ArmA2:OA Beta Patch Build 77706

[Scrub 0]

Thank you BIS, great suite of fixes and additions. I too have the video problem with a white silhouette, Edit: only it's when flying and on the ground, it is the groundcover, not the trees that is affected.

Testing now to see how the AI pivots around the fantastic Cover-'L'. Great feature, makes positioning my Marines against the oncoming hordes of Wastelanders much easier and detailed! Thanks again!

ATI Radeon HD 5770

AMD Phenom 8450

Edited January 26, 2011 by Scrub

[pauliesss 2]

I don´t have this problem with white trees or grass. AA enabled - normal.

(my PC specs in signature)

Great patch, I can see some improvement in AI too. :cool:

[jumpinghubert 49]

same white pixels here with antialiasing on trees and grass. Tested on chernarus, daytime. GTX280, Win7 64bit, driver nvidia 266.58.

[Nielsen 10]

This is an awesome changelog!

Thanks especially for those AI tweaks!

[Coffeecat 10]

I got the white texture Problem only with AA Settings 5-8.

low-very high makes no issues.

Il try the new Nvidia Drivers V266.58. now.

Gtx460 1Gig Driver 8.17.12.6099

E8400@3.6Ghz

Edited January 26, 2011 by Coffeecat

[Colossus 2]

Quite a few fixes, I must say. Well done, BI.

What isn't that well done is the TI. If you use ANY Takistani Army vehicle, that's the only faction I've tried so far, you end up with seeing only TI (current default view) or NV. No normal vision what-so-ever.

I know people want TI on the "old" ArmA 2 vehicles, but this is messing up the game and I don't think the Takistani Army are Predators.

*W0lle pointed out this already*

Edited January 26, 2011 by colossus

[Capt. Sand 10]

anyone else seeing this when reloading the m240?

also, the new L waypoint works great for a single unit. I was thinking, though, how it would be nice to have it work on a whole team. for example, on Utes, I wanted to get my team standing along a wall of that one hangar. I could see the L show up on several spots when choosing one unit, but pressing space made the cursor go right through the wall and choose the floor. so, I'd like to know if you guys are going to expand on this later on, because I think it's one of my favorite features already.

that said, everything else is looking/working great. thanks for the patch.

edit: oops, I spoke too soon. I loaded up another mission to see if I also get the TI bug, and sure enough, I see it too. it didn't stop there, though. I restarted my mission, and this time, the TI was automatically on. I exited to title screen, and it followed me there, too. kinda spooky.

Edited January 26, 2011 by Capt. Sand
confirm TI bug

[c0nse-0n3r 19]

Just did some testing with the new patch.. Lovin it so far.. Getting great performance too!

1 issue w/ new vegetation though.. I get slight transparent outlines and pixelated grids in most trees and some grass.. it all goes away with AA--> disabled but low-high doesnt affect it either..barely noticeable at times

Running @ 1920x1080 w/ nvidia GTS 250 latest drivers, tried fiddling with AA transparency and texture quality options etc. but no luck..

Anyone else having similar issues?

[fabrizio_t 58]

Great Beta.

Rigid Formations?

One of the entries on the changelog indicate a harsher adherence to formation while in Danger mode. I understand that the previous softer formations may have disrupted the lanes of fire somewhat-- yet I feel that the greater emphasis on keeping in cover (no matter the formation) gave the squad a higher chance of survival. (and probably looked more natural)

Beware, here i am talking about AI led groups, not player led groups:

i've just run twice a couple missions i designed quite dome time ago, they were explicitly thought to check AI efficiency in moving and taking cover.

Some general info about them:

• the first mission involves an infantry squad advancing towards some enemies simply holding ground. Advancing group should go through a small wood.
  
• the second mission features a small infantry team entering / sweeping a villlage into which enemy is hidden.
  

Now the feedback.

The first mission was designed to check AI ability to advance under fire taking advantage from trees cover. AI performance here was already good with build 77159, but numbers tell me that with build 77706 things are on par or even slightly better .

I can't really see any "rigidity" in AI movement, units spread and take cover behind trees and they generally make a good job. No unneeded glueing to formation, as far i can see.

