:00 to show different times of the day and the light effect on the subject. I'm thinking of putting a cloud layer over tank island at 10k doing this to help bombers fly lower if they just have to grief the GVer's with carpet bombing. Some of those GVers are pretty good in fighters killing bombers.


Alt: 24.7k feet. 08:00 21k stratus layer through Tu2 scope looking at the city. Morning and evening will make it easier to see through the layer.






Alt: 24.9k feet. 12:00 21k stratus layer through Tu2 scope looking at the city. Almost cannot make out individual buildings but know the target area is in your scope. As the sun moves higher the layer begins to gain a stronger white out through the scope.







Alt: 26k feet. 08:00 21k stratus layer and now 18k cloud layer. Unless you get your timing right, you can see the cloud moving over the radar strat about to block it as a target.





Alt: 25k feet. 12:00 stratus layer and 18k clouds layer. Because of the random nature of the fronts I setup, I had to take two screen captures so you can see yes the target is open for a moment but, if I had been later, it would have been covered over as you can see happening in the second 12:00 screen shot.

[hitech]

Hitech,

Thank you for confirming this, I came up with many wonderful ways to kill my FPS by crossing layers. Though the look was fantastic and real world for many of the fronts I setup, but my FPS paid for it even with my GTX760. That's why I started asking players in the MA how their graphics card handled the single cloud layers generated on many of the terrains these days.

For fairness to the community, what is the lowest you would recommend setting up cloud fronts in the MA?

That depends on the terrain. Keep them at lease 2k AGL in normal places, (I.E. all but mountain peeks). And the stratus layer works best above flying alts.

HiTech

[bustr]

This means if I want to cover targets randomly to interfere with bombing accuracy, I should use only clouds while setting stratus layers above 30k for eye candy?

Back to testing the cloud fronts one more time.....

Or do you not want us to interfere with the bombers as a random feature of the terrain?? 

[bustr]

One more time into the breach.....

Single cloud layer 18k and single stratus layer 36k. Enough randomness exists in the cloud front generation of individual clouds, not every pass over the strat will be blocked by clouds. But, orbiting around trying to time the openings will allow 163s from the near by base to meet up with you. Unless Hitech has any more restrictions I need to know about to not kill most player's FPS, I think I have found my magic cloud front to protect targets in a random fashion from 10k-18k. There are places on my terrain I can get away with some 2k AGL fronts to hide CV for a tiny bit of time and not very many players will ever wander into those regions. And there are vast areas I can put in some larger 14k-18k fronts because only bombers climbing up to try there luck against a strat from higher up will ever go there. Thank you Hitech for your help in figuring this out.


Me262 30k over the radar factory.







Tu2 26k over the radar factory.