ARMA 2: OA beta build 73968

[Dwarden 1125]

Is it me, or is the dreaded alpha-shine bug also squashed? I mean - WOOOOOOOOOT :)

yep, some of the alpha fog issues were reduced also ...

another surprise not in changelog ...

[Nephris1 10]

I can second the increased z-fighting in all stances but prone.

To be honest i am doing hard to get the idea, why it still occurs in prone only....??

Helluva job Bis is doing in propering the game!

[roberthammer 582]

I can second the increased z-fighting in all stances but prone.

To be honest i am doing hard to get the idea, why it still occurs in prone only....??

Helluva job Bis is doing in propering the game!

Maybe Prone grass layer in far?

[celery 8]

What does getTerrainHeightASL do?

[Dwarden 1125]

What does getTerrainHeightASL do?

getTerrainHeightASL [(coords)]; // returns value in meters

GetResolution; // returns [width, height, 2Dviewport width, 2Dviewport height, ratio, UI scale]

getVariable [name, default]; // newly gets a default parameter

[dmarkwick 261]

What does getTerrainHeightASL do?

If I were to guess, I would say that it gets the terrain height at a specified point relative to the sea level. (ASL = Above Sea Level.)

---------- Post added at 06:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:06 PM ----------

yep, some of the alpha fog issues were reduced also ...

another surprise not in changelog ...

Very, very nice little surprise extra :) it makes my fog addon more of a viable release now... :)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Nice, a new beta on my birthday. :cool:

Happy birthday then ;) I guess today is everyones birthday with the fog bug gone. :D

[Dwarden 1125]

updated first post with all the scripting commands and details and such

[Przemek_kondor 13]

Thanks for the language fixes in polish version!

Polish community really appreciates this

[Dwarden 1125]

Thanks for the language fixes in polish version!

Polish community really appreciates this

glad you like them (hehe another surprise not in changelog)

i think there are some more language fixes (german i think, maybe also russian but not sure now)

[Richey79 10]

details about one important suprise left out of changelog are in first post

[73670] Option to disable V-sync(Vertical synchronization) in arma2oa.cfg

This is most welcome.

I was using ATI Tray Tools before and still hadn't been able to force v-synch off.

Every little bit helps with the framerate.

Cheers, Bis.

[Dwarden 1125]

-mpStatistics

Commandline switch to record various MP related statistics into mpStatistics.log

for admins and developers to profile server behaviour (b1.54.73801)

the file is incremental

Edited October 8, 2010 by Dwarden

[thhamm 53]

>forEach: // variable _index added to retrieve the position of _x within the Array

Please don't do this. That's a real codebreaker. Prefix it, if you have to, _x_index, whatever, but not just _index. You could have named it _i, _j and _k, that would be even worse. :(

Sorry for the rant.

[Dwarden 1125]

>forEach: // variable _index added to retrieve the position of _x within the Array

Please don't do this. That's a real codebreaker. Prefix it, if you have to, _x_index, whatever, but not just _index. You could have named it _i, _j and _k, that would be even worse. :(

Sorry for the rant.

ok, noted ... will see what could be done

[Maxzy 12]

glad you like them (hehe another surprise not in changelog)

i think there are some more language fixes (german i think, maybe also russian but not sure now)

Yep, russian there is. "Artillery computer" now written in russian, stationary double AA "igla" now have a proper name "jigit" and much more i guess :). Very nice beta. Thanks for all your hard work.

[pauliesss 2]

Thank you very much BIS, thats all I can say!

[Stargun 10]

I think a simple "thank you" is not enough in case of solving the terrible z-fighting bug.

I can say that this is PHENOMENAL! It's so AWESOME to see the distant objects through the scope as I always wanted: without the strange flickering. I can hardly describe how GREAT this change is. I hope you'll be able to fix this in prone also, but hey: this is the BEST thing you've done since I bought ARMA II nearly a year ago!

