ArmA 2 Demo feedback

[Placebo 28]

"cannot find X3DAudio1_6.dll" :391:

Windows Vista x64, working fine and and 100% up to date (newest DirectX and all system updates). demo awaited for years and postponed many times. FAILURE BOHEMIA. :(

More like failure you who cannot read the first post of the Demo release thread......

[MQ-9 Reaper 10]

"cannot find X3DAudio1_6.dll" :391:

Windows Vista x64, working fine and and 100% up to date (newest DirectX and all system updates). demo awaited for years and postponed many times. FAILURE BOHEMIA. :(

I had the same problem and after updating directx, it was gone.

[BaseJumper 10]

I wanted to try it on normal.. but my pc turned off.. :S

Seems to me your computer's Power Supply needs an upgrade to a higher wattage.

[funkee 0]

More like failure you who cannot read the first post of the Demo release thread......

I've read first posts and know the solution, just reporting a bug. And I think your avatar is the greatest failure on this page ;)

Edited June 26, 2009 by funkee

[kavoven 4]

Great job, BIS!

Just tested it and I nearly didn't find something to complain about (Sometimes the new radio system is confusing me)

Graphics are amazing even on normal setting, I didn't see any "stupid AI" things, sound is top and the landscape looks nothing but stunning... I love the distant fog!

I think I died ten times before I made the first mission... each time I went around a corner and saw some AI I thought "right, thats ArmA AI, you've still got 10 seconds until it reacts..."

Stupid me :D

I really can't understand how those stupid German magazines rated the game that low (even with the patch)

----------

Edit

I forgot the music. Epic :D

Edited June 26, 2009 by kavoven
second thought

[CarlGustaffa 4]

My impressions with the demo so far.

1) Setting up for 16:10 was a bit awkward, when the first thing you do is setup for -window mode. I couldn't find any ingame methods to do this, so I had to resort to the config in order to get the aspect ratio indicator look right.

2) I got the DirectX hickup after about 15 minutes of testing. I got this sometimes even on Arma1. In Arma1 the result would be 'binary color channels' for some surfaces, like full blue of full cyan, with completely messed up alpha/transparency channels. Even the GUI would become useless quickly. But a restart would fix it. In Arma2 Demo, I only noticed artifacts on the fog effects. Memory was quite fragmented having had the computer on for about a week.

3) Only tried once, but I actually managed to screw up basic training, lol :) On the driving thing, I drove too far and I ended up getting shot at? Defending myself I fired back and when I killed one the mission failed. Not what I expected to happen during boot camp :)

4) Somehow the warfare (or high command, not sure) mission was bugged for me. Moving tanks and infantry to the same spot didn't trigger whatever was supposed to happen.

5) Fairly stable for me. I've played a few hours yesterday with only the DX problem. Today I've played for about 8 hours nonstop doing editor stuff, before it finally crashed with an error message. That's not bad for a demo.

6) Mouse steering defaults will probably put a lot of people new to the game off. For us experienced with the concept, we can manage to find our ways through the control setups, but for new players this screen might be a little overwhelming and scary? :)

7) I did my usual changes to the controls: ctrl=hold breath, tab=reveal (I don't 'do' flying or tanking much), num '0' (iron sight) replaced with old 'v' key, and jump assigned to double 'c'. Num '0' becomes select all AI, since I use the '|' key (left of 1) for teamspeak. But something weird happened when I tried to do 'w'=forward and double 'w'=evasive forward (up and sprint from prone). When I am up and press double 'w', my character does some weird left sidestep I haven't seen before. Changing to shift double 'W' fixed it, but it should be addressed unless I'm being stupid atm.

8) Post processing off turned off a bit too much imho. I don't mind the motion blur so much, but the bloom/glow is too much. Turning it off means I loose scope optics effects and NVG noise, which I really don't want to loose.

9) Attaching the AAV to a squad with a waypoint caused us to be ordered into the vehicle followed by an infinite number of commands and we ended up going nowhere. I had to split it out and use synchronized waypoint to get anywhere.

10) The M1A1 has no loader position, but it still has an RWS for the commander? Remove the RWS and using the M1A1 over the tusk in missions has much more 'impact' since it doesn't have a loader (and loaders station).

11) Somehow I was not able to get any kind of medical modules to work when I simply set my own damage slider about halfway. Off squad medics could not be used nor called for, I had to use an ambulance to get myself fixed up.

12) When I tried the civilian module, it was not very populated. My guess is that the module tries to spawn civilians types that are not in the demo? I found a couple of the same dude, but it looked anything but populated.

That's all I can remember for now. Might try some multiplayer tonight if possible. All in all, I'm very happy about the demo. And the small part of Chernarus you actually get to see is bloody fantastic. The biggest problem now is trying to sort out all those mission ideas and figure out how the hell I'm going to get my tan this summer :D

[Placebo 28]

I've read first posts and know the solution, just reporting a bug.

