Foliage

General M · 2012-02-04, 02:50 PM

I'm sure there'll be good level of detail of foliage (in particular, long grass, bushes etc.) in the game but my point is this:

Unless there's a toggle foliage option (very bad IMO as foliage can be used tactically), there will undoubtedly be a problem concerning the amount of high detail foliage that could be handled. In response to this, I would say that personally I would rather have certain areas or hexes that were very foliage heavy (so much so it served a tactical) while the rest of the map was fairly bare instead of a situation where we have fairly nice shrubbery spread across the map but none of it is any use.

Obviously I am not a dev, nor have I seen the game so I don't know the technicalities but as a general point do others agree?

DviddLeff · 2012-02-04, 03:07 PM

There needs to be more concealment in PS2 and it looks like there is from the screenshots... as you say it shouldnt be turned off.

If computers cant handle it, redesign or remove it as hardly anyone will use it if it handicaps them.

Zulthus · 2012-02-04, 03:26 PM

If there is foliage in the game, there should be absolutely no way to toggle it off. But as someone said, if lower end PCs can't handle it, scale it back for everyone. But either everyone has it or no one does.

Coreldan · 2012-02-04, 03:26 PM

Well, since we don't have prone, disabling like.. knee high grass and foliage like that should not give a real advantage to anyone.

General M · 2012-02-04, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Well, since we don't have prone, disabling like.. knee high grass and foliage like that should not give a real advantage to anyone.

ah, good point

SuperMorto · 2012-02-04, 03:56 PM

All I will say on this is PS2 has a new game engine, more for less if you know what I mean, this could be fantastic for an old PC, but on the flip side it could be a nightmare, we will have to see.

Zulthus · 2012-02-04, 04:05 PM

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Well, since we don't have prone, disabling like.. knee high grass and foliage like that should not give a real advantage to anyone.

Then it won't give a disadvantage to anyone, either. Plus, you could hide mines in grassy fields. Tanks won't stand a chance...

Figment · 2012-02-04, 04:07 PM

Knee-high grass conceals mines very well. Look at how well you can see mines in ye ol' PlanetSide with or without grass on.

It's a definite combat advantage and it also increases your frame rate performance if you can turn it off.

DayOne · 2012-02-04, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Well, since we don't have prone, disabling like.. knee high grass and foliage like that should not give a real advantage to anyone.

This. So long as your aren't allowed to disable larger bushes and cacti just turning off grass shouldn't be an issue.

EDIT: Figment also has a good point

Hmr85 · 2012-02-04, 04:22 PM

Foliage should be on at all times IMO. If the lower pcs cannot handle it. Then scale it back some so its equal for everybody and they can still run the game. I have been running with foliage on in PS1 in anticipation for PS2. So I hope its is a option that cannot be toggled off.

Graywolves · 2012-02-04, 04:23 PM

I've never toggled off foliage.

Warborn · 2012-02-04, 04:39 PM

Making there a lot of foliage but making it not toggleable might be a hard sell. I think PS2 looks amazing visually and a jungle that was relatively densely vegetated would probably be cool to see. But, gotta think about the folks with kinda crappy computers. Or maybe even us people with average computers would find foliage a big framerate drop? Either way, I hope they can find a way to keep foliage but not make areas with a lot of it a big FPS trap for some people.

DayOne · 2012-02-04, 04:42 PM

The problem for most low spec. PCs will be the amount of foliage, perhaps just scaling back the draw distance would work? Depends how easy characters are to see.

Or, have some sort of buried mine, no one would be able to see it, bit of a bitch if you 'find' one but it would be hidden by grass anyway.

SniperSteve · 2012-02-04, 04:42 PM

This is 2012. Foliage shouldn't create performance issues unless you are doing like destructable/interactable physics foliage, neither of which I expect to see in PS2, or intensive lighting, which would most likely be salable.

Sirisian · 2012-02-04, 04:43 PM

The problem is that the engine will remove grass on hilltops far away usually. Now for a sniper looking over a hilltop they see the grass around them which might block their view. For a person far away sniping at them they don't see it. This happened in PS1 so most people would flip off grass so they weren't at a disadvantage. Hopefully PS1 sticks to grass only on planes and not on the tops of hills and such so I can keep it on all the time.