Patch#10 Beta, LoD & terraforming game

[alQamar]

I see thanks.
Well I personally think they also used DX9 in Rome 2 prerelease videos too, I saw that on the shader quality. Not even strange as we know they use injectors or post processing in their ads and perhaps they use DX9 because limits as GEM has too with win 8.1 and sm 5?

[Ganossa]

I see thanks.
Well I personally think they also used DX9 in Rome 2 prerelease videos too, I saw that on the shader quality. Not even strange as we know they use injectors or post processing in their ads and perhaps they use DX9 because limits as GEM has too with win 8.1 and sm 5?

Nah, thats only GEM and sweetfx with not being compatible with the lates dx11 changes on Win81. R2 has shaders that are definitly compatible on win8.1 otherwise people would complain they cannot run it with dx11. Actually there is no good reason to run it in dx9 if they have a dx11 version.
You could actually see it if zoomed in cause shadows are not well processed either in their engine on dx9 (no soft but block like shadows).

[alQamar]

That's what I wanted to say. Same shaders in the prerelease videos mate. Have a look on the multiplayer video they made before release.

[stevehoos]

CA has to do something about this LOD problem. It's so bad that barrels will appear on buildings then disappear when you back up 100 feet, that is terrible. I was fighting a battle near a coast line today and the ocean had moved in swamping the entire view in the distance. Call me crazy, but that is something I would expect from a 10$ game 10 years ago. These kinds of graphical bugs -and many others as well- are endemic throughout this entire game. As I have posted in other threads, do yourself a favor and go look at the Carthage big scene, I counted over 30 objects floating/placed improperly. Houston, where's our 40 % bigger budget? Brian Blessing spent it all on hotdogs and corn liquor I suppose? I have to LOL at people saying they don't notice this stuff, just too funny! It's like trying to massage a leper and later commenting about how nothing seemed amiss.

[Ishan]

Hey Ishan, thanks for the highly interesting answers. I understand what it's about (technically), but I have to say it's not really a big deal for me ingame.

Yeah i would rather have them give priority to AI rather than graphics, personally for me that's the last thing i want from CA now. There are more obviously but i'm okay with it. I'm from the old times so i give more stress on actual game content rather than eyecandy. I mean i still play AOE2 and its mods which is a pretty old game.

CA has to do something about this LOD problem. It's so bad that barrels will appear on buildings then disappear when you back up 100 feet, that is terrible. I was fighting a battle near a coast line today and the ocean had moved in swamping the entire view in the distance. Call me crazy, but that is something I would expect from a 10$ game 10 years ago. These kinds of graphical bugs -and many others as well- are endemic throughout this entire game. As I have posted in other threads, do yourself a favor and go look at the Carthage big scene, I counted over 30 objects floating/placed improperly. Houston, where's our 40 % bigger budget? Brian Blessing spent it all on hotdogs and corn liquor I suppose? I have to LOL at people saying they don't notice this stuff, just too funny! It's like trying to massage a leper and later commenting about how nothing seemed amiss.

You seem to be exaggerating here. It was more noticeable in patch 9 i think but patch 10 seems to have improved this somewhat so it's okay now i guess. And there are plenty of open world games in which grass or any other 3D object simply pops up out of nowhere which actually depends on the type of hardware one has & how the game code is optimized to work on different presets. What are your PC specs?

[stevehoos]

Yeah i would rather have them give priority to AI rather than graphics, personally for me that's the last thing i want from CA now. There are more obviously but i'm okay with it. I'm from the old times so i give more stress on actual game content rather than eyecandy. I mean i still play AOE2 and its mods which is a pretty old game.

You seem to be exaggerating here. It was more noticeable in patch 9 i think but patch 10 seems to have improved this somewhat so it's okay now i guess. And there are plenty of open world games in which grass or any other 3D object simply pops up out of nowhere which actually depends on the type of hardware one has & how the game code is optimized to work on different presets. What are your PC specs?

