Development Blog & Reveals

[roberthammer 582]

Um... I think our mystery weapon is the XCR :D

If so.. thanks BIS ;)

Oh , i forgot about that one , i knew there was company that made a "ACR" looking gun - yes it is that weapon :)

[danny96 80]

oooooh! It's SO COOL! Need this RIGHT NOW

[neokika 62]

If you pause the video at 1:24, you can see the amazing searchlight from the helicopter go through 5+ hangars...

Yep...

[Praelium 0]

is there a hope that we'll get a dynamic shadows in the future?

It seems unlikely. From the new blog:

As for now, none of the new point-lights cast shadows. This privilege is held only by the Sun and Moon. In some situations, lights are replaced by light-emissive materials. This helps reduce the performance stress, yet it does so without changing the feel of the scene. After a lot of work, I am finally satisfied with the balance between performance and the feel of the night scenes.

http://www.bistudio.com/english/company/developers-blog/307-report-in-interview-with-pavel-guglava-lead-artist

While it would be nice, I'm still very impressed with the other improvements. The police car and the distance explosion looks very cool.

[antoineflemming 14]

Simply beautiful! And nice XCR! And the music is really good!

Edited May 24, 2012 by antoineflemming

[Smurf 12]

Um... I think our mystery weapon is the XCR :D

If so.. thanks BIS ;)

Yep. The bolt in 1st person is way to low to be an ACR.

Just impressed by everything. As for the not casting shadows, the "For now...." may leave some hope for the Alpha\Full release. STALKER with full lighting system enable is just a marvelous, but in A3 it would be more.

[nikiforos 450]

The explosions look really good. I have high expectations in this game.

[markocro 66]

The lighting looks a lot better! But the fact that the sun and moon are the only shadow-emitting light sources is disappointing. It means lights (like the searchlight in the video) still won't be blocked by objects. It also makes me think that indoor lighting hasn't been improved.

that is correct, indoor fights and interior scenes (buildings) and also in general, will be big disappointment when its lighting in question, all lightning sources should be blocked by objects, just like they said "The goal was always clear: make the lighting as realistic as possible" so don't stop at moon and sun only, well its far away with release arma3, and we hope they make this right...

[Minoza 11]

0:37

You can see strobe lights in the scope reflection?!

Also note that strobe light is being blocked by the hangar, you can't see it on the grass behind hangar. My theory is that they do have some sort of blocking for "fast" (point) lights.

pause here:

Keep looking at the hangar (the one closest to the chopper), look how it is lit, again, it seems to me that light is indeed getting blocked somehow. It's much different than in Arma 2.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Minoza

[Praelium 0]

0:37

You can see strobe lights in the scope reflection?!

Yeah, it's from the police truck. You can see it in other parts of the clip as well.

[Minoza 11]

Yeah, it's from the police truck. You can see it in other parts of the clip as well.

The thing is, they always used static cube maps for scope reflections, hint at RTT?

[msy 22]

Why the movement with MG is defferent to that with rifle?

When I first look at the movement with MG I thought it would be like main stream FPS game. No any good or bad comment for it now until Alpha comes out.

[batto 17]

@msy: Didn't You hear the commentator talking about new tactical pace? :j:

[myshaak 0]

The video is AWESOME, but... have you seen the pictures? OH MY GAWD, TEH PICTURES! The fog, the lights, the ATMOSPHERE! I can't stop drooling!

[msy 22]

@msy: Didn't You hear the commentator talking about new tactical pace? :j:

thanks for reminding. I'll watch it again carefully.

[nodunit 397]

Wow the work you guys have done to HDR has created some amazing results, both visually pleasing and lifelike! When that first scene rolled on my jaw dropped, seeing the sun glare from the rocks, the way the color was so richly yet authenticly worked over the terrain and vehicle (by the way kudos on making a modern military vehicles actually LOOK like a MODERN military vehicle, IE matte paint and hardly any chipping) The shadows were a nice surprise as well, to see that they are more focused in terms of how bright or dark it is based upon time of day versus mostly the weather. If I didn't know better I'd say there was a bit of color play on the shadows as well..

The lights..hoo boy..when that search light first swept across the ground I had to remind myself it's still the same game engine, and seeing that truck didn't help :D. It looks great! To see lifelike lights with intensity and falloff as opposed to the traditional Arma2 cone and circle spot setup. HDR really lends itself to the lamp as well in replacing the traditional glare texture that you could see when you walk to the side. But I guess that wasn't enough, you guys had to go making lights even more awesome by having them no longer kill off normal and specular maps but rather effect them as shown by the chemlights huh! Seeing those color highlights against the gun was great, and with these abilities I can see modders making more use of point lights.

It is a bit dissapointing to see and hear that point lights won't be casting shadows, in fact just having weapon mounted, and vehicle lights being the only extra lights to cast shadows would have been perfect, with an option to turn them on and off. But hey that doesn't make it any less awesome, it is so much of an improvement to this (0:30)

However in terms of game and visual, one of the biggest changes in HDR is how it no longer fights you! We can see at 2:10 when the player is staring at the sun, the screen doesn't darken! This was one of the biggest problems in A2 and OA because when you would walk into a building, unless there was a viewport to the sun, the screen would flicker or change as HDR tried to brighten or darken the image accordingly, a bit too quick and too much.

Overall I can't wait to see more of the great work Mr. Guglava and team have done, especially in exploring the murky depths in the dark http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/blogs/developer/light/Lighting_1.jpg talk about eerie.

Edited May 24, 2012 by NodUnit

[roberthammer 582]

Some things makes me sad - those lights aren't blocked by objects and those old jaggy shadows :(

http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/blogs/developer/light/Lighting_4.jpg

Edited May 24, 2012 by RobertHammer

[nodunit 397]

Yeah that is a stickler but who knows, perhaps that too will be improved upon in future, afterall, the game is still only in alpha stage ;)

[gammadust 12]

The thing is, they always used static cube maps for scope reflections, hint at RTT?

I think the material specular (scope) can still react to such dynamic lights without the need to employ the expensive RTT while providing that exact effect. Actually the narrator mentions this in the video but in regards to the gun barrel, which I suspect is the same effect but on a metal surface instead of glass.

Anyway, I am pleasantly surprised with a lot of stuff, specially the lights falloff, and the general "feel" of the scenes. On the other hand i'm a bit disapointed regarding dynamic light shadowing (so far, lack there of).

[lao fei mao 21]

What I noticed is that the first person head camera is better than it in ArmA2. In ArmA2, it is a little bit of forward, its memorypoint seems just at the forehead.

[valnwt 11]

With all this talk about lightning and animation improvment i think its worth mentioning the improved soundtrack :p. Really boosts the atmosphere.

[MavericK96 0]

Some things makes me sad - those lights aren't blocked by objects and those old jaggy shadows :(

http://www.bistudio.com/images/stories/blogs/developer/light/Lighting_4.jpg

Yeah...the new lighting is looking better but TBH those two things are the most important to me and it looks like neither have been addressed (yet?).

[gammadust 12]

Lighting_4 check against Lighting_3

The stars rendering apparently depend on weather conditions too (some degree of light scattering in the 2nd shot against none in the 1st, also only above a threshold in light magnitude they become visible), which is a very nice touch.

[frostwyrm333 1]

interiors could be fixed by HDR, so the screen wouldn't brighten excessively

jagged shadows can be filtered/blurred

he mentioned new stuff next week and week after that is E3. Arma time:yay:.

[Maio 293]

Lighting_4

Can anyone make out what launcher the solider on the left is holding in his hands? It looks disposable... is it the AT-4?