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  SITREP #00112 Official    

On June 30, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00112 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Unusual Process Exit, Remote Script Execution, Leaderboards
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


The forthcoming 1.48 update will bring further stability improvements and some community-requested script commands to the game. Besides that, we're also wanting to roll out the first proper version of the improved remote script execution tech. Especially scenario designers and server administrators may want to keep reading this report to learn more and to determine whether their concerns have been addressed. We've also included information for those who are experiencing start-up issues with the game. While some of these are caused by the game itself, there are also many investigated cases where the problems lie with the hardware, Operating System, drivers or malware to name a few factors. We have provided various possible detection methods and solutions for those cases. Getting them solved will make it easier for us to identify and fix issues with the game itself, and of course make sure everyone can enjoy Arma 3! Our plan is to prepare the test data for 1.48 at the end of this week, and then enter the usual Release Candidate testing process.

INTELLIGENCE


Since you may have encountered the dreaded "Unusual process exit" error, also known as "Arma 3 has quit in an unusual manner". Because this error is often shown on top of the Launcher, many thought it indicated an issue with the Launcher itself. However, the Launcher is merely the messenger in this case. Don't shoot it. It detects the game has been closed incorrectly, such as when the Operating System (OS) is unable to start the game properly, or the game crashes. The exit code is provided by the OS and is not always clear, nor can we be sure what the cause is. We can however provide as much as information as possible, and list a number of potential solutions. Launcher Programmer Jiří Polášek has done a great job of collecting the information we have so far on this page. We'll be updating it when we learn more. It's also planned for the Launcher to incorporate more information and automated corruption detection directly. Meanwhile, you may benefit from tools like the Windows System File Checker to ensure your OS is in good condition.




We should clarify the ownership situation of the future expansion that will contain Tanoa. The only edition or bundle of the game which currently includes the expansion is the Supporter Edition. This was a special version during our public Alpha and Beta, and it's no longer available for purchase. It contained the game, all DLC and all not stand-alone expansions, as well as a mention in the in-game credits. The DLC Bundle does not contain the expansion, neither does the Digital Deluxe Edition. We'll announce the exact distribution options and pricing closer to release.

Arma 3 is a game for creators. The editor is their home. As Arma veterans know, this is where the sandbox nature of the game excels. By combining the gameplay mechanics and simulation of many aspects of the game, you can quickly make something fun. Pick a cool location, insert a few AI squads and give them simple movement waypoints. Then just make yourself the player in control of any of the units and experience the battle. When you are looking to design a more elaborate mission, multiplayer mode, narrative cutscene or mechanic, a powerful high-level scripting language is available. A huge reference guide of commands is being maintained on our Community Wiki by developers and community members, such as Killzone Kid, who also hosts an excellent blog on the topic of advanced scripting. We also recommend this series of video tutorials created by Jester814!

Achievement "Relentless Creator" (1.1%) requires you spend over 100 hours in the game's scenario editor (EDITOR > select a terrain > start creating). It does not matter whether this is time in the actual 2D User Interface, or time previewing a scenario from the editor. If you're used to the editor layout of older Arma games, you can switch between the Streamlined and Traditional interfaces via the menu accessible by Ctrl + L. Clicking the underscore _ in the top-right menu bar hides most of the UI. Several advanced tools can also come in handy. Ctrl + D opens the Debug Console, which you can use to execute script code or to watch the value of variables. The Functions Viewer opens by Ctrl + F and provides in-game documentation of all scripted functions (covering mathematical and other common operations). Finally, Ctrl + G launches the Config Viewer, where you can explore the run-time configuration of almost every aspect of the game. And, any skills you pick up now will quite comfortably carry over to the new 3D scenario editor that is under development!

We can always count on the community videographers to show off Arma 3 in cool ways. Enjoy the Zen in this serene look at Altis by IntrepidGaming.



OPERATIONS


The engine-supported remote script execution technology has now reached a feature complete state on Dev-Branch. Programmer Richard Biely is squashing a few more bugs, but we'd like to roll this out in 1.48. BIS_fnc_MP would not yet use it by default, but the underlying tech could be tested on a large scale. We believe the concerns regarding control and limitation of the feature have been addressed. Please take a good look at the remoteExec, remoteExecCall and CfgRemoteExec documentation. Let us know on the forums whether you believe we've missed potential security holes or there are other problems you have with the implementation.

