Sakakah Al Jawf OPEN BETA

[opteryx 1562]

Right, I promised I would release this tomorrow, but I'm doing it today cause there's no point in waiting really.

Sakakah is based on a real city in the norther province of Al Jawf Saudia Arabia, I found the city while scouring for cities in Iraq that could be useful. What I liked most about the city was the generally good spacing between each district, block and individual houses, so I though I might have a go at recreating it in ArmA. However once I realized how big it actually was I made a decision to scale it down to about 1:2 size, this was quite possibly a wise choice now that I see how much effort is need to even reach a playable version. It shouldn't really be called "Sakakah Al Jawf", but I felt just Sakakah was a bit dry and Al Jawf rings a bit better after the city name, but you can call it Sakakah or whatever you want to.

This is an OPEN BETA, I would like to make that very clear to people, this version does not represent final version at all, I hope to change a lot of things on this map before being deemed final. Purpose of this open beta is to gather as much feedback and performance data as possible from a wider audience, initially I had planned a closed beta, but after a bit o' thinking I'd figure it'd be better to keep it open for the purpose of getting a vaster amount of feedback.

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Things that remain to be done:

1) Implementation of custom content.

2) Implementation of Queens Gambit content.

3) Rearranging a lot of the city structure, this will be done according to several other factors, such as: Lag zones, addition of new objects/buildings, adjustments to height map etc.

4) New/more detailed Satellite map, current one was slapped together in PS, a real one was ditched due to having too poor quality.

5) Current roads are manually placed as objects this will be fixed.

6) Current height map is not very realistic, this will be looked further into as well, although I cannot promise implementation of real world topographical data, I will try to do something with it for future release.

7) Some doors and ladders are not working, some are though.

8) Packaging map with official tools and signing addon not done ( haven't had the time to check out all the new tools).

NOTA BENE: IT IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO NOTE THAT ROADS ARE PLACED AS OBJECTS ON THIS VERSION, THIS I DO BELIEVE INTERFERES WITH AI PATHFINDING, I AM VERY REGRETFUL FOR THIS BUT IT WAS THE ONLY WAY FOR ME TO COMPLETE THE MAP UNTIL RECENTLY DUE TO NON FUNCTIONING ROAD TOOL IN VISITOR.

Although roads are screwed at the moment, I have been able to get several convoys through the city using waypoints, I would be glad if mission makers experiment on this bit to see how much different AI behavior is from default ArmA, infantry on foot seems okay though.

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Types of feedback I want:

#Location of lag zones.

#General impressions.

#Errors found, malplaced objects etc.

#General suggestions.

#How is game play? both MP and SP feedback appreciated.

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Here's some screenshots:

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Download:

-removed-

Mirrors:

-{GOL}- Mirror Here

Armaholic Mirror

http://www.armedassault.info/index.p....lang=en

http://www.armed-assault-zone.com

Combat-Prison.net

Please enjoy this to it's full extent as I've worked my ass off on it for ca. three weeks now, it may not be at the sufficient esthetical level I'd like to see it at yet but it's a start and it's my first proper ArmA map.

************************EDIT********************

Quick Fix!

If anyone wants a temporarily fix for the dedicated server problem, you can download THIS config, unpbo Sakakah, replace config and repobo.

I don't know about compatibility issues with server running new config and clients running old config, so it'd be advisable that all replace it.

Many thanks to Sickboy who corrected it for me!

-edit-

This new config seems not to fix the dedicated server problem, but it does probably have a more coherent structure so it would be recommended in any case.

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Thanks.

[Raptor 10]

woho, thanks!

busy downloading.

EDIT:

waiting until a faster mirros is set up.

11kb...

[headsplitter 0]

Nice work. downloading

[mattxr 9]

Downloading now and testing  

Edit: Flying a plane you cant see much untill its right under you :S, but on the ground you can see far. and i had my view distance set to 5000 with a full constant 20 fps.

[Snake Man 407]

Congrats for the big city desert terrain release, images and videos look pretty good. Heh download size is 175mb so I guess this is the ArmA/Visitor 3 world we are living now

[Commando84 0]

sweet didnt think this was gonna be released in at least a week

[opteryx 1562]

Short Video

[m4r1ne 0]

Awesome!! downloading

[usmc123 1]

can't wait, thanks, oh and your video link is broken, for me at least

[wika_woo 182]

erm... silly question but does this require queens gambit?..

Sure does look like a great map..

[NoRailgunner 0]

try this Vid Sakakah

Why do you show us this beauty with NV? top-secret??

[lt.chris 0]

excellent work

-{GOL}- Mirror Here

[honchoblack 2]

Thanks alot, was looking forward to the release.  Downloading now.

[mattxr 9]

wth cant see shit.

[opteryx 1562]

wth cant see shit.

img]http://www.surfacezero.com/uploads/MattRochelle/ArmA/Pics/Errors/whatis.jpg[/img]

This is strange!

Does anyone else get this??

[Panda-PL- 0]

wth cant see shit.

]http://www.surfacezero.com/uploads....]

Set your object details to high/v high.

[Snake Man 407]

I cant say for sure, but when I was running it on 5km viewdistance, the roads were drawn much further away than buildings/objects. Oh and also the big Hotel object was drawn much further out than other objects around it.

The terrain/city looks great. Running a humwv convoy through it intense

[bravo 6 0]

great!

Thanks!

EDIT1: downloading.. Ill report soon!

EDIT2: Downloaded. From what i tested "smooth" i was impressed. Its fluid as i always wanted. Congrats!

[DBO_ 0]

Congrats opteryx ,

Shes a real beauty , just done some fps test for singleplayer and it

very well considering amount of objects in city center.

its a keeper

[opteryx 1562]

Okay maybe I should mention that high view distance (4000 and above) and High/very high objects detail is almost required to draw every object, otherwise the far end of the city will disappear.

[mattxr 9]

@ Oct. 11 2007,20:57)]

wth cant see shit.

]http://www.surfacezero.com/uploads....]

Set your object details to high/v high.

thanks fixed it.

[ArmaVidz 0]

It looks amazing in the camera

Just at work right now, so I still have to test it out more. Ran it with 105 soldiers, 3 Strykers, 3 UH-60's and I kept a solid 25-30 FPS which in my books, puts it on par with North Island. Very cool. One disturbing thing I have to check out further is when using the Aimpoint Desert Weapons, the ACOG had a LOD issue, and other M16's had LOD issues where they went low poly. Probably computing stress more than likely though.

[Commando84 0]

4-5000 viewdistance, man i remember when my friend tried to show off with raising ofp's viewdistance to 2000 and it made the game crash instantly dunno if i dare to push it like that, i keep it at 1000 though.. hmm maybe i can try 3000.. but viewdistance always depends on your role in a mission, ground or air units have different needs.

[LoFFeN 0]

Dunno if i dare to push it like that, i keep it at 1000 though.. hmm maybe i can try 3000..  

Only 1000m view-distance? Jeezez... Even my setup *see sig* can run it with 4000-5000 without significant drops.

Try to cranck it up mate, it's not dangerous you know.

Anyway DL'ing now. Every mirror seems to deliver slow speed though.

[mattxr 9]

4-5000 viewdistance, man i remember when my friend tried to show off with raising ofp's viewdistance to 2000 and it made the game crash instantly    dunno if i dare to push it like that, i keep it at 1000 though.. hmm maybe i can try 3000..   but viewdistance always depends on your role in a mission, ground or air units have different needs.

Yeah this is ArmA not OFP LOL. Times change and yep so the the view distance

2000 - 3000 is good for casual gaming.