ARMA II Beta Builds Released: Latest version/build: 1.04.6xxxx

[TheCrusader 10]

Here my observations after a bit of testing with the new patch:

Greater drawing distance:

Looks gorgeous, the view from down a hilltop is astounding!

If it would be possible to draw the trees even further out (like buildings with kju's mod), this would make a great addition perfect IMHO.

Freetrack support:

Great addition, which should really help the ppl who cannot (or dont want to) buy a TIR set.

Thumbs up!

AI behaviour:

The AI seems tweaked in that they use, for instance, grenade launchers much more than before and seem generally rather triggerhappy (which especially seems the case with gunners of APC's and tanks), making them ferocious in close combat, which I like.

Good job BI!

The vanilla AI has really caught up with the SLX modded one I think, and even surpasses it in most cases IMO.

The only thing SLX AI still has a lead is that tanks, which come under fire, pop smoke, which the vanilla AI seems hesitant to do.

I think adding this feature would be a great.

All in all I am VERY pleased with this beta and the general direction the patches have taken lately.

Patch 1.5 is going to be wicked, something to really shut up all those "ARMA2 is bugged" kiddies ;)

Congrats, BIS!

Edited November 28, 2009 by TheCrusader

[ginger mcale 11]

Thanks for FreeTrack support BIS! Had not expected to see FreeTrack support from you for ArmA 2 or future projects after all the discussion for months at the forums. Suprise suprise here it is. Really good

[xeno 234]

Oh BI, please...

Fix those MP CTD bugs, pls.

Still happening too often even with the latest beta.

Played a 50 player event this evening, constant client CTDs :(

(specially at the beginning for those clients that were using vehicles)

Xeno

Edited November 28, 2009 by Xeno

[C-zom 10]

Argh, any news on fixing the engine startup CTD's and the numerous others for vehicles?

[mazza 1]

I think BIS should to just seperate the two.

Have your normal View Distance slider and then you have your Object Draw Distance slider. :)

It would work out better like you said I can have a 3KM Viewdistance but have a 10KM Object Draw Distance.

More optimization and option for the players wouldn't hurt, don't expect to see this for awhile though.

Loving these beta's, Im going to have to make myself a freetrack device or just buy that fancy TrackIR 5. :D

Agree. Especially as was the case in a Warfare mission I was playing. I right click zoom and see a armed vehicle (armed ute) and then when i un-zoom the vehicle dissappears but i can still see the trees behind it?? Its not logical.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Nothing will beat arma1 maps, they're the best. The only thing arma2 is better than arma1 is visuals but comes with a PERFORMANCE HIT! some of these fixes are in my opinion secondary, it's like: here is a stalled car for you to drive but we will fix the windshield to make it run better.

Actually, when I tried CAA I had more performance hits around trees than I have in Chernarus. I think Chernarus trees are a lot more optimized than CAA ones, although there is still some ground to cover.

CAA was for me basically not playable at normal texture res. Didn't even bother to try low textures, even though I'm sometimes forced to switch even in Arma2.

I love both Sahrani and Chernarus. Sahrani was easier to find good tactical playground for missions. Chernarus looks more natural somehow, but it's hard to make missions for it.

[zeep 3]

I don't see the point in rendering all that empty scenery..

Really? More viewdistance, more awareness of your surroundings etc. I'd rather see a lot of ground then otherwise! Claustrophobic gameplay is no fun ;)

I would like separate settings for objects VD, one for nature/trees, one for houses etc and one for units.

My performance takes too much of a hit with the latest beta. To get equal performance as with earlier beta's i have to drop VD to 1500. I'd rather have it like before with kju's addon where my VD can be 3500 and i have SOME objects already drawn and others, like massive fps hitting trees, not. To each his own i guess.

[nomdeplume 0]

Agree. Especially as was the case in a Warfare mission I was playing. I right click zoom and see a armed vehicle (armed ute) and then when i un-zoom the vehicle disappears but i can still see the trees behind it?? Its not logical.

Those vehicles have something wrong with their LOD settings and disappear much earlier than most other vehicles. I thought it'd been reported before but can't find it at dev-heaven.

Was reported here: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/4638

Edited November 28, 2009 by some kind of guy
Found bug report

[mazza 1]

Those vehicles have something wrong with their LOD settings and disappear much earlier than most other vehicles. I thought it'd been reported before but can't find it at dev-heaven.

Ahh ...makes sense. I should have not been so quick to post. I observe the same. Tanks etc no issues, only the ute with gun.

[Zipper5 74]

Argh, any news on fixing the engine startup CTD's and the numerous others for vehicles?

I don't get any engine startup CTDs with the latest patch. I think you've done something wrong.

[bensdale 0]

Oh BI, please...

Fix those MP CTD bugs, pls.

Still happening too often even with the latest beta.

Played a 50 player event this evening, constant client CTDs :(

(specially at the beginning for those clients that were using vehicles)

Xeno

+1

Same problem here!

armaII crash when a other client with me in a vehicles drive (iam the driver) or fly. but this is werry random...

CTD without a message

[nkenny 1057]

Great work. Particularly AI seems more trigger happy than before, though it might be wishful thinking on my part. The new view distance tweaks are neat though KJUs solution felt more subtle.. or polished even.

