To the people who are playing ArmA, how is it?

[drakaan 0]

Correct me if im wrong, but didnt the linux server for ofp get released after the game was released? I believe one is planned so be patient.

@Lange

If ArmA runs slowly for you on that PC then you are doing something wrong. It runs fine for me:

AMD S754 3700+ @ 2.4GHz

1.5Gb Ram

ATI Radeon X800XT (AGP)

SB Audigy 4

well m8 you must be used to playing with shit graphics then (no disrespect meant), i like high detail in my games and i CAN get the high detail when i crank the resolution up but then as you can imagine the frap situation aint good.

but as i said above i was looking forward to the OFP experience but with better graphics, Armed Assault is not OFP and in my opinion does not have the feel of OFP at this moment in time.

[-CS-SOBR-1st-I-R- 0]

I am highly diasspointed in Arma....

that much that im seriously considering to sell my copy on ebay.

The handling of soldiers is not comparable to OFP.. sure you get used to it, but I dont want to cause its crap.

Of course graphics and all the stuff have been overworked.... but many things have been made worse.

I would have been dead happy if ArmA was OFP + Selected Community addons + better graphics .... but is another thing and thats disappointing.

Not only the handling of the charakters but the lagg....

Where the hell was that talk that it will run smooth on medium spec machines ?

You need a high spec system to run it around 25 fps, which is excately the limit for lag and fluent videos.

ArmA =

[BraTTy 0]

I'm impressed with ARMA and it runs fine on my system.

I have also been playing OFP since 2001.

AMD X2 4200+ manchester(s939)

1 GIG DDR400

ATI X800 Pro AGP

AC97 built-on sound

some lod bugs (bad textures even up close) but all that will be fixed I am sure

NO OTHER GAME OUT CAN COMPARE !

[archsceptic 21]

BraTTy, you're an ofp veteran, what were your first impressions when you first started up ArmA?

Did it 'feel' like ofp, could you tell it was related?

It would be interesting to know wether ofp veterans are being more receptive to ArmA than gamers who are newer to the ofp/ArmA franchise.

Or vice-versa maybe?

[evo6tme 0]

Hi

Running fine at 1910 x 1200 res and everything on high apart from AA (medium) ,view distance 2500, i get the odd stutter now and again, but nothing to write home about. But at this res cant complain

                                                                                 

Intel core 2duo 6600

Asus p5w dh

2 gb geil 6400 ddr2 memory

x1900 master edition

x1900 xtx

x-fi extreme music sound card

dell 2407 24" wide monitor

[frOsT1k 0]

May i ask why so many people using Radeon and not GeForce?

Just to know what company is better and in wich perfomence's

and back to topic:

i'm Runing ArmA [ German ] Version. patched 1.01

Eng Patched-

PC CFG [ Don't Laugh Please ]:

GeForce FX 5700 256.

512 DDR RAM

3Ghz Not Dual Core.

AsusP4P800s-x

Some regular Sound Card.. SoundMax.

Runing it on the Lowest Graphic Settings. i can run alone in Editor Map and have fun.. but as soon as i put few soldiers with me it start laging me.

So.. duno wich new details i need for my PC.

Thinking to build a new one ._.

Like this topic

[Czechm8 0]

I'd like to say that personally I'm quite pleased with ArmA

and am looking forward to see how it develops now.

.....

It does not strike me as a "new" game, rather as a revitalized

Op. Flashpoint with many of the features I had often wished

OFP could have had; better weapon sights, better character

animations, leaning, rolling, a better "inventory" system, more

pleasing graphics, better "immersion".

The most immediately and strikingly apparent change is of

course in the animation and modelling of the human figures.

The quality of the modelling and texturing can be seen in any

of the hundreds of screenshots that can be found here and

elsewhere. The variety of physical actions the soldiers can

now perform by default is superb and streaks ahead of

anything in Flashpoint or any of the community "anim" packs.

The game characters are now able to move and behave much

more convincingly like real people and not like horrible

gimcrack toy soldiers as they always did in OFP. The "motion

capture talent", according to the manual credits, included

Czech special forces soldiers, and their expertise is apparent

in the way the characters handle their weapons and generally

disport themselves. Right now I seem to find myself in "3rd

person view" a lot just admiring the appearance and the

animation of my character!

