This is not a bug, a cheat, or an exploit.
You can choose to change your graphics settings to what ever you prefer and so can the other players. Demanding something like this is selfish and only serves to alienate players who don't have powerful systems.

"I like the way the game looks maxed out, I do not want to have to play on low just so I can have the same advantage."

That's great, but that's how YOU like it. The developers are not going to force other players to play with maxed out graphics just because you get a little butt hurt when someone kills you.

But well, he has a fair point, while YOU think you are hidden, you are basically not. That's like playing Battlefield and you are sitting behind a car and the other guy doesn't have a car and sees you sitting on the street. Well, you get the point. IMO it should be like the smoke grens in Counter-Strike:
A. Users with bad computers had bad textures, the smoke grens were basically just a grey wall
B. Users with better computers had a nice smoke and could probably see better through the smoke, because it was more realistic.

Devs should push users to get better computers and not punish those who do. Or else deactivate those awful settings, when players are using them just to have an advantage (and not because they have to use them).

When you increase brightness sun may is blinding you....when you disable shadows you probably can´t see players behind objects...when you decrease all graphic options you get an performance boost helping you in cities....
The list is endless. This is possible in pretty much all multiplayer games. It´s the reason why people calling themselves "pro gamer" use lowest settings to get the biggest advantage and maximum performance.
Gaming on PC never was fair and it never will be 100% but that´s okay.
Maybe it seems a little bit unfriendly, but if you want fairness play Battlefield or Call of Duty on Playstation. But even in this case it depends on your TV -.-

In my opinion your "report" makes no sense. Try to play in Cities when you are scared by snipers.

It's not about enhancing FPS etc, it's about telling the player "you are save here" while you are not. IMO that's a big difference. If I can't trust the environment then it's a totally different game.

Lower the graphic settings shouldnt give players an advantage!
It´s just unfair like a wallhack to see somebody who thinks you cant see him!

Okay justPre but you said give the advanzage to players with better systems. Thats unfair too because most players use low settings because of bad machines. Alpha to coverage needs antialiasing which decreases performance a lot. I have a GTX 550 Ti manually overclocked which is not a good gpu of course. I can use Antialiasing and Alpha to coverage but even in the smallest cities it causes gamebreaking performance drops.
I think its balanced because people with better PCs have a higher view distance (which is unfair too) and they have a better resolution which makes small objects in distance even better visible.

OK, stop. This is not a democracy, where every user should have some advantages based on his computer. This is supposed to be a game where certain elements have certain functions and these should not be adjustable or optional. In other words turning off these elements is basically cheating.
It's like saying "You can't afford a good pc for Splinter Cell? Well, then play the same game with shitty graphics and to compensate this we deactivated the walls for you, so enjoy that". You break the game.

I had shitty systems too and you know what the solution was? Work for a better system or play with shitty graphics. Or don't play at all. I'm not willing to play a game against people who basically play a different game because their surroundings are totally different to mine and I am forced to play with shitty graphics so I can stand a chance against them.

So you want to judge who is allowed to play and who not just because of a not even important graphic option?
I think you are exaggerating excessively.
I don´t want every user of a pc to have certain advantages but it sadly is like that and devs will never change this.
Of course they could enable alpha to coverage for every user, but they would be massively crtiticised by owners of bad systems and they would lose money.
Option two is to generally deactivate the effect. Game would look like shit.
The reason you want Option one is that you have a good pc and you simply don´t care about others. So you can´t understand that there are people out there who want to play but simply do not accept to spent at least 1000 euros on a computer, even if they have the money.
And of course there are more people out there with bad systems than people with high end machines.
When you can´t survive while camping in bushes you maybe should go to the cities. Now you say: "hey i can play where i want"
Of course you can, but thats my point, too. I can play with every computer i want.
DayZ will never be a fair game. Look at third person perspective. You can see above walls while others cant see you. And don´t tell me thats not the same.

The environment should be the same size on every setting, just the details vary.

