Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: oboe on February 13, 2007, 01:21:50 PM

Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: oboe on February 13, 2007, 01:21:50 PM
Would it be possible to change the visuals of attacked fields so that we see the pillars of smoke from distance first, rather than the fires burning?

I guess what I am asking for is to increase the visual range of the smoke, and/or decrease the visual range of fires.   Pretty sure the smoke would be visible long before the fires would as you come into range.

I think maybe too, have the smoke columns taller and more slender rather than short and wide?
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Benny Moore on February 13, 2007, 01:42:53 PM
Why would they be tall and slender?  Have you ever seen a burning building?  I agree that smoke should be visible long before the fire, but I don't see why the smoke clouds should look like tornadoes.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Krusty on February 13, 2007, 01:51:24 PM
Considering a single plane on fire anywhere in your field of view eats up 20fps, can you imagine seeing multiple burning fields' pillars of smoke 20 miles out? I wonder how much a hit this would cause. I'm pretty sure my card can handle it, but I'd bet a lot of other players' cards can't.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: oboe on February 13, 2007, 02:40:29 PM
The plane on fire (b-24s and B-26s) are one of the most well-rendered features of AHII, I think.   Its really stunning.

This pic shows what I mean (you'll have to compensate for the wind drift of the smoke columns):
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/81_1171398851_iraq-flames032203.jpg)

No flames visible, and the columns are taller than they are wide.  

Agreed, everything has to be done with frame rate considerations in mind, but right now attacked sites don't look realistic from a distance.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Tilt on February 13, 2007, 02:53:56 PM
http://forums.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=198083


please
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: oboe on February 13, 2007, 03:11:37 PM
second everything Tilt said in linked thread above.   Well thought out and presented.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Benny Moore on February 13, 2007, 03:27:40 PM
I just don't want the ridiculously tall and thin smoke clouds from the IL-2 series.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Raptor on February 13, 2007, 04:44:42 PM
One major problem with smoke in AH is we have wind turned off in the MAs. Go offline and turn the wind to 5-20mph and it looks significantly better, though it is not the thinner smoke you speak of.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: FiLtH on February 14, 2007, 09:53:14 AM
I like the idea.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Odee on February 15, 2007, 08:58:31 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Krusty
Considering a single plane on fire anywhere in your field of view eats up 20fps, can you imagine seeing multiple burning fields' pillars of smoke 20 miles out? I wonder how much a hit this would cause. I'm pretty sure my card can handle it, but I'd bet a lot of other players' cards can't.


Wow, Krusty, you need to get rid of Homer's PC and buy a real one.  I get a minimum of 132 FPS and as high as 180FPS in game, no matter the clutter of smoke, or esoterica A/C in my view
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: oboe on February 15, 2007, 09:47:23 AM
System specs, please, Odee.    I'm in the early stages of planning my next computer build....
Title: Re: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Laurie on February 16, 2007, 12:56:29 PM
Quote
Originally posted by oboe

I think maybe too, have the smoke columns taller and more slender rather than short and wide?


thats how i like my women:lol :D
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Krusty on February 16, 2007, 01:45:27 PM
Odee my system is respectable. See my sig for details. I'm just saying if I get 50 FPS and there's a flame trail on the screen, I drop to 30 fps. That's what it feels like. I don't turn on CTRL-I much so I don't know the exact drop.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Odee on February 16, 2007, 02:12:42 PM
Quote
Originally posted by oboe
System specs, please, Odee.    I'm in the early stages of planning my next computer build....


Athalon 64 +3500 2.1 ghz
1gb DDR Ram
dual Geforce 6600 SLI w/256 video ram Each (512 for the analytically challenged)
A-64 Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI mobo
800 watt power box and 4 fans.
7 USB ports
Running XP Home SP2

I want to bump up the DDR Ram, but also want to use pedals in stead of the stupid X52 twisty stick, so my dilema is upgrade the pedals or the memory first.

Krusty I fly pretty much all the time with CTL-I up top to monitor the FPS while I relearn the game. (been gone about 6 years)  Lowest I have seen it go is 89, and that was in some crowded clouds.

In the furball over A39 ( Nit base bellow A9? ) last night, I stayed pretty much around the 100 mark, give or take 20 and that's OTD in the thick furballing.

What are your video settings for the game?  Might be trilenear is screwing you up my friend.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: brucerer on February 19, 2007, 10:58:05 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Krusty
...can you imagine seeing multiple burning fields' pillars of smoke 20 miles out?


When can you ever see multiple burning fields? Doesnt happen too often where you have two fields in the screen at the same time. Remember FPS is only affected by what is on the screen at any time. If there were a hundred burning fields off the screen (eg behind you) you wouldnt have to render them at all, hence no FPS loss.
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Nemeth on February 19, 2007, 11:03:53 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Krusty
Considering a single plane on fire anywhere in your field of view eats up 20fps, can you imagine seeing multiple burning fields' pillars of smoke 20 miles out? I wonder how much a hit this would cause. I'm pretty sure my card can handle it, but I'd bet a lot of other players' cards can't.

a single plane on fire does almost nothing to the FR, its the smoke/fire on the ground that eats up FR, the "large pillars of smoke" (if made the same as the ground smoke) would eat up FR like no other.

Odee, just because u can afford a decent gaming computer, doesnt mean everybody can, SLI will greatly improve FR because if 1 vid card is having any problem processing it will simply offload any task onto the second vid card.
try this map offline, fly over the centre island and tell me what ur FR is.
(note: put "heavy damage" to 0 or u WILL die)
8thbomb1.zip (http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/1000_1171947671_8thbomb1.zip)
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Nemeth on February 20, 2007, 08:25:27 PM
Quote
Originally posted by brucerer
When can you ever see multiple burning fields? Doesnt happen too often where you have two fields in the screen at the same time. Remember FPS is only affected by what is on the screen at any time. If there were a hundred burning fields off the screen (eg behind you) you wouldnt have to render them at all, hence no FPS loss.

Its not multipul burning feilds, its just multipul fires that eats FR, and i see these burning feilds all too often in the small h2h maps.
Fuel tanks, ammo bunkers and hangars all "catch on fire" when destroyed
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Rolex on February 21, 2007, 04:15:27 AM
Odee: fps is measured and compared with Vertical Sync set to "always on." You might want to be careful throwing out the phrase "analytically challenged." It may come back to bite you. ;)
Title: With the great new terrain graphics coming...
Post by: Odee on February 21, 2007, 09:24:29 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Rolex
Odee: fps is measured and compared with Vertical Sync set to "always on." You might want to be careful throwing out the phrase "analytically challenged." It may come back to bite you. ;)


If you read my post as intended, the "analytically challenged" are those that couldn't figure out it takes two cards to go SLI and that the cards themselves are only 256mb each...  *two x 256 = 512*  

Perhaps I should not have made such an "Intellectually Challenging" parse?

Oh... And thank you very much for clarifying the relationship between FPS and Vertical Sync.  Could have sworn that VS could be tuned or tweaked instead of just default auto-on. ;)