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[Clint Watters]

Hello WxTech,

I just tried your mod on my BAT 3.8.2 Pegasus. It works way better than I expected !
Let me explain.
When I don't have your mod in my #JTW / #WAW folder I get very low fps  (10 to 15 fps) when looking horizontaly in FMB.
With your trees I'm back on 50+ fps which is major improvement for me 
This mod should be implemented permanently in BAT imo.
I can't thank you enough for your work !
Cheers !

[vpmedia]

it nearly cuts my fps in half, with and without shadows, with and without specular lighting, even with textures downscaled to 50%:

[WxTech]

Kind of strange how different users encounter such disparate results.

One of the fairly important factors is the LOD values.

If one is finding a decreased fps, open the .msh files and lower one or more of the 3 (stock uses 4; I dropped one). This can be done by typing in the new value before the old, adding one or more spaces, then typing a pair of forward slashes. For example, if a particular lod reads:

400

try:

300  //400

In this way you will always have the original value to fall back on. As you progress in your experiments, and wish to try another value, this would be fine:

250  //300  //400

The game reads only the first.

You will need to restart the game after each alteration (at least I think so, and do so).

[vpmedia]

Both SAS~Bombsaway and me tested in an area with lots of densely packed palm trees. The Tarawa retexture I used for testing is my own work and when I was making it I had to play around with the stock palm tree numbers in order to get 60fps. The il-2 engine has its limitations. I encountered this "object density" problem a lot during my work of rebuilding 100+ maps for vpmodpack.

[Mixx]

The Tarawa retexture I used for testing is my own work and when I was making it I had to play around with the stock palm tree numbers in order to get 60fps. The il-2 engine has its limitations. I encountered this "object density" problem a lot during my work of rebuilding 100+ maps for vpmodpack.

Sorry to interfere.
If you reduce the resolution of textures on distant views in files:

palm1q.tga (instead of 128 pixels, put 32)

Still possible

palm1p.tga (lower resolution to 128 pixels)

Productivity will increase and beauty will remain

[PO_MAK_249RIP]

Cheers Mixx I did that using Irfanview worked a treat!!

[WxTech]

If Irfanview does not save alpha channels, the distant LOD trees might look chunkier because of using the full area of the rectangular cutout, and not clipping away the parts normally set as transparent.

GIMP, Photoshop, or other app that saves alpha channels would be ideal to use here.

[PO_MAK_249RIP]

Will double check but think its ok - not had an issue in the past with Irfanview which is a great lttle utilty btw

[WxTech]

Today I spent quite a few hours replacing the pacific palms with desert ones on these two maps:
- Desert Online Curved Roads
- Sands of Time Curved Roads (this one took the longest!)

These new "curved roads" versions of the stock maps are probably widely considered to be the new standard. Thi is part of the reason why I fiddled with them instead of the stock versions.

I'll post the new actors.static files tomorrow. Certainly in the relevant threads where these maps are available for download. Perhaps here as well??? Or maybe I'll just post a notice in the Lounge, with links.

I've been tempted to remove some of the other trees that I find to be rather unsightly. For instance, there's a rather dark, swarthy, Mediterranean type of  tree  that suggests an ancient hardwood that's just butt ugly. Anyone have any opinions?

I also did some 'geological' work on the Sands of Time mountains, taking off the sharpness, and making less deep the small 'valleys' scattered about among the hills. I went for a more eroded look, finding the harsh jaggedness suggestive of newly formed mountains to be inappropriate in this setting. Not just for the mountain passes, but elsewhere in the desert I made the 'valleys' through which roads pass less imposing. More work to do, and when finished I'll post the map_h.tga.

[WxTech]

As promised, here are the replacement actors.static files for the following two maps by Nowekat, replacing the pacific palms with desert types (best with my bushy palm mod, naturally):

Desert Online_CR
SandsOfTime_CR


https://www.mediafire.com/file/vpn7rs186ynmmio/WxTech_actors_palms_Desert_SandsOfTime.7z/file



Note that upon extraction you will simply copy each actors.static to its respective map folder in your game's MODS (or whatever file structure/naming as applies) folder. I presume this operation should be second nature for anyone who's added a mod map or two. 


From the included readme:


Here are replacement actors.static files for the modded "Desert Online" and "Sands of Time" maps having curved roads (CR), by Nowekat. The only thing alterd are the palm trees of the pacific type.

For the Desert Online_CR download:

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,60283.0.html


For the Sands of Time_CR map download:

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,60537.0.html



These actors.static files replace the stock pacific type palms with the stock desert types. Because these old stock desert palms look so objectionably bad (no wonder they were not used so much by map builders!), I've remade them after the pacific type, and given them a suitably paler hue. Moreover, for both the pacific and desert palms I also added two simple polygons to each tree so as to fill out the fronds, giving a much fuller appearance. This "bushy palm trees" mod is available here:

https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,63897.0.html


This work is offered for use by anyone for any purpose, without restriction.

WxTech,
June 19, 2020

[Mick]

Many THX for this very useful addition ...! 

I am still digging in my back-up DDs, trying to find Redko's Tunis 42 textures that I beta tested 10 years ago, but no luck so far (still 2 DDs to be searched, so all hope is not lost ... )

[WxTech]

I just found a couple of trees I missed on the Desert Online_CR map. I'll do an overall look-see for any others, and will advise when a replacement fix is ready...