DCS A-10C - How to increase districts visibility distance

[gizmo]

Thank you Mustang. Appreciate it!

[Kuky]

As stated in some earlier replies, the old files previouly posted will not work with the 1.1.0.9 patch.

I created a rar which matches the A10C folder hierarchy for those having trouble editing their own. I also added the originals in case you want to go back.

These give the option of "Very High" in Visib Range selection

 

Just installed DCS A-10C again v1.1.0.9 and everything works fine thanks to your tip to include Graphics.cfg also and add Very_High settings in there also

 

It's funny how from version to version things change and ED flip things around :book:

[Schnarre Aggro]

well its about time to bump this thread again i think .....

 

i had the certain feeling that visibility in 1.0.10 is not as good as the o9 tweaked version :music_whistling:

 

i changed all the old files i could find (at quite positions).

I dont have the feeling that something seriously changed ... but i will make further tests

 

anybody else had similar experiences ?

[d0c.snak3]

I tweaked the files bit more and I am very happy with my current settings.

 

With this mod you will get new option in graphics settings for VERY HIGH visibility distance and this won't touch your existing LOW, MEDIUM & HIGH visibility distance settings, and you can see very nicely faded out cities/populated area till about 10nm, it looks pretty good... I recommend you try it.

 

WinRAR archive should be extracted into main DCS A-10C folder and contains following files:

 

...Config/Graphics.cfg

...Config/Terrain/Very_High.lua

...MissionEditor/Data/Scripts/OptionsData.lua

 

If your machine can't run it right now it's still got to have this extra option for later. For me (i7 950@4GHz and HD5870) I can run on average 20-30fps, only time I get low 10's is with lot of aircraft with high poly like F-15E etc near by... this just kills my video card. If I'm flying on my own even with TGP and Maverick on I get 15+fps flying low and 20 or more if I'm higher... and this is worst case scenario.

 

PS: For the dense grass I have reduced distance to 200m... it's more bearable on FPS, until I get new monster video card

 

Really like this mod; draw distance is soo much nicer. However, I'm getting a "Warning texture missing" error on items like the in sim paused menu. :huh:

[cichlidfan]

Really like this mod; draw distance is soo much nicer. However, I'm getting a "Warning texture missing" error on items like the in sim paused menu. :huh:

 

I remember that problem, though I don't remember the exact cause but in the long run it doesn't matter. That mod, IIRC, was broken by one of the patches (maybe that is what the problem is) that came out after.

 

The fix was to just replace your high.lua file with a modified version that had the very high settngs in it.

 

Found it:

 

See this old post of mine:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1296445&postcount=2

[Kuky]

FYI this still works for me in v1.1.1.0 where I changed the 3 files same as before, naturally I copied the files from this version and edited them in case old files are different

[MadTommy]

FYI this still works for me in v1.1.1.0 where I changed the 3 files same as before, naturally I copied the files from this version and edited them in case old files are different

 

I had a look at this thread last night, and ended up unsure of what worked & what didn't, so i decided to leave it aside.

 

Would you be able to summaries what is working and what is not, maybe link to the correct lua file and procedure.

 

Thanks

[Kuky]

I did same as in post 20... here's the files to be extracted to main game folder

Edited December 3, 2011 by Kuky
Uploaded better Very_High.lua file settings

[MadTommy]

I did same as in post 20... here's the files to be extracted to main game folder

 

Thanks a lot mate, i must have misread a post, as i got the impression this did not work.

[d0c.snak3]

I remember that problem, though I don't remember the exact cause but in the long run it doesn't matter. That mod, IIRC, was broken by one of the patches (maybe that is what the problem is) that came out after.

 

The fix was to just replace your high.lua file with a modified version that had the very high settngs in it.

 

Found it:

 

See this old post of mine:

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1296445&postcount=2

 

Still has the "missing texture" problem. As you say, however, it doesn't affect the game that much since it mainly affects the pause screen. The map screen is somewhat defaced though.

 

However, I'm willing to put up with it for the massive improvement in graphical fidelity!