Another technology that has seen its debut on Dev-Branch recently is support for Steam Leaderboards. The game has been integrated with the Steamworks API for a long time, and that made exposing this feature a reasonably straight-forward proposition for Senior Programmer Lukáš Gregor. To begin with, we've used the technology to add simple leaderboards for official Time Trials. A next logical step will be to port this implementation to Firing Drills. You can actually view the global rankings of every trial here, or filter for your Steam friends instead. Our design philosophy is to focus on comparing your results with your friends first, after that look at results around you, and only then look at the entire world. The open nature of the game makes it very hard to guard fully against exploits, so it may be that the worldwide top results become less-than-believable over time. We should also tell you that it's possible we'll need to reset the boards during the testing phase. We're also considering whether there is a way we can roll out access to custom leaderboards for unofficial mod(e)s. The script commands cannot now be used without hard-coded permissions (similar to Achievements).

LOGISTICS


Scenario designers beware! Tools Commissar Julien Vida asked us to inform you about 1.48's changes to the randomization of (FIA) headgear and facewear, as well as the method of disabling of Vehicle Customization (VhC). Please check your scenarios for compatibility. Julien will also be writing an OPREP on the topic of VhC in the near future.

A small group of players have reported their game suffers from mini-freezes when clicking or moving. BattlEye has investigated many of these reports, and in all cases so far, the cause has been malware, adware or other Potentially Unwanted Programs. These programs cause certain DLLs to be infinitely reloaded and choke the anti-cheat service. Please use trusted anti-malware software to scan your computer for threats and to repair them.


  June 30th, 2015 - 17:50 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00111 Official    

On June 23, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00111 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Tanoa Reveal, First Expansion Details, Naked Eye FoV
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


Welcome to Tanoa! It was a great joy for us all to finally introduce our next Arma 3 terrain to you. The South Pacific archipelago will be the main component of the game's expansion that is to be released during the first half of 2016. How we intend to release the expansion will be outlined more specifically in a new road map blog over the next few weeks. We can confirm that this expansion is premium, and will follow our DLC strategy (the terrain being a new aspect as you will need to own the expansion for access). Any vehicles, weapons and other content is treated similarly to the try-before-you-buy approach in Helicopters / Marksmen DLC. Features developed alongside are to be free for everyone who owns the game. And, those people who contributed from the beginning by purchasing the Supporter Edition, do indeed already own this expansion (it's not stand-alone). Thank you again for the support during the early Alpha days!

While we were packing our bags to head to Los Angeles and E3, a little leak sprung in our web pipes. This was not deliberate nor a hack of any kind. It was caused by a glitch in account management on the company website, which gave access to our pre-published blog with screenshots. Fortunately for us, the trailer was safe. At the PC Gaming Show we dropped the first moving pictures of Tanoa, which should give you a good impression of the atmosphere, while keeping lots of key areas for you to explore yourselves.



Let's go over some of the things you might have noticed in the trailer and screenshots !
  • We consider the terrain to be geotypical Fiji, but it's not an exact recreation of that real-world location (it's a mix of various satellite heightmaps, so not geospecific). We'll be further discussing our motivations for this (awesome) setting later.
  • A new fixed-wing aircraft and a waterscooter will be part of the expansion. But fear not; the focus remains military. We're just not ready to reveal those vehicles, weapons and characters yet.

  • You can see work-in-progress water reflections, improved shoreline effects and enhanced overall lighting configuration. These technologies and features will arrive to everyone, and to the existing Arma 3 terrains. These are also not all features coming alongside the expansion! We'll discuss more and more as the year goes on.

  • Most of the audio is not yet from in-game recordings, but it gives an impression of how we want to push the soundscape further, especially in terms of ambient audio. The goal is to deeply immerse you in our "green hell"!

  • As the opening disclaimer points out: the terrain is still in the middle of production. Many of the objects you see in the distance are early placeholders. We're very happy that it already looks and feels this good now!


The PC Gaming Show itself was a lot of fun to attend. We had originally wanted to reveal Tanoa a little later in the year, but when this opportunity came around, we jumped on it. The team scrambled to work on specific parts of the terrain to show off, and they did a great job under some significant time pressure. As a sponsor, Bohemia Interactive was given two 5 minute slots for our games, so we got one segment for Arma 3 and one for DayZ/Take On Mars. It was high time for a PC-focused event at E3! We're very glad PC Gamer took on the challenge of organizing one. Big thanks to Sean "Day9" Plott as well for doing a great job of hosting the entire 2.5 hour show!



