troop

^ Get a l(w)ife!

This mix, but especially the dropped settings should prevent the error. (phys. Vidmem overflow)

Matt; please read pg. 7 and 8 here (read all, if time). http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....16;st=0 Your solution (for now) is therein.

^ Interesting;..please share the results!

Sorry for OT; some will need this. Hopefully, some similar mod will be made for ArmA for people having problems.. Stalker;..remove head-bob. http://stalker.filefront.com/file/No_Headbobbing_Mini_Mod;77365

Im sorry mate you are obviously REALLY wrong on that one. Why dont you go visit AMD and clear yourself up The 165 is a single core the 170 is a DUAL CORE.(heck you could see that pretty clearly in the benchmark pics I posted...) But just to set you straight,heres a little link for ya Opteron 170 Dual Core.... As for having NV card nope, ATI guy(I am aware that this is also an ATI driver issue as they have YET to make any sort of fix with the handle leak issue or provide any kind of working Crossfire profile) Of course, the Opteron 165 is an Dual Core Prozessor as well. I got both; 165 and 170 and both are Dual Core. The 165 is maxing out (here) @2x2.8GHz; the 170 @2x2.6GHz (core failure above that)

I second this wish. This tool was/is very helpful and I would also love to see it back with ArmA SP. Use it;..or dont.

Here is the relevant Stalker thread about head bobbing and it *does* affect several people (because the effect is vastly overdone) http://tinyurl.com/2lo3dl Of special interest is pg. 5 following...to at least tone it down somewhat (config file user.ltx value change .0). For me it worked thus far, to be able to at least play the game. With the initial value(0.7), I was getting sick within 5-10 mins. From this and several other games/thread(see ArmA now), one can clearly see that not every game/technique impacts everyone alike. Like I wrote before;..it is very personal.

I dont think, that what is there in the campaign of ArmA can be 'patched' to an level, CWC or Red Hammer or Resistance was at. Personally, I *very* much hope that in due time an *true* campaign will be created for ArmA (with all of its superior possibilities! ) which blows everything else out of the water. I really do. I'm aware, that this will take an (awful) amount of time and much more;..but then again, I somehow feel the wait will be totally worth it. I really do. Dear god, make it happen. Everyone is waiting for it. I'll gladly pay for an extension, which will make me play it numberous times, just like the former ones. - ArmAs;..played once with showstopping errors..wont play again. (wth happened?)

^ Very true. Check also for more info on patching problems and what can be done: http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=60871 and http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....31;st=0

Biggus, if this(autorun) only causes problems recently, it may also be an hick-up of the OS. Do you run XP or else? You did not mention in your initial post. Provided, your DVD-drive is still ok, and to remedy said hick-up, do the following. Open device manager, find your DVD-drive and (rightclick onto) 'uninstall' it. Then close device manager and reboot. The drive will be recognized by the hardware wizard anew and 'installed' again using standard OS drivers and parameters. Then, try again to open/display *several* discs including ArmA in Explorer to display their content. If that reading/display action takes more than 5 secs, your drive is presumably dead or close to fail completely. What happens?

From what you wrote I assume, you are relying on Autorun of CD/DVD inserted? Are your other games/installations normally started automatically? If yes, did they stop to start automatically (try some) lately? There are many programs today (burning progs, for example) which are turning off the Autorun features of the OS (because its a 'known to cause problems' feature) and thus, it could be you installed some prog, which turned it off. Did you try to start the setup.exe from Explorer/DVD-drive directly? Please note; the name could be different from 'setup.exe' for example: launch.exe or similar; read below. (just look into the autorun.inf on DVD, which process is started in there, then doubleclick it in Explorer)

