General Forums => Open Beta Test => Topic started by: Skuzzy on October 29, 2015, 12:14:25 PM
Title: Patch 82
Post by: Skuzzy on October 29, 2015, 12:14:25 PM
New version (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,375632.0.html) up!
Today is the day!
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Bizman on October 29, 2015, 12:47:51 PM
Updated with no issues. Removed the terrain files from the ah3terr folder before starting the game. Yes, the terrains seemed to load fast, about half a minute each.
What I found odd, was that after quitting using the quit button the arena choice screen was white for roughly 5 seconds before the image showed.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: MADe on October 29, 2015, 01:49:43 PM
4 arenas loaded fairly fast after .res delete.
dam it looks good graphically. sharp, colors a little better, getting 60f/s, ave 900mb vram. reflections still a little to much, nice, realistic but its approaching interference level. Keeping up with the cockpit dash is tuff as it is, especially for a non-real life pilot, plus who wants to waste time bouncing head around to get around reflections on dash guage glass.
1 arena had a fast time sequence, see attach. did not try .date
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: bustr on October 29, 2015, 03:30:23 PM
Skins should now be functional doesn't mean you can simply copy skins over from AH2. Tried that with the spit8.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Skuzzy on October 29, 2015, 03:32:26 PM
Skins should now be functional doesn't mean you can simply copy skins over from AH2. Tried that with the spit8.
Skins from AH2 will not work with AH3. We have to make a modification to the skin for them to work in AH3.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: bustr on October 29, 2015, 04:05:25 PM
Thanks skuzzy, I though I scroowed my pooch.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: bustr on October 29, 2015, 05:59:57 PM
There is a constant horizon color transition dark layer at all hours. You can just make it out in the dark. Here are screen captures of early morning and mid day.
There is a constant horizon color transition dark layer at all hours.
I think that's the distant ocean.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: 715 on October 30, 2015, 02:11:18 AM
Setting .date without parameters crashes the alpha (instead of printing an instruction message like other dot commands do).
Stars match my planetarium program (stellarium) well. The moon position almost matches, but it is ever so slightly off.* Moon phase seems to match. Planets are either wrong or not implemented.
Is the latitude still set to Dallas?
.res download is much faster than before. (Maybe even 10 times faster?)
*going by it's center; I know it is intentionally several times too big.
Edit: forgot about bumping into trees. Mostly bumping into trees with a Jeep worked fine. In one case it didn't: the screen went black and I couldn't move. However, the program was still running and an ".ef" put me back into the tower with a proper view. I could not duplicate this (although in one other case there was a brief flash of white).
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on October 30, 2015, 03:19:13 AM
There is a constant horizon color transition dark layer at all hours. You can just make it out in the dark. Here are screen captures of early morning and mid day.
Fixed for the next patch
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: oboe on October 30, 2015, 09:03:00 AM
Skins from AH2 will not work with AH3. We have to make a modification to the skin for them to work in AH3.
Are there special instructions for skinners in AH3? For example, if I'd like to update some of my oldest bare metal P-38 skins, how would I do it?
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Easyscor on October 30, 2015, 09:41:29 AM
I'm still away from home, (3 to 4 months of the year) and working on my laptop with no vid card.
I considered putting this is the TE section but it probably belongs here in patch 82.
~Paths and Beaches~
In Patch 79, both of these worked but in p80(I think it started here), 81 & 82 they have stopped and crash the Terrain Editor: Beaches have stopped working and crash the TE when placing the second point. Paths crash the program when placing the first point.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: MADe on October 30, 2015, 10:25:33 AM
The glare seems rather bright. This is the left and right view with the sun on the left.
