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Post by Stecher on Nov 27, 2015 18:17:58 GMT -5
Hope everyone had a good day. I sufficiently stuffed myself.
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Nov 21, 2015 21:40:40 GMT -5
Post by Stecher on Nov 21, 2015 21:40:40 GMT -5
He stopped flying kind of suddenly. Made a post and was just gone. I think I did see him over there on the BoS forum a while ago, but it sounds like Badger isn't in contact with him right now, and is leading the effort to get the squad restarted. They were always a great group to fly with. I hope enough of the old members get things going again. It would be good to see them over in CLOD when GS gets running.
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Post by Stecher on Sept 10, 2015 23:42:03 GMT -5
If the cloud artifacts were something that showed up during quick head movement, then it does sound like the Trace Free setting. It's Asus' version of pixel overdrive to help the response time and clear up ghosting. For some unknown reason Asus defaults Trace Free on their monitors to 60, which is too strong and causes overshoot on the pixel transitions. Virtually all of them are better off set at 20, giving a better balance between ghosting and overshoot.
Other monitors have pixel overdrive as well, but different brands call it something else and usually don't have as many settings as Asus' Trace Free. Many Dell's will have it factory set without any user configuration (like the 2209WA). Some recent Dell's have it a bit too strong and you can't do anything about it. Most of the current 2014/2015 models either have a better tuned factory standard, or they offer a couple user options.
I get minor color banding with the sky on the my monitor too, but it's very slight, and usually only noticeable during darker conditions. It's never distracting if I'm not looking for it. Nvidia's default HDMI 1080 limited RGB range will have made it look worse than the monitor is actually capable of displaying with the full RGB range selected in the control panel.
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Post by Stecher on Sept 5, 2015 16:21:56 GMT -5
Can you explain more about what you were seeing? When you say "lines in the sky" do you mean color banding or something else? And what was wrong with the clouds?
The limited RGB range would certainly make banding more obvious. Depending on what you mean with the clouds it could be something with their overaggressive Trace Free setting. Both of those (if they're the cause) can be fixed in about 15 seconds.
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Post by Stecher on Sept 2, 2015 23:54:03 GMT -5
I was checking one of the better monitor news/review sites and started poking around their articles section. I was surprised to learn that apparently there's a significant color issue (that is fixable) with HDMI connected monitors running 1920X1080 natively with Nvidia cards. As that is a very common combination these days, this undoubtedly affects a huge amount of people, and most probably aren't aware. If you're connected via DVI, or have any other native resolution, or an AMD card, this doesn't apply. For those interested, the whole article is here: pcmonitors.info/articles/correcting-hdmi-colour-on-nvidia-and-amd-gpus. For those who are running this specifically affected combination (I know that's at least a couple of us), this is the section you need to read: So basically, Nvidia is being stupid by assuming it's an HDTV, and not a monitor. At least it's now easy to correct. Stachl, I think you said you returned your Asus MX279H because the colors didn't look right? Unless you knew about this and already did it, I'm thinking this could be why.
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Jul 24, 2015 23:05:40 GMT -5
Post by Stecher on Jul 24, 2015 23:05:40 GMT -5
SSDs make a huge difference in startup/restart times, opening programs, compressing/extracting or copy/pasting large files, etc. They make the general use of your computer much quicker. But they do not affect FPS during gameplay. Loading the game or maybe loading the map when you join a server will be quicker, but once you are in the cockpit, HDD vs SSD does not factor in.
If you're thinking of one, it's hard to beat Crucial's MX200 line for quality and price.
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Post by Stecher on Jul 7, 2015 1:34:20 GMT -5
Running on 1920X1080 with a 27in display that's meant for 2560X1440 produces 82ppi (rendered). That's the same as running 1680X1050 on a 24in meant for 1920X1200. If you haven't already, you can try that with CLOD and see how it looks to you. As I said, I did that, and didn't like it at all, as the blurriness cancels out the slightly larger plane dots. When you upscale a non-native resolution, every rendered pixel of the image has to be displayed by more than one physical pixel, which of course can only actually be 1 color at any moment. So the rendered pixels are fighting each other for control of the physical pixels, instead of working in perfect concert with them.
