Ardennes island v1.0 by reinhard

[MEDICUS 0]

Ok, i've 1 suggestion:

Would it be possible to reduce the grass a little bit (afaik it's the erba.pbo)? It looks nice, but makes the whole island a little bit laggy (especially for MP)

Mfg MEDICUS

[silent_64 0]

Yeah, me and one of my mates used the old version for mp, but it doesn't take long before the lag makes the map unplayable, please do what you can to reduce the lag But the map is great and full of detail. Great simply great.

[OFP_PUPSI 0]

I will download the map tomorrow. First of all, the pictures looks really nice.

Have you ever thought about an alternative version without grass ?

I know it´s some more work but for the gamers which plays some MP games on it it maybe better.

I did it so with my map, even I don´t played only one MP game with it.

So, I am excited to have some nice trips in the ardennes tomorrow, and again the pics looks really good. Thanks for your work !

OFP_PUPSI

[reinhard66 0]

well really i think the same about lag, for me not lag, but i have in mind make an alternative version more ligth remiving some graas areas and some more trees trying to no reduce the level of detail

[MEDICUS 0]

That would be nice, reinhard if you could make a "light" version of the Ardennes. Perhaps without the erba.pbo (grass) and with less trees.

[mick78 0]

Hey!

I dont know if im doing something wrong, but is anyone else having problems crossing the bridges?

If i drive my car over it, it smashes into it, causing damage, then goes really slow over it, occassionally making the smashing noise.

If you get out of the car, the man falls thru the bridge up to about his shins or so, but can then walk thru the stone normally. if you go near the round bits in the middle that appear to be for guards etc, he falls through to the water beneath.

this, or similar problems happen on all the bridges.

have i done something wrong..?

mick.

oh yeah, and if you are planning on changing the layout to make mp better, please do it on a seperate version! i really like it, and doesnt lag on my pc. plus, i dont play mp.

[Pappy Boyington 0]

well really i think the same about lag, for me not lag, but i have in mind make an alternative version more ligth remiving some graas areas and some more trees trying to no reduce the level of detail

the map is nice. very beautiful. but in placing one mechinized infatry and 2 snipers (me and an AI) the map gets "questionable" in terms of lag

investgated further. the grass doesnt lag. the grass seems the less lagiest peice on this map. but what does lag is the 106000+ items placed one by one. might i suggest you try your hand at custom forests, making your own forest but only uses 5 or 6 trees and mix in some bushs. . as having the current 100,000 placed trees make up for tons of lag

so in recap as long as its only me and 1 other unit on the map theres minimal lag

but yea i would suggest looking into the custom forest thing with the plants and such to make it less laggy.

nice island thou. i really like the atmosphere it brings

[the_shadow 0]

i must agree to this, i too get som lag if i put in just a few squads...

if you´re to make your own forrest i would like one with not so many threes but quite a lot of busches, grass etc

[subfaction 0]

i too get bad lagg on an uber p4 3ghz rig, so something is not right, grass is normally a chief culprit, but lots of trees can do it as well.

Basically its all the alphas that are getting drawn at once, it kills the cpu and graphics card, figuring out all of the z-buffer stuff. If you can reduce the amount of alphas, ie. take out trees or grass, or reduce both, it should help, the forest thing will help as well.

cheers

.sub

ps.

anyone got a http link to the new version? i cant get ftp at work

[reinhard66 0]

well its decided in the next release will be 2 versions of the ardennes one normal for strongest computers and other "ligth" to reduce at the minimun the lag.

in the next update will be 3 new villages and the mIg finnal pack i hope can release it as sonn as posible.

[reinhard66 0]

wops one thing guys: im not very skilled in tech things, please try to say me what kind of objects or vegetation cuses more lag to make properly the reomoving process

[MEDICUS 0]

I think most lag is caused by the number of objects. Like this single Placed trees. Another "lag-object" is the grass. It need's lots of resources cause there are a lot of polygones on a "big" area.

[OFP_PUPSI 0]

Yeah, you should definitetly try to make some forrest objects. Well, how it works excatly I don´t know but I guess it´s explained in the wrp-tutorial.

What I know about laging is, that the complete numbers of objects is not the main point, but the number of objects which are in the "visible zone" of the player. If I am not wrong there is maximum of 256 objects which OFP can handle. If you place single trees very dense, you will reach this number faster, than using a forrest object.

If I am wrong with this post, please tell me or post. I am not that "OFP enginge professional".

I have just seen, that by expanding Anjou it doesn´t lag more or less. The only time I could really see that it works better was, when I removed for my Anjou SE version the grass. But this means exactly you lower the number of objects in the visible zone of the player.

