Evaluating Possibilities For Restoring Arma 2 Features

[bmb 3]

One of the key mechanics which have been reworked from Arma 2 is the fatigue system. The old system was unaffected by weight, but made it harder to aim based on how much you had been running or shooting. The new system appears to consist of several parts. First there is "stamina", it is how long you can run for before having to take a break. Then there is "aim precision", this seems to be defined only by the stance and whether the weapon is "supported". It is a gentle swaying left to right. Then there is "aim coef", which is similar to the Arma 2 system, it makes the aim bob around randomly depending on the level of "fatigue", which is different from the level of "stamina". There are two variables which control the "fatigue" system. There is "aimingCoef" which directly controls the level of bobbing. Then there is the Unit Trait "loadCoef", set by the weight of the players inventory, which is used to limit the amount of stamina, but is also used to determine how fast "aimingCoef" deterioates. The "customAimCoef" does not control the "aimingCoef" but is simply a multiplier for it. The BIKI information on this seems to be wrong based on my testing. Setting either "loadCoef" or "customAimCoef" to 0 will disable "fatigue" effects. Setting them high will increase "fatigue" effects. Disabling "stamina" does not affect "fatigue". There is no command or config for setting "aimingCoef", it is a hardcoded calculation. Shooting no longer affects "aimingCoef" like it did in Arma 2, so even magdumping automatic weapons does not affect the players aim, this is unrealistic. Without access to setting "aimingCoef" directly a scripted solution cannot be made. In Arma 2, the "bobbing" effect is much more erratic, where in Arma 3 it is smooth, and much easier to predict. So larger values are needed to make it equally hard to aim. The only thing that can be done is using setCustomAimCoef to increase the value. Which looks silly.

 

One potential workaround might be to create a gesture animation which makes the weapon move around, and playing this gesture from a script whenever fatigue effects are needed, and simply disabling the hardcoded fatigue system with setCustomAimCoef 0.

 

As a side note, on iron sights the aim point is always directly on the front post, no matter if the rear post is aligned or not. This may make sense for holo sights, but not for iron sights. I can't tell any way that this could be rectified, it only makes it even easier to predict where to shoot even when your sights are out of alignment.

 

AI is relatively bad at taking cover compared to 2, the new native formation fsm seems to be made to have regular movement do the covering, but unfortunately no reactions are in formation fsm so they do the same move behaviour regardless if they're taking fire or are exposed or not. Danger FSM's and other scripts can be made to rectify this, ASR and TPWCAS both do a good job. And I've tested some scripts of my own. But unfortunately there is one critical behaviour that I see in testing which gets the AI killed over and over, which is they stand perfectly still, locked on to an enemy, and shoot wildly inaccurately. They will miss entire rifle mags at point blank range in this state. They may also decide to randomly reload out in the open, while under fire, again standing still, unresponsive to any FSM or scripting commands. Or they may decide to heal up, unresponsive, out in the open, while under fire. Only by forcing animations to play can these behaviours be overriden.

I can't see any way to disable this behaviour. I assume it's something to do with the native "dotarget" and "domove" commands which do this. They will also get into loops where they rapidly switch between targets without firing. Again, can't seem to do anything about it. These buggy behaviours are hardcoded and limit how well scripted behaviours can work. A script would have to disable the AI completely and play moves directly with it's own pathfinding in order to circumvent this.

 

The new grenade throwing behaviour seems to be a matter of configs, the proper grenade throw animations are still in the game files, so it should be a matter of just pointing the "throw" action to those animations instead of the new gesture. But I don't know much of anything about animation configs so I can't say whether it's really that simple. The old system of holding the throw to increase the power is probably not going to be possible. Adding some delay to the beginning of the animation to simulate the time it would take to retrieve a grenade and pull the pin would probably be doable through script.

 

Also a matter of configs would be to simply reduce the insane playback speed of some of the fast-forward actions like healing. Locking the recipient in place to prevent magic healing at a distance I am not sure if it is possible.

 

Restoring injuries to arms and legs, not sure about those either.

 

Carry animations still exist, so maybe possible to restore as well. But again not sure about animation configs.

 

So in conclusion, bringing Arma 3 up to a standard where it's worth playing over 2 is a significant effort impeded by many low level hardcoded decisions by BIS. A dire look.