Dam what a beautiful pic. What are you using to get that type of clarity? It almost makes it as a photograph.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Easyscor on October 30, 2015, 10:45:49 AM
Without a vid card, I'm unable to see the waypoints for Task Groups while setting them in the Terrain editor. I managed to save the wpt file, so I believe it's working for me otherwise.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: MachNix on October 30, 2015, 10:46:04 AM
Battleship: LOD of guns. Launch to one of the smaller defensive guns (20 MM Single for example) on the battleship, hit F3 then F8 for external view, and then use the bracket keys to move the camera in or out, and the key pad to change the direction of the view. As the camera move away some of the guns disappear only to reappear as you get farther away. If the gun shapes where removed to improve (or reduce) the level of detail, it seems they should not be added back in as you move farther away. Some of the guns will change their visibility as you pan around the ship. The attached image is of a damaged battleship but indicates which guns where having visibility issues. Image: p82_Battleship.jpg
Battleship: No wake visible.
Battleship: Deck plates and railing protrude from the side of the ship. I have no idea if this is the way it is supposed to be or not.
Battleship: Slides sideways instead of turning with TG. The battleship seems "fixed" or "welded" to the carrier so the battleship just slides sideways through the water instead of turning. The battleship slides left and right as the carrier swings to port and starboard to acquire the new course line.
Suggestion: While in the hanger and selecting guns, automatically launch to the gun if double-clicked with mouse.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on October 30, 2015, 11:06:26 AM
Dam what a beautiful pic. What are you using to get that type of clarity? It almost makes it as a photograph.
Thanks, it's basically a straight in-game screen shot (alt s) with default settings so credit belongs to HTC and Fencer for the skin. I just see that it looks nice and push buttons.
I tweaked the brightness and contrast a little bit. You're probably noticing the screen resolution, 2560x1440. The image is cropped smaller to remove system messages and for composition. Also, I tend to use a zoomed in view for pics so the perspective matches what you're used to seeing with a telephoto lens.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Chilli on October 30, 2015, 12:54:33 PM
There is a constant horizon color transition dark layer at all hours. You can just make it out in the dark. Here are screen captures of early morning and mid day.
:headscratch: Does this also effect the "dark" water color seen when looking at close proximity seas? These areas of very dark waters lose whatever reflective properties that are so very nice in AH2 and pond water. This causes an "un natural" loss in depth perception / or distance from water when flying at low altitudes. Basically, it reminds me of the difficulties in flying AH2 with terrain detail off.
In a main arena environment, this may not go over so well, if it is seen as a step backwards. I don't mean this to be harsh criticism, especially since I have seen how much effort that you are putting into that particular area, with much improvement noticed. Also, I am aware that you stated in the previous patch that you were not satisfied with the water (I assumed you mean lighting/ post-lighting).
Perhaps the inability to set underwater terrain texture is providing the challenge, I don't know :headscratch: Anyhow, sun and moon lit reflections, the rolling surf and the ability to see torpedoes running underwater blew me away! :aok I just hope this is not the price to be paid.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on October 30, 2015, 01:00:29 PM
Without a vid card, I'm unable to see the waypoints for Task Groups while setting them in the Terrain editor. I managed to save the wpt file, so I believe it's working for me otherwise.
I happened to have fixed that yesterday.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on October 30, 2015, 01:07:24 PM
Setting .date without parameters crashes the alpha (instead of printing an instruction message like other dot commands do).
Quote
Stars match my planetarium program (stellarium) well. The moon position almost matches, but it is ever so slightly off.* Moon phase seems to match. Planets are either wrong or not implemented.
The rotation is also incorrect, been looking for a piece of code that gives me the correct rotation for date/time.
Is the discrepancy possible just try verse adjusted for atmosphere affects?
I also have all the code for the planets positions, I just havn't thrown them in yet, and need some color/magnitude info on them.
Quote
Is the latitude still set to Dallas?
The Ndisles is now centered on the Solomon Illands if you updated yours from the host.
All other Terrians are still Dallas.
[/quote]
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on October 30, 2015, 01:11:30 PM
Are there special instructions for skinners in AH3? For example, if I'd like to update some of my oldest bare metal P-38 skins, how would I do it?
