Armed Assault is -AMAZING-

[Monkey Lib Front 10]

4. Sounds! NO - and I mean NO game has better (realistic I mean. If you like Hollywood 'boomy' gun sounds, you'll be disappointed) sounds than this. Rifles have sharp cracks, the higher the calibre/shorter the muzzle, the more bass you hear. Sounds echo in valleys, off walls and buildings. They sound more loud and snappy when you fire inside a house and sound cracky when fired in massive open fields. Sounds get blocked by hills, buildings, walls and trees and bushes muffle sounds. A helicopter about a mile from you in open skies is very loud. When it passes behind a hill or mountain, the sound all of a sudden loses power and gets muffled and will pick up in volume again once its past the hill/mountain. BRILLIANT and extremely immersive. Distant gunfights sounds very nice. The loud cracks slowly turn into low snaps the further away you get. The game obviously kept the time it takes for the sound to travel to you, but added another dimension; sonic bullet cracks. These make the fights so much more realistic and enjoyable/tense. You walk across a field. nothing going on, weapon slung at your side, regular patrol. All of a sudden right over your head you hear *CACK CACK CACK* and then in the distance you hear a muffled *bang bang bang* - a DShK opening up on you from 500 meters away! The sounds have so many more cool effects I can't even name here - I'll just leave it at this. You'll have to experience it for yourself.

The sound engineer for INS mod kinda disagrees with you there.

Quote[/b] ]Ok being a sound person and having a great respect for sound design in video games this is proberly the worst game i have ever played in terms of sound design and quailty. I dont even know where to start tbh. The sound design is a total failure there is no sound design in this game vehicles sound like they are 50m away even tho they are like miles away. Some vehicles such as tracked ones like tanks will play the sound of the tracks moving even tho they are completly static and not moving. Aircraft again sound like they are right above you even tho they are miles away. The sounds of the weapons are im sorry to say pretty much rubbish pretty much all of the weapons have no echo or ring off even tho the overall eviroment to the map is that there would be one with hills and mountains etc but they just sound dull and flat. The vehicles again have the same dull feeling and the aircraft just sound wrong. There is no distance sounds in this game. Again very much like the vehicles, weapons being fired will sound like they are right next to you even tho they are well over 600 meteres away. The voices i kinda liked with the radio transmissions and that are all pretty much good it was only when a AI soldier opened his mouth who looked like he was 35-40 years old sounded like a 13 year old kid.

There seems to be a problem with the firing of the weapon and the sound itself its as if theres a slight delay with when the weapon is fired and sound. I noticed the same with the animations, i fire the weapon followed by the animation rather than i fire the weapon with the animation and sound together.

Quote[/b] ]

By some miracle hopefully a patch will be released thats why i return.

Well it never took a miracle for BIS to release a patch, they might not adress all issues at once but im sure there will be more than one patch if necessary, just stop pushing and let them work and test everything properly so that it doesnt become like flashpoint where alot of bugs were actually introduced with patch hell.

A mature and detailed comunity bug list with reproduction information and system specs might be helpfull, flaming and bitching like a brat might get you banned .

Or maybe wait a few months and fix them before releasing an utterly buggy product.

[Homer Simpson 0]

Oh, another thing that blew me away; you know how in OFP your system, however good it was, would start having problems with more than 50 units on your screen at one time? Well, my cruddy computer has NO fps loss when you compare 5 units on-screen to 40, and loses a measly 5-8 fps when you magic THREE HUNDRED (300! I kid you not) units at one time on your screen. About 10 fps is lost with nearly 500 units. Amazing.

Thats also what impressed me the most with AA over OFP and my VBS1, the number of units on screen at once the engine can now handle is amazing.

http://www.digitalphotos.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ARMA/ArmaTest.avi

[Stryder 0]

Oh, another thing that blew me away; you know how in OFP your system, however good it was, would start having problems with more than 50 units on your screen at one time? Well, my cruddy computer has NO fps loss when you compare 5 units on-screen to 40, and loses a measly 5-8 fps when you magic THREE HUNDRED (300! I kid you not) units at one time on your screen. About 10 fps is lost with nearly 500 units. Amazing.

