Helicopter Gunship DEX News

This update adds in the GPU Instanced ground clutter system for the entire Libyan terrain.

I've also added in the terrain culling system which hides terrain that is not currently visible (I would recommend setting the maximum visual range in the Video Settings to 25km as you can't see further than that due to the desert haze anyway ːsteamsunnyː)

The ground clutter is basically only there to add a sense of scale, speed and some "frame of reference" to the desert. You cannot collide with anything - the bushes are quite small and assumed to be no match for a flying lawnmower!

I am also quite surprised at how fast the Hind now feels when zooming along 10m off the ground! Likewise, the Gazelle feels great to fly with its wide open cockpit views. Hopefully you'll have the same experience ːsteamhappyː

For testing purposes I have also added a FPS counter to the bottom right of the HUD. This value is your averaged frame rate over the last 30 frames.

For those who want ultra speed and no ground clutter I will be adding an option to the Video Settings to turn it off completely shortly.

Feedback on performance etc is, as always, very welcome ːsteamhappyː

Known Bugs

1. Foliage can now clip through the weapon load out screen again. This is only temporary. One of the awesome things about this system is that I can dynamically remove details from the terrain at run time. Essentially, when buildings etc are placed by the random system they will automatically remove any plant life that clips through them! This will also work for roads, runways etc too. ːsteamthumbsupː

Here's some quick screen shots of the new ground clutter system which adds stones/rocks, grass and small bushes to the Libyan desert area.

Overhead is minimal as it is using very fast GPU instancing. ːsteamhappyː



As you can see these particular details are designed to be visible during low level flight to give a sense of speed and help hide those blurry textures (although these are now mostly gone since I added a couple of detail textures to the terrain).

Higher up they fade out to help keep performance



But down low is where all the fun is...





Finally, once I implement a "Hide HUD" function, you'll be able to take screen shots like this one...



ːsteamhappyːːsteamhappyːːsteamhappyː

This update adds a new mission area "Central Libya" to the game and utilises satellite imagery and real world height maps.

The current map size is roughly 51km x 51km and this is about 1/4 of the actual total area that will be used by the dynamic campaign system which will be around 100km x 100km giving you plenty of room to fly around!

There's currently no map for the new terrain so the mission planner will just be black. I'll be adding proper topographical maps this time so that you can see the terrain elevations etc allowing you to plan you route using the many different valleys and channels as this desert certainly isn't flat!

There's also no foliage e.g. trees and plants just yet. I will be adding those as soon as I can - I've just got to work out a good way of placing things in logical places!

There are still a few glitches with the terrain for example sometimes the join between tiles is really obvious and visible. I'm not 100% if I can fully fix that or not, but I will certainly be trying to!

I've also done numerous optimisations to the helicopter models, LODs etc to keep everything running smoothly. ːsteamhappyː

This update adds the following...

1. Harrier can now take off again!

2. Fixed a bug where the wheel brakes would remain locked even after releasing the parking brake. This was actually a bug in Unity's wheel collider rather than my code but it now means Apaches and Hinds can taxi along the ground correctly if you so choose.

3. Added a countermeasures readout to the right hand side of the HUD.

4. AH-1Z & AH-1Z CRS helicopters now have their hero interiors which look pretty good ːsteamhappyː

5. Upgraded both Lynx helicopters to allow custom skins.

These are some more screenshots showing how the textures maintain detail even in very low level flight...


This image is at 274m above the terrain which is quite high for a combat helicopter. Detail is good at this altitude!


This image is at 26m above the terrain and is a more realistic altitude for helicopters. You can just start to see the detail textures become visible at this altitude.


At 12m above the terrain you can see the detail textures more clearly. It still looks pretty good even at this height and the added detail gives a much better sense of speed.