Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Saxman on March 21, 2014, 04:03:16 PM

Title: OH WOW
Post by: Saxman on March 21, 2014, 04:03:16 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDaQ-bSkNEk&feature=share

 :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x :x
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Rogue9Volt on March 21, 2014, 04:04:17 PM
Well damn...  I'm gonna need a new machine to run the game so I can see all this shiny new landscape...
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: BluBerry on March 21, 2014, 04:14:54 PM
uh oh. Sunsets so beautiful the beer drinkers will be having wine and cheese when they fly.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: SirNuke on March 21, 2014, 04:20:37 PM
 :aok was the ground details slider to the max in that video?  ;)
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: lunatic1 on March 21, 2014, 04:24:18 PM
 :aok fantastic
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: jedi25 on March 21, 2014, 04:35:42 PM
Well I be dam...looking awesome Hitech and crew.. well done.
Water to shore looking good, well done on blending in the terrain feature.  :rock
Looking at new PC right now.. :x
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Creton on March 21, 2014, 04:38:40 PM
uh oh. Sunsets so beautiful the beer drinkers will be having wine and cheese when they fly.


They already do have plenty of whine
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: ink on March 21, 2014, 04:43:33 PM
saweeeeeeeeeetttttt :rock
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Devil 505 on March 21, 2014, 04:46:51 PM
 :O
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: f35raptor on March 21, 2014, 04:58:57 PM
Atleast us drnken bomber pilots will have somthing new to look at now
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: BuckShot on March 21, 2014, 05:26:04 PM
Oh wow is right, it looks great.

My machine won't run that. Right now I have everything turned down all the way so the game will work.

Think there will be a way to turn all that off?
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Rich46yo on March 21, 2014, 05:50:14 PM
Atleast us drnken bomber pilots will have somthing new to look at now

We aint "Drunk". Were just "Drinking".

Occasionally we hit the wrong buttons and bomb our own tows and hangars. It happens. :noid
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: whiteman on March 21, 2014, 06:23:59 PM
Oh wow is right, it looks great.

My machine won't run that. Right now I have everything turned down all the way so the game will work.

Think there will be a way to turn all that off?

Alt+F4
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: XxDaSTaRxx on March 21, 2014, 06:38:57 PM
Atleast us drnken bomber pilots will have somthing new to look at now
Got that right.....

And All the burning N1K's behind us!  :)
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: The Fugitive on March 21, 2014, 07:21:18 PM
Oh wow is right, it looks great.

My machine won't run that. Right now I have everything turned down all the way so the game will work.

Think there will be a way to turn all that off?

From what has been said the graphics may be optimized more so you might not have an issue. HTC is very good at making the game playable for even the low end machines
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Lusche on March 21, 2014, 07:28:18 PM
That being said, if you are now barely able to run  the game at the bare minimum, there absolutely will be a time when your system won't be up to the task at all anymore. That's just the matter of things, no way to get around that in the long run.

Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: olds442 on March 21, 2014, 07:30:09 PM
Whats the deal with the underwater trees at the shore at 0:05
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Lusche on March 21, 2014, 07:33:09 PM
Whats the deal with the underwater trees at the shore at 0:05

Mangroves  :old:
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: craz07 on March 21, 2014, 08:01:33 PM
wow lookin pretty damn good..   :old:
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: CASHEW on March 21, 2014, 08:20:35 PM
yep . gonna bring in a lot  of new players and throw a lot of old. My puter aint gonna handle this. cant afford new one
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Karnak on March 21, 2014, 08:51:56 PM
I've actually got the hulk of an old computer, 8.5 years old, that would handle it on mid-lower settings if anybody in the Austin, TX area is interested?
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Scherf on March 21, 2014, 10:15:14 PM
I claim the right to be the first to complain about the new look.


"MMMM zmg like when will teh hiteck stop with teh eye candy and focus on teh gameplay omg !!!!!11!!!!!onehunderdandeleventyone!!!1111!!  mg"

 :banana:
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: BnZs on March 21, 2014, 10:27:14 PM
Basically the first 2006 or so Wal-Mart E-Machines I first tuned and slightly upgraded with a new graphics card and ram will still run the game looking about the same as it always has. I don't think anyone is going to be knocked out by new FX, they just won't get to see them.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Volron on March 21, 2014, 10:58:46 PM
We aint "Drunk". Were just "Drinking".

