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  Updated CUP Weapons, Units & Vehicles Packs released ! Addon release    

The Community Upgrade Project - CUP has announced CUP Units Pack 1.8.0, CUP Weapons Pack 1.8.0 and CUP Vehicles Pack 1.8.0 release on the BI Forums.


CUPREP #0004: November Rain CUPDATE

It's the time of the year again, time for another CUPDATE.
As usual, if you find any issues, let us know (links in the first post)

IMPORTANT: Starting with Version 1.8.0, CUP is published under a different license.

More about CUP on Community Upgrade Project site ...

  November 29th, 2016 - 14:50 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00181 Official    

On November 22, 2016, Vojtěch Kovařič has reported a SITREP #00181 on the official Arma3 site.

FROM: High Command
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Update 1.66 Release Candidate, Footsteps Audio Overhaul, 64-bit Information
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


The development team now focuses on polishing the Release Candidate of Update 1.66 to a splendid shape. While we're still tracking quite a number of issues in the build, we're tackling the bugs one by one, and hope to release the update in upcoming weeks. Apart from fixes and maintenance, there are some additions coming in this patch, too. More on them later in this report.

INTELLIGENCE


The 11th AMB, a Dutch realism unit, has published an epic unit promo video. In the trailer, they showcase tactical approaches on both official and community-made terrains using some clever video editing that matches the music. Great work, keep it coming!



Why doesn't Arma 3 support Steam Cloud Saving? That is the question PC Gamer asked our Project Lead Petr Kolář. Simply put, while we surely recognize the benefits of having the save files backed up in the cloud, there are some obstacles we cannot really work around with our current save system. Arma 3 uses multiple save locations for several purposes (Eden Editor scenarios, Campaign saves, user settings and profile, etc.). All of this gets even more complicated when mods are factored in. To avoid compromising the platform, we've decided not to enable Steam Cloud Saving. Needless to say, if our future technology allows for a more robust solution, we'll be sure to re-evaluate the options again.




Faces of War, a new World War II community mod, has reached its Alpha milestone and was released through the Bohemia Forums. The package includes a terrain, weapons, and vehicles - and more is yet to come. The authors are also looking for some talented members to join their team. Be sure to check screenshots of Faces of War and download the mod via the forums post.

OPERATIONS


As we've already mentioned, testing of the upcoming Update 1.66 has started. While it focuses mostly on maintenance and stability fixes, there are some improvements which affect every step you make in the game. Senior Audio Designer Tomáš Bayer expands on the Footsteps Audio Overhaul: "We've recreated footstep sounds and their implementation basically from scratch. Most of the sounds were recorded again and were placed in separate layers. Using the SoundSet architecture, each footstep sound is now dynamically mixed from several separate sound layers being played on each step players make: boot, surface, or a random additional sound (branches in the forests, creaks on wood and others). Additionally, a Wet layer is being triggered depending on the humidity level, which, naturally, raises when it's raining. As a result, sounds of on-foot movement now provide a significantly larger diversity: chances of hearing the same footstep sound twice in a row are minimal."

Many of you got excited to see Dynamic Simulation in the Release Candidate build. Unfortunately, as we've expanded on its implementation quite a bit recently, the feature requires more testing time by our QA experts and we've decided not to include it in Update 1.66. To get more Intel on Update 1.66 in general, we've started our usual communications channels. Feel free to use our official Feedback Tracker to post issues you find, reddit post for discussing the update with others and follow the RC forums thread for the Release Candidate overview and its updates. Thank you for participating!




In our recent Roadmap 2016-17 blog, Creative Director Jay Crowe briefly mentioned the 64-bit client of the game. While we plan to publish a separate OPREP on the topic closer to its Dev-Branch release, some details can already be shared now. Richard Biely, one of the programmers responsible for the development, throws some of the facts on the table: "Being able to utilize virtually all your system's memory, the performance of Arma 3 should become a lot more consistent. With the ability to cache a huge amount of data, less loading is required. This translates into less work for the game to do and ultimately into more fluent gameplay. Rather than introducing a miraculous framerate increase, an improvement in the performance will be most visible when playing the game with a long view distance. The amount of data to cache is rather large in this case and the game will benefit greatly from an increased amount of available RAM." Naturally, such a great change comes with some limitations. Players will not be able to run 64-bit Arma 3 on 32-bit operation systems, or 32-bit only CPUs. Significant adjustments are also being made to the Launcher. Senior Programmer Jiří 'Wizard' Polášek is working on a proper distinction of the game versions. It is not as easy as it might seem, the Launcher not only handles the way Arma 3 is started, but it also takes care of the connection to Steam Workshop and its mod database and has to make sure proper extensions are launched along with the game. A big thank you to both Richard and Wizard for their work!

Senior Programmer Krzysztof Bielawski provided a unique insight in low-level refactoring of AI behavior. His OPREP focused on the recent improvement to Arma 3, AI path-following, and explains the motivations and technical details on the path to a more reliable and natural AI driving. Since the behavior for wheeled vehicles is now fully implemented in Update 1.64, we hope to enable these improvements also for tracked vehicles on Dev-Branch soon.