So you read the solution and still rant anyway? Despite the fact the problem isn't the fault of the demo it's simply that you lack a DirectX dll? And it's not a bug.

And I think your avatar is the greatest failure on this page ;)

Errrkay.....

[Baldman 10]

Mouse steer has been pretty jittery since ARMA. Beter to use the arrow keys for driving.

[funkee 0]

So you read the solution and still rant anyway? Despite the fact the problem isn't the fault of the demo it's simply that you lack a DirectX dll? And it's not a bug.

of course. I did it to let developers know more ppl having the problem, as this is a FEEDBACK thread (as you noticed) and problem may be fixed in upcoming hotfix. all my DirectX games works fine btw (Vista has DX10 integrated), so this is a demo issue.

Edited June 26, 2009 by funkee

[xav 0]

Just tried the Demo and it is good!

Definitly a Performance improvement and graphics improvement too over Arma 1

However

While the "environment" and my self are smooth @ 30-40 FPS, the enemy AI is slow... the AI alone feels like it is @ 5 FPS. It is very strange, especially that it affects the enemy AI only, everything else is smooth, even AI in vehicles is fine... it only happens when they go "on foot"

Maybe it comes from my C2D?

E6300 @ 1.87 Ghz

4 Gig Ram

XP Pro Sp3

HIS (overclocked) X1950 Pro

[BF2_Trooper 0]

What am I doing wrong in the shoot range training?? Everytime I fire my first shot as soon as the first target shows up, the guy already tells me I failed!

Also, why cant i access commands to tell my riflemen units to go STEALTH, or what FORMATION to take in Death Valley?

[snake eyes 0]

Awesome Demo!:)

Just one small problem:

in the first singleplayer mission where you are inserted by Helo.

As soon as the teamleader gets out,he runs around and gets stuck running

against the tail rotor and it won't let me get out of the chopper,i guess

because he did not reach the waypoint for him to order us out:(

So i have no way of starting that mission because of this.

Anyway other then that issue Great Demo:) and i love ArmA II:yay:

[xclusiv8 10]

Just tried the Demo and it is good!

Definitly a Performance improvement and graphics improvement too over Arma 1

However

While the "environment" and my self are smooth @ 30-40 FPS, the enemy AI is slow... the AI alone feels like it is @ 5 FPS. It is very strange, especially that it affects the enemy AI only, everything else is smooth, even AI in vehicles is fine... it only happens when they go "on foot"

Maybe it comes from my C2D?

E6300 @ 1.87 Ghz

4 Gig Ram

XP Pro Sp3

HIS (overclocked) X1950 Pro

You must be kidding. With that kind of CPU you cant expect much. I dont even think that it qualifies as minimum.

[nodunit 397]

Awesome Demo!:)

Just one small problem:

in the first singleplayer mission where you are inserted by Helo.

As soon as the teamleader gets out,he runs around and gets stuck running

against the tail rotor and it won't let me get out of the chopper,i guess

because he did not reach the waypoint for him to order us out:(

Curious, I had no such problem with this and everything went smooth with the HALO mission, how many times did you retry it?

[snake eyes 0]

Curious, I had no such problem with this and everything went smooth with the HALO mission, how many times did you retry it?

at least twice. so it could have just been a fluke....i'll give it another play and see:)

All the other missions worked perfect.

Edited June 26, 2009 by snake eyes

[Diosdemuerte 10]

I have a very noobish question... In the demo mission "Trial by Fire", when a teammate gets hit, he goes down on his back and yells for a corpsman. Is there any way you can do this in the mission editor with scripts or modules or something? I get more immersed in the game when a squad member is in critical condition and I have to drag him to cover without being shot myself.

[KorJax 10]

Korjax.

I know where you are coming from and to a first time user the original ofp, ARMA1 and ARMA2 can appear like a broken FPS game.

This is far from the truth. You cannot compare this game to COD, Crysis, Frontlines or any of those limited map shooters. None of those are simulating anything apart from atmosphere which they do a good job at most of the time.

ARMA is more of a military simulator. Let the game spread across the US and watch as more servers popup which are created by people that know what they are doing.

For example have you watched saving private ryan or platoon? see how the squads work together, did you watch Blackhawk down? again squads working together in a logical methodical way can cause carnage against many times their numbers.

Games in ARMA can be and generally are, on good servers, like this. A squad of real players will have a target of somekind, a town, an outpost in a forest, some military installtion or just release POW's from an enemy camp. There are hundreds of possibilities all which get modded by the community and once you join a squad and play using Teamspeak or something similar there is nothing else like it, trying to stay alive is so enthralling.