........

I know the software still has many problems, I also know of

several things I wish I could still change or improve, and sadly

not everyone who is interested in it is lucky enough to own

the requisite hardware to enjoy it, but I'll echo many others

in saying that I'm sure that most of these issues could be

resolved as time goes on. I certainly do not so far find

it "unplayable" by any means, as some have asserted. I

should say that I play OFP/ArmA mostly for the infantry

action. Vehicles and aircraft tend to mostly be "supporting

actors" for my in-game activities, so the bugs related to

vehicles and aircraft are not of overwhelming concern to me

for now.

.......

this is a really great summary.

[maxqubit 1]

Frankly, i don't give a shit about what i read here anymore. As a regular forum 'spotter' i have read so much positiv and negativ about the game that the only sensible thing to do is PLAY THE DAMNED GAME YOURSELF.

1. I ordered it online German v1.01 and play it from HDD. I'm 42 Euro's down and had trouble to install it. But in the end it worked.

2. Well running on a FX5200 was total and utter shit (but to be expected)

3. Investing in a AGP 7600GT card was the next step. 180 Euro's down.

4. Installing the card and TWEAKING the hell out of ArmA (see my other posts about texture glitches and such). Wasn't easy.

...

But it starts running fine now, really fine i mean, i didn't expect it to be but ArmA runs and looks beautiful now.

Specs:

P4 2.8GHz

1 GB RAM

AGP 7600GT

Very clean XP

-memsize=768

res=1024x768x32

...

Ok, landing a heli is a bitch, i dunno what is the matter but i (and others too i read) have a very hard time controlling the thing when landing.

Veteran mode is difficult, but then again, i'm just an avarage gamer.

But you know, this game start to grow on me. Fine tuning the key setup (this IS great!!!!) and stuff like that make you more and more comfortable with the game.

Conclusion:

ArmA is for me the logical step from Elite (and OFP). I just go with the flow ... it is a great ride so far. Yes, perhaps the first buyers are to an extend beta testers, but what the heck. I like it, the game has enormous potential and is just one of a kind.

My next step will probably be a TrackIR device for even more immersion (but again 160 Euro's down:)

ArmA: A MUST HAVE:)

-- Max Qubit

[Scrub 0]

i like high detail in my games

Then you know you need to pay the price. The baseline FPS of ArmA does not change a great deal wether you have 1 unit or 300 on screen batteling it out, smoke and all. So the CPU/GPU loading is primarilly your settings. In a year when uber processors are out cheaply, ArmA will age like a fine wine, just getting better and better.

[Fumega 0]

Hi, I currently don't own Arma, but I have some questions to the people who have it.

When you say the chopper controls are bad, how bad are they? For example, are they comparable to the BF2 ones (I think that in BF2 the chopper controls were great).

Cumps

[Nemesis_wales 0]

May i ask why so many people using Radeon and not GeForce?

Just to know what company is better and in wich perfomence's

and back to topic:

i'm Runing ArmA [ German ] Version. patched 1.01

Eng Patched-

PC CFG [ Don't Laugh Please ]:

GeForce FX 5700 256.

512 DDR RAM

3Ghz Not Dual Core.

AsusP4P800s-x

Some regular Sound Card.. SoundMax.

Runing it on the Lowest Graphic Settings. i can run alone in Editor Map and have fun.. but as soon as i put few soldiers with me it start laging me.

So.. duno wich new details i need for my PC.

Thinking to build a new one ._.

Like this topic

im no comp nerd but id say thats a low end system?

all i know about mine is that it is a asus a8n deluxe mother board, AMD athlon (venice) 3200+, ge force 7800 GT card, 1.5 gb ram, dodgy version of xp dont think i even got a sound card, just on board??? i played bf 2 at full settings and never had any problems, but im wary about arm a, dunno if i need 2 upgrade again(these parts listed r only 12 months old). any way, from wot ive been reading the game has many bugs but also is very much as we wanted, bloody awesome, no doubt when the uk version comes out it will come patched an all good, then the modders can get 2 work, i really hope the choppers aint that hard 2 fly tho, that would b a bit of a bummer. can any 1 say weather the ai use suppresive fire? an if yes how good, for instance will the guy with the m249 SAW automatically lay down some lead for rest of team etc? or do u have 2 order him to do it?