With latest build improvements AI units also advance more slowly, there's less rushing, more coordinate movement.

The second mission was designed to check AI CQB behaviour.

While i see more AI units taking advantage of buildings corner in 77706, improvements are marginal and combat performance is generally similar to 77159. This means CQB behaviour is still very poor, due to at least 4 AI limitations:

1. Bug: AI units have almost null peripheral vision and can't spot (nor hear btw) threats in close proximity on sides or on higher or lower ground; steady (not moving) enemies are almost invisible / not heard by AI;
   
2. Bug or config issue: AI units are extremely slow to detect and recognize as enemy any close threats they suddenly discover, even if distance is just a few meters;
   
3. Bug: AI units are often very slow in traversing their weapons and to fire upon recognized enemies that are not just in front of them;
   
4. Tactical limitation: AI units are unable to lob grenades over obstacles (houses, higher walls) protecting a close threat.
   

I hope also these problems will be finally addressed.

All in all, AI wise, i think 77159 was a step forward, 77706 is another good one.

Keep it going BIS, you're doing it right.

BTW: i confirm the thermal vision bug: now even civilians have thermal vision.

Edited January 26, 2011 by fabrizioT

[ericfr 0]

AIs get stuck in Danger Mode.

Lead a squad on Desert, Danger Mode, run forward 200m away, the squad don't move or move very slowly, the entire squad reach me after few minutes even with order "return in formation", only order "move to" works well.

Edited January 26, 2011 by EricFr

[stun 5]

hmmm. In my test mission AI lead units aren't making as much use of cover as before. Player led AI seem to be making even less use of cover due to trying to stay in formation - they are also back to doing that anoying maintain formation dance where they excessively reposition themselves attempting to maintain the perfect formation. Movement in the previous beta was far more fluid and natural in my opinion. For me I can't see much difference to this beta and the one prior to 77159. Beta 77159 brought the AI to life for me, I'm missing it already.

[Alwarren 2767]

AIs get stuck in Danger Mode.

Lead a squad on Desert, Danger Mode, run forward 200m away, the squad don't move or move very slowly, the entire squad reach me after few minutes even with order "return in formation", only order "move to" works well.

Just tried it here, worked fine without much delay. Are you using mods?

---------- Post added at 00:16 ---------- Previous post was at 00:15 ----------

hmmm. In my test mission AI lead units aren't making as much use of cover as before. Player led AI seem to be making even less use of cover due to trying to stay in formation

Can't say this is true. Just played a mission were the squad used cover perfectly fine, only staying in formation if there was no cover available.

[ericfr 0]

Just tried it here, worked fine without much delay. Are you using mods?

No mods, beta always tested with vanilla Arma2Co

Strange with me in Danger mode the units reach me one by one, the entire squad is Ok after around 4 minutes, 30 secs with 1.57.

[bigsam656 10]

Has anyone got atoc running smoothly? I get a massive performance drop when scoping in.

[Nec 10]

First of all........thank you BIS for making this the best Simulation Game of the world,a few years ago was Operation Flashpoint and before that Falcon 4.

I see that you are improving the AI behavior, thats excellent, but im still having some grafic problems that are keeping away some new friends, who i want to convince to play this game. The LOD grafic problem still there:mad:, textures of grass blinking on and off and the texture of buildings going from low to high is driving me crazy, this happends when I am moving, on foot and vehicle, but if im standing still and watch the horizon the problem isnt visible. When i run on foot I can see the grass appearing a few meters away, and the texture of buildings changing a lot. Ive already defragment my hd a few times and my rig is good (I7 2.8, 6 gb ram, g force 285), maybe im missing something, or is this BIS problem?

If someone knows how to fix this, please help me here!

[metalcraze 290]

The best AA2 beta patch ever? (I also seem to get smoother performance in Zargabad)

Now just make AI engage through windows while inside the house and I will be the happy panda.

[jumpinghubert 49]

solved the problem with the white pixels: updated oktanes noblur addon. http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/noblur/

Vegetation, grass, trees looks great now without killing fps to 10 fps.

