ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead discussion thread

[an_enlarged_stomach 1]

please make ai more responsive and faster

Make small objects have physics

Better and realistic destruction sequence.

[Laqueesha 474]

FYI Coops and Miles' voices where done by black people, or at least had typical west african names :

- Mamadou Diavando (Miles)

- Diop Cheriff (Coops)

Mamadou Diavando and Diop Cheriff provided the faces for the character models of Cooper and Miles.

The actual voices were done by:

Matt Cooper - Daniel Brown

Patrick Miles - Joachim Benloulou

Edited November 12, 2009 by Laqueesha

[Flash Thunder 10]

Mamadou Diavando and Diop Cheriff provided the faces for the character models of Cooper and Miles.

The actual voices were done by:

Matt Cooper - Daniel Brown

Patrick Miles - Joachim Benloulou

This, Eric read the back of the manual im not assuming anything. :p

[Fudgeblood 10]

Mamadou Diavando and Diop Cheriff provided the faces for the character models of Cooper and Miles.

The actual voices were done by:

Matt Cooper - Daniel Brown

Patrick Miles - Joachim Benloulou

http://bme.usc.edu/valero/DanielBrown.JPG What a great man to cast as an African American! (Assuming that's the correct Daniel Brown) :j:

[EricM 0]

This, Eric read the back of the manual im not assuming anything

Weird... In my printed manual it says :

Voice Actors

Team Razor Characters

(Note : Model - voice)

1sgt Patrick "Eightball" Miles : Mamadou Diavando

Msgt Matt "coops" Cooper : Diop Cheriff

I could be wrong, but I wasn't assuming either...

[Guest]

Oh I almost forgot, WAY MORE ENTERABLE BUILDINGS, and buildings with more furnishings, I hated how I could never access the second story in some of those brick houses like in Novy Sobor to shoot out of the windows etc.

Before we are allowed in a building, we first need character control that would allow for it. Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else think, that if BIS made the character movement indoors feel really fluid and nice, it would also improve how the character feels in all other situations?

I know Arma is supposed to be above all the FPS games by actually atatching you to a real body, but sometimes i feel like a complete robot. The movement is just so unsmooth.

Just my opinion anyway.

And thanks for all the comments on my video! Much apreciated!

(I don't think BIS should hire me though lol, i think their guys actually have profesional experience, unlike me xD)

[abs 2]

(I don't think BIS should hire me though lol, i think their guys actually have profesional experience, unlike me xD)

lol...really? Yea, they've done a fantastic job promoting the shit out of ARMAII....oh wait, no they haven't.

Don't put yourself down, man...I always enjoy your videos. I've shown them to a lot of people at work and they all think they're brilliant.

Abs

[Flash Thunder 10]

Before we are allowed in a building, we first need character control that would allow for it. Maybe it's just me, but does anyone else think, that if BIS made the character movement indoors feel really fluid and nice, it would also improve how the character feels in all other situations?

I know Arma is supposed to be above all the FPS games by actually atatching you to a real body, but sometimes i feel like a complete robot. The movement is just so unsmooth.

Just my opinion anyway.

And thanks for all the comments on my video! Much apreciated!

(I don't think BIS should hire me though lol, i think their guys actually have profesional experience, unlike me xD)

Its messed up because each animation like Side stepping for example has alittle lag time to simulate the weight of yourself when the mocap guys did there stuff they were all fully geared up.

Thats what I heard.

Also the FOV is alittle too zoomed in, nothing like compared to Dragon Rising.

I think you, Chammy, Roberthammer, and Binko should be hired on over at BIS.

I think you would do a great job showcasing new info for OA, Arma 3, get everyone hyped up like how Modern Warfare IW trailers do. :D

My friends love your work.

[.rascal 10]

Interesting Flash Thunder but why does it work outside then? I don't see how animations relate to this "inhouse" movement problem. I mean the house itself is as much part of the geometry as everything else and it's not like a floating thing so it should have the same feel like outside but whatever it is, this is as richiespeed13 stated, indeed a very annoying thing.

