Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Major Biggles on April 12, 2007, 06:39:08 AM

Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Major Biggles on April 12, 2007, 06:39:08 AM
in my opinion, the reason the terrain tiles look quite odd, is that they're a fairly flat texture. there isn't much colour variation in them. because of this, not only does the terrain look very barren, but it's also hard to judge how close you are to the ground (also why i hated the animated water. it all looked the same, so you could never accurately judge how close you were to the ground)

also, i miss the farm textures from the last version, they were quite pretty.

if it's possible HTC, for the next patch, if you could add in more variation to the terrain tiles, bring back some of the less generic ones (the farm looked really nice), and perhaps like many have said, lighten the green colour of the tiles slightly, it would look vastly better.



the tiles just need a little bit more on them ;)
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: JB88 on April 12, 2007, 07:23:19 AM
the farm tiles were just plain gorgeous.

these are not.

tho i like the roads and the bridges...
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Wash0ut on April 12, 2007, 07:38:07 AM
Quote
if it's possible HTC, for the next patch, if you could add in more variation to the terrain tiles, bring back some of the less generic ones (the farm looked really nice), and perhaps like many have said, lighten the green colour of the tiles slightly, it would look vastly better.


...and throw in some sheep while yer at it... :D
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: JB88 on April 12, 2007, 07:44:18 AM
there are sheep in this patch.

seriously.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: hubsonfire on April 12, 2007, 08:11:08 AM
They're not very good sheep, mind you. They won't blow up when shot, and Waffle already branded them, so they're scarred. But yeah, we do have sheep.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Treize69 on April 12, 2007, 09:13:22 AM
I like the roads and bridges, and the trees are a lot better, but the ground just looks way too plain from the air. Looks good from a tank, but extremely bland from any higher.

The windmills and stone bridges are nice though, and I love the trees that arent rock solid all the way out to the tips of the branches.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Wizer on April 12, 2007, 09:31:58 AM
I think the moving windmills are a great addition.  WTG HTC and crew
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Edbert on April 12, 2007, 09:53:58 AM
The textures are there and look quite nice from the ground, but the belending is too much when viewed from alt, turning everything into a solid (VERY) green texture. Nice burms around the field guns too, do those make them harder to kill?

I love the coloration of the water, just tone down the golf-course green a bit and we're there.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: BaldEagl on April 12, 2007, 09:59:35 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Treize69
I like the roads and bridges, and the trees are a lot better, but the ground just looks way too plain from the air. Looks good from a tank, but extremely bland from any higher.


I was in a Sherman for a while last night and I couldn't make out any of the small hills from ground level, even though i know they were there because people kept going behind them.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Husky01 on April 12, 2007, 10:06:40 AM
Originally posted by Edbert
Quote
Nice burms around the field guns too, do those make them harder to kill?


Nope I was interested to know the same thing so I took my jug up and went to go de-ack with 50s only and I must say it is EXTREAMLY easy compared to what it was, it seems all you need to do now is get bullets in the gun bunker to kill it no actually hit the gun.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Engine on April 12, 2007, 10:43:02 AM
I'm having trouble seeing the guns within the berms, because they're so tiny. iirc, long ago there used to be a slider that increased the size of field ack... does anyone know if that setting is still around?
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: 96Delta on April 12, 2007, 10:59:41 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Wizer
I think the moving windmills are a great addition.  WTG HTC and crew

What do they add to the game?
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Captain Virgil Hilts on April 12, 2007, 11:01:44 AM
Quote
Originally posted by 96Delta
What do they add to the game?


Atmosphere. Immersion. Depth.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: JB88 on April 12, 2007, 11:05:23 AM
Quote
Originally posted by 96Delta
What do they add to the game?


ah.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: BiGBMAW on April 12, 2007, 11:11:00 AM
yes from the air the ground looks like AW from 1993


When you get close it defntly looks better..

Just looks liek a slab of green..no change in colors liek the last ground looked


everything elses looks great for the 5 minutes i was on
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: 96Delta on April 12, 2007, 11:11:27 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Captain Virgil Hilts
Atmosphere. Immersion. Depth.

LOL, what?

Windmills planted on a barren, green, slimescape do this for you?!
Brother, you ARE easy to please!

