Patch 73

[Skuzzy]

New version up!

Puffy Puffy Bang Bang!  A Dick Van Dyke classic!

[bustr]

Started in this:

Mode 1024
Fonts Small
FoV 105

Started out in offline mode and everything worked fine. Went to online and chose the Euro 2015 arena to look at clouds. Entered fine, looked at clouds from the ground which didn't drop my FPS into the teens this time. Exited to enter the Steal the Flag arena to look at clouds. Entry hung at the red bar loading everything, and it looked like my FOV had been auto set to 80. I had to pull up the task manager which caused the game to shut itself down.

Restarted the game and my FOV was at the default of 80 and fonts at Medium. I reset the fonts to small and the FOV to 100 to see if the FOV change was some algorithm that tested for best response like the Mode detection. Turns out leaving Fonts at medium is easier on my eyes which I did after testing offline mode. I thought fonts had some effect on Icons and the HUD display Alt\IAS. Wish I could make the Alt\IAS fonts a bit larger.

When I tried to exit offline the screen hung in the tower with the exception that if I moved my mouse, the desktop arrow now moved around in the left had side of the screen disappearing at the clipboard. The game mouse arrow was frozen on the clip board. I took a screen capture to show the two mouse arrows. Funny thing about Alt_S, that captured the front end choice menu clip board for choosing Online\Offline and the ahlogo.jpg.

Restarted the game and online I went with medium fonts and FOV 100. I entered and exited all arenas with no problems. But, I could only find clouds now in the far distance and not as thick as before the auto force change to FOV 80.

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The file texerr.txt recorded the following:

Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF 3DSingleScattering
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF transmittance
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlaspfire
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlashits
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasgndhit
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlaswspray
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasptfire
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasflaka
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasflakb
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasflakc
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlassprite
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlassmoke
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasleaf
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlasdebri
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF atlascasing
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF BLKOUT
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF BLOOD
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE1
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE2
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE3
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE4
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE5
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE6
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE7
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE8
Could not load ERr = FFFFFFFF HOLE9

[Easyscor]

New version up!



Corrections/Updates:
---------------------------
Action: Clouds no longer disappear with bump mapping disabled.
Action: Remove Anti-alias slider from video config.
Action: Fixed a possible CTD when clouds were being removed.
Action: Changed some cloud lighting equations.
Action: Made Greebo happy.
Action: Clouds should no longer spin, when you roll, flying certain directions.

Hey!

The rest of us want to be happy too!   

 

[Pudgie]

Updated Patch 73 fine w/ no issues.

Went in Capture the Flag arena fine. Went on runway in Spit MkIX & while rotating thru POV's noticed screen flashing intermittently vertically when at 3 o'clock & 9 o'clock up viewing positions.
Went back to tower & hit quit button, game hesitated then went to arena screen but screen was minimized instead of maximized. Rest of quit function was normal.
Immediately went back into the game after this back into the same arena & back on the runway & tested....all working fine now. Went up & flew around for some time & all was fine w/ FPS at 59-60.
Landed & went to tower w/ no issues, hit quit button & game closed out normally all the way to the desktop. Tested this again w/ all working fine & game closed out fine..........

Could have been something on my end but got no error messages at all so I don't have a clue.

Came back later & on startup I noticed the Europe arena & double clicked on it to open it............
Game started to upload the arena terrain files then got the famous error message "ahalpha.exe not working properly......Windows will close this application" so I hit the close button to get to desktop then immediately go back into the game into any other arena just fine w/o issue but when I try to go back into the Europe arena, the popup comes up asking if I want to resume the upload, I hit yes then the error message pops up again & I do the same thing to get to desktop........rinse & repeat.......

Will continue to look into this.............

 

[Drane]

Online game Capture the Flag arena:

Windows 8.1 Pro 64. When quitting the online game 1st time after update game screen froze but windows mouse icon became active except in area where startup screen would be. Control-Alt-Delete / Task Manager got me back to windows desktop but startup screen disappeared.

Rebooted computer and the online game began to work normally.

Offline game works normally.

[Drane]

Online game:

Windows 8.1 Pro 64. When trying to download steal the sheep and Europe terrains ahalpha.exe crashes to desktop right after or as download begins.

[100Coogn]

It worked that time for offline.  No CTD  Thank you.

Coogan

[715]

Quote Scuzzy: "Test the new anti-alias settings."

