Setting Terrain Detail Low doesn't turn off grass

[desertjedi 3]

As part of my quest for better frame rates, I set Terrain Detail to very low which I read would turn off grass. I must be missing something because it didn't do anything that I could notice. And I had no change in frame rates. I average about 25 fps in most every A2 mission.

I was playing the A2 mission "Cipher" and saw the option to turn Grass Off so I did it. It worked - I went from "weeds everywhere" to "billiard table" - which is what I wanted. And coincidentally, my frames jumped to the mid-60s.

Am I doing something wrong? How should I be turning grass off?

Edited October 19, 2009 by DesertJedi

[galzohar 31]

When playing on line the grass settings are fixed, and can only be changed via a script in the mission itself. Your graphic settings for grass (as well as view distance) only have an effect in single player.

[Binkowski 26]

The script is setTerrainGrid, also check around om ArmAHolic you should be able to find client-side mods that will turn down or off the grass and increase your performance.

[TomBabmo 10]

When playing on line the grass settings are fixed, and can only be changed via a script in the mission itself. Your graphic settings for grass (as well as view distance) only have an effect in single player.

And this is how it should be, I hate it how in few unmentioned games people turn off gfx stuff like shadows etc. (even if they have rigs well capable of handling them) just so that they can see enemies better. And therefore I'm also forced to turn gfx down if I don't want to be disadvantaged. Finally everybody is playing the game with all details cranked low.

[tcp 10]

If you want an addon, InstantViewDistance (IVD) lets you change viewdistance and grass during co-op games.

[desertjedi 3]

Awesome! Thanks for all the input. I never would have guessed that. But at some point, I'm sure I would have sought out a mod that took care of this.

:bounce3:

[desertjedi 3]

I first tried the setTerrainGrid 50 in the init.sqf but it did nothing. I then tried the IVD mod and using the Low setting got rid of the grass. I saw no difference between medium and high.

Unfortunately, in the mission I was testing, it added only 1 to the framerate.

It would seem that Arma 2 is so cpu-bound that trying to cut back on the graphics "load" is pretty much a waste of time. In the mission I mentioned above, where the frame rate increased greatly, I'm fairly sure it was a much simpler mission in terms of the number of AI. In the mission with 1 frame increase, it was a big "DEFEND BASE" style of mission.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

The difference is not always easy to spot on the grass level, but on the terraingrid. At some places lowering the terrain resolution makes enemies more visible against the terrain (terrain around them is lowered), but it doesn't affect fire geometry so you still can't shoot them.

You can see them. They can't see you. When you shoot at them, you hit an invisible barrier.