Graphics and our community

[mthrockmor]

We know two things: 1, AH3 has much better graphics; 2, a substantial percentage of our community didn't follow us to AH3, mostly due to inadequate computers.

Would it be possible to allow a graphics control in-game that would dial it all the way down to AH2 levels? If so, our audience would increase significantly.

A note, I strongly suspect our audience is older geeks. If I remember correctly, a few years ago a survey was done and the average age was roughly 47. Older folks use computers for the basics, and likely only play a few games, thus upgrading just to play AH3 doesn't make sense. And the younger crowd that is happy to upgrade on a monthly basis, they know little about WW2, play dozens of arcade games and don't seem as interested in intense simulations, such as AH3. Our demographic is aging, and slowly dying out, though we may have also inadvertently moved them out due to the computer upgrades.

Thoughts?

boo

[The Fugitive]

Its not so much "dumbing down" the graphics, I think the issue is HOW they render the game now. AH2 most of the load was on the CPU so you could get by with a crappy video card. AH3 uses the graphics card much more. While you can still cut back on the graphics in the game you still need a decent graphics card to run it.

I dont think they have much of an option in this. It is what it is.

[Slate]

 I could have bought a basic cheap set of new golf clubs instead of my graphics card and  have always needed to upgrade computers anyway. We all spend on the hobby of choice.
                    I stink at golf and am slightly better at Aces High. 

[perdue3]

We know two things: 1, AH3 has much better graphics; 2, a substantial percentage of our community didn't follow us to AH3, mostly due to inadequate computers.

Would it be possible to allow a graphics control in-game that would dial it all the way down to AH2 levels? If so, our audience would increase significantly.

A note, I strongly suspect our audience is older geeks. If I remember correctly, a few years ago a survey was done and the average age was roughly 47. Older folks use computers for the basics, and likely only play a few games, thus upgrading just to play AH3 doesn't make sense. And the younger crowd that is happy to upgrade on a monthly basis, they know little about WW2, play dozens of arcade games and don't seem as interested in intense simulations, such as AH3. Our demographic is aging, and slowly dying out, though we may have also inadvertently moved them out due to the computer upgrades.

Thoughts?

boo

I disagree with most of this post. This game is far from rigorous on graphics and a rig can be pieced together for about $250 from scratch to play AH3 more than adequately. Secondly, you must define "younger guys." I consider myself a younger guy, especially given the average age, and know quite a bit about WW2. I can speak for most of my squadron, which is made up of plenty of twenty-somethings, when I say we all consider ourselves history hobbyists. Only the hardcore aviation enthusiasts play this game. Many of which have pilot licenses.

[Bizman]

Fugi is right, it's about how the game, or actually most any modern game works. The graphics card has got the major role of doing graphics and other stuff that's involved with it.

Back in the day when video games were new solid coloured blocks was enough. Think about PacMan or Tetris, which used only a handful of standard colours. They ran well on office computers and office workers played them a lot! An office wide Tetris competition may not have been too productive...

Games in a 3D world added the need of shadows and direction of light but the surfaces were still 2D images on a glass smooth surface. A furry monster looked like having a hair pattern wallpaper glued onto its skin. G.I. Joe had the six pack painted on his belly. You get the picture.

Now we're talking about things we previously could see in computer animated movies. Each hair of the hairy monster is an individual moving element, each detail having a realistic shadow and glow depending of the light and angle. Some details can be turned off but the tool which produces them can't be changed in the fly. That's also why office computers no longer can run modern cinematic games.

For the cost, if you had a gaming oriented system to start with, the upgrade needed didn't have to cost much. My 8 year old PC runs AH3 at a solid 60 FPS on default settings after I upgraded the video card to a second hand GTX970. $150 shouldn't be an issue for most of those who can afford the monthly fee for the game.

[hitech]

We know two things: 1, AH3 has much better graphics; 2, a substantial percentage of our community didn't follow us to AH3, mostly due to inadequate computers.

You know no such thing ,because it is no true.

[mthrockmor]

You know no such thing ,because it is no true.

So all of the dozens of comments about not being able to upgrade, bon voyage has nothing to do with numbers decline dramatically? It's all just coincidence?

Fascinating

[Lazerr]

Time to move on... only regulars from the old days will pay 14.95 to play that old stuff.

I see where you are coming from.. but putting the game on steam is a sign of what direction we are going.

Im on board.

Some tweaks to gameplay  and UI are needed, .. but thats just my opinion.

I still really enjoy flying with the guys i do.. and i encourage all groups to adopt a noob and show him a good time... i think a lot of us are addicted for that very reason.

[Lusche]

So all of the dozens of comments about not being able to upgrade, bon voyage has nothing to do with numbers decline dramatically? It's all just coincidence?

Fascinating

The numbers had been declining for years. There was no sudden 'dramatical' drop with the transition to AH3. You may just have noticed the lack of players more, which may be for several reasons.

[madrid311]

I have a aspire e 15 with a nividia GeForce 940 m with 2 gb of dedicatd ram and I cant play on it live. I can practice but even that is slow. my desktop is a 1200.00 asus and it rocks. no problems there. so it does matter that you have a better card. I'm hoping to be able to change the graphics card to a better one so I can play on my laptop I bought to take when I'm on location at work. Its 2 years old. peace

[RufusLeaking]

I have a aspire e 15 with a nividia GeForce 940 m with 2 gb of dedicatd ram and I cant play on it live. I can practice but even that is slow. my desktop is a 1200.00 asus and it rocks. no problems there. so it does matter that you have a better card. I'm hoping to be able to change the graphics card to a better one so I can play on my laptop I bought to take when I'm on location at work. Its 2 years old. peace

I play on an MSI GP70 2QF Leopard Pro (reading the sticker) with an NVidia GTX950M. It will run AH3 at 60 fps solid.

I, too, got it to play from the road. It became obvious immediately that hotels' internet speeds suck. Beware.

[Arlo]

So all of the dozens of comments about not being able to upgrade, bon voyage has nothing to do with numbers decline dramatically? It's all just coincidence?

Fascinating

There were players who said they were going to quit the game due to pending upgrades long before the transition who never even tried the beta. And they convinced other players that they'll never be able to afford the upgrades that AHIII will 'obviously' require. Furthermore .... there are some of the old players that quit playing long before that because they wanted the game graphics improved (personally, I'm more the game/sim elements outside the graphics since I thought AHII graphics were fine) that are coming back or planning to.

I needed a better graphics card, anyway. My old one would have worked. My new one? My step-son had a spare. I could've bought it for little more than a couple of c-notes.



https://www.amazon.com/GeForce-Overclocked-128-bit-DisplayPort-Graphics/dp/B00S9SGMZM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504482437&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+gtx+960+strix

Much more fascinating.

[DaddyAce]

Hopefully the cryptocurrency boom will soon implode and graphics card prices will fall dramatically.  I suspect it's getting to be about time.....

[bj229r]

Mt graphics card (GTX 1050 ti) was mebbe $125, plays this game fine

[ghi]

Hopefully the cryptocurrency boom will soon implode and graphics card prices will fall dramatically.  I suspect it's getting to be about time.....

No, won't crash,  we'll soon get rfid chip implants  and upload the 666 mark , i mean cryptocurencies, ; Btc was 600$ one year ago, 4583$ now, no signs of slowing.
https://www.coindesk.com/price/