jpinard

We have just 8 hours to go? I thought it wasn't coming out until 3:00PM EST (U.S.) tomorrow (Tuesday). If you're right I'm going to plan my whole night around this.

Since the discussion thread devolved, lets have everyone post their happiness they finally got the game here. Also, retailers don't often have stock or delivery and this can be a resource for people who want it "now" but are not sure where to get it. All you Germans can brag about how early you got it too :) ----- BTW, when is "29th June at 00:01AM CEST" for America/Canada Eastern Standard Time? Is that like 3:00AM our time?

Thanks! This is a really awesome post. What you turn off Ambient Occlusion, what kind of visual quality loss do you see? Also, what level AA are you using in the non-white outline screenshot?

Thanks for letting us know Maruk. Very helpful. I must also concur I wish we had a separate setting for rotational blur and bloom. I love all the PP effects except those two and would like an option to disable just those two. Can't wait til I can play.

It's taken me 1 1/2 days to download this thing and I'm finally installed... just to get the following message: I purchased this direct from BI via Sprocket. and considering I copy/pasted it directly from the e-mail I got from Sprocket/Idea games - it IS a valid SN. --edit-- I'm a bit confused. A bunch of people are playing the game... how is this? Why would some people have activation's going through so they can play single player and others are not? I thought the release date was today European CST? Also, my PC Gamer has an advertisement that says OA is available now! I just want to play my game :(

Why hello! I have a burning question maybe you can answer... do you have methane-based life-forms on your moon eating your Acetyline? ;) Also... I didn't think OA was v1.07, but the patch updated both games?

I couldn't find this answered so please don't skewer me. I'm doing a fresh install of ArmA2 before installing OA. So should a person doing this do the following? 1. Install ArmA 2 2. Install ArmA2 OA 3. Install Patch 1.07 --OR-- 1. Install ArmA 2 2. Patch ArmA 2 to 1.07 3. Install OA. 4. Re-apply patch 1.07

Thanks, my folder only has 6.93 Gig of data. Is it supposed to be more like 9 Gig?

I got a message the download was completed when I woke up but the program failed. Where is this downloader program saving the file to?

I'm pretty frustrated so far. 12 hours later I'm finally seeing a United States server but it keeps disconnecting instantly (using the Sprocket downloader). My question is: If I download it via the European or Czech servers will the game be messed up as its localized for those areas? ie. the wrong language? Otherwise I'm going to skip the failing US server and use one of those. Thanks.

For those asking about whther you should turn hyperthreading on or off I'm not going to re-link all the stuff I already wrote, but unless you're doing massive database stuff or working for Pixar - turn it off. You're overtaxing your cpu for a net loss unless you're underclocking your cpu.

For this beta, tests are all over the place. Posting numbers would be pointless as there's no consistency whatsoever. I"ll list each one and my conclusions (10 hours of beta testing this patch, all at 3500 meter distance each test run 3 or 4 times, and used the editor and the massive Utes battle): * Scenario Benchmark 1 - seeing microlag unlike last beta, same average fps. * Scenario Benchmark 2 - seeing microlag unlike last beta, same average fps. * OFPMark - Seeing hesitations in the capsule drop I didn't see in the previous beta. * Chernogorsk City Benchmark - Massive dips in minimum frame rate (seen in half the tests) and 10% decrease in average frame rate. * My Helo Bench - Average fps is down 10% again, stutter and lag is evident half the time I run the benchmark. * My Jet Bench - Performance is dramatically increased. Very smooth, performance up 10%. From here on, I devised a new benchmark that is a tank driving through Chernogorsk for 4 minutes. Half the time it runs fine, but when I've run the game for a bit OR used time compression it can stagger down to just 8 fps (as opposed to the 30fps I was getting). When it does this all objects remain low value LOD's and buildings look like toy blocks. The game barely moves and its evident something has gone wrong. I have to exit the game and restart. This is the first beta I've had this problem. Overall - hesitations and lag are up... except when streaking across the countryside in a jet. On this rig "Beta v71275 -exThreads=7" was better all around... except my jet test. System Specs: * Windows 7 - 64-bit * Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz overclocked to 4.3 GHz stable * Asus P6X58D Premium Motherboard BIOS v.0703 * G.Skill DDR3 2000 in Triple Channel Mode - 6 Gig * NVidia GeForce GTX 480 Driver v197.75 * PCIe Titanium Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatality * Planar PX2611W 26" widescreen LCD * Win7/Boot drive on 80 Gig Intel X25M SSD * ArmA2 installed by itself on second 80 Gig Intel X25M SSD Note: the varying performance numbers people are reporting - some see this beta as faster, some see it stable, some say its slower... it all depends on how long they've been running the game and what they're doing in the game. People need to report this as those that run a single test and say "It's faster!" are not providing reliable data.

BI - could you possibly allow those of us that came to ArmA2 late to purchase the map of Chernarus? I've pre-ordered OA so I'll get the map of Takistan, but would also like on of Chernarus. Thanks :)

I'll buy no matter what the DLC... as long as it is not on Steam. Please do NOT force us to use Steam. I like how my game runs and is configured now. Using Steam would be horrible in this respect for many of us. What I would like to see as DLC is more artillery and vehicles. My preference would be older tanks, cars, and artillery so engangement distances are closer = more fun. With this option we could make new scenarios where all units are in closer confines. What I do not want to see is just an additional side (basically reskins) ie. British soldiers etc. If I want to play Allied, I'll just load up the United States.

