nodunit 397 Posted May 30, 2011 (edited) As the title says this is merely a suggestion should the BI devs read this area of the forums. I think Arma2 missed out on many customers due to the specs required to play it, and one of the best ways to broaden the audience is to have it more open to various video cards rather than focus on the highest set, because those aren't the majority. While lowering texture resolution can be helpful but it is not the best solution, on a regular basis normal maps take twice as much memory as a diffuse half it's size, this is the reason why many games have normal maps reduced to half the size of the diffuse, often it's the same with the specular but you are still using as much memory. Arma2's environment is diverse as are the units, the texture sizes all high and there are many of them, depending on the specs they may quickly bog you down. But unlike grass and glare, textures wouldn't offer a major advantage by toning them down, for example in Arma1 when shaders was set to lowest the normal maps would vanish options to turn textures on and off would give a great increase in performance and allow for a wider range of customers with a wider range of computers specs. For example by default each unit uses, a diffuse, normal, specular, ambient occlusion, reflection, sometimes alpha and macro textures, if options could be made to turn off normal, specular, ambient occlusion and reflection maps I garuntee there would be a performance increase. Remember, the more people that can play it means more sales. Edited May 30, 2011 by NodUnit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cyteless 10 Posted May 30, 2011 Sounds like a good idea. It'd be a lot easier to fine tune settings, and hopefully not have to go into any text files. Also, it'd be nice if you could enter precise values for the likes of view distance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steakslim 1 Posted May 30, 2011 Also it would be recommended that if they were to do this, it would be in an upfront way. Not a bunch of those tucked away in some category that you have to adjust and have to look up what setting will turn which feature off in the forums. For example the Post Processing in ArmA2 CO. While it would add clutter to the Advanced video options, i think it's better if the blurs, DoF, and SSAO where all separated so you can switch them off individually. Same case with ArmA 3 and what ever graphical features it would have. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
nodunit 397 Posted May 30, 2011 True having the options for it would be nice, I like the SSAO but DOF has always bothered me in games outside of eye focus, in cases where the landscape in the distance it blurred for example looks wierd. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steakslim 1 Posted May 30, 2011 I think DoF should really only occur when you're looking down sights really. I've grown used to it on ArmA2 to where it doesn't really bother me as much, but I really only like it when I'm looking down what ever sights I may be using. Having the landscape in the distance blurred like you said does look odd, especially when you are looking out at it. Now if they were to get creative with it and say if you are staring at an object nearby you, then yeah stuff in the distance could blur, or if you are looking at a downward angle towards the ground, stuff in the distance could blur. But looking straight out would not induce any blurring at a distance. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flash Thunder 10 Posted May 30, 2011 http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=119328 :) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
