What's the diff?

[HeapBigChief 0]

I was wondering, apart from the new graphics engine what's the difference between ArmA and OFP?

I mean if I could take all the visual assets (e.g. the pbos for the islands, vehicles, weapons etc) from ArmA and insert into good old stable and playable OFP 1.91 what would be the difference?

As a long time deathmatch and flag fight modder/player I really can't see any change - and the old problems are still in there.

[dmarkwick 261]

I was wondering, apart from the new graphics engine what's the difference between ArmA and OFP?

I mean if I could take all the visual assets (e.g. the pbos for the islands, vehicles, weapons etc) from ArmA and insert into good old stable and playable OFP 1.91 what would be the difference?

As a long time deathmatch and flag fight modder/player I really can't see any change - and the old problems are still in there.

Difference is the graphics engine is much more advanced and capable (see the improved viewdistance thread) and I also gather that the scripting abilities are much improved, allowing people to write entirely new AI routines. Improved abilities to encompass many many more entities & objects. ArmA is in fact OFP, but more so

It's what BIS does.

Which is really all anyone really wanted, why mess (too much) with a winning formula. OFP2 (whatever it ends up being called) might be something quite different (it would need to be IMO considering the similarity for OFP and ArmA) but in general formula will probably be in the same ballpark.

[memnoch 0]

Interesting that you note that "all the old problems are there" and yet refer to OFP stable and playable. Apart from the old problems I guess....

Visually it is better as you say. I never spent a lot of time with OFP as I spent more time with VBS1 so can't answer definitively about the other differences but I would guess the short answer would be no, you can't bring the new models into OFP.

[l mandrake 9]

Having played ARMA for 1 day I could never imagine returning to OPF again, fantastic game though it was. THAT'S the difference...

BTW Your post is a POLITE rant, not an impolite one

[Sergei_Q 0]

Improved netcode (Join in progress, seemingly more stable connection), less problems inside buildings (I haven't managed to fall through a wall yet), vehicles that have multiple fighting stations, shorter load times for islands, better controls/movements, lotsa little things.

[Chris Death 0]

Quote[/b] ]I mean if I could take all the visual assets (e.g. the pbos for the islands, vehicles, weapons etc) from ArmA and insert into good old stable and playable OFP 1.91 what would be the difference?

The first difference you'd notice would be that in ArmA

the scene is moving and in OFP you would have a static

picture (maximum a slideshow).

In ArmA you could easily setup a battle of a few hundreds

and still playable while in OFP this was not possible without

spawning and deleting (un)used troops.

The amount of pbo files in size and number is not a problem

in ArmA anymore due to new technology being used.

Improved AI even if some ppl fail to accept it and still going

to be improved further.

Multiple turret supported on vehicles.

VOIP ingame in ArmA while in OFP it didn't work when using

the socket method to play multiplayer (which was better

performing than the other method dunno the name anymore).

FSM script support to modify or enhance the AI behaviour etc.

More scripting commands in ArmA than in OFP with some

features included being begged for in OFP.

Multiplayer with more than 60 people on a server (in theory

more than 100 even - dunno about experiences with that

yet) where there were in ofp way less possible.

Well that's my 2 minutes of thinking about your question,

i'm pretty sure i've forgotten a lot but others will post too

and i'll do also if i remember or find out more.

~S~ CD

[HeapBigChief 0]

Interesting that you note that "all the old problems are there" and yet refer to OFP stable and playable. Apart from the old problems I guess....

Visually it is better as you say. I never spent a lot of time with OFP as I spent more time with VBS1 so can't answer definitively about the other differences but I would guess the short answer would be no, you can't bring the new models into OFP.

When I say old problems I guess I was referring to the DM/FF multiplayer issues specifically (in fairness they were more annoyances that required scripting to remove).

[Sergei_Q 0]

Having played ARMA for 1 day I could never imagine returning to OPF again, fantastic game though it was.

I'm playing both. I'll leave OFP for good once all the great mods have been converted to ArmA.

[EricM 0]

You like to be provocative, right ?

Arma was meant to be OFP 1.5, and the engine was the main improvement. Same recipe, but bigger and better.

But if you get rid of the beautiful island, units, wildlife, vegetation, animations, vehicles and weapons, that's a lot, don't you think ?

