Latest ArmA2 & ArmA2:OA Press Coverage | NO discussion here!

[Kristian 47]

Ironically, you said, you disliked bf2 SYSTEM, then had an exact ame idea, now with more visuals.  

wow... I didnt realize what I was writing. but I didnt like the part in BF2, that you just all the sudden, die for no reason at all. in ArmA 2, this thing could be a AA Missile, or something.

[fullmetal69 0]

Quote[/b] ]In OFP (a military simulation)

here, no need to specify this detail everyone knows ofp and arma! normaly, do not? so it's not useful to say!

I saw new screens of OFP: dragon rising (no more ofp2 according to a source) arma 2 is "realy" more beautiful than ofp: dr which is plastic!

I think when people find arm2 ugly!

[honkitonk 0]

I disliked the information of the far mountains that were included in the skybox. Then I remembered that I have collected all the ArmA2 material that was published. I found a video that was recorded by the admins of armabase.de. and it shows only real mountains. All fog surrounded mountains that you can see at longer distance were real. So this discussion about the mountains pinned to the skybox seems to be obsolete.

Look at this page Armed Assault Info and look for ArmA2 Aircraft Video.

[JVJ 0]

Dosent anyone know if the game has been postponed? Since they are no longer saying that the realese as Q1.

Is this the wrong place for that question?

-JVJ

[sk3pt 0]

I disliked the information of the far mountains that were included in the skybox. Then I remembered that I have collected all the ArmA2 material that was published. I found a video that was recorded by the admins of armabase.de. and it shows only real mountains. All fog surrounded mountains that you can see at longer distance were real. So this discussion about the mountains pinned to the skybox seems to be obsolete.

What does this look like ?

Wish it was a lake...

"Mountains in the Skybox" ...sounds like a bad movie.

"Do you see that vehicle on that hill over there"

"What hill ? That one ?"

"No, that's the skybox, the other one".

[EDIT]

This is old footage and WIP, still, it looks excellent (except the flying mountains).

[honkitonk 0]

maybe it's a bug while reducing the density of fog? In the video i posted abovee everything looks fine.

[Raphier 0]

I disliked the information of the far mountains that were included in the skybox. Then I remembered that I have collected all the ArmA2 material that was published. I found a video that was recorded by the admins of armabase.de. and it shows only real mountains. All fog surrounded mountains that you can see at longer distance were real. So this discussion about the mountains pinned to the skybox seems to be obsolete.

Look at this page Armed Assault Info and look for ArmA2 Aircraft Video.

maybe it was implented in some time. In newer screens the skybox could be seen and in some it's not there. maybe because they are still searching for an answer to solve the problem, so they pull it off occasionally.

[SASrecon 0]

I completely agree with SK3pt,

although the skybox might add a bit of eye-candy, it is otherwise pretty useless and will give an odd feeling people playing with a very far viewdistance we'll just have to wait and see till the release or till more videos featuring the skybox are published.

Starwars battlefront had skyboxes on most maps and it just looked really unrealistic because you had a 3d map at average graphics, then lots of fog and miles away you had a 2d image of some mountains or cities or even trees!

I really hope they do something where if you have ARMA1 installed on ur pc, you can port it into ARMA2 through the ARMA2 cd or something like that (i just wan't the option to be able to play Sahrani on ARMA2 if i don't like chernarus or just to remind me of 'fun 'oldskool' ARMA! I wouldn't even mind a patch at the release of ARMA2 to port Sahrani to ARMA2

Quote[/b] ]@Raphier

maybe it was implented in some time. In newer screens the skybox could be seen and in some it's not there. maybe because they are still searching for an answer to solve the problem, so they pull it off occasionally.

maybe you can turn the skybox on and off ?!?

[honkitonk 0]

But if the marked area on the screen of SK3pt's screenshot ist the skybox it also means that the Kamov has reached the maps end.

We will see.

[madrussian 347]

maybe you can turn the skybox on and off ?!?

At a minimum you should be able to replace the texture.  So I really don't see what all the hullabaloo about the skybox is.

Far more interesting is how are they going to implement the boundries, the semi-random mountains, and the connection between the semi-random mountains and the ocean.

[kavoven 4]

Am I the only person who can't understand people complaining about the skybox? Can't imagine anything mattering less than that...

[max power 21]

They are virgins talking about sex, k@voven.  They have no idea what they are talking about.

This 'mountains appear 10 meters in front of me but I can't reach them would disorient me' comment goes to show it.  The skybox will never appear 10 meters in front of you.  It will always appear an equal distance away- always off in the far distance.  

You can look at the situation this way:  Have you ever run into the problem of bumping up against a wall in ArmA or OFP that looks like a painted sky?  If not, then the mountains won't harass you either.

@Sk3pt

Visibility on a clear day is something like 250 miles.  Surely you can appreciate that this is further than 5km, which is the distance that 10km vd renders at.  That is the point of the skybox.

