View lod vs geo lod

[ebud 18]

strange thing I just noticed while doing lots of testing of how to make tall elephant grass hide the person behind it.

I have a field of grass that has a view lod made up of squares (yes I did find components) roughly the same size as each grass area. I tested this in-game and it worked rather poorly as the enemy did see through the grass easily. I then copied and pasted the view lod polys into the geo lod and set them to have 0 weight. tested again and the enemy couldn't see through them at all... perfect.

Now this goes against everything I read in lod tutorials. Is there something I'm, doing wrong?

I'm wondering because when I try to use this method by adding tall grass into forests, I get solid grass walls which I'd rather not get. How can I get either

1. a view lod that actually blocks line of sight or

2. A geo lod with tree trunks that are solid, but grass that is non solid

[PSC 0]

Did you try what happens if you copy the same structure into FireGeo LOD?

[ebud 18]

no, but wouldn't that just cause the grass to deflect bulltets?

My only other option is to create a grass field and place a forest block on top of it. That may be the only way.

Right now I can live with the forests not be able to crash into. I'd rather have the forests and brush block the players and ai view than let the ai see through it but be "crashable"

[Trenchfeet 0]

i also made some grass

http://ofp.gamezone.cz/_hosted/trenchfeet/Images/grass.jpg

i have a similar prob, but when i put it on the map the enemy ai dont shoot at me straight way as long as i crouch most of the time they dont shoot, stand up =dead.

i've used the normal lods , geo lod (has no object in it, and view geo lod

heres the simpe config file

// some basic defines

#define TEast 0

#define TWest 1

#define TGuerrila 2

#define TCivilian 3

#define TSideUnknown 4

#define TEnemy 5

#define TFriendly 6

#define TLogic 7

#define true 1

#define false 0

// type scope

#define private 0

#define protected 1

#define public 2

class CfgPatches

{

class field

{

units[] = {field};

weapons[] = {};

requiredVersion = 1.46;

};

};

class CfgVehicles

{

class All{};

class Static: All {};

class Building: Static {};

class Strategic : Building {};

class field: Strategic

{

scope=public;

side=TCivilian;

cost=1;

vehicleClass="Objects Grass";

setdammage= 0;

mapSize=1;

destrType=destructno;

displayName="field grass";

model="\field\field";

icon="\field\grass.paa";

};

};

[ebud 18]

the grassfields by themselves work fine. Thats not the problem. Try adding trees to your grass, then add solid indestructable trees. I can't get grass to be non-solid, hides you and the ai, AND only has solid trees in the geo lod.

I'll pm you the zip of the new islands. All mlod models. Maybe you can see what I'm talking about.

[Guest]

There is a named property for GeoLOD called "CanOcclude" with the values being 1 or 0. From my experience this lets the AI see/not see through the object.

I don't think you can apply that to ViewLOD, but who knows. Now what I am wondering is if you need trees to be solid, but grass not to be....then why have the grass "mapped out" in the GeoLOD at all?

The other thing is perhaps try binarizing it then testing, or (dare I even suggest this) you can "setpos" a GeoLOD, so you could have one GeoLOD for trees and one for the grass. But that's very complex and might be a waste of time.

[ebud 18]

thanks Leon. The occlude=0 in the view geo worked (plus the view blocking boxes were a bit small anyway.)

It's always something simple you overlook.

I had non weighted polys in the geo lod because it worked. I knew it wasn't right, but I didn't know why it did work or the right way to get it to work.

thanks again.

<edit> spoke too soon. tried it again, and it sort of worked, but only it seems until the enemy gets into the same "field" you are in (50m x 50 square area). When the enemy is in adjacent grass fields it worked, but when they got close it all went to hell. I added back in the geo lod boxes, set them to 0, found components, set the occlude to 0 and it all worked perfectly, the ai couldnt see through the grass until they came through to the side I was on.

No idea why it does this.

I'll try binarizing next.

[Guest]

Something else I guess is the named property "Class". I fairly sure there is a value for this called "Forest", but that would mean after Binarizing it would have the same properties as a BIS forest....and you might not want this. So maybe a different value for that is required? Let us know how you go

[ebud 18]

Something else I guess is the named property "Class". I fairly sure there is a value for this called "Forest", but that would mean after Binarizing it would have the same properties as a BIS forest....and you might not want this. So maybe a different value for that is required? Let us know how you go  

well for the grassfields I took that out, but for the forests and heavy brush I left it in as it needs to work like a forest.

Damn  All I need is forest, but with blocks in one of the lods that blocks the ai line of sight, but does not block movement.

There is something simple that I'm not seeing.

If anyone knows how to get solid and non solid parts in a geo lod that would fix it as the view lod is NOT stopping the ai from seeing though things that are within the p3d, outside looking in yes, but not once they get into the forest. I tried giving jsut the areas that represent the grass 0 weight, but they are still solid in-game.

I may just end up making the whole forest blockable to the view but not solid.  OR place 2 p3d forest blocks on top of each other in wrptool. One with trees, the other with jsut grass and bushes.

[bedlam 0]

intresting thread.

was it possible to make an non solid non shootable  patch of grass that the ai couldnt shoot through?

if so how?

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Very stupid question but have do your Geo, Fire Geo, and View Geo Components X have less than 8 vertexes? I had a smimiliar problem with an addon and that solved it.

[Guest]

ViewGeo LOD doesn't require less than 8 verticies. Many BIS models have complex (ie 50+ verticies) components in the ViewGeo LOD