General Discussion (dev branch)

[Brisse 78]

Can anyone recommend a way to log and make a spreadsheet of frametimes?

 

 

The one I made earlier in the thread was made with Fraps and LibreOffice.

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/143930-general-discussion-dev-branch/?p=3006753

 

In Fraps, go to the FPS tab and check "Frametimes" under "Benchmark settings". It will write everything to a spreadsheet when you run the benchmark ingame.

Then I open the spreadsheet in LibreOffice5. There are two columns, "Frame" and "Time (ms)". You need to add a third, which is "deltaT (ms)". It needs to contain the following formula: "=B3-B2". Then just extend that column all the way down so every frame is included.

That's all the preparations you need. Now you can simply make a graph and you are done.

[Defunkt 431]

Now you can simply make a graph and you are done.

Most useful I think if you were to use a bench-marking mission (I've never used one but maybe Greenfist's) and record (& graph) it under both Stable and Beta.

[Electricleash 133]

 

If anyone else is encountering this particular problem (lower than expected FPS in heavy object scenes) please post a performance difference between dev and stable, and post your specs to see if it's hardware specific. 

 

Afraid I can't jump between Dev and Stable now, but I have experienced heavy frame drop in locations like Kavala

 

I've had SERIOUS issues with the latest Nvidia drivers on my rig (See my sig) and have been rolled back to 362.00 for the last two weeks. Anything beyond 362.00 has caused issue no matter what.

 

Though I believe it's not quite what you're experiencing, more akin to a memory leak as it happens at game startup, 4fps and slow degradation until the game crashes.

 

E

[Brisse 78]

Most useful I think if you were to use a bench-marking mission (I've never used one but maybe Greenfist's) and record (& graph) it under both Stable and Beta.

 

Actually, I'm working on that right now. I just made a 60s benchmark during showcase fire from vehicles on dev version, and I'm going to do the same on RC as soon as download is done. I like to use some of the showcases as benchmarks as some of them start off with a helicopter ride where you don't have to make any player input. I plan to put both benchmarks in the same frametime graph and I hope it will clearly show the stuttering on devbranch.

 

Edit: Damn. I didn't get the stuttering in this scenario, except one big stutter just before frame 200, but that doesn't prove anything. Devbranch even ran slightly better than RC in this case. I wish I could find a scenario that properly displays the issue, but honestly, I'm tired of changing branches and downloading 2gb of data every time, so I will probably throw in the towel here.

 

 

Edit 2: On the other hand, this benchmark does show how bad the game runs, even in a vanilla scenario. It starts off at around 25ms which is barely playable, and then rises towards 50ms which is completely unplayable. PC is above recommended specs, and lowering the graphics options doesn't help me. See previous posts for full PC specs and graphics options.

 

This next graph is an unfair comparison, but I wanted to put it here anyway to show what an ideal case looks like. Note the very different scale of the Y-axis and that I'm capping the framerate to 60fps.

 

[infrareddimming 195]

 

first i am excited about these new features especially "Switching weapons while moving", new shaders (water reflections *minute of silence for Kegetys Direct X Hack) and so on.

but, unfortunately the midrange textures issue is still present. 

 

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/141095-terrain-improvement-dev-branch/

 

 

http://imgur.com/a/wQY8o

 

 

 

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/141095-terrain-improvement-dev-branch/?p=2922025

 

It's unfortunate that BIS was unable to tackle this issue. Graphically Arma is fantastic, save for the midrange texture problem and viewdistance. It makes me jealous every time I play War Thunder and enjoy those massive draw distances. Guess we'll have to wait for Arma 4. Then again, Arma 3 has seen some groundbreaking new features added since its alpha release, so Ive not entirely given up hope. 

 

PS Whatever happened to kegetys? He was huge during the OFP days, but I dont remember him sticking around for Arma (1,2 and 3).

[x3kj 1247]

 

It makes me jealous every time I play War Thunder and enjoy those massive draw distances.

