ArmA2 Demo Release Today - 2PM GMT - 3PM CET - 6:00 AM PST

[Steakslim 1]

k, specs are what your pc is made of, as in:

Processor (CPU)

Motherboard

Ram

Harddrive (HDD)

Video Card (GPU)

Power Supply (PSU)

Post processing and fillrate are settings in the game's Video Options. Post processing is the setting that allows for cosmetic visual eyecandy like Motion Blur, and Bloom (which is the effect of light brightening and darkening according to the light around you, but in this case ArmA2 doesn't simulate it that well).

Fillrate is a setting that uses Pixel Doubling form what I've heard. You see this in the settings under the 3D Resolution. Your actual resolution is say 1440x900, so 100% fillrate would be 1440x900 in the 3D Resolution. Now set that 3D res to something higher like 1900x1080, and next to that will be a representational percentage of the amount of fillrate over 100% that you'll have. This will in turn, lower your performance because it'll be like rendering 1900x1080 in a 1440x900 screen. More power in your GPU is required for this. Using a fillrate below 100% will be like playing at a resolution less than what you are actually set at. The game will run smoother, but look much worse as a result.

Hopefully you understand all of this, and hopefully I explained it correctly, or correctly enough to not be missinterperated.

[nomdeplume 0]

so...my fillrate is....1280x720...so how to i switch it like higher than it is?....and all i know is my RAM which is 384...and whats this thing of pst processing being off?

On the video options configuration thing there's an "advanced" button that will bring up extra options you can use to tune the game to your system. Things like terrain detail, object detail, antialiasing and so on. Post processing is one of the options there. Have a play around and see if you can settings that run well. Also there's a View Distance slider - the lower it is, the less the game will have to draw and that will improve performance.

I am concerned about your "all I know is my RAM which is 384" - if that's your system memory then I don't think it'd be enough to be able to run the game smoothly. I wouldn't even like to run XP/Vista with 384 megs...

If it's video RAM, then it again might be a problem. I'm not sure what the minimum is but 384 sounds like a strange number, and a small one at that.

To find out your system specs in detail, you can use "dxdiag" (the DirectX diagnostic tool). Go to your Start menu and select Run, or if you can't find that, hold the Windows key on the keyboard (Between Ctrl and Alt on the left side) and press R. A small dialog should pop up asking you what you want to open, just enter: dxdiag

On the "System" tab it will tell you how much system memory you have as well as the Processor type. The Display 1 tab will tell you details about your video card.

[Steakslim 1]

Again, Lured1, list your full specs for us, it makes there's much easier when helping you.

If you don't knwo hwo to find them, a good place to start is on your desktop, go to My Computer or Computer, right click and select properties.

This should bring up a window displaying some system information, including processor, ram, and OS type.

EDIT: I see Some Kind Of Guy mentioned that for you, follow his instructions and you'll get your info.

[Incognito84 10]

k, specs are what your pc is made of, as in:

Processor (CPU)

Motherboard

Ram

Harddrive (HDD)

Video Card (GPU)

Power Supply (PSU)

Post processing and fillrate are settings in the game's Video Options. Post processing is the setting that allows for cosmetic visual eyecandy like Motion Blur, and Bloom (which is the effect of light brightening and darkening according to the light around you, but in this case ArmA2 doesn't simulate it that well).

Fillrate is a setting that uses Pixel Doubling form what I've heard. You see this in the settings under the 3D Resolution. Your actual resolution is say 1440x900, so 100% fillrate would be 1440x900 in the 3D Resolution. Now set that 3D res to something higher like 1900x1080, and next to that will be a representational percentage of the amount of fillrate over 100% that you'll have. This will in turn, lower your performance because it'll be like rendering 1900x1080 in a 1440x900 screen. More power in your GPU is required for this. Using a fillrate below 100% will be like playing at a resolution less than what you are actually set at. The game will run smoother, but look much worse as a result.

Hopefully you understand all of this, and hopefully I explained it correctly, or correctly enough to not be missinterperated.

What's the point of running with a %200 fill rate? I see a lot of players online bragging about that. Wouldn't it look exactly the same considering that your screen resolution would take precendence over the fillrate?

I don't have a fillrate option in my game. I have a GTX 275. I guess I wouldn't really use it anyway, so I don't care.

[Lured1 10]

P.S Lowering Distance...doesn't that give other players(if multiplayer)give the ones with more distance..an Advantage?

---------- Post added at 03:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:50 AM ----------

Incognito84........can you please....help with what they're helping me(well were...but i left for a while....