Occasionally we hit the wrong buttons and bomb our own tows and hangars. It happens. :noid


Feh  If it even REMOTELY looks like a valid target, it gets hit! :rock


An if I can run WT with MY machine, then what I see from HTC will not be too much issue.


Also, happy pants engage! :x :banana: :joystick: :banana: :x
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: MajWoody on March 22, 2014, 12:12:25 AM
I just got a new gaming rig that will run it just fine. I guess I'm going to have to come back and fly now. :D
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Greebo on March 22, 2014, 06:02:08 AM
The new scenery looks beautiful, WTG HTC.

The only non-turnoffable extra feature I've seen so far is the decreased tile size of the terrain. PCs will have to draw a lot more triangles and this can't be turned off as all players have to see the same thing. Set against this though, the new version will use the Shader 3.0 feature of your video card, moving a lot of processing from your CPU on to a currently unused part of your video card. So it is even possible the new version might run better on lower PCs than this one....time will tell.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: nrshida on March 22, 2014, 06:44:39 AM
I play on a 3 year old MacBook Pro (laptop) which can presently run the game very well on medium settings. Are there any estimations of the extra demand on the graphics chip, CPU, memory etc yet? I won't be able to upgrade nor replace my computer for a good while  :frown:

Does look very nice. Well done HTC  :salute

Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Skuzzy on March 22, 2014, 06:50:48 AM
Whats the deal with the underwater trees at the shore at 0:05

Shorelines are not flushed out yet.  This is just "where we are" at the moment.  We still have a lot to do.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Volron on March 22, 2014, 08:15:51 AM
Shorelines are not flushed out yet.  This is just "where we are" at the moment.  We still have a lot to do.

And kicking arse doing it!  Wooo!  It looks GREAT! :rock  I saw your "target card" in the other thread, which means that even my 2x 5770's will do work, I hope. :lol
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Traveler on March 22, 2014, 09:19:29 AM
See rule #4
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: hitech on March 22, 2014, 10:14:30 AM
The new scenery looks beautiful, WTG HTC.

The only non-turnoffable extra feature I've seen so far is the decreased tile size of the terrain. PCs will have to draw a lot more triangles and this can't be turned off as all players have to see the same thing. Set against this though, the new version will use the Shader 3.0 feature of your video card, moving a lot of processing from your CPU on to a currently unused part of your video card. So it is even possible the new version might run better on lower PCs than this one....time will tell.

Actually it is less triangles over all if you were running detailed terrain.  The current engine draws 4 verts for every 1 elevation sample when running detailed terrain. The new engine has an elevation sample for each vert and LOD's them continually based on distance. The terrain only (i.e. no trees sky water excetra) runs a lot faster then the older engine.

HiTech
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Reaper90 on March 22, 2014, 10:15:49 AM
Basically the first 2006 or so Wal-Mart E-Machines I first tuned and slightly upgraded with a new graphics card and ram will still run the game looking about the same as it always has. I don't think anyone is going to be knocked out by new FX, they just won't get to see them.

The funny thing is all these folks whining about their old rig that supposedly "won't run this new stuff" (how do they even know that yet?) don't realize that all they likely need is a decent dedicated graphics card instead of relying on the on-board chipset, and a card capable of running the present AH at full max detail, hi-res, 60fps solid can be had used on ebay for less than $100.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Lucifer on March 22, 2014, 01:01:26 PM
Omg clouds are baaaaack !!!  :O  :rock :rock :rock
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: nrshida on March 22, 2014, 07:27:25 PM
Actually it is less triangles over all if you were running detailed terrain.  The current engine draws 4 verts for every 1 elevation sample when running detailed terrain. The new engine has an elevation sample for each vert and LOD's them continually based on distance. The terrain only (i.e. no trees sky water excetra) runs a lot faster then the older engine.

