orcinus

The haze addon sounds interesting. Also, a script version that simulated night mist burning off as the day warmed up could add quite a bit of immersion to appropriate scenarios. Is that something you might consider? Fire & Smoke was / is one of my standard mods in A2/CO. The birds are one of the mods many cool features. So, whenever...

Very fine, thank you for sharing!

Update: still not fixed. Steam replied to my ticket with some face-saving waffle about 'interfering programs'. There are none - I disable almost all "run at start" apps, I use Black Viper's 'tweaked' configuration for services; and GameBooster to i.d. & close all irrelevant processes when I want to play ArmA. Their other suggestion was to download the installer then uninstall / reboot / reinstall the Steam client. As I was uploading a rather large file, I decided to try reinstalling over the top of the existing install. No problem - after the install, no requirement to reboot, it connected & updated first a ca. 25 MB file then a ca. 40 MB file. It then fired up, asked for my PW, and connected. Client was clearly updated; it has the "Move this install" option, and it connected to Steam without trying to redownload most of the mods. Unfortunately on reconnecting this morning, it again started to download 36.8 GB of 'updates'. It's possible that the fubar over the replicated folders, etc., has resulted in workshop-related files that contain outdated or incorrect data. Looks like I will have to move the ArmA 3 folder out of the Steam folder and go through the uninstall / reinstall routine. I already backed up the game files, and all the mods are mirrored on both of my WD external drives. Oh yes - this version now includes a useless 'run at start' default. FFS, it seems every half-arsed programmer and their dog puts that into their s/w. There are very few programs that need to run at the start. I take it as an indicating a certain degree of stupidity. Edit, March 13. I ran a duplicate-file hunt. Multiple mod folders have been duplicated; looks like Steam simultaneously updated one file in both instances, at least once. The game is essentially unplayable now. There is no way I know of finding out what Steam intends to download, let lone edit that list.

Doesn't work for me, unfortunately. Logged on and STEAM immediately began to download 36.8 GB 'updates'. It did not update the client first. I paused the download. Went to "Steam > Check for Steam Client Updates" & got the response "Your client is already up to date". There are no Steam .exe or .dll files modified more recently than 19/01/2017 and the creation dates are mostly much older. The Steam.exe, for example, was created on 19/11/2012, modified 19/01/2017. File version is 3.78.49.52. In the client there is no option to "Move install folder.." which I believe was introduced back in January. So the currently installed client is many weeks out of date. Have emailed STEAM support asking how to update the client manually - I am not going to do a full uninstall/rinstall of the game and ~70 GB of mods. My contempt for STEAM software just increased by several notches...

Update: I didn't set up a bug report as there was already one that has been closed. There's an explanation and more info in this post from BIS dev BIS_Wizard.

Hi m8 The main thread is here: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/202299-workshop-continuously-trying-to-update-a-zero-byte-file/ There are several relevant other threads cited in the later posts. A search can likely turn up others. A key post is this one from BI dev BIS_Wizard. Among those affected was Foxhound (of Armaholic) - not exactly either a newbie or PC illiterate. Ciao

The launcher operates through the STEAM client. The STEAM client is broken, hence the Launcher is unavoidably affected. It won't make any difference whether the client is 32- or 64-bit. Some good news - the latest beta client has apparently resolved the disappearing-mods issue for one user. See this thread:

It isn't just me - far from it - and it's been broken for months. BIS say it's broken. Valve agreed. Valve currently releasing updates in an effort to fix it. You aren't having a problem, however, so of course all the above must be wrong.

Don't use the Arma3 Launcher. It's totally FUBAR in both 32-bit and 64-bit incarnations, because Valve have fucked up the Steam client on which the A3 launcher depends. There will almost certainly be issues with the 64-bit client, but progressing BIS' exceptional game (rather than Vave's shoddilyy incompetent software) requires that, as far as possible, these are demarcated from problems originating with the STEAMing pile of ****. Use a competent community launcher (I use Arma3sync, there are others) to launch the game. True they, won't update your files or hunt out dependencies - but it doesn't takethat much time to do this by other means - much less than having to reinstall & re-downlaod all your mods.

Great, but no: thank you :)

Hi BIS_Wizard Before I start deleting the duplicated files/folders from my A3 instaallation, are there any files I could send you that might help (even though it's not an identical issue)? +1. Good news that you're getting some action from the Valve guys.

Quite a few people - which you'd have realised if you had searched, or simply looked at the thread titles on page 1 of this sub-forum tsk, tsk. Try this thread to start with: here are a variety of posted solutions, not all of them work for every one. Worth trying the simplest ones forst before you start uninstalling/reinstalling everyrhing.

Steam client is broken, hence so is the A3 Launcher (which connects via the Steam client). Use Arma3sync for launching the game, it's flawless. It won't update mods or look for dependencies, but it's easier to do that onself than spend hours hunting for your mods/unistalling & reinstalling/cursing, etc.

Hi kju This links to the IFA download (identical to the one in the "Iron Front Terrains in Arma 3 - preview versions" thread). Could you post the correct link when you have a moment? Cheers, and thanks again for this great addition to A3 :)

Only until the badly-broken PoS STEAM client decides to set up and download replicate copies...

