Better performance, but at what cost?

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Here's a few un-doctored DayZ SA screenshots from the pre-alpha build, make of it what you will but I see a vast improvement over what the average DayZ player currently experiences, goodbye potato textures:

Edited June 26, 2013 by Fraggle

[Felixthefriendlycat 92]

For me, A2 and the DayZ-mod (and OPF:CWC before that) is all about gameplay. I remember the first time I played the OPF demo I was a bit dissapointed 'cause the graphics didn't look *that* good. But after 5 minutes of gameplay I was hooked and knew that imo it was the best game ever.

So, I hope the SA will look good, but for me it's the gameplay that's the most important.

Yes that is exactly what I also find and I hear this argument a 1000 times a year. But the thing is when I talk about graphics I generally do not care for fancy lighting and depth of field. I am talking about graphics settings like LOD distance that affect gameplay by a lot. For instance in arma 3 I have generally higher performance, this has to do with the lower LOD distance settings for textures. But once I zoom in with a sniper on a forest, suddenly those high res textures will need to be loaded and my fps drops by almost 70%. That really affects the gameplay. For instance in arma 3 I cant distinguish a person walking through the woods at far away distances because the tree is just a blop of low res texture. I am already very happy with how arma 2 looks. I just want to stress how certain features that might seem unimportant can have a major effect on how the game will feel.

[deathwolfx03 0]

The engine has its limitations (regarding the video settings). If you have a Haswell CPU and a top-of-the-line GPU that doesn't mean you're the only one who wants to play the game, know what I mean?

You don't even need all the newest stuff to enjoy it so stop exaggerating.

If a computer struggles that much then it is time to upgrade and get a new setup. Yeah, I know its not easy for some people to do that but do you expect games to stay in the same state forever?

This is not the right way to do it, you don't downgrade a game graphically. They should just give extra tweakable options and significantly start reducing the quality the closer you get to the lowest possible settings.

Edited June 26, 2013 by DeathwolfX03

[Target Practice (DayZ) 1335]

Here's a few un-doctored DayZ SA screenshots from the pre-alpha build, make of it what you will but I see a vast improvement over what the average DayZ player currently experiences, goodbye potato textures:

-snip-

Those are indeed rather pretty. Any indication what kind of rig those were taken on?

[Felixthefriendlycat 92]

Here's a few un-doctored DayZ SA screenshots from the pre-alpha build, make of it what you will but I see a vast improvement over what the average DayZ player currently experiences, goodbye potato textures:

Yes I definately agree it looks 'prettier' at first glance. But look at the forest behind the guy. Those trees are now just flat textures. What can happen now is if somebody is in those woods he would be able to spot you and you would not because you don't have the high quality model loaded in. I know it is a MASSIVE performance gain to not render those trees the way they should but it is that simulation part of arma 2 that made dayz a success. Those 'graphics' also function as mechanics in the game. They decide what is possible and what not.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Felixthefriendlycat

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

I do take your points, there does have to be balance and optimisation though, that's just a fact and it's something every game company wrestles with, especially when it comes to multiplayer gaming. I certainly don't have the answers, I'm just providing facts.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Fraggle

[Death_Dealer 3155]

The SA pictures aren't anything special.

It's possible to achieve those looks in ArmA 2. Hell, I've seen ArmA 2 look better at times.

[Ozelot (DayZ) 394]

Arma 2 is a pretty good looking game in my opinion.

Hahahaha.

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

The SA pictures aren't anything special.

It's possible to achieve those looks in ArmA 2. Hell, I've seen ArmA 2 look better at times.

I didn't say they were special and as I said before Arma 2 can look amazing. In reality though not many people get to experience that due to famously bad optimisation. The SA is being optimised so that many more players can experience those levels of detail.

Both games are using the RV3 engine at their core, the SA is managing to get a lot more out of it.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Fraggle

[Felixthefriendlycat 92]

Those are indeed rather pretty. Any indication what kind of rig those were taken on?

