cloud formation...

[hannibal]

i ran in to this you tube clip...

 

 

the part with the F-15 eagles and AWACs, there is some awesome cloud coverage...

 

is this in LOMAC FC? or is it a LOMAC & FSX edit...?

[SuperKungFu]

its lock on, its just high overcast.

[hannibal]

way cool!

do you think we will see that in DCS Black Shark?

 

if not over the overcast, at least be under it?

[RedTiger]

Something like this will probably be in DCS. If you've played LOMAC before, it sounds like you've never turned up the cloud level all the way. :P Nothing special about the video, the cloud level has just been turned up all the way.

[hannibal]

Something like this will probably be in DCS. If you've played LOMAC before, it sounds like you've never turned up the cloud level all the way. :P Nothing special about the video, the cloud level has just been turned up all the way.

 

maybe your right...

i have an Nvidia 8800GTS (G92) 512, on a xp machine, AMD 5400X2 dual, and 4 Gigs of RAM..

 

i put all options i can set on high, but it still looks regular...

do i have to go further and edit .ini files, or .lua files?

 

the youtube comment speaks about forced MAX AA & AF..

 

messing around with triple screen, urze show me how to mess around with the aspect ratio and field of vision...

 

now for the cloud formation, what should i do to turn it up high? any links explaing advanced gfx settings in lo:fc?

 

my heat blur looks nothing like the video...sometimes i think its a mod add-on

Edited September 29, 2008 by hannibal

[DTWD]

The AA and AF will not to do anything to the clouds, it will just make everything look "nicer". I say "nicer" because you may like jaggies and blurred textures :D.

 

Seriosly though you alter those settings on the GFX card, leave LOMAC out of it.

 

Go into the NVidia control panel, go to the advanced settings (not in front of my PC so can't you exactly where it is, I use it that much I know where I am going without concentrating). In there find (or add) lomac to the list of games and set AF and AA to override (enhance does very little at all to this game) and then set the levels accordingly. 4x should be plenty, anymore is overkill and is putting more strain on your card (and power consumption) for no real advantage. If you can run your game at your monitor native resolultion, with your setup you shouldn't have to many problems running up to around 1920 x 1200, your graphics will look better. If you have a CRT (like an old style TV) and not an LCD screen you may get away with 2xAA. Lomac is heavy on the CPU and light on the GPU so bare that in mind.

 

Regards

Paul

[Kuky]

To get overcast clouds set cloud density to 9 or 10

[Vekkinho]

To get overcast clouds set cloud density to 9 or 10

 

...and climb above!

[Kaptein_Damli]

...and climb above!

 

Yep, but on my system I never go up over the clouds...I get bad fps..My system is 3 years old, and going over the clouds makes a huge impact on fps. Dunno why, but I loose 15-20 fps. I have an avergae of 40-50 elsewhere, so I don´t know why staying above the clouds makes such a huge impact on fps.

[3Sqn_Sven]

Yep, but on my system I never go up over the clouds...I get bad fps..My system is 3 years old, and going over the clouds makes a huge impact on fps. Dunno why, but I loose 15-20 fps. I have an avergae of 40-50 elsewhere, so I don´t know why staying above the clouds makes such a huge impact on fps.

 

Try the fast overcast low mod, i think it's by bobocop, you should find it in lock on files. My system is brand new and still has crap FPS without this mod.

[Kaptein_Damli]

Try the fast overcast low mod, i think it's by bobocop, you should find it in lock on files. My system is brand new and still has crap FPS without this mod.

 

Thanx, will try it later when I get home from work. I do hope ED has optimized Black Shark as Flaming Cliffs is not...it´s not good when people with today specs have bad fps on a game from 2003....bad coding anyone? :(

[DTWD]

More like old coding.

 

LOMAC and FC hardly use the GPU, they are more CPU based. Now when we are talking about two or four core processors they are technically very powerfull if a programmer cared to use them. However as this is an old game and pre-multicore they utilise just one core, and hardly the GPU.

 

A modern CPU's raw GHz power is on par if not below that of a single core CPU from a few years ago. However a modern cpu has other features which speed it up and that isn't counting that it's actually 2 or 4 * what was available if only programmers would use it.

 

But we have to remember that is OLD code that is still going strong and still being used.

 

Hopefully FC will be integrated into the new DCS at some point.

