SF2: North Atlantic

[+PureBlue 71]

The stock terrains were never their strong point.

TK has given us the engine, as soon as he releases the tools to modify it, modders will start building stuff.

With the power of a community, and the advantage of projects without deadlines, fantastic terrains will be built, just give it some time...

 

It's good that we have the option to turn down the settings for better frame rates.That means the engine can push that much data, and as we get faster hardware, it can deliver more..

I just hope TK is not pursuaded to put in hardcoded limits, again...

Edited March 12, 2012 by PureBlue

[+Stary 2,426]

im pretty sure a common "Forrest" can be made in Max using low polys,

 

Build the outter edge trees, then build the canopy of the forrest and attach them together, merge into terrain scene, place.

 

you dont need to model every last branch/trunk as you wont be able to see down into them and you wont be able to fly into them now anyway.

 

and end up with this:

 

Edited March 12, 2012 by Stary

[strongmc 0]

No map and featureless terrain. Comment said to change the name of Flight to "-Flight" ...where? Thanks for the assist.

[+Julhelm 266]

Or just do what everybody else has done for the past 5 years and get a Speedtree license. Surely less expensive than reinventing the wheel on your own.

[+Stary 2,426]

Speedtree is no point IMO

[+PureBlue 71]

Or just do what everybody else has done for the past 5 years and get a Speedtree license. Surely less expensive than reinventing the wheel on your own.

 

Now that is good pointer mate

Keep them coming..

[+SidDogg 130]

and end up with this:

 

 

Well, since we're on that subject...

 

Why not shape them like the forests in IL-2 or LOMAC?

 

Not too many polys there, either.

 

those type of forests fit better in SF2 anyway

 

 

 

 

 

SidDogg

[+SkateZilla 49]

make tree type 1, use scatter option in MAX

Make tree type 2, repeat,

Make tree type 3, repeat,

Clone a few times and rotate.

 

ex: http://www.3dsmaxresources.com/tutorial_display.php?id_tut=33&page=8

Edited March 12, 2012 by SkateZilla

[stuntman 170]

we can forget this amount of ground cover for some time IMO:

 

 

but I'd still take new engine over old one anytime

 

Wow. Nice foliage and distance view

[+JonathanRL 973]

Oh, dont worry about the Terrain. I think TK just listened too much to Á Sprengisandi and tought entire Iceland looked like that.

Could be worse. Could been a gigantic Iceberg ;-)

 

In all seriousness, I expected more too, but the main features of SF2: NA as far as I am concerned is above the deck and in/over the Ocean :)

That does not mean I would not cheer madly if we could use FSX Terrains in SF2 :D

[fallenphoenix1986 603]

Bah, somethings borked in the flight model, I've had two sucessful landings where I havn't went bouncing around the deck yet all have been within reasonable speeds and decent rates with minimal fuel remaining. the only way to bring it down in one piece is to treat it like a Gulfstrrream and kiss the deck. As I've said before this never happened to me with any aircraft/ship combination in the older games.

 

Craig

 

 

[+X RAY 83]

just made some classics...

[squid 21]

just made some classics...

 

 

The terrain Detail has gone up almost 10x in the polygon dept.

 

People are not grasping at how much the poly count of the terrain has been increased.

Run SF2/Nov2011 with debug on everything on high and unlimited w/ 1 F-4J, note the poly count on the debug,

Now Run SF2/NA, with debug on everything on high and unlimited w/ 1 F-4J, note the poly count on the debug.

 

Not only that, but now that the terrain is 3D LOD based it also casts a Shadow.

 

Objects on the Terrain are now all 3d Based, the trees, bushes, donkey's, mules, out houses, everything, and they also cast shadows.

 

So you can take the terrain Polygons count, and essentially double it for the shadow.

 

then you have to look at the texture layers, there are UV Maps, Specular Maps, and Bump Maps across the entire Terrain.

 

The Basic Water Terrain is most likely a large flat face square w/ UV, Specular, Bump, and now Reflection and Diffuse Maps as well as the Flow/Motion/Wave Layer which is 3d Polygon/Normal based. the Ships on the Water now use upwards of 5-10 TGA Emmitter effects for movement alone.

 

So the Terrain and water both have been increased in polygon and texture usage.

 

During night time, the bloom shaders have been increased, on Afterburner Emmitters, Lights, Explosions, reflections etc.

And objects that are lighted via 3ds max (the lights on my carrier at night look entirely different than they do in SF2/Nov2011)

 

Put it this way:

My 8800GTS Ran SF2 Nov 2011 at a solid 60 Frames/sec even with Hi Poly 3rd party Planes. only dipping to 25 or so Frames/Sec when i use my carrier which was 100,000 Polys + Hi-Res Textures + Alot of TGA Emmiter effects. Everything High/Unlimited

 

I Built a New System.

Powered by an 8 Core FX CPU 16 GB of Ram, and a AMD /Saphire 7950 3GB GPU, in SF2/NA, I get around 45 Fr/Sec over the water, 25-35 over the land, and low 20s on any carrier (stock or 3rd party). Again, everything on High/Unlimited.

 

only time i hit the 60/Fr sec VSYNC cap is when im above the overcast and its the cloud layer below and blue skies above w/ a dozen or so AI planes flying around. as soon as dive through the clouds and the terrain shows up, Fr/sec cuts in half.

 

So lets look at some options:

 

Horizon Distance, Setting this lower will bring in the horizon and render LESS of the 3D terrain, I think at LOW you are Rendering half of what you would be on Unlimited. (I will double check figures).

