johnny vet boy b

I've noticed several times that when looking at soldiers running around over several hundred metres away without zooming in they tend to animate in discrete jerky frames although the rest of the game is still zipping along at a steady 60fps (I use fraps and have a top of the range system that runs the game beautifully so it is definately not a low fps issue). And when I zoom in on them the animation becomes smooth, zoom back out they jerk etc. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it something hard coded in the engine to save hardware resources for distant objects by not showing all the frames of animation? And if so, is there a value I can change in a config type file to force all the animations to play, cus it just looks weird sometimes and pulls my eye which is not good for the level of deep immersion I like to get into with this game? Anyway. No biggie if not. Can live with it. Just curious. Cheers Johnny

Glad you're alive and well SpecialEd. Keep boffing the muff.

Patch 1.08 is a great patch in respects except it has changed the view of the optics (before you then zoom in) from being fairly close to your weapon sighting to a much more zoomed out view that, in my opinion, just doesn't look or feel right, the weapon looks like someone else is holding it in front of you on a pair of very long arms! (it suddenly looks like any other 1st person shooter HL2/Doom type rubbish ie, it looks like a "game" now!.I much prefered the pre 1.08 view, I felt close to my weapon as my real head would be which felt incredibly immersive. Anyway. Is there a setting I can alter perhaps, to change the view back, or is it all hard coded and fixed now? I realise this is probably a long shot, but no harm in asking. Johnny.

Oh yeah? What does your Zoom In/Out keybind list the TrackIR axis as? I've tried a few things to fix this on my end and have not had any luck with it so far. I went into that key binding selection and just hit the "default" button, it put in "TrackIr +tZ", and that seemed to be all it needed. Is this what you wanted? Cheers. Johnny.

Right, that sorted it, I changed the zoom in/out button to the default for trackir z, and it's fine. I disable the zoom on the trackir. Thanks for the help guys.

Yes, I am using TrackIr, the latest one. Does that have something to do with it? 4in1 - are you saying that double tap the "-" key will sort it? I'll try this anyway. Thanks for the replies so far guys. Johnny

Hey SpecialEd - how's it all going? Any news on your progress? It's gone a bit quiet and was worried you'd given up! Johnny

There aren't many forums where we can say things such as "tiny men jerking off" and still be on topic. Nice.

I love flying the choppers with my current non forcefeedback joystick and was wondering if it supports force feedback? I did search but no joy so please don't beat me with a stick until I'm bloody. Cheers. Johnny

I'm searching for AI mods and caught a whiff of something called the Seconds Supression Script for changing the enemy AI behaviour when under fire, but I cannot find it either via the search function or google, can someone please help with a link to it so I can try it? Would really appreciate it. Hugs and kisses etc. Johnny

Many thanks for that. Not sure why my search on words like "supression" didn't pick it up, but hey that's life.

I think the AI in ArmA is the one aspect of this game that seems to be under-appreciated, just generally on this forum. Yes, they are not anywhere close to human, but that is probably another 5 years away minimum (to be close enough say 98% of the time?) and is probably more limited by hardware than anything else (multiple cores should help, as that's all a human brain is doing anyway, the billions of neural pathways combining to make our concious/subconcious awareness etc etc). So, bareing all that in mind, I wanted to be one to champion the AI as it stands now. Yes, they can be dumb individually at times, but then you realise they are trying to flank you, forcing a much more lateral approach as both a squad leader or regular soldier, forcing a reaction from you other than just giving you a new direction to point your weapon and fire (ie the general format of most fps's since, well, Doom etc I guess), a change of formation here, an advance order there - yes, I might be the "best" overal brain on the AI battlefield so I can dictate the strategy of the team, and then let them get on with doing a very passable interpretation of a real battlefield, which is the final sugar pill of this game. The balls to the wind excitement and challenge of it. The reason I play.

Just downloaded and started to play mission but my character does not start with any night vision goggles? I can take some from a teammate but then he's without them. I just wanted to check if it was a bug or whether I need to find some in the mission (by stumbling around?!, cus if I need to find some then I'll carry on with the mission as it sounds very promising.