And I'm not sure where you get that it's either invisible walls OR no mountains on the skybox. That's putting words into my mouth. What I was saying is that noone in their right mind would travel at top speed in an aircraft for an hour to try to reach the skybox unless they were testing the extents of the ArmA world. I don't think it should be a shock if you're doing such testing when you find a limitation or two. In actually playing the game, you cannot place units outside of the map and there are no destinations out there either. That's what I meant by worthless territory, and I think I made that fairly clear.

[Johnnie_Walker 0]

Am I the only person who can't understand people complaining about the skybox? Can't imagine anything mattering less than that...

You aren't alone.

[paragraphic l 2]

Just my 2cents on the distant mountains,

If they are implemented like some around here say, you can't have an objective on the mountain or behind it, right?

When you play ArmA 2 or at least what the game is designed to do, is that you play an mission or multiple and you focus on the objective don't you?

I do. So I might notice the skybox mountains when moving to the objective, but I hope my commander/the mission maker doesn't want me to move to the objective along side of that mountain.

- But I also mess around in the editor and fly over the whole map

Yes it's nice you can do that right? So enjoy it and the beautiful distant mountains in front of you while flying over the beautiful new island.

For gameplay it doesn't add anything, and surely doesn't harm it.

For eye-candy it is an extra

For freedom to move, it doesn't limit you in any way more then a normal skybox does.

For your imagination or expectations it might raise some hope and it will disappoint you than.

More pro's then con's for me here. But feel free to prove me wrong, I probably am.

[Thrash 0]

I do. So I might notice the skybox mountains when moving to the objective, but I hope my commander/the mission maker doesn't want me to move to the objective along side of that mountain.

you cant ever get to the skybox. It's like the donkey and the carrot, no matter how far it walks, it'll never reach the carrot.

So if your CO sends you there, it'll be a waypoint somewhere in the distance, but when you reach it, the skybox will still be on the horizon.

[paragraphic l 2]

I do. So I might notice the skybox mountains when moving to the objective, but I hope my commander/the mission maker doesn't want me to move to the objective along side of that mountain.

you cant ever get to the skybox. It's like the donkey and the carrot, no matter how far it walks, it'll never reach the carrot.

So if your CO sends you there, it'll be a waypoint somewhere in the distance, but when you reach it, the skybox will still be on the horizon.

[/img]http://www.crossingworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/donkeyandthecarrot_blogres_960.jpg[/img]

That actually what I meant, I hope the CO is smarter than that donkey and knows this.

[jakerod 254]

What if the donkey runs into something?

Im with you too k@voven. Although I can imagine a few things mattering less.

[sk3pt 0]

That's a nice illustration.

If you support skybox mountains, you are a donkey.

[Maddmatt 1]

Look how many pages wasted on such a useless topic on a thread about ArmA 2 press coverage.

It's just a f**king skybox!  

Anyway, if the weekly update is on time we should have our next bit of info appearing on http://www.arma2.com/ soon.

[sk3pt 0]

It's just a fucking s**box!  

Well, that's your opinion.

That's like saying "It's just a f**king reload animation".

I agree, not much point in continuing.

[Maddmatt 1]

It's just a fucking s**box!  

Well, that's your opinion.

That's like saying "It's just a f**king reload animation".

Yea but come on, it's such a small topic for such a crazy discussion

Reminds me of the trigger finger discussion about ArmA before it came out...

[mattxr 9]

I must be a donkey too , yeah the news update should happen tomorrow i think. At leaste thats when i think it happens. Cant wait to see whats next like a kid at christmas

[hoz 0]

paragraphic please don't quote pics.

[POTS 0]

I don't get why people don't want pretty mountains in the distance. Sure, you cant reach them, but I rather pretend there is something out there besides infinite land. Don't be afraid of art, it makes the game look nice.

Anybody else like me try to make the endless flight to the moon in ofp?  

but then again, what about Flying aircrafts? will they suddenly stop from a hit into a skybox if reached?  

That's the whole point, the skybox of the moon is more logical than a skybox on sides that prevent you from maneuvering in game area.

No, a skybox can be set to be unreachable. That means they won't run into an invisible wall. If you want to try something simailer. Try playing avgani iraq. You can fly as long as you want over infinite land, now just imagine a mountain skybox at the end and you got arma2's structure, we think.

[shunday 0]

Its easy to imagine that a ground skybox works and looks ok. It certainly does in other games. But have you ever seen it in a flight-simulator? I havent. And i think its for a good reason.

Lets make an assumption that the skybox mountain range is approx 5-50 km away. You are in a plane moving a few hundred meters above ground and everything looks normal. Skybox is behind the "real" mountains and you can see the 2d fog stretching down from the skybox and meeting the 3d mountains.

Now imagine going up 1 km. The fog area will get bigger and the 2d skybox will start looking out of place.

Now imagine going up 5 km. This is the point where it will look so unreal that you probably will think that you are hallucinating. You should practicly be looking at the skybox from 45 or less degrees (depending on what distance the skybox is made to represent) and in reality you would be seeing alot of this area from above, but you are not. You are seeing a big gray area with the 3d ground in the middle and the same 2d-mountains all around.

The higher you go, the more out of place it will look.

In my opinion, you cant have a ground skybox in a flight simulator.