PC specs, I 7 920 @ 3.90 GHz 64 bit
12 gigs ram
Geforce GTX 660 2.0 gig
1920x 1080 res

I use ultra settings for everything,in the Carthage scene when I back away from a building in the town's center, barrels on the roof disappear and re appear when I zoom forward. I would post a screen shot, but my steam will not let me take them currently? I tried changing the default button with no luck.

I run ARMA 3 it has LODS, I also run the big map at 6,000 feet visibility and get a steady 40-45 fps (unless I put 20 tanks on screen), the buildings do not change shape and lose textures at 100 feet, a night and day difference between Rome 2.

[baptistus]

video of the LoD for the grass in patch 11



So it is not a "dx9 problem". This is the lod for grass. But with "green grass" ,it is less visible

[ysl]

So it is not a "dx9 problem". This is the lod for grass. But with "green grass" ,it is less visible

This reminds me of grass in shogun 2. In shogun 2, beside the actual LoD range for each level of grass model, there is an additional range limit, and grass beyond that range wouldn't be rendered.
Also, that range in shogun 2 depends on shader model. for shader model 3 it is 150m, for other shader it is about 75m. I think this additional range is hardcoded.
In shogun 2, the LoD range for certain grass's lowest level model is 200m, but with the additional limit you can't see much of them.
Out of curiousity, I tried to disable the limit and forced all grass to be rendered as its highest level model, the fps was a misery...(but interesting anyway)

[alQamar]

Btw all tests and youtube videos and benchmark results I publish here around TWC are only with DX 11 so SM5.

The amount of DX9 cards are too minor regarding steam stats to legitimate more time investment here.

[async]

For me its not that bad. I like the graphics and I really enjoy the boost of performance.
I've got a quiet fast rig but just now the game works perfect! (in performance aspects)

[alQamar]

Hey Steve you could start nvidia experience and use the new record tool its great and less demanding I use it instead fraps now.

[Ishan]

PC specs, I 7 920 @ 3.90 GHz 64 bit
12 gigs ram
Geforce GTX 660 2.0 gig
1920x 1080 res

I use ultra settings for everything,in the Carthage scene when I back away from a building in the town's center, barrels on the roof disappear and re appear when I zoom forward. I would post a screen shot, but my steam will not let me take them currently? I tried changing the default button with no luck.

I run ARMA 3 it has LODS, I also run the big map at 6,000 feet visibility and get a steady 40-45 fps (unless I put 20 tanks on screen), the buildings do not change shape and lose textures at 100 feet, a night and day difference between Rome 2.

You need to buy a new graphics card to play this game on extreme settings.

Hey Steve you could start nvidia experience and use the new record tool its great and less demanding I use it instead fraps now.

Yeah shadowplay that can be used for GeForce GTX 650 or higher for video recording.

[kamikazejs]

Ugh, so I ran into this too a couple of weeks ago. A building I was panning over suddenly pops between a rectangular tube with a chunk out of the corner and an actual building with windows, a roof, and... no chunk taken out of the corner. Worst thing I've ever seen in a Total War battlemap! I'd share my screenshots if I could find them. I didn't realize at the time that this was the LoD bug (or what LoD even was).

[Butan]

My settings are 90% extreme, 5% off 5% very high.


The 2 worst things about the new LOD for me are :

- particle effects (especially trail of fires, especially from... torches, never would have known I would like to see dem torches) disappear COMPLETELY if we move away farther than around 100m
- some very noticeable unit detail suddenly pops and take forms at around 50-100m, so when you move your cam above them you see kind of ugly waves of soldiers taking shape

[alQamar]

This butan

[ysl]

For anyone who might be interested in increasing LoD, I would describe my method. (for v1.11.0 build 10383.0)

After starting the game, change the value in memory address Rome2.dll+01E8BC68 to 1. This will activate the following values.
[Rome2.dll+01E8FBB8]=100.0=range of 3D soldier model
[Rome2.dll+01E8C930]=150.0=range of 3D cavalry model
[Rome2.dll+01E8B418]=250.0=range of 3D elephant model
[Rome2.dll+01E8AAF0]=50.0=range of detailed soldier motion
[Rome2.dll+01E8C980]=50.0=range of detailed cavalry motion
You can then change these values to fit your preference.

