ThruYerStErNuM

I've been working on this in some form or another for almost a year now, but this is still a very early version, it is a single player mission that plays out like a campaign. The download links go to download pages, so they can throw an ad at you before you download it, so you cant use downloader programs on these links. Download Unscripted War for SEB Ia Drang Valley This mirror is down I believe? mirror from placebo Download Unscripted War for Jungle Everon Download Unscripted War for Jungle Malden Download Unscripted War for Meekong Version 1.01 Updated 8/1/03 Some features: -Automatic enemy creation and behavior so that enemies reinforce areas and attack you to create a sense of a front line - or lack thereof - for an immersive Vietnam experience. -Ability to choose number of AI and autodetect good settings for your processor, whatever the speed. -Extra randomly generated hi-res foliage for extra tall grass cover. -Ability to select multiple squads at once to move around, like an RTS -Many abilities of the CoC Command Engine, although this was created independently and differently- more simple! -Ability to call Howitzer support, F4 airstrikes, B52 bombing targets, napalm strikes -Ability to call unlimited reinforcements -Spectator View to watch all your forces -Ability to instantly switch positions and command with the leader of any group, allowing you to stay right in the action. It comes with some addons, It requires Seb Nam Pack 2, and will use an F4 if you have the f4.pbo addon, click here for the F4 addon. It should be noted that currently you must have total control over your forces to move the western forces forward. An option to give up total control and play as a private gaining in rank will be added in the next version. Multiplayer will also be added next release and it will use this system. Read and print out the tutorial.txt file for information getting started. Much more will continue to come. This version is still tested very little though. Originally, this was made for Nogova and the standard Operation Flashpoint units but my original plans were too ambitious, and so I put aside the complex version of this to throw together a smaller Vietnam version of it, with simplified gameplay - many scripts reflect that this was not originally for Vietnam. I didn't know about the CoC command engine when I started working on this, so it was made independently of that system and so this game's scripts could be considered an alternative to CoC once they are fixed up better and more is added to them, but right now it is not nearly what it could be. Just start posting all the problems and your ideas.

uwar_grass Version 1.23b updated 8/10/05 Download from waskosky.com Grass is generated around placed locations rather than everywhere now, this solves the issues from before. Whats new: Compatability with ECP, etc. New grass colors. Grass objects are slightly more complex. Grass can't and shouldn't be 'destroyed' anymore. AI only sees through taller grass when very close. Grass objects are set to 'lit' so that they will always look the same. I am releasing all this now because I am leaving for a little while and this version is very easy and efficient to use for most purposes. But I have been making new textures and want to make better objects for the next release, heres a preview of some grass for the next release:

Heh now I know who parker is, I remember doing this http://ww2ec.3dactionplanet.gamespy.com/e107_fi....s_s.jpg thinking reduced gamma might darken the ground (which looked too bright), but the HDR made the sky and buildings a little too bright after that.

My overall impression was that Idea Games has a lot of experience with publishers and knows what they want and how to present the pretty package, not focusing on gameplay. However, after spending many hours playing many many games on the show floor, and attending quite a few workshops/conferences, it sounds like publishers are beginning to genuinely want the edge in creativitiy. Haden Blackman (Lucasarts project lead) in his opening statement in "Trends in Game Making and Publishing" admitted the new focus has to be on open, dynamic simulations. He said one of the biggest challenges for him has been transforming his team from the old mindsets to be a team that does many of the things this forum constantly bashes big publishers for not doing. IMHO, signing with EA or Microsoft would be the best possible outcome for BIS. No one is adapting to the market more then the biggest publishers, they have the brightest magagement. Their reputations are justified, but they adapt like none other. I didnt say that to IDEA of course, and they did not discuss any specific publishers with me, so I still have no idea what could happen. But if BIS goes under over this kind of thing, the publishers arent to blame. My camera batteries died at the last minute while they were packing up friday, dangit, but my other E3 pics are on waskosky.com/blog

Sorry, I meant the framerate. Draw distance has always been measured in meters I think, so I got to see a few frames at that 10km distance Possibly one of the reasons a demo is inconvenient. There is obviously enough meat ready for demonstration, the game loading screen said the game is 75% complete, and the island certainly looks complete, but if they were going to limit it in any way, how could they limit it more then %50 without taking something out of the island that you might see in a mission? Its kind of like the island has to be almost entirely there for the demonstration to faithfully preserve the experience. Then again, I do remember some awesome tank battles on the barren valley of Chapoi in the first demo...