 

Regards

Paul

[Kuky]

Well the only occasson where I find GPU being the bottleneck in LockOn is when I run ground textures with 30/50Km distances and LOD = 2 (in Graphics.cfg) AND I set all in game graphics settings to max (Water = Very high, Haze = Advanced ... etc etc) in this occassion when I use for example 4xAA and 16xAF (on 24" monitor) even low scenery will give me no more then 25-30FPS. If I just change Water = Low my framerate more then doubles... I wouldn't even try to have overcast and very high water.... it's just not smooth any more.

[RedTiger]

Well the only occasson where I find GPU being the bottleneck in LockOn is when I run ground textures with 30/50Km distances and LOD = 2 (in Graphics.cfg) AND I set all in game graphics settings to max (Water = Very high, Haze = Advanced ... etc etc) in this occassion when I use for example 4xAA and 16xAF (on 24" monitor) even low scenery will give me no more then 25-30FPS. If I just change Water = Low my framerate more then doubles... I wouldn't even try to have overcast and very high water.... it's just not smooth any more.

 

Not to mention a big fat CRASH!

 

If I put clouds at 9 or 10 with anything above medium water, the sim crashes at mission load.

 

As a rule now, I don't run with very high water. The FPS loss on my system is just plain stupid for no apparant reason. I don't get it. High = cloud reflection and Very High = cloud and surface reflection. The only thing I can think of that explains the 20 FPS hit I get with very high water is that the sim is rendering the reflection of all the terrain and objects above the water, since water is rendered under all terrain.

[Kuky]

...The only thing I can think of that explains the 20 FPS hit I get with very high water is that the sim is rendering the reflection of all the terrain and objects above the water, since water is rendered under all terrain.

 

yup... that's exactly what happens... even though you can't see the water when you fly over terrain, it's still rendered underneath... and so is the shadow.

[Kaptein_Damli]

Maybe ED should have a look on how IL-2 engine is made. Like 2D trees looking like 3D trees from above! Very very clever and think of dense forests with all the trees with limited impact on GPU/CPU. Water in IL-2 is also a lot nicer with better waves etc. IL-2 has better groundgraphics than Lock On IMHO. (Slovakia anyone). Thinking of how old IL-2 really is, the graphics is good even today! The good things too, it runs with very good fps even on older systems like mine. No stutter when something explodes etc. I get bad fps if I set A LOT of planes in the air, (like 100+) but overall I get better fps with IL-2 than with Lock On FC. Enjoying them both though!

[Kuky]

well trees in IL-2 are made same way as overcast is made in LockOn. When flying very low however the forest doesn't look that good at all in IL-2, in fact, you can't see it at all...

[GTengineer]

One of the stock F15C missions that comes with the sim called Intercept or something like that puts you in an F15C in that very same overcast scenario. Doesn't look that great IMO.

[hannibal]

what file do you set the cloud density?

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

Start the Mission Editor, choose your mission, then press the weather icon (top left of your screen, looks like the sun behind a cloud). That brings up the WEATHER page. Here you can set the season, temperature, cloud cover (for full overcast set the density to 9 or 10) etc etc.

 

If the density is 5 or greater you can set PRECPTN ie rain, thunderstorm or (in Winter) snow or snowstorm.

 

Most folks just fly at noon with perfect weather and they miss out on how beautiful lockon can look. Experiment with different settings of weather plus time, start before sunrise or just before sunset and change the time by 5 mins each time to see what difference it makes as the sun slowly rises or sets.

 

Change visibility distance to get a haze in the far distance.

 

Experiment with FOG. the setting THCKNSS is the fog height from ground level. you can get some nice effects in hilly terrain with fog part filling the valleys looks pretty to fly over. DENSITY is how thick the fog is and how far you can see once you are in it from a 1000m down to 5m where you can hardly see your hand in front of your face.

It is fun to try some challenging landings with a crosswind, some fog, a low lying cloud overcast so you are totally relying on instruments and only see the runway at the last minute.

[Vekkinho]

 

A modern CPU's raw GHz power is on par if not below that of a single core CPU from a few years ago. However a modern cpu has other features which speed it up and that isn't counting that it's actually 2 or 4 * what was available if only programmers would use it.

 

Not entirely correct statement there!

 

It's the FSB freq that differs when you compare a new LGA 775 C2Q@2.8 (1333Mhz FSB) to a S478 P-IV@2.8 (800Mhz FSB)!

 

Don't take out FSB freq!