The new skin viewer should work the same methodology as before, but some of the file extensions have changed. Along with the diffuse, you now have. _N normal map _S Spec map _A Alpha _E Environment _P Specular power multiplier Note if both alpha and power can not be used at the same time.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Greebo on October 30, 2015, 01:53:31 PM
Note that if anyone wants to see what the new skin files look like they can. Run the alpha skin viewer, set it to view the TBM3 and hit "save textures". The files will be in the Aces High Beta/skins/tbm3 folder.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on October 30, 2015, 02:14:18 PM
I believe the p15d default skin also has all the channels.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: oboe on October 30, 2015, 02:40:33 PM
This is how one of my P-38G skins looks with the default P-38G skin's maps. I do like the way the skin has a bit of hard shininess to it. Its subtle but gives a better impression of painted metal than the same skin in AH2. By comparison, the AH2 skin looks more like painted cardboard.
I notice there seems to be a "gap" between the shadow and the object casting the shadow, however - look at the outboard wing root of the left wing... (http://i.imgur.com/o4xZ75z.jpg)
But the shadow gap doesn't appear to be present at all angles: (http://i.imgur.com/9jX7vp4.jpg)
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: bustr on October 30, 2015, 02:57:33 PM
Hey Waffle, you could remove the scratch effects file and replace it with that special one you made for one gunsight. Your big fat finger prints all over the place. Just for the next patch........
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Greebo on October 30, 2015, 02:59:08 PM
Regarding the test goals the Euro terrain downloaded in about 30 seconds and the date command worked as intended.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on October 30, 2015, 03:16:45 PM
Note on the glare pics I posted I didn't post the right side wing, I posted the left wing twice. I tried to reproduce it to fix the pic and the glare was reduced on both wings. :headscratch: In flight the first time the right wing was completely white from glare along with the left side. I think I need to pause longer between screenshots since the left wing shot didn't get recorded and with all the glare I didn't notice when I posted it.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: bustr on October 30, 2015, 05:56:21 PM
Since Hitech is in the process of changing the head positions so new players do not have to struggle at discovering they have the ability to change that themselves. I would like to make a gunnery suggestion that will help the new player. I've been testing this in the alpha and in AH2.
1. - All hood mounted guns, reduce their convergence to 150-175 including the La5\7. The real guns in these mountings were set parallel to each other and the dispersion at 400 is changed negligibly. The harmonization pattern at 400 with any other guns is about center of the gunsight reticle. Holds true with planes like the P39, P40C, Ki61, Ki84 and C202\5.
2. - All motor cannon, reduce their convergence to 175. This effectively shoots all calibers in the game flat to 400.
Anyone shooting past 400 has to actually learn to shoot. Otherwise, average shooting in the game is point blank to 400 or realistically just shy of 400. Inside of 150 many players don't realize they are shooting low if they aim with the center of the reticle. Convergence settings moving out past 200 start introducing a high point in the trajectory that makes chasing 6 shots confusing. Reducing the Ta152 motor cannon to 175 harmonizes the IP point pattern with the default MG151\20 setting of 275 out to 400. Past that, like with the G14 and K4, the player will learn to shoot only the 30mm or the other guns due to dramatic ballistic drop and dispersion of the MK108.
This will make shooting for the new player closer to point and click. Longer shooting strategies will be learned over time from vets and experimentation. Just like learning to pull the P51-D convergence out to 650 and turn off tracers to hit and exit unscathed.
Currently the "aircraftname.cfg" file in the "settings" directory holds changes to the default convergence you have made for each of your rides. I can provide the relevant planes files for testing.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on October 30, 2015, 07:06:12 PM
So far every attempt to get the patch downloaded; either in-game or via Firefox, have ended in tears. Still working on it.
Going to continue to think it's all me given the number of people testing.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on October 30, 2015, 07:33:53 PM
What happens? Do you get a corrupt file or do you lose connection?