OK guys, you all talk too much  so much to read through, even about the one preview, I'm not as motivated to read speculation knowing stuff first hand, now I know how Placebo feels. ALL Well I'm back from spending a goood deal of time with Idea games, I think they might be sick of me by now, Jiri called me "too educated" (Although I will be back tomorrow, I'm growing on them dont worry ) I've heard probably most of what they've had to say across the press interviews, I've spent probably 3 hours total around them (Jiri and Robert) in the last 3 days, talking mostly about Armed Assault and Idea Games. I did play Armed Assault btw, did not play Alpha Prime (did not know much about Alpha Prime until today) Screens wont do justice, but I did notice some UK online guy setting up a video camera in that tiny cubicle, expect nice media very soon. So many things I could say about the game, but heres a list of some of the coolest things I did not know before E3... 1. THERE IS NO MP PLAYER LIMIT. How many people can join is only limited by bandwidth and hardware. 2. You can gain the ability in the single player campaign to switch mid game from man to man, when I watched Robert show this off he had a list of 3, soldier, sniper, apc gunner. 3. The campaign progresses based on the missions you choose from. The mission selection is limited, but you atleast have the option to play based on what kind of player you are. 4. THE VIEWDISTANCE MAX IS 10000m 5. When at 10000m view distance the framerate was like OFP at 5000m viewdistance, but with no stutters from loading terrain (meaning the OFP: Elite streaming technology is working beautifully) 6. ALL NEW GOOD ANIMATIONS (from what I saw) some were still missing, but the ones I saw were a huge improvement (even reloading) 7. Expected release date from the mouth of Jiri was "Q3 2006" (and it sounded like if they couldn't get an international publisher, they would seriously consider digital distribution, meaning we would be able to play this year regardless) I am withholding all criticisms and concerns till after tomorrow Â

Hello all . I have a lot to say, but I have about 10 hours worth of c++ homework to do now, and Kentia hall opens again in less then 14 hours, and I want be over at Idea games again at that time. Â (click for original image from my crappy camera on these next 3) Only members of Idea Games were present at E3. No one from Bohemia Interactive came because they have offloaded this responsibility onto Idea (so BIS can keep working on their games this week instead of dealing with the press and people like me) You'll be getting lots more info soon I expect, so I'll just sum it all up quick now: Armed Assault kicks ass, no publisher yet but maybe soon

The configuration program is fully tested and working for environment management, and with a couple more features I think it could be released as a useful tool for anyone needing to configure missions through lists of information in scripts. I think I'll release a few new objects, the new scripts and a partial configuration system next weekend. But the majority of my older objects need much more work, so I may even pass them over to Berghoff or someone else working on foliage. Right now I've honestly taken on more projects then I can manage, and I'll be very busy untill March. Most intrestingly, I'm working on team of 4 (taking over from 12 others) to finish a game framework for educators to make adventure games, all online. Teachers can make games a little like the BIS Fairy Tale demo except much more simplistic and with multiplayer teamwork. EDIT: still want to finish more... maybe the 19th...

Well, I've almost finished the tool for importing configurations, with a few bugs to work out still. It allows you to browse for your mission you made with the abstract objects or trigger-region object groups, and import them into an sqf file that the script system knows how to read. The sqf file is just one array with lots of information in it, that way information is not read into global variables, but is only read with loadfile commands in the scripts so there is no need to save lots of configuration information in memory. (Which contributes to the savegame bug.) I've been working on this configuration system for awhile, and I have an array-browser in the tool that lets you navigate through the arrays in a formatted way, the formatting is done by an XML file (one per configuration type) that says what information to tag on to each element of the arrays. This way its easy to know what values to modify to change configs however you want them. Also, the new scripts work with ECPs island detection system, which is necessary to make it so that it will work in existing missions without changing or adding anything. Maybe someone could extract that system for me so I can use it in my own uwar mod folder? I'd prefer to commit to using ECP or FFUR though. I'd like to release a lot of older objects too, like some old vietnam objects, since I know I wont have time to finish the vietnam island I had planned 2 years ago. Hopefully a nice high-resolution ground object pack will encourage people to make quality configurations for islands, but I still need to work on getting p3ds organized and fix up some LODs. My schedule is getting worse and worse, so I may not have time to finish this stuff this week. I aim to have it done in January at whatever quality I can.

But how could BIS possibly make nearly as much money this way? This is only a small new European association that can not currently compare to the muscle of the modern mainstream publishers. They would need even more press attention then they got with Codemasters to make up for the lack of familiarity with the new name. I dont think we can conclude BIS will publish through IDEA. Â IDEA was "founded in November 2005", and the December press release for Arma states "Publisher: To be determined". I was very excited to see the news about this, but it will take a lot of good ideas and assistence to independent developers that goes beyond the role of a publisher, to attract significant international attention. For example, I just played Darwinia over steam, and I probably would have never heard of it otherwise. Could we trust BIS to have such a large part in self marketing, when just 3 weeks ago we had people spreading rumors on these forums that "Arma" was a myth, just because they were hearing so little? I think IDEA games would be best off making it possible for the mod community to publish content for Arma (small fees to start), since there seems to be much more manpower and enthusiasm in the mod communities than among fully independent developers. A community content management system would absolutely have to be kept closer to the developers side of things than that of a publisher who could screw it up. But I'm going off on a tangent, I think a thread about IDEA games belongs in BI General and kept separate from Arma discussion?

