Can we get a grass in a distance?

[Gunnarmarine 10]

why can't they just put in some real crappy grass for distance stuff like DF2? sure if you use a scope it will appear in nice detail but I don't see the point in only rendering grass in a scope when you can see them from far off. well I know they are behind this bit of grass so I'll shoot at it.

[neokika 62]

Maybe with DirectX 11 Tesselation those problems would go away dont they???

[LJF 0]

What about instead of rendering grass based on distance you use an amount. It distributes grass across the screen, so, if you were scoped it would only render the grass in the scope, which might be from 2km>2.5 km, in which case it would distribute the grass over that 500m distance, yet not before or after (since you can't see it anyway), granted, the more fov you had the less dense the grass would be, but at least when you zoomed right up on distant areas you would still have something there instead of ... what you see now :(

[Whiskey_Tango 10]

if no grass why not just mask the player that is out there

[Steakslim 1]

Maybe with DirectX 11 Tesselation those problems would go away dont they???

not sure if it'd fix the problem, but even if it did, it isn't an option for ArmA2 and it's current engine, we'd have to wait on an ArmA3 or a major update from the game's engine, which isn't happening anytime soon. Best we're getting is VBS features.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

One thing I actually like with grass, is how it makes you think twice about a route of approach, when you have the option. When you turn grass off, you just have too good visibility in open fields, when you should have stayed close to the road for better visibility.

I'm no military expert, but I hardly think a squad would approach in a line formation in a cornfield if they could use a road in staggered column or diamond formation. Or any place where vegetation would hinder their visibility unless it provided them with concealment (which in Arma2's case is somewhat lacking).

If I play with guys where such a point is acknowlegded, where we will use the road, then we can turn the grass off. But if they argue with "but its only a game, we want to utilize the non grassy plains", I will have to force on the grass :)

[Lhowon 10]

Latest beta patch has this listed in notes:

[59842] Reduced town/village stutter (fixed streaming of textures used by Super shader).

[59808] Fixed: DOF in 3D scope view

[59741] Analogue throttle working for helicopters as well.

[59736] Fixed: Startup sounds are not spatial and stick to audio channels

[59715] Covering soldier in grass ("Grass layer")

[59691] Improved: Small hit be ignored by hitpoints (configurable by minimalHit)

[59668] Improved: Hitpoint can pass only a part of the hit to the total damage (passthrough setting no longer ignored).

[59446] New: IK weapon animations are now blending with primary animations.

[59351] Fixed: VoN direct speaking distance fade out

[59318] Fixed: support the highest Matrox TrippleHead2Go resolutions

[59279] Fixed: FPS on Dedicated server is not affected by server window manipulation (such as move or scroll).

[59088] Mouse lag can caused by GPU render ahead buffer be limited using GPU_MaxFramesAhead=N in ArmA2.cfg.

[59047] Fix: When player was a helicopter pilot, the AI gunner sometimes had no weapon selected on mission start

[59030] Fix: Helicopters - when manual fire on, do not allow AI gunner to switch weapons

Can't try it right now, but yay!

[=wfl= sgt bilko 10]

There's some pics in the BETA-PATCH section on this forum showing what it looks like:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=84347&page=122

[m0nkm0nk 0]

There's some pics in the BETA-PATCH section on this forum showing what it looks like:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=84347&page=122

I'm still not satisfied.

If you look at the pictures you can see the soldier lie down a little lower on a clear ground..

I mean come on! I just want damn grass everywhere i look. On the picture its easy to spot him?? With gras its just alot harder ;)

The pics i talk about:

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff105/KH_PuFu/arma22009-10-3012-19-04-78.jpg

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff105/KH_PuFu/arma22009-10-3012-19-14-81.jpg

[abel 0]

m0nkm0nk, you are right. Sure, it looks much better now, but contrast is too high between soldier and ground level. I'm not gonna say, that I'm not satisfied, but it seems to me, that distant grass may be improved.

