[WIP Report & Input Request] A.C.R.E. - Advanced Combat Radio Environment - Oct, 2011

Work-In-Progress Report - October, 2011

Topic: 1.4 Engine Revamp Magic

Introduction

Hi all. We have decided to post a general overview of what you can expect with 1.4 of ACRE. We've decided to take a major overhaul for this version, so a lot of things (internally and from a mission maker perspective) are going to change. A lot of the core engine mechanics are changing, and all for the better. We decided it was best to give a small update on where we are heading, rather than just leaving everyone hanging still.

Topics of Interest

Move away from TS3 reliance

- Reliance on the TS3 sound engine and systems has been reduced to a minimum. We now perform all our 3D and audio calculations on our own. This basically means the only interaction we now have with TS3 is "They give us audio data, we give it back audio data"

- TS3 3d position, mixing, and all the related have been removed. We now do it on our own.

- All of this functionality has been written from the ground up either by hand, or utilizing XAudio2 Libraries (DirectX 3D Audio)

Core Engine Transition

A majority of the of processing, functionality and math has been moved away from arma2 and into what we call our "Core Engine". For ACRE, this engine lives in TS3. However, this is basically, for all intents and purposes, our own program now running and processing ACRE information. This should completely eliminate all the game lag issues which have become present sometimes during large play scenarios. This means we are doing it *outside of arma2*, in C++, on our own and with our own process management. What does this mean? It means the following got moved away and are extremely fast now:

- Radio information

- Signal calculations

- 3D Position tracking and calculations

- Network (Freq/power/etc) settings information

- Player Head positions (yes, we now track head vectors)

Data System Re-Evaluation

Nou has also revamped our data propagation engine, to allow for smoother and easier transition between players swapping radios. This is mainly an internal change, but what it allows is for us to use information in both TS3 and A2 transparently. We are now allowed to transfer our own large amounts of information without desyncing the server.

Signal Loss Revamp

Nou can speak more on this below, but we are moving towards more realistic and quicker models.

Audio Engine Revamp

As stated above, we have written our own complete audio processing engine now, including 3D positional audio.

JayArmA2Lib Redesign

TBA :)

Technical Overview

TBA :)

Oh boy oh boy am I looking forward to this!

This, the Invasion 44 mod and the 1.60 patch are going to keep me busy for LONG nights to come.

Let me know if you need anyone for testing ;)

Yep! This is the dog days of developing again! :D

Everything so far just feels a lot better. We have a clear view on what we need to do to better implement our current features and provide the framework for additional changes and features for now and in the future.

Input Request

Now what's this all about? :D

Not sure if it's on your roadmap, but it'd be great if you could implement realistic whispering/talking/shouting ranges.

When not using the radio, the input level of a user's audio would determine it's loudness and therefore its range, i.e. someone speaking loudly or even shouting into his mike should be heard further than someone whispering. It would nice if this was simply determined by the level of input rather than pre-determined keys.

By extension, it would be AMAZING if enemy AI reacted to the voices of other troops. So that if your group had some loudmouth (which clan doesn't ;)) then he'd more likely attract the attention of AI.

I can just imagine players really whispering into their mikes during a stealth mission and keeping close too, because whispering isn't heard much past half a dozen feet.

Equally I can imagine players yelling into their mikes in order to be heard as far as possible? "Where are you?"

Obviously in a modern conflict this would be limited due to radios but in a low-tech conflict or WW2 environment, this aspect would significantly influence gameplay.

AI can "hear" you when you use VOIP, but I'm not sure about ACRE.

Very much hope that it will be possible to speak via radio operators radio (as during the Vietnam era)

Like on this image:

it sound good cant wait to see the result

and getting away from 2 "flowing" engines sound for me like getting less bugs.

does headtrack mean that you can make the voice travel in speaking direction further?

and will in the future satcom rigs implementet?

and can you prevent the despawning of acre gear if the dead bodys "vanish", jeah i know i can edit every mission, maybe create a timelimitet create with the acre gear of the soldier

How is the update going? Cant wait to get my hands on it.