Arma 2 OA, update 1.64 build 144629, release candidate for EOL (End of Life)

[Dwarden 1124]

ye the issues caused by STEAM client updates are headache

 

the == was meant as it should be 

[JOHN007 9]

Any news on the location of the Lightpoints for the flares BIS Devs?

 

I just want to fix the z-fighting bug.

 

I doubt any update will fix this seeing as this bug has been around for a long time with every patch.

 

So with all due respect can you please provide the location where the lightpoint scripts are located.

 

Thankyou.

 

 

[lykurgos88 10]

Hi,

 

after applying this patch (both A2 and A2:OA are set to "beta" branch in Steam and content verified) I have encountered that FDF mod creates a loading problem for Arma 2 OA.

 

Whenever I launch Arma 2 OA with FDF mod enabled, my vanilla Arma 2 can't be loaded properly. The contents are missing and the "expansion list" in main menu only shows "ca".

 

Furthermore, I encountered some curious files in Arma 2 root directory as you can see from this picture (the are not present on the OA directory):

 

[JOHN007 9]

13 hours ago, lykurgos88 said:

Hi,

 

after applying this patch (both A2 and A2:OA are set to "beta" branch in Steam and content verified) I have encountered that FDF mod creates a loading problem for Arma 2 OA.

 

Whenever I launch Arma 2 OA with FDF mod enabled, my vanilla Arma 2 can't be loaded properly. The contents are missing and the "expansion list" in main menu only shows "ca".

 

Furthermore, I encountered some curious files in Arma 2 root directory as you can see from this picture (the are not present on the OA directory):

 

Many mods break on the recent Arma2 updates. Unless the mod is updated also you will run into issues, I would suggest requesting permission from the author of the mod to try and edit/update the parameters.

[Dwarden 1124]

the hash files and changelog are obsolete leftover, ignore them they of no use

[Dwarden 1124]

do not use A2 beta branch, it's useless now (just switch back to stable)

it should be same content in both branches but who knows what breaks there 

(to make it complicated that there exist two different appids of Arma 2, for NA and RoW)

and it was and still is causing issues data wise due to some legacy back-end trouble

 

with A2OA the situation is different, the new data and binaries , libraries are only in A2OA beta branch

[lykurgos88 10]

33 minutes ago, Dwarden said:

do not use A2 beta branch, it's useless now (just switch back to stable)

it should be same content in both branches but who knows what breaks there 

(to make it complicated that there exist two different appids of Arma 2, for NA and RoW)

and it was and still is causing issues data wise due to some legacy back-end trouble

 

with A2OA the situation is different, the new data and binaries , libraries are only in A2OA beta branch

 

Hi,

 

I changed A2 branch to stable. No files were changed according to Steam, so the branches seem to be identical.

 

The original problem still persists. If there are no mods, I can launch A2:OA, and it will detect A2, BAF, ACR and PMC content with no problem. However once I add FDF mod, the A2 content gets screwed up.

 

I'm curious, have you managed to found the exact reason why some mods break things? What can be done on user's end to help the situation?

 

P.S Seeing how the Arma 2:OA on Steam is a bit of a mess (unreliable A2 loading + very unorthodox way to include DLCs like PMC and BAF), I suggest for Bohemia to release a "Arma 2: Redux" or "Arma 2: Remastered edition" full game with all the contents under the same Steam ID. That would clear out so much version trouble. It should of course be free for A2:OA owners, like Wasteland 2: Director's Cut was for Wasteland 2 owners. Any thoughts on that?

 

You could also clear some longstanding problems like Chopper gunner AI targeting (for missiles, see how tutorial is broken for example), and Shadow LODs on "very high setting" (that looks worse than in Arma: Combat Operations).

[Dwarden 1124]

remaster or w/e ultimate all in one is atm. out of question (timewise)

 

how you loading the FDF mod(s) ?

[lykurgos88 10]

2 hours ago, Dwarden said:

remaster or w/e ultimate all in one is atm. out of question (timewise)

 

how you loading the FDF mod(s) ?

 

First I simply enabled it from game's main menu (under expansions button) which restarts the game with the new selection. Then I also tried the "-mod=fdfmod" parameter. Both give the same result (A2 content not loaded, random cfg error message and expansion list showing "ca" instead of Arma 2).

 

The FDF still works with the stable branch. It also worked with the beta branch when I played FDF last year (2017). It's those A2:OA patches released this year (2018) that break the loading process.

 

Is this something I can fix from a register key or something? Just throwing ideas

 

PS: If you want to debug, here is the place to download Arma 2 FDF mod self-extracting package. It's non-intrusive, and simply extracts the needed content:

 

http://www.fdfmod.org/wp-content/uploads/ArmA2_FDFmod.exe

[Dwarden 1124]

anyway i'm looking at this and you simply need use full paths to A2 / OA content when using 

-beta= , -mod=

switches

 

see e.g. files

 

_runA2CO.cmd

in the root of A2OA folder

 

if correct data paths are used then you can use the other "-mod=" and "-beta" switches

[Dwarden 1124]

but all those are very complicated cases (e.g. vs ACR detection) ...

 

the simple solution is something i could not utilize in early STEAM times (due to various versions of windows/rights issues)

and that's use simple junction

 

e.g. open dos command propmpt in A2OA folder

so within your STEAM path \ STEAMapps \ common \ ARMA 2 Operation Arrowhead \

 

then just in command prompt  

mklink /J "Addons" "..\Arma 2\Addons"

Junction created for Addons <<===>> ..\Arma 2\Addons

 

then you do not need worry about mod path for A2 data anymore as this will create

within A2OA folder \Addons\ junction folder linked to A2 folder \Addons\

 

 

[Dwarden 1124]

note: "-beta=FDFmod" is better to use than -mod=

 

usually if that fails it means you need reinstall because something is wrong (e.g. registry paths missing)

[JOHN007 9]

Update on the z-fighting bug.