[shataan 1]

"Covering soldier in grass ("Grass layer")"

THAT looks like complete azzz! The problem is both that peeps are seen at long distances AND that we don`t see the grass rendered at long distances. Now, if you are just a quaking mofo raised on Joint Operations from Novalogic, wtf cares? But I expect more from a dev like BIS.

Word to BIS.... render the grass inscope!!!! It is a cheap lamer fix to just cloak the players with a grass layer ffs.

[Zipper5 74]

Dude, do you realize how much strain that would put on systems to render it at such distances? No game has been able to do it. Until something radically changes, you're going to have to deal with the grass layer. It performs it's job perfectly well.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Dude, do you realize how much strain that would put on systems to render it at such distances? No game has been able to do it. Until something radically changes, you're going to have to deal with the grass layer. It performs it's job perfectly well.

Agreed. The "return of the ArmA1 grass layer" was claimed by the community, and BIS listened to us.

[whisper 0]

"Covering soldier in grass ("Grass layer")"

THAT looks like complete azzz! The problem is both that peeps are seen at long distances AND that we don`t see the grass rendered at long distances. Now, if you are just a quaking mofo raised on Joint Operations from Novalogic, wtf cares? But I expect more from a dev like BIS.

Word to BIS.... render the grass inscope!!!! It is a cheap lamer fix to just cloak the players with a grass layer ffs.

Performance over all else.

No grass on long distance, plz

[abel 0]

grass may be rendered ONLY in "scope" view within some interval. sorry, but i can't see any problem in this action.

[Zipper5 74]

Well, then it would have to constantly change back and forth, and would add many more calculations to a game that already makes so many, thus it would still decrease performance.

[abel 0]

need to tell you one secret, but tsss) game do this constantly - you run, and grass appears in front of you. so, distant grass won't take so much resources, as you think.

[Zipper5 74]

It won't change anything. Picture yourself with a sniper rifle. You can see for many, many kilometers at times. You expect the grass to be rendered that entire distance? That's exactly like what I was saying before. Impossible.

[abel 0]

i told, that it could be done within some radius. yes, that is a problem, but who say, that it would be easy?)

[Vipera 10]

Dude, do you realize how much strain that would put on systems to render it at such distances? No game has been able to do it. Until something radically changes, you're going to have to deal with the grass layer. It performs it's job perfectly well.

Many games are able to do it. We do not need high density grass for long distance. Grass density just have to cover soldier.

High distance -> less grass density

[Whiskey_Tango 10]

i dont think low density grass would look to good at distance personally, i could see it doing more harm than good and people could still jack the setting up and get around it, why not introduce a mask onto the soldier that is laying behind grass, there are games that have done this and it works

[Defunkt 431]

I'm not really a fan of the grass layer, it's not terribly convincing and in that respect counter-immersive. What I really hope has been trialled is having the grass draw distance scale up as the FOV decreases, whenever you zoom in your FPS increases as there is less to render, this might go a long way toward offsetting the cost of rendering grass much much further. I also hope that the lowest LOD is just a 2D sprite.

[shataan 1]

"You expect the grass to be rendered that entire distance?"

Nope, obviously not...... just in the scope view. It can be done. And ifyour screen and pc can handle everything it does in the 1st person view, surely it can handle grass in just a scope view.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Well, like it or not, but the grass layer is back in the latest beta. Yes, I would have preferred another method, but the layer is far better than the nothing we had before.

[Maddmatt 1]

"You expect the grass to be rendered that entire distance?"

Nope, obviously not...... just in the scope view. It can be done. And ifyour screen and pc can handle everything it does in the 1st person view, surely it can handle grass in just a scope view.

That would not solve the problem. The soldiers would still be visible if you weren't zoomed in enough to display the grass.

Grass in scope is more of a visual issue, while this grass layer system addresses a gameplay issue.