ACRE v1.0 - Advanced Combat Radio Environment - Official Thread (ArmA2 to TS3 Plugin)

[noubernou 77]

Current Version: 1.0.14.224 1.55 COMPAT

Latest Release Date: 11.12.2010

Current TS3 Support: TS3 Beta 36 (TS3 API v8)

We would like to introduce to you the ACRE mod, in production by various members of the A2 community. The ACRE mod links ArmA2 and Teamspeak3 to create a more immersive environment in which we play in, including positional audio, real radio communications and complete compatibility with the ACE2 ArmA2 project.

We intend to create the most realistic and immersive radio system within the current gaming world; based off of real life experience and knowledge, as well as the use of physical terrain obscuration, radio loss, distortion, and all other considers a real radio operator must make on a daily basis.

We welcome anyone to supply feedback on this cooperative project.

- ACRE Team -

WHERE TO PLAY?

United Operations is the OFFICIAL ACRE COMMUNITY! Come play with us at http://unitedoperations.net!

NEED HELP?

Read the next post!

DOWNLOAD

Package: http://raceriv.com/arma2/acre/ACRE_V1.0.14.224_1.55_COMPAT.rar (version warning messages disabled in this release for smoothest integration with 13)

Installer: http://raceriv.com/arma2/acre/ACREInstall_V1.0.14.224_1.55_COMPAT.exe

Alternate (both): http://dev-heaven.net/projects/a2ts3/files

REQUIREMENTS

* CBA - Community Base Addons (not included)

. http://dev-heaven.net/wiki/cca

* JayArmA2Lib (Included)

. http://dev-heaven.net/projects/jayarma2lib/wiki

LINKS

Wiki - http://dev-heaven.net/projects/a2ts3/wiki

Installaion - http://dev-heaven.net/projects/a2ts3/wiki/Installation_Instructions

FAQ - http://dev-heaven.net/projects/a2ts3/wiki/Troubleshooting_FAQ_Bug_Reporting

Community Tracker - http://dev-heaven.net/projects/acrecommunityhelp/issues

FEATURES

* 100% ArmA2, OA and OA Combined Arms Compatible

* Four ACRE-Specific Radios

. AN/PRC-117F man pack radio

. AN/PRC-119 man pack radio

. AN/PRC-148 handheld radio

. AN/PRC-343 personal role radio

* 100% ACE2 Compatible

. Integration with all ACE2 man pack radios, using default AN/PRC-119 statistics.

* PRC-148 now replaces the default ArmA2 'ItemRadio'

* Realistic GUI interfaces for radios, they are the real thing

* Directional speaking for non-radio, normal communications

. Real-time 3d positional information

* Realistic terrain affects for radios

. Signal lose & distortion from buildings, hills, trees, and other objects

. Realistic power output and antenna length considerations for all radios that effect signal

. Realistic frequency wavelength falloff; higher frequencies do not travel as far

. Real-time positional calculation for fast-moving objects

* Separate Push-To-Talk key (non-toggle) for using your radio

. If a person speaks on their radio and you aren't on that frequency, you can hear them 'directly'

* Multiple hotkeys and quick-displays for fast information about your radios

* Players can carry multiple radios on different frequencies

. Hot-swap radio hotkey

. Current radios selection menu

. Pop-up display on broadcast to know current radio in use

* Radios are now considered unique objects within the ArmA2 world

. Radios are droppable and maintain ALL settings for anyone who picks them up

. Program a radio and trade it with a player!

. Pick up your dead enemies radio and discover his platoon's frequency

* Man pack Radios have the ability to use 'PA' mode in a vehicle, broadcast at 40,000mW!

* Custom Squawk sounds for all radio transmissions (credits to Krause)

* Realistic distortion effects

. Normal broadcasting distortion

. Signal lose distortion and noise

* 100% BattlEye compatible

* Performance and desync considerations

. All time critical radio information is communicated via TeamSpeak3, server desync doesn't break ACRE

. Crash/Desync fallback functionality. Sound "anomalies" are no longer possible with lag/desync.