Korky has a set of mods in which he's fine-tunesd each mod to fit his particular needs and increase performance. This thread is to pick his brain. Kroky's post on the subject from the SLX mod thread: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok the answer how it works for me: Arma2 1.05 with latest beta 63164 Mod load order: -mod=beta;@@panthera;@cba;@ace;@ace_wounds;@acex;$$ acex_sm;@gl4;@jtd;@landtex;@modpack;@slx;@vf;@poen ;+bb;+rksl;@dsai_arab;@dsai_eng;@dsai_gen;@dsai_ru s;$$trsm_fixedwings;$$trsm_rotarywings;$$trsm_trac kedvehicles;$$trsm_wheeledvehicles;@nim_weather;r: \@@isladuala;r:\@proper;@mma -nosplash -world=empty Ok some explanations: 1. ace_wounds is a .pbo which I made following the instructions of Sickboy, which initializes the ACE wounds system on every mission. (this is not an official ACE addon!) 2. $$acex_sm is basically the original ACEX_SM, but modified to get rotary wings sounds replacement by TRSM. 3. JTD folder includes: FAS, Flies, FatRain, ClearHorizons 4. The Modpack folder includes: CLAY_TopolkaDamFX, sakulightfx, Jon_Editorupdate_V1.3 5. poen is the Polish to English language patch. 6. I use different category of modfolders (with the Spirited Machine mod launcher) to have more overview: - @@ folders are islands - @ folders are important gameplay mods that I use on every game start - $$ folders are sound mods - + folders are Addons, that I only use for certain missions, where required - ++ folders are Replacements packs, (for units i.e.) - r:\ folders are running from RamDisk, for a much better performance and to avoid LOD texture popping. Game runs much smoother. 7. Slx folder has only these pbo's: - slx_ai - slx_ai_dodge - slx_ai_turnmove - slx_aiskill - slx_animals - slx_bis_bc_fix - slx_bis_xeh - slx_cloud - slx_dialogue - slx_explosiondust - slx_findcover - slx_fov (thanks Solus for this, eventually somebody made a good fov) - slx_helicopter_ai_fix - slx_lights - slx_mimics - slx_netcode - slx_ragdoll - slx_shoteffects - slx_shout - slx_suppressioneffects - slx_uav - slx_vehicleeffects (this pbo probably fixed for me the ctd) - slx_wounds - slx_wounds_ais 8. r:\proper folder contains all the plants and building pbo's made by kju for better performance. Total 10 pbo's. 9. Intentionally left out, after testing: - Zeus mod, WarFX (This mods conflict in one way or the other and costed me to much performance, compared to the benefit they brought to my mod mix. Now the settings on GL4_Global: - Reinforcements true, but reduced to 1 group (performance) - Reinforcements courage, distance and delay tweaked for better performance - Artillery set to false - Air Strike set to true - Smoke (Man, Tank) true - Flare true - House Search true - Car Weapon true - Helicopter Paradrop true - Advancing true - Suppressive Fire true, (I have to try to disable this since its in SLX already) - Combat Tactics true - Body Detect true - AI detection true - Rearm false (already running VFAI, which is by far better) - AI Extraction true - Body remove false - Difficult level false, (some problems when true, with ACE) - Enemy AI Idle true - Enemy AI Garrison true - Enemy AI Static Weapons true - Enemy AI Surrender true (Maybe overlapping with SLX, have to check) - Simulate Dead true - Map Marker false - Recruit true - AI Advancing and Suppressed true - Get In System false Of course there probably could be made some more optimizations. I still work on a better mix between performace/gameplay. But right now, I'm very happy with it. Hope this helps some people to get better gaming experience with all this super mod!

Performance is most definately down with more lag & hesitations in this beta @3500 meter distance. Will post concrete numbers later.

BI - During intense battles I'm getting sound anomolies. Maybe this is (WAI) working as intended, but is very noticeable when the jet or helos arrive and fly overhead. The sound clips in too late and sounds odd. You can test this by loading up this mission: http://www.jeffpinard.com/FPS_Test_Huge_5d.utes.zip Notes about the mission: * 300+ units * The unit you control in the test is invulnerable. Idea being, just stay in the middle and rotate slowly to hear the sound that cuts in incorrectly. You may need to move him back to his starting point as blasts blow him around a bit. * Just to clarify, the sound issue I'm referring to is not the normal close blast percussive effect, nor bomb blasts. It is the effect of sound suddenly clipping in/out because many sounds are playing at the same time - but is most noticeble with the aircraft overhead. * If this is WIA, please let me know and I'll stop reporting. * Would it be possible to increase the number of simultaneous sounds? That would probably fix this issue. ----edit---- Here's a Youtube video with the issue (turn volume up loud & watch in 1080P). As the Helo comes in the sound should start much earlier... instead it cuts in when it as it is already passing overhead. Once the sound starts doing this - it gets worse until a battle is reloaded. All the other helos sounded proper up until this point.

What kind of corruption are they talking about? And what kind of performance problems?

Just to reiterate... Should a supercomputer of a system add no parameters (exthreads, cores, maxmem, etc) as they will be set by default for the best performance? -exThreads=7 etc...

I have a benchmark that's perfect for this. You don't have to do anything but ride along (switch to external view). Download it here: http://www.jeffpinard.com/jpinard%20ArmA2%20Benchmark%20Tests.zip

If this is just a crash fix, why are people seeing improvements/decreases in frame rate? Is this the placebo effect or are there more changes than what's being listed?

Wow this opens up so much it boggles the mind. Thanks for awesomeness!

Perfect - I knew it was part of VS, but some programs use it for errors reports... so just wanted to make sure Arma2 wasn't one of them. Nice I can disable it now :)

Does this service need to be running for ArmA2 to create a proper dump file when it crashes? Wanted to check before disabling it.

Should this beta be fully benched, or is it just a crash-fix? If it's just a crash-fix I'll test to try and replicate the crashes.