In the case of upscaling 1920 onto 2560, each rendered pixel is the size of 1 1/3 actual pixels. So every physical pixel is displaying a color that is 2/3 the color of one rendered pixel blended with 1/3 the color of another rendered pixel. It's never actually displaying what is being rendered. If you are supposed to have 1 black dot rendered on a white background, you wind up with dark gray surrounded by light gray. This isn't too noticeable if you are looking at a large area of similar color, or a very complex area. But if you are looking at simple and high contrast images (like a plane dot against the sky or sea) it surrounds that plane dot in a blur of itself. That's how it makes it bigger, but you lose that nice sharp definition of it against the background, which is more important to your eye catching it.
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Post by Stecher on Jul 5, 2015 20:37:16 GMT -5
I tried playing with the resolution lowered to 1680x1050 and it just wasn't worth it. Technically dots were bigger on screen, but they were faded into other pixels. When you run native resolution, the dots are always perfectly hard, which helps them stand out. The overall effect of upscaling a lower resolution was negligible for dot visibility, but at the expense of everything looking noticeably worse. So I went back to 1920X1200. My SweetFX settings made a bigger difference.
The Asus MG279Q has Freesync, so it's for AMD cards. If you were sticking with Nvidia, you'd need G-sync if you wanted the refresh/frame rate matching. The Acer XB270HU is the total package one with G-sync right now, at $800. Asus will soon be selling their ultimate G-sync monitor, the PG279Q for at least that much. For most games, and people with powerful cards, those monitors are going to be incredible. But with CLOD, I just don't think it's worth it right now. If we had cards that could muscle through the tough parts at the higher resolution (and the price got under $500), I'd probably try to see if I could make do with the dots being smaller, just because everything would look terrific. But I don't see us getting consistent performance right now, even with current flagship cards, at 2560X1440 and settings cranked up.
A lot of people have high hopes for the next generation of graphics cards. In 2016, AMD will have been on 28nm for 5 years, and Nvidia for 4. Next year you'll see 16nm chips from Nvidia and 14nm from AMD, and they'll both be hooked up to Gen2 HBM. So we're talking about fundamentally new technology that should impress more than your usual generational bump. Personally, I just bought an Asus Strix GTX970. I want to have solid performance on the monitor I (we) have for its life. I think the right time for a monitor upgrade is down the road when the GPUs are up to the task of playing CLOD at higher resolutions, and prices for each part aren't flirting with 4 digits.
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Post by Stecher on Jul 5, 2015 11:45:38 GMT -5
If you are thinking about an IPS monitor larger than 27 inches, but still in a normal widescreen format (16:9 or 16:10), you're in $1,000+ territory at this time. Some of the new 32 inch 4K (4096/3840X2160) monitors for some reason aren't priced that differently than the 30 inch 2560X1600 models. Things get weird in the monitor market over 27 inches.
If you're looking for something substantially less than $1,000, there's a growing selection of 29 inch 21:9 ratio ultra wide monitors in 2560X1080 from $400-600. Larger 34 inch ultra wide monitors in 3440X1440, some of them curved, hang around the $1,000 mark. The 29 inch ultra wides have the same pixel density as what you are currently using (a 16:10 24 inch at 1920X1200, 94ppi). The different ratio results in an extra 3 1/3 inches of view on each side, but you'd lose 2/3 of an inch on both the top and bottom. That's pretty much the landscape above 27 inches. Super expensive, ultra wide ratio, or both.
The 27 inch size in 16:9 ratio offers two distinct branches of screen size upgrade over the 23/24 inch monitors. Unfortunately you have to choose between noticeably higher or noticeably lower pixel density. Nothing is offered in this bigger size with the same density. Normally, higher would be considered better, until 4K's density starts to mess with text. For image quality and general usefulness, 27 inches at 2560X1440 looks great for just about everything. But we have this ball and chain around us when it comes to picking monitors. We play a game that is largely dependent on picking up distant aircraft represented on screen by a few pixels long before they become actual aircraft shapes. It does not scale the pixel count of the plane's dot to our resolution, it just shrinks its screen footprint on higher density displays. That makes higher pixel density potentially detrimental to our gameplay.
