I find it difficult to tell apart different elevations

[moeburn]

As the title suggests, it seems very difficult in CMSF to notice where a hill or a valley is. I find myself editing all my custom maps to be played during sunrise or sunset, so that the sun casts a shadow on one side of all the hills, allowing them to have some definition, but even that doesn't help very much.

I find myself having to zoom in all the way to ground level and then back out again just to see where the hills are, but when i move the camera higher up, everything looks flat. I never had this problem in CMBB.

Is there any way to increase the contrast in the different elevations? Perhaps a mod that can achieve this?

[Erwin]

You are correct, however I am always puzzled when players spend most of their time in higher elevations. Being at ground level is imo how the CM series was designed to enable us to play.

If one wants a top down game what is the point of all the wonderful 3-D graphics? One may as well play Steel Panthers or the Close Combat series.

[Magpie_Oz]

I find that the colour of the desert terrain makes features very indistinct and I find myself "riding on the shoulder" of my units continuously.

I kinda like that tho' seems a bit more realistic to me.

[Hairy Pie]

Is there a mod out there, like the one in the earlier games that adds a grid to the terrain? Right useful that was!

[Vinnart]

I made a mod with a grid, but it is not for use with the standard desert terrain that comes with the stock game. I moddified a mod out there already that uses european terrain. It does help to see slight changes in the terrain.

[vincere]

+1 for a grid mod. Sometimes the new graphics just dont cut it. I'm guessing though that a grid mod on the much smaller squares would be butt ugly.

[nik mond]

Ray tracing was brought up in a few threads. It not only would make terrain look better close up and far away, but would assist the player to find dead ground and hull down positions.

Typically this could be a function of a map maker program, for example a ray trace would be run to analyze how the designer set up the time of day, with ground contours and shadow lengths calculated and overlayed. One method, which would not tax the game engine because its a layer. This would take a while to render after the map is designed.

The game engine seems to shadow objects in relation to time of day but does not really apply this to ground dynamically, or rather applies it very slightly. Likely not to tax processor power and game performance. I'm just guessing tho.

[vincere]

close up is usually fine for me; it's more overview and looking down range.