For me most problems occur when i want to lurk in the floor (half outside half inside the house) Feels like i am not properly able to turn myself around as i want. Weird.. :j:

P.S. My guess is that the complex bounding box of the player somehow collides with the house collision proxies.

Edited November 13, 2009 by .rascal

[Steakslim 1]

Interesting Flash Thunder but why does it work outside then? I don't see how animations relate to this "inhouse" movement problem. I mean the house itself is as much part of the geometry as everything else and it's not like a floating thing so it should have the same feel like outside but whatever it is, this is as richiespeed13 stated, indeed a very annoying thing.

For me most problems occur when i want to lurk in the floor (half outside half inside the house) Feels like i am not properly able to turn my around as i want. Weird.. :j:

That's because the player model is made not to clip to the best of the engine's ability (which is why laying prone on radio towers and such can be a pain in the ass when you want to aim around), that includes the gun. If you are walking through a tight hallway, say the one leading to the ladder in the tv antenna, if you wanna turn around quickly, you'll have to either aim down and turn, or rest the weapon and turn, otherwise you're rifle will be blocking you from completing the turn. In some games, the player model is coded to automatically lift the rifle to prevent the clipping or blocking issue (Crysis for example though clipping still happens), but ArmA1 and ArmA2 do not, and it has been done manually or improvised.

I assume you meant "lurk in the door(way)" which is a good example of this issue in effect. Most doorways short of a few are narrow and many will try to sidestep or lean to peek their head out to look around. Well when this happens, the muzzle of the rifle gets stuck because the body of your character is pressed against the other side of the door frame, or being blocked by the door frame itself. You pretty much figure a quick way to fit your body in and out of the doorway quickly while being able to peek around.

Now if anything I've said is wrong, someone by all means correct me, but this is just my understanding on the CQB interior movement issue.

[cri74 10]

@Richie - your vidds are great, your able to capture the game with images and sound blended with music that no other are able to :) Simply beautiful.. keep up the good work !

About movement inside buildings - its kind of annoying that i cant strafe around corners and if the new one of the new islands are going to be CQB as i picture it beeing inside buildings and clearing buildings this will be a problem compared to other FPS games (even though "you cant compare Arma to other games") Maybe its my "rifle" thats to long and keep getting cought in the doorways :P A smoother way to move in arma would provide for more action filled scenes in close quarter battle and player vs player.

[.rascal 10]

Interesting food for thought there Steakslim. Would be cool to have a dev confirm your assumption but it sounds logical. And yes i meant doorways. Well, i guess i have to find me another place for lurking then untill this issue gets eventually fixed in Arrowhead! :rolleyes:

[Guest]

Well i think that's the main thing with the Arma series, is that it was primarily designed for long range encounters. And for that subject, it does a very good job. But this is why CQB does not work too well.

Basically, in Arma 2 you are tied to a physical object, your character. This is great, and we can all agree it works very well. However, because of this, ALL movement is tied to animations. That wouldn't be a problem, but Arma 2 has the most perfectly lifelike animations I have ever seen.

"So what is the problem with that, Richie?"

Well, i think, in my opinion, the perfect animations are something no other game has. Why? Because in other games you "float". So when you move, you start moving slowly and then build up momentum. When you slow down, you begin fast and lose momentum. The same applies to turning, crouching, going prone etc.

But in Arma 2, all of these actions, moving, stopping, turning, are just animations, which your camera is stuck too. So instead of slowly building up speed as you start to run, you instantly, in the blink of an eye, go from standing still, to full on sprinting.

But when you want to stop, the player must first finish his current animation, as with all other movements. Solution? I do not know. I don't know how it would be possible to gain smooth movements without scrapping the whole "attatched to a real body" idea.

(Try this, run down a steepish hill at sprint speed, and let go of move foward. You will complete the current animation you are on, (like, putting a leg foward), and then, just, stop...)

