Grass on or off?

[--DST-- Anth 10]

Do you think Ctf, dm and c&h should have the grass turned off or on server side? I was thinking off more along the lines of operation flashpoint my personal opinion that it slows cqb down as you cant see much in front of you on some maps as the grass is to high.

So I voted No.

Im not talking about co-op, cti or any large scale maps as I would of voted Yes for them.

Edited June 25, 2009 by [-DST-] Anth

[JaKe.OnE 10]

Yes. More tactics because you can hide yourself much better.

[Frantic 0]

Grass is slowing down the CPU and so its more a kind of eyecandy.

For CTF and DM its definitely not soo important...when i put a server up i will shutting down the grass for sure! ;)

[Harrylarrybarry 10]

A better option would be to turn it on off client side for those who can't run it.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

Grass makes no sense in PVP. You lie in the grass and can't see anything but anyone standing in the distance can see your back&head sticking out of a plain surface (grass doesnt get rendered at some distance).

He shoots you, you complain about cheaters and the whole game atmosphere goes down the drain.

:P

[d3boy2002 10]

you can't see grass in farther distances anyway so there's no point. But it sure looks good :)

[Frantic 0]

In Arma 1 it was possible to deactivate the grass within the mission, so i dont know how it is now in ARMA2, but i hope that will be possible again.

[celery 8]

No grass for the reasons already mentioned.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Had to vote yes, even if I don't play PvP very much. But, we need that distance grass layer from Arma1 back in Arma2 to have a purpose.

With that vote, I mean that designers should make missions with this in mind, that the distant grass will come back in a future patch.

Another purpose of the grass setting, is the increased terrain grid. Without this, you'll see people floating above the rigde they are crawling over.

[nkenny 1057]

The ability to utilize grass to your advantage is just as much a skill as anything else. If anything grass as cover is one of the important pieces of "Field craft" that ARMA2 offers us.

Therefore yes. It should be enabled for everyone. Performance issues can't really be accounted for. I cannot play Arma2 on my old P3 500, therefore noone should play it? Ridiculous.

[Taciturnus 10]

This seems to be a hard issues to solve in open landscape like games. Personally, I prefer having grass turned on as it adds to the atmosphere. It also has tactical potential that isn't fully realized due to technical difficulties in implementing a fair and realistic solution for players hiding in the grass and for players trying to observe them. People whine about the performance hit but in less than 6 months new and better hardware will come out, prices will fall, and BIS might be able to do some micro-optimizations as well--so my vote is for grass on.

At least in the muiltiplayer realm there needs to be a distance grass layer that can effectively hide players moving through high grass in the prone position and blur or blend models (or any clever technique) for players moving through shorter stuff. The other option is to extend grass out to the 'typical' combat ranges for infantry. Although, I'm sure the engine would have problems rendering such a scenario, even if clever grass layering is done as distance increased.

There are only so many bushes to hide behind so if you are taking fire from a hill you can tell your squad to just systematically return fire on every likely bush, shrub, or tree base. The result? Overtime enemy ambush positions become predictable, but no less deadly I suppose.

Anyhow, this is a small issue and people should play Arma 2 the way they like. I'd just like to see performance increases across the board. As a programmer myself I understand that it's no small feat implementing a game engine as open as Arma's. Having the game play rock steady at decent frame rates, no matter what or where you are running around in the world, is more important in my opinion.

Edited June 25, 2009 by Taciturnus

[GOZR 10]

Hell Yes Grass is a must..

[Ish 11]

Pros of having grass

It gives you infinite amount of tactical opportunities in "PvP"

Looks better/More realistic

Cons of having grass

Doesn't affect ai field of view (Or so I've been told), so using it for cover is useless.

Decreases performance slightly

I'm in favor of grass on FULL.

[celery 8]

Pros of having grass

It gives you infinite amount of tactical opportunities in "PvP"

How? If you lie down, grass will block your view, but anyone beyond the grass drawing distance will see you perfectly.

[whisper 0]

How? If you lie down, grass will block your view, but anyone beyond the grass drawing distance will see you perfectly.

To be corrected asap by BI, like they did in A1 (they said they are working on it). In the meantime, grass is not really good and quite the contrary, gives false impression of stealthiness

[mattxr 9]

i always have the grass on at

Setterraingrid 45;

Keeps it limited on how much draws but theres still grass there so its alot better on resources.

[UKCarbine 10]

I think that grass should be on definately. I remember the voexl engine from Deltaforce 2 and the grass was awesome in MP. Further DF titles opted for the smooth grassless environment. Thats about the time I stopped playing novalogic gmes. The grass was superb and added an amazing level of camouflage. Tactically it was just brilliant.

I haven't played too much Vs style games online yet as I'm still struggling with performance issues. Though seriously looking forward to it. I can imagine interesting sniper style games ensuing, If the distance issues that you mention is sorted.

C

[R3MF 0]

keep grass.

if i find myself on a no-grass server i will log-out, if only because i won't be turning grass off myself as i don't want to play op-flash v2.

[Taciturnus 10]

How? If you lie down, grass will block your view, but anyone beyond the grass drawing distance will see you perfectly.

That's why it needs to be fixed! Hiding in grass works both ways, just in real life :rolleyes:. And last I checked Arma aims to be a simulator....

[sidhellfire 0]

That's one of the biggest problems for a long time.

[Heatseeker 0]

Off?

The grass doesnt work.

The "workaround" doesnt work either, a unit half sunk in a flat layer is not the same as being prone in the grass.

I saw the real solution in a wip screenshot with very low grass, it looked the best solution to balance gameplay with looks, dont know why it didnt make it.. i think there is better concealment in the game anyway...

[BLooD_MoNeY 10]

It makes no sense to willingly turn grass on because the opposing team can all turn off the grass client side, so when YOU think you're hiding in a pile of grass nice and concealed. The opposing team is looking at you like some kind of sore thumb clown who is laying out in the middle of a clear field. Good way to give the other team a lot of kills and youtube video at your' expense.

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

I believe things like grass and viewdistance can be controlled via the mission, and it will overwrite your 'client' settings. :j:

After playing DM in a small town I can say from experience that It DOES provide some concealment at close range.

For me, it wouldn't matter. Flag runners don't bellycamp ;)

I say, grass on for the pimp screenshots of me running away with your flag! :icon_twisted:

[nomdeplume 0]

I voted no, at least until it's fixed and actually works properly without excluding too many players because of the performance hit.

If there's no AIs at all, and you know that everyone else has the same grass settings as you do, then HELL YES. It looks amazing but also serves an important tactical purpose. Different game with it on than with it off.

[jonneymendoza 10]

i've been playing with grass on and just read this thread. since i have taken grass off i have gotten more kills then ever on coop. before i was getting killed lying on the grass invisible so to speak!