ARMA 2: OA beta build 89162 (1.60 MP compatible build, post 1.60 release)

[Dwarden 1125]

http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

[89104] New: Implemented automatic looking intro turns when driving a car with a mouse.

[themaster303 22]

nice patches coming in,thx for your hard work.

but: this one i hope is not default!

i am using trackir, and i hope trackir overwrites that automatic looking in curve.

because it makes you crazy if you have trackir and it looks somewhere where you dont want to.

had that in racing games already, and i cant play/drive like this.

is it overwriten by trackir, or can i disable it ?

greetz

masty

[Tonci87 163]

I have tested the new steering system and I have my problems with it. It seems as there are different grades of sensitivity, A car seems to be much more sensitive than a Tank for example, this is OK. But the auto centering drives me crazy. When I drive a car into a turn and exit that turn I pull the mouse back where it has been before, problem ist that the auto centering has already kicked in and I end up steering the car to the other side. Auto centering is also a problem in long turns since you have to continue moving the mouse to the desired direction because of auto centering trying to get you back "on track".

Tested with the USMC HMMWV.

Humble suggestion for a more intuitive system:

Drive where you look:

You can look around like in Freelook mode but the more you look to the side, the more the car will steer towards that point.

The car will always try to drive towards the point you look at.

If you enable Freelook with ALT the you can look around the car without steering.

It can´t get more intuitive and user friendly than that, and it helps situational awareness.

[rübe 127]

But the auto centering drives me crazy.

Maybe it could be an option. On the other hand I'd argue, that - beeing a simulator (or "simulatorish") - even driving a car should be some kind of work and one should be able to develop a skill at driving. Thus auto centering is IMHO exactly the wrong direction anyway. We should need to really steer by ourself; and steering can be quite some work (which is fun and fine).

As for the "right" direction: give us even more "work" please. Better motor models/simulation and gear changing. Maybe in A3? ;)

[kuIoodporny 45]

Very good changes, I'm very happy about them.

If I could ask for something, it would be making camera deadzone customizable, so players can enlarge or tighten it to their will.

Also, similar change for turrets would be very welcome :)

==

Maybe it could be an option. On the other hand I'd argue, that - beeing a simulator (or "simulatorish") - even driving a car should be some kind of work and one should be able to develop a skill at driving. Thus auto centering is IMHO exactly the wrong direction anyway. We should need to really steer by ourself; and steering can be quite some work (which is fun and fine).

Well, from my point of view the simulation shouldn't add artificial limitations, or complicate things more than they are IRL. I find current steering close to what it is in real life - you really don't need to count the turns of driving wheel and compare it to the curve of road. I don't even know how many times my driving wheel can turn from one end to another.

Edited February 7, 2012 by zGuba

[Alex72 1]

Maybe it could be an option. On the other hand I'd argue, that - beeing a simulator (or "simulatorish") - even driving a car should be some kind of work and one should be able to develop a skill at driving. Thus auto centering is IMHO exactly the wrong direction anyway. We should need to really steer by ourself; and steering can be quite some work (which is fun and fine).

As for the "right" direction: give us even more "work" please. Better motor models/simulation and gear changing. Maybe in A3? ;)

Agreed. All is good except auto-centering. That the steering wheel throws itself towards center everytime you try to steer is very frustrating. You want to be able to keep turning as you go through a corner and not keep moving the mouse left left left left left until the corner evens out to a straight.

The rest is awesome.

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Personaly, not liking any of the driving changes, auto centering, wierd cursors, and I see no benifit in just pionting the mouse to where you want to go, unless your driving on relatively long stretches of road you still have to 'steer' to stay on the road or avoid obstacles when offroad.

Looks like we're just heading toward evrything that was wrong with OFP steering.

[Fireball 16]

I agree basically with the changes in mouse steering, it feels much more intuitive now.

[metalcraze 290]

Actually BIS can do it space sim style.

Some space sims have this system where there is a center and the further you move the cursor from it - the faster the ship turns.

It can be done with ArmA2 too for comfort. The further you move a mouse from the designated center - the further the steering wheel is turned by the driver. Then you can just get cursor back to the center when you just want to drive straight.

[MavericK96 0]

I like the new steering a lot on the whole, though I feel it is a bit too sensitive in smaller, more agile vehicles, like the Humvee. In the Ural it feels great, though.

I actually felt the auto-centering is one of the best improvements made. I don't know about anyone else, but when driving a car and turning you generally don't have to turn the wheel back to center, it will just go toward that state by itself. Same should be true here, which is why there's auto centering.

[Alex72 1]

Tested the BAF Jackal and its way too sensitive. Mostly because the "deadzone" for mouse is gone. "Deadzone" that has a slower/less sensitive steering around the center (like it was before). Now i find myself turning left/right all the time looking like a drunk even on straights.

The screen turning when steering kicks in at very slow speed and when it does - its very hard. I think its hard because there is no more slowdown-deadzone at the center of steering.

Might only be on the Jackal, will test the others, but i hope this wont be on even one of the vehicles as its too hard to drive now.

EDIT: The above combined with the rather harsh auto-centering has made it very hard to drive. Go through a long corner at some speed and you see how the car wants to drive straight after you turned and try to hold the steering wheel in line with the bend.

Less/slower time before auto-center and give us back the mouse-deadzone (slower turning the wheel closer to center and then faster as you turn a bit), and the driving will be amazing.

