GRAW2: Increasing draw distance...

[Wolfsong]

I've started a little hobby project mainly for MP, but will be usable in SP as well, where I'm gonna try to do what is needed to increase the draw distance from 150m to 300m.

This will make the game more resource heavy, but people have been asking about it and I think I can pull it off.

I have no set date for this, but I've done some testing and killed an enemy at over 250m, so it works.

As reference to the new draw distance I'll include the current map sizes (measured in 3DSMax by placing a rectangle over it)

Timber 320x390 = 124800
The Cut 300x310 = 93000
Crashsite 280x290 = 81200
Lagoon 170x410 = 69700
Calavera 190x330 = 62700
Nowhere 200x240 = 48000
Fort 150x230 = 34500
Arroyo 100x220 = 22000

Ageia Island 140x430
Training Ground 130x170
Mission01 240x260
Mission02 370x280
Mission03 450x300
Mission04 300x380
Mission05 380x220
Mission06 330x310
Mission07 310x290
Mission08 230x290
Mission09 800x470 (including bunker, almost half is water)
Mission10 470x310 (including bunker, a little more then half is playable)

With those in mind, I think 300m will be enough to begin with.

[Wolfsong]

It works...

[lobofiero]

hi Wolfsong, U know how many polygons can handle graw 2 engine? For a landscape?

[Wolfsong]

A lot. There is a limit on the vertex count on a single piece of geometry though, which is 64k including UV vertex count. But a landscape can hold unlimited number of geometry pieces in the same unit. So it's more a judgment on how low you can go while the landscape still looks good.

I'll take a look at some original landscapes and post their vertex count as reference later today.

[Wolfsong]

Example:

Timber is split into 2 objects.
One is 12520 vertexes (24711 tris) and the other 10198 vertexes (20124 tris).

That map would probably have been better as 4 sections though as it could then cull away parts more often.

[lobofiero]

thx for the info wolfsong but this 2 objects are for the detailed landscape or 1 is the main landscape and the other is the background landscape? Im doing a new landscape based on a old gr map.

[Wolfsong]

That is only the part you can interact with. So walkable areas and stuff you can see and hear that you shoot at. So all the closest mountain stuff around that map is in that mesh. But the backdrop geometry is much lower as well as much lower in texture density.

[Wolfsong]

Found a way to easily adjust the AI, which is available to all modders as it's in the open variables in an XML.

These default values can be set, and also adjusted for each mission inside the mission script itself:
- Auto detect range (in cm)
- Seeing radius (in cm and with 4 stages)
- Seeing cone angle (in degrees, 1 setting for stage 1 and 1 for stages 2-4)
- Hearing radius (in cm and with 4 stages)

All these are also available for separate settings for the Ghosts, which in the original game are set to be the exact same.

How do the stages work? Well... basically they work like follows (with some special cases and such which I 'm not really sure how to explain yet):

Everything is overridden if the AI already knows where the target is and their memory time has yet not expired (det_memory_see or det_memory_hear depending on situation). So then it's all a game of run and hide to try and get away again.

SEEING
- STAGE1: Detects target if seen inside set range and cone, no matter which mode they are using.
- STAGE2: Detects target if seen inside set range and cone, if in assault mode or if in recon mode and has a stance higher then prone.
- STAGE3: Detects target if seen inside set range and cone, if in assault mode and with a stance higher then prone or if in recon mode and with a stance higher then crouch.
- STAGE4: Detects target if seen inside set range and cone, if in assault mode and with a stance higher then crouch.

HEARING
- STAGE1: Detects target if noise made within range and noise is player moving in assault mode, in the open or behind cover, or player running in either mode, in the open or behind cover, or weapon fired.
- STAGE2: Detects target if noise made within range and noise is player moving in assault mode in the open, or if weapon fired in the open, or unsilenced weapon fired behind cover.
- STAGE3: Detects target if noise made within range and noise is unsilenced weapon fired in the open or behind cover.
- STAGE4: Detects target if noise made within range and noise is unsilenced weapon fired in the open.

So by looking at these, the correct stance and mode does affect the AI significantly. wink.gif

Then there is also the det_shot_timer that says how long the sound stays and is in the risk of getting into the detection range for a moving enemy, and explosion_alert_range for the how long the AI will detect detonations.

So I'm gonna do some adjustments to these values as well for the raw distance mod so it works better in SP as well.