Might be the simplest/easiest way would be a config that altered the dispersion of the RPG (I think I'm correct in the belief they have a dispersion value, but can't check immediately - not able to run STEAM online because the client is so f*cked up).

Oh yes :) That and Ryd's routine (which I didn't know about) just made setting up HAL class arrays vastly easier. Thanks a lot to both of you for sharing the scripts

What autigergrad, tpw, et al. said. Beautiful work, rain sounds would be fantastic :) Now if only Valve would fix the STEAM client they buggered up, I could update it :(

I wanted to test some A2/CO addons with a view to improving jungle AI performance, so last night set up on Trung Si a private port of Greuh's Clashpoint. Hee, some of the denser vegetation areas are green hells! AI managed to wipe out blufor several times. Two or three times the OPFOR AI used the terrain to make flanking attacks that caught BLUFOR by surprise - killing me in the process. Very immersive, the surprise attacks were quite a shock. AIs use grenades/grenade launchers very effectively to kill opponents they can't see. Whether for PvP/COOP or SP, mission designers can choose AOs that offer challenges from average to very hard simply on the basis of the location. Suggests some interesting mission design possibilities. This first-rate map just keeps getting better and better :)

It isn't just RAM use to consider. Some Windows services - whatever version of Windows you have - not only consume RAM but gobble a lot of CPU cycles. However, if you don't know what you are doing you can render your machine unbootable, so use a guide or/and use Razer's Cortex to turn off unnecessary services. IME the definitive site is Black Viper's, which has been my source of guidance for about 15 years. The "Tweaked" listings free up the most RAM and CPU cycles. I changed the FPS in Helo's Altis benchmark from 27 (stock Win 7 64 Pro SP1 install) to 40 just by tailoring what services were allowed to run. http://www.blackviper.com (One resource-hogging service can be replaced with a much better tool. Disable 'Indexing' and install 'Agent Ransack' instead. An award-winning, very fast search program in 32- and 64-bit versions, it can search inside files for keywords/phrases/regularexpressions; even inside .exe and .pbo files. Only file type I've seen it fail on is Outlook database file. Oh, and it's FREE :) Razer Cortex (I still use the older version, 'Game Booster') is a good solution. For those not wanting to run it, it's a case of using Task Manager to investigate what processes and non-windows services are running and researching which can be safely shut down. There are lots of websites which have listings of what various processes are & what they do; StartPage is your friend. Important: NEVER use msconfig to change services. It is disastrously easy make your system unbootable. It even has the utterly demented feature of a "disable all" button FFS.

Aha! You managed to catch it in the act? Neat. Does "create and test a workaround" perhaps imply that a fix is in the offing? Good work in any event. Thank you for the update.

Hi There is a wealth of mods & scripts in A2/CO, some of which work flawlessly or nearly so in A3. I think it would be useful to have a thread documenting such resources. Please post links to mods/scripts in BI forums or elsewhere (Armaholic, OFPEC, etc.) that you have found to be largely or wholly functional in A3. If one throws up a non-critical error, do report that but please no discussion about possible solutions - do that elsewhere. To start: Perfectly functional is kju's DisabledFriendlyFire Server Side Addon This prevents deaths due to A3's homicidal drivers as well as to bullets, etc. In that, it differs from Rydygier's Liability Insurance addon which only affects driver murders. Since the A3 AI is apparently blind to friendly players I prefer kju's mod. Note that any mod/script I post has only been tested in SP. It would be helpful if MP players could test & report also. Edit: Find the file & key along with other potentially A3-compatible kju/PVP scene files here: https://dev.withsix.com/projects/pvpscene-tweaks/fileshttps://dev.withsix.com/projects/pvpscene-tweaks/files Thanks for the heads-up, Krem.

Another nice success: zguba & Mr Centipede's "Cent Stick2gether", which stops the AI running off all over the place during firefights. I'm getting slowly back into playing because of some very nice jungle maps appearing as well as UNSUNG Delta otw, Vanilla AI leaders are fairly crippled in dense jungle. This should make for better, longer firefights.

Please tell us which mods :) Not all of COSLX works by any means - slx_wounds is badly broken, others require files from A2 that are lacking in A3. However

A nice find for those (me :) who want to fire AT launchers while prone: slx_at_lying (part of COSLX, as well as the orginal SLX for A2) works very well with no errors. Get it from Armaholic: http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=15379&highlight=COSLX Both SLX & COSLX are highly modular; you need only the file slx_anim_at_lying.pbo and its bisign for MP (not tested in MP, please would someone check it?). Tested in SP with A3 Blufor & Opfor vanilla units, Titan MPRL compact, PCML, and RPG-412 Alamut. BIS messed up the primary-launcher switch animations a while ago, so please use slx_anim_at_lying as follows: Go to prone before switching to launcher. The anim is a little odd but quite acceptable IMHO. All three launchers work fine in prone. Make sure there isn't a rock in front of you, the launcher is held really low Player kneels to reload, so don't miss the first shot The transition from prone to kneeling-reload position is very abrupt. Not much I can do about that, but presenting so much smaller a target is worth it IMO. Otherwise it is perfectly useable and throws up no errors. Enjoy!