Blake

Do you really think those game servers run on a single (even high-end) PC? They are coded from the beginning to be massively multiplayer games using multiple servers for same game world etc.

I have a feeling that 1600-3000m for example is not the absolute view distance, maybe that is just the max range you can spot individual trees and objects. I think you are able to see mountain ranges and other features at around 10km or something, similiar way how it's done in Oblivion. That's what the screens look like. It's interesting to see is 1600m or other range the standard mp view distance now.

But that's what BIS has been doing all along, like presenting working real stellar constellationts as features which have been in OFP eons ago. On the other hand, naturally the want to get new customers which are not familiar with the original title so it is perfectly reasonable.

Load the game with FlashpointResistance.exe, NOT with operationflashpoint.exe.

Load the game with FlashpointResistance.exe, NOT with operationflashpoint.exe.

WW2 online method of adjusting sights would be great and simple enough. Especially with guns which shoot on high trajectories like 7.62x39mm AK-47 it's important to set the sights right. I remember bullet drop being something like 24cm on 7.62x39mm at 150 meters and over 40cm at 300 meters. So if you'd aim somebody in the head at 150m with sights set on 300m your bullet would fly over him. And vice versa, you'd hit his torso or leg at 300m if you'd aim with incorrect 150m setting. Needless to say bullet drop at ranges above 300m is extremely big. So I think it would be really necessary to cover the ballistics in AA some way if they have not already done so. Wind is a factor too, at 300m with sidewind blowing hard 10m/s, 7.62x39 bullet would drift left or right a whopping 110cm. But granted that does not have to be modelled, I'd be happy with sights and bullet drop. SMG's firing pistol ammo which have much more drastic bullet drop and vulnerability to wind. High-velocity 5.56mm or 5.45mm bullets of M16 and AK74 fire from pretty flat trajectories and bullet drop is not as significant at ca.300 meters, maybe around 10cm? I'd figure lighter bullets like 5.56 are somewhat more vulnerable to wind though but on the other hand they fly around 1000m/s...somebody could drag out some ballistics data. Overall I just suspect it's too late to put these things to AA if they are not already implemented.

Im no programming expert but having few low-poly rotor blades spinning at fast speeds should not cause any serious performance issues in my opinion. For example a fast-spinning detailed vehicle wheel is not a performance issue in OFP either.

Well if they are going to realism you should not see blur on screenshots because it just 'stops motion' as in OFP - you can catch flying missiles and shells. I believe that is the case and not that they lack some sort of fancy blur effect. What would be the logic of having non-blurred missiles and shells in-flight and blurred rotors at the same time? I believe also AA has more advanced GFX than OFP:E and better engine, thus no such crappy looking rotor blur effects. The rotor blades *really* move, not just turn into a blurry texture. Naturally they move so fast you can't see the blades in-game but screenshots reveal them.

Or if you have fast enough camera you can take pictures of flying choppers with seemingly static rotor blades, kind of like those pictures people have taken from flying bullets. So i presume taking screenshots will do the trick of 'stopping them' and proves that there are no artificial rotor blurs in AA.

Looking at the screenshots, I think not! I think the new 7600 series Geforce PCI-e card has one of the best performance/price ratios. I would not buy aging 6600 or 6800 series card at this point anymore.

ArmA code is certainly optimized from OFP days, just think that OFP:Elite runs fine on crappy 733mhz CPU Xbox and that game is pretty much based on Armed Assault code. I believe Armed Assault will be less CPU intensive and leans more towards fast video cards. CPU limits start to show when you experience slowdown ("lag") with huge amounts of troops on the map but I believe BIS has improved code so that more units can be put on the map. Today OFP relies almost entirely on CPU since even poorest semi-modern video cards can run it and you don't even notice hardly any difference in frame rate between 640x480 and 1152x864 resolutions for example. In Armed Assault I believe the relation between screen resolution and performance shows more. I have XP 2600 AGP system and I'm still wondering wheter just to upgrade my Radeon 9600 card or refurbish the enire machine for Armed Assault. Idea of buying just reasonably fast AGP video card now and then make full upgrade sometime in the future when seriously faster processors hit the market is also appealing. I have a habit of not upgrading CPU until I get at least 2 x computing power compared to the old CPU at an affordable price.

1985 or other SP campaign missions need to be reworked to make them work properly in multiplayer because SP campaign triggers and scripts often work only on one player. Just adding players to the campaign is not the solution. So far I am not aware that anybody has converted 1985 campaign into properly working MP missions.

Hi, I made a less-serious 'Easter map': co@ 8 fdf raiders of the lost treasure.FDF_Suursaari Cya on Sunday (or earlier if the server is open).

Quite the opposite in my opinion. If you look at http://ofp.gamepark.cz/news/pics3/armademo_2.jpg and see how many hills are there on the map in that area. Then compare it to this http://joe.simnet.is/sarah1.jpg and see that the distance between towns (Honoria and Gulan) is a tiny bit on the map but IRL it's gotta be at least 1km. Judging from these aspects the island's total land area looks to be around the promised 400km^2 (20km x 20km).

