Possible to turn off grass?

[Atelophobia 0]

I am a hardcore OFP fan. Loved the game's difficulty and realism. Despite all its bugs, my friends and I had an absolute blast attempting some cooperative missions 20-30 times before completing them at our almost weekly LAN parties. We have all been eagerly awaiting OFP2. I just found out Armed Assault is the sequel and promptly downloaded the demo (v1.03).

The game is a definite graphical improvement over the original however *grass is annoying*. Every time I have died so far, I have died because the grass is too thick, obstructing my view in the prone position, and the AI has absolutely no problems seeing through it, lining up on me and shooting within 2-3 seconds. Going prone was *very* important in OFP, but so far doing it in ArmA is much like putting on a blindfold rather than actually helping you.

I really need to know if it's possible to turn this off. I have turned down terrain detail but the grass is still there, even though it's slightly reduced, it's still in the way, and the game then looks worse than OFP. I would much rather be able to turn off the grass, or at least reduce it without completely ruining the rest of the detail. I know my friends will get really annoyed when they continually get shot by enemies they can't see and who shouldn't be able to see them. ArmA will not have the staying power that OFP did with us for this very reason.

I tried searching the forums but there are just too many threads and messages. I could not find the things I wanted.

PS: Why are AI riflemen on my team shooting Armored vehicles such as the BRDM in the coop demo mission? They were never this stupid in OFP. All they do now is wake up the vehicle and give away our position, then we all promptly get mowed down as they continue to empty their clips into it, obviously without actually harming it. I can tell them to hold fire, but as soon as I say open fire on nearby soldiers, if that BRDM is in line of sight, they shoot at it after and mess up the mission, yet again. I hope this gets fixed too!

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Look in the mods complete section and you will find both islands without grass. There is no way to remove the grass otherwise.

I've noticed with AI, that if you shoot out the tires of a BRDM then the crew will dismount.

[Col. Faulkner 0]

I've noticed with AI, that if you shoot out the tires of a BRDM then the crew will dismount.

...with jacks and tire irons?

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Hahaha, naw, they just jumped out at me while I was prone and it was pretty close because I wasn't expecting it.

[whisper 0]

In the demo, the grass you're sitting on, and the one very close to you, "bends down" to ground and doesn't block your view anymore. Very nice feature, imho, even if that is a poor replacement for really view blocking (from distance and for AI) grass implementation, but in the meantime BI finds a way to get it working (/wink @ BI devs), it's a good workaround. So hopefully it will be in the next patch for full game.

[Heatseeker 0]

In the demo, the grass you're sitting on, and the one very close to you, "bends down" to ground and doesn't block your view anymore. Very nice feature, imho, even if that is a poor replacement for really view blocking (from distance and for AI) grass implementation, but in the meantime BI finds a way to get it working (/wink @ BI devs), it's a good workaround. So hopefully it will be in the next patch for full game.

I only tried the demo and the grass doesnt bother me that much, maybe its because of this? I didnt know it wasnt working in the full game yet.

edit: Its a nice effect/feature, very well thought imo .

[Espectro (DayZ) 0]

I assume we aren't gonna see this patch until UK-release? :/

[baddo 0]

Hi

Well the BRDM crew jumps out quite quickly after you have put the whole team fire at it for a couple of seconds. Heavy machine guns are useful. BRDM is not a heavily armored vehicle so it is OK for infantry to target it I think.

About the grass. Let's look at a scenario. I have spotted the enemy. I am trying to get into a good firing position. I am crawling over a hill to see the enemy better. When in prone position, I can see a long distance forwards and I think I am now in good position to start aiming at the enemy through the weapon's scope. When I then look through the scope of the sniper rifle for example, I can't see a thing (except the grass). The difference between prone position and looking through the scope of the weapon is quite big. It can be realistic but it appears to the player in a somewhat unfair manner I think. In this scenario my character often gets killed because I have no time to react anymore to the surprise that I can't see the enemies even though I saw them very well when in prone position. This is what needs some thought from BIS. How to balance the obstruction between prone position and weapon scope view.

