Would it be feasable to eventually add unlimited grass?

[Dead3yez 0]

Some reason I couldn't get the grass to generate for distances of about 100meters, I think this is an engine limitation (not sure), will need viewdistance fix most probably.

I can get the grass layer to work for distances up to about 400meters or so stable. When you're thinking 800meters or more then expect lockups in the game, it freezes.

[mon_diesle 10]

Having Unlimited Grass is something I think about a lot...

How constructive... Sarcasm isn't something that translates well through text. I'm sure that you're perfectly content to snipe enemies as a result of a graphical oversight, anyways. Happy canned hunting.

---------- Post added at 02:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:14 AM ----------

we could see a patch that allows for grass to be rendered (however poorly) at the full 6000 meters that trees are.

I don't get this. Attempt at a quote?

[Dead3yez 0]

:391:

Grass rendered at such distances (6000 meters) in the current ARMA2 engine would be unnecessary and be the cause of major performance problems. There would be absolutely no real visual improvement having grass that is rendered and therefore rendered pointless at up to 6000meters. 1000meters? Maybe. This is common sense.

However, most likely with a remake of the engine then grass could be viewable at super distances when only rendering it when zoomed in on the location/when necessary for visual impact .

[mon_diesle 10]

:391:

Grass rendered at such distances (6000 meters) in the current ARMA2 engine would be unnecessary and be the cause of major performance problems. There would be absolutely no real visual improvement having grass that is rendered and therefore rendered pointless at up to 6000meters. 1000meters? Maybe. This is common sense.

However, most likely with a remake of the engine then grass could be viewable at super distances when only rendering it when zoomed in on the location/when necessary for visual impact .

Yeah, galzohar was right. I assumed 6000 meters, and was wrong. I think you've got the right idea with 1000 meters.

And again, I didn't ask because I'm some graphics nut. It all goes back to the unfair tactical advantage.

[bobocz 10]

I think, that nobody mention old Ohara post about grass, here it is:

Problem is, that on sshot from connan you see just for 200-300 meters, but in ARMA for 3000 meters ore more, amount of grass objects grow with distance with power of 2. That means in 3Km you will need draw 100 times more gras objects then in 300m! Its too much for any kind of representation of grass.

World in virtually engine is "almost unlimited", contrast usually FPS engines, where level is long narrow volley and you don't need render grass in all direction. I don't think we can get unlimited grass in near future. That's how I understand it, perhaps I'm wrong.

[LJF 0]

It's not about how far the grass is rendered, there only ever needs to be a certain amount of grass onscreen at a time, the thing is, when you scope it should remove/reduce the close grass and render grass around where you are looking. Even if it was low quality.

[Windexglow 10]

LJF - Nope; it still needs to render grass up close and far away. However it does not have to render grass to the sides as much

[STALKERGB 6]

Removing the issue of having/needing a super computer I think having a longer grass draw distance would be nice, I recall doing something with a config file for ARMA1 that increased the draw distance, not to 1000's of meters but still further than was allowed in the options.

[Lhowon 10]

How constructive... Sarcasm isn't something that translates well through text. I'm sure that you're perfectly content to snipe enemies as a result of a graphical oversight, anyways. Happy canned hunting.

I think he was referring to a different sort of grass... the sort that does make him happy :P

[LJF 0]

LJF - Nope; it still needs to render grass up close and far away. However it does not have to render grass to the sides as much

Yeah but you don't need grass rendered out to 100m at full detail if you can't see it all, since the only time you'd see out to 1k+ (and the only time you'd need grass rendered that far) is with a scope, making most of the grass that is rendered close up pretty useless.

[Billy Bones 0]

general Q on graphics in the game didn't want to start a new post, I have only been playing the game a few days, I was wondering about the flicker from roofs and window and the "wave" that moves out with you I mean the grass and weeds and brush is there but as I move my APC forward you can see this build up or more colour in the grass and so on. When I stand back about 15-20 yards from signs like the ones with village and town names on them, the names become blurred.

Core2 E7400 2.8ghz .. 4Gb DDR3 .. ATI HD5770 1Gb .. now looking at another Arma2 site the specs said for "Optimal" .. Core2 2.8Ghz .. 2GbDDR .. and a card lower than the one I have, so surely that means if I meet these Optimal specs I should be able to max the game out without having Flickering Graphics and stuff being out of focus that's only 20 yards from my player and when my player or AI crew get out, there head are not blank then take form seconds later.

I have the latest ATI Cat Drivers.

[Chunk3ym4n 10]

Having a grass layer isn't a best solution in my opinion. Having the grass layer is either being completely invisible at 50m or sticking out like a sore thumb if you are at the wrong angle. Being completely invisible if you position yourself correctly is unfair IMO. A solution would be to keep the grass layer but when you zoom in with a scope it should draw the normal grass. Since there's not much on the screen it wouldn't kill performance by just rendering a small patch of grass that's visible by the scope. This way it wouldn't display unlimited grass killing your FPS but showing the actual grass when zooming in.