On my system Patch 73 fixed one AA problem that Patch 72 was showing.  The Catalyst Control Center (CCC) has three settings for AA control: Override application settings, Enhance app settings, and Use Application settings.  Then there is a separate area to chose AA method, i.e. MSAA (multisample AA), adaptive MSAA, and SSAA (supersample AA).  With Patch 72 selecting Use Application Settings or Enhance App settings with AH Post Lighting off would seem to cause the performance penalty of using SSAA yet the resulting image would have no AA applied at all.  In Patch 73 there is still no AA at all with Post Lighting off and Use or Enhance CCC settings, but then there is no performance penalty on fps.  Example: Use Application Settings or Enhance Application Settings and SSAA gave 19 fps in Patch 72 (with no AA of image) and 41 fps in Patch 73 (also no AA).  (Of course, on my system, even using Override in CCC choosing Post Lighting in AH seems to ignore all CCC hardware AA settings, even with AA on in AH.  The AA image quality using AH Post Lighting AA on my system is poor and appears low resolution.  It seems the only way I can get hardware AA working is to turn off Post Lighting and use Override in CCC.)

I really hate aliasing, especially the dynamic flicker that it causes as you move about, so I always run with hardware AA set to 4X SSAA.  However, it might be possible that my ancient system is not going to be able to handle AH3 with SSAA.  For example, when using the Europe 2015 terrain my system hard crashes to a reboot very quickly after starting to drive or fly, and sometimes even just in the tower.

E8400 @ 3GHz, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD7870 w 2GHz (AH alpha says ~ 1G used), Win XP 32bit, 1920 x 1080, AH texture size 4K.

715

[Chilli]

715,

If the "flicker" that you refer to is what I suspect, try this one step.  Under "Graphics Detail" clipboard menu in game, check the box labeled, "Disable Detail".

See if it does not do the trick.  All other in game stuff on or dialed as you please, except I really insist you use the in game "Enable AA".

Tell me what you think after that.

[100Coogn]

Are there no clouds available offline, or am I doing something wrong?
I installed the complete game and only have ndisles availabe, but no coulds.

Coogan

[FLS]

The different maps get downloaded for offline use when you log into that arena online.

The puffy clouds are not always visible. The cloud demo I posted started under clear blue skies.

[ebfd11]

Ok i went in and tried the guns in the CV ... When you click on the back double 5 inch battery it puts you in the front one and visa versa.. able to replicate this on my other rig as well..

LawnDart

[715]

715,

If the "flicker" that you refer to is what I suspect, try this one step.  Under "Graphics Detail" clipboard menu in game, check the box labeled, "Disable Detail".

See if it does not do the trick.  All other in game stuff on or dialed as you please, except I really insist you use the in game "Enable AA".

Tell me what you think after that.

The flickering I'm referring to is probably not the flickering you're referring to.   Also, "Disable Detail" is a non starter on my system: it makes the ground look horrible with big white blotches.*  Also the AA quality is no different than what I mentioned for AH AA in my original post.

The flickering I'm referring to is standard aliasing.  Aliasing is not just jagged edges.  It's way more complex than that.  It is analogous to digitizing audio signals at too low a frequency causing sub-harmonics that aren't present in the original signal.  Think of a 3D render of a black and white checkerboard tiled floor out to the horizon.  In the distance, when each tile becomes smaller than the pixel of the display, the render engine will make either a black or white pixel depending on how the tiles line up with the mapped position of the render pixel.  This leads to a Moire pattern that is unreal.  And if you very slightly change your viewpoint, by, for example, moving, the Moire pattern changes drastically and rapidly depending on how the screen pixel lines up with the 3D detail.  That's the flicker I refer to; small details flicker in and out of existence.  What should happen in real life for the checkerboard is the tile that cannot be resolved should just be rendered gray.  AH has no checkerboard floors, and it no longer has the chain link fence that did the same thing, but the alias flicker does still show to a lesser extent on objects with fine detail like the radar tower or the vines hanging from the trees.

AA techniques try to approximate this averaging by rendering the 3D image at much higher resolution than the screen then averaging a bunch of pixels together to make a single screen res pixel, i.e. the display pixel.  That way a bunch of black and white hires pixels will average to a gray pixel on the display.  (This is Super Sampled AA).  It uses a lot more memory and is, of course, slower.

Yes, that is way more info than anyone else on the planet wants; I seem to be a bit weird in being annoyed by aliasing and the dynamic flicker caused by aliasing.

*correction: it only does this when I first select "Disable Detail" in game.  If I get out of the program and come back in (either via exit or via Alt-Tab) the artifacts are gone.  (The ground is kinda boring with Disable Detail though   and for some bizarre reason it often stops the trees from blowing in the wind.)

[JimmyD3]

Man I am loving me some clouds!!! Did notice my FR dropped from 60 to 44 inside the clouds, but hey they look great!! I guess that leads to the next question, are we going to have weather forecast for extended Bombing runs, you know "scattered at 18k,  overcast at 22k, upper winds 20 knots SSE" ?

[FTJR]

Offline, at p21, in tower.  Double clicked to take me to another airfield. In tower,  pushed f3, then f5, this showed me at the port again.

In the hangar on the cv, the  LVT's  are visible as if they're in the water.

Probably doesn't matter as they wont show on line, but the wheels on the m3 / m8 are spinning  in the CV hangar.