How big can I go

[gunterlund21]

Im making a template that will hopefully work when Combined arms comes out. It consists of all the combatants that fought in the Russo-Georgian war. It breaks down what I can discern there TOE's based on information on the web. Needless to say this is a lot of units. I have them placed into groups based on the vehicle count of a particular unit. So for instance a Russian tank company has 10 tanks in one group. They are named with what I believe to be the proper unit designation.

So with that said this creates alot of groups. Now the unique piece of this is no groups have movement waypoints. They are placed based on where they started on Aug 8th 2009, but the idea is when Combined Arms comes out human commanders will be moving them into battle. Im hoping to allow people to come in as battalion commanders to control their forces.

 

So my main question is, how many groups can I lay down before the game chokes. Im hoping the server will have some efficiencies, for instance having graphics turned off etc. Has anyone pushed the limit of how many say 10 unit groups they were able to place in a mission and still have it work. Also does deactivating groups help with system overhead or does the system still have to account for them? Im trying to minimize the number of AI controlled moving objects like aircraft etc. Thanks for the feedback.

[Jona33]

After somewhere around 500 units you may experience problems with sound depending on the computer.

[HiJack]

You need to test the mission on the server you will run the mission on. Yes it helps to deactivate groups, just add a day (or several days) if its a loong mission. When spawning in the deactivated groups do not take them all at the same time as this chokes the server. Spawn them in a group at a time with a couple of seconds in beween.

 

I would not make to much work on the mission or now as you may end up doing every thing all over after release. Buil a skeleton mission with a few units inside a few groups and make the mission it self (the tasks) run as you like in the terrain as you like.

 

(HJ)

[Krebs20]

I've ran a stable mission with over 900 units with over 80 groups. Units were moving and firing. This was in FC2.

In dcs world I'm testing the same mission redone from scratch. It has 1500 units so far. It runs with some framerate issues. Lows in the teens FPS. Highs in the 50s. I get my game lag when I the ground forces are trying to engage each other. I hope the engine get some more optimization in the next patch.

 

Note that a group of 10 will have less load on your system than 2 groups of 5.

 

I run with all settings maxed, high resolution terrain mod, increased districts mod, and fire and smoke mod. @ 1080p. I will torture my system till I'm getting closer to release. I'll roll it back to stock high settings then. I can have a better idea how well the system will handle the mission.

[gunterlund21]

Thanks guys for the feedback. Im trying to make my groups as large as possible based on the TOE. So for instance I leave everything at minimum at the company level not at the platoon level. Looking forward to giving this a whirl.

[Krebs20]

Just a reminder, a groups speed it limited by its slowest unit. Don't place your infantry with armor.

[gunterlund21]

yea no doubt. Infantry seems to be a bit sketchy as to whether they will even move forward sometimes. Some other units are rather useless like mortars since they are static. I do like Besczl's pack with the static D-30 however. Wish there was an animation to mobilize them.