I'm interested to see how you handle the 'popping' involved in LOD with terrain as I know this was a persistent problem with commercial & military simulators, most especially on the horizon.


The funny thing is all these folks whining about their old rig that supposedly "won't run this new stuff" (how do they even know that yet?) don't realize that all they likely need is a decent dedicated graphics card instead of relying on the on-board chipset, and a card capable of running the present AH at full max detail, hi-res, 60fps solid can be had used on ebay for less than $100.

Do you just push those into the DVD drive of your laptop?  :old:



Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Sunka on March 23, 2014, 07:48:25 AM
Im not blown away but it looks pretty good.
A year from now it will look less good,so lets see how long before its released.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: mechanic on March 23, 2014, 08:33:01 AM
.


Do you just push those into the DVD drive of your laptop?  :old:






Yeah but come on Shida, anyone who refuses to afford themselves an actual gaming rig can't really complain. PC gaming has always been about building a gaming rig. This situation with office based laptops and crappy Dell package PCs is akin to trying to play the latest Xbox game on your old Nintendo 64 and then expecting the developers to somehow make it workable.

This is a PC game. To play it a person needs a gaming PC. It's an expensive hobby, yes. We accept that from the start when we choose PC gaming.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: nrshida on March 23, 2014, 09:24:20 AM
Well I have a decent laptop, but I'm a full time student again so a gaming rig is out of the question for the time being. 
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Slate on March 23, 2014, 09:28:25 AM
   My W7 HP laptop runs the game quite well and my crappy Dell with the NVidia card installed by Dell has run the game for many years.
 
   Dell Haters Gonna Hate.  :headscratch:
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Volron on March 23, 2014, 09:36:03 AM

Yeah but come on Shida, anyone who refuses to afford themselves an actual gaming rig can't really complain. PC gaming has always been about building a gaming rig. This situation with office based laptops and crappy Dell package PCs is akin to trying to play the latest Xbox game on your old Nintendo 64 and then expecting the developers to somehow make it workable.

This is a PC game. To play it a person needs a gaming PC. It's an expensive hobby, yes. We accept that from the start when we choose PC gaming.

Thank you. :aok  That being said, their "target card" was introduced in 2008 if my Google-Fu is solid.  It's dirt cheap at this point, so few excuses.  Another thing to note, a well built gaming rig will last you a good while (my previous rig kept solid for 10 years), even with just minor upgrades.  But for what I call "a base model", you are looking at 1500 for just the machine, which comes with a video card (I subtracted a 2nd video card from this price.  I got two which pushed it to roughly 1700), sound card and your box standard DVD RW and HDD.  No monitor, mouse, keyboard, stick, pedals, OS, etc..  How much it cost me for mine a few years ago.  There was update a couple years ago that destroyed my 5770's ability to use AA in AH.  Before then, I could run AH at MAX EVERYTHING and get 85-90 FPS during FSO takeoff.  I am hoping that this new engine will be better optimized considering it's "target card" so that I can run at a bit higher settings.  I still have good looking planes though. :aok


And for those of you who are barking about being a student *cough* nrshida *cough*, this is where you party less and save more. :)  Otherwise, you can't complain. :neener:  Truth of the matter is, if you REALLY want to save cash for a standard gaming machine, you can do it.  It's how far you are willing to push for it that is always the factor. :aok
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: jollyFE on March 23, 2014, 09:36:48 AM
I  think its kinda selfish to limit what the game can be based on a low end machine.  The game needs to grow, not stagnate...That's what would happen if there weren't updates in planes, graphics and FM.  I can feel for folks who can't afford a cutting edge machine to play on, but I also feel that we shouldn't hold the game back tailoring it to low end computers.  As several have said, it would probably just take a graphics card upgrade to handle the improvements.  I know the daggers are gonna start flying but you have to evolve to survive.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Max on March 23, 2014, 10:21:30 AM
Agreed jolly  :aok
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Reaper90 on March 23, 2014, 11:01:24 AM
I'm interested to see how you handle the 'popping' involved in LOD with terrain as I know this was a persistent problem with commercial & military simulators, most especially on the horizon.


