GRAW Extended Draw Distance (Release)

[ArmedLightning]

Several years back I toyed around with the draw distance of props, clutter, etcetera. Unfortunately that work was lost  and I had to dig in the recesses of memory to remember what all I had done and where I had left off. At any rate, having finally grown tired of the un-optimized clunky mess that is ArmA 3, I've  begun to revisit some older titles. Starting from scratch, I've managed to identify many of files and settings that affect rendering of clutter, graffiti, etc. I make no guarantees regarding performance or stability. I haven't done extensive testing and at the moment I have stability issues with the title. I'm not sure if it's a result of this mod or another. Better late than never!

 

GRAW Extended Draw Distance v0.5

Edited September 6, 2023 by ArmedLightning
Removed attachment, inserted link.

[ArmedLightning]

--Update--

It seems the my cause of instability was incompatible values between the "settings\materials.xml" and "units\mass.xml" files. At first blush it appears that spawn values cannot exceed the clip_plane value. Raising both the "clip_plane" and "silhouette_base" values or lowering the spawn values seems to alleviate the issue. This rule might also apply to clip_plane values for objects and props. Unfortunately, I've noticed a new issue concerning the spawning and de-spawning of a certain structures with the raised values. I'll attempt to try and isolate the cause. If any progress is to be had I'll update my post. Eventually, I may try to put together some sort of documentation detailing rules of thumb for anyone interested in modifying the included files. Meanwhile, an updated (working) version can be found in the first post. As a final note, the initial values were based on the GRAW 2 Extended 1.53 mod. Despite the the similarities in regards to the engine, at the moment GRAW 2 appears to be a little more forgiving in regards to values it will accept.

Edited July 4, 2018 by ArmedLightning
Spelling and grammar!

[ArmedLightning]

--Update 2--

It appears the spawning issue and other artifacts are a result of modifying the "clip_plane" and "silhouette_base" values in the "settings\materials.xml" file. The behavior was consistent after testing a range of values, as a result the default values are recommended. Furthermore, too high of spawn values in the "units\mass.xml" will certainly lead to instability and crashing. I'm unsure if raising a particular entry too high is the cause or if it's a cumulative effect. The highest spawn values assigned to an object in the default file are "in=25000 out=25500". When applied to every other object, the engine seems content. Furthermore, after raising values to this threshold, I've gone on to individually adjust some object values well beyond this set-point in an attempt to see if a particular object is the culprit (still on-going). A quick and dirty stability test can be performed by starting a new game. The game will (reliably) crash during the HALO jump sequence if spawn values are set too high. Stability testing via a loaded save didn't yield consistent results in replicating failures. Additionally, it seems if the game didn't crash during the HALO sequence then it can be assumed that the edited ranges were stable (I was able to complete the first mission). Once again I've updated the archive in the first post. The spawn distance of small objects was raised a slight amount and an additional file added (u_historical.xml) which was discovered during subsequent review of the game files.

[NucAr]

The attachment in the original post can't be downloaded. Can it be made available? If not, what is the current recommended way to increase the draw distance?

Edited September 10, 2021 by NucAr

[NucAr]

I see that the attachment in the first post was updated in 2022, but I still can't download it. It is "unavailable". Perhaps uploading it somewhere else such as Mod DB would be better for long-term accessibility?

[ArmedLightning]

"NucAr" - Haven't been on in a long time. I sent a message to "Rocky" around the time the attachment was updated to have it included in the downloads section. Probably, was forgotten about. It also appears accepted file types that can be attached to a post no longer allow for an archive extension. Meanwhile, attached in the top post is a Google Drive link to the file.

Edited September 6, 2023 by ArmedLightning
Updated link.

[NucAr]

Thanks a lot!