Edited February 8, 2012 by Alex72

[OMAC 254]

I'm still lovin' all the changes. Even the Jackal is a blast to steer with mouse. Just use slight mouse movements to keep the caret centered where you want to go. Tanks are a little harder to get used to due to reduced mouse sensitivity, but still, it's all good in my book.

[MavericK96 0]

Yeah, I definitely think there should be a small (ideally adjustable) deadzone for steering. I was driving a Humvee and the most minor mouse movements caused me to sort of fishtail and hit a tree. :(

[themaster303 22]

Yeah, I definitely think there should be a small (ideally adjustable) deadzone for steering. I was driving a Humvee and the most minor mouse movements caused me to sort of fishtail and hit a tree. :(

that exactly how it is ;) i also lost control, and hit a pole. but it goes all in the right direction.

so as i tested , trackir overwrites the automatic look funktion, thats good, i want to look where i

want, not where the game wnats to look me :D

[KeyCat 131]

The AI got back their "spider sense" so impossible to sneak up on them. Can't say if this is new to this specific build but I know it was fixed in 1.60 final.

Same repro mission as for B84290, one single AI soldier is on the other side of the building with his back against you. Try to slow crawl around the building and he magically senses you at ~10-15 m (you will hear a trigger sound when you are detected).

http://keycat.no-ip.com/files/A2OA_B84290_AI_Spider_sense.zip

Damn, can't find correct CIT ticket ATM....

/KC

[Tonci87 163]

Tested the BAF Jackal and its way too sensitive. Mostly because the "deadzone" for mouse is gone. "Deadzone" that has a slower/less sensitive steering around the center (like it was before). Now i find myself turning left/right all the time looking like a drunk even on straights.

The screen turning when steering kicks in at very slow speed and when it does - its very hard. I think its hard because there is no more slowdown-deadzone at the center of steering.

Might only be on the Jackal, will test the others, but i hope this wont be on even one of the vehicles as its too hard to drive now.

EDIT: The above combined with the rather harsh auto-centering has made it very hard to drive. Go through a long corner at some speed and you see how the car wants to drive straight after you turned and try to hold the steering wheel in line with the bend.

Less/slower time before auto-center and give us back the mouse-deadzone (slower turning the wheel closer to center and then faster as you turn a bit), and the driving will be amazing.

Maybe just maing the autocenter optinal would be enough.

If you drive a car IRL the steering wheel will go back to center on its own, but you will always have your hands on it and your brain remembers the position of the steering wheel and your hands. Well as long as my mouse doesn´t magicaly start to return to its starting position after a turn this auto centering is not good. My brain memorizes the point where my mouse has been and I return it to that point after I exit the turn.

[suma 8]

The AI got back their "spider sense" so impossible to sneak up on them. Can't say if this is new to this specific build but I know it was fixed in 1.60 final.

Same repro mission as for B84290, one single AI soldier is on the other side of the building with his back against you. Try to slow crawl around the building and he magically senses you at ~10-15 m (you will hear a trigger sound when you are detected).

http://keycat.no-ip.com/files/A2OA_B84290_AI_Spider_sense.zip

Strange. I have tried it right now with both 1.60 stable (87580) and a current beta: the AI turns and kills me once I continue crawling after seeing him behind the corner, before reaching the second corner closer to him. The distance might be about 10 m. It feels a bit early to me, but not too much, and I get identical behaviour with 1.60 and recent beta.

[.kju 3245]

This?

> Bug #23300: AI can even hear slow movement

https://dev-heaven.net/issues/23300

[KeyCat 131]

I'm trying hard to remember what version it worked in but synapses fail to connect so I will refraze and say "...but I know it was fixed in some of the 1.60 betas.

I'm 100% positive the spider sense was fixed since I have a simple script that allows me to do "silent kills" if I'm able to crawl up ~1 m behind AI and that was the mission I played some build/s (?) after I reported it with B84290.

Edit: I knew you would save me PvP, couldn't find it before and was in a hurry :)

/KC

[suma 8]

I'm trying hard to remember what version it worked in but synapses fail to connect so I will refraze and say "...but I know it was fixed in some of the 1.60 betas.

I'm 100% positive the spider sense was fixed since I have a simple script that allows me to do "silent kills" if I'm able to crawl up ~1 m behind AI and that was the mission I played some build/s (?) after I reported it with B84290.

My synapses are getting older as well I am afraid. :) I do not remember any intentional fix or tweak regarding this in any 1.60 beta. CIT also shows no activity from us. Last significant change I have found in the internal records was July 2009 (A2 1.03 version?), when sensitivityEar was reduced significantly (before that AI would hear you crawling from 40 m).

[mant3z 1]

I have weird problem with this new steering and automatic looking while turning.

When I'm turning right or left on crossroads instead of automatic looking left and right head is going up and down!

How to disable this or how to change setup?

EDIT:

I've changed setup of keys and this time I've used "MORE LEFT", "MORE RIGHT" and it works properly. I like this new way of driving but I think this automatic looking should start earlier to have overview on tight curves for example.

Edited February 18, 2012 by mant3z

[kremator 1065]

Ummmmm get onto the latest beta please !

[mant3z 1]

I've got the latest, but I wanted to ask in this thread where was released a beta with this new feature for the first time.