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on October 30, 2015, 07:56:06 PM
Firefox just gives me a "failed". Nothing in event logs. Every attempt to download in game also either failed or I was told the update was not successful. All in all an abysmal lack of information at this point. Eventually it will <make me VERY angry> and I will hunt the problem down.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on October 30, 2015, 09:58:39 PM
If you PM me an email address I can try to send the update as an attachment.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: MADe on October 30, 2015, 10:21:47 PM
oops :airplane:
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: MADe on October 30, 2015, 10:23:53 PM
my end, not same skin. I seemed to have trouble enabling skins..................turned on skin dl's but nothing appears with selection..........not super important.
still I wanted to place fls pic close to mine on same display format to compare. His looks sweeter but it most likely the actual skin. sun is at 12 oclock or so getting low, nice.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on October 30, 2015, 10:38:55 PM
Look for the download complete message, I DL'd 6 skins. You may have to close the program and restart before you see them in game.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: 715 on October 30, 2015, 11:20:31 PM
The Ndisles is now centered on the Solomon Illands if you updated yours from the host.
All other Terrians are still Dallas.
HiTech
I deleted and re-downloaded ndisles (again). Unless I'm doing something horribly stupid it isn't even close to being centered on Solomon Islands. They are at about -9.4 deg which puts Polaris below the horizon while the alpha with ndisles has Polaris about 32 to 34 degrees above the horizon. I'll try to attach an image that shows the discrepancy (the city on the Stellarium window is in the Solomon Islands).
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: ebfd11 on October 31, 2015, 06:58:09 AM
I have the completed skin D/L message but nothing changes with the skin in the hangar. Going to delete the skins file then re-download them and see if that fixes it.
LawnDart
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Drano on October 31, 2015, 10:50:00 AM
Was a couple of versions behind but I downloaded and updated to the current version. All went fine.
I deleted (moved actually, just in case things went wrong) my current terrain files went to update them online.
Went online to the mission arena. The terrain downloaded quickly in just a few secs and installed normally. The arena selection screen came up with a markedly resized clipboard. It was very small. Hard to read small. I resized it larger and went on to the other arenas to update the rest of the terrains.
GS4 Alpha update was the same experience. Few secs, installed, resized clipboard.
Capture the flag arena, ditto. The rate of time change is very fast in there! A day might go by in a minute. Very cool for seeing the change in the sky quickly. Night only lasts a few secs but that mirrors arena "real time" norms. Unlike the arenas it does go full dark. I think the stars and night sky look absolutely fabulous but my aversion to night in the game at least as it's currently set up is well documented.
Went to the AvA Alpha arena and it updated as the others with the clipboard thing again. I got an "invalid skin number" when I got to the tower but it was otherwise fine.
The special events arena was the only map that took more than a few secs to download but I'm sure it's because it's a much bigger map. Even so it only went about 30 secs. It updated as the others, again with the clipboard resizing.
I went back to the mission arena, went to the hangar and selected skin downloads. The p51D skin began downloading and installed as it normally would. I knew it wouldn't be available immediately so I quit to restart the game and see it. As far as I knew the skins were never immediately available on downloading them without a restart? That may be why some are having problems seeing it right away. Try restarting the game people. That AND that particular skin may not be available on every terrain. Skins can be enabled and disabled per terrain. If the skin has been downloaded but shows red in the hangar, you can't use it on that terrain. I think it's always been that way. If you can't see the skins, restart and try offline. If it downloaded it oughta be there to use.
On hitting the quit button from the arena selection screen the clipboard resized again at the main game screen. This time it was way big and I had to make it smaller to see the quit button there.
Restarting the game offline I went to the hangar to select the new 51 skin. No problem. Went to the runway to check it out. Looks great. However, and I don't know if this is a skinning thing or a game thing but IMO the bare skinned birds' reflective properties, as I've said before, need to be toned down a notch or two. It's too mirror like. As if it were glass and not metal. It should be shiny for sure, but not to the point I could read a menu off it and as it is you can see every nook and cranny on the runway pavement reflected on the side of the cowling. That don't seem right to me. Of course that just like, my opinion man (tm The Dude)! Everybody else's MMV. One man's shiny is another man's dull.
