pregame VisbilityRange option?

[ScarleTomato]

hopefully it wouldn't need to be done on every cycle. I'm thinking something more along the lines of creating a couple of variables whose values are given from some ivars set before game. Then each time someone enters the world the visual and fog ranges get changed from the defaults to the variables.

Under "extra options" have two buttons. one sets the visualrange and fogrange to something around 500 and the second sets them to around 1000-1500 depending on the map

edit: i haven't really dabbled too much in the dlls but it looks like i would set the vars initially under the if(!didinit){} set under Setup(). It looks like this part might only be executed by the server though, so i don't think i want to actually reset the ranges there. I thought i had seen a while ago two different setup methods one for the server and one for the client but i can't find anything like that in MPInstant. The only place I see to put it would be in Execute() or DoGenericStategy() although that would make it reset every tick. I don't see where Execute is called from, is that called from the game itself?

edit: what is StratInstant? Is that used at all when using MPInstant? I think I'd rather put it in with the Init() right after the player gets deleted and remade. I think I'm gonna have to go play around a little bit and see how these dlls step along.

[TheJamsh]

You will also need to adjust the skydome settings depending on the viewdistance. increasing/decreasing the fog/visibility will often leave you with a really ugly semicircle of solid fog at the base of youre skydome if you dont adjust its radius.

Any view distances over 800 make the game to warpy for me to enjoy to be honest. Terrain is now the main frame-cruncher in DX9 (besides lights and local fog). The thing is not everyone has a ridiculous machine, or the time and money lying around to get one. Large grids look great if you can get them right, but buildings are always going to be a problem.

EPIC has done well with it anyway, its just a lot harder to make it look right.

[ScarleTomato]

took me a while to find out what you were talking about . you mean when the dome radius is larger than the visibility range? That is a good point but for now i was just thinking of leaving the skydome optimized for the low setting. That way the worst it gives me is the faded ring of fog if i'm up high enough.
http://stu.cbu.edu/~myarbrou/Images/flat2000.PNG

I might try later on to set the sky settings as well with the preset buttons, it probably wouldn't be that hard to do. For the moment though i'm still trying to figure out how to set the range with the dll.

[TheJamsh]

The map looks cool, but if i were you id use a larger texture on the ground (say 1024x1024 or larger), and maybe make the water tiles larger so there arnt so many of them? It can look very ugly from a distance, especially when it suffers aliasing.

Kudos for the sky and props though, sky flat in particular, i really like the colours you used in it.

The only problem with maps like that is that they make everything look so pathetic. Like weapons which range out at 100M and youre tank feels SOOO slow.

[ScarleTomato]

i agree the sky looks great can't take credit for it though. the map is Scrap Valley 2 from FE. Just using it as an example sky. If i can figure out how to get the dll to work i was thinking about converting it over to 1.3. If i ever do i'll probably look into messing around with the tiling.

[ScarleTomato]

alright, i've gotten a build that will change the visual and fog ranges based on an ivar. It works great with one person, but when someone else joins, it gamestates and goes back to the defaults. It's looking more and more like ill need to set it at every tick which i hate to do cause it seems like such a waste. Anyone know if theres a part of MPinstant that runs after a join? Or if theres a way i can change the actual visrange value so that when i gamestate i just default to it?

[ScarleTomato]

well, i found out something that i hadn't noticed before. It does fine when you start up the map, but as soon as a second player enters the lobby, multiplayer rendering kicks in. This isn't actually that bad for the terrain, but the objects seem to have a limit of about 600 meters where anything further just doesn't show.

here's the map if anyone want's to play around with it. It should work on a clean ta5 install
http://stu.cbu.edu/~myarbrou/extBZroot.zip

tell me what you think, it it worth the trouble for me to include that option on more maps?


edit: i think that problem might be that the bridges need LODs for the greater ranges, right now no LODs are defined. Ill check that out later.

[Red Devil]

From Gameprefs.ini:

// Values to allow the user to pull in (but never extend) the
// visibility, fog ranges on maps. If the values below are under the
// values set by a map, they are used. If they are above, they are
// ignored. These settings don't affect the Editor build, where you'd
// want higher draw distances.
// Note: also adjustable with "gameprefs.MaxVisibility", and similar
MaxVisibility = 99999.0
MinFogRange = 99999.0
MaxFogRange = 99999.0

// Multiplier applied to default visibility, fog ranges on maps. This
// value must be between 0.1 (can see only 10% as far as normal) and
// 1.0 (normal).  This multiplier is applied before the maxes are
// applies above, and may be more useful in trimming view distances.
VisibilityMult = 1.0

[Zero Angel]

From Gameprefs.ini:

// Values to allow the user to pull in (but never extend) the
// visibility, fog ranges on maps. If the values below are under the
// values set by a map, they are used. If they are above, they are
// ignored. These settings don't affect the Editor build, where you'd
// want higher draw distances.
// Note: also adjustable with "gameprefs.MaxVisibility", and similar
MaxVisibility = 99999.0
MinFogRange = 99999.0
MaxFogRange = 99999.0

// Multiplier applied to default visibility, fog ranges on maps. This
// value must be between 0.1 (can see only 10% as far as normal) and
// 1.0 (normal).  This multiplier is applied before the maxes are
// applies above, and may be more useful in trimming view distances.
VisibilityMult = 1.0

I think with this option, its now a good idea for mappers to increase the visibilityrange to something decent, like 500m

[TheJamsh]

The LODS shouldn't make a difference, as i dont think there is a max range for them... Only the distance from your craft at which they are swapped around.

[ScarleTomato]

meh, not that worried about it now, i'm just gonna keep making high range maps and give a notice on how to decrease the range in localprefs.