Arma3 Alpha Testing Checklist

[maddogx 13]

So I thought it might be a good idea to make a checklist of things to test when the Arma3 Alpha hits Steam next Tuesday. Of course, some people will be more inclined to simply jump right into the game and start playing, but I think it is in our best interest to get the devs some well structured feedback ASAP after release. :)

Here is the list of items I have compiled so far. (Some of them are fairly vague, others are concrete tests for bugs, features and possible improvements.)

If I have forgotten something, feel free to let me know and I'll update the list. ;)

Performance vs. Visuals

• Lighting quality / HDR
  
• Shadow quality
  
• Postprocessing quality & performance (separate options?)
  
• Antialiasing methods, quality and performance
  
• Draw distance (terrain / shadows / objects), effect on performance, optimal setting / sweet spot?
  
• RTT performance
  
• Overall acceptable performance vs. visuals based on my hardware?
  
• Volumetric clouds performance & quality (especially look for visual artefacts seen in TKOH)
  
• Underwater visuals (caustics, realistic view distance?)
  
• Performance hit when recording with FRAPS (or other software)?
  
• Performance vs. visuals compared with Arma2?
  

UI, Controls & Animations

• UI Text easily readable?
  
• Good color choices?
  
• Does the UI layout make sense?
  
• Key binding possibilities (bind mouse+keyboard combinations, mouse movements with modifier key etc.)
  
• Are peripherals such as joysticks, gamepads, wheels, pedals etc. supported?
  
• User friendliness of UI (option groups, intuitive naming of settings)
  
• Player agility & movement smootheness
  
• Moving in buildings, collision detection
  
• Weapon handling, aiming realism
  
• Stance change smoothness (with various weapons / equipment) & new stance modifiers
  
• Possible to switch weapons on the move?
  
• Reload animation quality, variation
  
• Check for specific examples of old Arma2 clunkyness
  
• Swimming controls. (Intuitive? Clunky?)
  

Audio & FX

• Weapon sounds in different situations (indoors / outdoors / far away / occluded)
  
• Quality of muzzle flashes
  
• Vehicle sounds (in crew position / close by / far away)
  
• Explosion sounds (near / far) and visuals
  
• Immersiveness of environmental sounds
  
• Radio protocol
  
• Particle quality & performance hit
  

AI

• First impression, idle behaviour (robotic or more lifelike?)
  
• Movement, use of cover
  
• Autonomous use of buildings?
  
• Aiming accuracy & overall difficulty / challenge
  
• Tactical abilities, flanking etc.
  
• CQB capability & reaction times
  
• Does AI take advantage of new features (new stances etc.)
  
• Detection/spotting of enemies realistic? (aural & visual ranges, in tall grass, behind bushes etc.)
  
• Susceptible to suppressive fire?
  

Physics

• Ragdoll (quality, performance hit)
  
• Ballistics (wind? RPG ballistics?)
  
• Ground vehicle physics (handling, hill climbing, collisions)
  
• Heli + fixed wing flight model
  
• Vehicle damage fidelity
  
• Building destruction fidelity
  
• Any Apex PhysX stuff?
  
• Does the weather (e.g. rain) have any effect on vehicle handling?
  
• How do waves affect boats and bullets?
  

General gameplay

• Changing clothes (always possible? editor module only?)
  
• Wounding system (any changes?)
  
• Gear system (backpack use, weight / effects of "getting encumbered", weapon attachments)
  
• Diving without scuba gear possible? Limited air supply?
  

Editor & Scripting

• Edior layers? (Please let there be layers!)
  
• Loadout editor?
  
• Built-in command list / help?
  
• Exporting to SP/MP working properly?
  
• PhysX related commands?
  
• 3D editor?
  

Steam

• MP server browser and/or matchmaking?
  
• Possible to invite friends to MP game / join directly from friends list?
  
• Offline mode working?
  
• Create / join LAN game in offline mode?
  
• Achievements, Stats? (Hopefully not!)
  