 

Terrain Detail, Setting this lower will make some of the hills/mountains more "Square" similar but a bit better than the old terrain's Level of detail, some areas look like checker boards w/ land/water..

 

Shadows, Setting this lower will decrease the shadows poly count, by rendering shadows with a lower LOD and Lower visible distance, thus cutting the Poly count.

 

Water Detail, Setting it lower will remove some of the Shader Diffuse/Reflection usage.

 

Effects Detail, Seriously I can set up an Effect that will kill your Fr/Sec to under 10 from 60+, Apparently Rendering the TGAs of the effects drops your Fr/Sec, lowering this option will decrease the quality of the TGAs being rendered for effects, and might be a good source for a Fr/Sec increase.

 

Objects/Aircraft Detail, Lowering this will help, as it lowers your planes Poly count as well as parked statics and wingmen.

 

To run High/Unlimited you need a lot of GPU Power and A lot of VRAM.

 

I have that aplenty and am Still barely able to run at Max Details. (though AMD hasnt officially released any 7950 drivers, 12.2 is still beta).

 

This could be a sticky. Comprehensive guide for the new graphics settings

Edited March 12, 2012 by squid

[DWCAce 19]

If I want the mission editor on my vanilla NA install, do I just throw the Exp2 into it?

[+ordway 23]

No map and featureless terrain. Comment said to change the name of Flight to "-Flight" ...where? Thanks for the assist.

 

 

The map is also black for me and even when I zoom in, it sometimes turns black again and I have to keep playing with the zoom back and forth.

[+ordway 23]

Look up Akureyi Airport.

 

 

Wow, this photo shows a wicked Akureyl Airport close to what one of the SFP2 NA screenshots shows. It must be an extremely pleasant field for jets to land at -Snicker, Snicker, Snicker.

 

 

http://www.isavia.is/english/airports/other-airports

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Skate::

During night time, the bloom shaders have been increased, on Afterburner Emmitters, Lights, Explosions, reflections etc.

 

That is very interesting. Are afterburners visible from longer distances at night? SF runway and aircraft lights have always had a kind of reduced distance effect -- ie... lights dim with distance much less than expected to compsensate for the utter failure of computer monitors to model light intensity and eye sensitivity. Did TK extend this to effect emitters as well?

 

 

Back in the SF-1, to get afterbunny plumes to show up at long distances at night in wide field of view, I had to super size them, like in the screenshot below (SF-1).

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunatetly in day time up close, they look like volcanoes as another suggested, hence the name Volcano Mod.

 

[+daddyairplanes 8,711]

If I want the mission editor on my vanilla NA install, do I just throw the Exp2 into it?

no EXP2 is the add on for SF2Europe.

to everyone else, with all the talk about high polys i have visions of TK sitting in his room saying quietly to himself " there's just no pleasing you people"

[+Swordsman422 61]

Another BuNo that shows up is 160899 on the cockpit plate. This aircraft was a 105-GR delivered in probably 81 or so. It served with VF-102 as AB110 in the mid 1990s. Like 160406, she never received the digital flight control upgrade and was stricken in 1995 when the Diamondbacks traded in their F-14As for Bs.

[Icarus999 70]

no EXP2 is the add on for SF2Europe.

to everyone else, with all the talk about high polys i have visions of TK sitting in his room saying quietly to himself " there's just no pleasing you people"

 

LOL ....First one to whine to TK about the new high res terrain beating the piss out of their single core 2 Ghz processor and six year old GPU on the third wire forum walks the plank . We have lots of great terrains at our disposal.. and the stock NA terrain should work for folks with low specs if they turn thier settings down. I still really enjoy a great many of the modded terrains and will continue to fly over them for a long time to come.

 

We are going to need very powerful rigs to fully utilize this terrain engine... I do not think that is a bad thing. The technology is finally here to make what we have all been asking for a reality. As we learn more about the new engine we will learn tricks to lower the frame rate hit on less powerful machines.

[Murphy'S 15]

Hello gents, for those who use électro opticals weapons in sf2 na, do you really see your locked targets at a decent range as it use to be with pré-march patch level on sf2?

[+Stary 2,426]

LOL ....First one to whine to TK about the new high res terrain beating the piss out of their single core 2 Ghz processor and six year old GPU on the third wire forum walks the plank . We have lots of great terrains at our disposal.. and the stock NA terrain should work for folks with low specs if they turn thier settings down. I still really enjoy a great many of the modded terrains and will continue to fly over them for a long time to come.

 

We are going to need very powerful rigs to fully utilize this terrain engine... I do not think that is a bad thing. The technology is finally here to make what we have all been asking for a reality. As we learn more about the new engine we will learn tricks to lower the frame rate hit on less powerful machines.

reading my mind, stop! especially the last part... c'mon everyone wanted this new engine! No trees you say, vast empty space? It's not Borneo FFS!

[Gr.Viper 131]

Now, since the engine supports off the map strikes, the Falklands/Malvinas seem within reach. And North Atlantic leaves room for South Atlantic.

How's vegetation there?

[Wrench 9,478]

sparse, in Terra del Fuego, and the Flaklands

 

 

or, the other answer:

 

"quite tastey, but stringy"

Edited March 13, 2012 by Wrench

[+JonathanRL 973]

 

So, where are the trees?

 

Even Red Storm Rising brings that up, tbf. Few if any trees.

 

(Thats Iceland btw, not the Falklands)

Edited March 13, 2012 by JonathanRL