Information from Digitex!

[froggyluv 2136]

Thanks for the translation Deadfast!

Unlike Arma, my anticipation and expectations of Game 2 have always been high and after reading that + videos are close to the red. Shooting from vehicles, covering AI, suppression and the rpg skill settings will seal the deal for me. I hope those rpg skill settings effect all units not just the player. Would be great to lead a small 'crack' team to take on a horde of low skill enemies and vice versa

[stakex 0]

Nice translation, appreciate it.

Well, it awnsered my concern from a few posts above, as well as giving some other small, but good details.

[sv5000 127]

Sounds Like BIS are really planning a show stopper.

keep up the good work

[smellyjelly 0]

Here's a list of all the videos I could find on Youtube:

PAPEZIKTOMASEK

gspoock AKA spoock I guess

SargeSgS

Besides the old videos, anything else?

[Colossus 2]

Soft-particles! You got to love soft-particles

All good, except:

Quote[/b] ]You will be able to improve yourself in aprox. 10 skill areas, like accuracy or recoil elimination.

I'm getting bad memories from CS, BF2 and all the other arcade games out there.

Quote[/b] ]There's plan for "importing" the 3D editor from VBS

Less basic scripting and more fun! Plus not a 10 time restart to get the object in the right position. ^_^

[opteryx 1562]

Apart from the enhanced AI I'm not hearing much of interest here. Sure fancy graphics is nice and all, but where's the emphasis on simulation?

[Heatseeker 0]

Soft-particles! You got to love soft-particles

All good, except:

Quote[/b] ]You will be able to improve yourself in aprox. 10 skill areas, like accuracy or recoil elimination.

I'm getting bad memories from CS, BF2 and all the other arcade games out there.

Sounds bad here too, let the player develop the skills to use the weapons efectively, wright?

[Colossus 2]

Just adding all the video clips in one playerlist:

YouTube (ArmA 2 - Playerlist)

[stakex 0]

Soft-particles! You got to love soft-particles

All good, except:

Quote[/b] ]You will be able to improve yourself in aprox. 10 skill areas, like accuracy or recoil elimination.

I'm getting bad memories from CS, BF2 and all the other arcade games out there.

Sounds bad here too, let the player develop the skills to use the weapons efectively, wright?

In reality, one could argue a less experienced soldier might struggle with recoil more then a well trained and more experienced one. So it only makes sense that as you gain experienced you will be better at steadying yourself.

Besides this is very likely only in one or two of the gametypes... Im sure its not going to be in all the game modes.

[froggyluv 2136]

All good, except:

Quote[/b] ]You will be able to improve yourself in aprox. 10 skill areas, like accuracy or recoil elimination.

I'm getting bad memories from CS, BF2 and all the other arcade games out there.

This is a feature i'm very much looking foward to. Lets face it not everyone can effectively control a weapon the same. When i was in firearms training, there were some trainees of smaller stature that counldn't control the mp5 with any decent accuracy over 20 ft. Others hacked with their trigger fingers with the same result in pistols. I'm tired of clone war type combat sims were everyone shoots exactly the same- bring on the real!

[Deadfast 43]

...or recoil elimination...

Sorry, my bad.

It shouldn't be elimination but more like recoil control.

My opinion is that it sounds nice and realisticly. Give me a G3 (7.62 x 51 NATO ammunition) and I bet I won't be able to hit barn from 2 meters after second shot. Give the gun to an experienced and trained soldier and I'm sure he'll be able to spray out whole magazine to almost same spot.

[mac81 0]

Yes, some improvements to see in the vids since ArmA.

AI seems to be better but I hope there will be more and more improvements adapting at different situations during the gameplay.

Would like to see something more about it maybe a vid of an urban battle to see how the units will use AI in a town with small spaces between a building and another one.

Will also be good an easier handling of the troops when playing as team leader this include more accurate position followed by the troops when commanded to a location.

Also the possibility to spread or close the formation between the first and the last member of the team when the others in the middle are dead or not in formation without leaving too much space between a member and another one. I think this is usefull for urban combat.

What is bad is still looking the same movements of the units, i hope there'll be more fluidity.

The graphic look really cool without doubt.

[mattxr 9]

I really hope they do import the 3d Editor, it can allows us to make a more atmospheric mission without having to click preview a million times just to make sure we have something in the right place.

[mac81 0]

I really hope they do import the 3d Editor, it can allows us to make a more atmospheric mission without having to click preview a million times just to make sure we have something in the right place.

Not bad!!!!