Well, I have to add an 'new' experience for motion sickness and headache for myself. In my entire gaming history, I never had any problems related and the very first game, that caused me *serious* problems after just some (5-10) minutes was... Stalker. I am very positive, that it is the game (bobbing frequency up/down/sides, intensity and speed) which is, for lack of better wording, out-of-sync(for me). Just to name a few; none of those cause me problems. All of those are in parts *very* different wrt to bobbing/FOV OFP and now ArmA series (+ TrackIR! ) BF series HL2 Doom series Quake series Bet on Soldier series Brother in Arms series Duke Nukem 3D Rainbow Six series (Vegas last one played) GRAW FEAR Farcry CoD series Alien vs Predator series Unreal/Tournament series System Shock series You see, that is only a 'fraction', nevertheless widespread selection of FPS games. Yet, the *only one* making me feel physically sick, for the very first time is Stalker. Btw, I could not read about anyone else affected by Stalker yet;..so the effect, *which* game/technique causing the sickness, is very personal. When it happened to me after all those years of gaming, I was seriously shocked, believe me that. Luckily for me, the bobbing could be toned down somewhat via config files (unlike Breed mentioned above) so I was able to play the game.. pheew. For ArmA, I believe its not the 'floating view' intensity (which can be altered via slider) but rather the up/down frequency, which is out-of-sync for your brothers feel. Very little, we can do about that;..there is no config value, correct? BIS?

I had ArmA running on all three generations of cards mentioned. 6800: no fog (like in the comparison pic posted) 7800: no fog - 8800: 1.05 heavy fog 8800: 1.05+ clearly reduced fog, but not as 'clean' as former generations.

I have to agree, that the AI in Stalker is the first AI of *any* other game (FPS/tactical shooter) that impressed and 'surprized' me *since* OFP original and now ArmAs AI. Yes, it has flaws as well. But still. Take F.E.A.R.s AI for example. It earned alot of praise, but it only had very limited environments to navigate and only 2-3 different 'path' to get you. Stalkers AI is clearly superior to this. imo. However they did pull this off;..they did *very* well, imho. Had me jumping not only once. And I think, we can all agree upon, that ArmAs AI can 'learn' alot from Stalkers wrt. close quarter combat and actually *using* cover/move/shoot/move/cover/shoot. Combine those;..that would be phantastic.

@BIS I really love this new patch even if Beta. Major performance increase for me at same settings, fog bug dealt with, choppers reloading properly and completely stable here. Your hard work never ceases to amaze me. Thank you! (very f...... much! ) Well, I never had those install/crash/performance problems anyways, so I *really* feel sorry for all you guys that do experience so many bad things with ArmA and cannot enjoy it fully. I am, of course, aware of the gameplay bugs and do not want to nullify them with praise. Its just that me is seriously impressed.

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....;st=165 That is, what I tried to explain in own words. Thanks to Suma for the insight.

I have also preordered from Play.com (1.04 version) and install/patching went effortless. I agree, that the errors you posted point towards corrupt install/patching process or indeed bad install disk. Can you try on second/friends PC? Or lend another DVD-drive? Some suggestions. Do you use Prime95 or Orthos stress testing to test now and then the overall stability of your system? If errors, those should be able to give you an idea about. OFP and now ArmA as well are very sensible to underlying system gliches (also caused by overclocking/to sharp RAM-settings) and are thus able to point out weaknesses, whereas 'other' programs (especially games) are way more 'forgiving'. And yes, my PC is overclocked(Opt165 @ 2.8GHz) and I installed ArmA 1.00 german and then later ArmA 1.04 english + patching all patches throughout without any errors(yet). (Prime95 and Orthos stable; no errors during several hours) Also, installed both versions(testing) on both of my PC;..no errors. (second = Opt170 @ 2.6GHz [higher = core failure])

No; Directx is not automatically updated..*except* the already installed version exhibits an security problem and *must* be patched. Thanks for the info;..trying upon coming home..

My computer > properties > advanced > System(x) > settings > advanced > pagingfile(or virtual memory settings(?) > change > disable paging file > commit(! ) On drive C: (others) in the top window, there should be no more visual paging files displayed. Then, you need to reboot.

