DaSquade

Well i considered the ramdisk thingy, but couldn't find much info on it. Are we taking here about equal amount of ram of what arma folder contains (+mods) + windows7 + what ever programs are running and need ram to work without hitting fullhouse? We are taking about +-20Gb. I was considering it but couldn't really find the wanted ram modules. In the end i still need to find the first post of someone doing that and have test versus running it on SSD drives or both. Don't get me wrong, feel free to show me some numbers or facts. We can always learn..but i guess for now i will pass (unless someone wants to buy over my 12Gb ramkit). Anybody can adress my question why ArmA uses 4Gb of GPU ram? Somehow i had hoped i would have a bit left (like said, i haven't full tested on a single screen, maybe there it doesn't uses all gpu ram). Keep in mind i'm pretty noob when it comes to these things (normal ram versus gpu ram). I was just wondering if something could fix it as it looks the GPU ram is the current bottleneck...

Just wanted to give some feedback as i finally got my custom build up and running. *Intel 980x (processor) + Corsair H70 (with custom mount) *Asus Rampage 3 extreme (mobo) *Asus Ares (GPU) *Crucial C300 64GB SSD Sata3 (windows 7 ultimate) & Crucial C300 128GB Sata 3 (BIS/BIA 'games') *2x150GB WD raptor Sata2 (Workstation HD - Database HD) *1x74GB WD raptor Sata2 (reference HD) *1x300GB WD Sata2 (backup HD) *12GB DDR3 Corsair XMS3 + corsair memory fan *Thermaltake Kandalf *3X Samsung syncmaster 2443BW (small bezel) I have it up and running for a good 2-3 days and i'm pleased to say it was worth the money. Everything still at stock speeds. Did some benchmarks (for SSD drives) and they are running at the SATA3 speeds. Windows7 loads superfast (post/bio's boot tends to take awhile but afaik this is normal especially with all the drives...not that a care). Now ArmA: I can finally say (from the short tests i did sofar) it is a must have system if you want to get the most out of ArmA. Comming from a E6600 - 8800GTX - 2Gb DDR2, it is a super improvement. I can run ArmA2OA fully maxed out with the 'needed' FPS (like we know, FPS is only a small part in this engine). Map/mission/texture load is very fast, no stutter (although i had a flicker bug on arma2 1.5 before i upgraded to recent beta etc)... In one word, a complete new game and experience. The one everyone is aiming for, sadly it comes at an insane big price :( . Like said to friends, i guess BIS used this system to test and approve the game... I decided to push it a bit extra yesterday and configured my screens to the eyefinty setup -> 3 screens acting as one single wooping 5700x1200 pixels. Been a dual screen user and always had a small dream to go triple. As expected on normal use the triple screen is no hit on the system. So i pushed it and checked out ArmA2OA. As expected aswell, with the previous settings i was able to get the system on its knees. Still need to fine tune it, but i nearly got it playable without all to much loss of quality. Personally i don't think it is currently possible to build a system (on the market) that can max out ArmA2 on a triple screen setup. Some interesting facts i noticed in the short tests i did: *After renaming the ArmA2OA.exe into ArmA2.exe to get crossfire enabled, although i have the Asus Ares (crossfire based card) with 4Gb on internal ram, i noticed under stress it was using the full 4GB of ram (on triple screen, forgot to check with a single screen at 1900x1200). *I haven't looked much into it, but i yesterday thought i read even the latest beta isn't fully multi tread compatible, refurring to the shortcut key where you manually define the amount of cores and treads. Not sure if i can use my custom numbers as the ones on the forum are quad core based, but i have 6 cores (versus 4) and 12 tread (versus 7). Guess a mather of testing and checking. *So far i haven't disabled HT in the bios. As the system runs stable and fine i didn't want to do it yet. Again not sure if that is still a fact and one would have performence improvement when disable HT. *Still running the Asus catalyst drivers (8.14 - 10.0768). Will try out the latest one of these days. Anyway additional hints and tips are welcome (i also used an SSD - windows7 tweak guide regarding turning of services and various other things..not sure if they helped, but system runs very stable). In short (again), a must have system if you wondered if there was a system that can handle BIS games. Forgot to report the negative points i had to find out after the purchase: *It isn't possible afaik to run RAID0 for a few of the hard drives. Plan was to have the two 150Gb raptors in RAID0 while the other drives in normal mode as it is a limite of the chipset (atm all in ACHI with Intel drives, haven't installed the Marvell drives..although it detects the 2 SSD drives at full Sata3). I haven't looked deeper into it as the board uses two chipsets afaik (Sata3 & Sata2). Fact is i guess i won't be able to subdive the Sata2 chipset/line. I might need to buy a PCI-E raid card to overcome that...but not sure if it will all make out much more. In the end the two raptors in Raid0 would still be slightly under the speed of the SSD drives. Not sure if PCi-E lines allow the same bandwidth as the Sata3. *As i was so happy about the SSD drives, it almost makes it sad the board doesn't come stock with more Sata3 ports. On the other hand, still not sure how good a SSD drive is regarding write and wear. Afaik, a spinning drive handles wear still better then the SSD ones. Time will tell i guess. Fact is with +-8770 run houres on my raptors they still performe good wihtout damaged sectors. *Price...well maybe the 'priceless' experience term can counter it :d .