Edited January 26, 2011 by JumpingHubert

[metalcraze 290]

BTW a suggestion to BIS, Make that cover system's "L" thicker (like 2 pixels instead of 1 perhaps?) for comfort. It isn't always immediately noticeable.

[das attorney 858]

[77169] Improved: AI now always moves without covering when given move command by a player (http://dev-heaven.net/issues/16504).

Big thanks to BIS for this change. Lots of people were asking for (yet) another command to do this but I like the sublime way they've implemented the requested functionality. Very intuitive :)

It's made a huge difference to an addon I've been working on. Lots more motivation for me to get on and finish it.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Das Attorney

[c0nse-0n3r 19]

The best AA2 beta patch ever? (I also seem to get smoother performance in Zargabad)

I 2nd that.. this patch is killer.. makes performance much more stable for me im sure chernarus will be alot smoother too.. :D

this AToC rendering .. does it give anyone else pixelated transparent peices on the vegetation? barely noticable at times..the peices go away with AA disabled so im thinking...

its either a bug for me and my nvidia card or just part of the new engine and im being picky

Another game i play has similar tree rendering/issue so maybe its not a bug?

if so, its likely worth the trade-off for the performance boost i'm getting now :D

any ideas anyone? curious if i should keep trying to solve or not

[KrIxXuS 10]

Just did some testing with the new patch.. Lovin it so far.. Getting great performance too!

1 issue w/ new vegetation though.. I get slight transparent outlines and pixelated grids in most trees and some grass.. it all goes away with AA--> disabled but low-high doesnt affect it either..barely noticeable at times

Running @ 1920x1080 w/ nvidia GTS 250 latest drivers, tried fiddling with AA transparency and texture quality options etc. but no luck..

Anyone else having similar issues?

Im using very latest 11.1 ATI Drivers and catalyst profiles(awesome:cool:)

Also getting similar issue's but really not a big deal, i turned my aa to normal and aniso to very high which took most of it away, it seems better although orange trees at a distance look really fluffy :D....BUT the game in my opinion looks amazing and i can for the first time use anisotropic filtering(v.high) and pp on low :) without a great deal of a performance hit...gotta be the patch to end all patches for me... this is GREAT!!!

My settings in game...

All running sweet at the moment.

Good work BIS and thankyou, appreciated :cheers:

Edited January 27, 2011 by KrIxXuS

[vohk 10]

Between this beta and the latest catalyst drivers (11.1;2x5850s), I have to say whoa. Gained a few fps and a lot of smoothness, and with ~5% less GPU overclock*. LODs even got a bit better. No graphical abnormalities yet. Havn't had a chance to evaluate the AI changes yet.

(The cyborg vision IR is an interesting touch mind you. :p Might actually be a nice option to have for custom fiddling though.)

This is why people love you guys at BI. Your games come out a fair bit buggier than they should but not only do you keep squashing bugs months after release, you actually keep adding little features and improvements.

*Don't ask.

[Brainbug 10]

How did you implement this? I assume you are not using the default supersampling alpha-AA function that both Radeons and Geforces offer for quite a while now, that would cost much more performance. Is it a multisampling algorithm? I'm not asking to tell all your secrets, just asking if and how its technically different to the graphics driver options.

So far, on my 5850 I usually ran the game with AA set to medium (i.e. 4xMSAA) and in-game supersampling set to 125% (2400x1500 rendering res) to smooth out the foilage, because enabling AAA in the driver (which is always done by supersamling in the Catalyst, only Nvidia offers a MS solution, which however is not always convincing) would have drawn the FPS too far down. But with this new option, I think running with 100% res will have the same effect and maybe even run better, have to try.

[Baz 0]

i also have the NVG replaced with IR vision bug... Guess it needs a fix in an upcoming patch?

[lazerath 10]

i also have the NVG replaced with IR vision bug... Guess it needs a fix in an upcoming patch?

I can confirm this bug x2 (a friend is also experiencing the nightvision/IR glitch).

As soon as I rolled back to the previous patch everything was okay (no night vision being replaced by IR both in and out of vehicles (gunner.Tank, gunner.Apache) etc.

the change log looked good though ;-) I am sure the nvg glitch will be fixed quickly though ;-)