Foliage dynamic effects

[sluggCDN 0]

I believe that if realisticly implemented tall grass in the game can be a beauty making the virtual world that much more believable and add tons of fun to the gameplay: imagine taking cover in grass in an open field while under hail of machinegun fire. But if the tall dense grass feature is realized improperly it may have serious implications on the quality of the gameplay as far as hardcore milsim fans are concerned.

Here is what developers said in the latest interview:

The screenshots shows grass only near by the player but not in far distance. Will the grass be a real cover for detecting by the enemies or only an optical effect?

Robert Stipek: This is also work in progress. At the moment the AI will see you and you cant hide in grass. But if Armed Assault is finished the grass will be a good cover. But if you lay in grass don’t think that’s easy the shoot the enemy at the distance from this point.

What does this really mean? - so far we have the dynamic grass effect drawn in the radius of probably 50m around the player's camera, but as far as AI is concerned it doesn't exist. In a situation where u come under fire and u have to take cover in an open area covered by tall grass, lying u will be seeing nothing, supposedly concealed right in front of an AI that will just take its aim and shoot. Therefore going prone won't be an option while in grassy area. I only assume that Stipek means that "But when AA is finished the grass will be a good cover."

The dynamic tall grass effect is even worse in multiplayer. If lets say the dynamic grass effect radius us 100m and your human opponent is beyond that range - 105 meters - and you decide to go prone he will have you in plain view (target practice) and u will see nothing but grass around you.

Possible solution: the grass should be static or toggable in Options/Graphics setup. Currently there is one very annoying bug in OFP - AI can see through fallen tree geometry when a player obviously can't. So during a mission u always have to make sure you don't knock trees down - BIG pain in the ass, again u can't see shit thru trees, AI can see u perfectly. I'm surprised it's been overlooked and none has pointed out this problem. Hope AA doesn't have the same issue.

[sirex 0]

grass has always bugged me in games as its implemented as "mini trees". you cant bend it or pat it down. you run along and go prone and bingo, you cant see anything at all. it'd be nice if you could find a hillside with grass, and pat down an area to make a place for your gun to see out.

wont happen though, too cpu intensive, unless they had a static "this is patted down grass" effect, which might suck once you know what to look for.

as far as AI, i'm not really bothered.... intend to play the game with as little AI involvement as possible and not really bothered either way about the single player campain mode. no offence to BIS as its not their fault, but i dont expect the AI to actually be more than cannon fodder in a multiplayer game. not saying the AI will be easy to kill, but i wouldnt be suprised if they just annoy you to fight with.

[InqWiper 0]

I think Joint Operations had a good solution to this. The grass is only drawn near the player but if another player is laying in grass far away he will be concealed by a green texture which to me seemed like just as good cover as if the grass was drawn around him.

[Zendjir 0]

I think what they meant in the latest interview was that they are still working on the grass.

[sluggCDN 0]

I think Joint Operations had a good solution to this. The grass is only drawn near the player but if another player is laying in grass far away he will be concealed by a green texture which to me seemed like just as good cover as if the grass was drawn around him.

I know - but still it was very awkward; in Joint Operations when a player was lying prone it seemed like his character's geometry was partially submerged into the ground geometry with body parts sticking out. In the distance u could still clearly make out the body parts. This is the most "successful" implementation so far, but in reality the player has to blend in with his surrounding. I think only static grass patches can do it. BTW this feature was realized a few times by modders - there is at least one mod island that I know of with such grass - looks and works good, but can be done much better with better textures and modeling of individual grass clumps.

Dynamic grass effects is not so much a problem in MP game with human vs. AI as it is a problem in the game with human vs. human. A player will always wonder whether the opponent is too far from him for the player to appear surrounded and concealed by dynamically drawn grass.

[NeMeSiS 11]

Should be a server-side option IMO, and in SP its your own choice ofcourse