Thats also what impressed me the most with AA over OFP and my VBS1, the number of units on screen at once the engine can now handle is amazing.

http://www.digitalphotos.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ARMA/ArmaTest.avi

Would that vid run as smooth if all those m113s were actually moving around? Try it out...

Also, I'm a bit dissapointed by the smoke+flame textures... they look really cheap. Like something out of the Combat Mission series (which, as sweet as those games are, have atrocious graphics)

[Scrub 0]

My story of how ArmA is amazing (just now got killed doing it), starts with me and my trusty M24 on top of the freekin huge mountain just southwest of Corazol.

I set my view distance to 3600m, and could see Corazol, the harbor, the docks, the hills beyond - everything - in all it's beauty from > 1km away. Edit: forgot to add 'in the rain' *excuse me*  

   I set ~15 units (a basic infantry and some random others plus a lone sniper.  I drive up to the ridge, get settled in and find my targets.  After I fire a few rounds out, it becomes apparent I'm a bit beyond the rifles effective range.. I need to be 1/8th from the bottom of the visual ring of the scope to get a bullet in the vicinity.  This gives away my direction of attack, and the enemy shifts formation to face me, but no return fire. After shooting a magazine or two, I decide to move closer.  I drive down the mountain, roll the Off Road 3 truck, (big surprise. I like it) and proceed on foot to the base where the power lines run past.  When I get sighted in again, the formation is flat because I'm level height with them, but the formation looks odd, after counting I notice 4 are missing.  Ran away? sought cover?  Who knows.  I try a few different firing positions, all the time closing with the enemy (still havent done more than wing one..  Commanders, please don't make me a sniper on the team... we'll loose;) ). There were a few CRACKs as now it seems I'm worth expending ammo on to stop the annoyance of their routine AI lives.  At the bridge into Corazol, I'm out of M24 ammo, and bring out the M9.  Running at 4X time compression to close the distance, I found the 1 of the 4 missing units coming to get me just on the other side of the bridge, a burst or two before I can get to 1x and I'm wounded, but in cover of a tree.  The unknown AI fires a few rounds to let me locate him, and shuffles off to a better position. as he shuffles, I come out of hiding and see him >50m away. (damn sound issues. I thought he was RIGHT ON ME)  I run to his rear and fire almost the full clip before he drops.  He's a sniper.  Taking the fresh Dragunov, I get my sucidal tendancies in check and find another position.  I'm sweeping corners in town now, still a good distance away from the docks, and hear an order being barked.  There's three units in town 100m away, and they don't see me.  I get low and notice the awesome terrain causing the road to undulate up and down.  Two of the units are crouching, and except for the very top of the helmets, hidden.  The third is half exposed, walking across the road, and I nail him good.  As I get up to shift positions, I get equally nailed by a burst from another AI sent to hunt me.. I forgot it was quite some time that I was out of contact with the main force.  All in all, an awesome experience.  Wish you all well.  Going back to game!

[Timblesink 0]

I feel so sorry for the people who have to wait until Q1 2007. I live in Australia, but I ordered ArmA over a week ago. I can't even wait 1 more week to get it, let alone 3 or 4 months. I want it nooooooooooooooooooow

I guess I'll just have to wait... BUT GOD I DON'T WANT TO!

[icebreakr 3107]

About this sound expert.... did he ever go on the shooting ground and fire off a few hi-cal rounds or maybe detonate a pipebomb?

[colligpip 0]

Well I am a sound engineer as well and I think the sound is excellent, there are some problems with the distance of vehicles but apart from that i have not heard more realistic sound in a game. The pinging of bullets around you is fantastic.

Byyy

[Dynamax 0]

There is nothing wrong with ArmA's sounds. Its the unpolished code witch will be fixed with patches. OFP had the same issues and now it's great.

