Viewing Distance Issue

[kbrew904 1]

I have a strange problem. I get exceptional FPS (55-70) when looking at the sky or ground, which is to be expected. However, when I look forward in the game, my FPS drops dramatically (25-30), again as expected. But the FPS drop doesn't just occur when im looking at alot of buildings,trees, or anything afar that my GPU has to render, it even happens when im am face up against a wall and see nothing else. Is this just part of the game engine or is there something I can change?

Specs:

Eyefinity resolution @ 5760x1080 (problem occurs even at 1920x1080)

Radeon HD 7970 3gb

12.9 catalyst drivers

AMD Phenom II X4 955 @ 4.1ghz

890fxa-gd65 motherboard

8gb DDR3 RAM

[Beagle 684]

Just because you do not see objects in ArmA does not mean they are not rendered...ArmA is not player centric the misions goes on also without the player. As soon as A.I. is involved the terrain and objects around that A.I have to be computed no matter if you "see" them or not. A.I. might fight as far as 13km from you and all you hear is distent thunder but the fight is fully proceseed including all its surounding.

Thats mainly the distinction beetween a classical shooter game and a simulation game, In shooters the things only happen when the player is around in Simulation the things just happen no matter if you look at it or not.

Edited October 17, 2012 by Beagle

[On_Sabbatical 11]

And ofcourse,if you have a 10000 m viewdistance with everything on very high,don't expect very good fps on missions !

AI eats a lot of FPS as stated above !

[kbrew904 1]

Thank you both for the explanation. Though i am left wondering what the need is to graphically render what the AI is doing while off screen instead of just running the actions through the CPU, but if that's how it works, that's how it works

---------- Post added at 03:41 ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 ----------

What I still dont get then is if all of this processing is taking place whether i see the AI or not, why does my FPS only drop while looking ahead, even if it is just at a wall, versus looking at the ground or sky?Does where you are looking determine what AI it renders and processes?

[Beagle 684]

Thank you both for the explanation. Though i am left wondering what the need is to graphically render what the AI is doing while off screen instead of just running the actions through the CPU, but if that's how it works, that's how it works

the reason is simple...ArmA II is a giant map with open word...you can look out of a windown from a high situated buidling in, let's say Feruz Abad and the game mst be able to render all the city at any time when you do not stare at the wall...to achive that instant redering without any lagging or visual loading or pauses all has to be prerendered and cached.

At a VD of 10.000 meters you should be able to imagine what that means.

I would never recommend to use anything above 5000m viewdistance no matter how powrfull your PC might be.

I'm usually fully satisfied with 4000m

[kbrew904 1]

So the view distance not only limits how far you can see but also the amount of area it pre-caches when not visible?

[Beagle 684]

yes of course.

[kklownboy 43]

clutter, its a killer

[sapped 10]

what do u have ur view distance on? mine is on 1000 for infantry play

[kklownboy 43]

3K seems to be a sweet spot in COOP, and my performance. Most In house missions we run now are 3K limit. Get too much more and you will just own the AI. But On some Maps 6K is a nice IQ.