Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Open Beta Test => Topic started by: earl1937 on September 26, 2015, 09:26:43 AM

Title: clouds and terrain
Post by: earl1937 on September 26, 2015, 09:26:43 AM
 :airplane: spent about an hour flying 17's and KI84....clouds are great, no frame rate decay when flying in the clouds or near them.....only problem I had was I was not able to seat myself correctly in cockpit! Was way to close to instrument panel and couldn't see all of instruments....runway texture good, trees look more like trees and generally speaking, is a vast improvement over present game.
the only thing I saw which needs some attention, and not sure what needs to be done, but the contrast between terrain and bases seem hard to make it out until you are right on top of the base... I would think adding more asphalt around bases and town would be helpful.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: The Fugitive on September 26, 2015, 09:47:08 AM
check your FOV (field of view) when you first load the game. It may be set to small. Under the video setting when the notepad first pops up on load up, check and bump it up a bit.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: FLS on September 26, 2015, 11:34:56 AM
Earl when you start the Alpha go to the video settings tab, change the field of view from auto to custom, and set it to 106 or whatever you prefer. The Alpha uses a field of view of 80 degrees instead of 106 like the current version that you're used to.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Chilli on September 26, 2015, 01:34:44 PM
Forgive the slight hijack, but I thought this post was more inline under this thread than Patch thread:

snip

What I find slightly disturbing is the "forests": There's more trees in a park than in the AH woods. One shouldn't be able to count individual trees from above, and that should be true as well here in the north as in the Pacific looking areas. Of course there's the issue with GV's, but isn't there a way to make them look like forests from above?

HiTech already said that SpeedTree owns the rights to the trees, so we are not able to alter them, but the number of trees, I believe is dependent upon benefit vs. pitfall in terms of framerates. 

I had also pondered if there could be a solid block of trees rendered as one object, to make a forest.  Maybe encircle them with a fence that would not allow GVs to enter.  In this case, to avoid any infringement on copyrights, these objects would be classified as "structures" and connected to that system of rendering.

Basically, forests would be geometric shapes that have a cloud shaped tops and edges, with impenetrable "fenced" borders.  Maybe something like that in a future update.

OR, have separate tile sets, like we currently have hires textures, for those who are able to handle the framerates.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Easyscor on September 26, 2015, 02:14:12 PM
What the heck, where did Bizman's post go that you quoted?

(Running away to look for it.)

:bolt:
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Bizman on September 26, 2015, 02:27:12 PM
Chilli et al: A simple solution would be to have a terrain tile looking like an aerial photo of a forest, dark and detailed enough to hide the individual trees. Bump map? I don't know much about these things, but in my opinion patchy moss viewed at human eye height looks a lot like a forest viewed from aviation altitudes.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Easyscor on September 26, 2015, 02:36:02 PM
That does work. avapalau uses ground textures to that affect because the palm trees are far worse frame rate killers the fir trees. I've never understood why that is.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: earl1937 on September 28, 2015, 02:33:18 AM
check your FOV (field of view) when you first load the game. It may be set to small. Under the video setting when the notepad first pops up on load up, check and bump it up a bit.
:airplane: you were correct! My FOV was set at 86 and when I moved it to 106, everything fell into place as far as a one eyed old man can see. That brings up a question, while I know very little about writing "soft ware" and such for this game, "why would they automatically set the Alpha arena to 86 instead of 106 like it is in the MLW arena? I am sure there is a good reason and maybe someone can explain it.
The only thing which I saw which needs some attention, is the contrast between bases, towns and surrounding terrain! It is very difficult to make out a target until you are almost on top of it! I wouldn't have a clue what to suggest, just trying to point out what it appears like to a novice which may try out our great game!
I can't wait until the Alpha arena becomes a part of the regular play, its going to change some people's mind who are considering leaving the game. Hi Tech and staff are on the right track in improving the game! :salute
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Bizman on September 28, 2015, 07:09:56 AM
"why would they automatically set the Alpha arena to 86 instead of 106 like it is in the MLW arena? I am sure there is a good reason and maybe someone can explain it.


Hitech once said that it's because other flying sims seem to use similar settings. As for what is the "correct" setting is more of a personal matter. In another thread HT said that the ideal would be like looking out through a window the size and distance of your monitor. He also gave a formula to calculate it.

As for the contrast, there's the gamma slider under clipboard/options. On my monitor it didn't do much, I left it at default. Your monitor, on the other hand, has probably a bunch of buttons where you can at least set brightness and contrast to a desired level. Many monitors also have presets for "movie", "photo", "game", "text" and whatnot and they can have a dramatic effect. If your monitor has them, give them a try.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: earl1937 on September 28, 2015, 10:23:23 AM


Hitech once said that it's because other flying sims seem to use similar settings. As for what is the "correct" setting is more of a personal matter. In another thread HT said that the ideal would be like looking out through a window the size and distance of your monitor. He also gave a formula to calculate it.

