User Add-On Guide for more Realism and Immersion (ACE2-based)

[pwnage_51 10]

@The.D

The more I mess with this stuff, the more I like just using ACE2, SLX, WARFX, and the the sound mod of my choice. I add the SLX_NoSurrender, SLX_NoFirstAid, and slx_birds from the optional stuff. This way I can use either the ACE2 or ArmA2 first aid systems and the ACE2 surrender system.

I'm just trying to figure out what overrides what from the original post. I mean, doesn't GL4, SLX, JTD, and WARFX all have there own special effects and even sound mods in some of them? Its all very confusing, lol.

[the.d 0]

pwnage_51: Yes, indeed - very basic graphical and few sound effects (such as very accurate super sonic bullet cracks) are added by GL4 and SLX. I tuned them way down, though, so they are more "supporting" effects for whatever "main" FX add-on you might choose to use. Feel free to turn them off altogether, especially if you feel you get a system overload (max no. of particles reached etc).

From personal coop experiences I cannot confirm having had any problems with all the effect mods turned on, but for larger battles, it might be a good idea to dismiss things like WarFX and disable GL4's effects initialization. What's sure is: These mod, if anything, work cooperatively and look amazing when used together - there's no compatibility problem with either of them (if properly configured).

By the way: I highly and sincerely recommend to use GL4 + Zeus AI - the battles against AI and their corresponding evasive actions and maneuvers are almost frighteningly close to human behaviour at times!

EDIT: I just had time for a very quick test run with an even further reduced SLX set-up. It looked quite promising. In the test game, I couldn't detect any additional or "abnormal" AI behaviour. Check the first post and let me know what you think. For the "Casual ArmA Players": Please use this new SLX_lite set-up in our next gaming session - hopefully, it'll work a lot smoother!

Edited March 18, 2010 by The.D

[pwnage_51 10]

@The.D

By the way: I highly and sincerely recommend to use GL4 + Zeus AI - the battles against AI and their corresponding evasive actions and maneuvers are almost frighteningly close to human behaviour at times!

So when you use these two together, do you still give the enemy AI waypoints or do you just let them do there own thing? When using full SLX, I don't have to give the AI any waypoints or anything, I just put them down in a town or village and they automatically enter buildings and somewhat disperse themselves around the area.

[TimRiceSE 10]

Regarding the group splitups... are you sure its not just when theyre low/out of ammo? GL4 feature.

[Daniel 0]

Great to see this back The.D.

Can I recommend this for @Misc?

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7137

Night Lighting Effects by Sakura_Chan

Greatly improves atmosphere during night missions. No performance hit.

[pwnage_51 10]

@The.D

I must have had something setup wrong when I was first testing this stuff. When I went back and ran just ACE2, GL4, and Zeus I was shocked, IT WAS AWESOME! Better AI means less AI needed in my missions to make it challenging which means less stress on the server.

[jdmt 12]

This is AWESOME.

[the.d 0]

Daniel: Thanks! I didn't even know that add-on existed! Just tried it, liked it and added it!

pwnage_51: Glad to hear you got it sorted :-)

[jdmt 12]

One of these appears to be adding a First Aid function to those that are wounded, even if ACE Wounds is on.

[domokun 515]

The.D: great to see starting this type of thread. I really appreciated it in A1.

Last night we got p4wned big time by the AI and gradually everyone started bitching. It wasn't until this morning, when I checked your recommended ArmA2Profile that I realised I'd previously tweaked the Skill and Precision for the AI too high. So I'll be testing your values this week. They had better be good or else my clan will have my guts for garters!

In the meantime, here are a few mods in the same vein as Sakura's Light Fix, i.e. nice visual improvements for little or no overhead, so you might want to add them under Misc:

JTD Fat Rain - 1MB

JTD Flies - 2MB

GTD RPG sights - 2MB

GTD HDR - 1MB

Just a word of warning: JTD Fire & Smoke is awesome but we've stopped using it because it is too taxing for most of our machines. I'm not saying remove it because if your machine can take the hit it's well worth it. However it's not just a server side mod; it also needs to be install client side to work correctly.

Hope that helps

[the.d 0]

JDMT: Really? Are you using SLX "lite"? Make sure "SLX_NoFirstAid.pbo" is enabled!

Other than that I cannot seem to be able to reproduce this error. Does anybody else get this?

domokun: Cheers! Already using Fat Rain and RPG sights myself :-)

I'll leave the reduced HDR out, though - some effects, "annoying" though they may seem at first, are contributing greatly to the gritty realism that makes out ArmA2's immersion (this is the reason why I decided against reduced sun glare add-ons etc.).

Thanks for your input! I'll add the entries soonish!

About JTD_Smoke: Certainly true, same as WarFX and a "full-scale" GL4 FX set-up it's all very GPU/CPU-heavy stuff. With WarFX it's all near the very particle limit in bigger battles - consider using GL4 (configured as given in the guide) without WarFX and JTD_smoke, for weaker systems. If you do want to use JTD_Smoke, turn off the forest fires - that helps a lot as well. That should always run quite well. What's that about JTD being server-sided only? As it is primarily a graphic enhancement, naturally clients have to install and use it individually - but I don't think I mentioned it's a "server-only" add-on, did I?

[domokun 515]

Glad you're already enjoying some of these already.

You therefore better appreciate of their benefits and limits rather than here-say.

As for "reduced sun glare" don't get GTD HDR confused with GDT Sun.

Personally I agree with the sunglasses mod but only if you character has them and would therefore need to put them on or remove them (rather impractical at night).

You're right though about JTD Smoke & Fire as well as WarFX. Personally my PC can handle both fine. And my SP games look awesome with them!