[Jackal326 1181]

Well, unless you're working on an addon to resolve these issues, you're in the wrong forum section...

[bmb 3]

"As well as for discussing ideas [related to modding arma 3]"

[Gunter Severloh 4051]

Nonetheless, you should outline your OP in such a way so it dont read like a book.

Ideally imo if you wanted features added, restored, enabled or what have you, then highlight the subject of the feature title

so it stands out, then briefly put the description under it.

 

Shall i do this for you?

Summarizing mods and playable functions in a readable format enables people to see what you got without having to "work" at it

to get the jist of what your trying to say or ask for, just a thought.

     Good ideas though, i like stuff like this, gameplay function is what i prefer over anything

added like new units, weapons ect,.

[Jackal326 1181]

11 hours ago, bmb said:

"As well as for discussing ideas [related to modding arma 3]"

That is what the Addon Request Thread is there for...

[bmb 3]

This is not a request, but a discussion of the possibilities. Please stop derailing and trolling.

[bmb 3]

Another feature that isn't often talked about is natural night vision. Arma 2 implements a gradual adaptation to extreme low light, Arrowhead added a desaturation effect to it. Using nightvision goggles or looking at very bright light would quickly ruin natural night vision and leave you blind in the dark until the adapation slowly came back. There also would be a big difference in the ambient light level in deep forests and open field. Even without the moon it would be possible to see a little in the open with adapted eyes. In Arma 3 eye adapatation is equally fast in all conditions and there is virtually no ambient light at night, only moonlight. This despite the astronomical twilight effects on Altis and Stratis. No difference can be made between forests, indoors and other areas in terms of brightness.

 

The good news is that the HDR settings are fully exposed to directly set with script. So some of the effect may be able to be replicated. At least the effect of slow adaptation after using night vision goggles. post process effects can also be used to apply desaturation.

[gatordev 219]

I can't argue that the way light is handled is different from A2 to A3, but as for NVGs, that was always annoying in A2 to have to wait for the adaptation.  In reality, when you come off of NVGs, you're still night adapted and can see very well.  After about 30 seconds, you'll be pretty close to fully night adapted.  Hollywood gets a lot of things wrong about NVDs and this is one of them.  Being blinded by lightning is another.  It's not really a thing unless you're right next to a lightning strike.

[bmb 3]

The HDR effects in Arma 2 were always a bit excessive, but I just don't believe that after staring at bright green phospors you are "fully night adapated" for a while.

[gatordev 219]

On 4/13/2022 at 4:19 PM, bmb said:

The HDR effects in Arma 2 were always a bit excessive, but I just don't believe that after staring at bright green phospors you are "fully night adapated" for a while.

 

It's really no big deal.  A big reason is because the light used is green.  Flipping back and forth is a non-event.  Like I said, you won't be 100%, but your vision is very usable...or as usable as whatever the ambient lighting allows for.

[dragon01 902]

NVGs aren't really bright, particularly if you put them on when your eyesight is already dark-adjusted. IRL, in most cases you have control over the gain, and I think brightness as well. Combined with green light being easier on eye adaptation, I'd say we're pretty spot-on. ArmA2 overexaggerated that. NV scopes would be unusable if real night vision worked like in A2.

 

As for ambient light, well, moonless nights are dark. If you're away from other types of light, starlight doesn't help much. I'd say, ArmA3 got it pretty much right, at least as far as it was possible in the RV engine. 

[gatordev 219]

I know we're getting off-topic, but... star light is actually extremely helpful, at least with Gen 3 tubes.  They're specifically designed to be used with star light.  Moon light or cultural lighting is just an added benefit.  Where things get harder is where there is cloud cover and no cultural lighting.  Then the goggles can't really react anymore and you get massive scintillation.  This fuzziness is what people think NVDs always look like because of the initial Gulf War 1 video footage (which was with NTSC/PAL, low rez CCD or tube cameras on Gen 2 or worse NV).

 

Where Arma 3 fails, no doubt because of the engine like @dragon01 is saying, is interaction with light sources and not picking up near IR sources.  Red lights and exhaust are extremely bright, but head lights, while annoying, don't blind the tube since it can degain itself.  I've personally never used manual gain NVDs, but when using autogain devices, and what makes auto gain Gen 3 devices especially later OMNI VI s or better, is they're able to degain themselves significantly AND still let you see without as much of the halos.