[Kuky]

check bellow comparison of default High and mine Very High settings at night

 

image from ME to show distance (25Km) for deference

 

Default High settings

 

mine Very High settings

 

performance wise I don't find much difference, naturally there will be some but for me it's not bad at all to not use these settings :)

Edited December 9, 2011 by Kuky

[-Ice]

Kuky, I tried importing your files into my install directory and my Mission Editor would not load up. I've tried copy-pasting the settings but I think I'm doing something wrong.

 

What I'm basically looking for is the setting that will make the cities pop put much earlier/farther away. At the moment, the terrain looks very flat unless I am very close to a city.

 

Thanks!

[Kuky]

Ice, first, are you on v1.1.1.0? If so use the files from post 61 (http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=59739&d=1322927542) and extract to main DCS A-10C directory, then use this Very_High.lua (http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=59978&d=1323435670) and drop into Config/Terrain folder (it'll override the one from earlier archive from post 61)... once you've done this go into game settings and pick Very High for Visibility Distance

Edited December 10, 2011 by Kuky

[-Ice]

Yes, 1.1.1.0. Tried the links that you gave and it works! However, I've noticed a framerate hit (duh!) and I was wondering what is the distance set at? I noticed a little bit of 3D stuff at ~10nm out, maybe if I can edit this to ~6-7nm before they pop up, that will give me less FPS hit? Can you advise me what values to change? I do apologize for the trouble, working with a HD 5770 so not much GPU muscle there.

 

Thanks!

[Kuky]

In Very_High.lua file scroll to about line 50 where section for values for District are (buildings/cities) and reduce Far Distance value (1mile ~ 1.8Km so work from that) I've set mine to 27Km. Near Distance value sets when these objects will be seen full rendered... so between Far Distance and Near Distance the objects will slowly come from faded out to clearly visible... and you can play with those settings see what suits you. Personally I find forest to be better not to be too far out visible so I've reduced them (in game settings) to 6km... if I crank up both I get quite lower FPS also (HD5870 here bit o/c to 900MHz core from 850MHz default and it's in lot of cases running 100% usage and 100% VRAM usage)

Edited December 10, 2011 by Kuky

[-Ice]

Thanks a lot! I will do some testing tomorrow, see what my frames will be. I've also reduced clutter to 200m and trees to about 4500m.

 

If Near Distance = fully rendered, Far Distance is when it starts to become 3D?

[Kuky]

Thanks a lot! I will do some testing tomorrow, see what my frames will be. I've also reduced clutter to 200m and trees to about 4500m.

 

If Near Distance = fully rendered, Far Distance is when it starts to become 3D?

 

yup... and I forgot to mention one more thing... in Graphics.cfg file, the distance setting for Structures in Very_High section should match the Districts Far Distance in Very_High.lua

 

PS: I just had a crack at settings them to 50000m and it looks great :D Remarkably I did not notice massive FPS hit as I was expecting... the game is still quite playable :huh: (EDIT: never mind, tried again another mission and it was obvious FPS was suffering as I haven't even turned TPG Mav on and it was getting in low 20 and bellow 20 FPS... so not quite good :D back to 20-ish km values)

Edited December 10, 2011 by Kuky

[Kuky]

I changed the files bit more... I have increased night lighting textures to 80km as I find they don't affect CPU at all as these are just textures on the ground and it looks great from high up ;) Cities are now set at 20km, I think most people with decent CPU and video card will be able to handle this.

 

First screenshot over Krasnodar (20km distance set for buildings - density of Structures in Graphics.cfg is set to 80, fading in to full render at 4km) Ideally I would increase this bit more but then it hogs the CPU too much

 

Night time... I am about 18km off the coastline at 20000ft, you can see the night lights of towns/cities/villages to about 80km... to me it looks pretty good and doesn't affect CPU at all, if it affects anything it should be more textures loaded into graphics RAM (my card has 1GB of VRAM, I think from now on if you're buying new video card it should have 2-3GB of RAM as there's more and more high size textures in games)

 

attached new archive with all the files (just drag and drop into main DCS A-10C directory)

 

EDIT: I'll add my PC hardware also: Win7 64bit, i7 950 (o/c to 4GHz), 12GB DDR3, HD5870 (GPU o/c from def 850Mhz to 900Mhz) running 1920x1800 (exporting MFD's) in windowed mode, etc so pretty normal high-er end machine these days

 

EDIT2: just played Sierra Sunset mission and it was very playable, I did not get bad slow downs at all even if using TGP and Maverick at the same time.

