Object drawing distance tweak

[kju]

Testing grunts, this is the first one for you.

=========
= Preface =
=========

ArmA supports up to 50.000m (50km) viewdistance.
Yet objects, means vegetation and objects of a world, as well as units or
mission placed objects are drawn in general way less (~45% and
max ~2000-2500m...).

This also results in objects popping into view - very ugly.
Especially with low viewdistance.

There are more issues related to it, yet not that important for the start.


=========
= Solution =
=========

There is always the chance of BI improving the visual impression and object
drawing distance in a future patch.

There is a new config value called featureSize introduced by ArmA II.
It does make the TV tower, the castle or other special buildings drawn at
longer distance..

So the design concept is to (ab)use this value for our needs.

You find a set of small addons to set this value for static objects (houses,
and other type of building) as well as infantry and vehicles.


=========
= Change =
=========

Focus on the houses and units. And ignore the SAT issues and vegetation
for now. Also take note that always max zoom in of AH1Y or F35b was used.

ArmA II default (50k VD):



ArmA II tweaked (50k VD):




Mi-8 is normally drawn 2200m.

Mi-8 is drawn 3000m with featureSize = 100.

T72 is drawn 3000m.
It seems that 3000m is the max unit drawing distance not matter the
featureSize value (tried 1000).
The static object like houses seem to be drawn even way further away.

Ingame it is quite hard to see the units. The compression makes it even harder.


More examples screenshots:

• Sample 1
• Sample 2
• Sample 3
• Sample 4
• Sample 5

Comparison videos - again focus on the houses and units:
standard_popup_objects_at_drawing_distance (9 MB)
vs
featureSizeTweak_active (8 MB)


=========
= Your job =
=========

Test this set of addons. See if it works for you. Share your impressions and
possible other ingame changes made by it.
Can you experience any performance impact?
Test with very low view distance (500-1500m) and focus on object popping in.
Test very high (5000-50000) and look at distance objects and units are drawn.



==========
= Download =
==========

Object drawing distance tweak

[Shadow NX]

Intresting, i give it a try

Now if someone makes something that solves object poppin then even better, maybe by forbidding to swithc to lowest lod or something... but i guess that will not be very performance friendly.

Yet nothing more immersion killing than paper cut trees and soldiers.

[kju]

Thats number two.

(powered by T_D)

[Defunkt]

Wow, that's massive, especially as the next thing I want to work on is a fixed-wing air-combat mission, well done!

[mcbane]

How's the performance?

[Jingle]

AMD 5000
2 GB DDR 2 - 800Mhz
9500GT


Tested Very high on all settings flying around cherny with a av8b - vd 8000, (resolution 1024 x 768 @100 percent fillrate)

FPS hit 30 mark while flying - all I can say is Kju you are a god amongst men.

Also tested on a very busy map - chernogorsk with about 500 units fighting went from normal to very high settings and adjusted view distance between 1600 and 10k.

Found my FPS didnt drop much to be honest about 3 - 4 fps from low to high end - (granted my system was crawling at 4 fps at max settings due to all the activity). In conclusion this mod has very little negative impact at all - in fact it improves my options so much that i am able to test on very high settings at 10k vd.

Will test further and post in this spot.

[Thunderbird]

Funny thing that I just finished tweaking this here and that you release the same thing in the same hour.
Will give yours a go, cheers.

Regards,
TB

[Kremator]

VERY nice indeed kju !

Was flying around at 10km VD with everything looking smooth (well with the normal microstutters !)

What impressed me a LOT was that Chernogorsk looked LOVELY in the distance.

Will test some more and get back to you, but great work so far !

[DMarkwick]

I think a special version just for aircraft would be a major hit (in fact there's a thread about this subject in the suggestions forum I believe). Then a separate version for everything? As a grunt who likes to creep from cover to cover, being able to see aircraft further out is a nice feature but as a low end user, I'm not too fussed about all the other stuff.

Just IMO

[Defunkt]

Agreed, vanishing aircraft is the most obvious failing where draw distance is concerned.