 

Managed to fix the terrain bug and 99% of the vegetation, as soon as the flares light is round a few meter from ground it seems to be working correctly which is strange but editing the lightpoint shape and editing the size fixes the issue, the edited script allows the flare to burn on the ground for a few mins also which is much better, for testing I drove around 300-400 meters from a cut out mission enemy camp schematic, waited for the Ai to fire a flare. Running into the flares light once it hits the ground is instant death.

Now we can enjoy the nighttime, now one time the Ai were literally firing flare after flare it was outstanding, hid from the lights in some Takistan town, the flares had us surrounded, I couldn't see much with the NVG, all of a sudden some civ runs around the corner, alah Akbar! Gone. Jumped out of my bloody skin. Now that's an Arma experience. Bloody fantastic. 

[Dwarden 1124]

@JOHN007

can you post video of the z-fighting flare bug with default 1.64 binary + data

vs with your fix ?

 

to see / understand the difference

[lykurgos88 10]

On 11/03/2018 at 9:31 PM, Dwarden said:

note: "-beta=FDFmod" is better to use than -mod=

 

usually if that fails it means you need reinstall because something is wrong (e.g. registry paths missing)

 

Hi,

 

I tried the "-beta=FDFmod" and it correctly loaded A2 content too. So it seems everything is working now!

 

Thank you very much!

 

Maybe in a future patch the "-mod" parameter functionality needs to be overwritten by "-beta" parameter functionaliuty.

[JOHN007 9]

On ‎3‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 6:20 PM, Dwarden said:

@JOHN007

can you post video of the z-fighting flare bug with default 1.64 binary + data

vs with your fix ?

 

to see / understand the difference

 

Hello Dwarden thankyou for the reply much appreciated.

 

Finally a response from a BIS Dev this is fantastic. Downloading a screen capture program and recording the comparisons. There's still z-fighting bugs with light sources from aircraft projectiles so it looks like the issue still persists. Also ran into a slight issue with enemies firing multiple flares, over ten at once and the light seems to multiply with each flare and with over ten flares lit it causes z-fighting bugs again. Looks like were reducing the flares light parameters once again.

 

Regarding the 1.64 patch we don't use that particular patch as many mods break, but the z-fighting bug is on every Arma 2 patch so it doesn't matter which patch is used here.

 

What the community needs is an addon which works with all Arma2 patch versions. We still don't know exactly where the dimming effect parameter is located for the flares lightpoint. Can you provide this information please as we can fix the issue with the flares at least.

 

You can easily find this bug, just load up Takistan at nighttime, fire a flare, its easy. Many forum threads stating this issue and nothing been fixed in all the years. If you have actually worked on Arma2 which I don't know if you have but even so, if you have worked on Arma 2 you will know about this.

 

I'll upload the videos and addon fix for you to analyze. Please consider fixing this game breaking issue.

 

Thankyou for your time and hope to speak soon.

[Dwarden 1124]

well 1.64.x is mandatory cause that's what you get and will be final ...

hence why i would prefer to see results on that to compare with 1.63 to avoid regressions

 

note: generic description of load map, fire flare, see the bug is reason things fail to get fixed cause that's sort of useless report

 

what exact time, what weapon, what flare ...

e.g. repro mission solves that problem

same for video or screenshots w/o it i or QA most likely fails to figure what you talk about 

 

also take in mind flares usually aren't the illuminating flares but signaling flares (different purpose, intensity and lit time is way shorter)

[ZackTactical34 86]

I just hope that the new update doesn't break the community mods. That would be a disappointment.

[Dwarden 1124]

A2OA stable just got data update 
\common\modules.pbo 
\expansion\addons\corepatch.pbo
so the only difference between 1.63 and 1.64 are ACR lite data and new binaries/libraries

[southparkkids 10]

1 hour ago, Dwarden said:

A2OA stable just got data update 
\common\modules.pbo 
\expansion\addons\corepatch.pbo
so the only difference between 1.63 and 1.64 are ACR lite data and new binaries/libraries

1

After patch battle eye doesn't work and reads, "Failed to read initialization file."

[Dwarden 1124]

manual fix :

copy content of

\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead\Expansion\BattlEye\

into

\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead\BattlEye\

 

... can't be fixed tonight due to logistics issues so next workday

[BlenderRUS 6]

After updating A2 - new problem has appeared:

Quote

./server: error while loading shared libraries: libsteam_api.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

 

Files are exist, have correct owner and permissions.

OS: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS Server

 

Temporary solved by copying steam libraries to /usr/lib folder

[Beatlix 0]

1 hour ago, Dwarden said:

manual fix :

copy content of

\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead\Expansion\BattlEye\

into

\Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead\BattlEye\

 

... can't be fixed tonight due to logistics issues so next workday

 

After this fix Arma now starts running itsself over and over again when trying to connect to a server and you get kicked from the server.

[Dwarden 1124]

that works only for 1.63 stable not 1.64 beta !

[Armados 0]

Hm, ""Failed to read initialization file" happens to every steam user.
The fix causes a loop, the game starts (no error) when loading a server it closes the game and relaunches it, over and over and over.

I don't think i'm using any beta. I got betas selected to "NONE". Steam auto-updated the game, didn't give me a choice.-