 

EDIT3: uploaded new archive as I found I made mistake in districts lights value

Edited December 11, 2011 by Kuky

[scheffchen]

thank you very much kuky.

Installing now :-)

[Megagoth1702]

I tweaked the files bit more and I am very happy with my current settings.

 

With this mod you will get new option in graphics settings for VERY HIGH visibility distance and this won't touch your existing LOW, MEDIUM & HIGH visibility distance settings, and you can see very nicely faded out cities/populated area till about 10nm, it looks pretty good... I recommend you try it.

 

WinRAR archive should be extracted into main DCS A-10C folder and contains following files:

 

...Config/Graphics.cfg

...Config/Terrain/Very_High.lua

...MissionEditor/Data/Scripts/OptionsData.lua

 

If your machine can't run it right now it's still got to have this extra option for later. For me (i7 950@4GHz and HD5870) I can run on average 20-30fps, only time I get low 10's is with lot of aircraft with high poly like F-15E etc near by... this just kills my video card. If I'm flying on my own even with TGP and Maverick on I get 15+fps flying low and 20 or more if I'm higher... and this is worst case scenario.

 

PS: For the dense grass I have reduced distance to 200m... it's more bearable on FPS, until I get new monster video card

 

You don't even see the clutter/grass from more than 100m anyway unless you have a super mega high res monitor. :-D

[shelt]

I think this is the very best mod to improve the visual effect of the game!

[jotaele]

I think this is the very best mod to improve the visual effect of the game!

 

+1

 

BTW, this mod affects more the CPU than GPU?You always mention CPU when talking about distance draw.

 

There are others values than can be drop to get more fps instead of lowering the buildings draw distance? I really like this mod , and i have try lowering wather , AA, and lots of thinhg but depending of the map i get low FPS, so i was asking myself if there are something i could sacrifice , apparto of tree , brushes etc than i can lowdown like little buildings ,LOds or similar.For me the most important is to see in the distance, even lowering the quality, because the general feeling is better.

THX for this mod!!

[Megagoth1702]

Please keep the 1st post updated all the time my friend to make it easier for people who can't read the whole thread.

 

Thank you. Awesome mod. I think I will only use the night texture view range for now because my 3.2 GHz Quad is already too busy drawcalling all the buildings and trees... But I have plenty of GPU free.

 

What is the line for that?

 

 

Thanks in advance. <3

[Kuky]

Please keep the 1st post updated all the time my friend to make it easier for people who can't read the whole thread.

 

Thank you. Awesome mod. I think I will only use the night texture view range for now because my 3.2 GHz Quad is already too busy drawcalling all the buildings and trees... But I have plenty of GPU free.

 

What is the line for that?

 

 

Thanks in advance. <3

If you want to cut back on distance for buildings edit Very_High.lua file and reduce farDistance value (line 54) (use Notepad++ for editing)... and another way to reduce CPU usage is to reduce density of the buildings, this one is set in ...Config/Graphics.cfg file, 1st value for structures (line 258 ) (the higher this value the further smaller buildings will start showing, which will give more dense buildings further out)

[Kuky]

Here's files for recently released DCS A-10C v1.1.1.1 if anyone wants to try them out

 

EDIT: I just realised I set building density bit too high, to fix this edit Graphics.cfg in line 258 (always edit using Notepad++) and change structures = {150, 24000}; to structures = {100, 24000}; (don't worry about second value, distance is limited to 20km in Very_High.lua) or if still to high, you can use 80 or default 60 but it won't look as good :)

Edited December 18, 2011 by Kuky