If someone says they have no problems with the sounds then great, its working correctly for them and their hardware setup. thats not to say that others with different hardware shouldn't have wonderfull sounds also, it just means that that audio coding in the API isnt perfect. I say big deal, and just be happy you get to play the damn game befor the rest of the world. Oh and thats right i forgot, since you are the few who get to play it first, is it any wonder why some are getting issues and some are not? Like it or not you guys are simply the "beta testers" for the rest of us. BIS knows fully well that release of a buggy ArmA in North America can make or brake ArmA in this huge market. Give them a break, just enjoy what the rest of us are dreaming of, and just let BIS do their thing and fix what they can.

What a bunch of spoiled kids.

[4 IN 1 0]

some of my friends have been back from CZ on a business trip,

brought with him is a copy of Arma, so today i will pay a visit to him and to see how the game acturally works on an old machince(almost same as mine, 2500+ 1GB ram, 9800pro, and the good old nforce 2 as MB)

[Yellonet 0]

Quote[/b] ]Quick video to show that the people claiming the MGs to be sniper rifles are just plain wrong (and have probably not even played the game and are just spreading rumours), and some other cool stuffios.

Why don´t you get prone and come in again ? We are no idiots and we are NOT searching for bugs just to make our life a better one.

If you feel fine with Arma as it is, good for you. Most reviewers speak a different tongue.

You do understand that real machineguns are quite accurate don't you?

Single targets can be engaged at 500 m and area targets at greater ranges.

[Heatseeker 0]

You do understand that real machineguns are quite accurate don't you?

Single targets can be engaged at 500 m and area targets at greater ranges.

We all understand that Arma is a real.. game, and the weight and manueverability of a MG are not taken into acount, i have seen a trailer where someones tracers are hitting with sniper acuracy and the MG doesnt move one inch, in full auto, crouch unsuported position.. if belt fed MG's were that efective everyone would carry one in RL instead of lightweight assault rifles.

Try to kneel with a M240, look thru its sights and put 50 rounds on a high (flying) target .

[sickboy 13]

Quote[/b] ]Ok being a sound person and having a great respect for sound design in video games this is proberly the worst game i have ever played in terms of sound design and quailty. I dont even know where to start tbh. The sound design is a total failure there is no sound design in this game vehicles sound like they are 50m away even tho they are like miles away. Some vehicles such as tracked ones like tanks will play the sound of the tracks moving even tho they are completly static and not moving. Aircraft again sound like they are right above you even tho they are miles away. The sounds of the weapons are im sorry to say pretty much rubbish pretty much all of the weapons have no echo or ring off even tho the overall eviroment to the map is that there would be one with hills and mountains etc but they just sound dull and flat. The vehicles again have the same dull feeling and the aircraft just sound wrong. There is no distance sounds in this game. Again very much like the vehicles, weapons being fired will sound like they are right next to you even tho they are well over 600 meteres away. The voices i kinda liked with the radio transmissions and that are all pretty much good it was only when a AI soldier opened his mouth who looked like he was 35-40 years old sounded like a 13 year old kid.

There seems to be a problem with the firing of the weapon and the sound itself its as if theres a slight delay with when the weapon is fired and sound. I noticed the same with the animations, i fire the weapon followed by the animation rather than i fire the weapon with the animation and sound together.

Very nice that this guy is a professional sound whatever... but I guess he forgot to mention that this bug is already known (Sounds sounding very close, choppers sounding as if they are above you etc. etc.) and it can be FIXED by turning off the hardware acceleration for now....

Probably engine bug, might need fixing from OpenAL/Sound manufacturers, dont know... but giving the game a bad review because mr sound professional didn't take the effort to see if it is a bug in certain sound modes, or that it just generally lacks these effects, doesn't sound very professional to me

[Yellonet 0]

You do understand that real machineguns are quite accurate don't you?

Single targets can be engaged at 500 m and area targets at greater ranges.

We all understand that Arma is a real.. game, and the weight and manueverability of a MG are not taken into acount, i have seen a trailer where someones tracers are hitting with sniper acuracy and the MG doesnt move one inch, in full auto, crouch unsuported position.. if belt fed MG's were that efective everyone would carry one in RL instead of lightweight assault rifles.