Baddo

[aus_twisted 0]

I'm guessing there will be 1 patch released before the UK release as there's still another 5 weeks to go, but who knows maybe everyone will have to wait for the UK release.

As it stands the Demo is a fair bit ahead of the full game now with some of these small new features and fixes. Even the MP server listing is far better then the full version now.

[whisper 0]

Hi

Well the BRDM crew jumps out quite quickly after you have put the whole team fire at it for a couple of seconds. Heavy machine guns are useful. BRDM is not a heavily armored vehicle so it is OK for infantry to target it I think.

About the grass. Let's look at a scenario. I have spotted the enemy. I am trying to get into a good firing position. I am crawling over a hill to see the enemy better. When in prone position, I can see a long distance forwards and I think I am now in good position to start aiming at the enemy through the weapon's scope. When I then look through the scope of the sniper rifle for example, I can't see a thing (except the grass). The difference between prone position and looking through the scope of the weapon is quite big. It can be realistic but it appears to the player in a somewhat unfair manner I think. In this scenario my character often gets killed because I have no time to react anymore to the surprise that I can't see the enemies even though I saw them very well when in prone position. This is what needs some thought from BIS. How to balance the obstruction between prone position and weapon scope view.

Baddo

You don't have this issue anymore on Demo

[baddo 0]

Hmm well I played yesterday the latest demo build and I'm quite sure I had this problem. But maybe I'll go and play it again to be sure, thanks.

Baddo

[whisper 0]

Well, you can sometimes have it, but nothing close to the issues in full game. Most of the time the grass bent on ground doesn't block your view anymore

[Rhodite 3]

I can confirm from an inside source that Grass will not be present when you set the game to its lowest settings.

This will take effect from the next patch.

[Maddmatt 1]

I can confirm from an inside source that Grass will not be present when you set the game to its lowest settings.

This will take effect from the next patch.

What about the planned feature so that grass hides you even at a distance? It was mentioned in an interview long ago that BIS were looking at ways to do it. Something like the system Joint Ops apparently has, where you are made less visible based on the grass you are in. Looks like BIS gave up on it.

[Atelophobia 0]

I did notice that the grass bends down, and while that helps for a few cases, it doesn't address the entire problem. It is especially a problem when you are on a slope trying to edge your way toward an enemy that's at about 100 yards. In OFP, you could edge your way up a slope and see just his helmet or something. You might even be able to shoot him, though your bullets may hit the ground. Since you are aware of him being there, you can then edge your way closer until you have a cleaner shot. You can also see if he's moving.

In ArmA, he will spot you before you can see him and start shooting you through the grass while you're prone. The only way to see him is to stand up out of the grass, but by that time you're already dead.

I'm not talking about the little bits of grass that bend down right in front of you either. I'm talking about the grass that covers the whole slope, giving a false horizon through which the enemy can see you, but you can not see him. He essentially has a lower Line of Sight horizon than you, giving him a huge advantage. I hope I've explained it well enough.

I can confirm from an inside source that Grass will not be present when you set the game to its lowest settings.

This will take effect from the next patch.

Rhodite,

Please suggest to them to make the grass an option in the video setup! I don't want to make the game look horrible just to be rid of the grass. Perhaps it could be the difference between Cadet and Veteran much like the TAG option.

[baddo 0]

@Atelophobia

That is exactly what I was talking about.

I did a new test run in demo 1.03.5114 today and I think the problem is still there (although I got excited about all the fighting so that I did not concentrate on especially looking for this problem to occur). For sure there is a problem when looking through a scope of the weapon, then the taller grass can block view to the enemies (which can see you). I have no problem in having to crawl around for a better spot, but the problem arises if the enemy has too much advantage because of this (like killing your character when you try to look through weapon scope and can't see the enemy). But I'm sure it'll get better over time when the wonderful people at BIS find a good balance.

