ArmA 3 on Steamworks?

[maddogx 13]

It's been quite a long time since I last used Steam, but after reading through this thread it does appear that it's gotten much better. Will Steam have any effect on my ram usage if playing in offline mode?

As someone noted before, Steam uses about 10-16MBs of RAM when minimized, which is nothing to worry about. If you're worried about the Steam overlay affecting your in-game performance (which it doesn't, in my experience) you can deactivate that.

EDIT: Quoting Dwarden's post again for the new page, because this really is required reading:

so let put flat out some claims to death

1. STEAM adoption will not block any possibility to use 3rd party tools (let say sixupdater)

2. STEAM adoption will not replace content hubs like armaholic

please see Skyrim and Civilization 5 modding

3. i/we do fully understand the concerns about STEAM offline mode issues (login/LAN etc) and we will try improve / tweak that as much as possible

4. try guess what games and which developer is one of main reasons STEAM has now differ byte delta patching ? :)

5. arguments about chance something being stolen because it's easier to upload them to STEAM ... well i bet if we adopted e.g. Desura it would be same argument all over again, there was always someone trying steal our and mods content since 2000 so i guess that's moot point

[jblackrupert 14]

Gabe newell and Steam is nothing more then another Apple and Steve Jobs.

You'll see....

---------- Post added at 02:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:36 AM ----------

As someone noted before, Steam uses about 10-16MBs of RAM when minimized, which is nothing to worry about. If you're worried about the Steam overlay affecting your in-game performance (which it doesn't, in my experience) you can deactivate that.

Steam has a noticeable effect on system performance, minor but annoying.

[nodunit 397]

Fack Steam!!! I like my addons organized in folders and thats it!!! SAY NO TO STEAM!

You can still use organized folders. A buddy and I work on a project together, he uses Steam but I don't, yet there is a requirement "@Foldername".

[dm 9]

Fack Steam!!! I like my addons organized in folders and thats it!!! SAY NO TO STEAM!

Steam doesnt affect this? I have my addons organised in folders in my Steam install of A2...

[nes4day 2]

Fack Steam!!! I like my addons organized in folders and thats it!!! SAY NO TO STEAM!

Have you read anything that was posting on the thread before you posted that? Mod/Addons are installed exactly the same with or without Steam.

It's been quite a long time since I last used Steam, but after reading through this thread it does appear that it's gotten much better. Will Steam have any effect on my ram usage if playing in offline mode?

In online mod it takes up about half as a normal browser, so I would imaging less in offline mode, so I would imagine effect on ram usage will be minimal.

[EDcase 87]

I read that the account is tied to the computer so what happens if you buy a new computer?

[NoRailgunner 0]

How Steam and bistore will work in the future together or will BIS just push everything + everyone over to Steam after time X?

[rye1 21]

I read that the account is tied to the computer so what happens if you buy a new computer?

I don't think it is, I've had two computers - same steam account. Didn't have to changed anything, only redownload my games.

[chortles 263]

Rye is correct -- the games are tied to the account, not to the computer, and the account itself is also not tied to the computer.

[nes4day 2]

I read that the account is tied to the computer so what happens if you buy a new computer?

No, it's bound to your email (in a sense), it will just send you a verification code to authorize the new computer when you first login to the new computer from Steam.

And the activation is unlimited.

How Steam and bistore will work in the future together or will BIS just push everything + everyone over to Steam after time X?

I doubt that, since a lot of game companies that sells their game online (if the game is a Steam game) will just sell you a Serial key to use with Steam, and that's the end of that.

[toxim 0]

As someone noted before, Steam uses about 10-16MBs of RAM when minimized, which is nothing to worry about. If you're worried about the Steam overlay affecting your in-game performance (which it doesn't, in my experience) you can deactivate that.

That was me. And now after monitoring the memory usage for a while(uhh about 1 hour), it has climbed to 56 MB. I dont remember though seeing it use much more than that in the past.

Opening Games Collection window(opening or closing just the smaller Friends list does not seem to have this effect) and minimizing again seems to drop it to around 8 - 12 MB from where it slowly starts to climb again.

[maddogx 13]

I read that the account is tied to the computer so what happens if you buy a new computer?

This is incorrect. You can log in to Steam wherever you want (new computer, girlfriends computer or wherever), just not in two places at the same time.

[tonygrunt 10]

I read that the account is tied to the computer so what happens if you buy a new computer?

Except for some games that use 3rd party DRM on top of steam, you have no limitation on different pc installs.

[Zorg_DK 10]

I hate Steam, sounds awful if it's gonna be mandatory for Arma3.

