ArmA2:OA Beta Patch Build 77706

[metalcraze 290]

LOL!! Maruk, when you run this latest BETA you can even be at the main menu press 'n' and you'll see thermal vision right away. You'll also see the message on the screen i mentioned earlier.

Confirmed. Pressing N even in the main menu enables thermal vision with the message "Thermal ON / OFF"

[jumpinghubert 48]

How did you do this and what does this thing do we're downloading?

it only deactivate rotation blurr and gives me 10% fps. The thread is here:http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=97853

Edited January 27, 2011 by JumpingHubert

[Tonci87 163]

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

Thank you so much BIS. If it wasn't that far I would jump into my car now and bring you a crate of beer to your office

[icebreakr 3100]

I agree Tonci87, they really listen, something rare in the gaming developer world.

[Big Dawg KS 6]

Using thermal in regular third/first person view is pretty cool actually, but I'm guessing it's just something for debugging purposes that you accidentally left in. :p

[khugan 24]

This patch is spectacular BIS. It makes me want to go out today and purchase another copy of your incredible game. Thank you BIS!

I propose a company name change to (Arnold Schwarzenegger voice-over) "...most incredible gaming company in the universe..."

Edited January 27, 2011 by Khugan

[roberthammer 582]

This patch is spectacular BIS. It makes me want to go out today and purchase another copy of your incredible game. Thank you BIS!

I propose a company name change to (Arnold Schwarzenegger voice-over) "...most incredible gaming company in the universe..."

New beta is up with Fixed Flir thing :p

[Muahaha 10]

I have just tested out this beta. the TI bug is confirmed as everyone else has experienced. Have also check on the ATOC feature.. quite a nice feature but my rig just can't take the beating..:(

The AI .... What can I say... it's an awesome sight to see how real is the behavior... they take cover from 1 place to another.... and best of all, confirming that they ignore bounding overwatch and board an vehicle under fire... SUPER cool! It felt like an a new game!

the feature to seek cover (L) cursor only works for 1 AI ? don't see it when I select 2 units at 1 go. If i can rate the beta I will give this a 5/5 ! :) Cheers BIS!

[Electricleash 133]

Interesting beta, really like the new L feature, and could prove to be the beginning of methods for 'stacking up'.

Couple of things I noticed through testing:

L Feature:

Once you order a subordinate to a wall position it is not possible to order them to change stance.

Formations:

[77538] Improved: AI using cover at house corners more often.

Seem to work nicely, more-so in Wedge formation than the others. Not sure if this is intended thus.

Thermal 'N' Glitch:

That with the 3rd person it's now possible to see that TI in vehicles with multiple armaments heat up ALL barrels/launchers when you fire one.

Convoys:

[77678] Fixed: AI subordinates moving in convoy now leaving roads less frequently.

The convoys are good at waiting for each vehicle to keep up, and run smoothly now along straights, provided you have them in column and at ease.

However, each vehicle takes up to a minute to navigate a road junction, thus if you have a convoy of six vehicles that's about six minutes of slowdown for EVERY corner.

and that is just with vehicles of the same type (tested with HMMV's) When you have multiple vehicles of different types, speeds and manoeuvrability, it's even slower.

Nice changes though BIS, keep up the great work!

E

[KeyCat 131]

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

Yesterday before bed I had better results when setting AToC=3 in ArmA2OA.cfg but still lost a few and since my old system already is "FPS starved" I disabled AToC using AToC=0 in ArmA2OA.cfg and my FPS was back to normal again.

Good to have the option when I upgrade to a better GPU in the future, currently using a GeForce GTX 260-216 896 MB with 191.07 WHQL. Everything seemed to work OK and I did not see any of the white artifacts some reported.

Now I hope to get some time testing the new AI stuff coming weekend...

/KC

Edited January 27, 2011 by KeyCat

[Dwarden 1124]

elctricleash that's engine limitation (design performance decision),

the heat up of all barrels instead of each standalone ...

[Beagle 684]

elctricleash that's engine limitation (design performance decision),

the heat up of all barrels instead of each standalone ...

The funny thing is that old ArmA2 vehicles heat up as a whole acting like IR candles just by firing a mounted gun, but I know this is a "design" decision.

[NeMeSiS 11]

All my grass just turned white, unless i disable AA. Ill check later tonight/tomorrow to see if the problem is on my end.

I like the L at the place where you order them to take cover though.

EDIT: PhenomII 955, 4gb ram, 4870 512mb with 10.6 drivers, ill try to update those later.

Well, i didnt even have to install new drivers, the problem just dissapeared. :confused:

[Electricleash 133]

elctricleash that's engine limitation (design performance decision),

the heat up of all barrels instead of each standalone ...

Cheers for clearing that up, and understandable as I imagine having them heat up separately would require a TI map for each weapon, thus increasing the file size of each vehicle too.

[mrcash2009 0]

A nice set of updates, pretty much a rap-sheet of what was noted about by people in the previous beta :)

Good work chaps, will try this out tonight.