. Optimized distance, terrain, positional and signal calculations

. Use of JayArmA2Lib for Named pipes communication; 0-latency inter-process communication between TS3-ArmA2

. Server side garbage collection of radios to prevent object clutter/long mission lag

. Many fixes for ts3/arma2 crashes, server/mission disconnects

* Global 15 second reset for any of these scenarios

* Dead player and respawn handling for both radio and direct chat

FOOTAGE

ShackTactical (www.shacktac.com) ACRE Mission Scenes

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SSG Clan (www.ssg-clan.se) ACRE Mission Scenes

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UnitedOperations.net (www.unitedoperations.net) ACRE Mission Scenes

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THANKS

* All the official ACRE testers

* TacticalGamer.Com Community for Testing: Krause, ThePieSpy, Zedic, Azzwort, Sandiford, Cro, gr!imreaper, Omega Team, TG Admins, and others

* Shack Tactical (www.shacktac.com) for multiple thorough testing sessions

* SSG Clan (www.ssg-clan.se) for so much thorough testing and dealing with crashes

* Dev-Heaven community for listening to us complain

* BI Forums community for the support

* kju & Sickboy for the dev-heaven space

* BWF's Le Culto and Johnson with A2TS3 for giving us the motivation to do this.

Edited November 13, 2010 by NouberNou
adding v1.0.14 1.55 compat release

[jaynus 10]

NEED HELP?

Before asking us any silly questions and making yourself look silly, please read the FAQ here:

Frequently Asked Questioned

This FAQ covers 99% of the issues which have been reported by new players; including installation issues.

This mod itself is a complex realistic simulator and as such, we have gone as far as we can to making the installation and updating process as simple and smooth as possible.

If you are having trouble installing or using the mod, or are not sure if what you are running into is actually a bug, please refer to our cummunity tracker for self-help from testers and other users.

Community Tracker

If you have further questions, feel free to post here on the forums and I'm sure someone can help assist you.

Installation Guide Video from TacticalGamer.Com

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SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES

We couldn't have gotten this far with our mod without the support of the communities which have regularly tested for us. Thanks guys!

UnitedOperations.Net

Swedish Strategic Group (SSG)

Virtuelle Lufltlandebrigade 31

Havoc Company

TacticalGamer.Com

Edited September 4, 2010 by jaynus
added installation guide video from tacticalgamer.

[noubernou 77]

Place Holder if needed...

[jaynus 10]

*Placeholder*

[rexehuk 16]

Congrats on the release guys, been fun testing it.

[Fox '09 14]

congrats on the release , gona give this a shot!

[usarmy19dsniper 0]

Awesome job guys!

Quick question, what is the max support number of players that can use this?

[noubernou 77]

Awesome job guys!

Quick question, what is the max support number of players that can use this?

I am not sure but we have had I think at least 40-50 people using it no problem.

Technically it should be able to support as many people as your ArmA2 server and TS3 server can handle... :)

[scubaman3D 0]

congrats on the release.

[jaynus 10]

Awesome job guys!

Quick question, what is the max support number of players that can use this?

We have had full 120+ user tests (simultaneous, on the server and ts3) with no issues.

[galzohar 31]

A few question I had in mind:

- How is the range/obscuration simulated? How close to real life do you consider your simulation to be in those aspects? Is the end result closer to being highly realistic or more like semi-realistic-semi-approximated?

- Compared to the in-game direct chat, how does the direct chat work? Is it much more true-to-life? And if yes, is there anything that prevents me from needing to yell so people hear me (and can I yell so that people hear me further away)? Is the max direct chat distance a fixed value but with decaying volume or does a higher volume yell travel for longer distance? Is there any effect simulating the fact I would be speaking louder when speaking on direct chat than on radio or do I just have to speak louder?

- Any effect of terrain on direct chat?

- Does the PRC-148 handheld radio have proper weight for ACE? Do all units still have it by default?

- Are standard in-game means of communication such as side/group/vehicle/direct/global channel is disabled? Text chat? Markers on map?