As to the head positions I use TIR and had reset all mine to "home" so I'm kinda useless there now.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Chilli on October 31, 2015, 03:37:30 PM
Vox is broken!? :furious << one way to avoid a FUSS. Tried vox channels, and Bustr checked the vox to self (gameID) and no vox.
Lawndart, there are more than 29 pony skins. I found that it took a little while to download them, and not all were "available" (some were red text). Is it possible that you tried a skin that was not finished downloading? (some were in bold white text at first but obviously hadn't dl yet since I only had 2 skins at the time that I checked ~ 10 skins were in white text).
Big Beautiful Doll, my favorite pony skin is nice and brand new ... very shiny!!! :airplane: :banana:
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on October 31, 2015, 03:57:17 PM
...and it fails with 1,557,953KB downloaded...every time. Just a few seconds left, then *poof*.
I suppose I could try to download 81 and patch to 82. I'm a couple patches back.
<edit> That worked. Sitting in the tower with a day lasting about 10 seconds at 13FPS. Woot. </edit>
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: bustr on October 31, 2015, 05:02:05 PM
I found sitting in the capture the flag arena got me all the skins. Sitting in the GS4 Alpha arena the download got to number 7 and stalled. Also VOX in the GS4 arena is fubar and quitting it hung the screen in the tower while showing the desktop mouse arrow.
Thar be some SHINEY in them wings......and oooohhhhh I can see the sunrise in that ponies side.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: JimmyD3 on October 31, 2015, 09:32:44 PM
It may not be important, but I have Sweetfx 2.0 running on Alpha, with no problems.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: 715 on November 01, 2015, 01:13:46 AM
There are 31 P51-D skins. It takes quite awhile for them to download using the Hanger option. All 31 are available and work on my system, but then I waited for all to finish downloading.
I've been playing more with tree collision. I could not reproduce the black screen I got before (and I hit a lot of trees). I did find that I could pretty reproducibly drive through one of the palm trees (in a set of four) with the Jeep if I hit it at a certain angle and at high speed.* (pic attached to ident. tree). I tried running into hangers (the quonset hut one). That works properly from the front, but if I back into them and can end up inside. I didn't try backing into other buildings and driving around in reverse is not something people tend to do in game. (I know these are picky but you did ask for us to test object collisions.)
The new FTH has windows: you can see out from inside, you can see through from outside to the floor and to terrain beyond the FTH, but you can't see a plane inside the FTH from outside through the windows; it is visible through the open door of course (this was with F3 mode).
[* I understand how this could be inevitable: if the Jeep is traveling fast and collisions are checked periodically, by the time a collision is detected the Jeep could already be inside the tree.]
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Blade on November 01, 2015, 01:50:59 AM
Black characters on a black background.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Skuzzy on November 01, 2015, 05:30:02 AM
Firefox just gives me a "failed". Nothing in event logs. Every attempt to download in game also either failed or I was told the update was not successful. All in all an abysmal lack of information at this point. Eventually it will <make me VERY angry> and I will hunt the problem down.
If an update gives you an error it usually means the version being patched did not match the patch. For example, you were running game "Patch 79" and tried to run the patch going from 80 to 81.
If it was an error from the auto-updater, then it usually means the patch was not downloaded correctly, or corrupted, or not complete.
Anti-virus?
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Tracerfi on November 01, 2015, 06:38:50 AM
I have found out if you killed the CV and kill the radar the flames for the radar stay visible long after the CV is dead
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on November 01, 2015, 11:57:08 AM
If an update gives you an error it usually means the version being patched did not match the patch. For example, you were running game "Patch 79" and tried to run the patch going from 80 to 81.
If it was an error from the auto-updater, then it usually means the patch was not downloaded correctly, or corrupted, or not complete.
Anti-virus?
