Development Blog & Reveals

[Tonci87 163]

Watching that new video again: BIS Should add a burst of bubbles coming out from the rifle everytime it is fired underwater.

[Craig_VG 20]

Well BIS, I am quite impressed by what I have seen for ArmA 3 so far. I knew it was going to be awesome when it was announced, but it has far exceeded my expectations.

You guys definitely deserve to sell a crap ton of copies and make a boatload of money. Hopefully more than ever before.

Thanks

Craig

[mr.g-c 6]

Well i'm confident that this will be a good engine evolution for sure. Given the Alpha stage, the engine looks very good overall.

However here comes my 5% of criticism...:

- While the engine improvements are really looking good, they are still not on par of whats possible today. I kindly asked myself the question, what the engine improvements are worth gameplay-wise, if the most annoying thing - that lights and shadows cast through objects/walls/etc - is NOT fixed in BIS' 4th Engine Evolution. This is somehow a HUGE showstopper for me personally. I really wonder who was that person that made that decision to not implement it into ArmA3 and why. Does this Person really "play" the series like we do?

- Night scenes with NV-Overlay didn't convince me of what we saw. Please see my Ticket in the ArmA3 CIT and what the other competitor Sandboxes can offer for Nightvision: https://dev-heaven.net/issues/30719

Why doesn't our "Mercedes under the Sandboxes" have those features, if the average ones, the FIATs and OPELs have em? :-( Am i "driving" the wrong Brand?

[-Coulum- 35]

While the engine improvements are really looking good, they are still not on par of whats possible today. I kindly asked myself the question, what the engine improvements are worth gameplay-wise, if the most annoying thing - that lights and shadows cast through objects/walls/etc - is NOT fixed in BIS' 4th Engine Evolution.

I have to agree, sometimes BIS seems to be just fixing the easy problems, or improving what's easy to improve. But still, we have confirmation that they are thinking/planning to fix that sometime in the future. I am sure that there are performance obstacles, lack of resources etc. etc. that are stopping them some how. Its hard to satisfy those saying "I W4nt MoAr FrRAMEZ!!!1" and those who want shadows cast from every light source. I am confident that BI is doing their best to please everyone.

[metalcraze 290]

The problem with the video though is that it's another graphics showcase.

While the engine improvements are really looking good, they are still not on par of whats possible today. I kindly asked myself the question, what the engine improvements are worth gameplay-wise, if the most annoying thing - that lights and shadows cast through objects/walls/etc - is NOT fixed in BIS' 4th Engine Evolution.

To cover lights going through walls they would've had to implement shadows from every single light source. Is your PC up to the challenge of rendering that?

Or is it going to be "ArmA engine is so unoptimized" again? This is not some corridor game where light is only being cast in relation to you.

Better complain about BIS not showing any gameplay improvements after a whole year.

Edited May 25, 2012 by metalcraze

[ProfTournesol 956]

The problem with the video though is that it's another graphics showcase.

Obviously, lighting is a graphical question.

[Bee8190 10]

Can't say much about the lighting as its not my area of expertise :rolleyes: but so far, I'm very delighted. Compliments to audio engineers this time too, sounds are clear, crisp and sound (to me) pretty realistic. Moar devblog can't come soon enough

[hamm 10]

The problem with the video though is that it's another graphics showcase.

To cover lights going through walls they would've had to implement shadows from every single light source. Is your PC up to the challenge of rendering that?

Or is it going to be "ArmA engine is so unoptimized" again? This is not some corridor game where light is only being cast in relation to you.

Better complain about BIS not showing any gameplay improvements after a whole year.

Lighting does affect gameplay though....especially with shadow-casting lights, since it also enables indoor lighting (extremely important especially in ArmA 3 where all buildings are enterable.)

Besides, deferred shading doesn't have the gigantic cost per light you seem to think it does. (In fact, after an initial cost, it's pennies) Probably a problem for BIS is that they would have to rewrite their MSAA implementation in relation to deferred shading.

[nodunit 397]

I have to agree, sometimes BIS seems to be just fixing the easy problems, or improving what's easy to improve. But still, we have confirmation that they are thinking/planning to fix that sometime in the future. I am sure that there are performance obstacles, lack of resources etc. etc. that are stopping them some how. Its hard to satisfy those saying "I W4nt MoAr FrRAMEZ!!!1" and those who want shadows cast from every light source. I am confident that BI is doing their best to please everyone.

Those that want more frames can lower the graphic settings and come to terms that a game not running 40+ fps on the highest setting does not make the game as a whole "unplayable".

This is the beauty of graphic options, the crossroads to satisfy both crowds. Do they want dynamic shadows? If so then check the box, they may get a drop in frame rates but they should have expected that going in! IF they want more frames, tick it off, the game may not look as pretty in some instances but they get their frames.

Scenes lights don't necessarily have to cast shadows unless there is an option to tick wether or not they would or would not cast dynamic shadows. So say for example you come to a scene with six lights in one spot, rather than have all six cast shadows, give that ability to only one or two and bam, you have your scene shadows without eating up frame rates because every light is casting one. In fact placing such an entity, if it can exist, would could be done with relative ease if the editor is 3D and allows you to move and rotate objects around.