[nomdeplume 0]

My Processor is -AMD Athlon 64 processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2Ghz

Page File -676MB used 141 Available-

Memory -384MB RAM-

System Model -C6537-

Manufacturer -Gateway-

DX version -9.0c

Bit worried about these specs, especially the amount of memory. It's been so long since I've played games on a PC with less than 2 GB of RAM, I'm not even sure it's possible anymore! ;)

But seriously, you'll be struggling to fit the game and the OS inside 384 MB - I would expect it to be swapping constantly which would make it unplayable.

What about the video card (Display 1 tab in dxdiag)? If you have a really wonderful card maybe it could salvage something, but I'm guessing with those specs it won't be anything spectacular.

What's the point of running with a %200 fill rate? I see a lot of players online bragging about that. Wouldn't it look exactly the same considering that your screen resolution would take precendence over the fillrate?

I don't have a fillrate option in my game. I have a GTX 275. I guess I wouldn't really use it anyway, so I don't care.

You should have a "screen resolution" option and a "3d resolution" - my understanding is the "3D resolution" is what it'll be rendered as, and then output as the screen resolution. You might need to use the Advanced button get that option. The fillrate is in brackets after the resolution in the 3D res dropdown.

I guess it's nice to brag that you could run at such-and-such a res if your monitor supported it. I did try running at 200% fillrate and it didn't seem to make a notable difference, but I've only been playing from the demo which has anti-aliasing support. I think most people used the higher render resolution as a substitute for anti-aliasing (which wasn't present in 1.00 or 1.01) to smooth out the jagged edges of lines.

[Lured1 10]

im running dxdiag....but which is my video card...theres only date/name/operating system/launguage/system manufacturer/system model/BIOS/processor/memory/DX version

[nomdeplume 0]

im running dxdiag....but which is my video card...theres only date/name/operating system/launguage/system manufacturer/system model/BIOS/processor/memory/DX version

The tabs are along the top of the dialog. The first one is "System", next to it is "DirectX files", "Display", or "Display 1", "Display 2", etc. They give details about different aspects of the system. Just click on the tab to display the info on that particular page.

[Lured1 10]

The tabs are along the top of the dialog. The first one is "System", next to it is "Display 1", "Display 2", etc. They give details about different aspects of the system. Just click on the tab to display the info on that particular page.

........next to it is directx files---->display...and so on...

---------- Post added at 04:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:01 AM ----------

Which is the one....your directing me to...

[nomdeplume 0]

Which is the one....your directing me to...

I don't know if I can make it any clearer than that!

The "approx total memory" field is the most interesting, but the other information shown in the "Device" section is useful too.

Edited June 29, 2009 by some kind of guy
Ninja typo fix, how embarassing

[Steakslim 1]

What's the point of running with a %200 fill rate? I see a lot of players online bragging about that. Wouldn't it look exactly the same considering that your screen resolution would take precendence over the fillrate?

I don't have a fillrate option in my game. I have a GTX 275. I guess I wouldn't really use it anyway, so I don't care.

Supposedly there's a quality increase, but I personally cannot say as I cannot run the game on any setting that high.

[Placebo 29]

im not really...a computer wiz....so..explain pc specs/post processing/and fillrate....like i said...im new to this :(

so...my fillrate is....1280x720...so how to i switch it like higher than it is?....and all i know is my RAM which is 384...and whats this thing of pst processing being off?

My Processor is -AMD Athlon 64 processor 3500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2Ghz

Page File -676MB used 244 Available-

Memory -384MB RAM-

System Model -C6537-

Manufacturer -Gateway-

DX version -9.0c

http://www.memoryamerica.com/emachines-memory-desktop-emachines-memory-emachines-c-series-emachines-c6537.html

This is your complete spec I believe:

CPU: AMD Athlonâ„¢ 64 3500+ processor

(2.2GHz, 2000MHz system bus, 512KB L2 cache)

Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005

Monitor: 17" LCD flat-panel display (E17T4)

Chipset: NVIDIA® GeForce® 6100

Memory: 512MB DDR (1 × 512MB), 400MHz (PC3200)

Dual-channel capable; Expandable to 2GB

Hard Drive: 250GB (7200rpm, 2MB cache)

If you'd read the readme file for the demo you would see that the minimum requirements for both the demo and the full game are:

Minimal PC System Requirements

• Dual Core CPU (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz, Intel Core 2.0 GHz, AMD Athlon 3200+ or faster)

• 1 GB RAM

• GPU (NVIDIA GeForce 7800 / ATI Radeon 1800 or faster) with Shader Model 3 and 256 MB VRAM

• Windows XP

Out of that you appear to have Windows XP, your PC is simply not remotely close to being up to the task I'm afraid :(

Edited June 29, 2009 by Placebo

[Joseph Troska 0]

OMG. I just now obtained and tried the demo. It is unbelievable!