[Robalo 465]

more details how use AToC, edit in arma2oa.cfg

ATOC=N;

value 7 = 111 in binary,

1st bit = grass

2nd bit = trees A2

3rd bit = trees OA

value 0 = no AToC yet normal AA is enabled

// standalone

0 - disabled

1 - grass

2 - new tree (zargabad)

4 - old tree (utes, chernarus)

// combined

3 - grass & new trees

5 - old trees + grass

6 - old + new trees

7 - all (default)

also please note each card generation and drivers could slightly differ on results (dithering, smooth gradient transit etc)

Can you verify this please ? It looks like the bit order is not consistent with the example settings:

// standalone

000 = 0 - disabled

001 = 1 - grass

010 = 2 - new tree (zargabad)

100 = 4 - old tree (utes, chernarus)

// combined

011 = 3 - grass & new trees

101 = 5 - old trees + grass

110 = 6 - old + new trees

111 = 7 - all (default)

Edited January 27, 2011 by Robalo_AS

[rundll.exe 12]

Good spotting. I think the examples are correct, but the bits are different:

1st bit = trees A2

2nd bit = trees OA

3rd bit = grass

[tpw 2311]

I'll just chime in with the same 2c worth. The AI is indeed awesome. So refreshing to order them into a vehicle and have them just bloody do it! AToC is indeed a fps killer. I tried various AToC < 7 values but gave up on it in the end. One thing I notice it that AToC really shows up the simplified geometry of the more distant trees - they look like a cardboard cutout rather than a tree.

[buehgler_as 0]

Good spotting. I think the examples are correct, but the bits are different:

1st bit = trees A2

2nd bit = trees OA

3rd bit = grass

I agree, however there is ambiguity over what is meant by the 1st bit. Most programmers/engineers will refer the the 1st bit as the least significant bit, or the 1's bit. The 2nd bit would be the 2's bit, etc.

From what I see the following is correct:

// standalone

0 - disabled

1 - grass

2 - new tree (zargabad)

4 - old tree (utes, chernarus)

// combined

3 - grass & new trees

5 - old trees + grass

6 - old + new trees

7 - all (default)

The new AA effects look very nice on the trees and grass on Takistan, at lower LODs. For my taste the transition as LOD drops on the A2 trees is a bit drastic and results on yellow and green puffs of "cotton candy" behind the more normal looking trees.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Buehgler_AS

[Voyage 34 10]

Well, talking about AI, I made some test on it this evening, and I feel that IMO that patch is by far a step forward from 77159.

Generally speaking, the AI is a lot more ordinate when moving, doing bounding overwatch correctly (and not almost randomly), and moving in sequence (1 advance, 2 covers; 2 advance 3 covers; and so on). As fabrizio said it seems less rushy and more coordinate.

On the CQB side I feel the "Ai using corner" thing was what the AI was missing too much (I really hoped for it, but didn't knew it was a wip). Too many times the AI was passing through some taki villages with lot of walls around houses (I usually use feruz abad for CQB testing) running around a lot, without caring if there could be an enemy behind the corner they are turning, or passing by small gates or lateral streets without caring to look there, etc. Now they seem IMO a lot more efficient in CQB, they act better, and 2 teams of US soldiers can now clean a village pretty well, without being intercepted oftenly one by one and being killed while running around in a strange "cat and mouse game" logic.

Well, maybe there could still be some space for improvement on the delta formation..

[*]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;

The corner thing even helped somehow on this problem, because taking more often cover behind corners means turning more often around, and so having a better peripheral vision. But I still agree with you that the AI needs a further better PV.

Anyway, really good work BI! the AI seems almost like a new one :D.

EDIT: another suggestion: another problem for the AI is the fact that sometimes, when they are in prone position, they stand up just to move 1 or 2 meters away (due to formation/position reasons), and then they lie down again.

Well, for a soldier standing up when under fire (or generally in combat) means exposing himself to enemy fire, so it should be done only when you really decide to move somewhere "strongly" (or when you notice you are lying on some poo :D - sorry about that).

My suggestion is: make a series of small "filters" about the movement from prone position.

Example: moving just 1 mt away? stay prone; moving - don't know - 5 or 6 mts away? stay crouched; 30 mts away you can stand up.

But I don't know if it can be done.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Voyage 34

[Arksa 10]

No time to test atm, but I got a bug with the beta patch:

I was flying a Mi-24V and had 6 in the back. I was gonna drop them after clearing a town, and ordered "team red, eject". They said "roger" and "standing by", but they didn't eject from the chopper. Chopper wasn't locked or anything, otherwise they would've said "no can do" or the like.

[SamFisheroo 10]

Been playing harvest red campaign with this patch and found that in the dogs of war mission, on my co install, the auto save will kick in even when severely wounded this can be devastating on veteran or master level where you only have one user save.

[Laqueesha 474]

I noticed that after I order my units into a cover position and order them to change their stance (prone, crouch, standing), the majority of the time, they won't abide by my command. Sometimes, they'll listen and change their stance, but most of the time, they'll just stay where they are.

Therefore, I have to order them into the desired stance, then order them into cover, which can be a pain sometimes.