[zoog 18]

A solution would be to keep the grass layer but when you zoom in with a scope it should draw the normal grass. Since there's not much on the screen it wouldn't kill performance by just rendering a small patch of grass that's visible by the scope. This way it wouldn't display unlimited grass killing your FPS but showing the actual grass when zooming in.

Something like that sounds good, but I don't know if it is feasible with the engine. I mean, personally I don't know how it's programmed, maybe the grass needs to be rendered before you actually look at the location so that might mean that a very big bunch of grass should be rendered when using a scope. And can they get the other grass out of memory etc when you zoom, or is that too much so will that still be using resources, even when scoped? Personally I *think* there are all kinds of technical issues and it's not as simple as just drawing grass when scoping while the normal grass isn't. These things are more complex that you might think on first sight. Of course I'm no expert, so a dev could probably clear some of the things up. But in general I think people don't realise what is going on under the hood and the many factors they need to take into account.

general Q on graphics in the game didn't want to start a new post

Grass is build up I think +-100meters away from you. No matter how fast your machine, that's the limitation right now. For the blur: try turning off post-process effects (or at least turn them down), because it makes everything blurry.

[ffur2007slx2_5 11]

I think it's unnecessary to see trees 6000 meters afar, we should emphasize on combat, not on watching scenery.

[galzohar 31]

Replace "trees" with "tanks" and then it's very relevant to gameplay and isn't just scenery.

Grass is currently rendered to ~45m, and even there (at ~40m) it's not nearly as dense as it is at 5m, so even at 40m someone hiding in the grass will not see you but you will see him if you're standing up (on flat terrain at least).

[Flaxpants 10]

How constructive... Sarcasm isn't something that translates well through text. I'm sure that you're perfectly content to snipe enemies as a result of a graphical oversight, anyways. Happy canned hunting.

And obviously humour doesn't translate very well either.....

[mon_diesle 10]

I think it's unnecessary to see trees 6000 meters afar, we should emphasize on combat, not on watching scenery.

I've got a hundred bucks that says this guy didn't even read the thread. lol

---------- Post added at 10:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:15 PM ----------

How constructive... Sarcasm isn't something that translates well through text. I'm sure that you're perfectly content to snipe enemies as a result of a graphical oversight, anyways. Happy canned hunting.

And obviously humour doesn't translate very well either.....

Evidently not when you have a dense head like mine. Sorry dude.:o

[Flaxpants 10]

No worries mate, I'm actually finding your thread quite interesting.

Carry on!

[Whiskey_Tango 10]

grass is only needed as far as people snipe from for the most part...i would say 600m -800m would be more than enough

[An Fiach 10]

The issue I have with this is that you can see people at that distance without a scope and when you have one you can see people even farther out. At that distance also your filed of view is not so narrowed that you will only see the area of your target (assuming the lack of dense trees and brush) That isn't easily fixed unless you make the enemy semi transparent at those distances.

[lecholas 2]

I always wondered why did BIS go the way with the clutter. There are different ways of rendering grass. If you've seen some islands from mods for OFP you know what I mean (Inv44, VTE, still-not-released-yet WWIIEC Caen etc.) The grass on those islands wasn't as nice as the grass near you in the clutter way, but it added a lot to the gameplay. The other way of implementing useful (but not so nicely looking) grass were Novalogic's old voxel engines. They didn't look great, but they simulated grass very well.

[SFJackBauer 10]

Something like that sounds good, but I don't know if it is feasible with the engine. I mean, personally I don't know how it's programmed, maybe the grass needs to be rendered before you actually look at the location so that might mean that a very big bunch of grass should be rendered when using a scope. And can they get the other grass out of memory etc when you zoom, or is that too much so will that still be using resources, even when scoped? Personally I *think* there are all kinds of technical issues and it's not as simple as just drawing grass when scoping while the normal grass isn't. These things are more complex that you might think on first sight. Of course I'm no expert, so a dev could probably clear some of the things up. But in general I think people don't realise what is going on under the hood and the many factors they need to take into account.

I dont know how ARMA2 is programmed, but I have a general knowledge of game engines, and - given that the grass patches already have to be dynamically adjusted as it is now - since they are a radius of 40m around you, everytime you move grass patches are being added and removed - then I don't see how impossibly difficult is to add vegetation when zoomed in a scope.

[zoog 18]

I dont know how ARMA2 is programmed, but I have a general knowledge of game engines, and - given that the grass patches already have to be dynamically adjusted as it is now - since they are a radius of 40m around you, everytime you move grass patches are being added and removed - then I don't see how impossibly difficult is to add vegetation when zoomed in a scope.

True, somehow I didn't think of that :)

[galzohar 31]

Maybe because it'd have to load up a bunch of textures all of a sudden rather than slowly loading them as you move. Probably the same reason as why you really notice the LOD changing when you zoom in, but it's not nearly as bad when you walk around.

[nicolasroger 11]

sorry to bump this tread. I know about the addon request tread, but my question is pretty relevant here.

I am almost 99% confident that I found a mod somewhere that said in the description that they were reducing the quality of the grass while making it draw further away. The problem is I didn't download it at that moment and now i can't find it :( .Does anyone know which mod I'm talking about? That would please me a lot and everyone who contributed to this tread too.