Grass (especially) and other settings

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Hi

I'm part of a "clan" that does large multiplayer coop missions over several days, once every one or two years. For the next one, I think we have 27 players. The players hardware vary from very low-end to very high-end. I don't have low-end system, but grass is basically killing the framerates and causes a weird lag once every second making aiming just about impossible.

The current system as far as I understand it will set the settings on a per-mission basis, or per-server basis depending on if the settings are controlled in the mission. To our mission designer, who has a super killer system, he won't be playing without having everything maxed. But seing my performance, it was obvious it wouldn't be possible.

So how about the following change: Server.cfg will determine if a certain setting can be controlled by the client/player? I.e. for grass/maxterraingrid; default is so-so, but player can override. Some might call this "cheating" because lack of grass provide a tactical advantage (and I agree), but not being able to play because of it is a greater killer. Also, the server admin would be god and disallow it on teamgames and such, but could allow it on coop games vs AI.

I think this would be a great feature to implement in an upcoming patch.

Another not about grass. To me it is a monster killer; going from very low (off) to low (on) is going from enjoyable to intolerable and completely unplayable. I would really much like to use low, because on very low everyone in the horizon is walking in thin air; snipers floating in the air etc. But I can't because of the grass.

WHY are we up to version 1.08 and still no grass on/off option? Why can't BIS acknowlegde that grass can kill the system (at least mine)?

All my other settings are set to about normal or off except anisotropic filtering which is high. System is dualcore 6600, Geforce 7950 GT, 2 gb ram, and installed on a raptor disk.

[frederf 0]

Simply look at KilJoy's Evolution. He has a simple addAction script in their that allows players to set their own terrainDetail (which nixs grass on the lowest setting).

If you make a script that drops players' terrainDetail to minimum AFTER the mission starts (say a second or two) then I believe it can't be overridden by client settings.

[celery 8]

The grass is a huge problem, it can slow even modern hardware down and the worst part is that only a few missions have it turned off and server settings make no difference. The grass is forced off in all of my missions for the sake of performance and enjoyment, high end users can say whatever they want.

It's sad that European Combat League is actually forcing the grass on, making their clan wars very favorable to those who have the best hardware instead of real skill.

Simply look at KilJoy's Evolution. He has a simple addAction script in their that allows players to set their own terrainDetail (which nixs grass on the lowest setting).

That doesn't help the fact that there are hundreds of missions with no such option. Very few would go as far as fixing every mission on the server.

[kklownboy 43]

grass is gone with verylow terrain settings. In Evo., you have to go into the transfer building and select the lowest terrain setting for grass to be flat.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Thanks for the Evolution tip. Know it is some multiplayer thing, but I've touched multiplayer once only due to the grass enforcement

But I actually love the singleplayer aspect of the game as well. But if grass was enforced on the upcoming lan, I (and probably others) would have to withdraw. I'll let our mission designer have a look at it, I'm just learning the editor myself.

[Daniel 0]

Most of my missions have grass turned off, it'd be a shame to not otherwise be able to use the really detailed Northern areas.

[celery 8]

But I actually love the singleplayer aspect of the game as well. But if grass was enforced on the upcoming lan, I (and probably others) would have to withdraw. I'll let our mission designer have a look at it, I'm just learning the editor myself.

If you want grass off in a specific mission, just put the line setterraingrid 50 in the mission's init script or trigger and it's done.

[frederf 0]

One person might even make an AddOn that runs a local script on map load so that the grass is turned off locally.

[DaSquade 0]

Pardon me, but what is GTD_NoGrass_mod then ?

[kklownboy 43]

Pardon me, but what is GTD_NoGrass_mod then ?

old lol

[sickboy 13]

It's extremely easy to create a serverside addon by using the extendedInitEventHandlers addon to setTerrainGrid on the server after mission start.

If noone is up to the task, I don't mind creating it, even though I dont have any use for such addon :P

[HitmanFF 6]

It's sad that European Combat League is actually forcing the grass on, making their clan wars very favorable to those who have the best hardware instead of real skill.

For ECL, most important is what their players actually want. We have held a poll early on to determine what to do with grass on the maps. Less than half of the people that responded, wanted to have the grass switched off, so we decided to leave the situation as is and let the map makers determine whether the map type warrants grass on or off.

On the CTF CQB maps, there's an option for public game play to switch off the grass.

[frederf 0]

What would be nice is if BIS got their head out of their asses and provided a replacement model for all the foliage in Sahrani that didn't have 3-4 textures for every blade of grass. Normal mapping, specular mapping? It's grass! If it was simply color-mapped a lot of our FPSs wouldn't plunge into the single digits when prone in grass faster than Oprah at a twinkie factory.

[The_Captain 0]

Doolittle just created a serverside addon to run init code on all connected clients:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....=69185;

It loads a script in the root arma folder which can invoke a number of commands for every client, on every mission, without direct mission editing. In his example, he set viewdistance, terraingrid, and a simple MOTD. Neat! To clarify, only the server needs this addon, not the clients.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

I joined an evolution server last night just to test. Appears to work just fine. I think we will go for a similar solution. Thanks everyone. But BIS, pretty please separate the grass from the terraingrid resolution; as units will still appear to float on lowest resolution. I can't use grass, but I would very much like to have better grid resolution so that units that was supposed to be hiding in terrain, remains hidden instead of popping up floating above it!