Disabling the pagefile helped with OFP (and many other games) as well. Just though you must keep in mind to *enable* it again after your play session of ArmA, because a vast amount of programs depend on that paging file. All kind of errors occure, if you try to keep it disabled permanently. Whats more? If you try to force the pagefile to be disabled(fatal for Windows 2000! ), at least Windows XP will create an *hidden* one in its directory anyways. This, however, is not an fully *functional* one;.. think of it as some kind of 'emergency' paging file. (reason: to thwart the heavy BSOD problems of W2K, if user chose to disable paging and thus the OS entered some critical state) There is an workaround however, if you want to try it. If you got enough RAM, you can use specialized(sp?) software to create large RAM drives, to put the *mandatory* (for some programs) pagefile upon it. (Cenatek, for example) There are benefits and drawbacks, of course. Maximizing RAM is always the *best* solution; in addition with an modern HDD with low access times, large cache + own channel for the HDD, that holds the paging file. vs having lots of RAM + creating an pagefile on an RAM drive;.. but *only* for *those* programs, which heavily depend upon an existing, 'real' paging file. Drawback is the software/driver administration layer inbetween to create this RAM drive. When it works; all good with good results. -- Edit: Ohh, and I also want to add the possibility of an dedicated, solid state RAM drive (i-RAM, RocketDrive, HyperOS Hyperdrive and others) which can be used for that purpose. Main drawback is the hefty price tag...for, say 8GB(upto 32GB)

beire;..if you cant get ArmA to work stable right now on your current setup (despite *all* tips given here and elsewhere), and you do have the chance still to get an refund from your shop, I would advice that you do so now. (Or do an dual boot XP solution for less; -not none- hassle) - Since there is still no official word by the Devs about future/ever Vista support (that I know of) it would be the sensible choice. You can later (and be it in 2-4 weeks from now) always pick it up again; and even at an reduced price maybe. The decision is all yours at this time. Many gamers decide against Vista still because of an heap of driver/else problems. Many games *could* run(even good), but as long as there is no official logo on the box, you are on your own(as with ArmA). Unfortunally.

^ I do not think, it is an bug. Its an design change vs OFP, but I must say, when I first have seen this black square, I immediately felt negative about it. When I play SP with AI teammates, I make use of the 'move there' function for single soldiers a lot. You know;..going into (shooting)position yourself, while keeping your back and flanks covered by 'sensible' placement of your AI. Just something important for me and my playing style. Keeping everyone close in about any formation you got, its almost an surefire way to lose a lot of men due to one enemy teamleader firing an wellplaced grenade amongst you. I really like to spread out, if situation permits. Tool of choice is of course the map placement icon, because you just cannot spin around all the time (and have aiming difficulties) and have your men placed around you. If setting up yourself in some bush(es) i.e. you wanna place your guys around you in spots, which are not in your *own* direct line of sight. So, OFPs crosshair was way more precise and me, for one, want it back/changed badly. To really see, what is so annoying about that black square, try to position(city) an full squad of 11 men (editor test) in close vincinity of 10-30m around you...oh noes! You will just see *nothing* left of your map because of map-overlaying squares/AI-mate numbers! Its bad. imho. Ohh;..by the way: I also did like the OFP style team member/enemy map icons (little circle and facing line) much better. Is this only nostalgia or are those 'older' icons of more practical use? Those new icons just gobble it all up. - I dont want to whine. But if its not planned for change in the game itself, may I simply rob on my knees(! ) for an mod maker, who can implement the 'old' icons? You *got* your six-pack, man! I promise! Just remembered, someone already implemented NATO symbols or somesuch as mod, am I correct? If you read this; pretty please? Thank you!

Hi Maddmatt, Does this mean, you get something different than this black square? If so, please post an screenshot, what you have got; thank you! Do you have the OFP-style crosshair or something entirely different? And Maddmatt;.. I do *not* refer to the 'marker', you can place on map (doubleclick) and give an name for/change color. (I am sorry for the unfortunate wording in my first post;.. I have changed the word 'marker' for 'icon' which is more correct.) - And as I wrote;..since ArmA release, meanwhile I changed drivers 3 times and cycled through every settings there are. So I dont think, its the driver (can an Ati card user please confirm/deny FAT black square on *movement icon* for troops placed on map? Thank you.) OFP movement icon looks like this (sorry, no screenshot right now): ---- | . | ---- whereas ArmAs is just an filled, oversized, black square. (ArmA 1.0 through 1.05; german and english version here) Tested on Nvidia gfx-cards 6800GT GLH 512MB AGP 7800GS+ 512MB AGP 8800GTS 640MB PCIe - drivers: ForceWare_93.71 (WHQL) ForceWare_93.81 (BETA) ForceWare_97.92 (NGO; modified) Edit: Ahh, thanks Nepumuk! Anyone else? Game version numbers + gfx-cards + drivers added.

smile. Now, wouldnt that be an *very interesting* joint venture? Imho; the best of both worlds-technically.