To increase the LoD distance, change the mechine code starting from memory address Rome2.dll+01326FB0 to as follows:
8B 45 B4 8B 48 2C 89 4D F4 E8 00 00 00 00 59 83
C1 53 31 D2 3B 55 F4 0F 83 9A 00 00 00 8B 40 30
8B 00 81 78 44 00 00 C8 42 7F 03 83 C1 0C 80 78
50 00 74 18 83 FA 03 0F 83 7C 00 00 00 F3 0F 10
40 44 F3 0F 58 01 0F 2F 45 08 77 6D 42 3B 55 F4
73 65 8B 45 B4 8B 40 30 8B 04 90 83 C1 04 EB CE
CC 00 60 6A 47 00 C8 AF 47 00 C8 AF 48 00 00 61
43 00 20 99 45 00 00 C8 46 CC

This would make LoD distance to be like:
[object] range for level-1 model: about 250m, level-2: greater than 300m, level-3: greater than 600m, level-4: infinity
[soldier] range for level-1 model: greater than 15m, level-2: greater than 70m, level-3: greater than 160m, level-4: infinity

There is an additional limit range for tree model, which would force those beyond to use lowest level model.
To bypass this, change the mechine code in memory address Rome2.dll+00C195BE and Rome2.dll+00C19683 to 33 C0 90.

[Ganossa]

For anyone who might be interested in increasing LoD, I would describe my method. (for v1.11.0 build 10383.0)

After starting the game, change the value in memory address Rome2.dll+01E8BC68 to 1. This will activate the following values.
[Rome2.dll+01E8FBB8]=100.0=range of 3D soldier model
[Rome2.dll+01E8C930]=150.0=range of 3D cavalry model
[Rome2.dll+01E8B418]=250.0=range of 3D elephant model
[Rome2.dll+01E8AAF0]=50.0=range of detailed soldier motion
[Rome2.dll+01E8C980]=50.0=range of detailed cavalry motion
You can then change these values to fit your preference.

To increase the LoD distance, change the mechine code starting from memory address Rome2.dll+01326FB0 to as follows:
8B 45 B4 8B 48 2C 89 4D F4 E8 00 00 00 00 59 83
C1 53 31 D2 3B 55 F4 0F 83 9A 00 00 00 8B 40 30
8B 00 81 78 44 00 00 C8 42 7F 03 83 C1 0C 80 78
50 00 74 18 83 FA 03 0F 83 7C 00 00 00 F3 0F 10
40 44 F3 0F 58 01 0F 2F 45 08 77 6D 42 3B 55 F4
73 65 8B 45 B4 8B 40 30 8B 04 90 83 C1 04 EB CE
CC 00 60 6A 47 00 C8 AF 47 00 C8 AF 48 00 00 61
43 00 20 99 45 00 00 C8 46 CC

This would make LoD distance to be like:
[object] range for level-1 model: about 250m, level-2: greater than 300m, level-3: greater than 600m, level-4: infinity
[soldier] range for level-1 model: greater than 15m, level-2: greater than 70m, level-3: greater than 160m, level-4: infinity

There is an additional limit range for tree model, which would force those beyond to use lowest level model.
To bypass this, change the mechine code in memory address Rome2.dll+00C195BE and Rome2.dll+00C19683 to 33 C0 90.

How did you come to know this? Cannot find this information in any other thread.

[alQamar]

Can you post screens again please ysl. I am willing to try it again. Which version of the tool do you use.

[Ganossa]

Can you post screens again please ysl. Iam Willing to try it again. Which version of the tool do you use.

I think you can use WinDbg which is delivered with windows.

By the way, I also use HxD Hex Editor.

[ysl]

Can you post screens again please ysl. I am willing to try it again. Which version of the tool do you use.

I made a CheatEngine file which you can download from attachment. After Rome2 is started, run CheatEngine and select the process of Rome2.exe,
then load the attached file - Rome2_v1.11.0_build_10383.CT. Then press F1 key, which is the hotkey I choose to do all the value editting.
You should then see those values changed. Now you can fight a battle to experience it. Note that this only works with game version v1.11.0 build 10383.