We hope you are as excited as we are to start running operations on Tanoa. Prepare for the war on the horizon!

INTELLIGENCE


Dev Branch has received a few useful script commands. In the case of param and params, the idea was to replicate previously scripted behavior and make it faster and more reliable. Senior Designer Karel Mořický elaborates: "This is a command for reading function parameters and making sure they are in the correct format. If it's not the case, the user is warned and a safe default value is used instead. This functionality was until now provided by scripted function BIS_fnc_param, but a dedicated engine command makes it significantly faster."

In his free time, Senior Designer Josef Zemánek has been working on an unofficial multiplayer game mode: Warlords. He describes the mode as a Sector Control / Capture The Island hybrid that supports Team-versus-Team, Player-versus-Player and Cooperative play. Subscribe to the mode directly on Steam Workshop and give it a go. Josef is keen to read about your experiences, so leave him some feedback for future iterations. We would like to reiterate that this work is entirely unofficial, and we do not provide (technical) support for it via official channels.

OPERATIONS


Our very own Encoding Lead Petr Kolář has made tweaks to the Field of View of the naked eye perspectives: "Users of Dev-Branch may have noticed our effort to make Field of View consistent for all weapons and vehicle positions without optics. This should not only provide players with a consistent experience of default zoom and focused view, but it should also address issues regarding the inconsistent display of optics magnification descriptions. We hope that the changes are going to provide smoother gameplay while changing various weapons and vehicle seats. Feel free to provide feedback in case we have missed something."

LOGISTICS


Even though it's been almost two weeks, we'd like to provide a few more details about the 1.46 hotfix (see the SPOTREP). Update 1.46 was not a good one initially, and we apologize again for the issues it caused.

  • The DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crash should have been fixed in the majority of cases. If it does still happen, you may also want to check your display drivers, GPU temperatures and power supply. Our special thanks go out to community member Mickeymen, who provided us with the only reliable repro scenario that allowed our programmers to connect a debugger to affected PCs and trace where the drivers crashed.

  • A crash observed mostly in Epoch mod was not yet fully fixed, though Dev-Branch should now contain a full fix for that as well.

  • As discussed previously, we have indeed decided to take the slow route with BattlEye 's white-listing. It does not block extensions for now and only gathers information for a future iteration. The goal here still is a more secure multiplayer environment for everyone.

  • If you still encounter start-up issues, please first of all try to disable any custom shader mods or registry / memory tweaks. It is also possible your user settings got corrupted and will prevent the game from starting via Steam. As an interim hotfix, you can run a tool via the Arma 3 Tools Dev-Branch or this mirror by Launcher programmer Jiří Polášek .


Linux server administrators may be helped by this comprehensive guide on setting up such server (including DLC and mods). Thanks Eric Grubaugh for updating and sharing it!


  June 23rd, 2015 - 15:42 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  Arma 3 - Tanoa Reveal Trailer Videos    

From PC Gaming Show, new Arma3 Terrain Exclusive World Premiere video, as a part of the upcoming Expansion coming in 2016.



Take a first look at your next destination in Arma 3: Tanoa – a South Pacific archipelago with a land mass of over 100 km˛, and home to lush tropical vegetation, unique landmarks, a rich history, and imposing man-made feats of modern engineering. www.arma3.com/tanoa

Tanoa will be available as part of an upcoming expansion for Arma 3. The expansion is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2016, and will be distributed as DLC for the base Arma 3 game.


  June 17th, 2015 - 02:52 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SPOTREP #00044 - Hotfix: 1.46 [Crashes & BattlEye ] Official    

On June 10, 2015 , Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SPOTREP #00044 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
UNIT: Main Branch
ACTIVITY: Hotfix: 1.46 (Display Driver Crashes, Server Crashes, BattlEye White-Listing)
SIZE: ~17 MB / ~6 MB

NOTES

  • Consider using the Steam client option to verify the integrity of the local game cache to avoid corrupted data after downloading this update.
  • Consider defragmenting your HDD after downloading large updates.
  • A Legacy Build Steam branch is available for advanced users. It contains the previous significant main branch version (1.44). It can be used to compare specific changes between major releases. The access code for this branch is: Arma3Legacy144
  • You can find the servers in the Steam library (switch the filter to "Tools") - "Arma 3 Server" (based on your OS, it will download the Windows or Linux version).
    • Administrators can also use the command-line SteamCMD utility. The app ID is to be 233780.
    • NVIDIA GameWorks™ Technology provided under license from NVIDIA Corporation. Copyright © 2002-2015 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved.

