Grass ???

[Droning_On]

is there any MODs for the grass....or has everyone just accepted. 2foot high blades of grass ????

[REDEYE_CVW-66]

Drives me up the wall as well...

There are many trailers where the grass i noticeably shorter... It might be reasonable to believe that some .lua file can be edited to this effect.  And no- we are talking about the slider in the graphic settings. It has to do with grass blades per square meter and height. It will cost perfirmance- but it would be great to have the option...

[Droning_On]

On 5/9/2023 at 9:48 AM, REDEYE_CVW-66 said:

Drives me up the wall as well...

There are many trailers where the grass i noticeably shorter... It might be reasonable to believe that some .lua file can be edited to this effect.  And no- we are talking about the slider in the graphic settings. It has to do with grass blades per square meter and height. It will cost perfirmance- but it would be great to have the option...

I think in 4K videos i watched the grass seems shorter !  (im on 2K).... Might not be a performance hit as shorter grass doesnt need to be visable as far !!.....maybe....who knows....but i agree its annoying

Edit:-  Nope my 4K solution is nonsense..........grass doesnt change per resolution

Edit 2:  found the .lua   time to play

Original

    enabled = false, --if false - old grass will be drawn
    
    lodsCount = 6,        --number of lods, the larger the number the thicker in front of the camera, maximum - 6
    radiusMin = 0,        --near lod radius
    radiusMax = 60,        --far lod radius
    grassDiameter = 200,--grass circle diameter, m
    quadSize = 0.400,        --grass cell size, m
    
    grassHalfWidth = 0.0015*6,-- half the width of a blade of grass, m
    grassHeight = 0.5,    --maximum¤ average¤¤ height of a blade of grass, m
    bendDistMax = 0.25,    --maximum projection of the blade of grass to the side, m
    pointSpread = 1.2,    --scatter of blades of grass of one cell, like mete   

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Droning_On

[Dave317]

Which file is it?  This tall grass drives me mad and I would like to have a play around with it.

[DD_Fenrir]

[aceviper]

Current grass is tripe...mustang had a great mod back in the day.

Maybe Taz could do something

[Droning_On]

Grass is tripe....agree..

cant get the .lua to work either

[DD_Fenrir]

Is the grass out of scale? Yes. 

Is it better than having no grass? Yes. If you don’t think so you can turn it off.

Would having scale grass impact performance? Yes. There’s a reason it’s a bit over scale. Halve it’s size and you double the polygons you need to cover the same area. Some one who knows more than you about DCS coding as determined that this is the best compromise. Don’t like it? Turn it off.

Of all the things to get ones knickers in a knot over, this one seems the most ridiculous.

 

[Scotty Rotten]

It's a thread about a map/landscape feature in a forum - literally - about landcape/texture mods. What's ridiculous is you having a problem with people just discussing it on - again - a forum.

[LucShep]

1 hour ago, DD_Fenrir said:

Is the grass out of scale? Yes. 

Is it better than having no grass? Yes. If you don’t think so you can turn it off.

Would having scale grass impact performance? Yes. There’s a reason it’s a bit over scale. Halve it’s size and you double the polygons you need to cover the same area. Some one who knows more than you about DCS coding as determined that this is the best compromise. Don’t like it? Turn it off.

Of all the things to get ones knickers in a knot over, this one seems the most ridiculous.

 

1 hour ago, Scotty Rotten said:

It's a thread about a map/landscape feature in a forum - literally - about landcape/texture mods. What's ridiculous is you having a problem with people just discussing it on - again - a forum.

You're right that this is a thread about a map/landscape feature in a modding forum, but the grass (as is) that we have in DCS is one of those things that is imediately perceived as a compromise. While he's a bit blunt, it's impossible to disagree with DD_Fenrir.

In times when people are buying high-end computers just to keep up with ever increasing DCS demands (GPU, CPU, RAM and SSD file swap, etc), to ask about minor features that will affect performance is a bit ridiculous. And grass, of all things!

It's a bit like complaining why aren't there 16K/8K textures for ground terrain and aicraft liveries, when in truth the current 4K/2K textures are already pushing over 12GB of VRAM usage in game (way beyond what any good mid-to-high range GPU can do)...

Maybe someone can come up with a modification that does not bork performance but, looking at the grass structure, it looks to me like what we have is the best possible compromise for now.

Edited May 14, 2023 by LucShep

[REDEYE_CVW-66]

I don't think anyone was interested in a value assesment based on preference here. 

This is a modding section.

Specifically about terrain.

Modders mess with default files to make the game look better. There are many wonderful modders that have had great result with tinkering with textures and lua files as you know. Taz, Barthek and Mustang just to name a handful. There are many more. Some have even been baked in the base game.

This is a thread about the possibility to mod/tune/enhance the grass based on one's preference.

That it costs performance or that DD Fenrir deems it 'ridiculous'is totally irrelevant. How people mod their games is totally up to them.

It is a fair question, posted in the correct section.

 

[LucShep]

hey regardless, it's still a forum...
 

[Taz1004]

Grass used to be possible to be modified though files in Bazar/shaders/metashders/.  That folder as we know has been encrypted.

[Branli]

On 5/15/2023 at 7:29 PM, Taz1004 said:

Grass used to be possible to be modified though files in Bazar/shaders/metashders/.  That folder as we know has been encrypted.

Is it not moved to  'Bazar/shaders/grass/grass.fx'? I remember i tweaked the lenght / height of the grass there. 
 

#define radiusMin		lodRadiusGrassDiameterSize.x //������ �������� ����
#define radiusMax		lodRadiusGrassDiameterSize.y //������ �������� ����
#define grassDiameter	lodRadiusGrassDiameterSize.z //������� ����� �����, � ������
#define quadSize		lodRadiusGrassDiameterSize.w //������ ������ �����

#define grassHalfWidth	grassBladeParams.x //�������� ������ ��������, �
#define grassHeight		grassBladeParams.y //����������� ������� ������ ��������, �
#define bendDistMax		grassBladeParams.z //������������ �������� ������� �������� � �������, �
#define pointSpread		grassBladeParams.w //������� �������� ����� ������, ��� �� �����

#define lodsCount		intParams.x //���������� �����
#define heightMapSize	intParams.y //������ ����� ����� � ��������

#define time origin.w
#define windSpeed wind.z
#define windOffset gridOffset.zw

You can tinker with some settings and create a formula from the input of the game variables.

How it works is the shader takes the pixel color of the terrain texture and creates a gradient. This gradient "Texture" is applied to the color of the grass. The grass is merly a simple vertex with some additional bending points for animating the wind and create a curve in the grass blade.

Btw i didn't check if it breaks IC, i tweaked it in 2.7 i think. Don't know if this still works with 2.9

Edited October 30, 2023 by Branli

[Slippa]

Well done Branli,

Modders?

I believe in the encouragement and nurturing of the inspired ones. 
 

 

 

[Hawkeye60]

And I came here looking to buy a pound!

Very disappointing!

[Dave317]

Any luck making shorter grass?