Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Major_Hans on March 03, 2003, 06:28:05 PM
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I would like to see more on the ground. What I would like is primarily 2D treelines. Much like those seen in M1A2 Tank Platoon from Microprose, WW-2 Online, or Battle of Britain.
They seem to do the most for the least. By that I mean they do the most good for providing ground detail accurately, but use the least amount of Polygons to accomplish the job.
Look at it this way. Create a simple, single tree. At the minimum you usually use two polygons in a X shape when viewed from above. To make a treeline you need alot of those in a row. Ten trees making a short treeline, and that adds up to twenty polygons.
Now if you create a single, long, vertical rectangular polygon and paint/texture it with an image of several trees side by side, then you have the same result, but with alot less work. The texture naturally needs to have transparent parts of it between the tree trunks and leaves, but so would the individual trees.
I hope the game gains this feature. It has alot of pros if you ask me.
1. Simple
2. Effective.
3. A lot of trees can be simulated with a single polygon.
4. It's realistic. Farmers don't let trees grow in the middle of fields, only along roads, rivers, and fencelines.
5. It provides cover for ground units. "Green deserts" are not alot of fun to play in.
The only bad news might be if the new version of AH has alot of rolling terrain. It might limit how big a treeline you can make since it cannot bend itself to fit the undulating hills under it. With the existing terrain in AH 1.XX the individual triangles used to make hills appear to be about a kilometer long, so a treeline 1 kilometer long would work well. I don't know how the terrain of AH 2.0 will look like.
Either way, I would prefer to see the trees and possible run into them rather than have them only be represented sporadically as individual trees or only as paint on the flat ground.
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Our terrain work is coming along nicely and treelines and forests are part of that. It's completely different than what is currently in AH and it sounds like you will like what we have coming. It's looking nice and we'll be ready to show an example before long.
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WTG :)
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Good to hear it.
I assume then that ground combat by players will be different too, since those treelines do work pretty well for cover?
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How about a teaser Pyro?:D
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Teaser Please, with sugar on top, and a multi million aircraft waiting in the parking lot, and the free fuel for a month unless gas prices drop below $2!