Looks and feels beautiful - I was literally shaking as I (using the editor) explored a forest in the pouring rain as a civilian, made me think about how experiencing Everon would of been with the ArmA2 engine...

I think ArmA2 is going to give us old OFP addicts an experience we haven't had since running from the Hind after attacking Provins (remember that?)

ArmA2 seems to run very smooth on my system, granted though I haven't played with AI scripts running in the background yet. With my specs of Corei7 920 @ 2.67ghz (stock), 6gb DDR3 and 4870x2 (crossfire not yet working ingame) and Vista64, I set the detail to AF off, AA off, PP disabled, terrain high, textures high, res 1680x1050, shadows high & objects high, it seems ok.

There does seem to be a strange problem when you look down at the ground (with total overcast clouds & dark conditions) everything goes bright, like the sun's come out of the clouds, but when you look straight again it goes darker. PP is disabled, and I don't know what the brightness is caused by.

Great work BIS!!! The demo is absolutely brilliant, and I can't wait for my full version which is pre-ordered for retail release here in Australia on July 5th.

If the game is this good so far, imagine what it's going to be like after a couple more patches & optimizations??? Look how much better 1.96 was compared to out-of-the-box OFP?? This is going to be one hell of an experience!! Let us give thanks!!! :)

[funkee 0]

ok I've been playing ArmA2 demo for a few last days and I have to say the game overall is awesome :). sounds and voices are pretty good (much improvement from AA1). graphics (especially weapon models that are ugly) is not as realiscic as in Americas Army 3 for example, but sometimes impressive, and the sky is really amazing :D.

however, there are a few things I would like to change in full game:

- mouse lag! (like somebody said here, "this is the worst bug for ANY FPS game")

- bloom (too much glow when posteffects are enabled)

- ugly M4 EOTEH (same as it's owner Patrick Miles). this one would be much better:

. also AH1 Cobra model doesn't look good.

- naked palms. I would like gloves for more classes. these from ArmA1 sniper class would be pretty good: image

- muzzle flash (looks horrible and cover target when firing at night)

- command menu is poor and uncomfortable. there is only a few useless commands for human players. lack of team or request commands like "cover me" or "enemy spotted": image1, image2, image3

- antialiasing at low reduces performance too much

- reporting enemies through a buildings

- ACOG sight is oversized

- bad spectator camera controll

what I like in ArmA2:

- sky! (is like real one)

- voices (yes, they are much better than these from ArmA1)

- improved AI

- graphics (sometimes is amazing)

- overall atmosphere

what I would like to see in full version:

- CCIP bombing mode for aircraft

- rate of fire toggle animation (like in America's Army f.e): clip. it really sux when you have to choose through grenades/launcher, if you want to shoot with bullets only

- enhanced command menu (see above)

Edited June 30, 2009 by funkee

[leckig 0]

P.S Lowering Distance...doesn't that give other players(if multiplayer)give the ones with more distance..an Advantage?

---------- Post added at 03:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:50 AM ----------

Incognito84........can you please....help with what they're helping me(well were...but i left for a while....

Lured1, sorry to be direct:

- stop abusing the ".......", it looks like you were dying or something

- get yourself better computer, it is too old

[Skid Row 10]

Installed the new DX files and I still get the X3DAudio1_6.dll error.

Tried reinstalling game too, and restarting PC.

Specs are,

Amd Phenom 8650 triple core @ 2.30 ghz

4 GB ram

ATI Radeon 4850

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit

Any help would be great! Thanks :)

EDIT: Never mind, got it working.. Me being blonde only extracted the files, forgot to install them.. *duhh*

Edited June 29, 2009 by Skid Row

[funkee 0]

dx9 redistributable? try executing dxsetup.exe "as administrator".

EDIT: Never mind, got it working.. Me being blonde only extracted the files, forgot to install them.. *duhh*

rofl :D

[chammy 7]

So far I have ArmA2 Demo installed a I have no problems thank God, I can't believe it and I'm running with Windows 7 as my OS. I downloaded off of Steam. My benchmark test with settings on very high and with a program running in the back came out to 20 fps. On high was 33 fps. Not sure if that is good or bad or what. My graphics card gets at about 65 c, the fan is set at 50. ArmA2 has proved me wrong, I think this game is beautiful!! I can't wait for it to come out this July the 4th.

[evideus 10]

This is a review a friend of mine wrote after trying out the demo for ArmA II:

I downloaded the Arma 2 demo to give it a test, and I would recommend everyone else at least try the demo if they are so inclined. Its free after all. Thats the best I can say about it.