Again, it is only an opinion, and may be totally wrong. What do you guys think?

Edited November 13, 2009 by Guest

[maddogx 13]

...

Now if anything I've said is wrong, someone by all means correct me, but this is just my understanding on the CQB interior movement issue.

I think you pretty much summed it up. To put it in my own words, Arma2 doesn't work very well for interiors because of three things:

1. strict collision detection

2. full body and rifle geometry simulation

3. rigid animations (no adjustment for nearby objects or walls)

Most games simplify the player geometry and its interaction with the world - Arma2 does not (points 1 & 2). To improve movement inside buildings BIS would need to change point 3. The "simplest" thing to start with could be soldiers automatically lowering their rifles when facing walls or other objects up close, as the animations already exist. I guess that would do a lot of good. Anything else would probably involve inverse kinematics, making it a lot more complicated.

[^Th0mas^ 10]

Why is there no advertising for this game? Gameplay movies and trailers?? Just some random screenshots. Want to see some action :)

[SaBrE_UK 0]

I don't think it is necessary to make the character slow down before stopping or take a while to get to full sprint. Shooting running AI with them only to stop dead is one of my few pet hates about Arma2.

[Alex72 1]

Now if anything I've said is wrong, someone by all means correct me, but this is just my understanding on the CQB interior movement issue.

Nope thats exactlly how it is. What bugged me a bit when we got ARMA2 is that BIS didnt at least make the doorways and some spaces inside wider. First thing when i got into some house i came into it and couldnt turn around. So i had to back out. ofcourse one would want a better solution, but i hoped at least that they would make doorways etc a bit wider. Really horrific situations when your inside and need to go out when the enemy is out there lol. You cant lean and take them out but have to first go straight out - and then turn. Bang your dead. Ouch.

So if the core changes for OA doesnt make this better - then please BIS make doorways etc slightly wider. Just so we can lean/move out sideways. :)

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Here is an interesting, and possibly controversy, idea:

We're now getting IR lasers to ease targetting.

We're getting FLIR systems to help finding hot targets.

What I'm seeing in all real FLIR and NVG footage, is very limited resolution from the devices.

What I'm seeing in VBS2 videos are resolutions only limited to the PC monitor.

For NVGs, I find numbers operating with 64 line pairs. Not entirely sure what a "line pair" is, but some material mentions 480 lines as an extremely good NVG system. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

So I decided to test it in Arma2. I started a night mission, and when I set 3D resolution to 50%, I ended up with 532 or something. Also, the NVG noise (PP effect have to be on), looked way nicer than when running 100%. To bad I could "only" go to 50%.

With 100%, and considering how Arma NVGs have "unlimited reach", you end up with a damned high accuracy on identification. At night. From very far away. Very unrealistic.

I recently watched a heli movie on youtube, and how tough it was for the pilots to do any identification using FLIR. They could barely see that the possible threats had weapons. In VBS2, it appears you can see it the weapon is safe or not, or count bullets in a G36 mag :)

Everyone screams about how realistic VBS2 is, but now I'm starting to wonder.

Should we have a forced 3D resolution of x lines in these devices to recreate the toughness of identification process? In singleplayer, you'd probably just space-scan anyway. But if this can be turned off in multiplayer (it can now via adjusted difficulty settings or forced off via mission scripts), it wouldn't make the Apache gunnery station so convenient. We would have "legal" blue on blue situations if the communications weren't in. Apache gunners won't become the uber player on the battlefield.

Sure, give him protected cockpit (from small arms), but also give some of the drawbacks. Both are realistic. Well, I think. Ideas?

[bobocz 10]

Here is an interesting, and possibly controversy, idea:

We're now getting IR lasers to ease targetting.

We're getting FLIR systems to help finding hot targets.

What I'm seeing in all real FLIR and NVG footage, is very limited resolution from the devices.

What I'm seeing in VBS2 videos are resolutions only limited to the PC monitor.

