New Beta build 70184 is up!

[SASrecon 0]

http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

Wow it seems BIS are working really hard at this!

No news regarding what they updated yet.

Changelog still says the same

[69714] "enablesimulation" fixed on dedicated server

[69683] VoN volume slider

[69599] Optimized: Texture loading done on background thread.

[68990] Improved: Reduced stutter when looking around, esp. with visibility 5 km or more.

Gonna give it a try a.s.a.p

Oh and the Arma2 beta builds 1.05.6xxxx forum should be changed to .7xxxx to avoid new threads :p

[Fox '09 14]

hope this fixes some artifacts I get with my graphics card. Introduced with the no-changelog versions...

[thhamm 53]

no-changelog versions...

maybe there aren't any changes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo

just kidding. :)

[otrebla_snake_ita 2]

hahaha xD

[AnimalMother92 10]

Yeah the lack of changelogs is creeping me out, I bet BIS is just messing with us :p

[darthmuller_cro 10]

;1623324']hahaha xd

hahaaaaa!!! X2!!

---------- Post added at 09:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

;1623324']hahaha xD

Comme on Cratian coast to fish some zubatac.... :)

Edited May 6, 2010 by darthmuller_cro

[bravo 6 0]

Jesus.. 3 betas in the same weak..

Am i drunk or what ? :)

Good to see betas poping up "every 30 mins"

Edit: Long live BIS!

[MavericK96 0]

Yeah the lack of changelogs is creeping me out, I bet BIS is just messing with us :p

I'm almost inclined to agree with this. :P

But whatever, going from 1.05 to 7xxxx has definitely improved my performance and gameplay experience (i.e. much less crashing) so I'm sure there's some fixes in there somewhere.

[darthmuller_cro 10]

Yeah the lack of changelogs is creeping me out, I bet BIS is just messing with us :p

New beta patch 69645 may appear not huge based on the change list, but it contains very significant changes under the hood.

As the changes were made to the engine core, including the core memory allocator, extensive testing is badly needed.

Download at http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php or directly from ARMA2_Build_69645.zip, feedback welcome.

__________________

[MavericK96 0]

One way to determine if anything has been done is to look at the patch filesizes.

Build 69782: 20,627,181 Bytes

Build 70054: 20,631,368 Bytes

Build 70100: 20,631,946 Bytes

Build 70184: 20,505,860 Bytes

Interesting that each new beta up until now was larger than the last, and now this one is smaller. I haven't compared the actual arma2.exe filesizes, someone else can do that. And there's no real guarantee that the difference in size equates to actual useful changes. But it is interesting, nonetheless. :cool:

[thhamm 53]

I'm almost inclined to agree with this. :P

But whatever, going from 1.05 to 7xxxx has definitely improved my performance and gameplay experience (i.e. much less crashing) so I'm sure there's some fixes in there somewhere.

same here btw. (so stop the conspiracy theories, all) :p

[MavericK96 0]

Well, whatever they did in this new beta actually (objectively) made the game worse for me. After flying past Chernogorsk only a few times, I got a complete CTD with an "Out of Memory" error (never really gotten that before). I also noticed a lot more texture flashing at a distance, and even sometimes the textures in my cockpit (A-10) would flash white for a brief moment.

Here's the relevant portion of the .RPT:

ErrorMessage: Out of memory (requested 3 KB).
 footprint 582916896 KB.
 pages 16384 KB.

Link to 8a06571b (Obj-202,80:1819) not released
Link to 8d0709d8 (Obj-225,104:472) not released
Link to 8d27233a (Obj-228,105:826) not released
Link to 8d471f05 (Obj-227,106:1797) not released
Link to 8d471f06 (Obj-227,106:1798) not released
Link to 8d471efe (Obj-227,106:1790) not released
Link to 8d471702 (Obj-226,106:1794) not released
Link to 8f4816fc (Obj-258,122:1788) not released
Link to 8f4816fd (Obj-258,122:1789) not released

That top message was actually displayed to me in a window after the game crashed to desktop.

[thr0tt 12]

Doh. ;)

[Rexxenexx 0]

Testing on dserver search "Beta SoCal". BE and Sig checks are enabled, also 250 MaxPing. So far so good running Warefare BE lite.

[quicksilver67 10]

Still getting the same Pixel shading error with this supposedly fixed version of the beta. ("Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0" I have not gotten this error with any other beta (and I've been on board for more than a dozen) except these last two, EVER. My init. line is as follows:

"D:\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta

BIS has screwed something up with the last 2 beta patches. Reinstalling does not work. CTD fatal error.

Older betas work normally.

*Unhelpful advice is unhelpful*

Edited May 6, 2010 by quicksilver67
Additional Info.

[=silver= 0]

Well, whatever they did in this new beta actually (objectively) made the game worse for me.

Agreed.

Just tested performance after new beta-patch. Comparing to previous betas: in Benchmark 01 average framerate drops from 34 to 26 (everything - VeryHigh, except Normal terrain and AA, Low post-effects). After such result I've decided not to launch Benchmark 02 :)

Btw, 1.05.62017 - in Bench01 my rig (Ci7-920@3500, 3x2048Mb 1666Mhz DDR3, GTX285, Win7U x86) usually shows me 38-40 fps.

Edited May 6, 2010 by =SilveR=

[MavericK96 0]

Still getting the same Pixel shading error with this supposedly fixed version of the beta. ("Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0" I have not gotten this error with any other beta (and I've been on board for more than a dozen) except these last two, EVER. My init. line is as follows:

"D:\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta

BIS has screwed something up with the last 2 beta patches. Reinstalling does not work. CTD fatal error.

