ARMA II Beta Builds Released: Latest version/build: 1.04.6xxxx

From now on, the latest beta patches for Arma 2 are available to everyone from http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php including detailed change logs.

Arma 2 Beta is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It may be updated often and we use it to verify that a bug we are tracking has been fixed. This semi-automated release pipeline was designed primarily for our various external QA teams but we believe it makes sense to keep this open and transparent to the entire user community. However, please understand that it's released for advanced users only and for those who would like to give their helping hand with the testing and further development or simply to see what future versions of Arma 2 may bring.

If you're not interested in testing beta patches (which of course is completely understandable), please just ignore this message and act as if you never read it as there's simply no reason for you to bother about the beta builds at all. There is no need to start complaining about the open beta release policy as we believe it's doing no harm to anyone and can only speed up the entire development process. The complexity of Arma 2 has reached a nearly critical level, especially with all of the user addons and modifications, that testing of the game also requires a more agile approach and this is our attempt to address it.

More information here

http://www.bistudio.com/developers-blog/arma-2-beta-builds-released-2_en.html

i couldnt see it posted anywhere else so sorry if it is but i looked :)

ARMA II Beta Builds Released

Damn webfilter here at work...

Does this include us Steam users?

Damn webfilter here at work...

Does this include us Steam users?

From now on, the latest beta patches for Arma 2 are available to everyone from http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php including detailed change logs.

Arma 2 Beta is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It may be updated often and we use it to verify that a bug we are tracking has been fixed. This semi-automated release pipeline was designed primarily for our various external QA teams but we believe it makes sense to keep this open and transparent to the entire user community. However, please understand that it's released for advanced users only and for those who would like to give their helping hand with the testing and further development or simply to see what future versions of Arma 2 may bring.

If you're not interested in testing beta patches (which of course is completely understandable), please just ignore this message and act as if you never read it as there's simply no reason for you to bother about the beta builds at all. There is no need to start complaining about the open beta release policy as we believe it's doing no harm to anyone and can only speed up the entire development process. The complexity of Arma 2 has reached a nearly critical level, especially with all of the user addons and modifications, that testing of the game also requires a more agile approach and this is our attempt to address it.

We have evaluated the Arma 1 public beta versions system used in the past and tried to improve it, not only to allow much faster cycle but also to avoid unwanted userbase split in multiplayer (we will try to maintain compatibility between various versions in multplayer to achieve this).

We make the beta builds for testing only, but it will also allow community developers to test their own content in new versions of the game before it's released officially in stable and tested patch form. For the public beta patch, we write code and post the results frequently, so anyone can join our testing process and report bugs. However, Arma 2 Beta might introduce some new problems from time to time and may not even start properly, so please do not download Arma 2 beta builds if you're unwilling to put up with problems to help with the testing of the game and stick with the latest official release instead.

We tried to create the whole beta program in as user friendly a manner as possible, but feel free to post your suggestions here.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

-----------------------------------------

- ANY ORIGINAL VERSION OF ARMA 2 from 1.03 (including Steam version)

- DirectX 9 March 2009 is required

HOW TO INSTALL AND RUN THE BETA PATCH

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run the patch exe to apply the patch setup automatically (you may be prompted to choose your exact version in some occasions).

* It will install all beta content to a mod folder "Beta", including the beta exe (that has to be run properly with working directory set to the main game installation, see below for more information)

* To launch Arma2 beta patch you need to go to the main game directory and click on shortcut "Launch Arma2 Beta Patch"

* You can configure your Arma 2 with Beta Patch including other mods etc., just make make sure that:

in your ArmA Shortcut start-up Target line;

- You are running the Arma2.exe from your "beta" folder.

- You have "beta" in your modfolder as in -mod=beta

example: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta

- Make sure the shortcut's "Start In" section refers to main "Arma 2 " main working folder and NOT "Arma 2/beta"

example: "C:\Program Files\Bohemia Interactive\ArmA 2"

You can always run your Arma 2 final version in the main Arma 2 folder if you use default application shortcuts, start menu or run the regular arma2.exe without the beta mod folder.

Short answer, yes.

Thanks dude (long answer also appreciated).

No problem.

I have a question after looking at the log:

(current patch candidate)

[58805] Fixed: Switching to Utes from Chernarus caused Utes to contain infinite landscape.

[58797] Fixed: Time of day synchronized on client after connection to server.

[58788] Command line argument -cpuCount=NNN to override cpu count detection.

[58758] Removed mouse smoothing to reduce mouse lag in some situations.

[58729] Fixed: Simulate speed of sound

[58727] Fixed: fire from rifle distort sound

[58704] Fixed: Crash by malformed input to a diag_log scripting function.

[58701] Fixed: Muzzle flash was seen dark in some weapon optics.

[58698] Improved: Audio volume settings

[58665] Fixed: MP: Ships and boats used excessive bandwidth and CPU power.

[58654] Fixed: Players are no longer forced to reconnect after MP Load on server.

[58643] Fixed: bike rider can be no longer healed

[58625] Known issue: Players are forced to reconnect after MP Load on server.

[58608] Fixed: no particles effect when hit object with destructNo

[58600] Fixed: Player connected to loaded game was sometimes frozen.

[58589] Fixed: Game crashed when launched on a system with more then 8 CPUs/cores.

[58579] Fixed: Possible crash with laser designator active.

[58570] Fixed: Sometimes crew of a near vehicle was visible through the vehicle.

[58551] Fixed: Infinite looping of commands 'Stop' in radio.

