General Discussion (dev branch)

[buster0083 1]

29th April version:

50-60FPS in the middle of Agia Marina in day down to 40-50 at night, sometimes down to 30 - big improvement on the last release. NVGs don't seem to reduce my frame rate now. Flying a helo through the town at night now comes down to low 20s, with 19FPS once or twice. Could be better, but yesterday that number was in single digits, so hugely improved.

The NVG bug I reported with the colour of the lighthouse light is fixed.

Thanks for the continuing work guys

Edited April 29, 2013 by Buster0083

[kamaradski 10]

damn those lights are now pretty in the dark, LOVE IT, pls keep !!

[daze23 1]

performance is better at night. although the lighting kind of 'flickers' with movement. lights on vehicles and guns really aren't bright enough IMO

[gearheadman 1]

Less optimistically, the odds of this vulnerability having remained into final release without a public alpha range from "probable" to "almost certain".

Agree. Having an open-to-public Alpha -will- make Arma3 an even better game. The hacking asshats are poking holes in it now vs after final release.

[St. Jimmy 272]

Wow those lights looked cool now. I think the performance wasn't far away if you compare it to the stable build with uglier lights. At least dynamic lights settings has purpose now because there's about 10fps difference between ultra and low.

[daze23 1]

Wow those lights looked cool now. I think the performance wasn't far away if you compare it to the stable build with uglier lights. At least dynamic lights settings has purpose now because there's about 10fps difference between ultra and low.

I think the dynamic lights setting basically adjusts the radius they render in. in other words, 'ultra' makes it so you can see lights very far away

[chortles 263]

Agree. Having an open-to-public Alpha -will- make Arma3 an even better game. The hacking asshats are poking holes in it now vs after final release.

Even more conveniently, BI didn't really guarantee how "playable" Arma 3 would be during alpha. :p

[Steakslim 1]

What became of the Dev branch update sticky? I figured an update occurred but I cannot seem to find the information on it.

edit: N/M found it, didn't have to sense to check the News section.

[nodunit 397]

I think the dynamic lights setting basically adjusts the radius they render in. in other words, 'ultra' makes it so you can see lights very far away

More or less, the higher the setting the more 'actual' lights you see nearby. The best way to test it would be to go up in the air and tinker with the setting and watch as the actual light appears or dissapears.

MUCH better performance now, able to run standard to high with the same FPS as in daylight, not having any NVG troubles..

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

More or less, the higher the setting the more 'actual' lights you see nearby. The best way to test it would be to go up in the air and tinker with the setting and watch as the actual light appears or dissapears.

MUCH better performance now, able to run standard to high with the same FPS as in daylight, not having any NVG troubles..

Imho it's more valuable to tweak the setting while on the ground, as that's where you'll be spending most of the time. It's like saying "what should my view distance be if I play infantry only?" Well you can get away with maybe even as low as 2000m, maybe 3500m (like me) if you have a nice CPU. But then if you change that little infantry thing to say pilot, well all of a sudden things get totally blown out. Now you're up in the air, you want farther view distance. Me when I start flying jets I crank view distance to 12km and object distance to 2km.

Same can be applied to dynamic lights. Why base your lighting needs on being a floating camera up in the sky when that's not how you'll see the world 90% of the time? Get in low on the ground and see how minimal the changes to dynamic lighting are as an infantrymen and then judge for yourself if the tremendous performance loss going from Low to Ultra is worth it.

Then again I don't know what video card you have, maybe you can afford max dynamic lighting, but with my mediocre 5870 2GB card I prefer max performance, and dynamic lighting isn't worth the hit for me.

[jumpinghubert 48]

•Attenuation of dynamic lights can now be influenced by a new parameter - maximum distance of light

can´t find this new parameter.

[NeuroFunker 11]

•Attenuation of dynamic lights can now be influenced by a new parameter - maximum distance of light

can´t find this new parameter.

same as me.

[bigpickle 0]

On steep surfaces, players now crouch instead of fully standing up

Will AI dont be forced to use this feature?

On a side note:

As far as animations and control goes, my opinion is I loved the Alpha when it was first released but as patches keep coming its starting to feel as restricted and clunky as Arma2 did when it comes to movement and controls of player. Please dont add back in all the annoyances of previous games, like being rooted to the spot when changing from primary to secondary as a classic example.

