esti_the_big

I find disappearing soldiers after an explosion rather dumb, it kind of destroys immersion a bit for me. They should just stay where they are and not fly around, or a pre-made flying animation like in call of duty (though not so hollywoodesque) should be added to dead bodies when they're near an explosion. And pre-made death animations for when an explosion occurs. But just making them disappear appears just as silly.

I dont expect ragdolls in AA, but I'd say they're a must be integrated in ofp2, just because by then I 'd say its going to be a standard in games (actually, its already now a standard in action games and rpgs and strategie games are gonna havingit as well right now). in 2007, the ppu will be out, hopefully established well and then ragdolls must be integrated in ofp2, actually, it won't need any ppu with the power needed then. 2years are enough time to integrate a good working ragdoll system. What decides if its good or not are just some minor adjustements and parametres, 2 years are enough to make those parametres so the animations look good.

I Ragdoll would be implented, it must look good, the body should have realistic masses, max pane 2 and H&d 2 are still the best when it comes ragdolls. Peronally I'd prefer a bigger diversity in pre-made death animations, if they can maintain the quality of the ld animations it would be great. What should be implented is a hit recoil, meaning that when you shoot a character he reacts realistically (check out perfect dark on n64). If done really good, ragdolls are ok, and if AA would use the ppu, ragdolls would be the best choice, since they wouldn't hit performance that much...

I just hope it won't be like when OFP was first released. It lasted 4 years until there was a PC which could actually run the game in full detail (all textures up and very high view dsitance) But since the engine was actually optimized, I guess it'll run better on most machines than ofp1...

any new infos on the mission pack?

coding on LSD? well, all I want is dynamic dstruction, no matte rhow its implented

Well, I guess these new articles certainly certainly delivered some more speculation material about the usage of the DDS System (Dynmaic Destruction System) in ofp. That bridge, the fuel station in ofp:e, the (probably) definitive introduction of it in vbs2... Any thoughts?

Might be true... But its still far better to have it actually coded in the engine than having to script additionally to ofp...

Wasn't that "pre-modelled" dstruction released as an OFP addon? Like the destroyed parts of a house being replaced by new, destroyed-looking models? Dynamic Destruction would mean that the destroyed parts would also look more or less excatly accoring to the physical interaction that happend. If you shoot 2 times at the same part of the building, the chances are big that the 2 holes would look slightly different because of minor differences in shooting angle or stuff like that....

From what we've seen until now theres no true decals on soldiers. Theres an older pic from the press release (http://xn--kvrulanten-e6a.dk/arma.dk/images/photoalbum/64.jpg) you see a soldier there in the background. It looks like the well known damage textures have been applied. Same goes to the trailer, in the end you see some fighting, an explosion and afaik I thought there were also the good ol damage texture there. We have to keep in mind that those were old AA pics and that it could have been changed, but I think they're leaving it just as it for AA. It'd be a nice improvement and it would have its benefits of course (visually, looks more realistic, better immersion, and also you see where you hit someone), but the old system did a pretty good job as well and BIS might spare that for Game2... After all there's still things that would be a much greater improvement for AA like dds and better AI for example. But who knows...

Good thought there, can make sense Though I don't see a reason why BIS should avoid implenting it AA as well, because the tiny break with immersion that might occur through destructed buildings (If bis doesn't find a way to keep buildings destroyed throughout a normal campaign, afaik its not impossible to achieve that) would be nothing compared to the benefits of atmosphere, interaction and realism DDS would bring. That bridge btw... just looking at that pic I get the feeling its not really blown up with DDS, but just maybe a pre-animated destruction thing like the gas stations in ofp:E. The pillars have got different hight, but the parts with the broken edges look kinda the same on all 4 pillars. though still hard to judge from that tiny pic. I do hope I'm wrong . Or at least theres dds for normal buildings...

I hope we'll get word by some dev to actually clear up the situation if Dynamic Destruction will be included in AA. We got 2 Mags, and afaik one of them says that there WILL be dynamic destruction in AA while the other doesn't say a word about it

Its great to see a developer trying to stay independent, but yeah, as stated above, its hard and brings some problems. Best thing one can hope is that Armed assault or whatever game is published are going to sell well, as it seems the thats the only thing BIS can rely on. Good sells definately need a good marketing, especially in america where OFP isn't really a big brand, whereas OFP is a game remembered in europe (at least in germany where mag editors still compare pretty much every new tactical shooter wirth ofp). I hope BIS succeeds, they definately earn respect for this step, as its the best thing that could have happend to us gamers, a game which is compltely what BIS and I guess the community as well wanted. I'd pay twice the price if its to help a developer stay independent!

Sounds great. Overall, some combat chatter would do great in your mod. Like your team guys talking low with you, when they think an enemy is nearby they'd silently speak some sound file (like ecp combat chatter).