I had a busy school quarter I just finished, but for flashpoint, I've been working on an external mission configuration program for my dynamic mission and environment configuration system. I've been learning the .NET framework, windows forms, xml, and sql this quarter, so I've got a few unmentioned flashpoint projects lined up now. Since Arma didnt come, I guess there is still the need for grass updates, so I will try to have a new utility and script system done in January. I really havent been working on the grass since I released that latest screenshot, but I've decided I will release it for OFP1, probably as shorter grass objects now. When I finish my tools for creating (and importing) configurations for whole islands, with more efficient scripts, I will let everyone know so they can start working with them, hopefully to add other foliage too. I think it would be nice to finish one decent final grass addon for FFUR in ofp1 before we move on to Arma. I will update my website by early january.

"reworked physical simulation and collision detection" But I did enjoy, especially with fences, how you could put up the time accelleration and charge it head on while getting up and going prone and you save yourself some time by avoiding the travel to the gate. Maybe immersion is worth it though I believe I was once eaten by a building in Elite, but I escaped digestion after a minue or two.

I haven't been keeping up with this thread... but now I know why it was never locked, this stuff is hilarious!

I think its perfectly reasonable that not even BIS would know if the Q4 2005 date is still on. They are working on adding features to a near finished game, so each feature probably has its own internal deadline, any of which may see unexpected delays. We have no reason to need information if we're already hyped up for ArmA... but if they don't release information we have a chance to get back to our fickle enthusiasm for flashpoint 1 mods

... "..touché..." <pause> "...WTF LAGZORS!!11" i can already hear the outcries

My very first in-game test of some new grass textures...

Stop to ask for that ! It was asked about 5 times already ! It will occur extrem lags in missions ! STOP TO ASK THAT QUESTION ! Hmm, haven't been watching this thread... I actually have unreleased grass objects that can be used as forrest objects, which of course are much less dense and do not lag. If someone is willing to place the forrest grass objects on the islands that are released with this mod, they could contact me and get some objects to work with, and I could spend a little time improving them while they do the island work. But it is a lot of work to add grass to a map in all the appropriate places, I wouldn't have much time for that now, and I doubt that anyone else wants to delay FFUR anymore right?

I dont recommend using the "UWAR_G1000" object, you should use triggers smaller than 200 meters and copy them around, that way it doesnt have to break up the abstract objects and it will generate each one as soon as your system allows. That is the only way to decrease time to create the grass without changing the scripts. Change <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">UWAR_AbstSDensity = 2 to <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">UWAR_AbstSDensity = 0.5 to reduce lag of the grass objects after they are generated.

So you tried both ways with the latest version and neither works? 1: If "The AOSQM2SQS.exe creates mission.sqm.sqs" of size 0kb, first try deleting the sqs then try again and if that doesnt work email me your sqm file and I'll check to see if there is a bug. If not there must be a problem with your java or exe files. 2: With mission editor placement it sounds like you are doing it all correctly here too.. try the init with [] exec "\uwar_empty\uwar_abstractStaticInit.sqs" instead? If you aren't using custom configurations from the sqm2sqs code then you should do it this way. For everyone else: I haven't been working on the grass addon lately, but I have incorporated this script system into my Unscripted War dynamic campaign, so fully dynamic environment tests will soon be possible. I might make more addons by the end of september, like rocks and plants and better grass.

Why do you both believe its still the old engine when he says I think that maybe because the content of ArmA is the same as OFP, one would think the engine is still the same, but if the content is fully compatable with Game2, and if they say the engine is 'REworked' and not 'improved' then the engine will be much closer to what they now have in Game2. So I agree with esti_the_big but I dont see the reason for the assumption that ArmA is anything like OFP1 or VBS1 considering the amount of time BIS has been putting into improving the engine. They ported all the content to the XBOX console with a new engine, and they made a playable demo for E3 for Game2. Engine comes first, content second.

Since this kind of speculation doesnt seem to warrant a locking... Im sure it wont. It seems the only reason people have for doubting that these improvements will be in ArmA are that 'theres no reason to believe they will'? I would need a better reason than that considering games like Soldner look worse than ArmA and still have dynamic buildings and excellent physics. My reason to believe dynamic buildings and near-Game2 physics will be included is this statement by Marek in the letter to the community Maybe porting INTO ArmA means we have to take our old models and do something in the new model editor to make them work with the physics engine features? Such as having sides in models with certain strengths and mass and properties. There is no need to break up the model in the largely complicated way that DIB does when the game engine has a "reworked physical simulation and collision detection". Why would they rework the physics and leave out these features in ArmA but not Game2!

