AVGWarhawks first impression

[AkbarGulag]

First impressions. Liked the look of the captains quarter, had fun viewing the IDX. Go on deck, massive FPS hit. Was pretty close for me earlier, but 25-30 frames was easily playable. Now its 12-18

[CCIP]

Really. In my own (and most other cases I've heard) we seem to have got an FPS boost outside. :hmm:

Check your drivers again perhaps?

[AkbarGulag]

Originally Posted by CCIP

Really. In my own (and most other cases I've heard) we seem to have got an FPS boost outside. :hmm:

Check your drivers again perhaps?

Yea, thats the impression I got also. I got no idea. Not even sure my graphics card is able to get drivers anymore. Being an intel driven Ati card.

Another thing I noticed, the campaign layers for the expansion, specifically the air layer, have 8 times the detail and effort of the entire American campaign. The American campaign in now truly the poor brother of SH4.

The upside is, the developers have used historic names for all the airbases in the expansion. So borrowing form the U-boat missions will be a priority. In fact, we may as well chuck out the old aircover (IJ) from SH4 and import the new one onto the original campaign. Even the allies now have aircover from Pearl all the way to the suez, including dedicated Carrier groups patroling the Indian ocean. They even used waypoints to build this up as a patroling feature, very unlike the American Campaign. Where waypoints just arent in there for the campaign at all.

I thought the release notes here said 14 new aircraft (typo, must have been addition number 14?). It isnt, it's about 3. Upside is NZ finally got the boats it should have, they even gave us a plane as well ^^

The time and effort for the addon is far greater than that of the American Campaign, so in that respect, the addon deffinately gives you bang for buck

[CCIP]

I haven't looked into the data but I am cautiously optimistic! I'd love to see a little bit of traffic reduction though. It was obviously geared to gameplay so it seems like some of the shipping lanes are over-saturated or get active at wrong times in the war...

What we could really use with air bases in the American campaign though is implementing the scout plane feature, and fast! It totally substitutes the random map contacts for single ships that you get with scout plane reports - and the scout planes can be lost too... and no contacts for you outside air cover! Cool feature, definitely need this in all campaings now.

[AkbarGulag]

Originally Posted by CCIP

What we could really use with air bases in the American campaign though is implementing the scout plane feature, and fast! It totally substitutes the random map contacts for single ships that you get with scout plane reports - and the scout planes can be lost too... and no contacts for you outside air cover! Cool feature, definitely need this in all campaings now.

Wow really Now THATS an improvement. This gets more exciting all the time. I'll try anf get my frames up and have a look at this stuff.

Anyone know of any other massively cool extra features?

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by AkbarGulag

First impressions. Liked the look of the captains quarter, had fun viewing the IDX. Go on deck, massive FPS hit. Was pretty close for me earlier, but 25-30 frames was easily playable. Now its 12-18

I'm guessing you were in the harbor with all the traffic. I get bad frames in the harbor. Get out in the open ocean and see how she runs. Also, LOD for object like land, I slide both of those to the left. I see no need for this really.

I also noticed that prior to 1.5 when I encountered a ship my FPS would drop -5 frames. Does not seem like much but when you are floating around 25-30 frame on the bridge, it makes it difficult sometimes. Now, I do not loose one frame with ships around.

[CCIP]

One thing in harbors though: I used to get uniformly bad frame rates whenever within 20-30km from the harbor. Now I only get bad framerates when the harbor buildings are directly visible (which comes in at maybe 10 or so km), and you're looking directly at them. The moment you look away, it goes to a perfectly healthy frame rate! Seems like another optimization. I did lose a few FPS when looking at harbor structures, I'll admit, but it's worth the gain you get when not staring right into the thick them!

[AVGWarhawk]

As far as the harbors, maybe every blue moon I will cruise in and dock. Harbors are nice but secondary to me. The open ocean with surface skimmers is the place to be. So, after the initial WOW of the harbors, I just click the dock button. Lower FPS in the harbors is fine by me in this respect. Overall, most everything has improved on my system.

[AkbarGulag]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I'm guessing you were in the harbor with all the traffic..

Spot on Warhawk, I spawned at sea, but land was clearly visible. Was in such a hurry to dig through game files (exit game /data/yummy files) I never went to sea

Yea, Harbours are nice, but to honest, I always spawn outside them and never cruise in to see one. Harbour usually = shallow water on patrol. We all know what shallow water means!!!