Could be a pentium 4 and a hd3650 for that matter. You only need 1 fps to take a screenshot :lol:

[Death_Dealer 3155]

I didn't say they were special and as I said before Arma 2 can look amazing.

Sorry, I didn't mean to direct my post at you, just badly worded it.

I'm referring to the people who were absolutely creaming their pants over the SA pictures. I mean really, they're not that great.

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

Sorry, I didn't mean to direct my post at you, just badly worded it.

I'm referring to the people who were absolutely creaming their pants over the SA pictures. I mean really, they're not that great.

Don't worry, I agree with you.

I think some of the people that are creaming their pants are the people currently playing with low res models and graphics options turned down. They think the SA is the answer to their prayers but the reality is although (in my experience through testing) performance is somewhat improved if they can't run Arma 2 at a decent rate then they're gonna have a bad time.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Fraggle

[Target Practice (DayZ) 1335]

Could be a pentium 4 and a hd3650 for that matter. You only need 1 fps to take a screenshot :lol:

True, although one would presume that they're being run on a system that's capable of running at that level of detail at at least 20-30FPS, if only for the shot-taker's sanity.

[terminal_boy 860]

Let's hope for their sakes that turning graphics settings down to Low doesn't transfer the load to the CPU in the SA in the same way as A2 OA does.

[dgeesio 1034]

Here's a few un-doctored DayZ SA screenshots from the pre-alpha build, make of it what you will but I see a vast improvement over what the average DayZ player currently experiences, goodbye potato textures:

downsized images face palm ftw !

[Fraggle (DayZ) 15720]

lol, you can get the full size ones online somewhere, I just grabbed those from another thread because I'm lazy.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Fraggle

[SoulHunter (DayZ) 233]

Yes I definately agree it looks 'prettier' at first glance. But look at the forest behind the guy. Those trees are now just flat textures. What can happen now is if somebody is in those woods he would be able to spot you and you would not because you don't have the high quality model loaded in. I know it is a MASSIVE performance gain to not render those trees the way they should but it is that simulation part of arma 2 that made dayz a success. Those 'graphics' also function as mechanics in the game. They decide what is possible and what not.

Consider it that the specs u got on ur pc are the abilities of the character you have. If they are good, then your char would see people from miles away easily..

If they are bad, then your char might even be a big blind guy who even cannot see what is 30-40 meters away from him lol...

Edited June 26, 2013 by SoulHunter

[RJTurneR 112]

Yes I definately agree it looks 'prettier' at first glance. But look at the forest behind the guy. Those trees are now just flat textures. What can happen now is if somebody is in those woods he would be able to spot you and you would not because you don't have the high quality model loaded in. I know it is a MASSIVE performance gain to not render those trees the way they should but it is that simulation part of arma 2 that made dayz a success. Those 'graphics' also function as mechanics in the game. They decide what is possible and what not.

Pretty much answered your own question there in a sense. The reason it is flat textures is exactly that.. A massive performance gain (Massive might be an exaggeration though). To be honest though those trees in the distance look no different to how they are now IMO. And that is a fair distance, you would need a high caliber rifle to make such a shot from there, and such rifles no longer exist in SA, so I see no need to worry about that. At worst someone will spot you, thats it.

Edited June 26, 2013 by RJTurneR

[Cap'n (DayZ) 1827]

I like the current weapon textures for ArmA 2, they are really high quality and look very good. Problem is, when you put it on the ground and see how awful the ground textures look, it strikes you "Damn, how is this?". Seems like its going to be the other way around with the standalone.

[Felixthefriendlycat 92]

I like the current weapon textures for ArmA 2, they are really high quality and look very good. Problem is, when you put it on the ground and see how awful the ground textures look, it strikes you "Damn, how is this?". Seems like its going to be the other way around with the standalone.

No, dean stated the weapons would have lower polygon count but very high detailed textures to compensate