Cloud cover

[BeefBacon 1185]

Not something super important, but it's something the devs should definitely consider.

 

Basically, clouds should cast shadows. The shadows don't necessarily need to be actually cast by the clouds since, as far as I'm aware, the clouds are generated by some shader and they don't actually exist in the game world.

 

There's something weird about looking out onto a vast landscape and not seeing the shadows of clouds slowly moving across it. This relatively small addition could really add to the visual fidelity of the game.

 

 

Would also be nice if you could see rain falling off of clouds in the distance. Again, a small addition but it makes it feel as though the whole world doesn't revolve around you. Makes the world feel bigger too, and not just a country in a sea of featureless landscape.

 

It could also have a gameplay impact. Say it's a full moon at night, so you can actually see where you're going. Clouds cover the moon, allowing players to effectively move in the shadows.

 

Once again, hardly a pressing issue, but I think it could add a lot.

Edited April 19, 2014 by BeefBacon

[Zedertone 378]

Not something super important, but it's something the devs should definitely consider.

 

Basically, clouds should cast shadows. The shadows don't necessarily need to be actually cast by the clouds since, as far as I'm aware, the clouds are generated by some shader and they don't actually exist in the game world.

 

There's something weird about looking out onto a vast landscape and not seeing the shadows of clouds slowly moving across it. This relatively small addition could really add to the visual fidelity of the game.

 

Would also be nice if you could see rain falling off of clouds in the distance. Again, a small addition but it makes it feel as though the whole world doesn't revolve around you. Makes the world feel bigger too, and not just a country in a sea of featureless landscape.

 

It could also have a gameplay impact. Say it's a full moon at night, so you can actually see where you're going. Clouds cover the moon, allowing players to effectively move in the shadows.

 

Once again, hardly a pressing issue, but I think it could add a lot.

And what about the people who have clouds and shadows off? :P Then you'd be wishing you were behind a tree or something.

[Jeer 16]

DayZ has Volumetric Clouds, they exist in the game world (particle i think). You could fly through them. And i think the normal daylight is already very diffuse.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Jeer

[BeefBacon 1185]

DayZ has Volumetric Clouds, they exist in the game world (particle i think). You could fly through them. And i think the normal daylight is already very diffuse.

 

As far as I'm aware DayZ does not feature volumetric clouds. Arma 2 does, however.

 

Besides, volumetric clouds are not the issue. The illusion that clouds are casting shadows is quite enough. I don't think it'd be necessary to have true shadows cast by clouds. Besides, I don't think the engine can handle alpha in its lighting calculations so doing it that way wouldn't work.

[Chaingunfighter 917]

As far as I'm aware DayZ does not feature volumetric clouds. Arma 2 does, however.

 

Besides, volumetric clouds are not the issue. The illusion that clouds are casting shadows is quite enough. I don't think it'd be necessary to have true shadows cast by clouds. Besides, I don't think the engine can handle alpha in its lighting calculations so doing it that way wouldn't work.

Arma 3 has volumetric clouds, not arma 2.

[NagsterTheGangster 388]

Shit for a later day, but totally awesome idea. Then if they add footprints you could avoid the rain if possible and avoid leaving wet footprints behind you.

[enforcer1975 1111]

People turn off shadows anyway...what's the use of adding them?

[Jiggly Ritz 35]

Once the game is better optimized then this would be a welcome addition, but at the moment the advanced lighting and shadowing affects lag the game too much to bother with them.

[BeefBacon 1185]

People turn off shadows anyway...what's the use of adding them?

 

I don't, and most of the videos I've seen on Youtube have shadows too. It's like saying why add new sound effects for guns when some people play with no sound? For the benefit of those who do.

 

Once the game is better optimized then this would be a welcome addition, but at the moment the advanced lighting and shadowing affects lag the game too much to bother with them.

 

I agree. Most of the suggestions on these forums discuss additions that would be better made later in the development process, and this is no exception - especially considering how terribly the game performs. 

[enforcer1975 1111]

I don't, and most of the videos I've seen on Youtube have shadows too. It's like saying why add new sound effects for guns when some people play with no sound? For the benefit of those who do.

 

 

I agree. Most of the suggestions on these forums discuss additions that would be better made later in the development process, and this is no exception - especially considering how terribly the game performs. 

 

You know yourself that comparing sound and shadows are like comparing apples and oranges. Nobody complains about having an inferior sound chip. It's mostly because they think that completely turning off shadows gives them that much more fps when using a minimal requirement system when a lot of other factors from the game itself kills client performance. Even if they fully optimized the game to run 100fps on a mediocre system if you left the option to turn off shadows or anything that keeps the other players hidden from them in they will turn them off to gain the advantage over those who play the game the "natural" way with clouds, shadows, sunglare and all. Hell if they introduced winddrift and you could turn it off clientside what do you think who does what?

