Terrain detail options off for mp games?

[PRiME 1]

I would much love to play with high detail setting and I know it runs ok on a duron 900 gf2mx (friends machine) I have a xp1800 gf4 and would like to play with the extra detail.

I just hear talk about it being Normal quality in MP? This true and if so can the server admin change it so its high etc?

[KeyCat 131]

Yesterday I found a "setTerrainGrid" command in the editor so it looks like it's possible for mission designer to hardcode the terrain detail level just like the "setViewDistance" command. Or at least thats what I hoping for...

However I have not yet tested it in MP since I do not know the parameters yet? Hope it works but until tested I can't verify....

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[kegetys 2]

SetTerrainGrid takes one paramter, which is the grid size of the terrain in meters. For example "SetTerrainGrid 50" would set 50 meter grid which is the lowest detail setting... the highest is 5 meters or so I think.

[KeyCat 131]

Thanks Kegetys! Will try it as soon as I get a chance...

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Trapper 0]

I have tried setterraingrid=50 in the inittrigger of a mp mission, and then hosted it as LAN game, but the terrain was still "normal".

I'll now try it with a dedicated server. Perhaps normal servers take the terraindetail from the host graphik-options.

[kegetys 2]

I dont think the setting in the video options change when you use that command.

[Trapper 0]

Yes the videooptions of the clients will stay on there choosen values.

But for this experiment i had choosen a special point on Kolguyev were you see great differences between 'very low'/50 and any other value. And the terrain was still looking like normal detail at setterraingrid=50. it had no effect on a not dedicated server.

[Trapper 0]

I've made a Trigger like this:

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">

position[]={10244.604492,-36.142406,8857.337891};

a=0.000000;

b=0.000000;

age="UNKNOWN";

text="intro";

expCond="true";

expActiv="setTerrainGrid=50; setViewDistance=900; [] exec ""start.sqs""";

class Effects

{

};

synchronizations[]={};

<span id='postcolor'>

Is there fault i haven't seen?

Even on a dedicated server the terrain of the mission ist still 'normal' and not 'very low'~50.

[kegetys 2]

Well I dunno if 50 is actually the lowest detail, maybe its normal detail then, I dont know...

[Trapper 0]

from userinfo.cfg:

very low: terraingrid=50.000000

low: ? not time for test

normal: terraingrid=12.500000

high: ? no time

very high: i've heard that's 5

[hanatyan 0]

Very high: setTerrainGrid 3.125000

High: setTerrainGrid 6.250000

Normal: setTerrainGrid 12.500000

Low: setTerrainGrid 25.000000

Very low: setTerrainGrid 50.000000

[PRiME 1]

setTerrainGrid does nothing for MP, real shame as I wanted to play my maps with others on high setting.

High setting runs good on a gf2mx and duron900 so it be good if I could make it so my maps would always run at that...

Maybe next patch

[KeyCat 131]

Guess we are back to square 1 then

Really hope this is a bug and fixed in a future patch.

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Trapper 0]

So any mission in a multiplayersession will always run in normal 'terrain' on every kind of server?

Damn, now my old mission is unplayable until they make it possible to choose.

[Tactician 0]

While we're at it, why don't we just go ahead and shoot low-end players in the face? Don't rob me of the 10-15 FPS I usually play with please.

[hugo2020 0]

there is a command for mp missions to define the terraingrid detail,

setterraingrid 50 the lowest detail ; 5 best detail, I think it is like setviewdistance

[KeyCat 131]

We know that Hugo and thats what we are debating  

Anyway I decided to try myself and the good news is that it seems to work! I do not know how you did when you tried it Trapper and Prime but try this...

Make a multiplayer map on the Desert island since it's easiest to see the effects on that map with two playable positions and enter the following in each players init field...

 setTerrainGrid 6.25

or if you (both) have a big machince with 1+ GB RAM

 setTerrainGrid 3.125

I hosted on my own machine and joined both positions in turn when tested and got the improved terrain detail (high and very high) on the old Desert Island! If you both have a really really big machines you can even combine it with the setviewdistance, try this in each players initfield...

 setTerrainGrid 3.125; setviewdistance 2000

Way to go BIS and just what I hoped for! Now hope it works on a dedicated server to but I see no reason to why it shouldn't? Anyone that tries please let us know.

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[PRiME 1]

cool, does this mean that each player can have a different setting? Like 1 can have normal and 1 can have high yet still play on the map?

Non the less good job, I will try this out tomorrow sometime.

[Trapper 0]

The difference to my test is, that i put setterraingrid into one little trigger of the mission and thought every client would get this setting.

I'm glad there is a way to get this command working

@PRiME

I will try it, too. But it shouldn't be possible, because then clients with high settings can hide behind hills, that clients with low settings don't see.

[KeyCat 131]

Looks like it but it's probably not recommended to have different settings for different players. Think it's best to build a mission for the least capable machine it's intended to be played play on. BIS have default normal terrain detail and 900 meters viewdistance in MP and it's probably a good "middle ground".

However, with setTerrainGrid and setViewDistance commands the OFP:R engine is very scalable and I will play it for many years to come! I mean within a few years the majority will have 5+ GHz CPU's and then we can just pump it up

The more I learn about OFP the more impressed I am, it's not perfect (yet) but have come a very loooong way since 1.00 and companies like BIS is well deserved our support since they showed us they care about their products!

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Trapper 0]

The answers:

1.

First it didn't work by me, because I had made a stupid fault:

false: setterraingrid=50

right: setterraingrid 50

2.

Of course you can set this command somewhere in an init trigger or init.sqs or in the init string of one soldier.

You don't have to put into the init strings of all playable soldiers.

3.

What happens if you write different settings into the init strings of a couple of playable soldiers?

It seems that when the mission runs on a server and there are multiple and different setterraingrid commands at the sametime the lowest one is choosen for all clients.

But that was a fast test, so I'm not 100% sure.

[suchey 0]

I have confirmed that the terrain detail does indeed work on dedicated servers...I put the setterraindetail into my init.sqs and it worked like a charm.

[KeyCat 131]

Thats good news! Thanks for letting us know...

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

Damnit, I dont hope people will start using this on public servers bye bye to us low-end people :/

[KeyCat 131]

Don't think you have to worry Espectro. My guess is that most puplic servers will use the default terrain and view distance settings in the missions for quite some time.

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)