I know it is hard to simulate in Anjou a very dense forrest, but we have to make a lot of compromisses with editing island in OFP. But even then, they looks most time really good.

OFP_PUPSI

PS: Sorry for the long post

[OFP_PUPSI 0]

Hi,

look at this screenshot. I played a little bit with the standard forrest so it seems to be a little bit more dense. In the background you can see the standard forrest.

Well, the picture shows just a small area, because this forrest is not used in Anjou, but I guess for the ardennes this could help you a little bit. So if you are interessted just pm me.

[reinhard66 0]

well i think in 2 months ill can release the finnal version, beacouse i have some more projects in mind, really cool projects hehehe.

my work methos to reduced lag will be:

1) finish the island

2) start removing objects when all the island its done triying to reduce at the minimun the lag.

just one a bit strange thing, i actually have only a bit of lag, whe i play the first time, and the the lag its reduced when i play more times...

[reinhard66 0]

here are some pics of the update of Ardennes:

new swamp area:

pic

pic2

<a href="http://es.msnusers.com/_Secure/0RABUBNoTjpaGSoIJWlu1asxeYZi6FGNXXJz7f50JXUKNHkCa4T6LUL*RYtwhdiGVR2QZoFvF756EOtryZsfjxVl8D

AvOAlod*Stxk*NismI/GCS0011.jpg?dc=4675476213994608627" target="_blank">pic3</a>

<a href="http://es.msnusers.com/_Secure/0RQAuAxAUXqVdubROA1cIZCnsZoehmGvFVTyradjxyCPijidDG3MTv2oHNHDL0e9VHH2lgJqWw9mWH8WeAk7fNrdqH

jWh8bDgjc4ckz6bq3o/GCS00080.jpg?dc=4675476213988839055" target="_blank">pic4</a>

[MEDICUS 0]

Here are some more "fresh" pics of reinhards nice new Swamp Area:

Great job, reinhard! That looks definitly very nice!

Mfg MEDICUS  

[flaber 0]

Very nice pictures... and very very good work.

P.D.

Links for pic3 and pic4 doesn't work.

[MEDICUS 0]

P.D.

Links for pic3 and pic4 doesn't work.

I think this two pictures (Pic3/4) are in the post above.

Mfg MEDICUS

[subfaction 0]

what causes the most slowdown (lagg) is when the graphics card has to draw lots of alphas on top of each other. the chief offender for this is grass, as typically you see it at eye height, so often theres thousands of alphas being drawn and ordered properly, causing slowdown.

Lots of bushes or trees cause this as well.

There are a few ways to reduce this effect:

1. remove grass - not the best solution as its kinda nice

2. instead of removing grass, reduce the amount of polys it uses, try different techniques other than a crossplane structure.

3. use a 2 colour alpha on the grass and bushes, now this will give hard edged grass, rather than a nice gradient, but will give a huge boost in performance.

4. try to create the terrian with hills/buildings that obsure the really long views where lots of alphas would be lined up.

hope this stuff helps, if you need any more advice pm me.

cheers

.sub

[reinhard66 0]

thanks for this info mate actually im working on the next update i removed a lot a lot of single vegetation placed, the update will be really big with new areas and new landscapes in a different style but always with rural and ww2 feeling ill put some pics soon

[mileset 0]

oops.. please make winter version. I(INCLUDE others) love

winter version. because~ BOB. BASTONE..FOY!.. LOL!!!!!!!!

[MEDICUS 0]

thanks for this info mate  actually im working  on the next update i removed a lot a lot of single vegetation placed, the update will be  really big with new areas and new landscapes in a different style but always with rural and ww2 feeling ill put some pics soon

Great to hear that you are still working on this beautiful island

[reinhard66 0]

hehe the next update will be really big youll see

[GabKa73 0]

I must say (I think I said it before somewhere else) your island is still the prettiest in OFP. It's because of your placement of objects like trees, bushes, grass and all that stuff that is so different compared to other islands. It really feels like real nature. With dxdll it is even more breathtaking landscape. Go on!

The only bad thing about new islands like yours and that from jean christophe is that they tend to lag big time when played online. We had to reduce the amount of used addons badly to get a playable framerate through our dedicated server.

Subfaction already mentioned it, it's a pitty that all the new stuff like grass and fields that adds so much to your islands and our gameplay is causing so much lag. I hope you find a way to reduce lag and manage to keep the nice island as it is.

I hope OFP2 will have a better system concerning extremely detailed islands and online gameplay.