Edited April 20, 2014 by Enforcer

[BeefBacon 1185]

You know yourself that comparing sound and shadows are like comparing apples and oranges. Nobody complains about having an inferior sound chip. It's mostly because they think that completely turning off shadows gives them that much more fps when using a minimal requirement system when a lot of other factors from the game itself kills client performance. Even if they fully optimized the game to run 100fps on a mediocre system if you left the option to turn off shadows or anything that keeps the other players hidden from them in they will turn them off to gain the advantage over those who play the game the "natural" way with clouds, shadows, sunglare and all. Hell if they introduced winddrift and you could turn it off clientside what do you think who does what?

 

In my experience shadows have only a minor impact on performance. Anti-aliasing really screws my system, though. Even on 2x my FPS drops noticeably. A while back I had a pc that had some poxy little GPU and a 2ghz (I think) dual core processor. Basically it could barely run Arma2 on the lowest settings and, as far as I can remember, having shadows on the lowest settings had minimal impact on my paltry framerate. Of course I'm sure that would differ between systems. That and DayZ seems to run worse than Arma2. 

 

But it's the same with any graphics setting. Why improve the way grass looks when not everybody plays with it enabled? Why create high-poly models when some people play with low model quality? Why do anything?

 

The in-game applications I mentioned were more of an afterthought. I noticed a lot of people tend to whine when a suggestion is made that is 'pointless'.

 

In regards to people playing with certain settings turned off to give them an advantage, I'm in the camp that certain settings should be forced to be on so that some players don't have an advantage over others. Namely shadows. Grass maybe. Might seem draconian but it'd ensure a fair playing field without alienating low-end systems.

[enforcer1975 1111]

In regards to people playing with certain settings turned off to give them an advantage, I'm in the camp that certain settings should be forced to be on so that some players don't have an advantage over others. Namely shadows. Grass maybe. Might seem draconian but it'd ensure a fair playing field without alienating low-end systems.

 

I played in the ArmA ladder where they forced grass off because of "performance issues". It had a really hard time finding a hideout with my ghillie since you stick out like a sore thumb. It really looked like you were playing soccer on a green carpet, really looked like sh*t. Bringing up forcing grass and 1st person on caused a flame war resulting in the end of the ladder because it split clans.

[byrgesen 1341]

As far as I'm aware DayZ does not feature volumetric clouds. Arma 2 does, however.

 

Besides, volumetric clouds are not the issue. The illusion that clouds are casting shadows is quite enough. I don't think it'd be necessary to have true shadows cast by clouds. Besides, I don't think the engine can handle alpha in its lighting calculations so doing it that way wouldn't work.

 

DayZ does have Volumetric Cloud system, same as Arma III not II, but someone else already mentioned that :) Both games got it from ToH btw.

Source: http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/41444643504/this-is-the-first-update-when-i-have-sat-down-and

 

As far as cloud shadows goes, i think its gonna be hard for them to create anything else then stencil shadows, due to the performance impact and if they arent visible to everyone, theres no point in adding it tbh.

But i could be wrong.

Would rather not have it then having stencil shadows, thats for sure hehe.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Byrgesen

[AP_Norris 1018]

And what about the people who have clouds and shadows off? :P Then you'd be wishing you were behind a tree or something.

People who have clouds and shadows off are assholes or have a terrible PC.

[DropBearChick 1217]

People who have clouds and shadows off are assholes or have a terrible PC.

Thats me :(

[BeefBacon 1185]

I played in the ArmA ladder where they forced grass off because of "performance issues". It had a really hard time finding a hideout with my ghillie since you stick out like a sore thumb. It really looked like you were playing soccer on a green carpet, really looked like sh*t. Bringing up forcing grass and 1st person on caused a flame war resulting in the end of the ladder because it split clans.

 

Similar discussion on these forums. Hell, I even made a thread on forcing 1st person a while back after I accidentally joined a hardcore server and found I actually really enjoyed it. Was wondering why 3rd person was even an option given the issues it presented.

 

It'd definitely be nice to see grass and shadows being forced to render, especially if there's not much of a performance hit... though grass would definitely cause problems given that it's just extra polygons to render and, allegedly, the engine has an issue with rendering polygons.

 

DayZ does have Volumetric Cloud system, same as Arma III not II, but someone else already mentioned that  :) Both games got it from ToH btw.

Source: http://dayzdev.tumblr.com/post/41444643504/this-is-the-first-update-when-i-have-sat-down-and

 

 

Guess I stand corrected. I assumed it was just a shader, especially given the weird way that clouds warp when you look away from them.

Edited April 20, 2014 by BeefBacon

[AP_Norris 1018]

Thats me :(

Get a job hippie.

[byrgesen 1341]

Guess I stand corrected. I assumed it was just a shader, especially given the weird way that clouds warp when you look away from them.

 

We learn new stuff everyday :)

Could the clouds be "warping" because of your FOV? Cuz' i have never experienced that before.

They should work exactly the same way as in Arma III, because its the same piece of code taken from Take On Helicopters, and ive never seen it there either.

 

@topic

I have no idea how feseable it is to make clouds have shadows tbh.

Dont even know if its possible with the vomuletric system they have, or if something new has to be coded.

[Jiggly Ritz 35]

I keep my clouds at the lowest setting, but almost everything else is disabled or on low. My pc has above the recommended specs, but the game still lags because it is not yet optimized. I imagine we will see huge fps improvements later on in the development process, probably around beta stage.