Flattening grass - good or bad?

[Teliko 0]

I've always had doubts about the feature of flattening about a foot of grass around the player when you go prone... it's unrealistic and looks stupid. And then when you stand up it acts as if it's on a spring...

A few screens from combat photography to show the difference with or without it

Really think it looks better in the first pic. Anyone else hopes this is removed for 1.09?

[Beagle 684]

This feature makes sense. It might not be so nice in terms of "photography" but it was indroduced because it was imposible to see anything with the grass still standing.

Flatende grass is typical for a ambush or observation position.

I just reread the ZDv 3/11 (german army field manual) regarding this...and it says that anything that obstructes the view should be removed while maintaing camouflage.

I think the "flatten grass" solution ist the best I've seen to this point in a game.

[Yoma 0]

Well i don't know about you but i actually like to shoot something now and then in this game. If you don't flatten it, you're forced to

a) Stand up and get shot real quick

b) Simply avoid grassy areas completely.

So for the sake of gameplay (yes some people do more with this game then take screenshots) don't scrap the flattening grass!

[vilas 473]

in game most of grass should be lower and thats all

of course there are fields when grass should be big,

but big grass should affect AI more

maybe in 1.09 they will do smaller grass and some "shaders" removed to save CPU and GPU (Lowplants)

[Sevan 0]

I would be nice if the grass only flattened in the area you were facing, instead of all around. Not sure how difficult that would be to implement.

I agree for playability reasons flattening grass is necessary.

[Commando84 0]

its a great feature they have with grass flatening when you lay down on it! Even though it doesnt super nice it fits game play wise.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Grass and any other natural obstacles should have more affect to AI recon/aiming abilities and tactics. On the other hand if you switch them off/to low it should have an affect too.

[dznemesis 0]

grass handling is ok imho

[celery 8]

Since there is no way you can move your head above the grass while prone, flattening it is an OK solution although I prefer no grass at all.

[Teliko 0]

You still cant really see that much, and in the south it wasn't a problem anyway.

[jtec 0]

It may look better but i dont play arma because of the way it looks. The current system of grass being flatterned is realistic in my opinion

[Sevan 0]

You still cant really see that much, and in the south it wasn't a problem anyway.

It's designed to allow you to see over the crest of a hill. To flatten just enough to allow for a shot.

[baddo 0]

Before the grass was changed to flatten, I found out it gave too much help for the AI soldiers. It was often impossible to shoot back accurately, or at all as the visibility was so poor, at the AI, and result was that the AI shot my game character to the left, or to the right eye.

So, it might not look as good but at least it evens the game against the AI's a little bit.

[leckig 0]

i shut the grass completly to improve the FPS, huge difference.

[Johnnie_Walker 0]

Quote[/b] ]

I think the "flatten grass" solution ist the best I've seen to this point in a game.

Totally agree.

[Sevan 0]

i shut the grass completly to improve the FPS, huge difference.

you should try Kegetys lowplants mod

[Drozdov 0]

I think the flattening effect as it is should be 1st person only, if that's possible with the engine.

Actually Hidden & Dangerous 2 made it possible to deliberately flatten grass with your body, so you had to actively flatten it to create a field (heh heh...) of vision. That's way more realistic than the automatic halo effect of ArmA flattening. It also had the grass making you hard to see, but the AI could still always see you if you fired your gun. It'd be good if they had that system instead, and modified it to make it hard for the AI to see or hit you when you're in long grass.

[paragraphic l 2]

I think the flattening effect as it is should be 1st person only, if that's possible with the engine.

Actually Hidden & Dangerous 2 made it possible to deliberately flatten grass with your body, so you had to actively flatten it to create a field (heh heh...) of vision. That's way more realistic than the automatic halo effect of ArmA flattening. It also had the grass making you hard to see, but the AI could still always see you if you fired your gun. It'd be good if they had that system instead, and modified it to make it hard for the AI to see or hit you when you're in long grass.

Both may be possible buth need more cpu calculations i guess, now it's just part of the laying model (i think) and if you have to initialize the model and where it has been crawling to have those pieces of grass drop would certainly need more calculating power and to have the AI be affected more, well I'm almost 100% of that being CPU heavy

[max power 21]

I think the flattening is necessary and the implimentation is sufficient.

[Drozdov 0]

Having the AI be affected more shouldn't be CPU heavy. But you're probably right that modelling the grass to respond dynamically to human bodies would increase the drain on computer resources. Hidden and Dangerous 2 was obviously doing this on smaller environments. Still, I think it would be possible to limit the flattening effect to within a specified distance of each player, a distance that you could set to whatever mode your computer could handle.

Anyway BIS won't bother to make that change, and it might require changing aspects of the game that an add-on maker wouldn't be able to, so if they have something like this it'd be in Arma 2 or whatever the next game will be called.

[MehMan 0]

The grass flattening is something that is very welcome in ArmA. Many times have I been in a pickle due to the grass limiting my view and not the AIs. This then forced me to turn the grass off completely, because besides the obvious advantages the AI had it also choked up my FPS. With the LowPlants addon I've again turned it on and I see what I've been missing. It feels a heck of a lot different now, loads more fun.

One thing I would like to see changed is the grass not sprining up as soon as you get up. I'd much rather see it spring up slowly, taking a minute or two to get up.

On the issues of H&D2, damn I'd love to see a lot more features from it implemented into ArmA. Like the machine gun animations or just about any static weapon, where the soldier steps left or right and looks just so great. There are many visual and even more non visual features that ArmA could benefit from. But unfortunatley I guess we'll be stuck with the arms floating in mid air.

[bravo 6 0]

for those who use grass is very usefull.

for those who want good pics is bad.

for those who dont use grass at all its useless.

[dmitri 0]

Ironic, the community is going in circles. As I recall BIS included this feature post release due to whining about the grass blocking our view.

[max power 21]

Ironic, the community is going in circles. As I recall BIS included this feature post release due to whining about the grass blocking our view.

If by ironic you mean 'business as usual' ^_^

[BraTTy 0]

I actually hadn't noticed this grass flattening myself. Not a bad topic.

Among the other topics lately

Guns don't feel right,Flawed modelling,can we get more addons, my animated soldiers arm is 10cm too high when I aim,soles of my boots aren't right.

Community seems so fussy ,when I play online I am yet to meet a fussy player