Other Features / Possible Bugs / Stability

• Borderless window mode? (Not hugely important, but of personal interest to me.)
  
• Keys getting "stuck" when activating Steam overlay?
  
• Game crashing?
  
• Problems joining / hosting MP games?
  
• Possible to load/unload mods without restarting?
  

Edited February 28, 2013 by MadDogX

[dale 11]

what about getting rid of our old enemy mr Alt+Tab? finding out one day that you are a mad man on a killing spree, only ACE with its shift +¬ got rid of that or double tap control.

Also I would like to see us test the 3D editor again as this was a really promising feature that never got completed.

[DnA 5155]

In addition, we'd like to keep our Alpha Hub updated with the areas we'd welcome focused testing on, known issues, updates, etc. :)

[Redjevel 1]

I want to get undressed to underwear and take a swim, im wondering for how long player can hold breath underwater :P can he even swim underwater without the proper equipment? dunno how things are in arma3

Edited February 27, 2013 by Redjevel

[maddogx 13]

what about getting rid of our old enemy mr Alt+Tab? finding out one day that you are a mad man on a killing spree, only ACE with its shift +¬ got rid of that or double tap control.

Not sure what you mean by this. Mr. Alt+Tab has always been nice to me, he gives me candy and teddy bears.

Also I would like to see us test the 3D editor again as this was a really promising feature that never got completed.

3D editor was already confirmed as not (yet?) included, but I added it to the list for good measure.

In addition, we'd like to keep our Alpha Hub updated with the areas we'd welcome focused testing on, known issues, updates, etc. :)

We'd like that too. :D

I want to get undressed to underwear and take a swim, im wondering for how much player can hold breath underwater :P can he even swim underwater without the proper equipment? dunno how things are in arma3

See, I completely forgot about that part. I'll add a new section for underwater stuff. :)

[dale 11]

I know this sounds silly but changing clothes during the mission?

is there an animation for that or is it instantaneous, and will we have the same issues with DayZ when disconnecting and connecting again?

[Langlet 1]

Let's not forget the wounding / medic system if it is available. I hope they expanded upon it since A2.

[Smurf 12]

Guess it would fit in weapon handling, but this one is special: Grenade stuff! Throwing in motion, clipping through floors\walls, believable physics, equipable x old method, cooking.

Also weather.

[Alpha-Kilo 36]

Maybe the devs will say how they want the testing done but if they don't, your list helps to produce relevant results.

Perhaps you could add the items:

- Interface

- - How legible is the text (size and font of letters and pictograms, colour of the text against the background) in the starting screen, in the game world, and when you're using the map screen.

- - Quality of the mission briefings (correct use of military jargon, are explantions simple yet comprehensive, do you always know what you have to do)

- - Are the menues easy to use (logical grouping of options, sliders for options, pictures which show the effect of changes to graphics options)

- - Is it possible to skip mission briefings and cutscenes if you play a mission again?

- - How accessible is the list of missions? (Can you rename mission names without quitting the game?, Can you mark missions as "played" or "not played"?, Can you make folders in the mission directory and move missions from one folder to another without quitting the game?)

- Handling of mod profiles

- - Can you change the mod profile on the fly when you want to play another mission or join another server which requires different addons?

- additional question regarding Steam

- - Does storing user content outside the steam folder cause problems?

[maddogx 13]

I know this sounds silly but changing clothes during the mission?

Let's not forget the wounding / medic system if it is available. I hope they expanded upon it since A2.

I'll add a new category for gameplay features. Just need to make sure the list doesn't get too huge, because there are probably hundreds of things that could be listed there. :)

Guess it would fit in weapon handling, but this one is special: Grenade stuff! Throwing in motion, clipping through floors\walls, believable physics, equipable x old method, cooking.

Good one. Grenade physics have always sucked in previous Arma games, so this is something that might have been fixed thanks to PhysX. Absolutely worth testing. :)

Also weather.

Another good one, thanks!

[dale 11]

"Grab a backpack for extra carrying capacity, but be careful not to become overburdened."