Older betas work normally.

*Unhelpful advice is unhelpful*

Maybe make sure that your shortcut "starts" in the ArmA2 folder, not the ArmA2/beta folder? That's all I can think of.

[quicksilver67 10]

Maybe make sure that your shortcut "starts" in the ArmA2 folder, not the ArmA2/beta folder? That's all I can think of.

Naw, can't be that... the directory isn't setup Arma 2/Arma 2/beta... The beta is in the main Arma 2 directory. I'm back running 69782, and it's working fine. Something else has changed. I'm running an Nvidia 250GTS OC with over a gig of onboard GDDR3 RAM and the latest drivers, so it's not a graphics shortfall on my side. I think it has to do with the way the Nvidia card is responding to their shader changes.

[MavericK96 0]

Naw, can't be that... the directory isn't setup Arma 2/Arma 2/beta... The beta is in the main Arma 2 directory. I'm back running 69782, and it's working fine. Something else has changed. I'm running an Nvidia 250GTS OC with over a gig of onboard GDDR3 RAM and the latest drivers, so it's not a graphics shortfall on my side. I think it has to do with the way the Nvidia card is responding to their shader changes.

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering I'm using nVidia as well and I don't get the shader error.

What I meant by the shortcut is (example):

Target: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta -nosplash -world=empty

Start In: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\"

Make sure it is like that and the "start in" is not in \ArmA2\beta

[Rexxenexx 0]

GTX285 no probs here.

[MavericK96 0]

Okay, just did some testing with the last 6 betas and 1.05, Benchmark 1 only. Semi-interesting results:

Settings:

All settings at Very High unless otherwise noted.

-Post Processing at Low (I never saw a performance hit from turning it up, but I like the way it looks better on Low)

-Video Memory at Default

-View Distance at 3566

1.05:           49 FPS
Build 63826:    48 FPS
Build 69645:    48 FPS
Build 69782:    48 FPS
Build 70054:    46 FPS
Build 70100:    48 FPS
Build 70184:    45 FPS

Notes:

-While 1.05 seems to give the "best" performance, the stuttering is definitely a LOT worse than in some of the other beta builds. Since Benchmark 1 only measures average FPS, the stuttering doesn't really show up in the results. But believe me, it's a lot better in some of the other builds, specifically 70100.

-The latest beta (70184) definitely messed something up performance-wise since the last beta (70100), since it is a full 3 FPS less and the stuttering seemed noticeably worse.

-Overall, the best beta for me so far is 70100. I've gotten no v-buffer creation error crashes, and the performance stuttering-wise is much improved. I did still get a CTD after playing for a couple hours in MP, but it's still an improvement over the other builds, where I'd be lucky to play an hour without some sort of crash/slowdown/failure in the renderer.

[nomdeplume 0]

Still getting the same Pixel shading error with this supposedly fixed version of the beta. ("Error compiling pixel shader PSSpecularAlpha:0" I have not gotten this error with any other beta (and I've been on board for more than a dozen) except these last two, EVER. My init. line is as follows:

"D:\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta

BIS has screwed something up with the last 2 beta patches. Reinstalling does not work. CTD fatal error.

Older betas work normally.

I can reproduce that exact same error message by omitting the mod=beta part, works fine with the beta mod specified.

Here's the sizes of the files on my system from beta 70184; I think the shaders are in bin.pbo:

addons\ui.pbo - 19,785,511 bytes

dta\bin.pbo - 4,745,085 bytes

dta\languagecore.pbo - 1,509,742 bytes

and arma2.exe from the beta is 11,255,808 bytes (hasn't changed size since 69645).

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Suggestion for beta system when OA comes out: Let those who use the beta patches know all the changes (that are kept track of internally). Mark each changelog entry with beta if it is not a change compared to the last stable release, and then just strip away all those lines prior to including it with a new stable release.

Anyways, downloading now...

[quicksilver67 10]

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, considering I'm using nVidia as well and I don't get the shader error.

What I meant by the shortcut is (example):

Target: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta -nosplash -world=empty

Start In: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\"

Make sure it is like that and the "start in" is not in \ArmA2\beta

Ah you can't launch the beta without using the beta folder. If you try to put the " " anywhere else, you get an error message... or at least, you should. My vanilla 1.05 works perfectly. My beta 69782 works perfectly. I didn't change a thing in my init line for the new beta, because they all go in the same place. I'm reporting that now, for whatever reason, my game does not function while running the last three beta updates. It functioned normally with betas before that. It's a shader error, and I know they played around with the shaders, so the question for BIS is: what did you do? The performance dropped off, and some people (me included) are seeing CTDs.. either in game, or prior to launch. Whatever you did, please DO NOT release it as part of the next official patch. In the meantime, I'll experiment with the betas as they are released to see if they start working for me again.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

I'm often using simple radio triggers during mission testing etc. Even without addons I'm now getting all unset radio slots (if my trigger is Radio Alpha, that won't be affected) with **** To TRANSLATE. Through the previous last few betas I always thought this was something that ACE was working on, so I haven't reported it anywhere.

Just started some initial tests, and appear pretty smooth so far. One thing I noticed though, some of the AIs that used to follow me around, now instead follows the leader again. Needs to be checked with others, my testing is a bit vague at this point.