I still refuse to turn my graphics to the lower settings even though it gets me sniped because when I am in cover some guy with his graphics on low can see me clear as day. I agree the textures should be blockier. An I do not think people with the better pc should have an advantage but chances are they do anyway just because of the high FPS. It is not a big secrete that this game is severely unoptimized. My system even with a 780 GTX can still be brought to its knees in Cherno. There are probably more options that make you even more visible that you can turn down, the one I know for a fact that is broken I have recorded the effects of turning it on and off. Just like the field of view making you be able to see even further. I will say that the field of view being all the way down can actually get you killed because if someone comes up on you while you're sniping its not going to be easy to turn and kill them zoomed in that far.

The graphics thing is a game breaker for me. If I hide in a tree that looks bushy and colorful to me, and some guy with lower settings sees a skinny tree with less pines on and can kill me because of it that to me is broken. I like to play my game with pretty graphics and enjoy all of what Day Z has to offer. Lowering my settings to be able to see other players is something I shouldn't have to do. An I also do believe that Rocket himself would agree with me. This game engine is not the best and its a shame to me that Rocket paved the way for a game like this with awesome potential but got handicapped on an Engine like this. Now big name companies like Sony, and even some smaller companies are making games like what Rocket had envisioned. Must be hard to sit and watch that from his seat, then again he is probably just enjoying the money. I never played the mod but from the videos I seen a lot of stuff that this game is having trouble with works in it. The mod is a down grade in a lot of regards one being the graphics, and inventory system but it is essentially the same engine, and should not be that hard to get some of these things working.

I do care about other people, but sadly some people with great systems would take advantage of this option. An I do not think the guy on a lower system should have any advantage over me. The FPS being higher that has been around forever, and it cannot be helped... However this can be fixed pretty easily.

I made a video of a hacker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxJkMnXVQj0

I understand your point but not everybody has the luxury of a high end PC to run an Alpha game in its highest settings. I play the game on High settings with Alpha To coverage off as I think it makes the fps lower for no reason and I think the game looks awesome... one setting does NOT make the game automatically look "crappy".

However, that being said, I agree with your point. I don't agree with the assumption that people that play on low do so to gain an advantage. Some people just want to experience DayZ.

I would add to your point that grass needs to be taken into consideration. You can play on LOWEST settings (advantage in your opinion) and me in ULTRA yet I would easily see you in the distance regardless of where you are in the game as at distances the grass doesn't even get drawn and trees change their model LOD so the game can render them all meaning you would stand out like a sore thumb under a pine tree because in the distance it changes its shape to accommodate all the details. This issue isn't just about Alpha To Coverage. Grass needs to give you cover in the distance as it does in close. Trees need to do the same.

I have to play DayZ on lowest settings because I have just a bloody office laptop to play with.

I am sorry and will stop playing DayZ because I don't want to take advantage of my shitty graphics.

I hope this suits your needs.

I agree with this issue.
It also counts for grass + draw distance. Sitting in grass thinking you're concealed, while from a distance one can see you laying on the ground.

It's just shit.

Would like some hardware limitations for this game.

EDIT: for other people with half brain:
The post is ment for the devs to get a limitation in so that at least some shitty graphics grass or trees are rendered instead of NOTHING.

"for other people with half brain"...

..."Would like some hardware limitations for this game."

You have no idea how this engine works. It is essentially adopting a lot of the traits from ARMA 2 engine...so as long as that stands it DOESN'T MATTER if EVERYBODY in the world had the same pc spec because the grass and trees would still do the same thing! It's not a hardware problem!

The engine needs to be changed to allow for that type of thing. So as long as this remains a game built on top of a modified engine that isn't suited to this type of environmental scaling this problem will persist.

You can climb off your super-pc pedestal now.

I don't have a "super-pc". And I don't really care what the engine can or cannot do, if we are speaking of realistic survival simulation, this IS a problem!

Good thing you expert explained how the engine works!
Much appreciated!

Hi everyone and thank you all for your feedback on the issue.
This is something that is quite hard for us to tweak, however we will take a look into this in the future - please be patient.
Thanks again,
Andy

Make it so the server creator can only allow a minimum graphic setting to play on their server. That way all servers aren't affected and people running in lower settings can choose to go to servers that allow it. This would make it fair for people wanting to play with max settings and also make it so its not all servers restricting low graphic settings. Seems like the easiest fix.

Dayz Server xx veteran AtC enabled 0/40
Dayz Server xx veteran 0/40

Something to those effects

I know people have to play at those settings but its an unfair advantage and makes the game unplayable or frustrating as hell.