If you simply want something bigger than your 24 inch, a 27 inch at 1920X1080 would have the opposite tradeoff with its lower density, increasing dot visibility, but making everything else look not as good. While the screen would be physically bigger, you'd also lose 60 pixels of view top and bottom from what you can currently see, because of the shorter ratio. There's a fair selection of these from $200-400. The 16:10 ratio has become extinct in the 27 inch size, and it simply does not offer any resolution with similar density to the 23/24 inch sizes which, in my opinion, are a better balance of image quality and dot spotting. I wish they had coded plane dots to draw differently in IL-2/CLOD.
I know you asked about 28 and above, but as far as gaming is concerned, some great things with IPS panels are happening right now at 27 inches. 2560X1440 monitors are starting to get really good with faster IPS panels making their way into the market, and increased adoption of frame/refresh rate matching technologies. 109 ppi, <5ms response time, accurate and consistent IPS colors, with smooth G-sync/Freesync goodness up to 144 fps. So far, this feature package exists as only 1 model, and another to be released soon, as far as I know. It's the start of some really great gaming monitors that combine capabilities which never existed in a single product before. The next few years are going to see 4K become less of a high end fringe segment, which should push down prices of these 1440 monitors. For now, these first ones are just under $1,000.
Even if cost wasn't an issue, and even if dot spotting with high pixel density wasn't an issue, we can't overlook that CLOD is a very graphically demanding game when the settings are turned up. High resolution ground, long view distances, and a high ground object count would make things taxing enough, but since the game was never finished by the actual devs, I'm sure it never got a final optimization pass, making things worse. CLOD is harder on the GPU than almost all of the big time modern games that get benchmarked all over the place. It has a huge variance in fps as well, so it can trick you at times. Just flying around in open areas or especially over water is very easy on the system, but get over a city, or look across a large forest, or worst of all, look at clouds, and the fps plummets. When we benchmarked your EVGA 780 Ti SC, it put up a respectable 57 avg, but it dipped to 31 as a minimum. Dipping into the 30s for such a strong card, and at only 1920X1200 demonstrates how taxing CLOD can be during some scenes. Playing at 2560x1440 for instance, reduces your fps by 40% compared to the 1920X1080/1200 resolutions. So we're looking at periods of under 20 fps, and that's with one of the faster cards available, less than a year removed from it being THE fastest card. Look at the new fastest card today, released just last month, the $700 custom 980 Ti cards are 35% faster than the 780 Ti SC. Even that won't cover the fps decrease you get from running 2560X1440, leaving you with fps dips into the mid 20s. For a game to do that to a brand new mid-2015 $700 fastest card ever is downright scary. That's what CLOD can do. Be careful buying high resolution when we don't really have cards in existence yet that can power this game's more challenging moments.
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Post by Stecher on May 30, 2015 20:49:44 GMT -5
You guys probably already know about the incident at the DC flyover earlier this month, but I came across this video of the cockpit footage with a full explanation from the pilot. Worth watching.
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Post by Stecher on Mar 1, 2015 1:31:09 GMT -5
Very strange problem. Glad you found a workaround to get the issue solved. And for only a few bucks, not bad at all.
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Post by Stecher on Feb 5, 2015 21:06:21 GMT -5
I especially appreciated the technical walk-through the guy did. I knew most of it, but I hadn't heard that the ailerons dropped with flaps on the 109. Nice little feature to further lower stall speed.
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Post by Stecher on Feb 3, 2015 21:18:14 GMT -5
As much as I will hate being in front of that, it's great to see them filling in some of the holes in the planeset. The Beaufighter will be a great plane for the Allies.
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Post by Stecher on Jan 19, 2015 22:17:28 GMT -5
Details in CLOD like that are really great. Last week during GS testing, I was gliding in for a landing after my engine had just given out. I noticed my gear lights were flickering when I leveled out. It wasn't my first dead stick landing in CLOD of course, but it's the first time I've seen flickering in the instrument panel. It turns out, my battery had been knocked out, and without the engine running at sufficient RPM, it wasn't producing enough power to keep the lights on. Over 300km/h, the prop would turn enough to power them, but under 300km/h, they would flicker out. It's pretty cool too see all the complex systems and how they are interdependent.