[Deadfast 43]

Here's the second link:

<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>ArmA II Preview</span>

Operation Flashpoint - for some players normal game about war with terrible graphic. For some others it means something more that Counter Strike players can imagine. The game since its release can be proud on very big player community, such as have only few other titles. Even after 5 years the community stayed and even more players were joining. That showed how many qualities the game has, even after such a long time. Last year OFP saw its continuation. Unfortunately for someone. Community fell apart and lot of people left forever. Reason ? Most of the people stopped playing OFP and ArmA made them angry, instead of satisfying their needs. Now, year after release it seems, that next year for ArmA will be also critical. However, the reason is more than pleasant. There is a continuation waiting for ArmA, and as we learned at INVEX, there will be no reason to, not only because of nostalgia, ever play ArmA I again.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>What will be better in ArmA II ?</span>

ArmA II is based on the same engine as ArmA I, however, there are enough of changes. At BIS kiosk we've interviewed on of beta-testers and we've got these exclusive informations:

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Object destruction</span>

Let's start at ease with object destruction. In OFP the houses were indestructible and when you managed to destroy a house, you could tell a difference, because it crumpled like if it was from paper. In ArmA it was handled differently. Houses have got certain "life" according to their size and after the "life" drops to zero the building will sink to ground accompanied by huge noise and lot of smoke and dust. After this, there'll be a hump of debris on the place, where the building used to be. In ArmA II it'll be again handled differently. The houses won't have dynamic destruction, as lot of players hoped, especially because of multiplayer gaming, but will have point, that'll be destructible (walls falling apart, roof, etc.), but on the same model, the points will be on same places. A cheer up for players supporting dynamic destruction will be the fact, that the number of those points shouldn't be any small. But what really surprised us, was that a house with destructed part of wall can be used by players, but especially AI to take cover here. If AI will be threatened while advancing inside city, it'll automatically search for such places, so you could easily encounter a situation that while sweeping a city, AI will run into house debris and will not give up that easily.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>AI - Artificial Intelligence</span>

AI is something that deserves its own chapter. As we could listen, but even see by our own eyes, AI will really get some more points to their computer IQ. Maybe even multiple more. The main change should be, that they will care about death this time, and will try to avoid it as best as they can. The developer's ideals are that they should better orient inside cities, forests, etc., so no more getting stuck at walls or walking around whole city, just to get in a car. Also they should use cover better. You shouldn't encounter anymore a group of enemies walking in the middle of street, while the city is under heavy attack. AI should take cover behind walls, cars and even behind poles or dustbins. And of course, they'll try to avoid, that you'll do the same. Yes, when they encounter enemy, they'll try shoot-you-down, so they'll spray you with nasty number of bullets and grenades, just so they can get in better position to kill you. According to developer's words, a fight, that would normally take few seconds, can now last for minutes. Let's not forget the fact, that AI will be able to use holes in walls created by AT shells and the fight experience should be much better.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>New animations</span>

In ArmA II you'll also see new animations - from burning tank you'll see soldiers jumping out. However a word "climbing out" might be more appropriate here. Yes, the developers are thinking about creating new, vehicle specific animation system, just to avoid "teleportation" this time.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Dynamic orders</span>

These orders were on this year's Invex more or less functional. It means, that order list is changing according to situation. For example if you select a soldier and point a cursor over tank, it'll give you a list of specific orders, what to do with the object (get in, destroy, etc.). This can be intensively used in a mission with bigger number of vehicles at base, when you want to give an order to soldier to get in as gunner. Instead of selecting the vehicle from number of other (using the clock system), you'll just point on the vehicle and press the according button for getting in as gunner.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Hares and other animals</span>

What about going for a walk to forest and hunt down a deer ? Or shoot a cow to improve food at the base ? I guess I'll have to disappoint you, because something like that will not be most likely in the game. In addition to insect there will be only wild hares, that will be appearing and disappearing at certain distance. As we've been explained it would be weird to pass along a cow, which wouldn't be there on your way back, because it disappeared. That why bigger animals will probably handled as objects (just a soldiers) and it'll be up to mission maker, if he'll place them or not. They just won't appear randomly.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Campaign and RPG elements</span>

We were very positively surprised here again. Campaign will be very un-linear, so it'll be possible to play it several times again. In the campaign itself it won't be only about missions like destroy, save, etc. There will be also missions like you'll have a night "off" and you'll go with friends for a beer. Or you'll go make a tea for a friend, you'll talk with a patrol, then you'll be looking for something,... Basically you'll develop some relationship between those soldiers, so you might start to worry about them durring fights. I wouldn't want to be the guy, who's friend, that he played cards with yesterday, got shot.

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Island</span>

Campaign will be set to autumn, so vegetation on the island will be adapted to it. Everything will be colored, but as I saw also nice and real-looking. The coloring of ArmA will get into a new dimension...

<span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>Graphical part of the game</span>

I would spread this chapter into following parts:

<ul>

[*]DirectX: ArmA II will of course fully support DX10 and all its features. However owners of older video cards will not have to worry yet - the game will still support DX9 as well

[*]Grass: How many argues because of grass did we have ? In ArmA II the grass will be more dense, shorter, nicer and much more realistic. It'll be of course possible to flatten it so you'll see over it better. We've expected, that the grass will be "somehow" improved, but the guys from BIS made it for A+.

