*** The Patch 1.2 Discussion Thread ***

UBRS DLC mirror is up

[MONOLITH]

Originally Posted by The Renegade

However, I have a question about Anisotropic Filtering, or AF. For those of you who have it enabled, does it provide much of a visual boost? I'm guessing that it maybe makes the detailed area around the sub/camera larger than it would be without it, but I really haven't seen much of a difference when I use it.

Most graphics engines will lessen/weaken the detail on far away objects, such as a building on the horizon. Instead of seeing detailed windows, you might just see the building outline as a grey flat shape. As you move closer to it in the 3d world, more and more detail comes into focus.

This is done to improve Frame rates by reducing what your system has to calculate and create visually.

Ansitropic Filtering forces far away objects to have greater and greater visual detail from further away.

In a sub sim, going to external view and looking around at distant ships, and most likely the distant waves, is where you would be able to see the difference. It really shouldn't have too much effect on close up objects like your own sub.


One thing about SH4, is because of the large ocean, and the minute details in the wave action, Ansitropic Filtering could actually have fairly noticeable fps impact because of the volume of waves detail to handle in the distance.

You guys should experiment with it and see what happens on each of your individual setups.

As for looking at distant ships through binoculars or the periscope, I'm not sure but the game engine might simply consider the objects 'closer' when viewed through such magnification, in which case AF wouldn't really matter for that anyway.

You guys may find AF isn't really worth the performance hit on this particular game.

I think AF may be more noticeable in a game such as GRAW, where you are runing around a city constantly looking at large distant buildings.

Experiment and see. Your results may vary.

[MONOLITH]

Originally Posted by Ilpalazzo

I looked through CCC but I see no such thing. Where might I find it?

PS: I didn't have to turn off any of the AA options to get rid of the green line. I just used my monitors native resolution, or shift the image slightly with the driver software.

[Prof]

Originally Posted by MONOLITH

Most graphics engines will lessen/weaken the detail on far away objects, such as a building on the horizon. Instead of seeing detailed windows, you might just see the building outline as a grey flat shape. As you move closer to it in the 3d world, more and more detail comes into focus.

This is done to improve Frame rates by reducing what your system has to calculate and create visually.

Ansitropic Filtering forces far away objects to have greater and greater visual detail from further away.

In a sub sim, going to external view and looking around at distant ships, and most likely the distant waves, is where you would be able to see the difference. It really shouldn't have too much effect on close up objects like your own sub.


One thing about SH4, is because of the large ocean, and the minute details in the wave action, Ansitropic Filtering could actually have fairly noticeable fps impact because of the volume of waves detail to handle in the distance.

You guys should experiment with it and see what happens on each of your individual setups.

As for looking at distant ships through binoculars or the periscope, I'm not sure but the game engine might simply consider the objects 'closer' when viewed through such magnification, in which case AF wouldn't really matter for that anyway.

You guys may find AF isn't really worth the performance hit on this particular game.

I think AF may be more noticeable in a game such as GRAW, where you are runing around a city constantly looking at large distant buildings.

Experiment and see. Your results may vary.

I'm afraid this really isn't true. Anisotropic filtering does affect textures in the distance, but only when they are being displayed at a high angle (i.e. not looking perpendicular to the plane of the texture).
Take a racing car simulator as an example. You're sitting in a car, low to the ground, looking at the track in the distance. The textures you see (which are probably square) will look like thin trapeziums (trapezia?) in the distance. The trouble with normal mip-mapping is that the down-sized textures used in the distance look 'undersampled' in the perpendicular direction and 'oversampled' in the parallel direction. The result is a blurry mess in the distance. Anisotropic filtering means that the down-sampling is done more in the parallel direction and less in the perpendicular direction, leading to an overall nicer texture.
In theory, AF should be great in SH4 because you often end up looking along the surface of the water. However, the wave effects mean that it really doesn't make a difference. I've turned mine down significantly from my racing sims (where AF realyl does have an effect) and not noticed any changes other than greatly improved frame rates.

[MONOLITH]

Originally Posted by Prof

I'm afraid this really isn't true. Anisotropic filtering does affect textures in the distance, but only when they are being displayed at a high angle (i.e. not looking perpendicular to the plane of the texture).

We're more on the same page than you think. I just didn't specify the angled aspect. But walking around a 3D city such as GRAW, how many building walls are actually perpendicular to you....lots of angled textures to be filtered. I was trying to answer in a simple manner to someone who might be an "Ansitropic beginner".

Originally Posted by Prof

In theory, AF should be great in SH4 because you often end up looking along the surface of the water. However, the wave effects mean that it really doesn't make a difference.

Exactly the reason I said AF in SH4 could be a performance hit, because of the large ocean surface, and may not be worth it.

[MONOLITH]

Hey Prof.. One thing I'm not sure about is this...