True to some point, though you forget that world interaction is the next big thing to come. Imagine the possibilities of good dynamic destruction system, a constantly changing battlefield where every AI and player action leaves its traces in the world, where bombings open completely new tactical options in urban areas. The problem is, people seem to think dynamic destruction would be too hard to make. Well, if the ppu thing ever gets used in ofp, the lego system would suddenly be a very realistic thing, since the ppu IS specifically made for rendering huge amounts of physical objects interacting with each other. Something normal processors won't be able to do. If another system than lego would be used, well, its not impossible as well. For me its not that important to actually see the building collapsing, seeing how stories break down etc, but more important to see the result. It's the result of a bombing with which the player will have to cope with. If he wants to see the collapsing building in all its macabre detail he'll have to be really close and he'll be probably dead then anyway. So I wouldn't care if you only see a big dust cloud and a bit of explosion effect but not the actual destruction taking place (just like the vbs1 videos showed). When the dust cloud goes away, a realistic ruin should be there, rendered accoring to the physical interaction which has taken place. That'd be dynamic enough for me. And pre-generated rubble piles are perfect enough for me to add to realism. And its exactly that system which has already been used in more games than people think. Not in Half Life 2, the engine only allows a lego system there which is too processor demanding for huge buildings to collapse (without ppu). But Red faction, soldner, black and white 2 (though without real physical effects taking place), magic carpet 2 etc. all already had that system (even ages ago). It demands clever programming, but when made right I'd say it would be perfectly possible even without ppu as the past has shown. The system shown in the vbs1 videos would be perfect enough for me. I mean, better to have a bit of dynamic destruction than have completely nothing and just static buildings which stay whole even after a carpet bombing. I do hope some dev reads this

Well, almost every implentation. The only true dynamic destruction system up to date had to be red faction (http://www.redfaction.com/images/screenshots/013101/ps2/01_31_01_02.jpg). While parts of the environment did react realistically to damage in terms of parts being blown away, it still lacked a descent physics engine for debris. The system was improved in red faction 2, but the devs didn't truely use the system to its full potential since red faction was primarely a ps2 game, ps2 which had very limited ram (and ram was what the destruction system most of all needed). But nevertheless, there was no scripting included in the destruction there, no predefined breaking points. You just had tell the game what was to be destructed dnamically and what not. The rest was made by the engine, which substracted on the fly polygons from the level, the substracted parts were rendered according to the damage the player induced. From what we've seen of game2, it seems to use a lego-system for buildings, which could mean that it doesn't truely modify meshes like red faction but just moves the single bricks away from each other...the bricks themselves stay as they are. But not sure there, since I thought some of the first pics released showed ruins which actually didn't seem to be based on a lego thing, since there were diagonally broken edges etc which wouldn't be possible with a rectangle brick system. They also announced terrain deformation, which of course won't work with bricks. But afaik, dynamic destruction for terrain isn't as hard to program as true dynamic destruction for complex models like buildings (where the destruction of a part can produce chain reactions and new passages etc.) ... a lot of games featured dynamic terrain, like sacrifice from shiny entertainment 5 years ago, and many strategie games.

A war simulation like OFP just also needs a dynamic destruction system, it'd be a huge enhancement, especially for urban fights. And I think its perfectly implentible in AA, I guess its just a question of how many features (which were game2-exclusive before I guess) BIS wants to already show in AA. After all, it was already possible in vbs 1 it seems.

It'd be great if someone could clear up the case with those vbs1 videos... they're official videos, they're called "dynamic destructable buildings". And afaik nothing has been released atm. link for movie: http://www.virtualbattlespace2.com/media/movies/movies_1x.rar And then theres this rumour about the destructable gas stations in OFP elite... Could help some clearing that up as well?

uh... comon help me a bit I saw a trailer for vbs1 showing it off, but was it now really included in vbs1 already?

pretty short, but nevertheless impressive

hmmm... that bridge. Will there now be dynamic destruction also in armed assault?

gonna have a look at vte then... But yeah, ia drang using unsung jungles would really rock (especially as I said before for converting old ia drang missions) but to change subject... are you ging to add some napalm effects to ure missions/mod? There was this quite old napalm addon (somewhere on ofpec), it actually looked great, and it was really impressive when you could call in air support and then shortly after hell would break loose. Not funny, but definately scary...

Been there, done that  Where is it then?! (I hope with these great new jungles then...) Ah CJ... its always the same answer I get from you no matter how I try I'm starting to get really confused now... well I guess thats what you're trying to achieve Hope never dies... Well, then keep up the great work! hoping your mission pack is coming soon!

How bout a Ia drang remake That island was just so gorgeos...

Are we free to use your vegetation for new islands?