deepfried

No, the Pilot run of the dev kits got shipped to major devs a few weeks back, the bulk of the dev kits don't go out until April/May. As for the commercial version, I've been keeping track of every scrap of information available and I'm 99% certain it will not release this year, maybe not until mid/late next year. Their CEO has stated on camera that they will not release the Rift until there is a good catalogue of games that support it (so far there are quite a few that say they will, but only 1 or 2 that actually have it working), and they all but said outright that it won't be out this year in an interview with the New york times. Plus don't forget they will still have design and testing work to do after they get the feedback from the devkits (several months from now) which will take several months, then they have to get the tooling done at the factory and ramp up production. I'd bet any money commercial version is not out this year. Not to mention the rift will be tough to get working well in Arma, its hard enough to get good frame rates as it is in Arma, but render two views at a minimum 60fps vsync will take a beast of a computer. You'll need to be averaging 80-90fps at the moment with it never dropping below 60.

I thought it would be challenging to make climb animations that look "correct" with obstacles of all different shapes and sizes - I had visions of hand hold animations in thin air etc.. I'm glad I was wrong, maybe there is hope!

I've wondered before, does TrackIR make flying harder? I ask because I rely quite a bit on the fixed forward view to get a good feel for the orientation of the helicopter, I can happily skim hilly terrain at 1-5m at high speed that way. Being able to look around the cockpit would be more realistic, and I imagine would greatly improve your situational awareness and make it easier to land without 3rd person... but as its not real life and you don't have gravity telling you what angle you're at to the ground, doesn't it get a bit disorienting?

If none of the doors are locked then breaking them down (or blowing them up!) seems a tad overkill. Still, breaching mechanics would be nice... I'm thinking Raven shield.

What input devices are you using to fly at the moment?

Post your specs, also monitor your GPU and CPU usage when you get these low frame rates so we can see if there is a bottleneck, many older or lower spec gaming PC's will be heavily bottlenecked by their CPU in Arma3 regardless of what the graphics card is. Also I highly doubt there are that many people getting decent frame rates on ultra in MP unless they all have £2500 rigs built in the last 12 months, so I'd write that off as bullshit if I were you. Further, if decent frame rates are your goal use custom graphics settings. Settings like "vsync", "AA" (FXAA should be fine though), all 3 of the Draw distances, and object and terrain detail will have MASSIVE impact on your frame rates, so tinker with them.

My sentiments exactly. Very little need for jumping and very little purpose in a simulation, climbing on the other hand would be a realistic addition... I'm just grateful I don't have to handle the animation :D

I'd suggest that if we must have running vault (don't see the need but w/e) then it should be dependant on the weight of gear being carried. I don't want to see an engineer with 4 satchel charges doing anything more energetic than passing out from the weight, never mind leaping over obstacles at a sprint... remember this is a simulation.

Seems absolutely fine to me, walk up to object, press enter, interaction complete. Couldn't be much simpler without compromising other controls, like subverting primary fire to "use" when in front of a usable object (terrible idea).

To be frank i'm dubious just how much run-vaulting a soldier can do in full combat gear, but I'm no expert so I'll leave that to others to comment. However I will say I see no gameplay need for any sort of run+jump mechanic, climbing over chest high obstacles yes, jumping not so much. (Voted no)

Very helpful, I was looking for a beginner tutorial and this is perfect. Looking forward to more.

Uhm... not to rain on the parade or anything but can't BIS just get user's system specs from Steam?

From the little time I've had with the MX guns in A3 they seem just fine, if perhaps a little too effective compared to previous 5.56 and 7.62 rifles, very tight groupings and good stopping power.. just seems too good somehow - though I guess I'm spoiled by ACE. As for introducing fictional guns, personally I'd probably prefer it if they'd stuck with "real" guns, at least then you have realistic metrics to simulate, but I guess it doesn't matter too much what they do in the campaign, doubtless there will be plenty of MP mods using current weaponry.

I've done a search and can't find anything addressing my question, so here it is: I'm quite happy with the helicopter flight mechanics in the game, though I understand there are changes coming (ToH mechanics?). I'm using an xbox360 pad which I used previously in Arma2 for helicopter flying; it still works pretty well but now we have two sets of inputs for thrust, the normal one (collective raise/lower) and the analogue one (collective raise/lower analogue). The normal inputs works fine for manoeuvring in a level plane but they don't climb or descend nearly fast enough to be practical when hugging terrain, or dropping behind a hill etc. and the analogue inputs are great but they require me to apply partial pressure to a trigger to maintain altitude, works perfectly but makes my finger ache pretty quick. So my question is: Is it the intention that the release version control inputs will be like this? and if so what control peripherals would be best to use? I've been very happy with the xbox360 controller in Arma2, preferring it to an x45 due to having two thumb sticks allowing me to blend "turn" and "bank" controls, giving, IMO, superior fine control. I have over 100hrs flight time with those controls, so ideally I'd be looking to combine the 360 controller with some sort of pedals for thrust control... I know that's not authentic or usual but it seems to me that it might work well. Any suggestions or input appreciated, with one exception: please don't suggest a HOTAS, I've had one before and I don't want another.