Stripped down, OFP-like graphics, anyone?

[5133p39]

Before ArmA was released, i hoped that we will get only a slightly better OFP:R graphics, with much more capable engine, optimized for current HW, which could handle many many more units, somewhat better AI, and of course better scripting engine (not that any of them was too bad) - but i never cared for better graphics.
Of course BIS had to improve the graphics a lot to make it sell, because world is full of people who judge the game mainly by screenshots (sad but true).

I know that a lot of you people are satisfied with your ArmA running at about 20FPS, but for those like me, who aren't and who would rather trade all the fancy graphics and effects for more performance, i was thinking...

Would it help to remove the fancy stuff like shaders, normal maps, etc. and leave only the basic textures?
Decreasing number of polygons on the soldier models would surely help, anyone thought about modding them this way?
What do you think about the HW strain - where is the bottleneck? Would it help at all to strip down the graphics, or is CPU the main problem?
What do you think we could do to make the ArmA perform better(faster)?

I know, we don't have all the tools yet, but would anyone be interested?

[Nephilim]

removing the shader model includes modifying the game engine
thus illegal.

removing normalmaps from the game can cause that the models will be all black due the way the shader works.

and shaders arent just fancy stuff..
OFP also uses a shader, a very basic one but shader nevertheless

maybe you should know what you are talkin about before making such posts.
not very smart

and just decreasing polygons will not help much either.
and since the community hasnt got insight into the gameengine its pretty useless debating whats possible and whats not.

and besides that releasing a changed codewill get your a$$ sued very fast.

and if you want to recruit someone for such "illegal" things
its pretty dumb to do this on the official boards...
and y dont you try it yourself instead? no knowledge?
sit on your 3 letters and learn it, thats what half the community does.

i just cant stand whiners argh!
cheers

[5133p39]

removing the shader model includes modifying the game engine
thus illegal.

removing normalmaps from the game can cause that the models will be all black due the way the shader works.

and shaders arent just fancy stuff..
OFP also uses a shader, a very basic one but shader nevertheless

maybe you should know what you are talkin about before making such posts.
not very smart

and just decreasing polygons will not help much either.
and since the community hasnt got insight into the gameengine its pretty useless debating whats possible and whats not.

and besides that releasing a changed codewill get your a$$ sued very fast.

cheers

i don't know where to start... have you actually read my post, or to what are you replying to?

clearly i do look that stupid to think i can remove the support of shaders and normal maps from the game engine.
No, i don't think so, i was talking about removing textures, and altering material config settings.

removing normal maps will cause the models to be black? really? i mean - you actually KNOW this, or do you only think this would happen?

And for decreasing polygons - you dont think decreasing polygons will help?
have you ever tried changing the view distance? (=increasing/decreasing the number of polygons drawn).
I think that decreasing # of polygons in each model could be significantly helpful (in theory - the less polys to draw, the faster the image is drawn, and the less size the models are, the faster they can be loaded, etc.)

And for the last thing - i am not debating possibilities of reverse engineering the engine, thats illegal, we all know that, thus i am debating the possibilities of what we can do in terms of altering models, configs, and textures.

[Abs]

Serioulsy, are you always this nice, Nephilim?

Not everyone has an education in game design, and from where I sit, he wasn't whining...you might want to read his post again, but instead of that angry voice in your head that you seem to read posts with, try a mellow one for a change.

If he "knew what he was talking about", then he wouldn't be here asking questions, and he would do it himself. Odd that he should come on the forums looking for some intelligent insight from 'experts', and he should get flamed by one. Honestly, it's shameful behaviour.

5133p39, unfortunately, I don't think anyone will be interested in doing this. The game has taken a giant leap from OFP graphically, so why take a step back? Instead of wasting hundreds of hours modding it to look worse, it'd be easier for you just to buy new hardware, mate.

Cheers.

Abs

[5133p39]

Serioulsy, are you always this nice, Nephilim?

Not everyone has an education in game design, and from where I sit, he wasn't whining...you might want to read his post again, but instead of that angry voice in your head that you seem to read posts with, try a mellow one for a change.

If he "knew what he was talking about", then he wouldn't be here asking questions, and he would do it himself. Odd that he should come on the forums looking for some intelligent insight from 'experts', and he should get flamed by one. Honestly, it's shameful behaviour.

5133p39, unfortunately, I don't think anyone will be interested in doing this. The game has taken a giant leap from OFP graphically, so why take a step back? Instead of wasting hundreds of hours modding it to look worse, it'd be easier for you just to buy new hardware, mate.

Cheers.

Abs

yes, i know that its lot of work - that is why i haven't started yet ;-)
First i wanted to know whether anyone already tried something which would help me to guess if it would be worth it.
As for the new HW... well, i don't own the bleeding edge cray supercomputer, but i don't think gf8800, 5200+ CPU, and 3GB RAM is so much bad that i need to upgrade already, but still, when testing things and i only put few hundreds of soldiers who does nothing, the game becomes unplayable (i know, playability it's a subjective thing).
I think reducing polygons of those models would help a lot in this kind of situation.

[Nephilim]

sorry if i sound rude...
but again you got me right
he asks for engine/gfx degradation

Quote[/b] ]Would it help to remove the fancy stuff like shaders, normal maps, etc. and leave only the basic textures?
Decreasing number of polygons on the soldier models would surely help, anyone thought about modding them this way?

and i just answered

thats illegal and not too smart to ask on official forums.

of course hes no expert (thats y hes asks..)
i havent been very good at that stuff either
but its far more productive to sit down and learn.

C++ for example mate

[5133p39]

sorry if i sound rude...
but again you got me right
he asks for engine/gfx degradation

Quote[/b] ]Would it help to remove the fancy stuff like shaders, normal maps, etc. and leave only the basic textures?
Decreasing number of polygons on the soldier models would surely help, anyone thought about modding them this way?

and i just answered

thats illegal and not too smart to ask on official forums.

of course hes no expert (thats y hes asks..)
i havent been very good at that stuff either
but its far more productive to sit down and learn.

C++ for example mate

Ok, i admit, by bad.
I haven't thought that when i don't specify explicitly, that i am not talking about reverse engineering, someone will automatically think that i am.
For the last time: i am not talking about reverse engineering, even if Nephilim think so.
My apologies for this misunderstanding.
English is not my native language, nor is it my favourite one, so obviously i have some difficulties issuing proper and acurate statements.

Now, could we focus on the topic, or let the topic die in case noone has anything to say about it?

[456820]

Personally i think its a good idea. Theres a lot of rather pointless stuff in the game which I haven't really noticed and just reduces our frames. As it stands at the moment with ArmA, I would have loved OFP:Elite with better AI but also like 5133p39 i never really wanted the better graphics, i knew it would cause all sorts of performance problems that ArmA now has.

I would love to see a 'playable ArmA' mod but I dont have the time nor the knowledge to help. But I do hope someone decides to help in such a project to make ArmA more playable for all.

[MattXR]

Yeah BIS will, Just wait untill we get Arma 1.96

Your dreams will have come true haha.

[MehMan]

I gotta say, why? Jeez man, if you want OFP graphics, stick with OFP. I don't have the cutting edge tech and I can run ArmA just fine at low with one setting at normal. I'm not too picky with the difference between 30 or 100 FPS.

ArmA took OFP graphics on another level and it improves immersion(yeah I know, it's sooo cheesy to say this) atmosphere and general feel of the game. It's just better.