Trees that act like trees when impacted by a tank...

[Dragdad]

I know... I know. Still, how nice would it be if a tree acted like a tree?

[lunatic1]

I'm sure bustr will be along soon enough to explain why the trees in AH3 don't act like real trees, how a 1/8th of an inch branch can stop a 30 ton tank. I have read it before something to do with tiles I think, but I still don't understand.

[Randy1]

Some of the trees are perfect.  Using VR one can slide right up to a tree trunk.

My WAG is if they make the small trees go down when a tank drives over them it would be like clouds used to be to planes.  It would knock down FPS badly.  Small trees that we can drive over now work good.  It is the midsize trees that give us the problem.

It would be cool to be able to rack down a red tank by tracks and downed trees.

[Karnak]

There are too many trees on an AH map for the server to even be able to track a binary destroyed or not status.

[bustr]

Are you gents getting stuck because you are trying to drive and hide between the trees at the same time? I cannot account for other terrains, on mine I used the farm land village tiles to spawn tanks into because Waffle built them to be the most friendly compromise for driving and hiding using the trees and buildings. I spent 6 months with my terrain and one full month was all testing spawns and the trees to verify the un-sticking routine worked as Hitech intended it to if you spawned into trees. If you are determined to stuff your tank in deep between some kinds of trees, or try and pass through a slightly too narrow space while you know the possible consequences, you will get stuck.

As for collisions with the SpeedTree trees, you can read for yourselves what Hitech has to work with. I think this page from the online manual covers collision area, and the pictures give you an idea of the actual coverage. I could be wrong and this only has to do with tree to tree canopy collision so all the limbs and leaf clusters on each tree can be rendered while not sticking through each other. Or this is what you are smacking into while you think it's one skinny leaf stopping you. 

http://docs.speedtree.com/doku.php?id=collision

[DmonSlyr]

I drove 15 minutes on the way to a base only to get stuck in a tree and couldn't even get out. Had to .ef. Just another reason why Tanks annoy me 

[Zener]

Does it seem odd that simply because a tree has bushy branches - all of which would be obliterated by any moving tank in the game - there needs to be an invisible "globe" surrounding (and extending them) into what ought to be clear air?  How on earth is anyone driving a moving vehicle, cutting back and forth to avoid the parts of trees that sight tells them they should avoid, supposed to guess the whereabouts of invisible globes in the branches?

WHY is it necessary to make driving a GV so hard?  Is it that pretty trees are more important than the actual playability of the game?     When you consider the mass and velocity of the moving object in conjunction with what you actually see on the screen, invisible globes of dead stop create a whole new kind of physics that doesn't just ignore but actually disobeys the 350 year old basic laws that Newton came up with.

[Tracerfi]

Does it seem odd that simply because a tree has bushy branches - all of which would be obliterated by any moving tank in the game - there needs to be an invisible "globe" surrounding (and extending them) into what ought to be clear air?  How on earth is anyone driving a moving vehicle, cutting back and forth to avoid the parts of trees that sight tells them they should avoid, supposed to guess the whereabouts of invisible globes in the branches?

WHY is it necessary to make driving a GV so hard?  Is it that pretty trees are more important than the actual playability of the game?     When you consider the mass and velocity of the moving object in conjunction with what you actually see on the screen, invisible globes of dead stop create a whole new kind of physics that doesn't just ignore but actually disobeys the 350 year old basic laws that Newton came up with.

Resources

[bustr]

This is from the World of Tanks FAQ on arena size, and why they can make trees do more than AH. Available resources.

-------------------------------
What are the typical dimensions of a battle map? What’s the reason for choosing that particular size?

At the moment, the typical map size is about 1 square kilometer in countryside and a bit less in urban maps. On the one hand, teammates won’t lose each other on a battlefield, and on the other, tanks require relatively large spaces to make maneuvers, ambushes, and flanking attacks. Again, map size depends on a number of terrain elements. The rule here will be simple: the less objects are on a map, the bigger it can be. So if there are deserted maps covering battles in Northern Africa, they can reach up to 25 square kilometers in size.
-------------------------------

World of Tanks arenas
1 kilometer = .6 mile
25 kilometer = 15.5 mile

War Thunder arena
32km x 32km = 19mile x 19mile.

