battle damage to aircraft

[badgerboy 0]

I wanted to ask anyone who cares to answer about what percentage of the time you see visible damage to your plane when you take hits. I have yet to see ANY visible damage, although I can always tell when there is damage due to changes in the flight model. I am not using the super hi-resolution skins. I have adjusted the sliders on the graphics, anywhere from 3 to 5 and it makes no difference. I have tried the low res and high res (middle choice) skins, again with no visible damage. Wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

[Mr. Lucky 0]

I've seen it, usually in the form of bullet holes and usually after taking lots of hits. Not every time though.

[Olham 164]

I have seen lots of holes ripped in the fabric, and even the skeletton frames of the wings.

But there seem to be some few people, who don't see damage (due to theri vid card?).

I hope for you, they will answer and maybe even have remedies.

[Bullethead 12]

I use the 2nd highest airplane setting, but I hardly ever see even bulletholes. And this despite usually being liberally peppered.

[Olham 164]

It must be something else - I fly with aircraft detail on full five.

One thing comes to my mind - it was always recommended to fly the sim in HIGHEST possible resolution.

That won't make it slower, but faster instead (don't ask me why).

[Dej 17]

I have skins on 5, but not high res. I see bulletholes, wing structural framework and flapping fabric... unfortunately, all too often

[Olham 164]

To make this clear: you CAN put the slider of aircraft on 5.

What you should NOT click is aircraft skins high-res. in WORKSHOP.

[+Polovski 460]

Must be some video setting somewhere, or old video driver, or some odd setting in CFS3Config.. it's there, bullet holes are there..

[Bullethead 12]

To make this clear: you CAN put the slider of aircraft on 5. What you should NOT click is aircraft skins high-res. in WORKSHOP.

 

That's what I meant to say. I'm all 5s except for terrain which is a 4, and I use the 2nd best skins.

 

Even so, I hardly ever see bulletholes. Many times, I know I've taken like 50-60 hits all over my plane, and have gone into external view to take a screenshot. From reading the walls of red text going by, I even know where to look for them. But I usually see nothing. Occasionally, I'll see 1 or 2. OTOH, I do see when something breaks off.

 

This appears to be a function of the plane you're in. For instance, I see bulletholes all over Albatri, both mine and the enemy's. But on the Fee, the only place they ever appear is on the horizontal tail, and I've never seen them anywhere on a Pup.

[badgerboy 0]

Thanks for all the replies, guys.

My video drivers were up to date when I built my current computer 8 months ago. I have a GTX 260 with 180.48 drivers. I can't imagine the drivers would have anything to do with it, but I'll update them and see if it makes any difference. Could it have anything to do with overriding AF and AA settings? I had AF application-controlled and AA overriding application setting. I'll try making both override.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Seeing bullet hits is a function of the xdp file for each aircraft.* More specifically, whether you see a bullet strike on yours or the AI aircraft depends on an interaction between the hit points for the particular component that is hit and the "threshold value" which determines whether a given damage effect will have a chance to be displayed.

 

For example, take the Sopwith Pup since it was mentioned by Bullethead. If you open the xdp file for the Pup (any text editor will do), you will notice a section labeled <DamageBoxes>. Inside this section, you see that each wing in the hardcore DM has a hit point value of 100. Below the damageboxes section is a section called <Systems>. This section contains the threshold values for each damage effect that can occur to every component of each aircraft in the game. You will see sections for the engine, fuselage, fuel tank, wings, tail, etc. Notice that not every component has a bullet strike effect. You will never see a bullet hit in that component.

 

Next, look for the sub-section inside the Systems section named <System ID="left_wing" Name="Left Wing Structure">. Looking in this section, you will see that there are two entries for bullet strikes, named " fx_blt_hit_s." One occurs at threshold level 25 and the other at level 70. These values are percentages. Since the value of the left wing damage box is 100, this means that a bullet hit will potentially be shown if you inflict 25 points of damage to this component of the aircraft and then once again if you inflict a total of 70 points of damage to the wing. Fortiesboy originally pointed out, and I agree with him, that the threshold values for some of the damage effects, including bullet strikes, are set a little too high, and that is why you don't see them a lot in the game. Also, since these are only "thresholds" for displaying damage, you may not see them right away--the display of damage varies a bit. If set too high, you may not see an effect until the component or the entire plane has already been destroyed. Both my and FB's DMs are attempts to try and remedy this situation (as well as a few other minor DM anomalies) a bit.