[jumpnjack 10]

Mind you Im a huge fan of Arma2 and baught all three DVD's. I mostly play Single player on Arma2 therefore I am against Steam! I dislike Steam and Origin b/c you dont really own the content, rather you own an account which is hardly the same thing! If I buy the DVD version I shouldn't be asked to install Steam. Guess I will be looking for a ripped version of Arma 3 online, hey its free and who cares since its Steam and Steam is evil! For shame... Long live Arma 2!

[jblackrupert 14]

In online mod it takes up about half as a normal browser, so I would imaging less in offline mode, so I would imagine effect on ram usage will be minimal.

There is and always has been a slight, but noticeable sluggishness when Steam is running regardless of RAM usage.

It's kind of like FPS, some people notice it and some people don't, but regardless it's there and for some, it's annoying as hell.

For me, running a 3570K, 16 gigs of RAM I can actually tell when I have Steam running in the background.

I have Origin running pretty much 24/7 and notice absolutely zero performance hits...

Yes, I can run numorous apps, stream HD video, play HD files all at the same time, but there is a "Feeling"... a slight, ever so annoying sluggishness when Steam is running

in the background.

Edited February 22, 2013 by jblackrupert

[dna_uk 30]

I personally am extremely happy they have bitten the bullet and gone with Steam. It's a smart choice and at the end of the day, it's only going to make things easier for the community in the way of patching and dlc content.

Another advantage is obviously Steam Workshop from what I have read, but I personally have never used it (yet at least), perhaps this is a great solution to mod distribution?

[chortles 263]

No, it's bound to your email (in a sense), it will just send you a verification code to authorize the new computer when you first login to the new computer from Steam.

And the activation is unlimited.

This is the "Steam Guard" function, although after logging in (or on the original computer?) you can disable the verification code requirement.

Guess I will be looking for a ripped version of Arma 3 online, hey its free and who cares since its Steam and Steam is evil!

I think we just had jumpnjack declare his intent to pirate Arma 3...

[Steiner34 12]

Well that depends. If you use Steam without Steamguard you can login from every PC. If you activate Steamguard and try to login from a different PC an Email with an activation code will be send to your email where you have to verify that it is you.

[Kuskov 1]

As someone noted before, Steam uses about 10-16MBs of RAM when minimized, which is nothing to worry about. If you're worried about the Steam overlay affecting your in-game performance (which it doesn't, in my experience) you can deactivate that.

Thankyou for alleviating my concerns.

[tonygrunt 10]

Guess I will be looking for a ripped version of Arma 3 online, hey its free and who cares since its Steam and Steam is evil! For shame... Long live Arma 2!

Piracy is not the answer. Please go away.

[Steiner34 12]

Well youre right but I'm not going to pirate it I will just leave it alone and will focus on creating missions for Arma 2 after it is I guess the last BI game without that freedom taking and tyrannical steambinding.....

[maddogx 13]

This is the "Steam Guard" function, although after logging in (or on the original computer?) you can disable the verification code requirement.

Yeah, you don't need to enter a verification code every time you log in, just whenever you access Steam from a new / unknown machine. So even if some "hacker" knew your Steam account username and password, he would not be able to access your account without first hacking your e-mail to get at the access code. ;)

[nettrucker 142]

For me it's the worst decision BIS ever made. If I can get my hands on a retail copy do I have still to go over steam? In that case I will most probably not buy ArmA 3.

[-Snafu- 77]

I know you're not supposed to cross-post but the discussion on Steam was moved here just after I had posted in the other thread.

One funny thing on this thread is that we have people who sang the praises of BIS for not being tied down to one distributor/distribution method. Now, with this news, some of those same people are defending this move saying it will be great. What?

I don't have a problem with Steam per se and I don't, at least didn't mind, Steam exclusive games but it's getting far too common nowadays. Arma 3 is the latest one to be swallowed up by something that's turning into The Blob.

To those who say "you're just whining". How is wanting to protect my consumer rights and options not good? How is being against the Steam dominance on digital distribution bad? Steam isn't even good value for money where I live. The more of a share it gets in the digital distribution market the more we, the consumer, get shafted since there's no real competition.

I'm a huge fan of what BIS have done with their games since I first played the OFP demo way back in 2001 and I was looking forward to Arma 3. Not so keen now though, unless it's really good.

Oh yeah, reading these bits in the blog post triggered a little alarm bell. That they haven't gotten much attention is surprising.

...we were not happy with how the project was going...do all we can to release Arma 3 in 2013.

Wow, what happened?