Particle scaling bug?

[dmarkwick 261]

In Armed Assault, if you saw a column of smoke and looked through it with scopes, the particles would seem to "shrink" and you'd see small widely spaced particles.

Likewise, if you moved too close to a smoke source the particles would show odd scaling behaviors.

Can anyone confirm that this bug is either still apparent or has been fixed? This bug would limit my new ideas for ArmA2 smoke effects.

Edited June 2, 2009 by DMarkwick

[rasdenfasden 12]

It seems fixed to me.

[maddogx 13]

It's still there, but not as apparent as before. You have to get very very close to the particles before they start scaling down. Made you some quick screens:

[dmarkwick 261]

Erk. Well, thanks for the screenies MadDogX :)

[Nicholas 5]

They fixed the smoke grenades too, they are pretty awesome. They dont look like individual "Clouds" anymore.

[Maddmatt 1]

I was told by a developer that it's to prevent overdraw. Basically, it prevents a frame rate drop that would occur from zooming in on all those overlapping particles (consider that with most effects, being closer or zooming in makes it create a larger number of particles because of the LOD system).

It does seem reduced a bit. It would need to be so that it's not too easy to cheat and see through smoke screens.

[dmarkwick 261]

I was told by a developer that it's to prevent overdraw. Basically, it prevents a frame rate drop that would occur from zooming in on all those overlapping particles (consider that with most effects, being closer or zooming in makes it create a larger number of particles because of the LOD system).

It does seem reduced a bit. It would need to be so that it's not too easy to cheat and see through smoke screens.

Yeah the seeing through the smoke is a bit of a cheat, especially when you play with viewblock smoke :D

It doesn't make too much sense to me, the same number of particles are drawn, there's no extra particles spawned when you zoom in (I know 'cos I script 'em ;)) they're just limited in size for some reason. And yet, sometimes you DO see larger particles that seem to be their "proper" size.

[Curry 10]

I don't have problems with the exploding smoke effects, but in Mulitplayer the smoke which is produced by rifle shots still looks like individual small clouds. In Singleplayer all is fine though...

Single Player

Multiplayer

[Maddmatt 1]

It doesn't make too much sense to me, the same number of particles are drawn, there's no extra particles spawned when you zoom in (I know 'cos I script 'em ;))

Depends how you script them. If you use the drop command, then yes the number is fixed. But that is a bad idea on effects that spawn a large number of particles because the LOD system can't work.

Personally I try to only use drop on less intensive effects that create few particles, or where it's not possible to do the other way.

@Curry: Yea that's an old bug. Hopefully they fix it in a patch.

[dmarkwick 261]

I tried using sources but I couldn't get the effects that the Drop command allows me to incorporate. Oh well, I'll see how bad it is for myself eventually :)

[Maddmatt 1]

I tried using sources but I couldn't get the effects that the Drop command allows me to incorporate. Oh well, I'll see how bad it is for myself eventually :)

One important think to know with sources it that the LOD system is affected by the 'object detail' graphics setting. I usually aim to get the particles looking good on 'high'. I don't worry as much about the lower settings because performance is more important there.

The particle sources are a bit weird sometimes. I usually use 'attachTo' in ArmA 2 to (or setpos in ArmA 1) to keep them close to where they are spawned. Because if they are beyond the viewdistance of the player, the effect will not be created - effen if the effect itself is close to the player.

Some examples in ArmA 2 ca.pbo if you go to the "CA\Data\ParticleEffects\SCRIPTS" folder :)