Battletech Grass pack new version

Hi everyone,

I've managed to secure permission from Sled88 to release the final version of his excellent Battletech grass (Erba.pbo). This version fixes a bug present in the publicly available alpha/preview version where the grass model blocks bullets fired from certain angles (which made the preview version impractical for me to use in MP missions).

Although Sled88 no longer had a copy of the final version (which was never publicly released) I managed to locate the model being distributed (without attribution :nono:) as part of Drago island. With Sled's permission I have repackaged the model with the two original textures used in the preview version as well as the texture used in Drago island release.

The grass itself is excellent for covering large areas and can block AI vision pretty well. I've included a template mission with various tiling patterns for use by editors.

Filefront download (Filefront's servers seem really unreliable so this link doesn't always work).

EDIT:

OFPr.info/ofp.gamepark.cz screens and mirror.

Sendspace mirror NOTE click the "Regular Download" button then "Click here to start download from sendspace" DO NOT click any of the other "download" buttons

Multiupload mirror

Interesting, I will try it

So, what is better for performance in larger areas and cause less lag in MP? the I44 one or this one?

Thanks anyway

I get an error when i try to open the link! it says invalid ID!

I get an error when i try to open the link! it says invalid ID!

Yeah filefront's servers seem really crap recently. Try refreshing a couple of times (it works about 50% of the time for me) or try the link from the main list.

EDIT: Sendspace temporary mirror added, see OP.

Interesting, I will try it

So, what is better for performance in larger areas and cause less lag in MP? the I44 one or this one?

Thanks anyway

For large areas Battletech grass is better, try the demo missions for examples of large areas. Battletech is comparable to Dragon Rising's style of grass while I44 feels more like Arma 2's so the two addons complement each other nicely.

You should be able to cover an island the size of Desert Island with Battletech grass without getting lag. Also, in MP differing in-game Visual Quality settings can create problems with the grass LOD culling at differing distances on clients.

Why are you adding Malware (if I don't want it it's malware)to this by making an installer that installs "BFix Toolbar,changes my homepage to "MSN' and makes Bing my default search engine? Wait it adds a shitload of others as well. Someone ban this guy already.

Err are you sure you're clicking the right link at sendspace? It should be a zip file, not .exes or installers etc.

Yup just checked the sendspace link and it downloads Battletech grass.zip.

For that matter why the hell would I be making an installer for single pbo addon anyway? Maybe you should think a bit more before making rash accusations.

Err are you sure you're clicking the right link at sendspace? It should be a zip file, not .exes or installers etc.

Yup just checked the sendspace link and it downloads Battletech grass.zip.

For that matter why the hell would I be making an installer for single pbo addon anyway? Maybe you should think a bit more before making rash accusations.

EDIT Z is correct and I am sorry i didnt see the small download link (rolls eyes) that is below the HUGE ass one that actually loads up.

Suggest an alternative host site and I may upload it there as well. There's a sad lack of reliable permanent OFP addon hosts available as you can tell from the filefront link.

EDIT Z is correct and I am sorry i didnt see the small download link (rolls eyes) that is below the HUGE ass one that actually loads up.

I always run NoScript so I never see the extra download buttons that litter free hosting sites.

I just checked it and downloaded it. It is a zip file. Suggest an alternative host site and I may upload it there as well.

no just maybe a small pic added to the post should do it. because until you actually confirmed it I didn't realize the other link was down below. All good please excuse the stupidity. multiupload kinda does them all. they all you to have an account as well and if you click the multiupload link it is a direct download.

Multi Upload

Ooo the grass is pretty... lol

hey, can you tell me how to use that script? I would like to cover a island with that grass but I don't know what I need or how to use script. Thanks in advance.

There is no script, use the template missions provided to copy and paste tiles to your island. Depending on the island you may not be able to completely cover it without dropping frame rate. It also depends on what you're doing, flying in a jet at low level is going to put a lot more strain on your machine than plodding about on foot. Another way to optimise is to not use grass in forests (since real forests wouldn't have grass as thick as that found in a meadow) and use the low detail tiles in less frequented areas to cut down on the number of textures drawn by the engine.

I suppose you could script a client to automatically create and delete grass depending on the player's current position but this would need a massive database of the positions of all the grass tiles on the island.

The grass is also going to cover roads unless you manually cut it back using the alternative shapes (quadrants, triangles etc). Obviously this is very time consuming but once you've done a template for an island (or a portion of an island) you can save it as a mission and merge it into another mission using the editor whenever you need it.

For multiplayer you should try to limit the grass to the mission area to keep lag down as shown in the included king of the hill demo mission.

Update. Kenoxite has added a script to the .pbo that greatly improves AI pathfinding and automatically lowers grass near the player to balance gameplay against AI opponents (who can see about 50m through grass).

Get it here. Demo mission and instructions included.

I have tested it. It's really great!

Really nice - thank you!