The Fog

[Will]

I was wanted to guage people opinions on manually changing the fog levels for the game.

Inside BF 1942, the maximum visibility allows you to extend the view-distance to 100, and to get any increase above that, you need to do some config editing. I personally feel 100 is incredibly low, since when sniping I can easily hit well beyond that. And when you are in an artillery piece, and the Carrier you are shelling sails off into the fog, yet is still easily within range, it all feels a bit silly.

Now, having played CS for the last few years, manual config editing is part of the game, and every play knows how to tweak it, and what is and isn't allowed. But with a new game like this, people still haven't made up their minds.

So, enough of me talking, opinions please.

 

[Veng]

I think the view distance of "100" is too short as well.

If your PC can handle it you should be able to see "for miles". If your PC cant, you can acheive the same result (ie for sniping) with lower resolutions and texture details.

Hell, QWTF snipers *still* snipe in 320 software mode

 

[^Vas]

It all comes down to the power of your PC with regards to the range you can set. Technically you could see the horizon but seeing as there is no horizon we get the fog.

To me it seems a cheat to see further based on PC performance, however I'm happy to live with it, will have to see what the powers that be do about it and if they can stop it if it is deemed a cheat.

 

[Will]

Well, the way I look at it, the fog was put in to attempt to improve performance, and capped low for that reason.

Shame that Nvidia cards benefit from less fog though...

 

[legendario]

Tell me how to change it and i'll give you my opinion tonight. I have a ninja pc so perormance is not an issue

 

[Will]

Make the desired video/detail changes in the game, then quit. Open the video options file and change the view distance to 400, then save the file and set the file as read-only.

This will prevent the game from setting the view distance back to 100 and the card will work so much better when it doesn't have to fog everything.

The file is called video.con or video.custom.con or something.

 

[legendario]

cheers teh will.

 

[Will]

I'd recommend 300 rather than 400, then you avoid a few interesting glitches in the textures.

 

[Summo]

I'd recommend 200 rather than 300. At 300 I noticed I could see the building and vehicles being drawn. 200 seems a nice balance of having the thing looking gorgeous and being good performance.

Actually, 250 is probably optimum, imo.

It does give people an advantage whatever class you are, though is most noticeable as a pilot (plane or ship).

Nobody is going to stop me from modifying my view distance, but for league matches there needs to be a way to force 100 on everybody's client.

 

[Will]

Kind of defeats the purpose of spotting artillery at 100. Or sniping. Why have a rile where you can get regular hits at 300 range, but can only see 100?

One the flip side, I'd hate to spend a game getting shot by someone in the fog.

If it can't be controlled on the server-side at all, there isn't a lot of point banning it.

 

[Deathwatch]

The viewing distance 'trick' is quite nice, but wouldn't it 'upset' people who's pcs can't cope with the increase and keep dying cause of people who are well beyond their viewing range?

I agree that if there'll be a BW league, the viewing distance should be capped at a certain value, perhaps not at 100 tho. Things have to be as equal as possible in leagues.

 

[Will]

Due to the wonderful fog table display on Nvidia cards, decreasing the amount of fog can actually improve performance.

 

[Insane]

of course it'll upset some people, the unfair advantage of someone having a more powerful computer than them will make them jealous

im still fiddling with my settings on mine, turned everything down to LOW and set my viewdistance to 300. im certain online the server will only allow you to "see" up to 200... because of midway you dont see enemy ships until your nearly upon them.

if this was the CS community someone would be screaming "CHEAT OMG HAX ADMIN!!!111" by now

 

[eLL Tee]

There will always be ppl seeking an advantage over others, but at least this guy tell us what hes doing and how to do it.


If ya can only get kills against ppl who are on view 100 and cant see ya, learn the game get some skill would be my advice.

 

[Insane]

Originally posted by eLL Tee
If ya can only get kills against ppl who are on view 100 and cant see ya, learn the game get some skill would be my advice.

even tho the same person could do the exact same setting by changing his viewdistance to 300 as well?

if EA and DICE thought that the viewdistance was going to cause that much of a disadvantage they would have locked the engine down to the 100 limit, and not allowed it to be increased.

you will also find that the people who increase their viewdistance is then at a disadvantage due to the excess in processing power their graphics card and CPU will have to do, remember if they increase their viewdistance to 200, they have x2 as much to render, and so forth.

if you get killed by someone whos got a higher viewdistance than you, dont walk into the open like the fool you really are

 

[Will]

Thanks Ell Tee, I think, a compliment and a flame, all wrapped up in one neat package. I can't work out if you are for or against limiting it.

