Steel Beasts Dynamic Terrain Will Come After New Terrain Engine

[Frankie]

Why is it called Wildlife Observation? All I see is a static view, hears lots of ambient noise, and then a fleeting glimpse of an armoured thingy passing by.

[Rinix]

Oleg, after closer inspection, you are right, it is a 2S35.

Finally support assets that can be used in real time. Probably get clobbered by enemy before the tank scrape is done 😂

What do you mean by this? If you mean on-map SP artillery, we've had that since 3.0.

Why is it called Wildlife Observation? All I see is a static view, hears lots of ambient noise, and then a fleeting glimpse of an armoured thingy passing by.

The vehicles are the Steel Beasts.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/?tab=comments#comment-190246

Someone egged me on to find out how many craters you can have in a given area.



Turns out, beyond a certain crater density no more craters get added.



Nevertheless, I suppose "a lot" is good enough for the moment.

[Lusik]

Somehow I missed the craters before. Thanks for bringing it up Rinix. Apparently, whey will be created by IEDs only. Vendetta mission may gain a new level with this feature. 

[Frankie]

Craters are new in 4.1, right?

[Lusik]

Craters are new in 4.1, right?

Yes, this is a new feature. I'd love to get back to SB but real life takes precedence now. I'm sure though, that once 4.1. is launched, you will see me back online.

[Rinix]

Jartsev has identified one of the vehicles as the 1V13: http://tanksim.ru/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=577&start=15#p8809

[Rinix]

Ssnake notes that he made a mistake in listing the KPVT as an option for the Vector ATTV.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlwpZrHeBU8&lc=Ughblpp6fzHYuXgCoAEC.8UWTnU4xBcr8vd0jSw4DsM

Actually, we managed to boost frame rates compared to version 4.0; took a while, but was definitely worth the effort. I was definitely not happy with the 4.0 frame rates. The "Vector" video that I just uploaded was shot with visibility set to ranges between 7.5 and 11 kilometers, no optimized forests (scattered trees used to be a frame rate killer), graphics details settings above default, and the fps were still in the mid 40s to low 50s.

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-190344

This makes dismounting from a vehcile a very vulnerable phase now.
Here the dismounts are close to the vehicle when a MILAN hits

[Rinix]

I've just noticed that the T-55As (I'm not confusing them with the T-55AM that's also in the video) have laser rangefinder boxes on top of their main guns. So one of the new tanks in Steel Beasts 4.1 will be the T-55A m. 1974.

[wilso845]

Finally support assets that can be used in real time. Probably get clobbered by enemy before the tank scrape is done 😂

What do you mean by this? If you mean on-map SP artillery, we've had that since 3.0.

I was referring to support assets as in engineers having the ability to make tank scrapes.

[Rinix]

I was referring to support assets as in engineers having the ability to make tank scrapes.

OK, thanks.

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-190384

To possibly add to the haul, is that a new T-55 variant? Vanilla hull but LRF box above main gun?

Yes, it is. 
No crew positions, though.

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-190386

Like I wrote, the technology is there, in principle. It is however still of limited utility value, something I'm deeply unhappy with. This isn't the guys' fault, inflating the ground resolution by factor 512 while improving frame rates and maintaining the overall flexibility of Steel Beasts was an almost impossible task, but they did it. But we're way behind with applying that technology in a way that is easy to use and that could work largely automatic. But that's just not where we are, yet. This works well for individual roads that snake up mountain flanks, to that extent you can rely on it.

But as soon as there are road intersections, things will quickly fall apart, I'm afraid. We have an idea how that could be made to work. but that'll require a lot of extra effort, and the question is if technology might not overtake us while we're working on it. We might develop a perfect solution for a problem that no longer exists by the time that we've solved it.
For more and more areas high resolution LIDAR scans are becoming available. Where you have sub-meter elevation data resolution, modifications of road profiles are usually no longer necessary as ramps and embankments are already paret of the base model. Procedural modifications like road leveling are only required if the source data quality is poor.

[Rinix]

• Closer look at Vector ATTV, it sure is fast
• C2 units are being introduced, starting with the M577 and MAN KAT1 4x4/Command
• C2 units don't do much right now, camo and tents currently can only be deployed in the mission editor
• New supply trucks, WLS-P (which currently just serves as something to escort), YAD-4442/Supply, MAN KAT1 4x4/Supply
• HEMTTs are now crewable, have new 3D models, can be armed, and have the option of bolted on armor

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-190383

Oh yes good spotting!  What caught my eye was that enemy troops seemed to fire randomly machine guns at some direction.  As if they didn't know precise location.

That's more due to omissions of film editing. There were the original patrol vehicles in a different location than OP Ant Hill (note the inhumanly precise (if misguided) impacts of 40mm AGL on the second tank after the first missile strike), and then a second OP team.

The AI has improved, but not to the point that they would just panic and shoot on suspected enemy positions. Maybe they shouldn't have fired on the OP teams, but I guess the vehicles were fair game. Also not shown in the film were certain ... highly unprofessional driving maneuvers after stealthily dropping off the two OP teams in the pursuit of relocation.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/55-we-love-screenshots/page/116/?tab=comments#comment-190429

I've hinted at it, this one isn't so much about vehicles. The Vector ATTV already accounts for 22 of the icons in my teaser scrteenshot. Then there's all the different supply truck variants, accounting for another seven or so (4 x WLS variants, YAD 4443, MAN KAT with C2 container, M577). One T-55 variant has been spotted (not playable), that's one of the MBT icons. You know about the DF30 and DF90 already (the two major new vehicles with detailed crew stations), the TOS and the PzH 2000 have been mentioned already (though we haven't had a chance to properly present them). So, that's a not too small part of the whole "new fleet". We're not done yet, sure, but as far as vehicles with crew positions are concerned not that many will follow.

[Rinix]

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-190466

There are certain limits we have to adhere to, like that we can't have a detonation point of origin under the surface. Per our 1998 design specifications, contact with the surface ends the life of a missile (and all fragments are "missiles" in that context). So if we'd let a round dive below the surface, no matter how little, all fragments would be immediately removed from all further collision calculations.
The default settings are that a surface explosion will happen at 180% of the round caliber diameter (e.g. for a 155mm shell, 27.9 centimeters above ground).

The volume of the crater however would scale (inversely) with the ground hardness.

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-190470

You also have to have a look at time steps. Up until now in SB Pro render cycle and simulatio cycle are in lockstep. We simulate a bit, then we render the result. Can be bad for frame rate, of course (but keep in mind that SB pro was intended for the reinforced company level, not the brigade level for which is it applied on a more or less regular level these days). And in this case 16.6667 milliseconds is the highest time resolution you can hope for (typically you'd get 20...40ms, however).

Delayed fuze incurs 5...15 millisends of delay before the round goes off. That's clearly below the time step resolution, so it certainly cannot be applied at all in an analytical fashion. That's not to say that it would be impossible to implement in SOME way but not in the naive approach of simply letting the round travel along its current vector for five more milliseconds. If you want to do that you'need to separate simulation time step from the render cycle. Next thing, you'd probably need to do away with the rule that if a missile touches the ground it gets immediately culled; rather, you'd need some model of how missiles might travel through earth for a (more or less short) distance, and how that would change their energy and the trajectory vector.

https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/12776-sb-pro-pe-41-new-features-and-stuff/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-190471

...and we can only speculate how that would affect overall performance (not positively, so much I can say).