Regarding GL4 I'm planning to add it to my target line as my machine is our server. Currently my target line reads:

-mod=beta;@LandTex;@DDT;@PVT;@SLF;@GDT;@JTD;@zcommon -nosplash

(where DDT and PVT are Kju's marvellous mods for reducing LOD stutter).

So I'd like to use add GL4 but I have a few questions:

a) Can I simply run GL4 like Zeus? i.e. standalone. Or do I need to edit the missions to add GL4 elements?

b) Given that I do not yet use ACE and that I use the non-ACE Zeus, can I still use your GL4 UserConfig template?

c) Will I loose any functionality if I only run GL4 on the server? i.e. if we don't run GL4 on the clients?

Looking forward to trying the legendary GL4 (adored GL3 in A1) :cool:

[pwnage_51 10]

@domokun

You can run GL4 like Zeus. I did not use the userconfig from the original post. I went through and set up the userconfig to my personal liking. Its pretty easy to do and has good instructions. You don't have to go back and edit the missions, BUT and this is a big but, the AI will act dramatically different. So far every mission I've played using GL4 has turned into a defend mission. The enemy AI are very, very offensive. When they figure out you are in the area, they will persue big time. There is a way to make units stay in one place, but that will require you to edit the missions. There is information on how to make static units in the GL4 documentation.

[Defunkt 431]

You ought to consider coming up with a short catchy name or acronym for this compilation, something that would fit into the limited space available in server names so servers can advertise to players they allow this collection.

[PTV-Jobo 820]

I was just curious, for the SLX Lite, is there any issues using also:

SLX_Anim_Jump

SLX_Alpha_Numbers

SLX_Alpha_Teams

SLX_Melee_Give

SLX_Melee

SLX_ReloadShout

Other than maybe increasing size of the mod folder? What I mean is, will it break anything or cause any bugs, performance hits, etc? Just curious off hand. Been severely ill lately, but bored as hell and figured at least get all of this set up for when I'm better and can finally play, heh.

Thanks again D for taking the time to compile this. Truly helpful. :)

[Birdseye 0]

Very nice thread! It's a great challenge to combine mods efficiently to get the maximum gaming experience!

a few suggestions:

-Dynamic Sound AI (RUG DSAI)

-VFTCAS

-mk4_showinfo_fncedition

at the pvp-scene, using yoma addonsync2009, there might be more interesting stuff to use. To see the contents, look at:

http://pvpscene.arma-creations.com/wiki/doku.php?id=english:list_of_pvp_addons_and_mods:pvpscene_addon_packs:contents

Edited March 19, 2010 by Birdseye

[nuggetz 0]

Why do you say that SLX lite should contain the NoMoveObject.pbo? I like that one. I like moving things around. Does it cause an incompatibility directly or was that a personal preference?

BTW, so far I've been using this "mod" and the AI has been ruthless. Got killed so many times the other night and I dont even think I saw a single AI they were hiding so well and rolling around the ground. I like it.

---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:44 PM ----------

One more thing, how would I go about setting this up using the ARMA2 launcher by Alpinestars?

[the.d 0]

I accidently the whole post .... damnit! Is there a history or something?

Edited March 20, 2010 by The.D

[Rommel 2]

Remember with JTD Smoke/Fires though, a powerful processor is needed or you will encourage script delays due the large amount of processing (lots of instances are spawned, not the actual calculations).

[ZeroG 23]

Yay! Somebody heard my prayers..Thanks D!

[the.d 0]

Rommel: Thanks, I linked that remark in the first post!

ZeroG: Not a fan of prayers - let's see if the guide helps you, though :P

[Kommiekat 11]

I would also like to add to this list:

GIB Copy Stance: Squad copies your stance

VFAI: AI will lob smoke screens and restock on ammo/weapons

gdtmod binocular: giving your binocular view in 360 degree digital readout

Replacement: for Night Vision goggles.....can play with the aperture

[velzevul 32]

I would also like to add to this list:

VFAI: AI will lob smoke screens and restock on ammo/weapons

VFAI Smoke causes soldiers to play "weird" animation as they throws smokeshells up. looks very immersive-breaking.

and rearming didn't work for me at all with this compilation of mods. Soldiers, who was wounded and lost their weapons, after healing just ran away and nether attempted take back their weapon nor take one from deads.

---------- Post added at 14:04 ---------- Previous post was at 13:56 ----------

and about multiple "healing" options in actionmenu.

try to play as medik, and when you wounded, you'll have 2 or 3 such options. even with SLX_NoFirstAid.pbo and without SLX_wounds.pbo.

[the.d 0]

Thanks, Kommiekat - as Velzevul stated, as great as VFAI is in itself, the integration wasn't entirely possible (at least for me). That's mostly due to the fact that GL4 can be configured to let soldiers behave in almost the same way (I disabled it in my predefined configs due to performance reasons and to enable a more "sneaky" approach for enemy troops with flanking and ambush strategies).

Copy stance might be very interesting! I don't have much time at the moment, but starting next week I am on "semi-vecations" :-)

GDTMods are generally advisable, but I won't include them in detail - will set a link sooner or later, though.

NV sensitivity adjustment is already included in ACE2 (try *page up / page down* by default while wearing them)!

Velzevul: I tried it, it seems to be working without errors for me using the given "SLX_lite" setup in the first post. SLX is a bit weird and seemingly "random" at times, though, so I might have been "lucky". Thanks for your input!

[jpinard 10]

I can't believe I missed this. Wonderful thread - thanks a ton!

Edited March 29, 2010 by jpinard