Nope. Failed in and out of game every time. Trying to download the full 82 patch offline (from the forum link) got me an rch from finalizing before it puked six or seven times, always in the same place. Downloading the entire 81 patch worked like a champ. Installed that, ran the game, and it patched itself from there.
To paraphrase, eye candy is UP, frame rate is DOWN! I maxed out at 17FPS flying around a field with nothing but the sun spinning through the sky for company. A bit choppy.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on November 01, 2015, 11:58:24 AM
Did you set EM to none?
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: FLS on November 01, 2015, 02:23:29 PM
Downloaded ndisles in 14 seconds.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: 715 on November 01, 2015, 04:10:01 PM
Nope. Failed in and out of game every time. Trying to download the full 82 patch offline (from the forum link) got me an rch from finalizing before it puked six or seven times, always in the same place. Downloading the entire 81 patch worked like a champ. Installed that, ran the game, and it patched itself from there.
To paraphrase, eye candy is UP, frame rate is DOWN! I maxed out at 17FPS flying around a field with nothing but the sun spinning through the sky for company. A bit choppy.
So you could not download the full release of "Patch 82", but you could download the full release of "Patch 81"? As they are both just files, I have no answer as to why you could download one and not the other. There is no logic to it.
What video card does your computer have in it (manufacturer nvidia or ati? model? amount of physical video ram?)?
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on November 02, 2015, 10:13:59 AM
I'm still away from home, (3 to 4 months of the year) and working on my laptop with no vid card.
I considered putting this is the TE section but it probably belongs here in patch 82.
~Paths and Beaches~
In Patch 79, both of these worked but in p80(I think it started here), 81 & 82 they have stopped and crash the Terrain Editor: Beaches have stopped working and crash the TE when placing the second point. Paths crash the program when placing the first point.
You sure you are running 82? I fixed that in this patch, and it works on our machines.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on November 02, 2015, 10:20:29 AM
I deleted and re-downloaded ndisles (again). Unless I'm doing something horribly stupid it isn't even close to being centered on Solomon Islands. They are at about -9.4 deg which puts Polaris below the horizon while the alpha with ndisles has Polaris about 32 to 34 degrees above the horizon. I'll try to attach an image that shows the discrepancy (the city on the Stellarium window is in the Solomon Islands).
Something is broke with the loading of the position in this version.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Shrike on November 02, 2015, 07:41:34 PM
I checked the download speeds around 7:30pm. I have a 10 gig line and received no errors.
3 times for each terrain
ndisles 7, 8, 7 seconds
euro2015 27, 24, 28 seconds
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Blade on November 02, 2015, 08:56:45 PM
You sure you are running 82? I fixed that in this patch, and it works on our machines.
HiTech
Thanks, I'll do a clean install tonight and see if that fixes it.
Nope. Using a clean Full install of Alpha p82 on dxdiag. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=370041.0;attach=23219)
The TE (and OE) reports patch 82.
Quote
On my laptop with no vid card.
I considered putting this is the TE section but it probably belongs here in patch 82.
~Paths and Beaches~
In Patch 79, both of these worked but in p80(I think it started here), 81 & 82 they have stopped and crash the Terrain Editor: Beaches have stopped working and crash the TE when placing the second point. Paths crash the program when placing the first point.
I didn't try the TG waypoints tonight.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Bruv119 on November 03, 2015, 05:09:10 AM
beautiful screenshots Blade! :aok
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on November 03, 2015, 09:50:42 AM
So you could not download the full release of "Patch 82", but you could download the full release of "Patch 81"? As they are both just files, I have no answer as to why you could download one and not the other. There is no logic to it.
What video card does your computer have in it (manufacturer nvidia or ati? model? amount of physical video ram?)?
I hear that, SCSI! No idea why one wouldn't work (in or out of game, two different machines/OSs/etc) other than I ended up rebooting my DSL modem last night, which is a common point of failure. Fixed the firewall rules so I can traceroute to HTC while I was at it, but none of the intervening hops respond well to ICMP.
