smoke particles fail

[pvt. partz 248]

...so I've been looking around a bit for this issue that I've had for some time now. I resume a mission say, and my smoke effects don't work, not always but randomly. Quit the game and restart generally fixes it. Today however I've restarted a number of times and I cannot get the smoke to appear.

I do run a number of mods so I'll post them later.

[Jackal326 1181]

4 hours ago, pvt. partz said:

I do run a number of mods so I'll post them later.

That will be your issue. Whatever mod you're using that affects smoke (presumably from vehicle wrecks) would seem to not save the correct variables when the game saves and then when you're loading the save game the smoke effects aren't being loaded...

[pvt. partz 248]

...so just a corrupted save? Well that's not so bad. My original post I said I couldn't get the smoke back but then the next time I started the game, my smoke was back. 😉

[Jackal326 1181]

13 hours ago, pvt. partz said:

...so just a corrupted save? Well that's not so bad. My original post I said I couldn't get the smoke back but then the next time I started the game, my smoke was back. 😉

Not corrupt per se, it obviously still loads and allows you to resume your progress. Its just that if the smoke is enhanced or changed by a mod, that it may not necessarily be compatible with saving and loading the game for some dark-magic coding reason.

[major-stiffy 280]

I have the same issue randomly, loading a save doesn't help. Wish I knew which mod causes it.

[pvt. partz 248]

One thing I've noticed without hard documentation is...

...if I see that the particles aren't working, I will toss a smoke grenade, save & exit, then restart (resume)

...it seems if I do that, the smoke always returns. I can't be sure as I'm only basing this on memory, not always paying strict attention, just trying not to get killed!

[major-stiffy 280]

I have something I'm going to try just for shits and giggles. Going to play and not let the game saves reach it's maximum amount  so I don't ever overwrite a save. ALT+TAB out and manually delete the previous saves except only keeping continue*.save, auto*.save and the most recent save.

[major-stiffy 280]

Resumed saved game, no smoke. Save&exit and resume, no smoke. Latest save was 10/18/21.

 

Went into the saved folder and no saves show the 18th, only the 17th. Resumed game and smoke worked.

 

What happened to the continue save on the 18th? Why did it load a save from the 17th?

 

I don't think it's a mod issue. I think it's an Arma issue with saving games. Will make a ticket once figure out how....maybe.

[major-stiffy 280]

Tested Pilgrimage MP with NO MODS. On resume from save there is no smoke. So it's Pilgrimage itself.

In SP it's there but intermittently.

[pvt. partz 248]

Quote

So it's Pilgrimage itself

...doesn't necesarily mean that the bug is Pilgrimage since it is the Arma "game engine" that creates the save and thus corrupts it. Would be interesting to scour the forums to see if other long played missions are having this issue.

[major-stiffy 280]

You might be right. I guess it calls for another thread then.

[major-stiffy 280]

On 12/2/2021 at 10:08 AM, major-stiffy said:

In SP it's there but intermittently.

Nope happens in SP too routinely. What a game breaker.

[tom4_atpl 8]

This is the most annoying issue with arma for me from begining . Neither of updates helped. No mods, game files checked. Game reinstalled. Drivers updated.

 

What I realized, its unfortunatelly arma "feature".

 

It happens mostly after loading any save game. Does not matter which mission.

 

Solution:

(you can use mods) Restart game, go directly to VR arsenal, check smoke effect with any weapon, any grenade, after that play your mission/save. And it works with out problems.

 

Why? I have no  idea, seems like bohemia does not know about this bug

[Harzach 2518]

4 hours ago, tom4_atpl said:

seems like bohemia does not know about this bug

 

They do. See @Dedmen's reply toward the bottom.

 

https://feedback.bistudio.com/T162349

[major-stiffy 280]

5 hours ago, tom4_atpl said:

go directly to VR arsenal

 

The missions I play don't have this unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

[kickbuttakis01 14]

1 hour ago, major-stiffy said:

 

The missions I play don't have this unless I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

Yes, you are misunderstanding what he means 🙂 . Start the game, go to 'Tutorials' menu, at the top, 'VIRTUAL ARSENAL'. It is part of Arma, not any mission. I haven't tried this myself as I don't have/haven't seen, this issue.

[major-stiffy 280]

13 hours ago, kickbuttakis01 said:

Yes, you are misunderstanding what he means 🙂 . Start the game, go to 'Tutorials' menu, at the top, 'VIRTUAL ARSENAL'. It is part of Arma, not any mission. I haven't tried this myself as I don't have/haven't seen, this issue.

 

I've never used this before, thanks for explaining.

[major-stiffy 280]

On 6/21/2022 at 2:17 PM, tom4_atpl said:

Solution:

(you can use mods) Restart game, go directly to VR arsenal, check smoke effect with any weapon, any grenade, after that play your mission/save. And it works with out problems.

 

This actually seems to work for me so far. Thanks so much for discovering and sharing this.

[pvt. partz 248]

Still not a fix though. Thing is they say it's not worth their time anymore implying Arma 3 is getting old I guess. I get they are working on new projects but I still see on average 10,000 people still playing. Arma may be old it's still being played!!! Bug fixes have been shelved for nearly 5 years already which pisses me off, not to mention they find time to make some lame terrains. Not sorry for the rant but imo, priorities (player support) seems to have been slid behind the $'s at times. I get it's a business (you have bills to pay) but we are customers after all and without us BI couldn't exist.

[major-stiffy 280]

They r still asking 30$ for the game and selling a ton of DLC. I agree it should be fixed especially since there is a solid way to reproduce the bug.