[frOsT1k 0]

Ye.. my PC is old. so i want to know wich things do i have to buy to make ArmA run ***very well***

[Col. Faulkner 0]

Quote[/b] ]can any 1 say weather the ai use suppresive fire? an if yes how good, for instance will the guy with the m249 SAW automatically lay down some lead for rest of team etc? or do u have 2 order him to do it?

Well first of all I'd certainly strongly advise you to at least try

out the game! It has many facets of appeal and I find myself

spending entirely too many hours messing about with it and

having far too much fun with it than seems proper for a guy

my age!  

With regards to your question about suppressing fire:

I won't lie to you. This is one of the most serious deficiencies

in the game for those who value "realistic firefights" rather

than a "gunfight at the OK corral". The AI soldiers cannot

really be suppressed by fire (since the game does not

model "morale" in an effective way) nor can you order an AI

gunner to saturate an area. I do get the impression that the

AI guys in ArmA are a bit more reluctant to return fire than

they were in Op. Flashpoint, but they still seem to be totally

fearless, not always going for proper cover, and you still

cannot "pin down" a group of men or mallet a particular

position with fire from your squad support weapons.

What you can do is to order a gunner to engage a

particular target (ie. individual soldiers or a particular vehicle)

and you can also order them to watch a certain

direction - when they will usually engage anything that they

spot moving in their arc. If you're hoping to be able to

simulate or at least achieve the same effect of [british]

Army style "GRIT" fire control orders in the game then that

isn't really possible (GRIT orders: eg. "Gun group, 200 metres,

half right, enemy in bushes at edge of treeline, rapid fire!"

The American army presumably has something similar) .

You can almost do it with the game mechanisms

described above but it's not quite the same thing.

This is a frustrating problem for those of us who'd like a

decently realistic simulation of infantry combat in ArmA.

You will find many posts here from guys asking "can the

AI be suppressed?". I do know that some of this can be

scripted and I know that there was work being done for

Op. Flashpoint by modders to try to implement some of

these things and eventually that's bound to percolate

down to ArmA too. Let's hope so.

The infantry firefights are still great, though, and in many

cases still manage to suggest quite convincingly the

atmosphere, excitement, euphoria and confusion of "combat".

The new features of Arma do add considerably to that also.

Having said this I'll now undoubtedly be vilified by those

who care less for "realism" than for a fun game. Each to his

own, but since you are asking about this then I must assume

that you lean more towards the "realistic sim" camp than

the "balanced and fun game" one. And ArmA does

advertise itself as the "ultimate combat simulator". The

game/sim has a great deal to offer players of both

persuasions, however. We've been promised a demo

sometime soon; give it a go!

[charlieromeo77 0]

...

Specs:

P4 2.8GHz

1 GB RAM

AGP 7600GT

Very clean XP

-memsize=768

res=1024x768x32

...

can you tell me what settings you have it on ?

i have everything on low/off @1024x768x32

and about the same config as you have

and in general it runs fine

but iam wondering about getting a 2nd gig of ram to make it "beautiful" too without lagging around

[Straw Dog 0]

Hey, just got the online german version. My brother-in-law (credit card owner) never knew what hit him...From 2 days of totally trying out the works i gotta say thanx to BIS for this gem. Amazing stuff regardless of the known issues. A flower picked from the abandoned fields of Everon have been sent to Placebo for hangin in there.

My rig:

AMD 64 3200+ @2400 oc (Venice)

AsRock 939 DUAL SATA II Motherboard

1 Gb RAM (2*512 Kingston Value in dual mode)

Powercolor X1950 Pro 512 MB

M$ Trackball Optical. (Once u go track u never go back, trust me.)

Windoze XP SP2 bla blaa

After some hefty tweaking i got Arma running like milk down

my girlfriend's butt....you get the point. Apart from the X1950 which is somewhere at the upper mid performance, i have a very basic system; Merely 1 gig of mem and ye ol' AMD 64.

