Draw distance and fog

[TGK]

I'm a huge fan of Forgotten Hope 2, but I don't intend on playing it online (unless there's events that are Asia region friendly, I'm in Aus and ping to Europe and US isn't nice for an FPS)

I have to wonder WHY the fog and draw distance has been left so small in FH2. BF2 is almost 10 years old now. The game engine scales really well for varying PCs, and %99 of people will have a gaming PC capable of running to game on High with no issues. I really can't see why FH2 doesn't have much better draw distance and fog distance in maps, unless there's some weird online issues with such settings. Otherwise, it's almost useless to fly planes when the fog is so close.

Any hope for singleplayer maps having the distance increased? Or will I have to go through the map files and adjust it manually every time?

[|7th|Nighthawk]

I think it is to prevent people from shooting across the whole map. As the maps in FH2 are not as big as in PR for example, being able to shoot everyone everywhere would kind of ruin the online gameplay. As of adjusting it for SP there is surely somebody who can help you in here.

[TGK]

Hmmm, fair dos I guess that makes the most sense for multiplayer.

I did adjust the DD and fog when I was playing the previous version of FH2, so I guess I'll just take the time to go through the maps and adjust them all again manually. It really is very silly to have such a poor draw distance in such an excellent mod, it renders flying almost useless on some maps.

[Surfbird]

As far as I know fog is still necessary to guarantee that everyone can play the game. Many people play FH2 with weak computers (like I do currently) and removing fog would make the game unplayable to them. Furthermore, even average computers might struggle with complete fog removal on some maps. To me it's only an issue when flying to be honest, but you have to deal with it.

You will have less fog on Africa maps I think, because they don't have much vegetation.
Gazala for example has a pretty clear sky which is why I like flying on this map. Cobra on the other hand is indeed pretty foggy, but I'm sure when they would remove fog, a huge part of the playerbase would not be able to run the map lagfree anymore. And the mod can't afford losing players just for the purpose of some players with good computers being able to play with slightly improved vision.

Anyway, if there's time it could be tested how the removal of at least some of the fog would affect different types of computers in order to potentially optimize the situation on maps like Cobra.

[gavrant]

TGK, probably you will also want to adjust the distance at which bots 'see'. Check the ai\AI.ai file in maps' server.zip's, the 'aiSettings.setViewDistance' line. But note, some people say that 'aiSettings.setViewDistance' doesn't work and other people say that bots don't (can't) shoot beyond 600m (or something like that). Also I'd not recommend increasing AI view distance for land fight, or you risk to be constantly shot through several lines of hedgerows.

[TGK]

From memory I just went and doubled the draw and fog distances in the map files when I tweaked them last time. I'm *really* surprised people have trouble running the game nicely these days, any PC even below $800US would tackle the game fine...

Ah well, thanks for the responses everyone, I'll just tweak the game files to my liking! Though I might see if I can get in on a multiplayer game before I install the singleplayer patches....

Where are the active servers, in the US or Europe? (a bit off topic..)

[|7th|Nighthawk]

The most active servers are in Europe atm. There are tournaments like WAW being hosted in the US as far as a I know.