The comparison is not entirely fair, because the amount of clutter / landscape is far less in warthunder. In most groundforces maps you have one little village with a couple of houses (not enterable). The Size of the maps is also pretty limited compared to arma, and a vast amount of those maps is not populated by anything bar some trees and a handfull of rocks.  Arma, as an infantry focused game, requires alot more clutter / stuff and particulary level of detail to be really viable. The accuracy on terrain fire geometry in warthunder groundforces is atrocious. It would be unthinkable to use that for infantry gameplay.  On tank maps warthunder can ditch alot of map area, on plane maps warthunder can ditch alot of level of detail on ground objects (static and also vehicles).

[domokun 515]

It's unfortunate that BIS was unable to tackle this issue. Graphically Arma is fantastic, save for the midrange texture problem and viewdistance. It makes me jealous every time I play War Thunder and enjoy those massive draw distances. Guess we'll have to wait for Arma 4. Then again, Arma 3 has seen some groundbreaking new features added since its alpha release, so Ive not entirely given up hope. 

 

PS Whatever happened to kegetys? He was huge during the OFP days, but I dont remember him sticking around for Arma (1,2 and 3).

What are those "massive draw distances" because I found this fascinating blog entry but I was unable to appreciate if this was just theory or whether it was really implemented:

https://warthunder.com/en/devblog/current/836

[infrareddimming 195]

The comparison is not entirely fair, because the amount of clutter / landscape is far less in warthunder. In most groundforces maps you have one little village with a couple of houses (not enterable). The Size of the maps is also pretty limited compared to arma, and a vast amount of those maps is not populated by anything bar some trees and a handfull of rocks.  Arma, as an infantry focused game, requires alot more clutter / stuff and particulary level of detail to be really viable. The accuracy on terrain fire geometry in warthunder groundforces is atrocious. It would be unthinkable to use that for infantry gameplay.  On tank maps warthunder can ditch alot of map area, on plane maps warthunder can ditch alot of level of detail on ground objects (static and also vehicles).

 

Actually War Thunder's map fidelity is quite high. Some of the maps feature large, dense urban areas with destructable terrain. The thing that makes it impressive is the seamless transition from ground to air gameplay, especially on the large SB maps. However, you're right that the comparison is not entirely fair. I'm sure the Arma infantry part is very complex and takes up an enormous amount of resources. I lack the technical background to compare both engines (and even if I did have that competency, I still wouldnt be able to look under the proverbial hoods), but War Thunder does feature massive terrain and complex flight and damage models. Flying planes and driving tanks is a joy in that game and it's somethat that Bohemia should try to emulate. Moreso because it's based on using the mouse and keyboard combination, which would fit in very well with Arma's control scheme (for planes atleast, tanks are more complex simply because they're multi crew vehicles).

 

What are those "massive draw distances" because I found this fascinating blog entry but I was unable to appreciate if this was just theory or whether it was really implemented:

https://warthunder.com/en/devblog/current/836

Honestly I'm not entirely sure, I think it's full implementation is still pending. War Thunder is a great game, but the developers are utterly incompetent. They seem to be hellbent on trying to transform the game into World of Tanks 2.0 (arcade mechanics, MOBA maps and generally doing the exact opposite of what their RB and SB players want (realism oriented). Truth be told, it has really solidified my faith in BIS. A developer improving their game on an almost daily basis and in constant communication with their community. 

[Vasily.B 529]

Did i readed right? Developers of arma 3 are not interested in modded mid-range texures, and it look unrealistic to them?! Flat ground textures is better? I feel like i'm playing on big bedsheet.

[R3vo 2654]

Did i readed right? Developers of arma 3 are not interested in modded mid-range texures, and it look unrealistic to them?! Flat ground textures is better? I feel like i'm playing on big bedsheet.

 

They worked on that but couldn't fix it so it would work reliably due to limitations with the engine.

[Vasily.B 529]

They worked on that but couldn't fix it so it would work reliably due to limitations with the engine.

But it actualy works (addon version). And it works great. Why not implement it to original game?

[pd3 25]

1.56 was released two months ago, february 18.

You can read the changelog here: https://dev.arma3.com/post/spotrep-00052 (not much about optimizations though)

Was there not a recent spotrep or some kind of update then?

Somewhere between late march and apr 1st there was an update for arma 3 that I had to download last friday, and that's what prompted this whole foray into the dev branch.

