Jets DLC - rendering distance limitations

[arkhir 135]

Ever since I started flying jets in ArmA I was wondering about whether or not it would be possible to make certain assets (such as ground vehicles, jets or helicopters) render from outside of the object view distance.

 

Some map objects have this property enabled inherently - large buildings, wind turbines and some other 'landmark' objects are rendering even beyond the OVD. This would be especially good if it worked similar to DCS, when looking through targetting pods, because you could really use the weapon systems as they are intended to be used without straining your performance too much.

This would also be excellent for the new aircraft carrier and similar applications - it would limit the visible 'pop-in' without hitting the performance.

 

How does this setting work with objects other than buildings? Is it even possible, engine-wise, to enable it for objects that aren't placed with the map editor?

 

Another thing about TPODs is the limited view distance in PIP. Even when set at ultra it's really too short for most of the aerial tasks, only thing it works for is missile warhead camera, where the viewdistance doesn't matter that much, but I guess that's an engine limitation and nothing can be done about that.

[Greenfist 1863]

29 minutes ago, arkhir said:

How does this setting work with objects other than buildings? Is it even possible, engine-wise, to enable it for objects that aren't placed with the map editor?

 

One could just execute the command: "someVehicle setFeatureType 2" to see it up to the terrain view distance limit.

This way you can keep object view distance to 50m and still see vehicles from kilometers away.

[arkhir 135]

Yeah, that would be a great command — it would allow modders to solve the issue, and invididual mission-makers to enable this for certain aerial or naval assets (e.g. blackfish, xi'an, jets, carriers, etc.).

 

I'm just wondering if it's feasible engine-wise at all, or is it something hardcoded and bound to map rendering. This command would be a really nice gift from BIS.

[Greenfist 1863]

11 minutes ago, arkhir said:

Yeah, that would be a great command — it would allow modders to solve the issue, and invididual mission-makers to enable this for certain aerial or naval assets (e.g. blackfish, xi'an, jets, carriers, etc.).

 

I'm just wondering if it's feasible engine-wise at all, or is it something hardcoded and bound to map rendering. This command would be a really nice gift from BIS.

No I meant you can use that command right now. :D

Or you could mod the vehicles to have that on by default.

[arkhir 135]

7 minutes ago, Greenfist said:

No I meant you can use that command right now. :D

Or you could mod the vehicles to have that on by default.

Wait, what? I couldn't find it here:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Category:Scripting_Commands_Arma_3

 

Is it a new command on devbranch?

 

 

edit: found it!

https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00064

 

haha, excellent

 

7 minutes ago, Greenfist said:

Or you could mod the vehicles to have that on by default.

It's limited to 500 and 200 objects respectively for static and dynamic though, but I doubt anyone would use more than 200 aircraft in their mission.

 

Edited April 15, 2017 by arkhir

[dragon01 902]

It'd be great if this could be made either a drop-down menu in Eden, or a default for all airborne vehicles. Generally, there's never a crazy amount of stuff in the air at any given time, and vehicles at least should be visible from much further out than everything else (maybe even from beyond terrain VD).

[darkChozo 133]

I just added a wiki page for setFeatureType. The description of what it does is based on about 15 minutes of quick testing on a server, if anyone knows better and wants to correct go ahead.

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

8 hours ago, darkChozo said:

I just added a wiki page for setFeatureType. The description of what it does is based on about 15 minutes of quick testing on a server, if anyone knows better and wants to correct go ahead.

 

This is fantastic work mate.  Looking forward to testing this.

[CANADAVE 14]

this is the biggest roadblock in my opinion to proper Jets integration into ARMA 3.  My system (4.3GHZ core and 1070GPU) can render 4-6K object view distance with satisfactory frame rate for me.  Though serviceable, it is awkward for proper target acquisition time,  line up etc... 

 

I think it would be a great idea to incorporate a cone of extended view distance tied to Radar and TGP visual / IR sensors.... this would solve most of the problem.  

 

 

[AveryTheKitty 2626]

It would be cool if certain things were prioritized beyond object distance, e.g aircraft, tall towers, big ships like the proteus or freedom as well as ground vehicles.

[Greenfist 1863]

4 minutes ago, Nightmare515 said:

It would be cool if certain things were prioritized beyond object distance, e.g aircraft, tall towers, big ships like the proteus or freedom as well as ground vehicles.

Some big buildings already are. I'm guessing the carrier and aircrafts will be too. But I don't know about ground vehicles; what if you try to hide  behind trees or buildings but the enemy sees you right through them?

[petek 62]

On 15/04/2017 at 7:25 PM, darkChozo said:

I just added a wiki page for setFeatureType. The description of what it does is based on about 15 minutes of quick testing on a server, if anyone knows better and wants to correct go ahead.

Hi

I've been having some real problems with objects (buildings and vehicles etc...) recently and I'm wondering is this new feature? Building that I'm sure were rendered previously at greater view distance are only now rendered at approx 2km (the lighthouse near kamino on Stratis is an example) This seems to happen regardless of what view distance I've set above 2km for overall and objects. Thanks for any ideas.

[arkhir 135]

16 hours ago, petek said:

Hi

I've been having some real problems with objects (buildings and vehicles etc...) recently and I'm wondering is this new feature? Building that I'm sure were rendered previously at greater view distance are only now rendered at approx 2km (the lighthouse near kamino on Stratis is an example) This seems to happen regardless of what view distance I've set above 2km for overall and objects. Thanks for any ideas.