1 Aces High3 sector = 25mile x 25mile, terrains are 10x10 sector or 20x20 sector in the Melee arena.

This is the clipboard map of a 10x10 terrain I'm building. I've nested the three arena sizes in it for comparison. So in square miles terms of the numbers of objects that live in one AH 10x10 62,500sq mile arena, you cannot stuff them into those other three arena sizes. Available resources.......

[Zener]

I've never played WOT so I have no idea what all that means.

Trees didn't do what they do now in AH2.  Did we have more resources then?  They acted like... trees.  Now we have way more of them and they act unnaturally.  In some areas of maps, the density of the trees alone makes it a difficult ride because of the closeness of trees and how you must cut sharp left, sharp right to get through them.  The trees that immediately surround a port are a good example.  If you are a distance away, you can line up on lanes that will get you most of the way through - but not all the way.  If you start close, like launch from the VH and circle behind it to work your way out, it's a lot of steering wheel to get through.

When you add to that nuisance with overhanging branches, some of which will stop a tank BUT YOU CAN'T TELL until it's too late, its like having SOME clouds that will stop a plane in flight... but you won't know until you hit them.

It should be inherently obvious where to drive so you don't collide.  The way it is now, that's not how the game works.  It's to the point I really don't like driving a GV unless I absolutely have to in order to save a base or bring troops or supps.  All the fun is out of it.  Spend some time IN a GV and listen to the players around you and what they have to say.  If that's not coming across to you clearly then I guess I'm done trying to provide you feedback. 

[bustr]

In AH2 there were fewer trees and you could drive through many of them while the terrain tried to look real. In AH3 the trees are a 3rd party program so the terrain will have a realistic look along with the tree densities are realistic. The 3rd party program has limitations and is now part of the game core code. I posted the link to the collision process, small branches don't stop tanks, the collison is out to about 4-5ft from the trunk. That's why you can fly with your wing tip in trees and not rip off your wing.

Waffle created tiles with villages and farmland which are also a good spacing of trees for GV activities. Except for my terrain BowlMA which 99% of spawns are into village\farmland tiles optimized for GV transit and hiding. The converted AH2-AH3 terrains have not been touched up to the degree I spent creating all of the GV spawns to be GV friendly. So either the terrain team member who did the final touch up was not required to visit every spawn and test the trees and clutter for play ability, or the terrain was converted and what ever the conversion laid down at the spawn was left in place.

As for available resources, if you have a map that is .6x.6 mile or 15x15 mile, you can run a database that keeps track of tank crushed trees, bushes, and structures with very little delay in look up to render them when you drive past them later. Only one game so far is trying for a multi server dynamic databases to keep track of changed items\clutter\trees as a persistent 24x7 universe, and they've kept delaying release for various reasons for several years now.

By now most GVers know what trees eat tanks and what bushes pass you through. Because of the size of our arenas, resources are limited to how trees will work in any given 1x1 mile area. The rest is in the hands of a terrain builder knowing those limitations and caring to give GVs as good a time as airplanes in AH3. That partially finished map I posted, I'm accounting for GV combat and the trees just like I did on my first terrain. Waffle kindle created GV freindly village and farmland tiles for all three AH3 tile sets in the terrain editor. I make use of them because they work.

[Zener]

...small branches don't stop tanks, the collison is out to about 4-5ft from the trunk

I posted an example .psave data that was taken when my tank went between trunks at least two tank widths apart.  I drove dead center between them where with most tree sets I would zoom right through.  As soon as I contacted the branches hanging out from those trees, my T-34 went from top speed instantly to zero.  So you're theory on small branches is not correct.  They DO stop tanks and the trunks have nothing whatever to do with it unless they're invisibly 9ft thick.

Guess I'll have to collect some screen shots and show you what I'm talking about.

[bustr]

No, psave and film it and supply that to Hitech in the bug forum.

I spent 2 years in the alpha driving around looking for bugs and 2 months on my own terrain looking for GV bugs. You are describing a bug if you are hitting a no go space between two trees wider than a tree canopy and nothing there. Today I found a GV bug where trying to drive down a 70 degree slope at water the GV drives out into open air and stops. I documented it for Hitech and posted it in the bug forum. After that it is up to Hitech with the time he has from his development and debug schedule. Harping at him over and over won't get it looked into any faster.