Originally Posted by MONOLITH

As for looking at distant ships through binoculars or the periscope, I'm not sure but the game engine might simply consider the objects 'closer' when viewed through such magnification, in which case AF wouldn't really matter for that anyway.

What do you think? When I look throught binoculars at a distant object, do you think the game engine renders it as if I'm closer to it (less AF needed), or do I actually see the object as it's rendered in the distance (more AF applied), just magnified?

[joea]

Originally Posted by E.Hartmann

Once you got off your knees infront of UBI GOD you'll see that there are still many many things broken with this game that should be fixed for playability not jsut for screen shots.

Ok sorry about accusing you of theft, no need to be rude. First of though, you ignored my point that I agree with you about the gameplay...some campaign and mission errors could have been saved by some research. You didn't answer my point about torpedoes though...that is in fact correct and accurate behaviour so why did you bring that up? It doesn't help your case when whining about something the real skippers had to face and makes for tense gameplay to boot.

Anyway, I am hopeful the modders can creat a reasonably realistic campaign with the tools and base UBI provided.

P.S. Don't use the term fanboy - it's just inflammatory.

[Zatoichi]

Originally Posted by E.Hartmann

Common DUDE! Stop being a fan boy and listen. I got the digitsal version so its legal. Stop focusing on one issue with circling toprs and other bad torps and read the rest of the post. This was nothing more than a patch to fix what was patched with 1.1. OOOHhh!! I dont have jaggies now. COOL! YEAH! We all waited two weeks for that! YIPPEEEE.

The fact is this patch besides the FSAA was nothing more than a repir of what should have been fixed in 1.1. Once you got off your knees infront of UBI GOD you'll see that there are still many many things broken with this game that should be fixed for playability not jsut for screen shots. We have a start but its still a long way to go. The radar still not working when going south? Common we noted that day 1 and a mod was created. how hard was it to add that to the patch. Geez! The modders are doing a great job of saving this game jsut like they did with SH3. So in closing if your not accusing me or stealing a copy then why did you even bring it up?

Anger issues, mate?
All things come to those who wait; 2 Weeks is just 10 working days for most stiffs. If you'd like to take command of the programmer’s pool and drive them night and day until every single detail is perfect, then we'd see a patch in about 11 months. I'd like to believe that this patch is a show of good faith that they aren’t sitting around counting our money. I'd like to think that it's a promissory note that better things and bigger fixes are on the horizon. It's easy to demand excellence from others and condemn them for not achieving it. Applaud the efforts thus far and you motivate the team for bigger better things to come.
I appreciate any effort made to improve my experience and enjoyment of the game.
If they were taking there time and not making any efforts to improve it then I could see your disappointment.
Ichi...

[Weigh-Man]

Originally Posted by E.Hartmann

This resolution is not supported. So the bitmaps aren't big enough and the sim no longer streches the images. Bring it down a few notches and that will go away.

How's it not supported, its in the graphics settings?

[Topo65]

I have the white line too. No FSAA on, but still there. I have 7600GT.

[simsurfer]

I installed the new patch 1.2 but on the Attack map I am still not seeing the torpedo wakes after firing my fish like I saw when I was based out of Brisbane. Anyone else getting that?

High speed torps work though and that is a big plus :-)

[sqk7744]

Originally Posted by Zatoichi

Anger issues, mate?
All things come to those who wait; 2 Weeks is just 10 working days for most stiffs. If you'd like to take command of the programmer’s pool and drive them night and day until every single detail is perfect, then we'd see a patch in about 11 months. I'd like to believe that this patch is a show of good faith that they aren’t sitting around counting our money. I'd like to think that it's a promissory note that better things and bigger fixes are on the horizon. It's easy to demand excellence from others and condemn them for not achieving it. Applaud the efforts thus far and you motivate the team for bigger better things to come.
I appreciate any effort made to improve my experience and enjoyment of the game.
If they were taking there time and not making any efforts to improve it then I could see your disappointment.
Ichi...

---
Bravo

[DragonRR1]

Originally Posted by Weigh-Man

How's it not supported, its in the graphics settings?

Have the same problem at 1920x1200. It is a minor bug, it is NOT due to some unsupported resolution for heavens sake!! It might be fixable with a mod. They have just missed it when fixing the resolution issues that is all.

[7Enigma]

Can anyone please comment on whether the CTD's have been fixed upon attempting to reload a save game in-mission? (ie the game loads up until the Please Wait box and then it crashes)

[Weigh-Man]

Originally Posted by DragonRR1

Have the same problem at 1920x1200. It is a minor bug, it is NOT due to some unsupported resolution for heavens sake!! It might be fixable with a mod. They have just missed it when fixing the resolution issues that is all.

That's what I thought, not a major thing really, just thought it needed a mention