For NVGs, I find numbers operating with 64 line pairs. Not entirely sure what a "line pair" is, but some material mentions 480 lines as an extremely good NVG system. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

.........

Hi,

we can pretend, that they use up to date HD FLIR ;), look on this page and video http://www.gs.flir.com/products/unmanned/starsafirehd.cfm , Star SAFIRE® HD is full HD flir, but probably they only upscale data from senzor to HD video.

[Flash Thunder 10]

I really hope that the lighting part of the engine gets an improvement, those spot-light looks horrible, I know they dont cost alot in terms of performance but seriously maybe we can have an option???

The game would look incredible if the lighting engine was updated.

Texture Streaming, Improved LOD Scaling especially while zooming in.

Caching textures/objects on local RAM, BIS alot of people have more than 2 GB of RAM now. :o

I got 8.190 GB RAM

Improved textures, more textures, more of those awesome Parrellax mapped textures.

Better skydomes, more animated skies, small details like Jet Contrails etc.

Improved vehicle physics/handling, beta patch is nice but take it even farther.

Some type of ragdoll physics, nothing over the top but some simple stuff like collision, ragdoll deaths, and destruction.

More polished Interface and MP Lobby.

Better compression of Music and Sound Effects, I heard the music suffered in quality because of the compression.

Special effects improvement, multi frame muzzle flashes.

Support of 64Bit and 8GB RAM!!!!!!!

More weather and Heavier rain storms, overcast etc.

AI, to use everything available to them, vehicles, statics, ammo crates, enter buildings, and have a reaction time so they aren't crazy accurate and fast, AI more independant with less babysitting and scripting.

Please try to expand the game alittle on all fronts even though its an expansion if you do well i know alot of people that would buy the game and Arma 2.

[Guest]

I agree about lighting, it isn't that bad at all, but if we could stop lights shining through buildings it would be great!

I hate seeing a car drive past at night, and even the side of a house the lights can't reach, it gets totally lit up lol :P

[maddogx 13]

At the moment only the directional light from the moon and the sun casts shadows in Arma2. All other light sources are "simple", meaning they shine through everything. Performance-wise I guess this is the best solution, but it's obviously not pretty.

Making all light sources cast shadows would probably be a very bad idea, since there can be any number of them in one area, causing multiple overlapping shadows and additional render passes for the scene (if I'm not mistaken) and ultimately vastly reduced performance. Ideally, only the most "important" light source(s) at any given time would cast shadows, while the rest of the scene is rendered normally. (The "importance" of a light source would be a function of its brightness and distance to the camera.)

If it is even possible to implement multiple shadow-casting light sources in the engine, I think BIS should add a "Lighting quality" option to the video settings. "Normal" would be the standard rendering solution we have now, "High" would allow for one additional shadow-casting light source in the scene and "Very high" would allow two. Maybe even add an "Ultra" setting for three or four. I don't know.

[EricM 0]

Could deferred lighting help ? Probably not for OA... Maybe for Carrier Command...

We shall see.

Edited November 18, 2009 by EricM

[instagoat 133]

I´m really looking forward to OA, even though the things I´m hoping for that´ll be changed are probably a little bit too lofty to come true.

A less convoluted and more direct squad control interface, for example. Or AI using advanced tactics such as using fireteams to set up a fire base and flank, or withdrawing to set up an ambush.

However it´ll end up, though, this one is a surefire buy.

[Lhowon 10]

I was thinking, given the emphasis BI seem to be putting on rooftops/balconies in the new maps (judging by the screenshots), maybe we can hope for AI that deals better with hard cover? At the moment they have a very annoying habit of going prone behind walls and ledges and staying prone, instead of kneeling/standing and shooting over them.

This has been a problem since ArmA 1 (and probably OFP) and was often seen on Avgani. But seeing as BI are basically making their own Avgani-style maps with a lot of roofs and second-storeys perhaps they'll work on the AI so that they behave more intelligently?

We can hope :)