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Grass fadeout distance farther?

Posted: 2006-05-13 06:53
by hop_ic
I would also like to see the grass fadeout distance be farther so stealth would be easier to achieve. That would be awesome for snipers and spec ops who are sneaking around. It would be more realistic too. :-D Thank you!

Posted: 2006-05-13 06:54
by Rhino
not possibal without haveing a HUGE impact on performance on any system.

Posted: 2006-05-13 07:46
by Skullening.Chris
How 'bout making characters "blend in" with the foliage like Joint Operations does? After a certain distance, your soldier will take on a silohuette color of the nearby foliage while proned. (I hope this makes sense, I'm sure it does to JO players :P )

Posted: 2006-05-13 08:21
by Top_Cat_AxJnAt
i like, would be good if this was for all soldier, jsut more so for snipers. Cos every one wares como?!?

Posted: 2006-05-13 14:06
by Malik
I'm happy with it at the moment. My computer manages most maps, although Steel Thunder takes its toll and Jungle Fever is a nightmare. I just need more RAM. :)

Posted: 2006-05-13 19:34
by [k]MuffinMaster
I'm not happy with the disappearance of the grass, too...
It makes hiding almost impossible.
It would help that the grass appears when you zoom... so there is only
additional grass when zoomed.

Posted: 2006-05-13 19:56
by KingofCamelot
'[k wrote:MuffinMaster']I'm not happy with the disappearance of the grass, too...
It makes hiding almost impossible.
It would help that the grass appears when you zoom... so there is only
additional grass when zoomed.
Like Rhino said, it causes huge performance issues to up the grass draw level. We had a map in testing that we had to reduce the draw distance on because it was nearly unplayable. We'd love to up the grass distance, but it would piss way too many people off because the FPS would go through the floor.

Posted: 2006-05-14 00:31
by Zantetsuken
even if every pr player was willing to sacrifice over an extra gig of ram (just throwing out a big number) just to see underbrush at longer distances, I doubt it would even be possible without going deep into the graphics engine, revamping it, and redistributing the rebuilt graphics engine to pr players, and then getting sued by EA/DICE for improving their system...

Posted: 2006-05-14 00:59
by xtrm2k
it is a combination of some things...

undergrowth density, the undergrowth height, the undergrowth motion, the terrain, the overgroth, the statics..

you see, the whole map is important... and the users hardware...


i create mao valley (chinese jungle map) and use a view distance 150, that works fine so far i know.. but more bring huge lags (i think) on this map

its hard to find the right settings that works for the most of the players...

Posted: 2006-05-14 03:06
by OiSkout
Yea, I would often attempt to crawl towards a tank, but it would be zoomed in and see me clearly.

Posted: 2006-05-14 05:51
by Rhino
'[k wrote:MuffinMaster']I'm not happy with the disappearance of the grass, too...
It makes hiding almost impossible.
It would help that the grass appears when you zoom... so there is only
additional grass when zoomed.
If you guys really want to see how much of a perforamce drop this has, got to: "C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\Battlefield 2\mods\pr\levels\steel_thunder"

copy and paste the client.zip as a backup somwhere.

Then go into the client.zip, and extract the "Undergrowth.cfg" file out of it into the steel thunder folder. Now open this with notepad. Now change the view distance from 120, to 240 (basicly 2x the ditance). Save the file and put it back into the client.zip (NOT the backup).

Now run PR and crate a local server of it by going mutliplayer, crate local server, then put Steel thunder in the list ect.

Then see how much lag you get with only YOU in the server. Then think how much the server needs to think about this grass, the trees, the tanks and other players ect.

Posted: 2006-05-14 07:02
by Lucractius
anyone got a number as to how much of a drop there is on a 512MB 7800GTX for instance?

Posted: 2006-05-15 20:50
by [k]MuffinMaster
Yea, I would often attempt to crawl towards a tank, but it would be zoomed in and see me clearly.
Yeah... thats a pain in the...

I thought about this... after playing Steel Thunder.

I think the grass has to go out of the forests anyway.
Have you been to forests? There is no grass. The grass has not enough light to grow. On clearings the grass can stay.. would improve performance greatly!
There should be other stuff for cover. like ferns or bushes.

If there were not so much grass there would be much more intense infantry battles.
Now its only hide and seek... plus: you get owned by snipers as soon as you drop.
you can't see them (too much stupid unrealistic grass in your face) but they can see you. No grass around you from their view.

Grass has to be reduced to clearings on steel thunder.

Posted: 2006-05-15 22:04
by solipsism
I think anything that could be done to help this situation would be a great help. I mean anything. Alot of the realism is simply lost due to this issue. I dont mean adding longer DD. Just anything to offset the useless of organic cover. I doubt this matters, but would it be possible to make the grass just part of the ground texture? that way it provides a sort of camo. Of course this would only work on certain maps.
Lucractius wrote:anyone got a number as to how much of a drop there is on a 512MB 7800GTX for instance?
Clarify, i have some to test out. Unless you mean you have one and want to know.

Posted: 2006-05-15 22:31
by 5m0oth_0p3r4t0r
'[k wrote:MuffinMaster']Yeah... thats a pain in the...

plus: you get owned by snipers as soon as you drop.
you can't see them (too much stupid unrealistic grass in your face) but they can see you. No grass around you from their view.

Grass has to be reduced to clearings on steel thunder.
word!
that's the problem.. that if you lie in gras you have no chance..
not only does it provide no cover.. it provides an obstruction..

Posted: 2006-05-15 22:55
by Eden
Lucractius wrote:anyone got a number as to how much of a drop there is on a 512MB 7800GTX for instance?
That doesnt matter anyway, the maps have to be made for the average gamer in mind, that means that although you might be able to handle a higher draw distance 80% of other players cant.

Posted: 2006-05-16 22:03
by solipsism
Eden wrote:That doesnt matter anyway, the maps have to be made for the average gamer in mind, that means that although you might be able to handle a higher draw distance 80% of other players cant.

With a x800xl and a 3200+ venice ocd to 2.7ghz (does make a huge difference between 2.5ghz and 2.7ghz) you can run everything in graphics settings at 1600x1200 2xAA Medium filtering and everything else all the way up with 100% Draw distance with very playable framerate. Its the extra gig of ram that stops the hitching.

With one 5127800gtx the only difference i put it full Anisoscoptic Filtering and crank up the FSAA as far as it will go. And sometimes add transperacy AA if its not borked on the nvidia card.

You can get a card comparable to the x800xl for around 230 cdn. I know lots of kids cant afford this of cource, and many adults with stuff that takes presendence over videogames (re: everthing), but it really isnt that expensive to get BF2 to run good anymore. A year ago yeah. NOt any more.

Just through 2gb (2x1024 is best) of value ram and you will see a very high performance increase.

system specs..

Posted: 2006-05-16 23:08
by 5m0oth_0p3r4t0r
well, might not be the same croud playing CS as BF2 due to system requirements.. but here is Valves survey on user systems..

http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html

what could be noted is that only like 11% have 1Gb RAM or above (,03% 2Gb, sm0oth for teh win..!!!)
and only 4% have moved to the 7800series.. that is telling..

Posted: 2006-05-17 01:17
by Lucractius
that realy is a telling survey ... makes my machine seem a bit better hehe