Serverside, you can limit the distance that names pop up at, but the fog is strictly clientside at the moment.

And sniping a moving target at 200, whether they can see you or not, isn't the easiest trick in the world.

 

[Davross]

Its an interesting problem - is it cheating or isn't? My personal feeling is that it isn't cheating for a number of reason, but this is one of those community issues that people have to decide on - much like bunny-hopping in CS. And for the record, I do not currently use this tweak, so I am arguing from a neutral stand-point.

Basically it all boils down to better hardware giving people an advantage and this is, in a way, the same old argument that used to relate to ping. Those that could afford better internet connections gained a huge advantage by gaining a sub-100 ping, or even sub-50 ping. Was this wrong... not really.

In one of my old game communities, for a game called Outlaws, those that had the first 3dfx voodoo cards were steets ahead compared to the software mode player because the game ran at 50 fps, not 15!

I enjoy my gaming and I pay for the nice toys. If by tweaking a config file I can see a little further at the expense of some frames-per-second then surely that is a compromise I should be allowed to make, in the same way that tweaking rate is used to match our PC to its internet connection, or turning shadows on or off has it own pros and cons (loss of fps vs. extra information about the where-abouts of an enemy).

Anyway - that's my tuppence worth.

Dav

 

[Insane]

*tempts Davross to the dark side*

You have the power to see the whole map, use it to help you!







sorry, watching too much star wars again

 

[Gumbo]

Speaking of shadows I noticed that when someone parachutes onto a roof they cast a shadow on the ground even through several floors of the building, interesting quirk.

 

[CliffyG]

Set mine to 250 just now and it looks much better, still can't hit nothing thats further than touching distance anyway so it's not too much of an advantage .

 

[lojik]

hmmmm tricky one this, even though I have "the power" to be able to run the game well with the fog removed I remain unconvinced of the fairness. I certainly don't have any problem with people using these kinds of settings for public play, but in a league game i'm not so sure.

Then again trying to force people to use different settings for public and league play would be a nightmare and as I don't feel that strongly one way or the other i'll just go with the flow

ph34r my fence sitting!

 

[Will]

Yeah, for me I have to admit its a bit of a non-issue. I can't see why anyone would care about my graphics settings, but having played Counterstrike for a good long time, I've seen plenty of cases where opinion shifts from "useful tweak" to "hacking bastard". May as well see how people feel now.

 

[Summo]

Hmm... from my point of view this has nothing to do with "having an advantage over the other player" or a "lack of skillz". I daresay the number of kills I manage on people who are between the 100m-200m mark away will be devastatingly low.

The simple fact is a view distance of 200m or so makes the game look much better and makes flying a joy.

That's it.

 

[eLL Tee]

hehe

it was not ment as a flame more of a joke.

i dunno what advantage it give as i aint tried it.

but it would be nice for everyone playing on same spec pc with same conn with same settings.

so skill wins, but we know that aint going to happen.


On wolfy theres a setting that allows u to take fog out, its a console setting ID and activion put it in there.

Some leagues and server have said it is a cheat and have got punkbuster to ban it.

make ur own mind up.

 

[Will]

I wish I could start a poll here.

I get the feeling that most people don't think its an issue, especially since there is no way of checking or controlling it.

 

[Scooba Da Bass]

I could see it being considered as a cheat if it actually improved your play that much. As an infantryman specialist it's hard enough to get a kill inside the 100 fog, let alone outside it.

 

[Louster]

But it's not just killing people from further away that's the issue. Having an increased view distance helps with loads of things, most obviously what your tactics are. Being able to see enemies from further away means you get a lot more time to prepare or whatever.

 

[Summo]

Shut up, Lou.

 

[eLL Tee]

if its a tweak to make the game play better till EA patch up to make it better.

then use it.

if all tweaks are posted on forums, then ppl will be able to make there own mind up,

 

[Buzz007]

in my view, removing the fog is cheating(it allows you to see your enemy way before he sees you, you may as well use a wallhack aswell), in omaha i think its deliberately closer to make it harder for the Defguns and ships to hit targets without scouts.

on some levels its there purely for effect, dustsorms in the desert, atsmospheric haze on others and so on.