I do appreciate criticism, its the main reason I've gotten past version 1.0 at all. 1 (regarding performance): I do plant to make entirely new and more efficient objects evemtually, but I dont have time now. Be sure your visual quality isnt set high, that makes more of a difference than your frame rate setting with this grass. I included a density setting. You can change UWAR_AbstSDensity in the init script (either my script or your own init script after a short delay.) Set it to 0.5, see how it improves performance, and change it until you like your framerate. 2. If you mean you want the original version that generates grass everywhere, you can still get that with the script from my website. The script works with the grass the same, but for the new colors you would have to replace the grass objects that are created with the new grass object names, so let me know if you need more instructions for that or a new script that makes it easy. 3. I didnt make more sizes just so that the menu wouldnt be clogged up and also because you can make any size you want using the configuration system. 4. If anyone would like my instructions translated to different languages, I'm sure that would be easy to do with the help of this community. Other than that I dont see how to make it much more simple... except let me make an alternate approach here for those who had trouble with the original instructions: A. Copy the sample mission folder testInterpretation.abel to your flashpoint/users/YourName/missions directory. B. Open testInterpretation (on malden) in the mission editor. C. Notice the triggers in the upper right of the mission, the area they cover represents where grass will be placed eventually. Click "Show Textures" to see that they cover where the grass textures should be. All information for what is understood in the triggers is under the "FEATURES" section in the configuration/instructions.txt, and you can copy and paste triggers to make as many as you want. D. Go back to the flashpoint/users/YourName/missions/testInterpretation.abel directory and copy the mission.sqm file into your instructions directory. E. Drag the sqm file onto the exe. Is that more clear? Are there features that arent clear? I am hoping that once configurations are made for all the islands, mission makers themselves wont need to worry about making the configurations. Oh also, the biggest 'hint' I can give, that I'm not sure people are aware of, is how easy it is to drag and select multiple objects or triggers, then Ctrl+C to copy them, and then Ctrl+V to paste them all around. Having extra grasses of size 50 joined together and copied over and over doesn't hurt performance compared to using the larger objects.

We could use a thread to discuss the implications? Codemasters is handling Flashpoint for the xbox, but the biggest problem I see is that no publisher right now is helping ArmA get the media attention it needs and deserves. I havent been seeing a mention in my US PC gamer and I really would expect to start seeing advertisements for a game coming out at the end of the year about this time. BIS shouldnt have to worry about promoting its game this early, but wouldnt it be helpful to sales if they locked in a publisher now to do so? Or is it still too early to matter? hehe, or is Mr Statham their secret weapon promotional machine.. with his uber spamming...

Thats certainly no simple change. Each interaction would require its own form of coding, animations, and you mention a special menu for "bomb timer options" and "ammo-box" options, but what about the countless other menu interactions that are possible and easily added in by modders? Not to mention the inability of the player to know what can be clicked on (and the purpose for clicking) without a visual change on screen. Having one small menu for all options seems necessary unless a totally realistic interaction system was introduced. For example what if the left click was the interaction with the left hand, the right click for the right hand. Then there would be no need for a 'use mode' at all, but you would instead holster your weapon to be able to use that hand for picking up an object, pushing an object, or whatever interaction is default to the place that the cursor is over. But I hate the cursor even more than the menu, I would prefer it if the screen visually focused, slightly, as in field of vision changes and slight visual magnifications on various objects that are being looked at, including enemies. But thats too much to add considering the simplicity that already exists in flashpoint interaction systems. It made sense, for example, in Trespasser where you could actually beat the vilociraptor with the rock you picked up, but if we're mainly just shooting stuff, I think a pop up menu is most appropriate for interactions outside of combat. Command capabilities will always require menu systems, and ArmA and Game2 should not restrict that possibility from the interaction system that is closest to the users familiarity. So another debate is then should the radio be somehow merged with the action menu?

It did work for me with visitor... are you sure your object names are the same as the p3d names? If you know the object ID you can test to make sure the name is the same as the object type by using the command<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE"> ~2 player sidechat format["%1", object NUMBER] If the returned object doesnt say<table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">(NUMBER): uwar_g250kolgujev then you may have to go back and set it up to have the name uwar_g250kolgujev in wrptool? If it still doesnt work, email me your island and I'll check. Also remember if you have a lot of objects on your island, you have to wait awhile, maybe even a couple minutes, before they are all checked (I know this discussion has been had before.) Hopefully this will be easier to do quickly in ArmA. (no suggestion intended )