[58536] Fixed: Leaning 'limits' do not work in TrackIR

[58535] Fixed: Clients were often endlessly stuck in 'Receiving...' window after MP Load.

[58494] Improved building destruction

[58487] New: Functions getPosATL and setPosATL to allow controlling position relative to terrain.

[58486] Fixed: Rainbow could be visible even with sun below horizon.

[58480] New: command line option -showScriptErrors introduced to show errors in scripts on-screen

[58471] Fixed: missiles should pass through vegetation

[58413] Fix: 3D editor - civilian and resistance units did not work correctly

[58404] Fixed: grenades may explode only on the final impact Fixed: when a grenade bounces on a ship deck, the proper particle effects is shown now

[58356] Improved: Better airplane HUD visibility both night and day

[58348] New: Direct analogue throttle and brake for airplanes now available.

[58304] Optimization: Reduced frame stutter near map borders.

[58290] Improved: better handling of gravitation for shots (esp. for grenades)

[58250] Fixed: Sea surface was not rendered in NE area out of map.

[58244] Fixed: terrain surface was sometimes using wrong parallax map.

[58239] Fixed: grenade could destroy a building just by impact

[58236] Fixed: Radio messages sometimes echoed

[58211] Fixed - Team switch did not work when player died

[58206] New: More flexible configuration of Flares in the config (brightness, size)

[58198] Fixed: Reduced AI detecting slowly moving enemy vehicles by ear.

[58189] Fixed: Prevent killed units reporting who killed them.

Patch 1.02

[58142] MP - when unit is respawned, its tasks, diary content and skills are transferred to the new entity

I recognize some of these from the 1.03 patch. Is this an old beta or does it include some new fixes?

[58805] Fixed: Switching to Utes from Chernarus caused Utes to contain infinite landscape.

[58797] Fixed: Time of day synchronized on client after connection to server.

[58788] Command line argument -cpuCount=NNN to override cpu count detection.

[58758] Removed mouse smoothing to reduce mouse lag in some situations.

[58729] Fixed: Simulate speed of sound

[58727] Fixed: fire from rifle distort sound

[58704] Fixed: Crash by malformed input to a diag_log scripting function.

[58701] Fixed: Muzzle flash was seen dark in some weapon optics.

[58698] Improved: Audio volume settings

[58665] Fixed: MP: Ships and boats used excessive bandwidth and CPU power.

[58654] Fixed: Players are no longer forced to reconnect after MP Load on server.

[58643] Fixed: bike rider can be no longer healed

I think these are all new (build 58643 and up).

Alright, thanks guys. Appreciate it.

"Removed mouse smoothing to reduce mouse lag in some situations"? I hope this will be optional then, not removed.

[58758] Removed mouse smoothing to reduce mouse lag in some situations.

[58729] Fixed: Simulate speed of sound

[58727] Fixed: fire from rifle distort sound

God bless BiS

Great initiative!

About car controls - I hope this will get fixed some day too:

http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2995

Great idea, love it. Definitely going to test it out and report back if I have anything to report. Perhaps it would be good to have a "Beta Build Feedback" thread?

Well, that's just the steering wheel turning too slowly, isn't it? With the keyboard it can take about one second for the wheel to turn completely, and at high speeds that covers a lot of distance.

A great forwards step towards the users. Well done BIS dev team.

Actually, I dont like the removing of "mouse smoothing".

Why ?

Because aim someone or something now in forest is a little dificult because its all like "aim-(froze)-aim-(froze)..." or better said, its not smooth now.

Edit: and yes, it was smooth for me before, I was using nHancer and all mouse lag was gone.

Have to agree with Matt here-the way some ppl are posting with out reading at least a page before - the news could of easily been missed! :rolleyes:

Call Leopardi, it's probably a good day for him :)

Actually, I dont like the removing of "mouse smoothing".

Why ?

Because aim someone or something now in forest is a little dificult because its all like "aim-(froze)-aim-(froze)..." or better said, its not smooth now.

Edit: and yes, it was smooth for me before, I was using nHancer and all mouse lag was gone.

that just doesnt make any sense as mouse smothing was for the cars as maruk said but just wasnt needed lol.

Congratz Marek and BI. Way to go. :)

Great job BIS!!!

Is this the thread where you give feedback on BETA's?

Anyway... Tried it out. I have had MASSIVE problems with mouse lag in the past. It is now almost completely gone, even when prerendered frames are set to 8, which would make it completely unplayable before...

However. In the BETA-patch a very strange and annoying mouse stutter was introduced. It's like it freezes and then let's go for a microsecond or two all the time. It has nothing to do with graphics, since it runs very smooth if I just run wothout using the mouse. Tried all kind of different settings in the background (windows) but nothing helps.

Can I be the annoying whiner?

Where is beta ArmA2Server ? :D

Smoke grenades now work as normal. :)

This will be tested - NOW! :)

No distortion so far. Nice. I know "mono" sound when firing from 1st person wasnt fixed in this, but i came to think on what it might be. The "sound-bubble/arc" around the weapon is too big i think? This is why it doesnt matter if you turn left or right - the sound will be equally loud on both right and left speakers. Sound-bubble/arc is too big on many/most things wich was tested tonight by me and friends. Looking to the left of us hearing an engine (ground vehicle) made us look over a large area to the left before seeing it. It sounds equally loud over a too big area, and not like ArmA1/reality where the sound is coming straight from the source where it is.

Anyway, maybe BIS reads this thanks to the freshness of the thread. Just want to help out in the beta process. Im real happy with beta's though. So we can test and bring feedback before final's.

Alex