Gameplay wise, some of the new things :

- Better Netcode and MP GUI

- Join in Progress

- Better and more moddable AI

- More scripting commands

- New Campain

- New (better imho) flight model

- You can swim

- Teamswitch (optional)

- Better Ironsight

- Track IR support

- Higher viewdistance

- Multiple gunner positions

- Dynamic sound simulation (though some have problems)

- Bullet penetration

There is probably a lot more...

[HeapBigChief 0]

You like to be provocative, right ?

Arma was meant to be OFP 1.5, and the engine was the main improvement. Same recipe, but bigger and better.

But if you get rid of the beautiful island, units, wildlife, vegetation, animations, vehicles and weapons, that's a lot, don't you think ?

Gameplay wise, some of the new things :

- Better Netcode and MP GUI

- Join in Progress

- Better and more moddable AI

- More scripting commands

- New Campain

- New (better imho) flight model

- You can swim

- Teamswitch (optional)

- Better Ironsight

- Track IR support

- Higher viewdistance

- Multiple gunner positions

- Dynamic sound simulation (though some have problems)

- Bullet penetration

There is probably a lot more...

Good point(s)! If i think of it in terms of OFP 1.5 with a new addon campaign it all starts to make sense.

[memnoch 0]

You can swim but you lose your gear. Hope that gets fixed soon. Also, regarding bullet penetration. On the co-op missions called insurgents where you have to ambush a small convoy, last night I was on the north side of the road behind some rocks.

The man in front of me was killed by the MG on the truck. I crawled along ground to take his RPG and the truck started firing at me....through the rocks. There is no way he could see me for one thing and also I don't believe those bullets would travel straight through 6 feet of solid rock.

[Dodgy Bob 0]

You can swim but you lose your gear. Hope that gets fixed soon.

There's nothing to "fix", it's a feature.

[EricM 0]

Quote[/b] ]You can swim but you lose your gear

It's not instantaneous. you can swim a bit before losing it. It's tied to your stamina level for you not to drown/sink and play Leonardo diCaprio's Titanic remake...

Could be tweaked for divers/specially trained units, but for basic Joe, seems fair.

[whisper 0]

You like to be provocative, right ?

Arma was meant to be OFP 1.5, and the engine was the main improvement. Same recipe, but bigger and better.

But if you get rid of the beautiful island, units, wildlife, vegetation, animations, vehicles and weapons, that's a lot, don't you think ?

Gameplay wise, some of the new things :

- Better Netcode and MP GUI

- Join in Progress

- Better and more moddable AI

- More scripting commands

- New Campain

- New (better imho) flight model

- You can swim

- Teamswitch (optional)

- Better Ironsight

- Track IR support

- Higher viewdistance

- Multiple gunner positions

- Dynamic sound simulation (though some have problems)

- Bullet penetration

There is probably a lot more...

Good point(s)! If i think of it in terms of OFP 1.5 with a new addon campaign it all starts to make sense.

Well, when you watch the improvement list in the very post you quoted, you can see it as a bit more then OFP 1.5.

At the very least, we are far from "OFP with improved graphics". It's not that, at all. Well, just re-read the list above. He forgot the streaming engine and unlimited islands, ricochets, engine supporting massive AI.

Unless you purposefully refuse to see these improvements, ofc.

[desertfox 2]

As a long time deathmatch and flag fight modder/player I really can't see any change

Says it all lol

[Heatseeker 0]

I think the new engine is a great tech achievement in terms of large scale graphics rendering, i have seen some Arma reviews that state that "the engine is showing its age", these poor fools couldnt be more wrong, the engine is at a whole new level and improving but not just graphically like some claim.

The ground data is absolutely terrific now, even in low settings its amazing to look at the ground from an helicopter seat, you will see believable and visually realistic desert ground, dry land, farm land, ect.

LOD transitions are now smooth and progressive, you no longer get those abrupt object lod "jumps" like in OPF, its almost un-noticeable if the game is working correctly on your system. The engine handles hell of alot more detail so larger and more detailed environments are possible, better resource use and optimisation make the game run smoother and take better advantage of new hardware.

The mod comunity was stressing OPF with the increase and demand for high detailed content, it just wasnt working anymore...

The list of overall improvements is enormous, you wont notice many of them if all you do is play ctf's on desert island though...

There are small improvements that are unoticeable at first, for example a unit no longer takes damage if the weapon it carries is shot (in OPF you can kill a unit by shooting the rifle it carries twice, you can even see the blood poof).

Arma is an updated new platform for us, best €39.00 i've spent this year .

[deanosbeano 0]

whats the diff ?