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Post by Stecher on Jan 9, 2015 22:39:41 GMT -5
What I worry about is that without some of the old GS systems we will have a mix of things that people like, but may also not. The whole part about not chasing an enemy back for 10 minutes to his base and strafing him, etc, is one area where our war may help. Not to say we didn't see it ever in old GS, but it was much less common than on public servers, because such an action was far more dangerous for you, and that mattered with one life. In the new GS, bases can also have a gazillion guns, so that will change your thinking on just how much you want to shoot that one guy. Also, with CLODs damage systems, many kills are had by causing damage which quickly ruins the engine in a few minutes. The instances of limping a damaged engine back to base for any significant distance or time is less common in CLOD than in old IL-2, where you often had to blow people apart to be sure they weren't going to make it home. So using ammo on a fatally wounded plane will be unnecessary to put him down, open you up to more attacks, and since ammo is a finite resource in GS, it will literally be wasteful for your team.
One suggestion for stats in that thread referenced one of the old GS scoring dynamics, where you don't get your kill points unless you survive. The new GS doesn't have this from the HR system. Pilot loss, while it will be significant, is just added in as a fixed value like everything else. I wish we could have it like the old one, to discourage suicide raids that promise a worthwhile score. At least we still have the one life policy, but that diminishes later into the mission. And there's no streak bonus to worry about in the long term.
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Post by Stecher on Dec 27, 2014 1:02:18 GMT -5
I hope everyone had a good Christmas. After New Year's the schedule will kick into high gear as we ramp up the new Ghost Skies. Looking forward to 2015!
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Post by Stecher on Dec 14, 2014 20:52:02 GMT -5
Glad it's all working again.
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Post by Stecher on Dec 10, 2014 19:58:35 GMT -5
You wouldn't need to get inside that folder, just to it. If you can get inside 'common', don't double click on 'IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover'. Just right click and copy, then paste it to another drive. Does it let you do that?
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Post by Stecher on Dec 10, 2014 14:10:01 GMT -5
Yeah, the 1C SoftClub folder will have all your settings, controls, missions, etc, but you'll need to reinstall the game and all the TF mods into the Steam directory in order to have the game in the first place. At the end of the process, just throw your saved 1C SoftClub folder over the new one in Documents.
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Post by Stecher on Dec 10, 2014 13:39:14 GMT -5
I was just trying this last night. I was wondering if the windmilling prop would be enough with a dead engine, and noticed that while the gear does come down, it is very slow. It's nice that they modelled in this gray area, and actually linked the system to real factors, apparently proportional to airflow induced RPM. I can see how much quicker they drop in Heiden's video when using the pneumatic emergency system, and at very slow speeds, the hand pump will help further.
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Post by Stecher on Dec 8, 2014 1:06:19 GMT -5
It sounds like the connectors are damaged then. I was hoping it was just the plastic, as you can find ways (like tape as you said) to hold the plug in place. But if it's securely together, and you're getting intermittent recognition failures, then it's a bit more serious than a broken plastic tab. Sorry.
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Post by Stecher on Dec 3, 2014 23:29:42 GMT -5
How exactly did the SATA connecter break on the SSD? The plastic around it, or the metal pins? Depending on how bad it is, it could be fixed.
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Post by Stecher on Dec 3, 2014 0:35:15 GMT -5
How do you know it was the CMOS battery? Did you change it out on the same motherboard?
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Post by Stecher on Nov 23, 2014 21:50:49 GMT -5
Hey Goshawk, S! It's been fun seeing a lot of familiar faces again since we transitioned over to CLOD. Reminds me of those great battles from years ago, and gets me more exited to get back into it with you guys. We're getting very close on our new online war. Keep an eye out for it "soon".
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Post by Stecher on Oct 9, 2014 22:01:24 GMT -5
Segler had asked me about how this has turned out. I decided to not go with a lower than native resolution. The performance increase was nice, but I've simply gotten used to the lowered graphics settings to get my FPS where I want until I spring for a better card. Flying at a lower resolution, will try to render the plane dots on more of a pixel footprint, but that will blur the dots. Surrounding pixels will be ever so slightly shaded the plane dot color compared to the sky/ground background. While it may appear a tiny bit bigger, it takes away from the sharpness of the plane dot being locked into an exact pixel group. And the sharpness is important in the eye spotting them. The contrast between the plane dot and the background is what catches your eye. In order to make the dot take up significantly more of a footprint on your screen, you'd have to lower your resolution so much, I can't stand how bad it looks, even with settings turned up.
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