Edited May 25, 2012 by NodUnit

[Booster 1]

I slowed it down at 0.25 and 0.125 in Movie maker... What am I supposed to see :)?

Earth rotation.

[-Coulum- 35]

Those that want more frames can lower the graphic settings and come to terms that a game not running 40+ fps on the highest setting does not make the game as a whole "unplayable".

This is the beauty of graphic options, the crossroads to satisfy both crowds. Do they want dynamic shadows? If so then check the box, they may get a drop in frame rates but they should have expected that going in! IF they want more frames, tick it off, the game may not look as pretty in some instances but they get their frames.

Scenes lights don't necessarily have to cast shadows unless there is an option to tick wether or not they would or would not cast dynamic shadows. So say for example you come to a scene with six lights in one spot, rather than have all six cast shadows, give that ability to only one or two and bam, you have your scene shadows without eating up frame rates because every light is casting one.

Yes user options are always awesome but if many players are not going to use the multiple light casting is it worth it to make in the first place. But I agree that there are probably ways of getting around performance problems.

[EricM 0]

Yes. Kickstarter is bound to US only. Maybe we could do it our own way and start out own european kickstarter. Just kidding. You can see we are using 3rd part libraries more and more. Depends on its rules. And the Kickstarter is unfortunatelly not compatible.

There are already kickstarter equivalents : www.indiegogo.com !

Just start a a project, and see how much you can raise to finance that !

On top of what I would fund in a blink of an eye :

- Deferred Lighting

- "Arma 2" DLC (Chernarus + "historical" Russians and US units") upped to A3 standards...

[james2464 176]

Anyone hear that bird sound from Arma 2 Takistan??? Please let it not be!!!!!

[xeno 234]

Better complain about BIS not showing any gameplay improvements after a whole year.

The current situation reminds me of the ArmA 2 videos prior release... those also looked great... Yet the game itself had some, well, let's say issues :)

Graphics, even though you always needed (and still need)

for RV engine games, were never the problem...

Xeno

[Flash Thunder 10]

Anyone hear that bird sound from Arma 2 Takistan??? Please let it not be!!!!!

I was going to post about this.

If I hear that bird squawk in Arma 3 i'll rage!

Its probably going to stay in because BIS enjoy trolling, maybe even a very faint trollface.jpg in the middle of the screen everytime its played...

[james2464 176]

I was going to post about this.

If I hear that bird squawk in Arma 3 i'll rage!

Its probably going to stay in because BIS enjoy trolling, maybe even a very faint trollface.jpg in the middle of the screen everytime its played...

For the love of Arma and if there's some kind of god PLEASE BIS if you read this get rid of that disgusting bird squawk!!! omg

[CriminalMinds 10]

Yep, this bird is annoying as hell! Hope they are working on a replacement.

[Flash Thunder 10]

Oh forgot to mention this why do the tracers not emit light aswell?

Would that just screw performance it would look awesome if they could produce a glow.

[Smurf 12]

Oh forgot to mention this why do the tracers not emit light aswell?

Would that just screw performance it would look awesome if they could produce a glow.

Several mods had glowing tracers in A1. Dunno why we don´t see them in A2.....

Anyway, my old PC can handle an emission (storm, lightnings), a bunch oa AI flashlights and characters\objects casting shadows in STALKER. Sure, the map is smaller but I don´t need shadow casting from a great distance (or with such high defenition from far away).

[nodunit 397]

The current situation reminds me of the ArmA 2 videos prior release... those also looked great... Yet the game itself had some, well, let's say issues :)

Graphics, even though you always needed (and still need)

for RV engine games, were never the problem...

Xeno

Arma 2 also A. Did not have an open alpha, and B. was partially rushed, hence the slew of problems. Iirc somewhere the developers even stated it themselves.

[Flash Thunder 10]

Yeah should be completely doable though complex just need to have a good shadow LOD and culling.

A2 already does light culling.

Yeah hopefully BIS will make tracers emit light too that would be awesome fun.

[Smurf 12]

Well, from some videos, tracers seem to not emit light.

[rye1 21]

Dim tracers.

[instagoat 133]

Okay. GFX, etc. I have meditated on this and after levitating heads down under my ceiling for an hour I have come to the conclusion that what I -really- kept watching this video (lighting) for was to spot things I actually cared about, rather than gfx improvements.

I play OFP because I don´t care about graphics. Most people might, but as a milsimmer, I am more interested in the gameplay. We have been saying that the gameplay won´t be changed.

Does that also mean it won´t be improved? We have heard there´s work on the AI and interface being done: we have seen pretty much none of it.

BI, next time, please show us dedicated oldtimers something that goes beyond beautiful superficialities. Let us peek under the hood! :>

Edit: Re this mystery gun: http://i.imgur.com/DU6rF.jpg <- a gunsmith friend of mine who is a bit more well versed in the matter than me had a look, and he says this thing doesn´t exist irl. That, or BI is aware of a prototype gun he isn´t aware of. His guess is that it is a caseless assault rifle to go with the LST LMG thingy that was also shown in the same video.

Edited May 26, 2012 by InstaGoat

[Nicholas 5]

I'm not sure if it's just me, but I personally thought the gun looked a lot like it was just pasted there and the player was just looking through a camera. It's got that "bouncy" effect when the player walks. Look how similar it is to Battlefield 3.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYldaBvCsqg