Rendering grass at long distances: My thoughts about it

[kwhy 10]

Boy I gotta try this Joint Op's because everytime a thread opens abouts whats needed in Arma - theres always a 'had it in Joint Ops...". :p

Must have been a helluva game.

I can't believe now looking at the videos of this game that it was way ahead of its time back then, but it was... I loved it for online play.

some random gameplay..

At the time I was playing games like Ghost Recon (Island Thunder, Desert Siege), Rainbow Six Raven Shield, and before that ww2online. I had given OFP a chance, but I hated the fact they had 3rd person in the game (multiplayer)

Joint Operations seemed like one of the first titles that I played that had like 60+ people on a server doing combined ops along with things like iron sites, lean, prone, boats, helicopters, armored vehicles ect. I don't remember a lot of games then that had this many players on at a time.

Sure a bit arcadey, but it was fun and reminds me a lot of the Arma series now, but probably more similar to Battlefield.

Edited March 18, 2013 by kwhy
grammer

[dnk 13]

Delta Force 2 had great long-range grass drawing, though it was quite blocky up close (but then it was the 90s, I think). Basically it was drawn to infinity and near-total concealment was possible (though there was always that one pixel that would give you away), especially with a ghillie. I think they used a totally different rendering approach, though, so it's unlikely to be useful for ArmA. Still, it is possible...

[magicool 10]

I rather think they should think of a way to render gras itself in distance, but this is Currently Impossible as gras is way to much resources/FPS to be rendered

[lightspeed_aust 681]

I think the sinking into the ground (already implemented) coupled with midrange texture improvement will effectively resolve the issue.

[Jex 1]

Could you not lower the amount of grass in the for ground and then add sporadic patches further out?

Or make clumps of grass and low growing flowers as an object like a tree or bush. These would be used to break up the flatness of the terrain at distance but would be sparsely situated but enough to make it so there's multiple objects to look and making it harder to see an enemy (who could be laying in one of these patches). Add the OP's idea on top of this and then you wouldn't be looking for the weird texture on the terrain (or the blatantly laying down soldier) because you would have clutter out there as well.

Also, do we really need the grass layer like it is right now? Wouldn't you prefer less near you and more further out - even if it was more sporadic the further it went but went for 500m?

[Fuse 1]

I think the sinking into the ground (already implemented) coupled with midrange texture improvement will effectively resolve the issue.

Yeah, but it looks like butt and shatters immersion. Most people who see the first time think it's a bug.

Both work, but I think the proposed method in this thread would make the game look a lot better.

[lightspeed_aust 681]

Lol, nice analogy

[-Coulum- 35]

Yeah, but it looks like butt and shatters immersion. Most people who see the first time think it's a bug.

Not only does it "look like butt", haha, but the current system fails to "break up" the units silhouette. This means, even if the player is smaller (and thus harder to spot) due to the sinking, it is still not as hard to spot them as it would be if they were in real grass.

And yeah I also thought it was a bug the first time I saw it. And it screws up hit detection (at least in A2 haven't done any tests in A3...)

[lightspeed_aust 681]

The hit detection is a valid issue no doubt

[dnk 13]

Is this basically impossible to mod, or does the community have a chance to implement this if the devs can't get it done?

[accapella 1]

Not only does it "look like butt", haha, but the current system fails to "break up" the units silhouette. This means, even if the player is smaller (and thus harder to spot) due to the sinking, it is still not as hard to spot them as it would be if they were in real grass.

And yeah I also thought it was a bug the first time I saw it. And it screws up hit detection (at least in A2 haven't done any tests in A3...)

Hit detection isn't screwed or so I hear, the unit is not actually sunken into the ground in terms of hitbox and such and is instead only apparently sunken.

Shoot slightly above the sunken unit and you will hit where he actually is instead of where he seems to be due to the sinking.

[zimms 22]

Well, I would call that 'screwing up hit detection' then.

[dnk 13]

And their hitboxes not being where their bodies are being rendered is.... not a problem for hit detection?

[Jex 1]

Yeah, but it looks like butt and shatters immersion. Most people who see the first time think it's a bug.

Both work, but I think the proposed method in this thread would make the game look a lot better.

Sinking something a little bit in the ground helps hide them how exactly? I don't see any argument for this other than the one that calls for its removal. What a god awful thing to implement - seriously this is the best they could do and people find this acceptable? lol

LOL@ it doesn't screw up hit detection, you just need to shoot where the target isn't.

The only thing I can think why people would be against this is because they don't want people being able to hide in the grass far away which makes no sense to me at all. The current system sucks bigger than a donkey's nuts.

[Chocolate 1]

Donkey' nuts dawg.

Yeah, I can't imagine how you wouldn't want to be able to actually hide in foliage. Its a benefit for everyone. Especially coming over mounds or small hills (I don't mean skyline-ing) where your hirez model sticks out like a sore thumb. No such thing as sneaking.

[Wolfstriked 11]

Any pics with Nord's midrange texture mod and this mod combined?

[Fuse 1]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but has anything more come of this yet? Any feedback from Bohemia?

I've been away from the forums a couple of months and was pretty sad to see my own name on the last page of posts. I hope this is still being looked at.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but has anything more come of this yet? Any feedback from Bohemia?

I've been away from the forums a couple of months and was pretty sad to see my own name on the last page of posts. I hope this is still being looked at.

Nope. Nothing yet. Monitor these two tickets and you'll most likely see when they've done some progress on this.

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=3505

http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=4635

I think the discussion has moved more on the better mid-range textures but I think this is as important.

[Roddis 27]

Sorry to report this from hell, but any news about it for Apex?

 

 

60m good concealment

 

100m perfect concealment

 

120m  :386:

 

150m WTF it's naked, no concealment at all!!!  :)

[Roddis 27]

Ops sorry, the video was set on Private!!!

 

No much skilled with You Tube stuff!!!

[R0adki11 3945]

Wrong place - this thread was last updated in 2013. This area of the forums was for when Arma3 was a Beta. Please read before posting ;)