Server Enforced Terrain Quality

[ComradeZoned (DayZ) 0]

     The grass in SA eats frame-rates for breakfast. As of now, the "Terrain" setting is server enforced at 'Very High'.

Of course, there is a setting for this, but changing it does absolutely nothing in-game.

Changing the server enforcement to Normal (Greater or equal to)- would cause less grass to be rendered while not creating an unfair advantage by removing the cover of grasses. (Thus allowing more resources to be used driving other game mechanics, and just as importantly, improve framerates)

Implementation would be simple and could be easily done before the next stable iteration.

 

Pros- Noticeable change in FPS (Just compare FPS of 'Very High' and 'Normal' in the start menu)

Cons- No real cons.

Edited January 31, 2015 by ComradeZoned

[rybec 339]

There is a single issue with allowing people to turn down detail of terrain:

Making it easier to spot someone. Really, having smooth frames is essential but nobody will play with the settings turned up if your choices are

A ) Don't see the guy laying prone over on hill X because of the terrain.

B ) See the guy laying down on the flat green hill as though there's no plant life on the hill at all.

 

It's just like how you can change your gamma and brightness to see in the night (for obvious reasons you should be able to) but nobody would play at night without cranking those settings up to get an advantage over others.

Edited January 31, 2015 by Heav

[HeXedMinD (DayZ) 39]

This was brought up to the devs a while back and someone said they would look into it. If they changed it on the server side from Very High to Normal we might get a bit of an fps increase without completely getting rid of the grass.

 

Im not sure how much of a difference it will make for people with good computers but any fps increase would be nice. I think it would be a nice change which could be reverted at a later time when the game runs better.

[ComradeZoned (DayZ) 0]

A ) Don't see the guy laying prone over on hill X because of the terrain.

B ) See the guy laying down on the flat green hill as though there's no plant life on the hill at all.

I did not suggest that it be removed completely, only to the normal setting.

There would still be plant life, such as bushes and small trees. (Those are Objects, not terrain) There would just not as much grass.

[gibonez 3633]

So servers can control what players see in certain graphical settings ?

 

Awesome this hopefully leads to people not turning down their settings in order to gain an edge.

[degude 133]

... to gain an edge.

This is why it's already in the game with the terrain quality (grass) :P

[Razgries 25]

 Right so it's OKAY to have an option to make the nights look like a super clear black and white video and have the option to have your server 24/7 night/day.... But it's NOT okay to remove a little bit of grass to boost everyones FPS by like 15-30 points? I'm sorry but this just does not make sense to me, the latter is far less comparable to cheating then the first. I'm just really sick of the FPS dumps every minute or two, and I know this would really help fix it. I don't think anyone besides the few people that invest the time into a guilly suit care, and lets be honest... Anytime I actually see these people, they are NOT laying in the grass anyway.... lol?

 

 

Edit: forgot that the people in the Guilly suit "care"... the irony of this can not be overstated  :P

Edited February 18, 2015 by Razgries

[degude 133]

 Right so it's OKAY to have an option to make the nights look like a super clear black and white video and have the option to have your server 24/7 night/day.... But it's NOT okay to remove a little bit of grass to boost everyones FPS by like 15-30 points? I'm sorry but this just does not make sense to me, the latter is far less comparable to cheating then the first. I'm just really sick of the FPS dumps every minute or two, and I know this would really help fix it. I don't think anyone besides the few people that invest the time into a guilly suit care, and lets be honest... Anytime I actually see these people, they are NOT laying in the grass anyway.... lol?

 

 

Edit: forgot that the people in the Guilly suit "care"... the irony of this can not be overstated  :P

     The grass in SA eats frame-rates for breakfast. As of now, the "Terrain" setting is server enforced at 'Very High'.

Of course, there is a setting for this, but changing it does absolutely nothing in-game.

Changing the server enforcement to Normal (Greater or equal to)- would cause less grass to be rendered while not creating an unfair advantage by removing the cover of grasses. (Thus allowing more resources to be used driving other game mechanics, and just as importantly, improve framerates)

Implementation would be simple and could be easily done before the next stable iteration.

 

Pros- Noticeable change in FPS (Just compare FPS of 'Very High' and 'Normal' in the start menu)

Cons- No real cons.

 

Two things to mention:

1.) I experience FPS drops (problems) only in cities, and there terrain quality is not the issue, it's the object rendering distance.

2.) True, that the day/night issue is also a problem. But they "allow" it currently because there's other ways to make "night vision" possible, even with enforced server setting on the relevant options. So with enforced settings to "stop night vision" exploiting the "night advatage" would be way more unfair, because it would give a huge advantage to those who know how to "enable" the "night vision" even though server settings are enforcing ingame settings.

 

But right now it's pointless to discuss about that, because the whole situation will change when the new renderer gets implemented into the game. So let's just wait till then and then you guys can make some suggestions or complaints that are not due to an early development status (alpha reminder :P)

Edited February 18, 2015 by degude

[mithrawndo 166]

Look at this picture here from Arma:

 

 

 

These players are not hidden behind the crest of a hill, nor are sinking in quicksand. The client that is rendering them has low terrain detail settings to improve their performance, but the server knows they are standing in long grass and so adds a layer of terrain to your client's screen to simulate that you could not see them properly.

 

It's a trade off, but to my mind an acceptable one.

 

Once the game is complete, I'm sure it's something that could be modded in if people still seem it desirable. It's absolutely not something that should be a development priority, as there is already a reasonably robust system in place to mitigate the problem.

Edited February 18, 2015 by Mithrawndo