Thats on this http://www.arma3.com/features/weapons

We gotta test that out :) ACE like features

[midgetgrimm 10]

This is a great idea! I want to get the supporter edition anyways, so might as well try to help out!! Anyway, i like to think I have a good eye for that kind of stuff on some level, so I will be adding this to favorites and keeping up on, and hope to contribute to. I definitely plan to record as much as I can and talk about what's going on. So if anyone would like to do a group discussion podcast type thing with playthrough or something like that, let me know. PM me or hit me up here, not sure on the rules about posting links and emails, don't want the hammer to come down :P Cheers guys!

[dale 11]

Well im going to be youtubing all my stuff and sending any bug stuff to the devs, hopefully that will help them :D

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

Very extensive checklist, MadDog. I'll personally go over each point and note down any issues/mechanics, certain points may contain subjective opinions. :p

ALT+Tab FTW.

[dark_cloud 1]

Seeing as there is a new underwater component - what about adding to the list: the interaction between above water and below water ballistics - ie if I shoot into water will my bullets energy dissipate?

[Hartmann 10]

AI pathfinding.

Bush in the way? Slam the brakes on that Abrams!

[Iroquois Pliskin 0]

AI pathfinding.

Bush in the way? Slam the brakes on that Abrams!

Everyone should replicate the following test immediately,

[instagoat 133]

I´ll probably do my Hesco-enclosed arena AI testing again to check how good they work.

I will get the game as soon as the alpha is released, but I won´t have my PC ready until a week after that, but yes.

Original video of what I am talking about here, btw:

[tryteyker 28]

I'm probably going to get it as soon as it's released and I'll surely focus on the mission making side of things. Hopefully there'll be lots of bugs, always fun. (I mean that in the most literal way possible actually)

[-Coulum- 35]

Great list, I can't wait to test them all! Question about the intent of the thread though, is this just supposed to be a "things to test in a3" or are we actually supposed to post feedback on everything when the alpha arrives as well. if the latter I could see this thread being pretty chaotic, and many important issues being skipped/missed.

Anyhow, to add to the checklist, It will be good to check how waves effect boat handling, as well as how well the ai takes advantage of the new stances.

[KorroBravin 1]

Great list, I plan to record the game play (assuming the frame rate is allowing) when I test some of this, hopefully there will be a few potentially hilarious bugs that would be worth putting on youtube

[Tonci87 163]

Great list, I plan to record the game play (assuming the frame rate is allowing) when I test some of this, hopefully there will be a few potentially hilarious bugs that would be worth putting on youtube

Hopefully you won´t forget to make it clear that this is an Alpha build and that those Bugs will be resolved until the final release...

[creepybumblebee 10]

Under controls add something like:

Controller compatibility - Flight sticks/Gamepads/Wheels/etc.

Controller mapping - e.g. Mapping shooting to axis, you couldnt do this in ARMA 2 without 3rd party software

[maddogx 13]

Question about the intent of the thread though, is this just supposed to be a "things to test in a3" or are we actually supposed to post feedback on everything when the alpha arrives as well.

if the latter I could see this thread being pretty chaotic, and many important issues being skipped/missed.

This thread is only here so we can pool our ideas on which game elements to test, hopefully resulting in a more or less exhaustive checklist. Posting feedback into this thread most likely won't be helpful though - any bugs, performance issues etc. found while checking the list should be submitted through whichever feedback channels BIS may provide.

Anyhow, to add to the checklist, It will be good to check how waves effect boat handling, as well as how well the ai takes advantage of the new stances.

I'll add those. :)

[HKFlash 9]

Great list, I can't wait to test them all! Question about the intent of the thread though, is this just supposed to be a "things to test in a3" or are we actually supposed to post feedback on everything when the alpha arrives as well. if the latter I could see this thread being pretty chaotic, and many important issues being skipped/missed.

I think the objective of this thread is to simply have a list of what to test. See it as a general guide, since many of us were never alpha nor beta testers.

For feedback, there's already a tool for that on the official website's alpha hub. It will open on the 5th.