Tides Feedback

[pettka 694]

We have recently enabled tides on Altis, Stratis and Tanoa to see how it affects the game.

18 hours ago, bis_iceman said:

Added: Experimental addition of tides to vanilla terrains (totally unrelated to https://twitter.com/maruksp/status/856469643569094656) 

 We are aware of some issues caused by the change, but there may be many more lurking beneath the sea level (quite literally ;)). Still, we would like to know Your opinion on the topic, what do You like most and what issues do You encounter with the low tide (as a high tide should be roughly at the same level as the sea was before the change). Please, keep in mind that the change is experimental and may be possibly even removed from the official terrains if we don't find suitable solutions for some of the issues. On the other hand, feel free to experiment with the tide on other terrains too, or even try the mod that reminded us about the nearly forgotten functionality - it uses much higher values than we do for testing and the results are impressive to see :)

[AveryTheKitty 2626]

I noticed this with the tides on Tanoa, not with Altis, though:

 

 

This is at one of the coral reefs btw, but the tide issue happens all over Tanoa.

[Alwarren 2767]

I found an issue where sounds originating from places that are flooded during high tide are wrong, muffled or simply not played. Can be reproduced by firing from prone position near the beach or on a sandbank.

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[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

When using setTimeMultiplier water based vehicles don't react to tide changes.

I guess this is also true when using skipTime and setDate commands.

The tide gets updated but vehicles won't reflect the new tide and either stay floating mid air or on the ground.

 

Cheers

[xxgetbuck123 945]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

When using setTimeMultiplier water based vehicles don't react to tide changes.

I guess this is also true when using skipTime and setDate commands.

The tide gets updated but vehicles won't reflect the new tide and either stay floating mid air or on the ground.

 

Cheers

 

Like the water is there but invisible while the 'image' of the water has lowered?

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

Just now, xxgetbuck123 said:

 

Like the water is there but invisible while the 'image' of the water has lowered?

You place a boat in the editor, use setTimeMultiplier 10000 or whatever, then the boat will be sitting at it's initial position, no matter the current sea level.

 

Cheers

[bloodwyn1756 130]

1 minute ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

You place a boat in the editor, use setTimeMultiplier 10000 or whatever, then the boat will be sitting at it's initial position, no matter the current sea level.

 

Cheers

I remember testing that with a Mod (only maxtide enabled) months ago. It worked flawlessly, except at a certain higth the ship stopped to swim. Does it only happen while in editor and using timeMultiplier? As they don't have simulation there that would make sense. Or only to ships at are not manned with a player? I'll test that.

 

A big wish from my side would be a script command like setTide, setSeaLevel or setMaxTide.

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

Just tested it with skiptime, boats will be stuck mid air/underwater when the tide changes, until you move them.

 

Cheers

[lappihuan 178]

What effect does this have to the ASL command sets?

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

posASL stays the same all the time.

So basically isn't ASL at all any more.

Might take quite some adjustments to get tides working right.

 

Cheers

[lappihuan 178]

since i'm not at home, could you test the getPosASLW command?

[bloodwyn1756 130]

36 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

posASL stays the same all the time.

So basically isn't ASL at all any more.

Might take quite some adjustments to get tides working right.

 

Cheers

Please do not adjust asl to the tide! That would break everything^^. Just think of it as the default sealevel. But adjusting Aslw makes sense.

[killzone_kid 1333]

47 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

posASL stays the same all the time.

So basically isn't ASL at all any more.

Might take quite some adjustments to get tides working right.

 

Cheers

this will complicate things megafold

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

9 minutes ago, killzone_kid said:

this will complicate things megafold

That's arma for you

Spoiler

 

Cheers

[slowrider8 41]

Not to be a killjoy, but isn't the Mediterranean Sea a non-tidal one? Not to say it doesn't have tides at all, but aren't they like within a very small range? Tanoa is probably fine but the difference between high and low tide on Altis and Stratis seems quite large. 

 

Also, +support for scripting commands to raise and lower tides at will, although this is would probably be pretty difficult to implement. 

[Greenfist 1863]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Just tested it with skiptime, boats will be stuck mid air/underwater when the tide changes, until you move them.

 

Cheers

That's probably because of physx simulation. When an object stays still for a while, the simulation is "halted" and set to wait for any kind of external force to wake it up. For example setpos and bullets will trigger it, but not the water level.

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

52 minutes ago, lappihuan said:

since i'm not at home, could you test the getPosASLW command?

Works.

 

Cheers

[twistking 204]

6 minutes ago, slowrider8 said:

Not to be a killjoy, but isn't the Mediterranean Sea a non-tidal one? Not to say it doesn't have tides at all, but aren't they like within a very small range?

 

That's true. Tides on altis should be quite small. The places i know in the mediterranean all have "visible" tides, but the differences are still very small and the height of the waves/surf can have a bigger impact on the shoreline, than the small difference in tide.

I wouldn't mind, if the tides would be a little bit exagerated for the effect, but having tides comparable to the "big" oceans, would kill immersion for everyone, who is familiar with the mediterranean or any other sea of similar geographical quality...

[arkhir 135]

Would it be possible to use tides to seasonally flood Almyra, or is the lake too high ASL for it to make sense?

[dragon01 903]

1 hour ago, twistking said:

 

That's true. Tides on altis should be quite small. The places i know in the mediterranean all have "visible" tides, but the differences are still very small and the height of the waves/surf can have a bigger impact on the shoreline, than the small difference in tide.

I wouldn't mind, if the tides would be a little bit exagerated for the effect, but having tides comparable to the "big" oceans, would kill immersion for everyone, who is familiar with the mediterranean or any other sea of similar geographical quality...

From what I've seen the tides on Stratis aren't all that big, about comparable to Baltic (which is also an inland sea, though much smaller and further north). I don't know at which date and hour the lowest water on Altis/Stratis is (tide tables for the islands would be nice), but I've seen a low tide condition and it looks pretty good, I think.

[jone_kone 158]

Tides should preferable have an indicator in the editor so you can set the sea/tide level (and change) for each mission. Also, considering that Arma is one of the few games employing diving units I´d gladly see a "High" tide option (vs. low and normal) where some areas would be flooded thus enabling new scenarios for sub surface ops. 

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

4 minutes ago, jone_kone said:

Tides should preferable have an indicator in the editor so you can set the sea/tide level (and change) for each mission. Also, considering that Arma is one of the few games employing diving units I´d gladly see a "High" tide option (vs. low and normal) where some areas would be flooded thus enabling new scenarios for sub surface ops. 

Tides are tied to moon phases.

Doubt this will happen, simply pick new or full moon for the highest tides.

 

Cheers

[Flax 397]

50 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Man said:

Tides are tied to moon phases.

Doubt this will happen, simply pick new or full moon for the highest tides.

 

The one downside (or upsides) of highest tides means you also get the lowest tides - these were from testing on Tanoa and less than 6 hours apart so for longer missions you will have to be careful with the times you pick. 

Back to the feedback - liking that fact that tides have made a comeback but the there seems to be some issues with the water intersecting the beaches causing graphical glitches. You can see the square like shape on the left of the second picture above.

[khaosmatical 237]

Awesome stuff, I love the effect it has on the mangrove areas on Tanoa. Excellent work. The only problems I noticed were on Tanoa regarding the jagged shoreline. Altis and Stratis were fine.

[Grumpy Old Man 3549]

@Flax This seems indeed a bit intense, having half the dock getting dry.

 

Cheers