Most AI you've gotten to play at once

[JayMeal 10]

So I was wondering what the highest amount of AI you've gotten in one map. Using the editor I just got 1,200 AI with detail on very high, but there was some significant lag of course :p

How much have you guys tried so far?

[Windexglow 10]

I've pushed towards 300 in a close area (city) and pushed my fps down to 20.

[CorlanMcD 0]

Richiespeed, who created the ArmAII user videos thread (and has some great videos himself!), has a video with 1700 AI, it's incredible.

[Reyn 10]

I have been able to load and witness 1500 AI fighting on Utes, i don't think it would go down so well on the goliath map that is Chernarus...

Edited July 26, 2009 by Reyn

[Mudkip 0]

How do people make those videos? Isn't there a maximum of 144 per side?

[Jack-UK 0]

How do people make those videos? Isn't there a maximum of 144 per side?

I think its 144 groups of units! So you could have 144 leaders but plenty of soldiers under their command!

[galzohar 31]

You can definitely put a lot more AI on Utes than you can on Chernarus while getting the same performance. Heck, with no AI I can set my view distance to 6000 on Utes but if I do that on Chernarus I get stutters. All video settings maxed except post processing OFF. HD4890 i7-920.

[NeMeSiS 11]

You can definitely put a lot more AI on Utes than you can on Chernarus while getting the same performance. Heck, with no AI I can set my view distance to 6000 on Utes but if I do that on Chernarus I get stutters. All video settings maxed except post processing OFF. HD4890 i7-920.

Utes is alot smaller then 6000 meters so im not really suprised that there isnt alot of difference between 3000 and 6000 meters. :p

Personally i never tried more then 200 units in combat at the same time, it ran ok but im afraid my x2 4200+ wont handle more then that.

Im happy that it works smoothly with ACM intensity set to 1* combined with every other fun module at the same time. :cool:

*Though obviously i lowered the spawnchance for airpatrols significantly, otherwise i would only see choppers, choppers and more choppers. :p

[Murklor 10]

You can definitely put a lot more AI on Utes than you can on Chernarus while getting the same performance. Heck, with no AI I can set my view distance to 6000 on Utes but if I do that on Chernarus I get stutters. All video settings maxed except post processing OFF. HD4890 i7-920.

Its a much smaller island and it got far, far less trees (almost no forests) and less than dense objects... So its no wonder its fast, haha.

I am currently making a concept mission on Utes with a movable frontline and respawning AI groups, mainly to see the fireworks of an ongoing battle. Maybe 2000 AI is a little overkill but hey its just to keep stacking them up ;)

In multiplayer its more a matter of design: Its not good to choke the server by letting it handle hundreds of AI units in addition to 50 plus networked players... But spreading out the load it get easier.

[arthur666 10]

With my machine, WinXP 64bit, Q8200 quad core @2.33GHz + 4GB 1.33GHz RAM, about 500 units on the map is playable (5% are ground vehicles), unless I put them all close to each other. When that many units are fighting, the FPS get down to unplayable levels. Too many bullet trajectories to calculate, I guess.

[galzohar 31]

With my machine, WinXP 64bit, Q8200 quad core @2.33GHz + 4GB 1.33GHz RAM, about 500 units on the map is playable (5% are ground vehicles), unless I put them all close to each other. When that many units are fighting, the FPS get down to unplayable levels. Too many bullet trajectories to calculate, I guess.

More like too many AI calculations would be my guess (should be much simpler calculations when they're just walking around not to mention standing idle).

[ActionMan 10]

The AI seems to get dumber as the frame-rate drops, sometimes with too many units the AI won't even shoot/see each other...

I think the game spends a fixed percentage of each frame doing AI "thinking".

[galzohar 31]

As far as I can tell (and hadn't found anyone that would say otherwise), the AI uses a single thread, which means it'll only use up at most 100% of 1 core. This means that you don't even have to use 100% CPU for the AI to not have the CPU power it needs. All you need is enough AI to load 1 core, regardless of how much you're using the other cores. I'm not sure if the game bounces the thread between cores, but that wouldn't make any difference other than spreading out the heat over the different cores.

So in theory you could have server FPS low but AI not be bad, as well as AI being bad while FPS not being low. Though if your low server FPS are a result of a 100% loaded CPU, then obviously you'll also see AI issues.

Of course I may be wrong as it's nothing tested, but that's how things seem to be working.

[LJF 0]

I've had 1000 AI in Chernarus running at about 20fps on mid-very high. The more distance between them the better it runs, I assume it simplifies the calculations at greater distances because if you place even 200 AI in a 50m radius ...