Latest screenshots available

[Average Joe 0]

Juuuuus waiting for Hi-res.

[Commando84 0]

sweet pics from paraiso looks really sweet! The civilians and the bus looks really good to, wonder if there will be more civilian vehicles and civilians in armed assault then there was in ofp Resistance

[messiahua 0]

I especially like their cloths

[codarl 1]

In Amsterdam, these kinds of busses ( "de opstapper / the hop-on-er") are used.

Basicly, you can give the driver a sign anywhere on the route, and he'll stop for you. same goes for stepping off the bus.

Wouln't small busses like these be more handy between the smaller places of Sahrani?

[Daniel 0]

Probably yeah, but you still get big coaches on relativley small islands. Especially if it's being advertised for tourism.

[cosmo3000 0]

VBS2 Screenshots

this looks like a lot of ArmA, or looks ArmA a lot like VBS2 :-) ?

what you guys think ?

impressive pictures anyway ...

[Average Joe 0]

I think HOLY HELL!

[VISTREL 0]

Awesome VBS2 pics. I think Arma will have the same graphics.

[Scrub 0]

BIS Rocketh

[brataccas 0]

I love that arma bus

[mattxr 9]

At Least the civilans have some sweet as clothes now eh

[Callsign 128]

those clothes are great anyone else for some surf?? :P

bootneckofficer

[judge&jury 0]

Now THAT was some news worth posting!!  Not only do those pictures show some bug fixes (z-buffer grass bug now gone), but they also tell us how some BIS software is being developed.

Quote[/b] ]Bohemia Interactive is working closely with the USMC to finalise Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2), a completely new product based upon the brand new game engine Real Virtuality 2. VBS2 is being constantly improved in accordance with military feedback received from a range of VBS1 customers, including the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the USMC. VBS2 extends the adaptable, customisable nature of Operation Flashpoint and VBS1 to provide a tool that delivers rapid terrain generation for mission rehearsal in high fidelity, realistic environments, in addition to a host of other functional and graphical improvements.

There it is.  Why go through endless research into uniforms when marines can directly comment on your work?  Why look up military tactics if commanders from some of the world's finest armed forces can give direct input (or even code it themselves)?  I couldn't imagine any better source of information and direction than the very soldiers they're trying to simulate.

Considering the privileged relationship they have with the military, I think BIS is in a good position to reorganise themselves as a company.  The size and status of these VBS licenses means that government sales could become a major source of income, and thus of primary interest to BIS.  If BIS were to focus on creating professional simulation engines like VBS using content and information provided by the military, they could capitalise on investment by spinning off games directed towards the public. Money for nothing and chicks for free, essentially.

As I see it, the current BIS business model is disorganised and dated.  They started out as a game developer with Operation Flashpoint and have tried to continue down this path with products like ArmA and OFP2 (game whatever-the-hell-you-wanna-call-it).  Evidently, some projects lack direction or effective project management.  These semi-games are then hacked into semi-optimal applications for the military, often with unsatisfying results.  Few outside the industry are aware that BIS even provides services to government agencies. To me at least, their military simulation software seems to be a secondary concern, almost a hobby.  Under this model, BIS has to compete with firms like EA (marketing masters if ever I've seen them) for the attention of gamers and publishers, and they are subject to the whimsical demands of the community (come on guys, knifes???).  As many in the forum have observed, this can have an impact on the quality and direction of the simulator, ultimately turning BIS away from their corporate objective - to make awesome simulations.  

If BIS were to turn that relationship around and instead focus on military products, they would be guaranteed a stable source of capital and would be backed by some of the most important institutions on Earth (RTFA - there are even SPONSORSHIP deals for VBS2).  Their engine development would be independent of the unrealistic demands of consumers, but would still be geared to run on low-end hardware.  