LOGISTICS


Last but not least, our colleagues over at Bohemia Interactive's Mobile team have enlisted more than half a million commanders in Arma Mobile Ops. To celebrate, they released the biggest update yet, with Faction Wars as the main highlight. Join either the Clouds or the Flames, and fight for victory in monthly seasons. The winning faction will of course be handsomely rewarded. You can play Arma Mobile Ops for free, so head over to the App Store (iOS) and Google Play Store (Android). See you on the leaderboards!



  November 22nd, 2016 - 16:12 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00180 Official    

On November 8, 2016, Vojtěch Kovařič has reported a SITREP #00180 on the official Arma3 site.

FROM: High Command
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Clean Sweep, Bohemia Incubator, Game Developers Session
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


The development team is now fully focusing on a clean sweep of the game. This means that for the next couple of weeks we're solely fixing bugs, focusing on performance and minor, yet long-standing issues, and polishing the game. As a consequence, all of the work is under a lock - only approved and manually selected pieces of data get in the final game and the rest has to wait until the lock is released. The plan is to finish this sweeping period by delivering Update 1.66. Hopefully, after we have results of some first build checks done by our Quality Assurance, we'll be able to publish the Release Candidate by the end of this week.

INTELLIGENCE


The Vikings and fierce Arma warriors from the Nopryl community have celebrated their 15th anniversary in a quite unique way. Bringing their members to the wilderness of Norway and having fun by playing Arma 3 together, drinking beer, and shooting some real weapons sounds like a dream to every gamer. A video celebrating the occasion effectively sums up how great the atmosphere must have been. Thanks for the splendid montage and also for being with us right from the beginning!



Truck lovers might appreciate an update video made by the FFAA mod team. In three minutes of splendid (in-game) footage, they share their progress on several highly detailed cargo vehicles. Top job, keep it up!




Game Developers Session, a gaming conference for independent developers held annually in the Czech Republic, took place in the center of Prague last weekend. Bohemia Interactive developers visited and participated as a gold partner in this event in strong numbers. Our colleagues set up a Bohemia gaming booth and presented some cool new projects (more on that later in this report). Furthermore, several colleagues talked about different topics: Ivan Buchta shared some pro tips on how to make the large scale terrains that Arma and DayZ games are so famous for. And Arma 3's Project Lead Petr Kolář had an excellent talk describing the history, plot-twists and road to (and from) Early Access of Arma 3. It was nice to meet and greet other devs from all over Europe. Thanks GDS, see you next year!




OPERATIONS


Bohemia Interactive is very proud to announce a new initiative for developing and experimenting with games. Bohemia Incubator aims to strengthen the spirit of creativity in our developers, while supporting current and upcoming technologies and increasing their knowledge in different areas of game development. Our own CEO Marek Španěl introduces the label in a splendid blog video.



Let's take a closer look at one of the first Incubator prototypes: Project Argo. It is an experimental total conversion of Arma 3 aiming to quickly prototype competitive multiplayer gameplay and experiment with various game modes. The Open Prototype is available for free through the Bohemia Store. Feel free to inspect the official page for more Intel about the project. Being a modification to Arma 3, it of course brings some advantages even to the Arma 3 player base. Some platform improvements introduced recently to the Dev-Branch were actually benefits of this focus (e.g. Virtual Spectator improvements or character collision tweaks to name a few). Some of the benefits, however, are yet to come. The Malden island, known to the veterans of the Arma series, was chosen as a battlefield for Project Argo's scenarios. To be on par with the demands of today's technology, our Environment Designers are remaking the iconic map from scratch, using existing vanilla Arma 3 assets. As revealed in our roadmap blog, the plan is to finish the rest of the terrain (e.g. by filling the non-scenario locations with structures and vegetation) and release it as a free DLC next year as a part of an anniversary celebration of the 16th anniversary of the Arma games.




While sharing the technology and resources yields benefits for both Project Argo and Arma 3, some of the changes will, naturally, never make it to Arma 3. There are adjustments which, while fitting the fast-paced and balanced gameplay of Project Argo, we feel are not befitting our vision for Arma 3 and its tactical, more lethal and generally slower approach. To answer some of the concerns raised on the social channels, let's assure our community that Arma 3 will remain true to its vision. We believe that our recently introduced Roadmap 2016-17 shows this intention

LOGISTICS


Being a crucial part of Apex expansion, the Tanoa terrain consists of thousands unique objects and structures. With such a number of assets and given the time and resources we had for its development, we had recruited a fair amount of external artists to help us out with the task. One of the studios contributing heavily to delivering Tanoa on time and in a splendid shape was Black Element Software in Thailand. We thank them for all the support they provided so far! The Lead Artist on site, Zdenek Vespalec, is leaving the company to start a new adventure elsewhere. Again, as he was one of the pillars working directly on bringing Tanoa and many more aspects of Arma 3 to life, we wish him all the luck on his future endeavors!





  November 8th, 2016 - 18:47 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  



 
 
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