Many of you seem to think that the choppers where removed from Qwai, Al Basrah etc just for a change of gameplay or w/e.
This is not true, the main reason for them being removed was in fact because of the annoying "Sound Bug" problems experienced in previous releases.
[R-DEV]Jaymz did lots of work on finding the cause of the sound bug and eventually found out that it was caused by the maps view distance (VD) being lower than the vehicles engine sound distance. As such, when the vehicle hit the edge of the players VD at the time, the sound would simply stick on the edge of that VD until that aircraft came back into the players view or the vehicle was destroyed.
As such, the choices we had where to either increase the maps VD (which for most maps is not an option due to performance reasons) or to remove the vehicle off the map, or to lower the vehicles sound distance.
For Qwai and Al Basrah, the VD could not be increased without huge performance impact, as such, the vehicles where removed off of them. On Qwai the VD was soo low that even the Type 98 (Chinese Tank) was even triggering the sound bug thou it was a rare occurrence compared to the choppers, and as such that also went.
Here is the detailed info on this for any mappers that need to keep this in mind etc.
'[R-DEV wrote:Jaymz']This is a template for mappers to reference when deciding upon the view distance of a map.
Jets
If your map doesn't have a view distance of at least 1km, you will have the sound bug with jets. Hence, players will hear invisible jets all over the map. British and Chinese jets currently have a 800m distance thou as Qinling couldn't have its VD increased but still advised to have a 1km or above VD even if you only have British and or Chinese jets on your map.
Helicopters
If your map doesn't have a view distance of at least 800m, you will have the sound bug with helicopters. Hence, players will hear invisible helicopters all over the map.
Tanks and all large tracked vehicles
If your map doesn't have a view distance of at least 600m, you will have the sound bug with tanks and other large tracked vehicles. Hence, players will hear invisible tracked vehicles all over the map.
Other vehicles
Granted the maps view distance is over 300m, no issues will be had with any other vehicle type in PR.
Deciding between view distance and assets on a new map for PR
Simple, if you are going to make a map with helicopters on it, make sure the view distance is 800m minimum. If it's less, people are going to be hearing invisible helicopters all over the map (examples in 0.85 being Jabal, Barracuda and Qwai).
Deciding between view distance and assets on a current map in PR already
Qwai river is a prime example. Right now, the sound bug gets triggered several times for all players in a round due to the scout choppers flying around. It's also triggered occasionally by the PLA tank. To avoid the sound bug, this map either needs these assets removed, or needs to have it's view distance completely overhauled. The latter being unlikely because it was designed for it's current (short) view distance.
I hope that clears some things up for thous of you with questions as to why the Choppers where removed from Al Basrah and Qwai etc.
Cheers.
kill sound bug by all means necessary!