is there a way to extand the grass draw distance?

[KeyCat 131]

that's what i hoped to get ppl started -

i know nothing about modding so im not the guy to do this but maybe this thread gets back to the plerson who made the aforementioned mod so HE can convert it to arma2.

for those with the rig to handle it it might be useful.

basically i think there should be a way to reduce the density of the grass clusters and farther their draw distance. it might get the grass in close proximity to look less dense but not too much so it looks barren and the reward is an overall better looking ground.

who knows....maybe it'll get done.

F and Kju did a small addon for ArmA I that did just that, I can not remember it's name but try search for "PROPER Mods" in the ArmA I section.

Will probably not work directly in ArmA II but IIRC it was just a simple config mod and could get you started...

/KC

[-=seany=- 5]

Slightly related: For Nvidia cards, forcing x16 AF through the driver and disabling it in game gives much sharper textures is the distance. For most people, you can put AF x16. It has little impact on fps if any at all for modern GPUs.

[cartier90 0]

Doesnt load new textures for me, I put the pbos in the addons folder , any ideas ???

[r3volution 0]

You need to use an addition to your arma shortcut or use a modlauncher to get your mods running. If using the shortcut method you just put the @LandTex3 folder in your main Arma2 directory and add -mod=@@LandTex3 or whatever the modfolder is called, and that launches the mod when you run arma through the shortcut. The best method though, if you're going to use multiple mods is to use a modlauncher, like this one .

Also, that AF method works great for me, negligable fps hit and looks WAY better.

Edited July 3, 2009 by r3volution

[cartier90 0]

I would just like the shortcut method - apologise for ignorance , but step by step, where do I create a shortcut and do I put the PBOs in the addon folder ?

[Yapab 10]

Yes I think this is quite a shame with ARMA2... there is no point in hiding in grass, might as well be crouching as the enemy can see you easily from a distance and the grass it actually in your view!

They implemented the grass "flat" system when your roll around... but its useless because there is no grass around you for the enemy!

Shame that these small things spoil the game a bit.

[longers 10]

I would just like the shortcut method - apologise for ignorance , but step by step, where do I create a shortcut and do I put the PBOs in the addon folder ?

yes, please can someone explain it nice and simply for complete and utter noobs like myself

[Yorke 10]

It's impossible now, but its probably tweakable, for the enormous expense of performance of course.

[cartier90 0]

Sorted Longers....download the pack, unzip to desktop. Only two important files are the two PBO files. Landtex_v0.6 and the one ending in bisign.

Create a new folder on your desktop called @LandTex3 , within that folder create another called Addons , within that one place the two pbo files. Take that master folder (@LandTex3) and place it in your arma2 folder.

C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2 - or whereever you keep Arma

Now go to your ARMA shortcut that you have on your desktop , if not create one, and paste the following into target (right click properties of your desktop)

"C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -mod=@LandTex3 -nosplash

Obviously the file structure will depend on your comp, D drive for example, note the space before and after -mod=@LandTex3. Best copy and paste and amend as needed.

And voila, enjoy the textures.

[Skodz 10]

No matter the game, grass distance always is a problem. There is no miracle solution for it. There got to be a draw distance limit unfortunenately.

[AliMag 0]

Hi,

In my opinion the grass should be according to the view distance or non existent.

Seeing the grass growing in front of me when I move is worst than no grass at all.

Terrain detail at very low as also 2 enormous advantages: You can see the enemy as they can see you and fluidity. I gained almost 10 fps going from very high to very low terrain detail and the game still looks very good.

Cheers

[topeira 10]

to me, alimag, no grass in a horrible solution since the vegetation looks so good and make the game so much more compelling and the environments more realistic and immersive that giving up on that fidelity is the worse thing i can do.

also at large distances the AI can not see u if u prone. datter made a thread about that, as posted earlier in this thread.

the AI can see u at about 100 meters. over that - grass can conceal you.

but, as retrofly said - there is a complete reverse in logic in the game since being in the grass makes everything hidden behind it.

[kwhy 10]

The solution I always though was cute was to place a selectively invisible-making mask box around the object at a far distance.

Remember the old ArmA1 bug where you could see through the hangar walls when looking through the AV-8B's cockpit glass? Imagine the same thing except the hangar wall is the enemy man at 700m and the cockpit glass is an invisible box around the enemy man. Now imagine that the cockpit glass was painted in such a way that it only had that invisible effect on the lower half.

The left pane is normal. In the center section shows in red what parts of the model would be made invisible when viewed through the mask. The right pane shows the final result. The mask in the example would be for some rather tall grass and up close it looks weird.

Imagine an enemy at 500m where you can make out 5-20% of him through the invisibility mask. He wouldn't be invisible, but rather hard to detect.

this really needs to be addressed. Its a shame this problem still hasn't been resolved in almost any FPS.

I think the above is a great idea and would really help to level out PVP games online. Right now as it stands anyone out beyond the grass draw distance just stands out like a soar thumb.

[Wynthorpe 10]

This really spoils Arma 2 for me, real shame :( They make it look so so nice around your general area, but its pointless, and not really much improvement from OpF :(

[Whisky_Delta 0]

It's impossible now, but its probably tweakable, for the enormous expense of performance of course.

not neccaserily. I only notice the lack of grass when using a scope with zoom. When you zoom into something 200 meteres away, no grass is drawn as the radius of the drawn grass is not affected by the "view", but the players position. It is not impossible to implement code, which when you switch to your sights, will only generte grass within an "arc of your view. So know, instead of drawing 360 degress of grass, up to a range of 100 meteres. You could now be viewing grass up to a range of 500 meters but only within a arc of say 20 degress. This arc would obviously be adaptive, so as the player moves the weapon left or right, it will draw grass in the scene, before the view gets to thoat area of grass. Hope i am maing sense. Ultimatly it would be possible, but as BI prefers the idea of quickly and hastely implementing untested code, just to release the next install of a game, i doubt this would be implemented.

Like someone else said in this thread, Far Cry 2, did a fantastic job with grass. At no point did i see the edge of the boudary where grass was being drawn. Even when you zoom in with a sniper rifle, geomety would be generated which would give a convincing enough interpreation without massive fps drops. Really BI could learn a lot rom the developers of Far Cry 2, as their LOD system was fantastic. SOmehow they made it so distance trees, would turn from images, to gradualy increasing detailed models and would look so seemless.

Regards

Whisky