 

The good news is that OBD will be releasing an updated DM in the next patch. I'm not sure how much the updated DM will address the above issue, but if not, FB and I will probably have our own slant on the problem.

 

*Along with the size and shape of the damage box itself in the .m3d file.

Edited August 4, 2009 by Herr Prop-Wasche

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

Badgerboy, make sure you make a system restore point before you update your drivers. I didnt have any issues with teh current driver, but some have. The last driver update (before this one) caused me some serious problems, and I wish I'd have made a restore point.

Always a good idea before any drivers or hardware updates.

 

You might check the graphics settings home boy posted a while back. condor also listed them in a thread where I was looking for nvidia specifics.

 

I have your same card, and see lots of damage :warning2:

 

Edited August 4, 2009 by Broadside uda Barn

[badgerboy 0]

Badgerboy, make sure you make a system restore point before you update your drivers. I didnt have any issues with teh current driver, but some have. The last driver update (before this one) caused me some serious problems, and I wish I'd have made a restore point.

Always a good idea before any drivers or hardware updates.

 

You might check the graphics settings home boy posted a while back. condor also listed them in a thread where I was looking for nvidia specifics.

 

I have your same card, and see lots of damage :warning2:

 

 

Thanks Broadside-

I just updated the drivers and have had a couple of crashes after flying for a few minutes I'm hoping restarting the computer again will fix this but it's getting late, will have to try tomorrow. I did notice before the game crashed that one of my comrades went down in flames, and I've never seen a flamer before; hopefully this means it is showing 'damage' more accurately.

[Bullethead 12]

Seeing bullet hits is a function of the xdp file for each aircraft.* More specifically, whether you see a bullet strike on yours or the AI aircraft depends on an interaction between the hit points for the particular component that is hit and the "threshold value" which determines whether a given damage effect will have a chance to be displayed.

 

Thanks for the explanation. It's always nice to have the arcana imperiorum revealed

 

The good news is that OBD will be releasing an updated DM in the next patch. I'm not sure how much the updated DM will address the above issue, but if not, FB and I will probably have our own slant on the problem.

 

Again, thanks.

[badgerboy 0]

Seeing bullet hits is a function of the xdp file for each aircraft.* More specifically, whether you see a bullet strike on yours or the AI aircraft depends on an interaction between the hit points for the particular component that is hit and the "threshold value" which determines whether a given damage effect will have a chance to be displayed.

 

For example, take the Sopwith Pup since it was mentioned by Bullethead. If you open the xdp file for the Pup (any text editor will do), you will notice a section labeled <DamageBoxes>. Inside this section, you see that each wing in the hardcore DM has a hit point value of 100. Below the damageboxes section is a section called <Systems>. This section contains the threshold values for each damage effect that can occur to every component of each aircraft in the game. You will see sections for the engine, fuselage, fuel tank, wings, tail, etc. Notice that not every component has a bullet strike effect. You will never see a bullet hit in that component.

 

Next, look for the sub-section inside the Systems section named <System ID="left_wing" Name="Left Wing Structure">. Looking in this section, you will see that there are two entries for bullet strikes, named " fx_blt_hit_s." One occurs at threshold level 25 and the other at level 70. These values are percentages. Since the value of the left wing damage box is 100, this means that a bullet hit will potentially be shown if you inflict 25 points of damage to this component of the aircraft and then once again if you inflict a total of 70 points of damage to the wing. Fortiesboy originally pointed out, and I agree with him, that the threshold values for some of the damage effects, including bullet strikes, are set a little too high, and that is why you don't see them a lot in the game. Also, since these are only "thresholds" for displaying damage, you may not see them right away--the display of damage varies a bit. If set too high, you may not see an effect until the component or the entire plane has already been destroyed. Both my and FB's DMs are attempts to try and remedy this situation (as well as a few other minor DM anomalies) a bit.

 

The good news is that OBD will be releasing an updated DM in the next patch. I'm not sure how much the updated DM will address the above issue, but if not, FB and I will probably have our own slant on the problem.

