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| Comments for The Unsung Mod Alpha release for ArmA |
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Well, whoever made them, they're brilliant pieces of work. Seriously, everyone should take a texturing lesson from them. The only thing more I could ask for would be a tilting rotor hub... but since Arma only utilizes a mix between a simulator and a game (if you set your bindings up right), it would only be an animation effect. I happen to use an TrackIR device, so flying helos is lots more fun than having to manipulate POV and fly at the same time. Including a small arms locker on the helos was also sweet. I could see the medical chopper using it to store extra bandages, etc, depending on the level of realism required. I am serious about the size of the maps. Making them big because Arma was designed for islands makes sense, but to get anywhere on those maps (especially in multi-player) in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time, is going to require a combined arms strategy. I don't mean that as criticism; far from it.
One of the brilliant things about a large map is the enforcement of logistical thinking. They say that amateurs talk about tactics, while professionals talk about logistics. As a player, you have to have repair, rearm, refuel, and firstaid support to continue the mission (unless it's a little short one). I want to encourage your team not to lose track of that aspect when designing your maps, even if it means I won't be able to play them until I upgrade. Make the players have to deal with the realities of the situation; that's Vietnam.
A thought: is there a way to alter the underbrush LOD values for aerials only? What about creating several different vegetation tile objects complete with built in pathing for the ai and with with connective links for joining to other tiles? would that allow a reduction on polys caused by single trees? Would making identical LOD values on a whole object be more efficient than forcing the GPU to render the values for numerous distinct objects? I'm no modeller, so I really don't know what the engine will allow, but I've seen this sort of thing in other 3d games. I'm told the Arma 2 folks had to work with the exact same issue; how to have good looking vegetation that still performed well. They went for something like visual layers, didn't they? Maybe limiting the visual layers visible from aircraft? Must be a way...
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CSJ |
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| June 7th, 2009 - 06:38 |
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"The UH-1s (based on Uggas model, I believe, see: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=4377) "
Sorry, but no.
These hueys are models I have had since 2004.
Used in the OFP Unsung and OFP JF.
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cj525 |
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| June 7th, 2009 - 05:52 |
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@ Quicksilver1967.
Thanks for the feeback. One reason why it took sooo long to deliver this was the lag issues to the jungle which have been drastically improved. We are looking at other alternatives to the way the jungle is done currently, Incountry is a first test for a new system, kham duc and ngok tavak are the old system. Incountry is very early stages at the new system so be patient.
our main focus was on how the ground pounder performed on the map at settings of 1000-500 view distance. this wasn't designed around the pilot aspect or it would have looked alot different with less focus on undergrowth detail and density. I guess for now until we find the magic formula you will have to fly your UH1 in special VFR or IFR conditions forcing you to fly low and slow.
there will be options to turn things off, such as radio chatter idle chatter. the files are all binned currently, this also caused a delay in release as binning tends not to tolerate errors and mistakes in your work.
@ Damien
Are you running an older ATI card, it's looking like older ati cards are having problems with our work. I use to have an old ati card and I had major problems with just running AA period. If any of the models had none square textures my ati card would throw errors and cause cfgskeleton probs. the pic of the weapon with half of the screen green was a typical error I got for some reason it would show the proxies ingame and destort the units with wild textures polies. when my card stopped working I bought an ATI HD 4870x2 and have not looked back. We are going to look at what textures are not square and fix them so this should help some.
But seriously thanks for the feedback we are constantly optimizing the jungle to get the most ppl the ability to enjoy the work we've done.
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I agree, if you're doing a jungle crawl, there's no need for anything over 1500 meters... Just enough to spot an objective or NVA armor hiding in dense brush. Fog adds a nice touch and a great deal of pucker factor. However, if you are flying a bird, that's a very different story. Frankly, if you can't see at least 3k meters (15,000' - less than 3 miles), you probably shouldn't be flying at all, unless you have to. Add any type of rain... and they have, and visibility is virtually nil.
I had cranked it down to 1500, and then 1000 as a ground pounder, and even with just my player, it still lagged my system. No other map ever released for Arma has done that. That's amazing... and frustrating. While some of it is undoubtedly my system, I would encourage the construction team to optimize as much as possible to reach as wide a group as possible. A thought: I'm sure the files weren't binarized, since it's an alpha release, and there's really no point in doing so. That might contribute significantly to the frame rate. I envy those of you with computers powerful enough to brute force your way with the map.
Mind you, the large maps are damned nice. I love flying around on large maps. It makes ground pounding suck; which is why Vietnam was a helicopter war.
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@quicksilver1967
Yea, theres no need for 3 kilometers view distance at such dense jungle. Also the ACE mod fog with this is awesome eye candy <3
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@quicksilver1967
try using lower viewdistance, or even better; use fog! that helps the fps really well in maps like that.
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I ran through all the maps provided with this mod, keeping in mind that this is an Alpha. I'll start with the negative part of my experience first. I have a pretty decent (though aging) system (P4 3.06Ghz HT, 2 gig system RAM, 1 GIG nVidia GTS250 OC running under windows XP 32 -which is why I don't have more RAM). For me, the maps were large and the frame rate laggy, even on the lower settings. On the higher settings, the frame rate dropped off into unusable levels. This is something I have never, ever experienced before, and I can assume that either a great deal of optimization is going to happen (lots of single trees?), or that the detail is such that a high end system is needed to fully enjoy the mod. The constant radio chatter was annoying and repetitive. There needs to be an on/off function for it though the drop down vehicle menus, because while it adds realism when just goofing around, I could see getting easily distracted in multiplayer while trying to listen to REAL players. There are very few vehicles in game yet, but of course that will change. I am now considering updating my system before picking up Arma 2.
Now for the positive: The textures on the units were professional grade. They are beautifully rendered. The UH-1s (based on Uggas model, I believe, see: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=4377) are the best I have ever seen or flown in Arma. All mods using UH1s should be using THESE choppers. Transferred into other maps, they functioned well, so clearly the polys are in line. The rotor action is particularly nice with much smoother transitions than usual. Handling is tight and feels nice. Added animation features are nice touches. If all the models are produced this way (and I saw a few), this mod is going to be a joy. I also appreciated the transition zone between river/coastal water and normal seawater. It's very smooth, even at very low settings, where other mods usually appear to have gradient lines.
Anyway, that's the good, the bad, and the ugly in my view. Nice work overall, gentlemen, system limitations aside.
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DAMIEN: If you have a problem running the mod, I advise asking for help from the mod team or others using it and not just throwing a hissy fit about it.
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bug 1
Bug 2
Nice mod...
1.14 with queen's gambit (if I play without queen's gambit, this mod bug again...)
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Great and very awesome pack! Especially like your those Vietnamese troops,very realistic in texture and uniform! Oh, you guys put such things in eve of ARMAII and make us few time for playing ARMAII.
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