Thanks for that description Ed, sounds great. Salivating at the thought of all that tactical freedom.

Ed - have you tried playing the current version yet, just to see how it's panning out? What does it feel like? Does it feel unpredictable in what's going on around you? (which is what I'd really like, never knowing what might be around a corner or in the next town etc).

Right, I've spent the morning testing ArmA with the new Nvidia drivers and fraps. Using a editor mission with about 6 infantry platoons and a bmp fighting in a southern town. BEFORE the nvidia patch I had general graphics all set to medium, with shadows on high, fps would be at best around 65, but in the town fall into the 40's, but the biggest problem before patching was when making sudden direction changes or zooming in, the game would just hesitate for a few moments which made it feel basically fairly smooth but with quite a bit of intermittent choppiness. And pretty to look at. AFTER patch... in a nutshell, I've noticed a superb difference. For starters, the direction change/zooming hesitation has virtually vanished, with only minimal hesitation when flying a chopper to a new area of the map and I imagine the game is loading new stuff into the memory, or whatever. I've turned ALL the graphics settings upto "Very High", and the fps at best is still over 110, and dips in heavy combat to around 55 which feels very smooth, especially now the hesitation has gone. As for the "Haze/fog/8800" issue, since the betaArmaPatch the fog has gone and I like the haze effect, I think it's a deliberate effect to simulate far distance blending to the horizon. After all, it would be nice to have 10km view distance but the fps hit is too much, and if instead you set the view distance to 4km, it would look silly if the distant horizon was crystal clear and then just "stopped" (in other words, without the haze effect). So anyone with a 8800, get the new nvidia drivers, get the beta patch and enjoy.

SpecEd - when you say "the rest is done", does that mean the project is almost ready to play, or are you talking about being ready for a beta testing session? I had a feeling it was still several months away? Regards Johnny

When I die it would be interesting to be able to move the camera around and look at the battle as it continues instead of the constant slow pan around my corpse - is this possible? Yes, I have searched but to no avail. Cheers Johnny

December - it might seem odd, but I use Kronzkys AI enhancements which give them a much more real flanking and sneaky approach, and if I die it's interesting to watch the battle play out as I've yet to see any battles play out in identical fashion.

I mean free camera in single player? I don't play MP very often as the gameplay is very hit and miss (mostly miss).

I assumed this was a well documented bug and I have done a basic search but cannot find mention of it? So, BIS, in the 0.05% chance this hasn't been reported I shall do so. Simple really, flying any other chopper will attract infantry and fixed emplacement ground fire, but the AH-1Z seems invisible to these defences, only shilkas seem to attack. It's kinda annoying as I've set up missions using this chopper and want more of a challenge from the ground. Is there a fix in the works?

Can I ask as I'm not really computer literate, how do I disable my pagefile? Step by step would be good if it's complicated! Cheers Johnny

I use Kronzkys genius 5 minute mission maker to make large randomised patrol type missions, typically creating standard infantry platoons for the best mix. However, there are times I'd really like to experiment with different tactics that involve taking kit along (e.g some explosives to plant road side bombs, extra granades instead of smoke etc), but I can't seem to find a way of adding special items to soliders inventories using the editor before the mission, is there a simple way? I tried spawning an ammo truck but that only seemed to carry supplies for the standard weapons. I'm not savvy with doing anything to involved with code etc, but if there is a way I'd love to know. Cheers all.

Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Johnny

I use Kronzkys genius 5 minute mission maker to make large randomised patrol type missions, typically creating standard infantry platoons for the best mix. However, there are times I'd really like to experiment with different tactics that involve taking kit along (e.g some explosives to plant road side bombs, extra granades instead of smoke etc), but I can't seem to find a way of adding special items to soliders inventories using the editor before the mission, is there a simple way? I tried spawning an ammo truck but that only seemed to carry supplies for the standard weapons. I'm not savvy with doing anything to involved with code etc, but if there is a way I'd love to know. Cheers all.