[*]Fog: Just as in OFP, in ArmA I the fog was created by shortening the view distance. In ArmA II it's solved completely differently. Fog is now really fog (similar to white smoke) and it looks really realistic. We've tested the fog at forest and when we've looked at it, we knew that "that's it". Shadows are coming though it, so it's another step to complete realism and especially for better cut-scenes...

[*]Shadows: So far they are same in ArmA II as they are in ArmA I, however there are some thoughts about changing them to more realistic ones. As we've been told, there's no PC that could handle different shadows on same principle.

[*]Smoke effects: They will be again bit more real. We've been able to see dust coming out of tank's tracks. Now it looks more plastic and doesn't cut through grass.

[*]Forest texture: Texture in forest has been changed to better one - more realistic. The hearth of every gamer will go off with a view on scenery with autumn forest, new texture and soft fog close to ground.

[*]Reflections: Totally new feature will be object reflections. We could see them for example on shiny red Volkswagen. Then we've seen them on gray A10, that was getting a soft blue touch from sky...beautiful.

[*]View distance: That'll probably stay same as in ArmA I (10 km). There's no need to create higher, because there's no PC that car run the game on maximal settings with maximal view distance.

Well, I guess that'll be all for now about the continuation of one of the biggest games ever created. After I've been killed in mission "Sweep" (played in ArmA II) we've been given an ArmA II poster and we went to bother yet another kiosk at Invex. However with head full of informations...

[frostwyrm333 1]

impressive. cant wait for release.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

Thanks for the translations Deadfast, really informative. Also thanks to those who put the vids on YouTube.

This game may indeed turn out to be great but to think there's still a year of development left, for even more to be included.

[MoS 0]

to the ones the were at the Digitex: Do you know anything about the specifications or the PC´s components that were used at the presentation? Im curious because of the excellent framerate in the video with the huge forest. I hope BIS overworked the game engine so that we dont get these lags like on North-Sahrani.

[mac81 0]

Wow some of the things specified in the translation seems to be very intrìeresting.

Hope that the pc requirment will be quite similar to one to run ArmA and not require higher.

Could someone tell something more about dynamic order: for example are the commanded units more accurate during the game or not? In ArmA or even ofp when you give an order using the 3 rd person view to a unit to get for example near a bush or near a corner of a building he would more or less go to that position but sometimes remaining uncovered to enemy sight.

Does AI allow every unit to scan different direction independently or you need each time to tell to every man the direction to look at "which is anoiyng if you're playing with lot of units???"

[Deadfast 43]

Hope that the pc requirment will be quite similar to one to run ArmA and not require higher.

It requires video card with Pixel Shader 3.0

Those are nVidia 6 series and ATI x1000.

According to ArmA's minimal requirements were FX series (5xxxx), but the game on those card is unplayable, I would say that for ArmA 2 you'll need nVidia 7 series card or higher.

[mac81 0]

Hope that the pc requirment will be quite similar to one to run ArmA and not require higher.

It requires video card with Pixel Shader 3.0

Those are nVidia 6 series and ATI x1000.

According to ArmA's minimal requirements were FX series (5xxxx), but the game on those card is unplayable, I would say that for ArmA 2 you'll need nVidia 7 series card or higher.

Good to know! Now I run ArmA with 7950 GX2 and it's perfect.

Should be ok also for ArmA2

Thank you Deadfast

[mrj-fin 0]

I hope that BIS can optimize game engine to high end PC's and rly take all power off components. The most important first is how fine game engine can run things it should use all the free resources available. There never can be too much options to adjust ur gameplay so game should support arcade and serious realism freeks make physics and anims engine easy mod by modders so we can do our playability ourself and not just accept those cold limits of anims allow player to do. Where is tank interiors? Ragdolls and well there is so much things much to saying but just keep all the exist things and add more.

[SaBrE_UK 0]

Perhaps in ArmA2 proves itself, ArmA3 will include those things and more They could be in ArmA2 but I don't think the emphasis is on ragdolls.

[Deadfast 43]

Why are people so hyped with ragdoll ?

What's so great on bodies flying 5 meters after being shot from M16 ?

The death anims in ArmA are as real as they can be, because they're motion captured. Yes, there is a problem with lack of ability to cut off the running animation, so another one can be played (death while reloading RPG). If BIS can manage to get this working so I won't waste 200 tank bullets to an RPG soldier that's actually already dead and won't get shot because I'm unable to quit reloading and go prone, then I'll be OK with the animation system .

[Maddmatt 1]

What's so great on bodies flying 5 meters after being shot from M16 ?

Nobody said that bodies should fly 5 meters

Ragdoll physics doesn't necessarily mean that BF2 crap. Some new games blend anims and physics together for a pretty realistic effects. GRAW on PC had some decent death effects.

Death anims in ArmA don't look very real, and they are very repetitive. I've seen them all hundreds of times already.

I know ragdoll physics can be demanding, especially in a game with hundreds of people in a battle at once. But they can be "LOD'd" in ways to keep the performance hit down.

Of course there are other things to focus on. Ragdoll physics would be great, but not absolutely necessary.