This is off-topic but since I hear these FDF comparisons done on this thread quite often there is need for some clarifications. FDF WW2 stuff was done by around 5-6 people. First few units were made around December 04, then there was some pause until things got very active in later spring 2005 and that activity lasted till June. Virtually nothing happened during June-September period and we decided it will not be released before Armed Assault comes out and declared that the work has been halted. Then, rather soon in early October sudden spark of motivation hit us and we started working actively on the project again but decided to keep mouths shut in case we would lose our momentum again or AA would be released the next day. AA release for Christmas looked increasingly unlikely as time passed so we decided to release FDF WW2 on December 10th 2005, main motivation was probably to get some new stuff to play with until AA would come out. Thats it. I'm also looking forward to Invasion 44 release and really hope it will not be delayed until Armed Assault which has been pretty elusive title to say the least...

Had a blast last time, especially that Paratroopes mission on Karjala was extremely well coordinated and 2 losses we sustained were mostly due to poor luck. Credits to Fat Tony for accurate mortar fire and Reaper Hardrock for excellent leadership.

My XP2600 + Radeon 9600 runs Oblivion pretty OK with 800x600 and does not look to bad except the grass is disabled, as well as shadows and Anti-Aliasing (due to some bug). I've completed the main quest and a load of side-quests and now I've started again with some great mods: Bedroll - you can buy portable bedroll to sleep anywhere Deadlier traps - traps like heavy spiked logs falling from roof kill you instantly as they should IRL Random Oblivion Creaures - Randomizes creatures found in the wilderness and dungeons (not their loot) making you face sometimes very dangerous opponents and sometimes easy ones Respawn Time Changer - Disables monster respawning in dungeons (they respawn after 72 hours or so) SNeat - Forces you to eat couple of times a day or face skill/fatigue penalties SNsleep - Forces you to sleep 6-8 hours a day in bed/bedroll or penalties occur SteelLevelingLitsts - Makes bandits and others carry more ordinary armor and equipment, makes magical items more rare SteelWeaponBalance - Makes weapons more effective and realistic, evens the gaps between armor protection provided by materials eg. Steel and Iron not having ridiculously high differences in protection I've collected all these mods here: http://koti.welho.com/amustone/oblivion/

I don't that character switching is such a bad thing in single player, it will overcome some AI issues and make battles a bit easier to control. Though I would have loved some kind of squad/platoon command system which you could order entire squads or platoons to move somewhere in real time.

I concur with previous posters, seems like a graphics update mainly leaving the AI and other issues as they are. Fine, I can live with that as it's what I was expecting but I'd like to see at least some very basic tank damage realism, like tanks being easier to destroy from sides or rear than from the front section.

It's possible to order SB Pro PE without credit card from for example here: http://www.okaysoft.de/sbp.htm They put some extra fees in it think, check terms of payment and delivery first...

Excellent suggestion indeed.

My SB Pro PE arrived yesterday and it is definately worth the investement. The terrain is big 20kmx20km section which you select from a map of 80kmx80km and there are plenty of those big accurate satellite-based IRL terrains to select from. The editor is great and offers quite a lot of possible scenarios and other stuff for the designer. There are lots of vehicles of which not nearly all are fully simulated, but of those done fully the M2A2 Bradley for example is great fun and requires different approach than main battle tanks. I'm just simply saying if you liked first SB or have interest in modern armor this is a definite have, the command of platoons in the map also plays like a realistic RTS in itself. The replay in 3d is great fun as it shows exactly who shot who and where and what damage it caused with great detail. Well these are just shortly my first impressions scratching the surface for good deal of hours but this game definately has longevity and value for money more than I expected. If you are familiar with SB then you learn this pretty quickly but it is definately more than graphics update, its completely new experience and very very immersive. I put some yesterday's shots and videos here: http://kyllikki.fi/temp/sb/ My rig is 2600XP with 1024MB and Radeon 9600 and the game runs pretty well on 1024x768 32bit with the high detail settings. So no fears of the power-hog that T-72 BoF was.

How's the AI? Does it launch smoke grenades for cover? Do BMP-1s and 2s use missles also in addition to their main guns, do some more thinly armored enemy vehicles flee when faced with heavy armor?

Damn that looks great, awesome shots. Can't wait to get the game! How's the mine damage, do you get cut track once you hit a mine and is that modelled in the 3D model too? Hows 120mm Rheimetall with Sabot, is hitting T-72 at any distance a virtually guaranteed kill or have you had instances or requiring something like 3 shots to kill it (if you hit in a less vulnerable place for instance). How's the performance against T-80? How's the efficiency on 105mm gun?

Couple of Leo1 interor/exterior shots would be nice and some savannah and italian terrain for sure