Now, I'm no developer, so the next paragraph may sound unrealistic to some.  Capitalising on the professional software they built for the military, BIS would be in a prime position to modify it for the gaming market.  In fact, they could have a team that is specifically dedicated to converting their military products into something consumers could play.  Artillery too complicated for Joe Normal?  Loadout system overwhelming?  No gameplay structure?  I imagine they could tailor-make each feature for the consumer market without too much modification.  But they key difference here is the wide range of options available.  Since this software was originally intended for military use, the possibilities would be literally limitless.  They would have a strategic, technological and content edge on every single firm in the gaming industry, with no competition in sight.  Also, if a feature was somehow missing, then it was probably unrealistic in the first place since the military doesn't want it.

The end result, you ask?  A better funded and more efficient BIS, high quality sims for our bravest, and the best games ever!  Who wouldn't play something that the USMC of ADF had a hand in creating?  I damn well know I would.  You cannot compare VBS to AA either - while the former is a training tool, the latter is essentially a mobile recruiting station.

Sorry for a long rant, I just got a bit excited about the prospects of VBS2.  Oh, and another side effect of this plan?

One step closer to world domination :P

PS. Nice screens

[ziiip 1]

Is it possible that those VBS2 pics are render shots? That was the first thing that came to my mind after being extremely impressed.

[mattxr 9]

First off, VBS gets made by a totaly differnt team of working in a totaly differnt country, second of all, wasnt VBS2 Tech based from the Game2 engine?

[450R 1]

Other way around - Game 2 is using VBS2.

[Guest Ti0n3r]

Dunno about the rest of you guys, but those VBS2 pics look a lot like ArmA to me. Looks VBS2 and ArmA are using the same engine (well pretty much the same).

[GBee 0]

A different team and engine yes, but that doesn't mean they don't share certain work. In this case certain models and textures appear identical in both games, the area in the helecopter screenshot even closely resembles the one used in several earlier Arma screenshots.

That isn't a huge suprise though. After all the VBS looked like OFP and shared a lot of the content, in particular the early stuff.

Edit: Tioner, there is the game engine and then graphics engine. I'm not suprised that VBS2 looks like Arma, that's the result of the reuse of textures, animations etc and both games will use the graphics techiques which are 1) Available at this time 2) Work well in a game of this scale. The differences will be in things like physics, AI, game world interaction which can't be seen in screenshots.

[aus_twisted 0]

Other way around - Game 2 is using VBS2.

Game 2 was well under developement before VBS2 was announced.

[sniper pilot 36]

VBS2 Screenshots

this looks like a lot of ArmA, or looks ArmA a lot like VBS2 :-) ?

what you guys think ?

impressive pictures anyway ...

WOOOHOO! lol this day just keeps getting better!!

Thats right Marine Corps! You just may of already gave the boost we needed to get Game 2 and Armed Assault to be well funded...

[rundll.exe 12]

Quote[/b] ]To be sponsored by the USMC, the VBS2 VTK provides configuration, weapon and unit editors, improved (easier to use and more functional) terrain and modelling tools, easily modifiable artificial intelligence behaviours, an API for ‘plugging-in’ new AI models, deformable terrain and a range of other improvements beyond the extensive enhancements already available in VBS2. Bohemia Interactive intends for VBS2 VTK to provide the benchmark for the serious games industry; a completely modifiable, low-cost and customer-oriented product suitable for any conceivable use (be it military training or otherwise).

So it IS possible. God hopes they work together amd put all the best stuff in ArmA...

wishfull thinking....

[mattxr 9]

well if a publisher does see that and thinks hold on, if we publish ArmA we might be able to publish game 2 as well and get lots of sales from a retailed down version of this military sim

[codarl 1]

Thats right Marine Corps! You just may of already gave the boost we needed to get Game 2 and Armed Assault to be well funded...

maybe they're paying to have more stuff made for their simulator, instead of whatever "other stuff" bohemia is making?

[FriketMonkey 0]

Blog update and the latest news have made me really happy

[funnyguy1 0]

Those are just 3 images...they can be full of placeholders from ArmA, or the ArmA-like stage of the new engine...

Moreover, we`ve seen images from game2/vbs2 and even a vegetation footage already, and It looked better than everything from ArmA...However, there`s this statement

Quote[/b] ]The VBS2 engine, due for release in Q3 this year (...)

quite promissing, but again...engine doesn`t mean game.