Try to kneel with a M240, look thru its sights and put 50 rounds on a high (flying) target .

Well, the are very effective. In their role as a tool for suppressing and engaging enemies at medium to long ranges. A MG is very accurate when used with a bi-pod. And if you're decently skilled you can shoot it accurately in standing and kneeling position too. But as a MG is heavier and more cumbersome than an assault rifle it's obviously not preferred in most situations.

But making it less accurate just because weight isn't modeled is just wrong. Two wrongs doesn't make a right.

[Guest]

some of my friends have been back from CZ on a business trip,

brought with him is a copy of Arma, so today i will pay a visit to him and to see how the game acturally works on an old machince(almost same as mine, 2500+ 1GB ram, 9800pro, and the good old nforce 2 as MB)

Great, I have almost the same specs atm.

Looking forward to read how it might run on what I have now.

Although I fear

[martinovic 0]

Quote[/b] ]The sound engineer for INS mod kinda disagrees with you there.

It's a hardware issue, i think AC97 runs arma fine, but EAX and others have trouble.

[deFiler 0]

Probably engine bug, might need fixing from OpenAL/Sound manufacturers, dont know...

well havent noticed any strange sounds in Prey,BF2,AA,Doom3 and so on ..

OpenAL works like a charm and especially Creative cards should be able to do fine with it

as CL developed the hardware acceleration part of it ..

that (chopper)sound is odd and my geuss is that is not the engine ..

[Monkey Lib Front 10]

Well i will be sure to tell him, but seeing as i guess he would have expected major bugs not to be released in a full priced game i guess hes not very proffessional, also not everyone can sift through a forum to find what crap bis hasn't sorted out.

[MR Weasel 0]

I have got the Czech version converted into English and have only played it for 6 hours in the mission editor and agree with RedStorm.I have to say if you like ofp you will love this the sound,gameplay,graphics all surpass ofp and make the game much more immersive.

there are some bugs but i dont care .

i give the game 9/10

P4 3.6HT 2048MB ATI,X850XT,256MB. Game running on Normal/High view 1200 about 30fps/give or take 10fps lol .

[sickboy 13]

Well i will be sure to tell him, but seeing as i guess he would have expected major bugs not to be released in a full priced game i guess hes not very proffessional, also not everyone can sift through a forum to find what crap bis hasn't sorted out.

Hey.. If you have trouble with sound or think it doesn't sound proper, you then go write a report about it or you turn some options on and off to see if it gets better? (There are even only 2 options, how hard can it be to turn them on/off to see the difference?) Really, even a non-pro will look at those things first usually. And I really hate these partially false conclussions, simply because they screw the image ppl get from the game....

Full priced game? I bought my Czech version for 35 euro, in my books.. that's cheap

Quote[/b] ]that (chopper)sound is odd and my geuss is that is not the engine ..

Odd or not-odd, could be... but the problem where vehicle and other sounds seem to have no possitioning except "right on top of you"... is a bug with the hardware acceleration.

About the Doom, Quake, bla bla, dunno which version of OpenAL they use, that could also have effect, but either way... it's a bug nomatter who's mistake it is, and I don't know any reason whatsoever why BIS wouldn't fix this...

Ppl want to know which games were buggy at release, as ArmA, to my opinion:

- Oblivion

- Gothic 3

- OFP

- Vietcong 1

- Vietcong 2, still gives unwanted crashes!

- BF2

Now compare the realism, world, possibilities and abilities, units, modability, mission creation ability etc. etc. of ArmA to any game out till date, and tell me honestly you believe that 35 euro, or 45 in germany is too much for such a game, even with the what i call 'little-bugs'.

ArmA is not the sequel to BF2 ladies... it's a sequel to OFP... We don't get fast paced action, 600 fps, dead, spawn, dead spawn  like in BF2  & alikes Simulators don't make the arcade lovers happy, as the arcades don't make the simulation lovers happy

[Opticalsnare 12]

About this sound expert.... did he ever go on the shooting ground and fire off a few hi-cal rounds or maybe detonate a pipebomb?