As for the contrast, there's the gamma slider under clipboard/options. On my monitor it didn't do much, I left it at default. Your monitor, on the other hand, has probably a bunch of buttons where you can at least set brightness and contrast to a desired level. Many monitors also have presets for "movie", "photo", "game", "text" and whatnot and they can have a dramatic effect. If your monitor has them, give them a try.
:airplane: Thanks I will try that and I have most of them, but still not much contrast in the terrain and things
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: FLS on September 28, 2015, 10:28:07 AM
Earl I don't think that will help. Remember you also tried it for AH2. Be sure you can set anything you change back to what it was.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Chilli on September 28, 2015, 11:44:20 AM
Like Earl, I too have problems with the "haze" in alpha.  I can barely see past my control panel if I am flying anywhere near looking at the sun  :cool:

I have changed the monitor settings, the graphics card settings and the game settings.  So far the best luck has been with the graphics card settings.  The downside is unlike earlier alpha versions, the game won't run in window mode, so I can't adjust while viewing.

The worst complaint that I have about AH3 is that anything near white or light grey, REFLECTS light and really does make it hard to play.  Turning it down to where it doesn't, renders other areas like dashboard, control panel, and important structures too dark to have any realistic feel (even worse sometimes just blacked out entirely).
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: bustr on September 28, 2015, 01:42:04 PM
Disable bloom.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Chilli on September 28, 2015, 02:39:59 PM
Disable bloom.

Sorry, but my case must be extreme.  Bloom does not help.  If I disable post processing it does help with lowering the haze.  Thanks, I forgot to mention that.  All the other check boxes still make no difference with that experience.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: USRanger on September 28, 2015, 02:48:09 PM
Same problem here Chili.  The terrain is almost whited out when I set the time for 12:00.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: bustr on September 28, 2015, 03:21:38 PM
Wonder if there are differences in how NVIDIA and AMD address this processing of light and the haze.

Over my house today is a thin cloud layer. When I look into the sun, there is an eye blinding whiteout that fills my field of vision not quite to the whole periphery. The real world is much vaster than the game world. In the real world I can turn my eyes slightly away from the sun and regain clarity of cloud details along with seeing clearly aircraft as they fly over. Hitech's rendering of this real world effect is very accurate to what it does to your eyes, it's just too vast in size for the size of the arena world.

In the real world even if you are flying into the sun, you can look a bit to the side, even hold your thumb over the sun to alleviate the white out effect on your eyes. In the alpha world, you have to change direction into another quadrant and just accept part of your sky is whited out in blazing detail. At this time, or turn of post processing for a kinder gentler sun. Turning off bloom makes the white out area slightly smaller.
 
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Chilli on September 28, 2015, 04:04:06 PM
Is this what others are seeing?  Notice the compass direction.  I can check for the time of day, but it is nowhere near sunset, I can tell you that.  Realistic sun is one thing.  But I don't expect to get sunburn....   :cry 

(http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff56/2chilli_photos/Aces%20High/blinded.png) (http://s239.photobucket.com/user/2chilli_photos/media/Aces%20High/blinded.png.html)
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Chilli on September 29, 2015, 06:04:55 AM
The nice little addition that auto darkened the view when looking into the sun, seems to have been taken away  :headscratch:

I really enjoyed that feature............... will it return?  or am I just seeing things differently?  :confused:
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: bustr on September 29, 2015, 02:12:41 PM
Yup, if you look into the sun your eyes white out until you look slightly away. In your screen shot, that's the white out, but it's a picture of what your eyes see as if you are watching a film of the process being approximated. You have to turn away from the film's projection area to see other things that are being shown clearly. Maybe in the future when your retina is being tracked instead of TR or view keys, and our computers are the size of a wrist watch and as powerful as 100 mainframes. Then real time visual effects based on superior knowledge of how the eye works will be the norm.

Or the game will be direct stimuli and we think we are completely in that world. And then the only game guys will be playing won't have other guys in it.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: Chilli on September 30, 2015, 08:51:20 AM
Bustr,

HiTech must have built a time machine, because in at least one patch of alpha the sunlight effect was working as if pupils were constricting  :cool: and then dilating  :O when not looking at the sun.  I no longer get that effect  :(

I was over the moon  :x when I first saw that, and I am pretty sure that many, many current players would be also if that were to occur in the final AH3 version.  :pray

In the meantime, the sun and "permanent" haze are my largest concern for an improved game play  :joystick: environment.
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: hitech on September 30, 2015, 10:54:38 AM
Bustr,

HiTech must have built a time machine, because in at least one patch of alpha the sunlight effect was working as if pupils were constricting  :cool: and then dilating  :O when not looking at the sun.  I no longer get that effect  :(

I was over the moon  :x when I first saw that, and I am pretty sure that many, many current players would be also if that were to occur in the final AH3 version.  :pray

In the meantime, the sun and "permanent" haze are my largest concern for an improved game play  :joystick: environment.

If you have posting lighting on, the effect is still there. I did slow it down a few versions ago.

Also to test have something very dark fill your screen for a while, then look back at the sun.


HiTech
Title: Re: clouds and terrain
Post by: bustr on September 30, 2015, 01:29:39 PM
Hitech makes the big sacrifice and gives us a real world visual effect because we have spent 15 years whining at him about realism and immersion, what do we do........ :huh

I have a 3000ft mountain across from the Golden Gate bridge I can go to the top and watch clouds, weather effects, and sunset\sun rise on the Pacific and from the east bay. I see Hitech's haze and sun effects. The effect is excellent for the real world, the Alpha real world is a smaller sphere than the sphere we live in. It's an "Excellent" over powering real world effect at this point.

We have only so much peripheral vision dependent on how much money we can afford to spend on our monitor.