docrings

Not getting it anymore... wierd. But I am further along in the game. Maybe it was just early campaign levels giving the error?

Current settings, tweaked with inputs over the past few weeks executable: -winxp -nosplash -world=empty -maxmem=2047 -cpuCount=2 -mod=@DFS_FPScounter Intel Dual Core E6750, 5% overclock; 8800GTS 320mb, no O.C., latest driver as of this post: "Average" 28FPS in open, 23 in towns for Chenarus For Utes, I also get a couple FPS higher on average:

Datter: I can see that the tree leaves are better shadowed, but since I don't spend much time looking at leaves too much, I'm willing to make that sacrifice to the FrapGod. :) I need the FPS for accurately finding and killing enemies... but I do want my enemies to look good dying, and at least 20+ FPS, too! Cheers, :cool:

/begin rant I still find the controls "clunky" even after playing OFP and Arma intermittently over the past six years. Yes, it can be learned (space, 1, 2. GAAK!) But, for someone who can't spend hours on end for months at a time playing, the controls always take some re-learning at every sitting if it's been a week or two. Many controls (beside Q, W, E, A, S, D) are NOT intuitive like: 1. Changing weapons: F cycles some weapons (rifle and grenade), but refuses to change weapons, like to your SMAW. Stupid. Pressing the center mouse wheel "button" (and also "F"!) is not going to be intuitive to a new player coming from other FPS's. Changing weapons isn't even on the main keyboard control diagrams in the manual... the center mousewheel button is called "default menu item" on page 4: "use the action menu to switch to secondary weapon (if you have one)." WTF? How is that instructive to someone learning the game? I remapped the "change weapon" command (Blank by default), under infantry controls, to my side mouse button (Button #4), You can try left ctrl button if you don't have extra mouse buttons... as long as it's not something you would accidentally hit in a firefight. This game needs a voice command system like the recent Tom Clancy game, End War. That was slick (didn't like the game, but the voice command was well implemented). e.g. "All, Crouch" "Unit 3, attack" (while holding mouse cursor over target) "All, hold" "Radio, airstrike" while holding laser on target or on the cursor on the map. Other commands very poorly outlined in the manual and not trained: Rearming at trucks and depot boxes. flying UAVs So far, the few aircraft I've tried to fly have been more difficult than they should be (even the manual says that it is so): simple fix. Just make it possible to fly aircraft simply with a microsoft sidewinder or other common joystick. Frickin'-A, just make it work out of the box, without having to remap everything. Throttle is right there (doubles as collective for helos), twist for rudders, stick to bank/climb/dive... how hard is that? Buttons for gear, flaps, weapon select, switching seats. I shouldn't have to have my hands leave the joystick to do the most common tasks. I had better flight controls on cheap-a$$ flight-sim games 10 years ago. Another example: I had a HALO jump in a mission, and after he landed, he was lying down uninjured, but wouldn't get up. There was no control I could find to make him stand up, and unlatch his parachute. That is just insane...had to restart the mission. The gear screen "G" is a mess. All my gear neatly packed on the right, and on the left is a mish-mash of all that same gear, and randomly arranged enemy gear I'm trying to sort through to pick up... sheesh. Again, this interface has been done better in about a hundred RTS and FPS games over the past 15 years. The manual is a joke. White font typeface over a dark image, on TWO PAGE WIDE FORMAT, which loads a bit too slow when changing pages due to the stupid background graphic and it's just hard to read. Stupid and pointless. The manual, as well, has poor descriptions of keyboard commands for later reference. Noobies shouldn't have to replay through the training scenarios just to look up how to change weapons... or if one wanted to look at the manual for reference, what page is that command on exactly? So it's off to the options, controls screen to sort through the commands. The editor commands are just one huge block of white paragraphs on page 17... hard to read format and a hurried description, with little detail on how to use best. If I have the time, I'm going to start writing my own "nOObie Guide to Arma 2"... something that needs to be written for nOObs or the infrequent player (like me), or we/they will just put the game on a shelf... which is a shame, because it's a great simulation, but with flaws in instruction from the software company. The learning curve is higher than it needs to be. I would have been more happy with an easier to read basic manual with Times Roman font on a white page, than the manual PDF I downloaded. I don't care that "Cooper" scored high on his mental health exam (page 13)... he's only as smart as the player in the game. Idiotic drivel, and wasted reading versus learning the controls, weapon descriptions, options. /end rant it's 1:30am... time to quit for the night...sorry for rambling... but I'm pissed at BIS for short-changing us gamers, and making nOObies not want to play it... Doc