Hang in there, read more forums, join a squad. This is fun but if you expect it to be a login, kill some people in 2 mins and log off fest after respawning 5 times then this game is not for you.

P.S you can create your own server and play multiplayer scenarios on your own as well, just lock the server, I have done this, or you can play multiplayer but use AI to fill in your squad members and give them orders.

I understand that. The major problem I have with the multiplayer isn't the gameplay or how it's structured, it's that there isn't anything in place to let the player know what's going on or what to do/where to go/who to follow, which is a fatal design flaw.

You can't have a pure military sim, short of setting up a specific scenario for strict clan-only play, and blocking out all other avenues.

Problem is, you can join mid-game. This instantly destroys any argument for a pure military sim, because IRL that's not possible to do. And IRL you would prepare for a battle weeks or days or even hours in advance so you would know what to do.

This is not possible, both from a game standpoint and a limitation standpoint. In the end, when a player joins mid game, he expects to be given the information on what is going on, what they need to do, and etc. I've only seen one server so far that has had a remotely functioning map too.

Currently you join a game and you just *appear*. You look at your map, and it's just a mess that doesn't let you know of anything. This is extremely bad and will just turn off people from wanting to play it. The idea of a large persistant military sim battle is to make it so players who join feel comfortable with whats going on and to be able to quickly and efficently get a "sitrep" on the situation and be able to quickly and efficently contribute to the battle. ArmA2 doesn't do this at all.

The SAI (situational awareness indicator) for Americas Army 2 is a good example of this working. Even though it's an "unrealistic" radar (that is optional and only showed teammates in your LOS), the reason it exsisted was that it simulated teamwork that happens IRL, and situational awareness. It was making up for the fact that in a game you can never have the same level of situational awareness that you can in real life, to enhance the teamwork and tactical realism as a whole.

Actually all this kind of ties into a somewhat minor issue I have that involves a lesson in game design "rule" over all: forcing a straight port of realism just for the sake of it actually hurts gameplay realism more in a virtual environment, because a virtual environment by nature is not realistic. It's impossible, IMPOSSIBLE to make real life work 1:1 in a video game. Why? Because the virtual battlefield only exists in a 2D plane you see infront of you, with very limited field of view. Things like TrackIR, Novint Falcon, very large monitor setups and other gimmicks can alivate this problem, but these are expensive and impractical solutions.

[Soulfly 10]

I understand that. The major problem I have with the multiplayer isn't the gameplay or how it's structured, it's that there isn't anything in place to let the player know what's going on or what to do/where to go/who to follow, which is a fatal design flaw.

You can't have a pure military sim, short of setting up a specific scenario for strict clan-only play, and blocking out all other avenues.

Problem is, you can join mid-game. This instantly destroys any argument for a pure military sim, because IRL that's not possible to do. And IRL you would prepare for a battle weeks or days or even hours in advance so you would know what to do.

This is not possible, both from a game standpoint and a limitation standpoint. In the end, when a player joins mid game, he expects to be given the information on what is going on, what they need to do, and etc. I've only seen one server so far that has had a remotely functioning map too.

Currently you join a game and you just *appear*. You look at your map, and it's just a mess that doesn't let you know of anything. This is extremely bad and will just turn off people from wanting to play it. The idea of a large persistant military sim battle is to make it so players who join feel comfortable with whats going on and to be able to quickly and efficently get a "sitrep" on the situation and be able to quickly and efficently contribute to the battle. ArmA2 doesn't do this at all.

The SAI (situational awareness indicator) for Americas Army 2 is a good example of this working. Even though it's an "unrealistic" radar (that is optional and only showed teammates in your LOS), the reason it exsisted was that it simulated teamwork that happens IRL, and situational awareness. It was making up for the fact that in a game you can never have the same level of situational awareness that you can in real life, to enhance the teamwork and tactical realism as a whole.

Actually all this kind of ties into a somewhat minor issue I have that involves a lesson in game design "rule" over all: forcing a straight port of realism just for the sake of it actually hurts gameplay realism more in a virtual environment, because a virtual environment by nature is not realistic. It's impossible, IMPOSSIBLE to make real life work 1:1 in a video game. Why? Because the virtual battlefield only exists in a 2D plane you see infront of you, with very limited field of view. Things like TrackIR, Novint Falcon, very large monitor setups and other gimmicks can alivate this problem, but these are expensive and impractical solutions.

When I first tried ArmA1 I felt the same way. I didn't know what was going on. But once I learned the ins and outs of the game, I was hooked.

Like the other guy said. Join a clan and you wont play any other game.

You get on teamspeak and use the tools that game has to offer. Yes, this isn't as easy as COD4 or AA. But when I get lost, my team tells me where they are at, pull out the map, use the compass, and bingo.