As for you first question i guess a pic would help a lot. Second one, you could make an object that represent the airbrake 'cut' and then use carve option (structure -> carve) to cut that object out of your main object. Depending on the complexity of bought objects you will need to to clean up the geo (deleting unneeded vertexes and remake faces).

Don't forget terrain (urban/woodland/desert), stance & cover... Also computer spec + settings will make a difference, if not mistaken AI calculation is done by the CPU (one of the X amount of cores).... All thingy items that can influence the end result. And maybe most of all....repeatability. Meaning, especially in case of human player versus AI....will AI make the same dissicions each time you play the same test mission + how will AI react on different manouvers. Not my cup of tea to help in this, but i'm sure AI by default is pretty 'stupid' or at least predictable. I think that is a bit the beauty about it as it all lays in the hands of missionmakers to add additional scripts (grouplink to name something) or elements of suprise. I think most people are most pick about AI inteligence with simple things and expect AI to be smart enough, like simply ordering an unit to go to location X under danger, board that vehicle and drive to, heal that guy, pick up weapons etc...without having to babysit and follow each move they make.

I guess he means 'who do i make a template texture that allows me to make different camo/texture variants'? If you are refurring to the black/white ambient occlusion texture/effect, it can be done in two ways. *Make them yourself in 2D: Meaning draw then by hand or copy/past copyright free reference material or use what ever is needed to get the wanted effects. *Make a high poly model where every detail is modelled. Then bake an ambient occlusion texture of it on your low poly model. There might be other ways though (normal map -> bumpmap -> ambient occlusion convertion with tools like Crazybump). If this isn't what you were askign for, please next time add some more info.

Like Soul Assassin said, you are better (quicker) of by using the RMB etc for scaling. This in combination with the PIN activated on the vertexes you want to modify is very usefull, together with the uniform scale on or off (tool icon). Nice to see you forced yourself into selflearning O2. Although i love O2 (i still use it), i would advice to teach yourself an other more professional 3D modeling program. Sadly O2 is only handy imho for low poly modeling, setting up your model and there it stops. UV mapping, highpoly modeling, baking, reducing models are all stuff O2 simply can't do good or quick enough. Plain and simple. Since we past the days where quality didn't mather that much (OFP days), you can only get nice results with 3th party tools. You can but it ain't designed for it. Personally i use Luxology Modo. Once you got the basics, it is a very good and usefull program as it can do almost anything one would need for game modeling. Everyone will have its own prefured program, but i find it very userfriendly and 'relaxed' looking (compaired to 3D max for example). Anyway, didn't want to put you down or something. Just saying it will pay off if you take the time to learn a decent program as you will learn the O2 way isn't userfriendly (refurring to the UV editor) and all the other lacking features (reducing a model/baking maps). @Wolfbite: Not sure if i understand, but you should use one big blueprint and maybe seperate higher detailed overlays that match the big one. It might also help if you continue working with the vertexes of the previous part (the ones that 'should' be connected). No room for error then...Or are you refurring to the 3D setup of your blueprints (top/left/front etc)? Keep in mind most blueprints and especially of large objects aren't super accurate drawings. Often it is a mather of give and take. Best is to work with techincal drawings plans (not sure what the correct english term is).