On a side note I managed to destroy a building by fire ring 5.56s into the wall. (from inside). This was one e of the larger buildings in Mogli... moglu... Mogliveka.... Bug? I don't believe the building was 'softened' up by any form of HE fire before either. *shrug*

- k

[ComadeR 0]

[60588] Fixed: MP client could not use laser designator in vehicles. now you can use laser in vehicles? or what

[rundll.exe 12]

AI really engages from greater distances now wich make the firefights much more interesting, but also more difficult for the player without a scope :P

A downside from this: when the 'reviving' module is used, and you get hit, waiting for first aid, the medic takes ages to get to you even when you're quite far away from the enemy. I guess this is due to the increased awareness and AI medic keeps looking, crouching in the direction of the enemy.

On the other hadn, this behaviour keeps AI alive longer, but it seems a bit too much.

[Bouben 3]

AI really engages from greater distances now wich make the firefights much more interesting, but also more difficult for the player without a scope :P

A downside from this: when the 'reviving' module is used, and you get hit, waiting for first aid, the medic takes ages to get to you even when you're quite far away from the enemy. I guess this is due to the increased awareness and AI medic keeps looking, crouching in the direction of the enemy.

On the other hadn, this behaviour keeps AI alive longer, but it seems a bit too much.

Yes, AI decision making is really slow. And that reminds me one thing, that when you set AI to crouch position and order them run somewhere, they almost in every direction change in their movement stop. That is really anoying especially in escape situations, when you forget to set them "copy my stance".

And they are really slow in combat movement anyway. Order them run under fire in open enviroment and they stop every few meters, so they have absolutely no chance to survive against (not only) static enemy. And it cannot be evaded by setting them in AWARE mode, because after that they are still doing slow moves like in COMBAT mode if they know about some enemy. So I think, that AI is quite "useless" or maybe is better to say jammed, if they don't follow you (then they are sometimes useless too). Situation is not so critical in dense enviroment with lot of buildings and fences tho but thats not enough.

Edited November 28, 2009 by Bouben

[Simon C 0]

[60588] Fixed: MP client could not use laser designator in vehicles. now you can use laser in vehicles? or what

Think it's the UH-1Y this is on about, the laser designator in the Observer seat. :)

[Gumzster 10]

A bit off topic perhaps, but you guys should really REALLY consider updating the demo to reflect the state of these patches. I was reluctant to buy the game because of the demo. It wasn't until I saw the game running at one of my friends that I bought it.

It's an absolute blast to play now...nothing like the choppy demo.

Oh and...first post, so hi everybody :)

[Jezza5555 10]

I'm loving the way the AI helo's are actually targeting as they should along with the AI door gunners under human control. Infact anything in which the AI is gunning via a vehicle is much improved.

[sparks50 0]

A bit off topic perhaps, but you guys should really REALLY consider updating the demo to reflect the state of these patches. I was reluctant to buy the game because of the demo. It wasn't until I saw the game running at one of my friends that I bought it.

It's an absolute blast to play now...nothing like the choppy demo.

Oh and...first post, so hi everybody :)

Yup, same thing about the Armed Assault demo.

But they will probably come with a demo for Operation Arrowhead, and in OA the latest Arma 2 fixes are integrated.

So thats the updated demo for you.

Edited November 28, 2009 by sparks50

[NoRailgunner 0]

Like I said some posts ago the medic/corpsman is too occupied with combat behaviour even if he is close to wounded units... :rolleyes:

Still the angle of attack for AI in planes and helicopters is too high/steep. Often they arent able to recover the aircraft, dont accelerate and gain altitude fast enough - in the end they crash into trees/buildings. Would be great if AI in aircrafts would be much smarter and reliable.

bug - if AI gunner is killed the AI pilot still engages the targets.

solution #1 - AI pilot disengages and follows +1000m behind the group

solution #2 - AI pilot land the aircraft and stays close to it (make an option to disband him)

[jw custom 56]

So i did some testing with beta 588.

First i was disappointed because performance took a noticable dive down, but after a lot of tweaking i got it running smoothly. Yet again it was the mouse smoothing option vs max pre-rendered frames settings that did the trick :cool:

It seems that AI is much better with path finding in cities, infact i just tested on Avgani and i didn't have to constantly babysit them. So thats a great progress but it can still get better specially when it comes to buildings :)

I have anybody noticed that radio comments like "scratch one" at times is very delayed? I did notice that several beta's back but wasn't sure what caused it.

All in all this beta seems very nice, but will do some more testing.

[markushaze 10]

Hello all.

I noticed something playing the mission Cipher v1.41b with the latest beta (60588):

We were creeping through the woods, when we saw some enemy on a clearing next to a truck.

In the betas before, we could sneak up on them, and take them out.

Now as soon as one of us engage, they all turn simultaneously, and open up in our direction... is this intended?

I think it was not so extreme before, they had to search a little before immediately zeroing in on us... Now it seems, the do it immediately after the first shot is fired ... however they are not ak snipers.

This of course is probably the result of the tweaked sit. awareness.

Does this have to do with the know about value ?

Otherwise, absolutely great these updates.

the depth of field effect when using PP ( low) is awesome.

now if we could get either separate sliders for all the effects

or

At least separate sliders for the bloom and the rest of the effects :-)

pretty please :-)

Thanx for your awesome work BIS

*update*

I have anybody noticed that radio comments like "scratch one" at times is very delayed? I did notice that several beta's back but wasn't sure what caused it

yea noticed this as well....

[zeep 3]

Performance really takes too much of a hit for me in the latest beta. :(

60141 is nice and fluid, 60588 remains very laggy, even after tweaking resolution, objects LOD etc..

I hope BIS can tweak out some more performance soon..

[jw custom 56]

Just noticed they changed the muzzle flash :)

[Ferujo 10]

For listening to your customers and implementing the Freetrack in your beta patch!

I didn't test it yet, but i'll do it as soon as my work gives me a break.