I can safely say that I will not be playing this game. It forces some kind of HOLYFUCKINGSHIT***!!!HORRIBLE!!!***HOLYFUCKINGSHIT motherfucking mouse smoothing on the player. For the love of God, it is identical to playing on a console controller!!! No matter how fast you move your mouse, you cant turn any faster than a certain speed that is determined by your in-game mouse sensitivity. I tried running my mouse back and forth across my entire mousepad quickly and then moving it slowly, all while watching the game screen move the same fucking speed. If you have watched any videos of it being played and the player seems half-retarded, its really because he is fighting the mouse. You cant turn it off, it is built in. I honestly never thought Id see mouse control this bad in a pc game.

The voice acting is absolutely horrific. I thought the voice work was fucked up because we were watching videos of the german version, but no, thats how they really sound. Listening to the voice work made me slightly ill.

Shaders dont work right, way too much HDR, and a general lack of finish on the graphics. Black pine trees, for example.

The interface is completely unintuitive. There are approximately 300 different actions that have to be bound to the mouse and keyboard. I mean seriously, this game has a button for saluting. Its the backslash key. I was surprised it didnt have a key for sitting on a toilet, another key for pinching off a turd, and a mini-game for wiping your ass. If this was a game I have been waiting 10 years for and I was going to play for 10 years following, then honestly, Id probably be thrilled, but its a massive turn off for us "normal" gamers. It took me literally 5 minutes to find out where I was supposed to pick my gun up from during training. 5 MINUTES. Im a fucking hardcore gamer here. I live and breathe games and laugh at the puny attempts of difficulty developers try and put in, and it took me 5 minutes to find a gun. Holy tits.

Bohemia Interactive has successfully sacrificed gameplay in the most basic way possible for the sake of "realism." Therefore, this game will only be pleasing to extreme hard-core mil sim fans who play one game for a decade until its sequel is released, and Arma 2 will quickly be dropped like a hot piece of shit by scores of gamers once they realize how fucked up its graphics, sound, interface, and aiming system are. Because, you know, a human being simply CANT turn 180 degrees in a split second. Thats a load of "bull friggin horseshit" right there. Ive handled plenty of guns in my life and I can assure you I am perfectly able to whip that motherfucker 180 degrees in a heartbeat.

If it sounds like Im pissed, its because I am. Game companies have their god damn motherfucking thumbs up their asses these days, and dont know what the fuck makes a good game anymore. They sit there in their studios, concerned only about making the game and not about how it plays or how well rounded of a product it is. Its all about either turning the highest bottom-line or pushing so hard for one particular playing style the game is ruined in the process. Fucking absolute god damn infuriating brainless horseshit that makes me want to slap them across their dimwitted blank fucking stares. Im all for grassroots small studios, but releasing this pile of shit was an inexcusable mistake. In a year, even with the bullshit aiming, this probably would have been a pretty awesome game.

On that note, I cant wait to see what tiny little unforeseen detail is going to be in Flahpoint 2 thats going to make it suck balls. Just wait. It will be there. There will be some quality about it thats going to kill it for us. Forced mouse smoothing, forced VSYNC, auto-aim for console kiddies with cross-platform support, who knows. Game studios apparently spend most of their time these days figuring out tiny little obscure ways to fuck a game up. Clive Lindop was removed from the CM team because he was the only one there with a brain in his head.

Its a shame really because the rest of Arma 2 looks so fucking epic. I was really looking forward to playing through it but now I wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot stick that I shit on first and was planning on burning anyway. Bohemia really bit off more than they can chew with Arma 2, and until they step up their game theyre never going to make a very good living off of game development, thats for DAMN sure. Arma 2 is so unbelievably bad I almost feel like buying it out of pity for Bohemia, but its just so terrible I would rather they go out of business than get a second chance. Coming from me, Mr Kindheart, you know thats some bad mafoo.

-Mr Kindheart signing the fuck OUT. I salute Arma 2 with my backslash key and my middle finger.

[Placebo 29]

Your "friend" must be very brave to have someone else posting for him....

[pathetic_berserker 4]

This is a review a friend of mine wrote after trying out the demo for ArmA II:

I downloaded the Arma 2 demo to give it a test,......................

That was a CRAP load to say........

[evideus 10]

Your "friend" must be very brave to have someone else posting for him....

My friend posted this on our forums. It was my initiative to post it here, he didn't ask me. And I'm sure he wouldn't have any problems posting it for himself if he cared enough.

[S7_Mega 10]

My friend posted this on our forums. It was my initiative to post it here, he didn't ask me. And I'm sure he wouldn't have any problems posting it for himself if he cared enough.

Seems like your friend is waiting for the "perfect" game. I gave up a long time ago on that.

[EricM 0]

Clive Lindop was removed from the CM team because he was the only one there with a brain in his head.

Epic

As for the rest, I'd just say that everything that's excessive is insignificant.

[=Spetsnaz= 0]

wow your friend must have anger management issues..