The differnce is that Arma is vanilla and as of yet in comparison to ofp is untouched by the magicians that made ofp the game/sim it was.

If you compare vanilla ofp 1.96 to arma 1.05 there is a vast difference and improvement.

If you compare Modded ofp.196 to vanilla arma 1.05 then for many ofp gameplay in both custom campaigns/mods/missions/islands .is so much more playable and enjoyable because of the vast diversity.

The big change will come when the the community islands buildings vehicles and missions made for them are released. imagine towns the size of the ones on sahrani but in afghanistan, kabul for example or iraq with baghdad or any of the african countries or for that matter any place in the world.

so in essence the difference is ofp had 4-6 years of community development Arma has only 5 months .but the advantage arma has , people knew what they liked in ofp and it will appear alot sooner in arma

[dentist guba 0]

Quote[/b] ]i have seen some Arma reviews that state that "the engine is showing its age"

i've seen that too. I can't understand how they can say that. this game has the best and(more importantly) most realistic graphics to date and, with patches e.t.c will continue to be so. these are also the same people who still think BF2's graphics are great-did that have:

1:10km view distance

2:extremely dense foliage

3:amazing lighting and effects

[Luciano 0]

Apart from all of the above, also:

-Unecessary and hard controls for vehicles and aircraft.

-Less control of vehicle/aircraft. If you use the mouse, it takes forever to turn......

-Different movement for soldiers. Worst than OFP in my opinion.

-Really bad campaign + really short.

-Really bad missions (Not all of them, but most).

-Lots of AI bugs.

-Lots of graphic bugs. Lod problems/etc.

-Very flawed HDR. It doesn't happen on all cards, on most of them though. You rotate a few degrees and the whole weather changes instantly.

-Trees/Grass react to the wind. However the leaves on the trees don't. Only the branches.

-Bullets penetrate materials. However, BIS forgot to code it properly, we got to wait for a MOD to finish it.

-Tracers on every gun.

-Recoil on the Striker that moves the whole vehicle when you fire.

Im sure there's more, but those are the obvious......

Quote[/b] ]1:10km view distance

2:extremely dense foliage

3:amazing lighting and effects

You know you cant play like that, so why talk about it? Unless you have the very best gaming machines out there, don't even think about it. Most people play at about 2500-3000m distance, and on medium.

[W0lle 1052]

Three days of PR wasn't enough I see Luciano. As soon as we grant you permission to post, you continue with your (only) negative ranting about BI/ArmA.

[CG Man 0]

Worse moderator that does nothing to help and improved graphics that sometimes work.

[dmarkwick 261]

Apart from all of the above, also:

-Unecessary and hard controls for vehicles and aircraft.

-Less control of vehicle/aircraft. If you use the mouse, it takes forever to turn......

-Different movement for soldiers. Worst than OFP in my opinion.

-Really bad campaign + really short.

-Really bad missions (Not all of them, but most).

-Lots of AI bugs.

-Lots of graphic bugs. Lod problems/etc.

-Very flawed HDR. It doesn't happen on all cards, on most of them though. You rotate a few degrees and the whole weather changes instantly.

-Trees/Grass react to the wind. However the leaves on the trees don't. Only the branches.

-Bullets penetrate materials. However, BIS forgot to code it properly, we got to wait for a MOD to finish it.

-Tracers on every gun.

-Recoil on the Striker that moves the whole vehicle when you fire.

Im sure there's more, but those are the obvious......

Quote[/b] ]1:10km view distance

2:extremely dense foliage

3:amazing lighting and effects

You know you cant play like that, so why talk about it? Unless you have the very best gaming machines out there, don't even think about it. Most people play at about 2500-3000m distance, and on medium.

You got to be joking right? The leaves don't blow? That's really looking for stuff, that's what that is

[Luciano 0]

LoL, leaves don't blow. I would think its logical if you bother to make the branches move, you would at least make the leaves move like in other games. But anyway I just answered the question that's all.

Every game has neg and pos points, why try to ignore everything that's negative? I don't believe I broke any forum rule by pointing out the stuff that was changed (Changed for the worst). All the pos points were already said, theres no point in repeating what others said.

[CG Man 0]

It's fast becoming a love the game or be locked forum so many insulting remarkes about peole after they post negative issues with the game. Moderaters locking any post about a problem with the game good luck I'm outa here to before I loose my IQ.

[W0lle 1052]

You're out of here anyways for twice violating §18 Rule and insulting moderators by PM.

WL+2 and 72h PR.