Any rumors about improving the terrain?

[GScholz]

What Karnak said.

[GScholz]

Just to be clear, those last screens I posted was from games that are essentially from 2003, but updated. They do not represent the state of the art.

State of the art in air combat visual quality: (Set quality to HD and view in fullscreen)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgoQyk8bKFA

... Well, actually state of the art two years ago...  The details are amazing.

[Gixer]

I don't get how you compare a large company like Ubisoft to HTC. Im sure if HTC had 15 offices the graphics would be updated and wed have  all the bells and whistles. Honestly how many employees do you think HTC has?

Old argument, thing is HT charges a premium price for an online game and has done for many years while keeping development at a minimum. Most players already have a full time job and families or other commitments, they pay HT $15 to maintain the game and development.

Sure like a mod community people can make submissions for new maps or what ever, but the response about terrain graphics shouldn't be don't cry about the terrain if you don't contribute, people pay their $15 a month that's already contribution enough.

Main issue is that the core graphics/physics engine etc is Beta from the late 90s. There has never been a significant change in past 14 years  other than added textures, effects, bump mapping, model details etc. Core engine and what it's able to  produce as far as graphics  by anyone as well as HT is heavily restricted by the  engine  itself which is incredibly dated.

The game has gone as far as it can with the current graphics engine, I've been saying for years HT needs to overhaul the entire thing and replace it with a new engine otherwise it will die off (maybe that's HT's plan, milk it for as long as possible and charge a premium in the process), maybe that player shift is already happening as there seems to be a lot less players during weekend peak times then I recall a few years ago.

AH is still DX9  and doesn't even utilize all of those features let alone DX11, Sun and water for instance are terrible surely there could at least be an update in those two graphic effects since AH2 release.

When AH2 was released I thought it would be a completely new graphics/physics engine as even back then it was looking very dated. How surprised I was and quite a few others when AH2 basically looked and felt exactly the same as AH1 and still does to this day.

And please don't tell me we are still making a game so that a few players with 10+ year old PC's and dial up connections can play it.    



<S>...-Gixer

[GScholz]

I agree that the 3D models of aircraft are good in AH, but as Gixer says, they are let down by a primitive graphics engine. I say the models are good, however not as good (or better) as current generation games. Not by a long shot. These days it is possible to make the 3D models look almost photorealistic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tugifv2YIw8

Again, set quality to HD and view in fullscreen. Truly amazing details on those models.

[Bizman]

<Snip>And please don't tell me we are still making a game so that a few players with 10+ year old PC's and dial up connections can play it.    

Skuzzy said recently they're making the game so that the increasing number of players with brand new laptops with Intel graphics can play it.

The Intel video chip is a $2 video chip.  It was never intended to be used for games.  It happens to work with Aces High because we recognize it to be a huge part of the overall computer marketplace (over 65%).  So HiTech has made certain it would work.

[Gixer]

Skuzzy said recently they're making the game so that the increasing number of players with brand new laptops with Intel graphics can play it.

LMAO same excuse just a different platform, what a joke.  Extremely weak excuse for continuing with such a dated game engine.

Just like the 100mb download limit.


<S>...-Gixer

[Rich46yo]

Skuzzy said recently they're making the game so that the increasing number of players with brand new laptops with Intel graphics can play it.

We see how well thats working.

[Rich46yo]

repeat.

[Gixer]

I think it's about time AH either make public the records they keep on user PC stats which are collected when new accounts are open or in the very least allow the community to run a forum based poll.

Saying they are catering for new laptop owners is  questionable, especially when most modern laptops often have dual graphics cards which includes a dedicated GPU the intel graphics card is really only for desktop and at most something like minecraft. Cripes I think my new cellphone has a faster GPU than intel graphics card and also exceeds CPU and RAM requirements.

I can't believe they are holding back the game to 10 year old tech just because a few new users are supposedly using latops with only intel graphics cards.

My bet most people here play other games in addition to AH and that on average computer specs would be 2-3 years old and fully capable of running AH at high to max detail bar one or two sliders.

imho It's not a case of restricting the graphics because of the player hardware, its more a case of restricting the graphics because of the dated game engine.

Too much potential development time wasted on things like ToD,WW1 and the long list of hangar queens which only come out once every few months for some obscure FSO event.


<S>...-Gixer

[Bizman]

Gixer, I'm sad to tell that an unbelievably large portion of computer owners/users/buyers are totally unaware of what they can and what they can't do with their computers. People buy laptops because they think desktops aren't being sold any more. Mothers ask me to add some oomph into their laptop because their kids say that Minecraft doesn't run well. Kids in their early teens replace the original Windows Home version with a pirated Ultimate because they think their €500 laptop would run games ultimately better with that. I've also seen new Catalyst drivers on a GeForce equipped rig, because "a friend said the Catalyst would improve gameplay." A friend of mine taught himself website coding and believed he could put large pictures into his sites because "doesn't most everyone have fast broadband nowadays?"

I see you've been along as long as I've been, since October 2001. We know what it takes to run this game. We know how to read the minimum and recommended requirements for a game, both on websites and on the box and we understand the meaning of them. We are the minority. Even old timers who have played every flying sim since Commodore64 can be totally computer illiterate and have to rely on other people's recommendations when they want a new rig for gaming. The game console generation has even less what it takes to understand there'd be any limitations in PC gaming. If the box has the same mark as the console, any game would run flawlessly, without any tweaking. Any PC game won't run on any PC, tweaked or not.

I'm sorry, Gixer, but my experience tells that you'd lose your bet. 

[Gixer]

I'm sorry, Gixer, but my experience tells that you'd lose your bet. 

Not in the last 15 years I wouldn't lose that bet. Your argument is more suited to the PC vs first generation playstations of the mid 90s.

Yes in those days you had to muck about with a PC to get it to work with games, now days components are cheap, OS is all plug and pray and pretty much anything  out of the box that's advertised as suitable for gaming will play just about anything soon as you install it.


 



<S>...-Gixer

[Bizman]

 I admit I might have read that line a little too hasty. Yes, most people here probably play other games, too. I'm not quite sure about the rest, though. A 2-3 year gaming rig would be fully capable running AH, but it seems many players don't have such. And although components are cheap, there's no point investing a €200 videocard to a €400 desktop. Plus you'd have to replace the PSU. Not to mention there's no upgradeable components in laptops in that price category.

Any PC needs at least some tweaking to get online games running without hiccups. By that I mean shutting down or even disabling unnecessary background processes. Quite recently a customer got himself a gaming PC that couldn't run each of his existing PC games. The games weren't supported on Win7 and would run only with some third party modifications.

"Advertised as suitable for gaming?" Online Flash games are also games, so that would not be a lie. A while ago someone asked why he had anomalies in AH, and his <Brand> computer was advertised suitable for gaming.

[GScholz]

Just about any five-year-old computer is able to run Il2FB. Even with onboard Intel graphics. May have to tune down the details, but that's to be expected.

[Tank-Ace]

Out of curiosity, how many of you would prefer better looking graphics over more realistic visualizations and terrain?

[GScholz]

What's the difference?