Do you just push those into the DVD drive of your laptop?  :old:

Why are you gaming on a laptop?  :headscratch:

Seriously, though, I understand in your situation the budget isn't there for a uber-$ gaming pc, but the reality is if you have any money to spare at all, a used desktop pc and if needed a used graphics card that will run this game balls-out could be had for less than $200, i'd bet.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: nrshida on March 23, 2014, 11:25:45 AM
Why are you gaming on a laptop?  :headscratch:

Seriously, though, I understand in your situation the budget isn't there for a uber-$ gaming pc, but the reality is if you have any money to spare at all, a used desktop pc and if needed a used graphics card that will run this game balls-out could be had for less than $200, i'd bet.

This is the only game I play. I have no budget for anything at the moment but my studies. I did not request holding back the development of the game so I can play. I asked if it is likely if I can continue to play after this significant upgrade.

Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: BnZs on March 23, 2014, 12:07:36 PM
This is a PC game. To play it a person needs a gaming PC. It's an expensive hobby, yes. We accept that from the start when we choose PC gaming.

But the fewer barriers erected the more customers. And AH needs more customers. And much of the audience who might be interested are crochety men 30+ like myself who take a dim view of disposing of income.

That said AH graphics have always been scalable to true dinosaur rigs and I don't see that changing.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Greebo on March 23, 2014, 12:26:10 PM
This is the only game I play. I have no budget for anything at the moment but my studies. I did not request holding back the development of the game so I can play. I asked if it is likely if I can continue to play after this significant upgrade.

What video chipset does your laptop have? Run dxdiag.exe if you don't know. If it supports Shader 3.0 there is a good chance you will still be able to play.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: matt on March 23, 2014, 01:02:21 PM
Alt+F4
Good thinking way to encourage new players  :aok
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: matt on March 23, 2014, 01:03:58 PM
From what has been said the graphics may be optimized more so you might not have an issue. HTC is very good at making the game playable for even the low end machines

:aok
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: nrshida on March 23, 2014, 02:07:25 PM
What video chipset does your laptop have? Run dxdiag.exe if you don't know. If it supports Shader 3.0 there is a good chance you will still be able to play.

Thank you Greebo for being helpful. It has two graphics chips. I can't remember which one is which but it uses the hot one when booted into Windows. Here is the overview:-


Model Name:   MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier:   MacBookPro5,2
  Processor Name:   Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:   2.66 GHz
  Number Of Processors:   1
  Total Number Of Cores:   2
  L2 Cache:   6 MB
  Memory:   4 GB
  Bus Speed:   1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:   MBP52.008E.B05
  SMC Version (system):   1.42f4
  Serial Number (system):   W89150ZF2QP
  Hardware UUID:   F099CBE8-68BE-5BEA-A723-D0F94FAB229F
  Sudden Motion Sensor:
  State:   Enabled



...and here are the graphics chips:-


NVIDIA GeForce 9400M:

  Chipset Model:   NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
  Type:   Display
  Bus:   PCI
  VRAM (Total):   256 MB
  Vendor:   NVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:   0x0863
  Revision ID:   0x00b1
  ROM Revision:   3436
  gMux Version:   1.7.10
  Displays:
Color LCD:
  Resolution:   1920 x 1200
  Depth:   32-Bit Color
  Core Image:   Hardware Accelerated
  Main Display:   Yes
  Mirror:   Off
  Online:   Yes
  Quartz Extreme:   Supported
  Built-In:   Yes
Display Connector:
  Status:   No Display Connected




NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT:

  Chipset Model:   NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
  Type:   Display
  Bus:   PCIe
  PCIe Lane Width:   x16
  VRAM (Total):   512 MB
  Vendor:   NVIDIA (0x10de)
  Device ID:   0x0647
  Revision ID:   0x00a1
  ROM Revision:   3436
  gMux Version:   1.7.10
  Displays:
Display Connector:
  Status:   No Display Connected
Display Connector:
  Status:   No Display Connected

Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Greebo on March 23, 2014, 02:16:05 PM
I just Googled those two chipsets and they both support up to Shader 4.0, its backwards compatible so your laptop should run the next version of AH OK.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: nrshida on March 23, 2014, 02:18:06 PM
I just Googled those two chipsets and they both support Shader 4.0, its backwards compatible so your laptop should run the next version of AH OK.

