Moving grass for helicopter rotor wash

[Mad_Shell]

  

[Pikey]

Actually, the idea gives a lot of the feeling of movement and life into the cockpit, it's something sufficiently missing from your environment in a helicopter. To be perfectly honest, why did ED ever have the dust kick up in the first place if this wasn't important? The dust cloud kickup is what needs fixed with the newer particle system you are seeing, so I hope they can just adjust this.

[sirrah]

In times where up-to-date GPU's cost roughly €/$1500, I'd totally agree with Bignewy..

 

Why invest time in eye candy, when it's far more urgent to invest in other stuff, like performance optimization. Even if we wish to spend money on a pc upgrade, stuff just isn't available.. Now is thè time for optimization.

 

Would I eventually, at some point in the future, want to see moving grass?: Of course I would!

Edited April 12, 2021 by sirrah

[Mars Exulte]

It's cool, but as BN said, it's purely visual, only encountered under specific circumstances, and has no impact on gameplay. It's probably not a huge performance hit, but definitely not a priority.

 

As for the dustup effects,

 

#1 they're old and been there a long time

 

#2 they do have a gameplay effect, making helicopters flying low much more visible

 

It's more about prioritising resources, cost vs reward. Coding the grass effects is probably an asspain that doesn't add much beside overhead. When juggling all the stuff they're working on at this moment, in the face of weather engine, graphic engine, lighting, etc, most of which are far more impactful gameplay wise... ''grass swoosh'' is low priority.

[Buzzles]

Claiming it'll decrease performance when it's been done in games for a decade or more in some form or another... yeah, not buying that unless ED are simulating individual blades of grass as physicalised objects in the world.

 

But it's definitely a low hanging fruit and not really worth it. The dust kick up is much more useful and actually worth getting working correctly imo.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Buzzles

[StevanJ]

6 hours ago, Mad_Shell said:

  

We wouldnt see it as the current dust model would cover it.
And Helicopter assets are extremely more high of a priority.
Otherwise youll have nice grass, and nothing to shoot at.

Edited April 12, 2021 by StevanJ

[Pikey]

Hate to burst peoples bubbles but visuals are always a priority in DCS and swapping out new for old is exactly what they do all the time and is coming: nodding at the specifically mentioned fire and smoke and I can tell you there is more. However, I'm mostly talking about the dust kickup effect rather than the grass.

Specifically about grass: Have you seen the trees move in the wind? The grass move in the wind? I dont think so, from the words of your posts, so you can make up how muchg this effect would cost in time/difficulty, but its clearly already there in the game and you never saw.

 

[Northstar98]

Yeah with Pikey here, the wind already blows trees and grass around as well as smoke, and at least for the former there is no practical 'gameplay' benefit - it's there to mostly look cool and be more realistic. And visuals are clearly a concern for ED, just look at the new propellers.

 

I'd say that it's low priority and I'd much rather have time spent on improving other more eye candy things such as the kick up from the rotor (which should preferably take into account what surface it's on), but given that I'm in favour of it.

 

And yes I agree that function so to speak should take precedence over form, especially if performance is going to be an issue, but typically developers of the former are independent of the latter - at least to my understanding.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Northstar98

[Pikey]

The general sentiment to concentrate on core game is absolutely something I agree with and have a long long history of saying in these forums, I just didnt think that the focus on helicopters and seeing this mostly already in the game (swaying grass and moving trees) and the dust being old and part of a new particle system that we can already see actively being replaced, is that much extra to ask of, in the current helicopter climate, that's quite topical.