Can we have some graphical gemütlichkeit, bitte?

[KillKess]

"Nicer" roads might also offer an incentive for vehicles with unstabilized guns to stay on the roads.. channeling traffic etc..

At the moment most maps dont realy give any penalty for always driving cross country. Almost no bogging, to fast movement. I guess with better map settings rouds and other ways would be used much more frequently but it seemy to be a design issue.

[Tacbat]

Try changing the theme of the map.

[Werewolf]

At the moment most maps dont realy give any penalty for always driving cross country. Almost no bogging, to fast movement. I guess with better map settings rouds and other ways would be used much more frequently but it seemy to be a design issue.

I know that in the theme editor factors like traction, surface hardness and many more can be adjusted. What I haven't seen but might be available is the ability to differentiate between tracked vs wheeled.

For example - once while in column on a snow packed road at the Hoehenfels (sp?) training center in the winter of '73 our tanks had no trouble moving up hill on that road. The wheeled vehicles in our company got nowhere. They eventually gave up and had to find a different route to get to where we were going. Took'em the better part of a day while we made the trip to our destination in less than an hour. On the other hand I've seen deuce and a half's traverse muddy fields that tanks got bogged down in and had to have a VTR retrieve them. Traction is not the same on a surface for a wheeled vs tracked vehicle and weight is probably a big factor too. Maybe that's modeled in SB Pro Pe and I just haven't really noticed it. Not many themes are set up to model wet, muddy conditions where traction would be a real factor in cross country movement.

I've played with the factors a bit. Moving cross country does slow down tracked vehicles and wheeled vehicles even more (perception, wishful thinking or reality - beats me). So maybe cross country movement is modeled - its just that no one uses it because all the standard themes assume dry - except the snow ones but I've not noticed that snow doesn't have much of an impact.

Maybe the theme guys out there could create some good lousy weather ones.

[Volcano]

At the moment most maps dont realy give any penalty for always driving cross country. Almost no bogging, to fast movement. I guess with better map settings rouds and other ways would be used much more frequently but it seemy to be a design issue.

Try any of the "realism" themes and then tweak one to your liking.

[Froggy]

I have made a custom theme, where the wheeled vehicules are stuck when they enter into the wood, but not the tracked one (even if they travel at fast speed, it results a very slow speed).

Drag: 0.25

Traction : 0.80

Hardness: 0.75

bumpiness: 0.90

[KillKess]

It is simply not enough to simply change the theme-settings. Due to time restricitons i mostly play offline against the "AI". One would have to change the whole mission scripting for the AI plan to get something usefull. Otherwhise the AI will still drive cross country....

Its been a very long time since i played online last time. Which settings are mostly used online?

[Tank guy]

It is simply not enough to simply change the theme-settings. ...One would have to change the whole mission scripting for the AI plan to get something usefull. Otherwhise the AI will still drive cross country....

So are you mad about the map settings or the fact that the AI isnt routed along roads and instead drives cross country?

Use the realism themes or modify one of them to make your own. It takes about five minutes to do. I made a theme that even tracked vehicles cant cross and it took about 25 seconds.

This thread is out of control. First some hero wants the source code so he can paw away at the graphics and its made its way all the way to "the map themes suck"...

Jack

[KillKess]

First: I am not mad about anything, i just pointed out, that changing the theme doesnt help anything if you dont change the whole mission scripting for computercontrolled units. And sorry if i reply to "false" suggestions which were made within the thread.

And honestly: your way of getting personal doesnt help to stay on track with this thread either.

[Ssnake]

I know that in the theme editor factors like traction, surface hardness and many more can be adjusted. What I haven't seen but might be available is the ability to differentiate between tracked vs wheeled.

Bumpiness affects wheeled vehicles more than tracked ones. It may not be perfect (in reality you could also have flat surfaces that wheeled vehicles cannot negotiate), but it's the best that we can offer right now.

[ARM505]

Guys, it's pretty simple - here's the plan (secret tip: don't tell anyone else!)

Just make Battlefield 3, with full real everything, ie to operate each platform you must be able to perform a cold and dark startup. Also, simulate the entire surface of the earth in 1m blocks. I could tolerate it if not 100% of all buildings/trees were modelled, maybe in the first patch? Simple, isn't it? I can't believe nobody else thought of this before....

[Polak]

Better graphics and bright colors alone can hold attention of some for few hours, perhaps few days max. But that is normal and what is to be expected of toddlers, right?

Seriously though, please do not be under even fleeting illusion and impression that SBProPE can and may be suddenly flooded by eager crowds of newcomers. By better graphics, cartoons, or lolly pops included. Demographics, taste and attention span of current computer and video game mass public has truly changed and there is no way to stem or influence this shift by luring towards more complex and thinking and learned input requiring simulations.

Just fact of life, as the whole above is just humble 2c of mine......