- Can people communicate normally during the mission briefing?

- Are there appropriate and easy-to-use functions for mission makers to pre-set frequencies to make it easier for players on mission start (preferably during initialization, before briefing even loads)? Can players pre-set frequencies during briefing?

Thanks in advance for any answers!

[noubernou 77]

A few question I had in mind:

- How is the range/obscuration simulated? How close to real life do you consider your simulation to be in those aspects? Is the end result closer to being highly realistic or more like semi-realistic-semi-approximated?

Its pretty close to real life, minus atmospherics and multi-pathing really.

- Compared to the in-game direct chat, how does the direct chat work? Is it much more true-to-life? And if yes, is there anything that prevents me from needing to yell so people hear me (and can I yell so that people hear me further away)? Is the max direct chat distance a fixed value but with decaying volume or does a higher volume yell travel for longer distance? Is there any effect simulating the fact I would be speaking louder when speaking on direct chat than on radio or do I just have to speak louder?

Right now its a fall off in 3D, about out to 50m its pretty steady for game play reasons, but afterword it starts to drop off to about 100m.

- Any effect of terrain on direct chat?

Not yet.

- Does the PRC-148 handheld radio have proper weight for ACE? Do all units still have it by default?

Not yet, and yes they have it by default if they have the radio item.

- Are standard in-game means of communication such as side/group/vehicle/direct/global channel is disabled? Text chat? Markers on map?

We'd recommend turning off the normal A2 VON on servers now. Normal text chat will work as it always has. Markers on map too, there is no change there.

- Can people communicate normally during the mission briefing?

Sort of. It depends if people are in game yet. If everyone is in briefing it should work ok. If it doesn't let us know and we can try and resolve this. There is some issues though about determining if you are on the briefing screen but they are fairly easy to deal with.

- Are there appropriate and easy-to-use functions for mission makers to pre-set frequencies to make it easier for players on mission start (preferably during initialization, before briefing even loads)? Can players pre-set frequencies during briefing?

Yes, but we'd recommend waiting for 1.1 with a dedicated API to do it as the methods now are subject to change.

Just a warning, I won't answer posts like these for long. Almost all these questions are answered in the wiki pages.

[gnarly_rider 0]

You are the man (actually men)!!!!! :bounce3:

[jdmt 12]

Congratulations guys! Proud to be a tester!

[dslyecxi 23]

Great to see a public release, and to have TG running as the recommended 'launch community' is pretty slick as well. Good job to all involved. ;)

[gonk 0]

Fantasic news... now the work begins...lol..I hope you are stocked up on coffee...

[Trracer 10]

Congrats on the release!

This is a must-have for arma2/oa multiplayer. I know I can't live without it.

[m1n1d0u 29]

yeah but you can't play with beta patch snif

[jaromaz 10]

Short range radio panel is still ugly/beta.

:) Edited July 20, 2010 by jaromaz

[themaster303 22]

yeah but you can't play with beta patch snif

you can, read the wiki and manual.

nice that it is out :D really like it. brings arma communication to a new level.

question:

if you have 2 radios, can you listen to both. to speak you have to activate one thats logical, but hearing should work or ?

great work, thanks !!!

Edited July 20, 2010 by themaster303

[manzilla 1]

God damn this sounds wicked! Too bad I don't play MP.(I really should)

Congrats on the release fellas!

[Loggert 10]

You'll hear all radios you've got on you but can only speak in the active one. Usuall loadout might be 2-3 prc 148 and one prc 119 ;)

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

Just wondering, does it work with OA?

[m1n1d0u 29]

you can, read the wiki and manual.

nice that it is out :D really like it. brings arma communication to a new level.

question:

if you have 2 radios, can you listen to both. to speak you have to activate one thats logical, but hearing should work or ?

great work, thanks !!!

you can't with AO beta

[oldbear 390]

New on front page at Armed Assault.info

Link to mirror :

ACRE v1.0 - Advanced Combat Radio Environment (v 1.0) : http://www.armedassault.info/index.php?game=1&cat=addons&id=1500