Imho a very overrated feature. Maybe it might impress those who are targetting the vehicle, but most of the times it is hard to get accuraty while shooting out a driving vehicle.

Running a bit behind (post date)... Anyway, after a long time i actually try my OA and BAF copy this weekend in MP. It took me a while before i found a 'nice' server (damn, no offence but domination somehow isn't my cup of tea). Anyway, again i had to conclude the power of OFP/ArmA is not your rank/killpoints. We were with like +15 players and nearly all played as a team. No one was caring about who would get the first shot a objective X or who would get the most kills....nice relaxed coms and very nice teamplay. We even took the time to drag the wounded to safety under protection of other players. We had dedicated pilots that stayed in their role...and everybody agreed this was how this game should be played. Just saying as good teamplay is priceless imho! I hope the BIS staff is aware of this and doesn't bring it to the level of other known games...

Ah ic and point taken. As you know, cfg/script noob since day 1. But i guess there is no need for hidding the HUD indicator imho. I don't consider it as a cheat, but as an additional help for something a normal human would know (something that can't be fully simulated ingame). I'm sure most players that spend enough time ingame start know 'feel' their stance (i know i did in the good old days). But since the battlefield slowly starts to shift more to CQB, it might help some. Additionally, this addon (in work) was made out of a patch suggestion, so if BIS would add it, they could code it so one could disable/enable it in whatever mode they want. OFFTOPIC: But does anybody know why i can't turn of a mod with the ingame mod selector? I thought that was the idea behind it.... I have the disable key but it is grey (not working).

Well 'the correct price' is always a personal thingy imho. Maybe if you compair OA price with the BAF DLC price, contence wise it might be a bit low (or maybe OA was underpriced?). Personally, i find both prices ok. OA had a normal game price afaik as it is marketed for the main stream public. The DLC is imho something 'fans' will buy and therefor won't look at the pricetag in the first place. Keep in mind, the DLC is part of BIS new plan, and if not mistaken that was getting new funds for further patch developments, so in one or the other way it will pay off. Yup, in the past we always took additional contence and features in patches for granted, it is time to pay back. Sure, the pack lacks several key vehicles/planes/whatever for a full scaled warefare or any other plans, but the more stuff they put in it the more development time gets wasted or they would have to ask a bigger price to compensate this. Again, DLC is beeing made to fund extra bugfixing and hopefully additional features. One thing you have to credit BIS for is how they made sure MP didn't got split by releasing it as 'lite' in a patch.

Hm, not sure if i follow you Wolle, but why would this need to be 'mission related'? It is a client side HUD indicator. Lets stick to plug&play please (those crazy mission makers... :p ). I also hope it will be always ON, as that was the function of the indicator (to be able to see what stance you're in for us 'noobs'?

Oh jesus (got to love internet discussions)... Look, some simply want an alternative and faster way to check if they are in crouche mode or standing up. Often a big difference between safe® and exposed, same for how units behave. Some people don't play 24/7 as they have other things to do and therefor might not always 'feel' it in what stance they are. Instead of acting as a dummy who forgot his brain and have to look at his leggs or start to feel it once he start to move....an HUD indicator shows you want you normally would know (subtile reminder). Better have your eye on the battlefield instead of haven't to check down if everything is ok. I don't see why the fuss, it isn't a cheat imho... Anyway, Deadfast got the point i guess. Again some like it some don't. It looks he is working on an addon indicator, i will download and use it. Thanks for trying to understand....