I think that TREES, FARM FIELDS, ROADS and BUILDINGS add realism
and depth.  I'd gladly trade al the windmills for a return of these
realistic terrain features.  They add more to my immersion factor
than windmills do...unless augering into the featureless ground
is your definition of "immersion".
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Solar10 on April 12, 2007, 11:19:30 AM
Turning up the gamma helps.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Lusche on April 12, 2007, 11:29:14 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Solar10
Turning up the gamma helps.


Not here. While increasing overall brightness (accompanies with eye problems after a short time) I still can't spot smaller contours on landscape like small hills, ridges ect. When I am in a valley and look towards hills/mountainsides, I just see a green wall, without any depth perception.
Same when flying low level in a plane, have a very hard time judging my alt or spotting hills (when ditching).

I fiddled with gamma, color vibrance and other settings.
Had no problems before this patch. My TFT is about one year old. No color or brightness problems in any other program/game.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Condor on April 12, 2007, 11:40:30 AM
I also like the appearance of some of the details.  The first thing I noticed was how much more realistic the runway looked as I took off.  Then I got in the air and had the same problem with seeing terrain contours, etc. that others have described.  Since this is mainly an air combat sim I will take the old terrain as seen from the air over more realistic looking runways any day.  When diving on enemy planes It looked more like I was diving toward the surface of a pool table than realistic terrain.  I heard a lot of similar complaints over the range radio last night.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: BaldEagl on April 12, 2007, 11:44:41 AM
While there are many things I like about the new terrain overall I think it's a big step backward.  I think we went from semi-realistic immersion to cartoonland.

Just my $0.02.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Ghastly on April 12, 2007, 11:48:30 AM
Bear in mind that with major changes to the terrain, HTC very likely deliberately scaled back the level of detail to ensure that they didn't negatively impact frame rate.  If it were me doing the development, you can bet I would have.  

It's an order of magnitude better to have hard to please players be critical of the terrain because it's "barren" than it is to have any significant portion of your player base unable to play because the terrain detail overextends the resources of the machine they are playing on.

Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: 5PointOh on April 12, 2007, 11:49:21 AM
Quote
Originally posted by hubsonfire
They're not very good sheep, mind you. They won't blow up when shot, and Waffle already branded them, so they're scarred. But yeah, we do have sheep.


Really wish the sheep would blow up.  Nice touch with the tree branches that fall off.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: 5PointOh on April 12, 2007, 11:53:10 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Wizer
I think the moving windmills are a great addition.  WTG HTC and crew


Hmm You can't even blow up the wind mills.  Disappointing.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: MachNix on April 12, 2007, 12:24:36 PM
Below is what the terrain looks like on my end.  The picture was shot at noon at about 10,000 feet heading NE over A5 on the Baltic map.  The airfield looks like it is floating above the ground.  The airfield has more detail then the surrounding terrain which makes it look closer -- a lot closer.  The terrain also looks flat even though there are step slops off the ends of the runways.  The terrain does look nice higher up on the horizon where the hills meet the shore.

I have heard great things about this new terrain; but when I first saw it from the tower, it reminded me of AW and definitely a step back from what AH used to be.  Is it just the terrains are now using a darker color palate with less variation, or is it my video card and settings?  Maybe this is considered good by people who had problems with the previous terrain.  Is this the way the terrain looks to everyone?  If not, post a picture so I can see what the terrain should look like.

Thanks.

(http://www.wildandfreed.com/ah/ter210.jpg)
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: Condor on April 12, 2007, 03:23:10 PM
That's exactly how it looks to me.  It's not just you or your machine.
Title: terrain could look far better with a simple fix
Post by: frosty on April 12, 2007, 03:25:09 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Husky01
Originally posted by Edbert
 

Nope I was interested to know the same thing so I took my jug up and went to go de-ack with 50s only and I must say it is EXTREAMLY easy compared to what it was, it seems all you need to do now is get bullets in the gun bunker to kill it no actually hit the gun.


It was like that before...i.e., don't have to hit the gun, just the gray area around it.

As for terrain, I'm starting to agree with those who say that from altitude, it's a big step back.  It looks like  giant carpet with some patches here and there.

Also, due to the darkness of the green, the planes with the green paint have become a helluva lot tougher to see.  Dove on a 38G last night and felt like I was hunting that thing from Predator.