Murtok

Just a heads up for anyone considering downloading A2 from Direct2Drive: I've been downloading Arma2 from D2D for the past 2 days. My speeds are averaging 50-70 kbps and I still have 8-10 hours left at 70 kbps (for now; this is subject to change). Despite the fact that I am using their download manager, I have experienced unacceptably low speeds and a "network mirror failure" error that resulted in the download process to grind to a halt while I was at work. Fortunately I was able to pick up from where I left off as soon as I restarted the download manager when I arrived at home. At this point, I regret purchasing from D2D and may never do so again. Has anyone else had similar issues? Before anyone asks: I have 10 mbs cable broadband that averages at least 6 mbs. Most downloads are around 500-1000 kbps, depending on the host's upload cap.

Can anyone confirm that this driver works? If so, are there any noticeable improvements? Downloading now, but I can't test them until I get home in about 6 hours.

I like the current "rest" posture seen in the latest preview videos. However, I agree that the transition is unnatural. To improve the fluidity from running or walking to a full stop, a middle animation could be in between moving and stopping which would only be active right after a full stop. The middle animation would, then, time-out after a set period. At this point, the "at ease" animation would take over. This animation could make the soldier appear to still be "on alert" for a few seconds right after running or fast walking. At the end of the animation the soldier would lower his weapon below horizon but keep it at the "ready" position while standing at rest. I've timed myself and come to the conclusion that this should only be around a 3 second animation.

According to this logic I think the need for "out of shape civilian teenage boy" models far outweighs the need for female ones. Â QFTMFT

I am having the same problem as well. Could you explain how you fixed this issue? Â

File front is a strange beastie. I guess the FF bandwidth does have its moments. Â

I'm in the same boat. Seeing the guy reload on the move and not being anchored to earth the by the massive weight of Arma1 binocs gave me enough reason to buy Arma2. Now, if they do something really special with artillery and squad leading (which, it looks like they already have) I may be forced to pre-order it, if the opportunity is available. Â

The scripting... no words. Â

Assuming the guys who threw this together are not raging BIS fanbois, I will take it on a positive note. I haven’t the slightest idea of how many games were represented at GC but I can guess it was more than 10. That being said, I get good vibes from seeing Arma2 get some recognition from an unbiased view. Of course, this isn’t the end of the line for certain media portals either. I guess that we’ll be seeing many more outsider reviews, good and worse, as more in-game content is released. At the end of the day, they are only opinions… but when they are good, I feel a bit better about what I’m going to get until the day comes that I do lay hands on the final product. Â

Since I have an A/C window unit the extra noise from the increased fan speed has gone unnoticed, so far. As long as the stock fan continues to perform under modified parameters, I see no need for a 3rd party solution. Who knows, the fan might die at an early age since its now running almost twice its normal speed... I'll let you guys know if it craps out; though, I don't really foresee that happening within a few years.

Two days late but I am back with a sitrep. I'll recap on my new stuff: Asus P5N-D Intel Q6600 VisionTek 4870 The P5N-D's BIOS is almost the same as the P5N32-E's. Overclock ability is about the same, perhaps better. On the up side, it does feel a bit quicker on reboots and cold starts as well as applying BIOS changes. On the down side, the Nividia 750i NB is too hot. I don't have a laser temp probe but my guess is it's in the 70-80*C range. I've never had a NB that was too hot to touch, which happens to be the case here. I can read the NB from the BIOS (50*C) but it reaches far higher temps after mounting a disk and running 3D. Fortunately for me, Asus sends a NB fan with the mobo. Although, instructions indicate that the fan is only to be used in a water cooling scenario (claims airflow will disrupt CPU fan's ability to function properly), I said screw it. I tossed the fan on and watched the temps like a hawk. The NB now runs at an acceptable 42*C and I'd guess 55*C under load. Not too much I can say about the Q6600 that hasn't already been said. I am on air cooling at the moment just for burn-in purposes. As soon as I can get some more 3/8" tubing, I'll be mounting my modified Zaleman Resorator and proceed oc'ing. I am aiming for 3 GHz, at least. That shouldn't be much of a problem since I lucked up and New Egg sent me a G0 model. The 4870's stability is rock solid. Very little to no tearing and puts life back into old textures (or maybe it's just me). I did run into one issue. While crawling through ATI's Catalyst controls, I checked the temp on the card. +70*C!?! Under no load? Perhaps this card was designed to operate at such temperatures but my Moma taught me that 70 is too high, regardless. Alas, this one was an easy fix. After creating an ATI profile, one can navigate to an .xml file (Vista: "Users\User\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles"), open it with a text editor and change the fan control values from automatic to manual and set the desired speed to about 40%, then active the profile. Anything over 40% makes the card sound like a hairdryer. Card temps are down to 45*C at idle and top out at 60*C under load. After which, I oc'd the ram to 1000 MHz and the core to 600 MHz with no noticeable temperature change. I normally play Arma @ 1920x1200 w/ 2000m view distance. This setup is nice BUT at this resolution, there will be no +30fps walks in dense forest. I have “Lowplants†installed and that helps a bit, but I'm still stuck at a combination of medium, high, and very high settings. Don't get me wrong, it looks great. I only have 2 GB of memory at the moment, albeit the fastest DDR2-800 made (as far as I know) with timings at 4x3x4x9xT2. To run full settings I'd guess I'll need 4 GB of memory and another 4870. What do you guys think?