[DnA 5019]

•Attenuation of dynamic lights can now be influenced by a new parameter - maximum distance of light

can´t find this new parameter.

To clarify: not a parameter in options, but one for configuring assets. There is also a known issue related to this technology which did not make it into today's build. Lights may disappear wrongly in the distance.

[nodunit 397]

Will AI dont be forced to use this feature?

On a side note:

As far as animations and control goes, my opinion is I loved the Alpha when it was first released but as patches keep coming its starting to feel as restricted and clunky as Arma2 did when it comes to movement and controls of player. Please dont add back in all the annoyances of previous games, like being rooted to the spot when changing from primary to secondary as a classic example.

Perhaps they shouldn't crouch but there should definately be a slow down, because you won't move from a relatively flat area to an incline and maintain the same speed in reality.

[kremator 1064]

Now we have the arma3server.exe .... let the good times roll !!!

[bad benson 1733]

like being rooted to the spot when changing from primary to secondary as a classic example.

pretty sure that was the case since the first version. but yea. it's annoying. for me ideal would be if you would autoswitch to walk and then back to original speed.

[Simas 12]

Looks like the next dev branch update is coming on Friday only. Also, looks like the helicopter sounds appearing out of nowhere will be finally fixed as they are doing the sound overhaul. It's all in the latest Alpha SITREP!

[Alo Keen 7]

Good text by J-J of the Land, we should advertise it in other topics, ppl could benefit from reading (and hopefully understanding) some of the points that are addressed there.

[Richie 330]

like being rooted to the spot when changing from primary to secondary as a classic example.

I think worse than that is when you get revived and you have an NLAW equiped, you stand up with a primary and then switch back to the NLAW before you can move.

[metalcraze 290]

Was there a sugarcane farm directly east of Agia Marina in the original release? I've never noticed it before.

It's great. Sugarcane makes for quite a thick jungles, please BIS make the area they take ~3 times bigger at least. It's just an awesome area that can look quite maze-like if you do it.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/597002149161864366/229F85D5B7B127B56F9612CED41342B3D687B17B/

[chortles 263]

On a side note:

As far as animations and control goes, my opinion is I loved the Alpha when it was first released but as patches keep coming its starting to feel as restricted and clunky as Arma2 did when it comes to movement and controls of player. Please dont add back in all the annoyances of previous games, like being rooted to the spot when changing from primary to secondary as a classic example.

The movement changes were presumably done due to all the spergs vocally complaining about the alpha feeling arcadey... fortunately, they haven't totally succeeded in reverting this game to Arma 2. ;) Man, the early days of the public alpha were some very raucous ones. :lol:

However, being rooted to the spot when changing weapons has been there since the beginning of the alpha, so it's not a case of "adding back all the annoyances of previous games" -- though I agree with you there -- rather it's the devs not fixing that one. I believe it was Smookie who said something about on-the-move weapon switch taking up a lot of animation resources even if it was only happening at walk speed...

Edited April 30, 2013 by Chortles

[Smurf 12]

Was there a sugarcane farm directly east of Agia Marina in the original release? I've never noticed it before.

It's great. Sugarcane makes for quite a thick jungles, please BIS make the area they take ~3 times bigger at least. It's just an awesome area that can look quite maze-like if you do it.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/597002149161864366/229F85D5B7B127B56F9612CED41342B3D687B17B/

How do it looks from far away?

[metalcraze 290]

Like trees it turns to 2D sprites eventually but doesn't disappear like grass, being rendered up to max object draw distance - so it's a genuine concealment.

[purepassion 22]

Was there a sugarcane farm directly east of Agia Marina in the original release? I've never noticed it before.

It's great. Sugarcane makes for quite a thick jungles, please BIS make the area they take ~3 times bigger at least. It's just an awesome area that can look quite maze-like if you do it.

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/597002149161864366/229F85D5B7B127B56F9612CED41342B3D687B17B/

Yup, has always been there. :) Oh and in fact, it's not sugarcane but a special kind of "grass" growing in greece. I can't remember the exact name now though it's definitely not sugarcane.