Well done guys, and keep up the good work. I think this is the point, when I really became a believer. Now I KNOW that there's a company called BIS which really understands the problems of a community and tries to work hard to solve the issues.

THANK YOU!

[SaOk 112]

A great beta again. The performance seems to be much better in my heavy scripted mission in Zargabad (Or I managed to improve it myself by an accident).

This new beta crashes everytime when I try to order team-mate AI mortar to "fire at position". I sent crashbumbs to Dwarden.

I also get the earlier beta error everytime BIS_ARTY_F_ExecuteTemplateMission function is used. It worked fine before in every other beta and final versions including orginal ArmA2:

Error in expression <tualShell = false;};
_spawnDist = 6;
if (_virtualShell) then
{
if (BIS_ARTY_D>
 Error position: <if (_virtualShell) then
{
if (BIS_ARTY_D>
 Error if: Type Object, expected Bool
File ca\modules\ARTY\data\scripts\ARTY_ShellFlight.sqf, line 71

I hope the AI chopper flying will be much improved. Few betas earlier they flied still nicely, now they oscilate the tail all the time and circle much more around the waypoints. They sometimes even seem to loose much altitude suddently and almost crash to ground when following to leader or maybe avoiding other distant choppers. The flying look silly especially when onboard. AI flies faster too which makes it gain much more altitude, than before, when closing to "Transport Unload"-waypoint.

This was the turning point:

[73339]  Improved: Improved helicopter AI formation flying and collision avoidance. 

Edited October 8, 2010 by SaOk

[xeno 234]

Sorry for the rant.

No, you don't have to say sorry. Whoever suggested it, it exactly breaks what constructs like forEach are made for :(

Xeno

[Dwarden 1125]

No, you don't have to say sorry. Whoever suggested it, it exactly breaks what constructs like forEach are made for :(

Xeno

it's useful for someone else

but stop trashing something because you find it not useful for You ...

if there is need to change the _index in forEach loops to something unique then it will be done like _forEachIndex or w/e

[Evil_Echo 11]

...

This new beta crashes everytime when I try to order team-mate AI mortar to "fire at position". I sent crashbumbs to Dwarden.

I also get the earlier beta error everytime BIS_ARTY_F_ExecuteTemplateMission function is used. It worked fine before in every other beta and final versions including orginal ArmA2:

Some of my user base saw the same error in the previous beta when calling fire missions via my scripts. Hopefully your data and ours will help BI narrow down the cause.

[jamesf1 0]

if there is need to change the _index in forEach loops to something unique then it will be done like _forEachIndex or w/e

Surely it makes more sense to follow something short and slightly conventional, e.g. _xi (as in the index of _x)? Something like _forEachIndex just strikes me as quite long. Whatever you name it, there's a small chance that someone, somewhere will have to rewrite some script or other... so I'd vote for naming it something straightforward, short (to keep in a similar vein to _x) and logical.

But, at the end of the day, that's just my two cents :) And excuse me if I'm completely missing the point, it's late, and I should have gone to sleep hours ago!

[kroky 1]

I wonder why BIS doesn't address this bug in high priority. It's really making me sick how the choppers shake when AI pilots are flying them. :(

Maybe in the next beta patch?

PS. Besides this I appreciate the changes very much.

PPS. The thing that disturbs me most, is that I can't choose the language, I want to play ArmA2 OA. I live in Poland and bought the Polish version, but I really don't like all the menues in Polish, I would rather have it in English.

[dmarkwick 261]

I am noting a tendency for helos in Takistan to crash into terrain.

[gossamersolid 155]

it's useful for someone else

but stop trashing something because you find it not useful for You ...

if there is need to change the _index in forEach loops to something unique then it will be done like _forEachIndex or w/e

I'll say it definetly is a welcomed addition, but the current implementation (like others have said) is going to cause problems.

Not sure what you'll change it to, but it does need to be changed.

I appreciate all the hard work and additions from the BIS team