It is a gamble. I have had good experiences with my last Nvidia boards. If I am careful, I might not have any issues. I will post again and let you guys in on how it goes Tuesday.

My old mobo's (Asus P5N32E) memory controller crapped out on me. I decided to upgrade since I'm going to have my box apart anyway. New shinies are as follows: Asus P5N-D (Nvidia 750i NB) Intel Q6600 (Kentsfield) VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 (512MB) -------------------- Total: $599.89 (+$8.97 S&H +$2.99 RP)

I can guess that most of everyone here is anxious to play some manifestation of their own OFP/ArmA wet dreams... I am. Unfortunately for you and I, the game is not finished and nothing about it is for certain till that day arrives.

Include: -Releasable spoon on appropriate grenades. -Ability to throw grenades back (even if it's a short under-handed throw to just get it around the corner or over a burm, ect).

The thing that bugs me the most in ArmA is the way that side arms are presented and handled. It seems, perhaps to me only, that the rifle "operation" was just copied over to the pistol and the operator's attachment points and posture was changed to fit the profile(I'm sure it goes deeper than that). This, I feel, can be fixed by identifying why a soldier needs a pistol and then making adjustments to meet those needs. I have come to understand that a pistol, in the field of war, is usually the second option for assault granted you have ammunition for it. The first option usually comes in the form of a rifle. With this in mind, we see that the pistol is only required when the primary weapon has failed (jam), depleted ammunition or is no longer of viable use at the current range (scoped rifle). From the above, we gather that after certain requirements are met the pistol is now the only thing between us and the opposition. That should require a soldier to be as proficient with his pistol in CQB as he were with a rifle at range. In ArmA, this is certainly not the case. By design, the pistol in ArmA is plagued with sighting issues making it more of an ornament than a weapon. This is the part where I nit-pick. I think the current presentation of the pistol from the operator's perspective is not correct. It feels very far away. Perhaps the distance is right but the profile and size of the weapon are off. This throws my aiming off since I have to zoom-in on the iron sights to get a good sight picture but this limits my peripheral vision and further complicates engaging multiple targets. I like to think that R6: Raven Shield did it best. The operation and presentation were pretty good; although, there was room for improvement there as well. Lets not forget, in the occurrence of a weapon malfunction, it is always faster to swap to a pistol than to clear a jam. For this to work properly we would obviously need to incorporate weapon malfunctions and the opportunity to clear them. I'd like to see this sort of speed and animation in-game as well: Here @ 1:36 Since we are on the subject of malfunctions: I've noticed (mostly while sniping) that a missed shot will sometimes hit a weapon or piece of equipment a soldier is carrying followed with a puff of sparks. Since the game engine is detecting the hit on the player, perhaps it could be taken a step further and actually render a weapon more prone to malfunction or completely useless [depending on the ballistics of the impact round(s)] I am, by no means, an expert of ballistics or weapons. However, I do own and operate a few pistols frequently.

Well, a few days ago when I was in the mind-set of only spending about 180 USD I guess that little tip would sound pretty good... but now - erm, I think I'm falling in love with this. Pardoning it dosen't cost an arm and a leg, I will be owning one of these. Â Speaking of the 1 gig 4870, has anybody spotted one for sale yet?

Nice, I didn't spot that. I guess that's what I get for confining my searches to New Egg. Thanks for the heads up.

Yes, I do mean to get another GPU and run it in SLI along with the one I already have. It may be worth mentioning that I run all of my games at 1980x1200 on a 24" monitor. In my mind, a higher resolution should require a larger memory buffer, right? Since the only 4870s I can find have 512MB of RAM, would that not render slower frames compared to the combined RAM of 1280MB from two 8800GTSs? Perhaps I am misinformed on this issue. I have 2 Gigs of system RAM.

Moved from stand-alone thread: I am looking to improve ArmA's performance as well as prepare for ArmA2. I've searched the interbutts for days, seeking the most cost effective way to improve. Alas, I am growing numb to the many different opinions on performance gain. This is the part where I need someone to just outright tell me what to do and tip the scale a bit. So far, my upgrade possibilities have come down to (only one choice will apply): A). Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 [New Egg - $180USD] B). EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB [New Egg - $180USD] C). Fill in the _. To aid you in your decision making, here are specs for my current setup: Mobo: Asus P5N32-E SLI Plus CPU: Intel C2D E6300 @ 3.0Ghz Mem: Corsair Dominator DDR2 800 [5-4-4-9 T1 @ 1066 MHz] VC: EVGA 8800 GTS 640Mb HD: 2x WestDig Raptor [RAID 0] I'm holding off on OC'ing the 8800 in case I wind up with another one sitting in PCI-E bus 2. I'd like to OC 'em both at the same time and after I can come up with a third-party cooling solution. Any advice or suggestion is welcome. In before AMD, ATI or higher overclocks!