Grafics question

[Sutts]

Originally Posted by ParaB

Errr, no. CloD is not the only flightsim I play but it's the only one where the transition between terrain texture levels is so striking. The problem is not ATI/NVIDIA not providing more powerful hardware but the developers not adjusting the texture colours between high and low detail better. Also the more usual "ring" around the PoV would probably be more pleasant to the eye than the square we see now.

@Esso: No. I tested it and increased the battle map size to cover the whole map and still see the texture square.


Anyway, I'll wait for the patch and hope for the best.

I'd suggest that's because no other sim gives us the viewing distance we have in CloD. Most cheat and fog out the distant views so you don't get a chance to see the transition area.

[ParaB]

I really don't want to start yet another "CloD vs X" argument but I don't see such a square in FSX, DCS:A-10 or RoF. And I would rather see some haze effect in the distance than the current texture square. Yesterday I created a mission at 8.000m altitude and the visual effect of the sharp edges of the square in the distance really distracted from the overall very beautiful look of the sim.

[5./JG27.Farber]

ParaB please post a screen shot of your settings. Im sure there are three for ground. Texture, shading and another?

[ParaB]

Hi Farber,

my settings are:

everything high (textures set to original), except forests and buildings detail set to low. If there's a way to get rid of the terrain square or make it less obtrusive I'd be really thankful.

I'm using FXAA injector for FSAA and some colour adjustments and am very happy with the way CloD looks otherwise. And no, switching FXAA off doesn't change the anything about 'the square'.

View from 7.000m:

[mxmadman]

You won't be able to change it, this is there as a way to help performance. Its a lower quality texture that's used in places were not meant to go.

The reason you notice it is because it doesn't blend well. This would be extremely difficult and possibly impossible to blend to a point where you can't tell due to the size of the area. You will notice it a certain altitute no matter what.

This is better than the alternative and happens because we have a MASSIVE view distance in game, but not computers that can handle equally massive and high quality terrain.

[ParaB]

So, it's working as intended, will not get fixed because that's the way it is?

Why would it be impossible to better blend the low-res far textures with the hi-res near textures?

There is already a LoD system in place for the textures if you watch the pic closely: there's hi-res textures close by, then lower-res textures at medium distance followed by low-res textures in the far distance. The close and medium range textures blend well together, only the far ones don't.

[mxmadman]

Originally Posted by ParaB

So, it's working as intended, will not get fixed because that's the way it is?

Why would it be impossible to better blend the low-res far textures with the hi-res near textures?

There is already a LoD system in place for the textures if you watch the pic closely: there's hi-res textures close by, then lower-res textures at medium distance followed by low-res textures in the far distance. The close and medium range textures blend well together, only the far ones don't.

Well there is LoD, yes, but these areas are not created at all like the normal playing surface. If you fly out there at really low alt you'll see what I mean.

I don't think they're going to change any time in the foreseeable future, no.

[ParaB]

You misunderstood the problem. I'm not talking about an area outside of the actual map. I'm talking about the radius around your aircraft where textures of different resolutions, and unfortunately, different colours are used. You can never "fly out there" since your viewpoint will always be in the middle of the "square".

[mxmadman]

Originally Posted by ParaB

You misunderstood the problem. I'm not talking about an area outside of the actual map. I'm talking about the radius around your aircraft where textures of different resolutions, and unfortunately, different colours are used. You can never "fly out there" since your viewpoint will always be in the middle of the "square".

Have you tried? I've flown over it before. LoD only changes the resolution of the mesh and stuff, but they still use the same textures normally just scaled down. This generally will not cause a noticable difference in color.

At any rate, if your eyes are indeed good enough to spot the differences at any time other than when that transition is taking place then its out of my league. It still will not be something that is changed though.

You're sure you're not looking at the yellow-ness far inland that looks as though its a fall version of England butted up against a summer version?

Edit: or france.

Another edit: there's an easy way to test. Start a mission and pick a landmark like a lake or river at the edge of what you're referring to and fly directly towards or away from it. There will be a point where it will suddenly switch over to a higher or lower resolution. There are a finite amount of LoD's, so it should be obvious. If you get closer and the color stays the same at that landmark, there are no LoD meshes for that area.

[ParaB]

You really don't seem to understand.

You will get the low res textures directly over London if you're far enough away. It's the distance from the point of view that matters, not the location. The grafics engine draws a "square" around your viepoint. Within that square all ground textures are high res. At a larger distance they become medium res, and even further out they become low-res. I really don't know how to better explain it.

My problem is that the texture colours between medium LoD and low LoD are quite different, resulting in the ugly "square" effect.