My two cents in the "omg this game is sooo unoptimized...blablaa"-debate:

1. RAM, RAM and RAM. Free up as much system mem as humanly possible.

2. Kill all tray hoggers, antivirus and elite shit u got running in the back.

3. Ask yourself if it's really necessary to have 16xAF and 4xAA in the heat of the battle.  "She's a superfine looking lady but a cold herring in bed" or "She's average looking but man what a ride!". Take your pick.

4. Set every 3D settings in your cards control panel on "application preference". Leave that to the ingame settings instead.

5. Postprocessing in Arma is absolutely beautiful! Depth of field, blurred horizon and so on. But it'll also eat a heavy amount of fps. Setting it to "low" gave me a 10-15 extra fps without killing the overall experience. It's still lovely out there in the blooming fields...

6. Vsync Off for mouse lag issues and if you're really on the lower system spec side might give you some extra breathing room. I turned it on to get rid of the artifacts, besides, my CPU and sys RAM are the real bottlenecks in this equation.

*EDIT* I forgot to mention the "floating zone slider". Move it to the far left in the control settings.

I am now running on 1024*768@75hz resolution with these settings:

...and getting 30-50 fps in crowded areas and 50-75 elsewhere with vsync on .   And yes it looks just great!

Ofcourse the values will vary depending on CPU and how much AI thinking and stuff going on around you. This is just a pointer.

Now for all the crybabies with a rig ten times my budget; If i can make it run smoothly with my bottleneck comp - so can you. Surely there are things that can be optimized in the Arma engine but u can't put the entire blame load on BIS. That's just ignorant. Oh and remember, i'm not talking about the known bugs, just the performance probs some of u guys are having. Hope this helps.

[buddhiraja73 0]

With regards to your question about suppressing fire:

I won't lie to you. This is one of the most serious deficiencies

in the game for those who value "realistic firefights" rather

than a "gunfight at the OK corral". The AI soldiers cannot

really be suppressed by fire (since the game does not

model "morale" in an effective way) nor can you order an AI

gunner to saturate an area. I do get the impression that the

AI guys in ArmA are a bit more reluctant to return fire than

they were in Op. Flashpoint, but they still seem to be totally

fearless, not always going for proper cover, and you still

cannot "pin down" a group of men or mallet a particular

position with fire from your squad support weapons.

What you can do is to order a gunner to engage a

particular target (ie. individual soldiers or a particular vehicle)

and you can also order them to watch a certain

direction - when they will usually engage anything that they

spot moving in their arc. If you're hoping to be able to

simulate or at least achieve the same effect of [british]

Army style "GRIT" fire control orders in the game then that

isn't really possible (GRIT orders: eg. "Gun group, 200 metres,

half right, enemy in bushes at edge of treeline, rapid fire!"

The American army presumably has something similar) .

You can almost do it with the game mechanisms

described above but it's not quite the same thing.

This is a frustrating problem for those of us who'd like a

decently realistic simulation of infantry combat in ArmA.

You will find many posts here from guys asking "can the

AI be suppressed?". I do know that some of this can be

scripted and I know that there was work being done for

Op. Flashpoint by modders to try to implement some of

these things and eventually that's bound to percolate

down to ArmA too. Let's hope so.

The infantry firefights are still great, though, and in many

cases still manage to suggest quite convincingly the

atmosphere, excitement, euphoria and confusion of "combat".

The new features of Arma do add considerably to that also.

Having said this I'll now undoubtedly be vilified by those

who care less for "realism" than for a fun game. Each to his

own, but since you are asking about this then I must assume

that you lean more towards the "realistic sim" camp than

the "balanced and fun game" one. And ArmA does

advertise itself as the "ultimate combat simulator". The

game/sim has a great deal to offer players of both

persuasions, however. We've been promised a demo

sometime soon; give it a go!

Col.Faulkner, this is a nice and informative post for infantry combat simulation fans like me, who has not got the game yet.

AI getting suppressed when under fire, is something many many fans are waiting for in ArmA. Individual AIs trying to save themselves as a priority, would make the game very realistic and fun to play. I hope that this feature is introduced by a patch.

Ordering a team-mate/mates to suppress an area, even when they cannot see any enemies, is something I would like to see as well.

[maxqubit 1]

...