I know... any amount of shadows do add some more ambience, that is for sure. On your suggestion, I'll retry some of my FPS tests on my 8800GTS and see what I get with shadows on normal and high. I also O.C.'d my CPU by 15% in the bios (ASUS P5E-VM... overclocks easily), so maybe I can still get some decent FPS with shadows on... Ciao, Doc EDIT (after testing): at first it didn't seem to matter (disabled vs. normal vs. high shadows), until I got into a really shaded area and ... wow. Big FPS hit! High shadows: 5 FPS (a run standardized "run" through town showed FPS from high 30 to a low of 3). Three FPS was totally a slideshow on High Shadows... not good at all. Normal Shadows 26 FPS (a run standardized "run" through town showed FPS from high 32 to a low of 11). Eleven FPS was minimally playable, if at all, in the shadows of buildings.

Hi, just read this nice Arma 2 video options tweak article. I realized with only 320mb of video RAM on my 8800GTS, I needed to go down to "high" on the video memory (was on "Very High") and go down to "Normal" on textures. Turned off shadow detail and Anti-aliasing, too. I did, though, increase the draw distance about 25%... I like to see the world as it is, gives it the ambience of the trees and hills in the distance. I like shadows, too, but they add less to the game feel for me... YMMV. After all this, I got a nice FPS increase of about 30% (16-20fps --> 28-32fps), without sacrificing widescreen resolution. I bought a 1920x1080 monitor, and by-gum-it, I'm going to use every frickin' pixel. ;) Playability increased quite nicely going to ~30fps, and the dreaded "white head" squad-mates (slowly loading head textures on my team-mates) disappeared. Arma2 startup: -winxp -nosplash -world=empty -maxmem=2047 -cpuCount=2 -mod=@DFS_FPScounter Intel Core Duo E6750 @ 2.66Ghz 4GB Ram WinXP SP3 8800GTS 320 MB drivers 119.038 (no o.c.) 1920x1080 Asus 24" monitor NV-246H ---------- Post added at 03:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:43 PM ---------- Tweaked settings running through a field at 1920x1080 @ 34FPS. Sweet. ---------- Post added at 03:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:51 PM ---------- 30 FPS at 1920x1080, running through a village on these settings... smooth.

I've also started editing the corresponding text files for each mission with its matching bistudio.com forum thread URL, if one exists. Easy enough to come back later and copy'n'paste to the thread into Firefox to read about the mission and the developers goals, and to refresh the old memory cells about why I downloaded the mission in the first place, and some of the particulars in play/bugs/feedback, etc. Cheers, Doc

Scenario Developers, If you will, please name the included "readme" text file the same as the mission name... that way we can have a matching text file in the missions folders to refer to at any time. This will alleviate the need to manually rename EACH included "readme.txt", so none overwrite the others) e.g. Best_Mission_Ever.pbo Best_Mission_Ever.txt (the readme file) Thanks! Everyone keep up the good work!

Please also name the included text file the same as the mission... that way we can have a matching properly named text file in the missions folders to refer to at any time. (Instead of having to manually rename EACH included "readme.txt") e.g. Best_Mission_Ever.pbo Best_Mission_Ever.txt (the readme file) Thanks! Everyone keep up the good work!

Getting it, too. I actually think it was there before the 1.03 patch, but not entirely sure. Sounds are okay, though I had one sound bug where my guy dropped the nouns and subjects: "____ get in _____" instead of "ALL get in CHOPPER", or some such. Fixed with a reboot. Occasionally a long burst of mini-gun or prolonged cannon fire will really start to distort the sound, and the volume goes down... wierd.