EDIT: Still get fps hit at sea. As low as 12 frames on the deck, as low as 16 viewing from free camera looking at the ship. As low as 16 viewing the sub under water also. So in effect, a 5-9 fps decrease. Now heres the odd part, looking at merchants and traffic is normal, in fact probably 4-5 frames more than before! It is ONLY when viewing the German IDX (have not tried another German sub). On the upside, I get better frames INSIDE the IDX than a fleetboat. In the fleetboat radar room I would drop to about 15 if looking north to south. In this IDX I get 35-40!

It is clear there has been a general performance tweak, theres just something odd about external view of a German sub.

Did everyone else gasp with exasperation at how fast the IDX dives!!

[tennozan]

I wondered if anyone else noticed the IXD-2 diving like a tricked-out VII-C.

Not that I mind too terribly...

Personally, I think the add-on is the cat's meow. It opens the door to a lot more possiblities further down the sea lane too.

Not bugs but items I hope to see modded or improved on:

• The Brooklyn boys in my crew need to learn the German language and put some lemon juice in their jet black hair while they are on deck.
• Skins for my new boats. The IX-D2, while a monsoon boat looks a little shabby for my tastes. I'd like some conning tower emblems too.
• Periscope station and other areas reworked. I think the target info clipboard gadget is a little large and awkward for the screen area.

Again, overall I'm very pleased and looking forward to the future of SH4 with this add-on and hopefully more in the future.

BdU on the other hand...come'on now....an Iron cross SC for 40,000 tons including three T3 tankers? Where's the love mein herr?

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by AkbarGulag

Spot on Warhawk, I spawned at sea, but land was clearly visible. Was in such a hurry to dig through game files (exit game /data/yummy files) I never went to sea

Yea, Harbours are nice, but to honest, I always spawn outside them and never cruise in to see one. Harbour usually = shallow water on patrol. We all know what shallow water means!!!

EDIT: Still get fps hit at sea. As low as 12 frames on the deck, as low as 16 viewing from free camera looking at the ship. As low as 16 viewing the sub under water also. So in effect, a 5-9 fps decrease. Now heres the odd part, looking at merchants and traffic is normal, in fact probably 4-5 frames more than before! It is ONLY when viewing the German IDX (have not tried another German sub). On the upside, I get better frames INSIDE the IDX than a fleetboat. In the fleetboat radar room I would drop to about 15 if looking north to south. In this IDX I get 35-40!

It is clear there has been a general performance tweak, theres just something odd about external view of a German sub.

Did everyone else gasp with exasperation at how fast the IDX dives!!

Here is something to try and I did it also. Knowing the add on was coming and mods had to be removed to install, I decided to uninstall the game and reinstall. Then I added the add on. Nice clean game ready to go. It is quite possible you will gain your FPS here if you do this. Besides, we have to wait a few days for teh modders to confirm their mods work. So, hey, way not?

[CCIP]

I agree, the IXD2 dive times in this should make Type II players in SHIII jelaous

[Penelope_Grey]

That is exactly what I thought. It dived quicker than a IID does. Not that I was complaining when the bombs started falling from the plane.

There are a number of things I want to praise.

1. The U-Boat does not look like a floating rust bucket. This is great.
2. I like the animated periscope in the conning tower.
3. I also appreciate that it can actually dive to great depths.

There are a few negative things IMO.

1. The crash dive times are fast far too fast
2. I think the battery is depleting just a bit too quick.
3. The radar doesn't retract into the housing?

Obviously there are more detailed things I have to say and will say them later but first impressions are its just what I expected of it.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Penelope_Grey

That is exactly what I thought. It dived quicker than a IID does. Not that I was complaining when the bombs started falling from the plane.

There are a number of things I want to praise.

1. The U-Boat does not look like a floating rust bucket. This is great.
2. I like the animated periscope in the conning tower.
3. I also appreciate that it can actually dive to great depths.

There are a few negative things IMO.

1. The crash dive times are fast far too fast
2. I think the battery is depleting just a bit too quick.
3. The radar doesn't retract into the housing?

Obviously there are more detailed things I have to say and will say them later but first impressions are its just what I expected of it.

The real question Penelope, does this add on have potential? What say you?

Did you seriously just ask that?

Or is that ment kind of tongue in cheek?