Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Wishlist => Topic started by: PJ_Godzilla on February 23, 2010, 09:36:47 AM

Title: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: PJ_Godzilla on February 23, 2010, 09:36:47 AM
IMHO, one of the things missing from AH is smoke and wreckage. This may sound like a purely aesthetic concern. However, recently, I'm been doing a little work on my ground-pounding. I've studied the Eastern front quite a bit and, one sure giveaway to the location of the battle involving AFVs is the column of black smoke over each killed tank. It's a dead giveaway from both ground and air. Such a plume should last for a good long time - long after the hapless crew has been roasted.  :angel:

I'd also like to see debris left at the airfields from past airstrikes - ideally, the kind of debris you can hit and from which you can receive damage.

Also, what are the odds that every corpse and every shot-down wreck can be allowed to live as debris on the forum floor, at least 'til tour end? It'd be cool if aircraft garbage/dead pilots turned into terrain feature yet retained colors.



I'm very American in the sense that I want to leave a cluttered battlefield.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Kirin on February 23, 2010, 09:47:20 AM
Sounds like fun. And you could easily spot the hotspots of the Tour by the piles of wrecks & debris... :D

Although I doubt the do-ability of this idea the visual impact would be great. Plus the formentioned tactical value. OTH I can see people crash their planes deliberately to build a wreck-wall -  :O  ... and there would be the necessity to model a caterpillar or something to push the wrecks off the flightdeck on cv    :eek:
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: uptown on February 23, 2010, 09:48:34 AM
you would have no frame rates if you did that
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2010, 09:56:12 AM
Also, what are the odds that every corpse and every shot-down wreck can be allowed to live as debris on the forum floor, at least 'til tour end?

Won't work, because maps don't last for more than a week ;)

Furthermore, there are like 60,000 deaths in LWO per week... you really want to clutter the map with 60,000 wrecks?
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: JimmyC on February 23, 2010, 10:06:16 AM
sounds quite funky tho....
maybe give them an hour delay..would still get the impact your looking for
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2010, 10:11:10 AM
sounds quite funky tho....
maybe give them an hour delay..would still get the impact your looking for


A good gv battle can quickly produce hundreds of wrecks in a very small area, and so does a huge air battle.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Heater on February 23, 2010, 10:17:00 AM
Would be a nice effect, But frame rate would would take a hit, with that said, it may be possible to have them fade away after x number of minutes....

Maybe the PUTZ can add his thoughts....


Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Vinkman on February 23, 2010, 10:29:59 AM
IMHO, one of the things missing from AH is smoke and wreckage. This may sound like a purely aesthetic concern. However, recently, I'm been doing a little work on my ground-pounding. I've studied the Eastern front quite a bit and, one sure giveaway to the location of the battle involving AFVs is the column of black smoke over each killed tank. It's a dead giveaway from both ground and air. Such a plume should last for a good long time - long after the hapless crew has been roasted.  :angel:

I'd also like to see debris left at the airfields from past airstrikes - ideally, the kind of debris you can hit and from which you can receive damage.

Also, what are the odds that every corpse and every shot-down wreck can be allowed to live as debris on the forum floor, at least 'til tour end? It'd be cool if aircraft garbage/dead pilots turned into terrain feature yet retained colors.



I'm very American in the sense that I want to leave a cluttered battlefield.



I like the idea. Reminds me of CAll of Duty where the body's stack up all the place. I agree frame rate  might be a difficult work around.

Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: SIK1 on February 23, 2010, 10:35:29 AM
It seems to me that I saw this very same idea in the wishlist forum a while back.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: dkff49 on February 23, 2010, 10:42:52 AM
I personally don't care if the view is there or not but one way it might work is the wreckage stays until that player re-ups in same location or after 20 minutes which ever comes first.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Blooz on February 23, 2010, 11:09:54 AM
Maybe could have a standard vehicle or plane wreck graphic that will give the right look to a battlefield but isn't persistant, like the way bomb craters work.

Maybe make the smoke a bit thicker and taller than when a vehicle is damaged but not like building smoke where it causes a huge frame rate hit.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Guppy35 on February 23, 2010, 12:26:47 PM
Thought this thread was about my P38G.... :)
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: SIK1 on February 23, 2010, 12:43:53 PM
Thought this thread was about my P38G.... :)

All those wrecks alone would kill my frame rates. :D
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: LLogann on February 23, 2010, 01:07:36 PM
One day maybe, but not yet..........

When everybody has a constant 100mB fiber pipe at their house, then it might work. 
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: PJ_Godzilla on February 23, 2010, 01:12:29 PM
Won't work, because maps don't last for more than a week ;)

Furthermore, there are like 60,000 deaths in LWO per week... you really want to clutter the map with 60,000 wrecks?


Yes please  :)  -and don't forget the corpses.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Lusche on February 23, 2010, 01:15:35 PM
When everybody has a constant 100mB fiber pipe at their house, then it might work. 

The biggest load is not on connection data rate, but CPU & GPU.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Wingnutt on February 23, 2010, 01:22:13 PM
limit the wrecks per sector..  tinker to find the sweet spot..

hell even 50 per sector would produce a nice effect.  after 50 each new one removes the oldest.

Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Skuzzy on February 23, 2010, 01:29:25 PM
The biggest load is not on connection data rate, but CPU & GPU.

Actually, the server would have to keep the data around and transmit all of it upon your entry into the arena.  I cannot fathom the amount of resources this could take.  It certainly would not be pretty.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: LLogann on February 23, 2010, 01:32:57 PM
I was slightly esoteric in my comments, but I did expect a little more from you (cause I know you are "the man") ...... Point being by that point in time a computer's processors will far exceed the most vivid of imaginations.  At this moment in time, not including the "3rd world," still less than 40% of people have internet access, much less a super fast pipe. 

The biggest load is not on connection data rate, but CPU & GPU.

SO.... At the time of all countries running fiber or whatever is new and better to EVERY person in that country, by then we would have C/GPU's that not only could run 25,000 FPS, have 1000 applications in the background but also make you eggs in the morning.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: LLogann on February 23, 2010, 01:34:42 PM
And servers of today would be in the Smithsonian.   :aok

Actually, the server would have to keep the data around and transmit all of it upon your entry into the arena.  I cannot fathom the amount of resources this could take.  It certainly would not be pretty.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: Skuzzy on February 23, 2010, 01:42:29 PM
The server is not an issue.  The amount of time needed to get everything setup at arena entry time could be huge.

Time is not going to slow down the ability of HP to produce dog slow computers the masses will eat up because they are cheap.  If it was just a CPU issue, it would be easy.  An umpteen core CPU running at 1THz is still going to be a slave to slow system RAM and even slower video chips as it pertains to a game system.

Don't get me wrong.  I have always thought a persistent battlefield would be cool, but it simply is not practical for any long period of time, where several hundred players are playing all the time.
Title: Re: Smoke and Wreckage
Post by: drfritz on February 23, 2010, 04:18:08 PM
hey skuzzy could it be something that could be molded in for fso events and snap shots? not talking every crash plane but something you all do on your end during the set up of the event.