I was in the territorial army for about 4 yrs, and ive fired various weapons from Milans, Assualt Rifles and other Small Arms that the British Army use.

And i woundnt call myself a professional either, im just a modder who likes to make sounds for games.

I admit that i was alittle harsh in the way i described the sounds on the game but thats because i was pretty peedoff with the amount of problems the game has currently got.

[bangtail 0]

No reason to apologise. The sound is not up to scratch at all. I'm not about to start feeling bad because I spent money on a decent soundcard and BIS only seems to cater to AC 97 (on board soundcards).

Sure, all retail games have bugs but for myself and many others the sound problems are totally ruining what would otherwise be a fantastic game. It's fairly unacceptable that ArmA has shipped with the same bugs that were in the original OFP and I think it is fair play that some people are less than happy about it.

To those who don't take issue with the sound, more power to you but for myself and a growing number of people it is a serious issue. I know it will get fixed and that's all fine and good but in reality, 6 years on, I don't really expect to see the same bugs I saw in the original OFP release.

E

[DrBobcat 0]

Since the game uses OpenAL as the default sound "engine," could that be the reason why it seems to run better on soundcards utilizing that format? That can be quite frustrating as software emulation is much more taxing on the computer than hardware because it's simply more processor work. I understand the reason to change over (Vistas dumping of all Direct3dSound Hardware Acceleration support) but it is still quite frustrating to have to suffer from icky performance-hits due to software emulated sound.

Perhaps we should continue to experiment and mess around with it all? Maybe then we can find a viable solution....

- dRb

[bangtail 0]

Since the game uses OpenAL as the default sound "engine," could that be the reason why it seems to run better on soundcards utilizing that format? That can be quite frustrating as software emulation is much more taxing on the computer than hardware because it's simply more processor work. I understand the reason to change over (Vistas dumping of all Direct3dSound Hardware Acceleration support) but it is still quite frustrating to have to suffer from icky performance-hits due to software emulated sound.

Perhaps we should continue to experiment and mess around with it all? Maybe then we can find a viable solution....

- dRb

I've messed around with "Hardware/EAX off", "Just EAX off" and "Just Hardware off". I think the best results on the X-Fi are with both switched off. There are still some sounds missing and the distance thing isn't perfect but it does seem a little better.

E

[USSRsniper 0]

ArmA filled with bugs? What about early version of windows how microsoft with alot of money miss simple stuff?! And people saying that BIS sux and not buying next games...

[Mora2 0]

No its not.

Amazing was ofp when it came out.

This game doesnt reach even the " good game " level.

Aside from all the bugs which are fixable gameplay has been reduced to ****.

Soldier movement is clunky, unresponsive and unnatural.

What in OFP would take you 1.5 seconds to do now it takes 4 seconds therefore CQC battles are just pure fiction.

As Posion said in another thread, CTF gameplay is gonna be reduced to nothing.

Tested in multiplayer and the experience suck... aiming has turned into a nightmare and again, soldiers animations seem to prime over soldiers needs.

And that IS NOT REALISTIC.

A real soldier can prone, scope and fire in less than a second if the situation requires it... adrenaline does it job.

Its so clunky it feels as you are not in control of the situation and the game dictates what you have to do... amusing anyway.

Mention apart are vehicles... they suck, period, jeeps, cars and trucks... there movement is unresponsive in many ways, dinamics about getting in and out are too long and even the horn sucks cause you cant make melodys ( yeah, im serious )

And well helicopters... people can say what they want about realism... this just sucks no matter how you look at it, things that have increased greater in difficulty to search for realism have achieved the opposite... not only unrealistic feature but also gameplay unfriendly experience.

I consider someone saying this game is amazing a pure fanboy with no critic value at all, thats it.

And im trully sad about this, i haven´t exxperienced yet a game that surpasses flashpoint in fun, quality and multiplayer experience... and looks its gonna continue that way...

what a pitty.