Arma has a very steep learning curve. But once you learn it, forget about. My wife wants to throw my pc off the second floor.

I deleted my AA3 as soon as I say the map on HUD. I'm tired of run and gun FPS.

I miss the old Ghost REcon style games. This is a closed to that atm. it just has Vehicles.

I loving this game.......

[Mafiozo 10]

41 fps at the benchmark, all video settings on Normal, no Post processing, AA, or AF.

1280x1024.

at times of action, the fps is 30+, which is playable.

Specs:

Q6600 @ 2.4

4GB ram

Asus Geforce 8800 GTS 320mb

gameplay wise I am very content. as a long time OFP player I felt right at home. can't wait to get the full thing to play the campaign and coop with serious squad mates, and ofcourse the countless mods, maps and missions that it's beautiful loyal community will create.

[d3nn16 3]

I am having the same problem with this demo as I had with ArmA1 v1.14/v1.16 but this time it happens from the very few seconds in the game intro screen.

The game ran smoothly for a few seconds/minutes while I was setting controls and then the game freezed and the HDD led went on indefinitely and I had to reset the computer. Tried different optimizations with same result.

In ArmA1 I could play missions because freezing occurred while I was moving fast in an airplane or helicopter most of the time. A solution I found was to increase view distance around 4000, it did block for a few seconds but it didn't freeze computer completely.

WinXP, arma2demo and pagefile (4GB) on different partitions on same new HDD

HDD WD3200AAJB 320GB (there's a second HDD, the old one, set as slave)

Intel P4 3.2 GHz HyperThreading (2 logical processors)

2GB RAM

ASUSTek P4SD-VL

Intel i865PE

nvidia GeForce 7800 GS 256MB (AGP 8x)

Edited June 26, 2009 by d3nn16

[xav 0]

You must be kidding. With that kind of CPU you cant expect much. I dont even think that it qualifies as minimum.

it is still a core 2 duo

[KorJax 10]

When I first tried ArmA1 I felt the same way. I didn't know what was going on. But once I learned the ins and outs of the game, I was hooked.

Like the other guy said. Join a clan and you wont play any other game.

You get on teamspeak and use the tools that game has to offer. Yes, this isn't as easy as COD4 or AA. But when I get lost, my team tells me where they are at, pull out the map, use the compass, and bingo.

Arma has a very steep learning curve. But once you learn it, forget about. My wife wants to throw my pc off the second floor.

I deleted my AA3 as soon as I say the map on HUD. I'm tired of run and gun FPS.

I miss the old Ghost REcon style games. This is a closed to that atm. it just has Vehicles.

I loving this game.......

Well, this is ironic because you said AA is very run and gun and if anything it's just about the farthest thing from that.

AA is pretty much ArmA, except much more refined in controls, better designed in missions, and the gameplay is geared twoards small scale CQB battles between two squads.

If you run and gun in AA, you die. The radar doesn't do anything except show you were teammates are (simulating real life technology being used in the military right now), and a topography of the area... that is it.

[CplBlakeman 10]

Well, this is ironic because you said AA is very run and gun and if anything it's just about the farthest thing from that.

AA is pretty much ArmA, except much more refined in controls, better designed in missions, and the gameplay is geared twoards small scale CQB battles between two squads.

If you run and gun in AA, you die. The radar doesn't do anything except show you were teammates are (simulating real life technology being used in the military right now), and a topography of the area... that is it.

Ive been playing AA3 since it has come out and all I see online are run and gun, fast paced fps style. Very few places use actual tactics and those who do still have the run and gun mentality. It is a good game but it is an FPS game first and a sim second, Arma 2 is flip flop of that. It doesn't have as much fast paced action, but it is twice the sim.

It also has vehicle, aircraft, logistic and artillery support, which makes for a more authentic environment. Ranch on AA3 needs humvee support...

They are both in the apple family, but different varieties of apple.

[croc4 0]

Gotta say it looks great, I'm actually getting good frame rates on my rig 44fps according to the benchmark, everything on normal, 1280x1024, AA,AS and post off.

2.4Ghz Core duo

3 Gig of ram XPSP3

9600GT (memory is a little fuzzy)

1280x1024 resolution.

One thing that I chuckled over was the "look" of the game, several of us mentioned the look of COD4 and compared it to Arma1 a long time back, and the response was its(Arma) a sim, blah, blah. Well now how the tables have turned!, Arma2 has the "look" of COD4 and not one complaint, LOL.

Anyway, it looks great, plays well, still getting used to the controls, if anything the default controls could be tweaked, but I know that is a personal preference, so there is no right answer. Overall I say BIS deserves a good long vacation and I hope game sales rewards you guys for a job well done.

Croc4

[Placebo 28]

Offtopic posts deleted, let's stick to the demo not to bickering like children.