Landmarks were indeed rendered beyond OVD, but the render distance is also dependant on FoV. If you're looking at something with 1x zoom you won't see some of these objects render, but if you zoom in a little they just may. Common landmarks include large buildings, antennae, wind turbines, etc.

[petek 62]

1 minute ago, arkhir said:

Landmarks were indeed rendered beyond OVD, but the render distance is also dependant on FoV. If you're looking at something with 1x zoom you won't see some of these objects render, but if you zoom in a little they just may. Common landmarks include large buildings, antennae, wind turbine, etc.

Thanks arkhir. I tried using the setFeatureType 2 to render a placed lighthouse next to the one mentioned and it does render considerably earlier at 1x zoom (approx 6km on my PC) If this is something that may have been implemented on the BIS maps I'd love to know how to change it - really can't play airbourne at the moment at the mo.... Cheers

[nikiforos 450]

I can't stress enough how important this issue is for a good flying experience. I'm quite amazed though how few people participate in this topic.

Petek and Arkhir I'm with you 100% on this.

[petek 62]

Just now, nikiforos said:

I can't stress enough how important this issue is for a good flying experience. I'm quite amazed though how few people participate in this topic.

Petek and Arkhir I'm with you 100% on this.

I was starting to think it was just me mate ;-) Really find it impossible to enjoy the air experience at the mo as without zooming in very little is rendered til 2km view distance. I'm sure normal visability was much better than this before. I'm about to test on community made island (I hear CUP calling;-)) to compare. Cheers

[reyhard 2082]

@petek - since you've mentioned that you are playing on the laptop I guess it's just effect of optimization that was introduced year ago https://dev.arma3.com/post/sitrep-00157

 

Quote

A set of rendering optimizations by Senior Programmer Lukáš Bábíček has now come online, covering areas like preparing the scene for rendering in smarter ways, aggregating the terrain grid, drawing distant objects that have become reduced to mere pixels, LOD-handling, calculating terrain shadows, etc.

 

Try bumping up sampling setting to see if the issue is lying in those optimizations

[nikiforos 450]

33 minutes ago, reyhard said:

@petek - since you've mentioned that you are playing on the laptop I guess it's just effect of optimization that was introduced year ago https://dev.arma3.com/post/sitrep-00157

 

 

Try bumping up sampling setting to see if the issue is lying in those optimizations

I have a good system and I have the same problem as Petek, Tried to bump up the sampling to 200% but I still need to zoom in to see objects on distance. Quite a shame cause I can run with 9000 view distance and 5000 object distance but can't enjoy this 100%.  So this a big issue for me but may not be for others.

[reyhard 2082]

4 minutes ago, nikiforos said:

I have a good system and I have the same problem as Petek, Tried to bump up the sampling to 200% but I still need to zoom in to see objects on distance. Quite a shame cause I can run with 9000 view distance and 5000 object distance but can't enjoy this 100%.  So this a big issue for me but may not be for others.

What is your screen resolution?

[nikiforos 450]

1 minute ago, reyhard said:

What is your screen resolution?

1920x1080

[Grumpy Old Man 3545]

Also playing at 1920x1080 with the onBoard hd 4600 graphics from my 4770k as a temporary solution until I can finally decide whether to buy a 1080 or 1070.

After goofing around a bit with the setFeatureType command I think it's working pretty good in game.

Had a huron fly way out, featuretype set to 2, viewdistance to 25000, the huron being at 5km+ out you can clearly tell there's an aircraft present.

Gonna have loads of fun with this command.

 

Cheers

[ozzbik 71]

Too bad that this option (setFeatureType 2) can not be set by options in view settings menu (for moving objects). It's sad that planes just disappear in thin air, while the view distance is set much higher.

[St. Jimmy 272]

setFeatureType 2 and like 20 aircrafts flying, I didn't see really any bigger hit in performance. So I'd say it's ok to change air vehicles to that.

 

Zoom to see objects in distance is part of the object detail optimization that happened a while ago. Current Ultra is like Normal in the old system. I agree that sometimes objects aren't rendered enough in the distance until you zoom. More than current Ultra is sometimes needed no matter what the performance impact is.

[petek 62]

2 hours ago, nikiforos said:

I have a good system and I have the same problem as Petek, Tried to bump up the sampling to 200% but I still need to zoom in to see objects on distance. Quite a shame cause I can run with 9000 view distance and 5000 object distance but can't enjoy this 100%.  So this a big issue for me but may not be for others.

Wow - I can't believe I didn't notice how bad this is til now!

Just re-ran a few campaign missions and the popping is awful! These were fine on the same machine before this optimisation...... The set featureType 2 works for individual objects but not for the terrain. Not being able to see a lighthouse until it is 2km away seems very wrong - especially travelling at Jet speed!

 

Thanks for replying Reyhard (and everyone else) I've tried the oversampling and still awful. Any other suggestions gratefully received. Based on this feel I'll not be using Jets much which is a pity.....

 

 

[nikiforos 450]

28 minutes ago, petek said:

Wow - I can't believe I didn't notice how bad this is til now!

Just re-ran a few campaign missions and the popping is awful! These were fine on the same machine before this optimisation...... The set featureType 2 works for individual objects but not for the terrain. Not being able to see a lighthouse until it is 2km away seems very wrong - especially travelling at Jet speed!

 

Thanks for replying Reyhard (and everyone else) I've tried the oversampling and still awful. Any other suggestions gratefully received. Based on this feel I'll not be using Jets much which is a pity.....

 

 

Yeah it's a shame takes away the glory from DLC Jets platform update , at least for me.