My performance seemed "off", checked dev branch, performance was far worse, and I freaked because neither instances were conducive to me being able to continue playing Arma 3 with this machine.

I'm in the process of checking everything to make sure my HD is not malfunctioning and that the update didn't corrupt my installation of A3, I'm not even sure that could cause the problems I was experiencing, but I really have few options left.

[jumpinghubert 49]

Did i readed right? Developers of arma 3 are not interested in modded mid-range texures, and it look unrealistic to them?! Flat ground textures is better? I feel like i'm playing on big bedsheet.

My only suggestion to the developers is to use badbenson´s 500kb-fix for a week or month and after that roll back to literally icecream vanilla :P............

 The fix makes a difference between night and day and the exception of the developers seems to be: we use night because the daylight is only 95% perfect :P

[Vasily.B 529]

RC Branch BUG - Cannot command tank (A,W,S,D) While turned out.

[bad benson 1733]

random question:

i switched to dev-branch to check out the new graphics shizz and weap switch, good stuff. i like where this is going.

 

but here's the problem. i can't seem to make a dedi on my pc anymore to use for dedi MP coding. i use TADST (simpl server setup tool by i think tophe or similar) and the server boots and all but when i connect with the client instance i get a generic terrain specific loading screen and after a few seconds it puts me back to the server browser. 100% same mission and mod set up worked fine on stable.

is that a known issue or am i using some wrong settings or something? thought it would just work out of the box same as stable.

 

if someone has some pointers i would realyl appreciate it. feel free to PM me to keep this on topic, been crazy enough in here lately. :P

 

 

EDIT: i noticed and small animation artifact with one of the rifle running animations. it's the one you get when running right adn forward. ("amovpercmrunsraswrfldfr")

 

here's a video and a picture to show where to look.

 

http://i.cubeupload.com/LgULfC.jpg

 

https://youtu.be/EWibyFWxSJc

 

what you are looking for is a sudden jerk of the head to the left side. maybe it's just two key frames really close to eachother. or maybe a procedural aspect doing something bad.

i might be nitpicking here, but who knows, maybe it helps.

[R3vo 2654]

Can anyone confirm that the fire mode is not preserved when switching weapons? It's always back to semi-auto for me.

[das attorney 858]

Yes same here - (if you mean switching to another weapon and switching back again).

 

Getting in veh and getting out preserves fire mode with same weapon though last time I checked.

[twistking 204]

what up with that "multi-component fog" on todays changelog?

 

it was mentioned in this sitrep: https://dev.arma3.com/post/sitrep-00139

 

has anyone tried what it does?

[Roach_ 52]

The 'Acts_UnconsciousStandUp_part1' animation doesn't play properly if you're holding a weapon. Also, changing the time of day through the numbers (hours) instead of the slider pops up an error.

[adanteh 58]

Made a thread here about not being able to use Multiplayer on current dev branch. It was fine in the past, but has broken down completely fairly recently. 

[I give up 152]

Since we are talking about bugs ...

The AI does not use rebreather while inside mini sub, even with hatch open.

:P

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/138904-arma-3-photography-no-images-over-100kb-pictures-only-no-comments/page-60#entry3007959

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

Since we are talking about bugs ...

The AI does not use rebreather while inside mini sub, even with hatch open.

:P

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/138904-arma-3-photography-no-images-over-100kb-pictures-only-no-comments/page-60#entry3007959

 

I believe this is because if the unit starts inside the vehicle it is not considered to have been in the water yet and thus does not know to put its rebreather on.  Same thing happens to human players if they start inside the sub.

Tell the AI to hop out and then back in again and they'll be wearing their rebreather.

[DJankovic 401]

I read on dev-branch changelog that there are new settings for the fog. Now I didn't have time to check it but is it anything like Dslyecxi long time video where there were sliders to set up fog settings??

[killzone_kid 1330]

Made a thread here about not being able to use Multiplayer on current dev branch. It was fine in the past, but has broken down completely fairly recently.

the link points to this forum

[R3vo 2654]

I read on dev-branch changelog that there are new settings for the fog. Now I didn't have time to check it but is it anything like Dslyecxi long time video where there were sliders to set up fog settings??

 

I guess they are talking about underwater fog in this case.