[Tonywjones44]

Seriously though, please do not be under even fleeting illusion and impression that SBProPE can and may be suddenly flooded by eager crowds of newcomers. By better graphics, cartoons, or lolly pops included. Demographics, taste and attention span of current computer and video game mass public has truly changed and there is no way to stem or influence this shift by luring towards more complex and thinking and learned input requiring simulations.

Just fact of life, as the whole above is just humble 2c of mine......

Seconded. SB Pro PE may be a niche. But it's a niche inhabited by an elite.

Still, most of us would undoubtedly appreciate slightly better graphics if the resources to do it are available.

[Scrapper_511]

How I wish I could take up the offer on the job opportunity being presented here. It would be a dream job. I've just started learning C++ and just barely downloaded the student version of 3ds so I can familiarize myself with it. Otherwise, I'm all YES's to the qualifications...including Photoshop experience and artistic talent.

My fingers are crossed an opportunity like this will exist after I've gotten my Bachelor's several years down the road!

[Toastman]

Seconded. SB Pro PE may be a niche. But it's a niche inhabited by an elite.

Still, most of us would undoubtedly appreciate slightly better graphics if the resources to do it are available.

All we need is some shadows , particularly under tanks hull , this would make a huge difference to the look of the sim.

[SeanPatrick]

"On the way!"

[Toastman]

Shadows on the way !!! Fantastic !!

Thanks

[SeanPatrick]

Don't get too exited. A lot of stuff is on the way. We'll just have to wait and see when it will impact. :biggrin:

[Hank]

I was doing some research here before starting another scenario. I saw the request for shadows a few days back and looked again at the comments.

On landscape with a lot of grass and ground cover its not too obvious if you're not looking for it. But on desert terrain with bright sunlight its very obvious. It does not kill my love for the game but it would be very good to have shadows. It connects objects to the ground. I play for the tactical / sim value. The graphics are great already but shadows would be a huge addition.

In the old drawing board days, I did a lot of architectural renderings and calculating how shadows fall on ground and nearby buildings; it was tedious work to get it right. But it really makes a drawing pop out at you. (not to mention reflections in glass and water) ... of course the 'puter does all that for you now.

have a nice day

[KillKess]

Quick important question: is it planned to include shadows as a mere candy or will it have influence on spotting and AI behaviour?

[Ssnake]

It may be a two-staged process.

[Polak]

Graphic improvement to THIS simulation are quite difficult and complex to implement from several reasons.

Most important being that any change to even minute detail of the graphics may affect gameplay. There is the issue of the transparency, smaller LODs, TIS and mipmaping, which require strong consideration and attention. There is issue that library of the objects is locked and it is quite hard to introduce new items there, even if they are the same existing 3D models with just modified textures. Last but not least .... that terrain rendering in SBProPE is already very elegant and lifelike and simply it is hard and even perhaps in a way little arrogant suggest to improve a masterpiece! Considering that significant changes to graphics are in the company pipeline, safest course of action would be stop here and wait for them.

However, if only to continue this interesting thread, there might be several areas where some minor improvement could be experimented. One of such a change IMHO could be playing with tree models.

Here, I have just substituted, mixed and interchanged few existing evergreen tree textures to get IMHO interesting and rather subtle difference in conifer tree looks, when placed side by side.

Here I made is brand new "conifer" and other "forest_dec_branch" I made by placing original "conifer" side by side thus making it longer. This minor example above is to reinforce the point, that even minute changes introducing some variations may have quite nice and realistic effect to already beautiful natural SBProPE scenes. I have made some other minor changes to other elements of the graphics, which if you found interesting, I could share at the later time.

Again, ATM please consider this entry more for the sake of the continuing of this discussion, than any intend to mod.

[Ssnake]

I think that there are a number of improvements that can be made without the need to rework a single item of the artwork. Then there are a number of changes that do require new artwork - this part will be somewhat labor intensive. Finally there are ways to improve the general performance which will allow us to activate other effects which, if combined, may overall not negatively affect the overall framerate performance. With all these elements combined, I hope that everybody will recognize that scenes in SB Pro can be made much prettier indeed without sacrificing performance or realism ... at least for somewhat modern graphics cards, and screen resolutions in the full HD range. Of course it is too early to go into details. But then again, some of the required techniques are well understood and proven, so that their overall effect can be predicted with some reliability.

[Hank]

Is the freeware Blender a modelling package that would work with SB? Its one of the recommended s.w. pkgs for a space sim I'm also engaged in.

If I'm to engage in learning something new, I'd like to know what sims I play are compatible.

Thanks

[Ssnake]

I'm not quite sure what you're aiming for with your remarks about Blender. Blender is just a tool. You can create and animate 3D models with it. But then you'd still need to actually import it into SB Pro, which is a process that would require our team's involvement.

[Hank]

You actually answered my question. It appears from your reply, Blender can be used to model objects that "could be" imported to SB. I know I'd have to get a SB developer to import.

The question had a multiple purpose. Another sim I'm using can import Blender files; I was wanting to pick a software that could be used with it And SB Pro PE (and maybe others I'm interested in) before I invest time to learn how to use it.

Thanks and have a nice day