Specs:

P4 2.8GHz

1 GB RAM

AGP 7600GT

Very clean XP

-memsize=768

res=1024x768x32

...

can you tell me what settings you have it on ?

i have everything on low/off @1024x768x32

and about the same config as you have

and in general it runs fine

but iam wondering about getting a 2nd gig of ram to make it "beautiful" too without lagging around

No need for more ram really (although if you want, go ahead:) ArmA looks perfect on my system, perfect as in 'what i hoped for considering my mid range pc'. From memory (am at work now;)

Everything on normal

Texturedetail low/niedrig (otherwise i get glitches, spikes)

Shadow low (because i found the shadows to be too nervous/popping when on high)

Viewdistance 1200-2000

I think you also have to tweak your gfx card a bit (like z-buffering and stuff, see other threads)

Make sure your windows runs as clean as possible so you can do the -memsize=700 thing in the ArmA shortcut. Use the enditall utility at your own risk for this (see my sig)

...

I'm not a fps junkie, for me ArmA is enough fluid with this.

There is another thread with yet another trick involving tweaking the ArmA config files for more fps. I have yet to do this. Perhaps ArmA will be even more fluid with this:)

...

So spend some time on tweaking ArmA, GFX card AND your Windows before buying more RAM ... perhaps you could use the money for a TrackIR thingy instead:) (Max is saving for this;)

[frOsT1k 0]

i may sound noob. but.

what is AA? [ in graphic settings not in game ] ?

and what is TrackIR ?

[simba 0]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

[Maddmatt 1]

i may sound noob. but.

what is AA? [ in graphic settings not in game ] ?

and what is TrackIR ?

AA= Anti Aliasing. For TrackIR info use google.

[evilnate 0]

Hi, I currently don't own Arma, but I have some questions to the people who have it.

When you say the chopper controls are bad, how bad are they? For example, are they comparable to the BF2 ones (I think that in BF2 the chopper controls were great).

Cumps  

I don't think the controls are "bad", but they are definatly not comfortable compared to how choppers flew in OFP.

I will try to explain...

In OFP when you were making your run to fire FFARs for example, if you were not quite lined up you could just adjust your yaw to correct (think rudder control). In ArmA you don't have much side to side correction, you must "bank" or "roll" a bit to correct. After you spend a few hours learing, you will eventualy start to get the hang of it - but it's difficult.

That seems to be the biggest change that I noticed, I hope it's a accurate description for ya.

[Second 0]

Big thanks goes to Col. Faulkner from good and informative reply conserning supperssion.

Well i will wait for the demo, but i seems pretty much sure that ArmA is off from my shopping list. Suppression was THE THING i was waiting and because it's not there, ArmA is still regular-OFP to me. Maybe some other FPS with flexible missioneditor can model it aside with good or decent morale model... I'll keep on waiting... It sure can be a long wait... Can i cry now?

[mr reality 0]

Well i will wait for the demo, but i seems pretty much sure that ArmA is off from my shopping list. Suppression was THE THING i was waiting and because it's not there

Oh come on mate, you can't exclude Arma because of that one reason. I havn't got the game either but i'm not letting any bad review deter me from buying it. I know suppressive fire is pretty cool and it's unfortunate it's not properly implimented but i'm betting there's a lot of new features that will more than make up for this.

[Scrub 0]

Well i will wait for the demo, but i seems pretty much sure that ArmA is off from my shopping list. Suppression was THE THING i was waiting and because it's not there

Oh come on mate, you can't exclude Arma because of that one reason. I havn't got the game either but i'm not letting any bad review deter me from buying it. I know suppressive fire is pretty cool and it's unfortunate it's not properly implimented but i'm betting there's a lot of new features that will more than make up for this.

There is no doubt that you can make them hit the dirt and pause their return fire. You can make them run away. They even use cover to a point. But do YOU just give up the second you get some incoming and hunker down?? I've had AI get down in a low spot, hang there for some time while some try to crawl out of sight to flank me. Maybe I'm not sure what effects of suppression you're looking for, could you explain a bit more?

[Nemesis_wales 0]

its not 2 bad if the ai dont supress i suppose, just have 2 work around it, but at least a human player can do it in multi player lol, thats if they have a ruff idea how 2 lay down some cover fire, not just keep there finger on trigger till all ammo is gone just roll on arma, im getting bored of cod2, an am tempted 2 buy new games for 360 lol