I'll get a DXDIAG when I get home, but it's not a game machine. Optiplex 9010 mini with a 1G Radeon card, 16GB RAM, and a pair of SSDs (one for the OS, one for data/games). Screaming fast with AH2, pretty slow with AH3. No way to put a better video card in; the power supply would whine and there's not a lot of space in there. I haven't done a ton of AH3 testing simply because it's a bit painful to run it.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on November 03, 2015, 09:55:48 AM
Thanks, I'll do a clean install tonight and see if that fixes it.
Nope. Using a clean Full install of Alpha p82 on dxdiag. (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=370041.0;attach=23219)
The TE (and OE) reports patch 82.
I didn't try the TG waypoints tonight.
Easy will you unzip this dll file into your alpha folder? And then test the roads/beaches again?
I suspect you may have a slightly older version of Directx and the compile of a shader is failing. I some how messed up shipping the compiled version.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Ratsy on November 03, 2015, 01:29:35 PM
Capture the Flag arena. Base A8.
Launched from RWY 9, flew left base, landed RWY 27. Taxied to rearm pad at the left end of 27. Killed the engine and tried to end sortie. "You must be stopped to end sortie." Restarted engine, taxied out to the runway and shut down again. Can't seem to exit the sortie. Went to external view and took this screenshot. It appears that the aircraft might be below ground level.
In other news. Downloads were about the same as Shrike. PDQ.
With everything but shadows turned on I was looking at 60-80 FPS in all regimes.
I still can't get over the improvements to to the graphics. I see more detail, not less, over time. I hope I never get used to it.
Still testing.
:salute
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Easyscor on November 03, 2015, 08:37:27 PM
Easy will you unzip this dll file into your alpha folder? And then test the roads/beaches again?
I suspect you may have a slightly older version of Directx and the compile of a shader is failing. I some how messed up shipping the compiled version.
HiTech
That didn't work either but here's what I have: That shows as D3DCompiler_43.dll and now I have that plus the D3DX9_43.dll in the C:\Hitech Creations\Aces High Alpha Game folder.
I imagine I wouldn't be having this problem on my gaming rig at home but I was still able to upload the new version of avafinru and it's running in the alpha AvA atm.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on November 03, 2015, 09:13:05 PM
If I turn textures back to 1024, disable everything, and run all the sliders to "Wimpy System" I can fly along in my Lavochkin at 29-32 FPS. That's with nobody else around, but it beats the heck out of 13.
<opinions deleted>
DxDiag Attached
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Chilli on November 04, 2015, 04:28:20 AM
Puck,
Thanks for attaching dxdiag. Try a lower screen resolution. I believe that will buy you some extra fps. Also, note that this is alpha and it is good to give this info to HTC.
Don't be discouraged, I get pretty smooth gameplay even when I am getting 20s - 30s fps.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Greebo on November 04, 2015, 04:55:03 AM
I have some issues with the alpha skin viewer. The "Diffuse Only" button actually shows the normal map's effects and the "Normal" button appears to show all the effects combined. Currently there is no way of viewing just the diffuse map. I think the "Normal" button should be renamed something like "Combined Effects", calling it normal is confusing given there is a normal map. the "Diffuse Only" button should be renamed to "Normal Only" and a new "Diffuse Only" button added to show just that map.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Skuzzy on November 04, 2015, 06:43:06 AM
If I turn textures back to 1024, disable everything, and run all the sliders to "Wimpy System" I can fly along in my Lavochkin at 29-32 FPS. That's with nobody else around, but it beats the heck out of 13.
<opinions deleted>
DxDiag Attached
Are you running with Crossfire enabled? Disable it, if you are. If you are not running two video cards, then your DirectX installation is corrupt as it thinks you have two 7570 cards.
That video card is just a tick faster than the baseline NVidia 9800GTX card we are using for a minimum video card in the Alpha. Yes, you need to check all the "disable" options in Options->Graphics Detail, as well as setting the "Environment" slider to "None".