Thank you mate  :salute

 :rock :rock :rock :banana: :old: :airplane:
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Hap on March 23, 2014, 06:25:24 PM
I went to device manager to get my vid card's name & googled it with Shader in the title.  I can go to 5.0.  Hope that's a good thing.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Karnak on March 23, 2014, 06:38:14 PM
I went to device manager to get my vid card's name & googled it with Shader in the title.  I can go to 5.0.  Hope that's a good thing.
Shaders are always backwards compatible.  5.0 is much more than AH will need.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: GScholz on March 25, 2014, 10:08:14 AM
If you have one of these you might consider upgrading...


(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26232318/computer1980.jpg)
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Mister Fork on March 25, 2014, 10:54:35 AM
Or one of these...
(http://media.techeblog.com/images/vintage_ad_3.jpg)
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: olds442 on March 25, 2014, 12:06:58 PM
Or if you have one of these CPUs..

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/MOS_6501_Ad_August_1975.jpg)

I love how they advertise the thing having two real index registers for addressing modes  :lol
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: F77 on March 25, 2014, 02:01:16 PM
My 486dx266 still runs and is networked :)
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: SirNuke on March 25, 2014, 03:32:06 PM
sweet lord, a numerical coprocessor....come to think of it modern GPU's are no that far of from those
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Devil 505 on March 25, 2014, 03:45:11 PM
Alt+F4
(http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff252/DropkickYankees/Alt-F4_zps57e73e80.jpg~original) (http://s241.photobucket.com/user/DropkickYankees/media/Alt-F4_zps57e73e80.jpg.html)
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: save on March 25, 2014, 04:11:50 PM
Still own Sweden's first appleII+ with Swedish keyboard... 4.77khz... 8 bit ..
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: SilverZ06 on March 25, 2014, 10:20:52 PM
Question For Hitech.

Based on this comment from youtube:
Quote

I wonder if this is going to be still a directx 9 engine ?
Reply
 ·
Hitech Creations
1 day ago
 
There is no reason to switch, at this time.  We can accomplish the same graphic features in DX9.  One just has to put a little more effort into it.  Once Windows XP becomes a minor percentage of the overall computer market, it will make sense to change.

I am curious as to why you are not just dumping Dx9 all together now instead of putting in more work just to support xp machines. I understand xp machines have a great deal of market share at the moment, but with microsoft dropping support of xp in a couple of weeks those machines will be phased out quickly over the next several months since they will now become a security risk without the availability of new updates. It just seems odd to me to spend more time to develop new graphics for an already outdated engine just to have to redo it anyway in the near future. It seems like there is already a lot of work to be finished on the new terrains so I can only imagine a lot of xp machines will be phased out before the new terrain is even implemented. It just seems like you are creating more work for yourself for no apparent reason.  :headscratch:


Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: olds442 on March 26, 2014, 12:39:36 AM
Still own Sweden's first appleII+ with Swedish keyboard... 4.77khz... 8 bit ..

4.77 khz! Lord jesus thats slow, even the i4004 could get 740khz..
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Kazaa on March 27, 2014, 09:40:36 AM
Nice.
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: Reaper90 on March 27, 2014, 07:04:19 PM
pffffft....

you guys don't know what raw computing power really is...

my first computer? The Atari 400..... with a staggering 4k of RAM. Of course, we upgraded mine to 16k of RAM and a full stroke keyboard... after a couple years I became a Lord in the world of computing when I supplemented my cassette drive with a 5.25" floppy! I was a god, I tell you, a GOD!!!

(http://www.computercloset.org/Atari_400.jpg)

 :old: :old: :old:

I was the King of 1983!!!!
Title: Re: OH WOW
Post by: BuckShot on March 29, 2014, 10:06:29 AM
We had a TI 99 4a with a cassette drive. Its still at my folks house.

My Dad gave me programs book a had me entering code for hours to make a ball bounce around a  screen. Three really cool thing was that you could change the color of the ball and background.