 

*Along with the size and shape of the damage box itself in the .m3d file.

 

Thanks, Prop-Wasche.

Great explanation, perhaps I'm just not hitting the thresholds or haven't been lucky enough to see the damage, as again I know it's there.

The new drivers (Nvidia 190.38) and OFF don't seem to get along, as I OFF keeps crashing once the shooting starts. I guess I'll have to do a system restore.

[Herr Prop-Wasche 7]

Instead of a system restore, do you have your old drivers? If so, uninstall the new ones and then reinstall the old ones. I have several older Nvidea drivers, so I can send them to you if you wish. You might also be able to grab older drivers at the Nvidea web site.

[Broadside uda Barn 0]

yes, try the rollback driver first.

If that gives you problems, then do the system restore.

either way, it should be painless.

[hughesyman 0]

Does anyone have screen shot of a damage aircraft thats been peppered with flapping fabric? i've never seen this effect in OFF, although i can see visual damage to my aircraft, i've never seen the flapping fabric in the wind and would like to see this effect.

[Olham 164]

As it still not seems clear, what to click or unclick to get "battle damage" visible - here are two screenshots.

One shows the Parameters of visual quality, where you should move the "aircraft" slider to 5.

 

The other shows the "workshop" - there you must NOT click high res. skins.

Click the middle one (see orange dart).

 

It may still not be visible for all then (some cards don't seem to do it), but perhaps this may help some of you.

[badgerboy 0]

Thanks Olham, I've got the 'normal res' and all sliders at 5.

 

I did a system restore before bed, back to the old drivers and we'll see what happens tonight. I tried a quick combat with 'invincible' settings and smashed my wing into a hangar to see if it would show some damage but on invincible you just get magically sent up into the air apparently with any craft injury. When I tried this without invincibility, I died before I could see any damage.

 

I think I'll try to find the windsock pole tonight and gently run into it with the wing, see if that shows anything..

[Condor44 0]

I have been following this thread with great interest. Like badgerboy, I never see any damage no matter how badly my plane is shot up. I have overall graphics detail, aircraft detail, and effects quality at 5. I have my resolution set at the highest my monitor will support, 1920x1200x32. Dej, by skins on 5 do you mean the aircraft detail slider or is there another setting I am missing? I have aircraft skins set at normal resolution in the workshops.

 

I also never see the red text describing the damage. Is there a toggle to turn this feature on and off? I thought it might be Status Message (Shift+D) but that had no effect.

 

Interestingly, I did see damage and the red damage messages earlier before I reset my CFS3 files bacause of the problem I was having with not having my campaign flights recorded. My campaign flights are now recorded (Unfortunately they have all ended with the funeral video ) but I see no damage or damage messages even though I restored all of my graphics and workshop settings to what they had been before the file reset. (I just reviewed thjem again last night) As you can see below I have a system that should run the game well. I use the same overall graphics settings as Homeboy and he sees visible damage and the red damage messages. My system has a little more horsepower than his but is fairly similar. I'm puzzeled. Any suggestions will be welcome.

[badgerboy 0]

Get off the invisability, it won't even allow you land.

 

Rather go with Outcomes Easy in Workshop, as YOU can Never DIE, but your plane can be ruined

 

Thanks, Uncleal; I'll try that so I don't have to sacrifice a pilot.

[Condor44 0]

Interesting Question: Try purposely to inflict visable damage to your aircraft by swiping a wingtip into a hanger, only 2 inches, any more you're sure to crash.

 

If you just shorten your wing, and don't see ribs, spars, and jagged canvas.

 

I think you've got a few to many Disables checked in Overrides

 

In overides I have disable intro movie, hi res Z buffer, terrain detail texture, disable validate device, disable chat, disable advisor messages, disable simulation warnings,

and disable water animation checked. Do you know which shouldn't be? They are the same overides I had checked when I saw damage and damage messages before.

[Olham 164]

Condor, perhaps you make a screenshot of your "overrides" and "texture info" in workshop,

and post it here?

But it may well be a more tricky graphic problem, as some people reported that, and nothing

seemed to help.

[Olham 164]

You should have High res. Z-buffer ON. Best you send screenshots.