Tree branches in 2.1, possibly a little too tough?

[Mr_sukebe]

Just ripped the main blades off my Huey with some nearby branches on a tree.

 

From what I've read in Chickenhawk and similar, whilst the rear blades on a Huey were very fragile, the main blades were strong enough to chop through bamboo and similar.

So logically they should probably also be capable of chopping through normal branches in Normandy.

 

My guess is that all of the elements of a tree have been made very strong and that it's not viable to make the main trunk strong, the surrounding leaves not. If that's the case, then please ignore this thread as I don't consider the benefits enough to justify trying to code an update.

However, if trees do have variable levels of strength, might be worth revisiting which should break first, i.e. blades on a chopper, or the tree.

[BIGNEWY]

If you have been around long enough here you will remember when we all wanted tress to be collide-able so much, good to see we have gone full circle :)

 

I think the simple answer is don't hit the trees, to model a difference between different tree strengths would be taking it to far.

 

p.s Love chickenhawk, one of my favourites

[BaD CrC]

Yes, agree with Bignewy. Having collideable trees is a MAJOR step forward that rotorheads were desperately asking for since 2009! Give ED developers some praise for taking into account the small helicopter community (and a small break too :) ).

[Johnny_Rico]

Mr_Sukebe, it took them 8 years to work out how to make the trees solid

 

You might be waiting a while on them having variable strengths

[FragBum]

If you have been around long enough here you will remember when we all wanted tress to be collide-able so much, good to see we have gone full circle :)

 

I think the simple answer is don't hit the trees, to model a difference between different tree strengths would be taking it to far.

 

p.s Love chickenhawk, one of my favourites

 

Agree both Huey and Gazelle, you can touch them slightly but they normally bite hard. :D

 

From what I've read it was more like minor twigs, bigger stuff was at your own risk. :smilewink:

[FragBum]

Yes, agree with Bignewy. Having collideable trees is a MAJOR step forward that rotorheads were desperately asking for since 2009! Give ED developers some praise for taking into account the small helicopter community (and a small break too :) ).

 

Plus one. :thumbup:

 

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right. :D

[BaD CrC]

[Home Fries]

A simple solution might be to have two "hit boxes" for trees. The first hit box is the entire tree, and merely triggers the sounds of rotor collisions with branches. The second hit box covers the core area of the tree (trunk and large branches) and is a death sentence to the helo.

[Shadow KT]

A simple solution might be to have two "hit boxes" for trees. The first hit box is the entire tree, and merely triggers the sounds of rotor collisions with branches. The second hit box covers the core area of the tree (trunk and large branches) and is a death sentence to the helo.

 

Or just make the hitbox smaller in general :).

 

Just an idea, I don't fly helos, so it is whatever for me

[Johnny_Rico]

How about pilots treat trees the same way if they were flying in the real world in a helicopter ..... avoid at all costs and give a wide berth :-)

[shagrat]

A simple solution might be to have two "hit boxes" for trees. The first hit box is the entire tree, and merely triggers the sounds of rotor collisions with branches. The second hit box covers the core area of the tree (trunk and large branches) and is a death sentence to the helo.

That would double the hitboxes/objects you need and thus double the performance hit by collidable trees... I would prefer the "smaller" hitboxes as they won't hit performance.

That said, I am soooo happy to have collidable, LOS blocking, missile exploding trees, I actually don't care too much about "chopping branches" or not.

 

Great, great addition and a long overdue feature for the rotorheads.

 

Thanks ED!

[Mr_sukebe]

As mentioned, it really depends upon how the trees have been coded.

My guess is that the whole tree is a single unbreakable object, mainly because that would be the easiest way to code it and probably the lowest resource hog for the server. If that's true, then frankly my own concerns are so niche that it makes absolutely no sense to waste time on this when there's MUCH bigger fish to fry.

 

I think the query only becomes relevant if ED have coded the trees in a more complex manner, e.g. with hit points, different levels of hardness across the try. Highly unlikely, but possible. If it were the case, then maybe there's an easy config that could be done.

 

Just to re-iterate, this really isn't worth spending developer time on, unless it is VERY easy to do.