It would be nice to be able to hover over a enemy ground target and use the mini-gun to blow them away. Or set up some waypoints for a fly-by... controlling the helo like the UAV (pgup/pgdown, etc.) with an auto-hover and rotate function. What a blast, literally, that would be. Who knows? That may be possible but one wouldn't know it from the crummy PDF manual they prepared. Anyone remember the 150page paper manuals that used to come with Falcon 4.0, Janes F/A-18, or some of the other flight/combat sims? Those were the days! :rolleyes:

Thanks! I just finished the level with the walk-through. I think my problem the first time was 1) Not knowing how to search a body (gunrunners) 2) Delaying finding the girl at the beginning, (I went for the cache first, and lost the opportunities to find her) 3) After ARTY was called in on the base, not walking over near the hospital clinic to let the game know I was looking for the dead body (not seen in game), and then getting called back to the FOB to finish the level. I think I spent six hours (by the watch in the game) running around the first time and doing nearly everything except the first two above. Thanks for the walk-through just to "trigger" the next level. In my mind I successfully completed all of it, just couldn't get the game to "trigger" me out of it. Cheers, Doc :cool:

Pull up the map, put your cursor over the spot you want (no trees!) and hit 0,8,1,1 Should then see a yellow square "pickup" ---------- Post added at 05:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:10 PM ---------- Once I had the driver of the EOD team die just getting out of the truck... come on now. Injure, sure. Die, no. At least if he was injured, my corpsmen could have patched him up. ---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:14 PM ---------- I parked the AAV a click to the West, where the APC wouldn't blow it to kingdom come, and then stealthed in through the woods, stopping my guys and "hold fire". Then crawl in to the low ridge in the woods to the SW and call in arty for "Fire for effect" ... about 30 rounds come in and smatter everything to smithereens save but a couple of MG nests. Of course, this kills the dude you're trying to I.D., and I can't get it to finish, but it sure was a glorious spectacle of fire'n'brimstone! HINT: The walk-through has you walk over to the smashed medical tent, and then that triggers you "finding" the dead body (never seen), and called back to FOB to finish the level. ...and Boomerang only showed up *after* it was all over. ---------- Post added at 05:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 PM ---------- I've run all over the base camp, but can't find a place to re-arm me and the grunts. Anybody found it? I've taken down so many encampments and droppin' a hundred dudes, I'm down to my last magazine. I read the spoile and to reload at the cache... but that seems like the last resort for a "simulator"... the cache would probably only have russian ammo. <rant> This game has little quirks like this that can be so frustrating, when everything else is so glorious. A decent online manual for these sorts of things would be fantastic. Not a tactical guide, but a practical GAME manual for people not familiar with FP and Arma (1). I shouldn't have to find out how to call in a LZ from a forum, I should have gotten a manual on how to do this.</rant> ---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ---------- I found out why you don't have UAV support! :) Also got this weird "no map" error, that persisted until I searched the safe house (even persisted through a reboot...which I thought might have helped). In my "pretend world", I guess I think that he left his map in the chopper! :P

Tried it twice... blew up each time. I tell Battlemage I "see a guy" but never found a way to see him in the game or catch him...

Four new bugs cropped up today with v1.03 (steam); 1) After going to options menu, and returning to game play mode, the menu "blur" does not go away. This is not the post-processing fog, but an actual myopic blur... like forgetting to put your contacts in. Sometimes, toggling the "esc" key removes the blur, sometimes, not. 2) Clicking on "advanced" in video mode *sometimes* does NOTHING, and cannot bring up the advanced video settings. If I am in advanced video mode, then clicking "basic" or "hide" do nothing either. 3) Moving objects behind hills have the little glowing motion dot superimposed on the hill (but shouldn't be seen at all)...but these were just sheep and cows behind a low hill. 4) When upscaling to a higher res in the video menu, when in advanced mode, after the higher res kicks in, you can't see the bottom of the advanced menu items any longer, and you can't change the menu size, because it's off screen. Will keep everyone apprised if fixed in any way. HW: Core Duo 3200+, nVidia 8800GTS 320mb, 2GBx2 RAM, 1.5TB defragged HD, Winxp SP3, latest DX, nVidia 190.38