Baddo

[450R 1]

Grass does bend flat when you're on it (in the demo) but it's hardly helpful as the rest of the grass around you is still there. Once you scope in your vision is even more obscured as the grass magically becomes closer, thicker and taller.

I wish they would've left the grass out. I'd rather see them putting their time and effort towards gameplay aspects than trying to tweak aesthetic crap like this. The grass WOULD have been relevant to gameplay if the AI couldn't see through it like it wasn't there, and the concealment feature BI promised was present.

Now everyone has to use the lowest settings possible to turn the grass off...? Seems like we're going backwards here.

[Maddmatt 1]

Grass does bend flat when you're on it (in the demo) but it's hardly helpful as the rest of the grass around you is still there. Once you scope in your vision is even more obscured as the grass magically becomes closer, thicker and taller.

I wish they would've left the grass out. I'd rather see them putting their time and effort towards gameplay aspects than trying to tweak aesthetic crap like this. The grass WOULD have been relevant to gameplay if the AI couldn't see through it like it wasn't there, and the concealment feature BI promised was present.

Now everyone has to use the lowest settings possible to turn the grass off...? Seems like we're going backwards here.

Well the game would look like crap without the grass. I hope they implement the concealment feature they talked about. That would be a much better solution.

[Rg 0]

Once you scope in your vision is even more obscured as the grass magically becomes closer, thicker and taller.

That is because of how they implemented the iron sight/optics view. I'm not 100% sure, but from messing around with the iron sight/optic view, your eye camera moves down to gun, instead of the gun coming up to your eye.

Magic? not quite.

-Closer (Optic view is zoomed in)

-Thicker (FOV is decreased so thing become bigger)

-Taller (The eye camera moves down to the butt of the gun)

Now that I think about it, I think it’s technically correct that your view is lower when prone and trying to fire your weapon by looking down the sights, because you are limited by your arm/elbow/ground, whereas when you are not looking down the sights of the gun your head is higher and you are able to scan.

[frederf 0]

The grass is rendered in a totally different way between optics and non-optics mode, and yes it is rather thick in optics.

The grass is nice. The problem is just human and AI being able to see you clearly. Doing some statistical mumbo jumbo with with the AI detection distance and accuracy based on grass should solve a lot of it. An alpha texture overlay for humans (so they just get strips of you, rest "invisible" at distance) would work.

[Maddmatt 1]

The grass is rendered in a totally different way between optics and non-optics mode, and yes it is rather thick in optics.

Read the post above yours, it is rendered in the same way.

[Heatseeker 0]

I can confirm from an inside source that Grass will not be present when you set the game to its lowest settings.

This will take effect from the next patch.

Well, then it seems like everyone will play MP adversarial in lowest graphical settings and the grass will be used for combat photography only, i hope this setting will be server sided atleast .

This is a poor solution, i had no big problems in the demo, if the player cant see because he went prone in the grass he should move to a better position (less grass or higher ground) or stay crouched (duh).

I like the grass, it makes the game feel more realistic and i like how it "breaks" when crawling thru it. I think BIS should have just made it shorter.

[whisper 0]

Well, read the Demo patches notes, you'll be very happy HeatSeeker :

Quote[/b] ]5115 - New: Terrain Detail now controls grass detail as well (can be used to turn off the grass if you set terrain detail on very low) NOTE: in MP this is controlled by the server only

[rwillis 0]

Quote[/b] ]5115  - New: Terrain Detail now controls grass detail as well (can be used to turn off the grass if you set terrain detail on very low) NOTE: in MP this is controlled by the server only

Sounds like a good deal then.

[4 IN 1 0]

Well, read the Demo patches notes, you'll be very happy HeatSeeker :

Quote[/b] ]5115  - New: Terrain Detail now controls grass detail as well (can be used to turn off the grass if you set terrain detail on very low) NOTE: in MP this is controlled by the server only

but it affect the overall terrain details too i think(i wish to play with normal terrain details which makes the island more life like yet didnt lags that much due to the stupid grass)