Like pointed out before, in RL you don't need to look at your leggs to know what your stance is (at least i don't). Personally HUD/UI icons are for things you would normally know, but due to the fact some things aren't that easy to know ingame, it helps you. *So you count your bullets and mags of all your weapons? -> No sir, that is why i have HUD indicators. Anyway, some like it some don't. That is why a coded BIS solution where you can enable/disable client wise the HUD elements is requested.

Looks good to me :) and in worst case i ask permission to alter the pics to my own preference. Looking forward to release...

I guess you have looked around (on the same page): http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=102019

@Deadfast: Not sure if you are still interested in making this 'stance-indicator' mod, but if it might help you i made some quick stance icons: -> _caa.tga versions (512x256): _caa.tga versions (512x256) Due to the prone stance i had to make it 512x256, but not sure if all icons needs a uniform size. Not familiar with UI icons etc...Let me know if interested or you need adjustments. *Maybe for those who are against it, maybe the script can have a 'check difficulty mode', so the icons don't work in veteran mode or something like that.

Well he might be in luck we don't have any afghan users on the board that alert the mods for political flaming. *I guess you didn't had a granddad who was fisherman and was "used" as practice target by RAF on the return back to UK during WW2? Well i did...So please remember that before you want make a comment in the future. Offtopic end/

Agree a nice winter DLC pack would get my vote aswell. Some new set of units with parka's, a 'simple' retexture of most vehicles, takistan or a new suiteable winter island,... Don't forget to give the units the 'cold air breath' feature, loved that feature (made it more believable). To get inspired: *Clickable for High res. -> http://www.flickr.com/photos/peosoldier/tags/generationiiiextendedcoldweatherclothingsystem/

Additionally you can still try to crop and photoshop the logo out this 'Box-art' work (thanks to armaholic, not sure where they found it). http://www.armaholic.com/datas/users/a2baf_box_art_3321.jpg Afaik, there hasn't been a press-kit released for BAF.

Although i'm also for 'less is more' (realistic), i also vote for a subtile stance indicator. Like some mentioned, sometimes it isn't that clear (example: when you are on rocks, under heavy fire after running etc...). In RL you would know it, ingame it isn't always 100% clear. There are other indicators enough by default that shouldn't be there (ammo counter, damage to vehicles, etc...). Hint: I suppose someone could make a small script for that feature, no expert but i'm sure it is possible to check players stance and have an UI icon placed on the screen.

There is a 512x512px BAF logo in your BAF addons folder in .paa format. Not high-res, but it is something.

Jdog, afaik you can't downscale units as it would mess up the animations (not sure but afaik it does -> hence why there are no childeren in arma, well vbs2 has some on the other hand). On the other hand, it might indeed be something nice to try out for those with free time on their hands. That would indeed be a nice walkaround to overcome the limite in geo. But i guess you will soon find lots of obsticals. Massive waves, insane big smoke plufs for small bullets + bullet impact holes, AI micro scale behavior... Maybe downscaling with a factor of 10 would do a better job (then your carrier is still 33.3m).

Just started playing and in the second mission, one of my units got overrun by a Warrior that couldn't wait (AI driver), moments later the same or the other Warrior (AI) managed to ram and flip my jackal upside down. Ohwell, no game breaker i guess and not BAF related bug :p .

Well it is these technical features and weapon improvements that make 'reality' mods so ncie and unique. So looking forward to these kind of upgrades over vanilla arma and hope it can be added. Well by default all launchers seam to have this technical feature, just a mather of adding backblast and pressure scripts for indoor and outdoor use. Nothing that hasn't been done afaik, it just needs additional conditions.

He was refurring to the backblast. Well afaik this is indeed a mayor problem for most launchers, although i once watch a 'future weapon' video featuring a new swedish design. Forgot witch launcher/ammo, but the principle was is not mistaken that prior to the launch a certain amount of water was ejected to compensate the backblast, resulting in you could launch it indoors (well offcourse still with safety instructions). EDIT: Found mentioned footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IH5nFAi16E