The bandwidth of the video card is below the 9800GTX spec, so you also need to reduce the "Maximum Texture" size to 1024, or so, in the "Video Settings".
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Puck on November 04, 2015, 08:20:18 AM
Don't be discouraged, I get pretty smooth gameplay even when I am getting 20s - 30s fps.
Heh. Not even remotely discouraged; there are no bad outcomes here.
Spent a few minutes earlier in AH2 at a classic furball over some green field; waves of red aircraft with just enough green to keep it more or less even and no shortage of villains upping GVs into a campground. Nobody trying too hard to bring down any hangers...just prototypical AH gameplay with minimal whining, maximal contact, and in general a good time had by all.
In AH3 that would be nearly impossible; not because of the frame rate, but because of the lighting. Very realistic, but when you can't see ground targets because of sun flare on the edge of your armored glass, or the contrast is so high a large airfield is invisible at 10k, the visuals distract from the intent. There was no way to see field ack unless it was shooting at you; I did manage to find one gun on the ground during a strafing run, and that was mostly luck. The lighting rocks...until you try to play the game in it. Granted some of that might have been my "everything at minimum" graphic settings, but when I can't see anything for the sunlight reflecting on scratches in the canopy it's great for the realism, not so great for an air combat game. It's the eye-candy equivalent to making people adjust all six controls needed to properly change throttle on an La5FN; realism at the expense of game play. Hence the deleted opinion; my guess is that decision was made a couple years before the alpha release.
Utterly phenomenal what they've managed to do with the graphics. That'll put a cork in some of the squeakers.
Skuzzy, it is a dual monitor card, and I'm running dual monitors (I actually have four, but only plugged two into this machine). Max Texture is 1024, frame rate is acceptable at this point, but as you say, minimal graphics for the new engine.
<edit> For a native Angrish speaker sometimes my grammar is so bad I wonder if I'm translating from German (or worse; Russian) <re-edit> Never mind. I just remembered HiTech. At least I SPEAK Angrish... :bolt: </re-edit> </edit>
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on November 04, 2015, 08:58:51 AM
I have some issues with the alpha skin viewer. The "Diffuse Only" button actually shows the normal map's effects and the "Normal" button appears to show all the effects combined. Currently there is no way of viewing just the diffuse map. I think the "Normal" button should be renamed something like "Combined Effects", calling it normal is confusing given there is a normal map. the "Diffuse Only" button should be renamed to "Normal Only" and a new "Diffuse Only" button added to show just that map.
Changed Normal to All Lighting ,added a No Lighting to display the diffuse texture only.
HiTech
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: BowHTR on November 04, 2015, 02:03:56 PM
Im recieving an error when trying to update to Patch 82 from Patch 81. Im trying to use the download link in the other thread. When trying to use the auto downloader through the game, it says its going to take up to 30mins.
Im recieving an error when trying to update to Patch 82 from Patch 81. Im trying to use the download link in the other thread. When trying to use the auto downloader through the game, it says its going to take up to 30mins.
What version is actually showing in the game you are running? It sounds like you are on "Patch 80" as the patch from 80 to 81 was about 140MB. The 81 to 82 patch is pretty small.
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: Greebo on November 04, 2015, 02:35:44 PM
What version is actually showing in the game you are running? It sounds like you are on "Patch 80" as the patch from 80 to 81 was about 140MB. The 81 to 82 patch is pretty small.
That was it! Apparently I wasnt paying attention! Thanks!
Title: Re: Patch 82
Post by: hitech on November 04, 2015, 02:43:34 PM
Thanks for that, that will be a lot clearer. I'm assuming you also changed the current diffuse button to "Normal Only" but forgot to mention it.
BTW did you see my other skin viewer-related post in the Skinner Team forum?
I didn't do that, because the normal map is also used in both specular and in environmental lighting. Hence relabeling it also could cause some confusion.
The lighting terms typically used are diffuse and ambient specular and Emissive , hence why it labeled diffuse.