CHANGELOG

DATA:

ENGINE:

  • Changed: BattlEye anti-cheat blocking of not white-listed processes temporarily disabled
  • Fixed: Incorrect setting of weapon proxy drawing LOD (causing DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED crashes of primarily NVIDIA display drivers)
  • Fixed: Incompatibility of the terrain vertex shader and its depth priming pixel shader
  • Hotfixed: Potential crash mostly observed while playing the Epoch mod
  • Fixed: Potential server crash

SERVER:

  • Updated: Stand-alone Windows Dedicated Server (hotfix 1.46)
  • Updated: Stand-alone Linux Dedicated Server (hotfix 1.46)
    • Known issue: Steam client modifies the steam_appid.txt file incorrectly. In case of issues, verify its content is: 107410
    • Known issue: Sometimes the add-ons are loaded from the wrong installation (e.g. main game)
    • Try adding -mod=curator;kart;heli;mark;dlcbundle to your arma3server.exe shortcut



  June 11th, 2015 - 03:39 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00110 Official    

On June 9, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00110 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: E3 PC Gaming Show, Terrain World Premiere, Update 1.46 Released, AI Ammo Usage
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


Next Tuesday is going to be a long night for members of our team and parts of the community! We've announced our participation in the PC Gaming Show organized by PC Gamer around E3 2015. The event will be held at 18:00 PDT, which puts it in the middle of the night here in Europe. Whether you watch the livestream or a recording the next day, we think you'll be as excited as we are!




Creative Director Jay Crowe and yours truly will be on stage in Los Angeles to bring you the worldwide reveal of our next big terrain! The team has been working on this key component of the Expansion for months. It's great to be able to finally share the setting and first glimpses of key locations. Kudos to our E3 Task Force, headed by Environment Lead Martin Pezlar, whose members have worked extra hard to have something cool to show for you. Join the Facebook event, keep an eye on the countdown (we're loving your theories and speculation based on the clues provided), and monitor our channels for all the specifics.




INTELLIGENCE


We are seeking a User eXperience designer for our Arma 3 team in Brno. What does that entail? "As a UX Designer, you will become a part of a dedicated team responsible for both in-game systems and stand-alone applications. Your role in the team will focus on the direction of the development including taking care of the product backlog and feature priorities. Your deliverables will take a form of design analyses and UI mockups. Moreover, you will be a go-to person for stakeholders and players alike, having to process and turn their feedback into a better product." Visit the careers page to apply!

Besides the playable content we deliver with the vanilla game, there is a huge library of user-generated scenarios for you to play. Steam Workshop hosts close to 14000! Sure, not all of them are as awesome, but there are true gems to be found. As a complement to "Contributor", there is the "Subscriber" achievement. It's one of the simplest ones out there, which is why it has reached 17.7% global unlocks so far. All you need to do is subscribe to a Workshop scenario.


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The
101 guide will explain how to subscribe if it isn't clear already. You can also do so entirely from within the game. Go to PLAY > SCENARIOS and press the WORKSHOP button. This will open the Steam overlay, where you can press the green + button to subscribe to an item. Steam client will download the scenario in the background. It should appear in the list quickly (you can sort by name, time added and rating). And then you're ready to play. Liked the scenario? Favorite it, leave the author some feedback (be kind to other players and use spoiler tags where appropriate) and submit a rating!

As for the Workshop pages themselves: you can sort by popularity over time, rating, time added and the amount of subscriptions. It's also possible to follow the authors you like, or to view your friends' favorites and published items. The tags for scenarios currently include those for gameplay, type, map (terrain) and DLC. We are however working on revising this to make the Workshop better to navigate and to discover content in. There are also collections of scenarios, such as those for Make Arma Not War. Finally, custom scenarios can be a great way of exploring both official and unofficial (OtherMap tag) terrains. You'll often visit places you haven't seen before. We're already looking forward to your creations on the upcoming Expansion terrain.

OPERATIONS


Before we present our 2015 / 2016 roadmap for the entire game, Audio Lead Jan Dušek brings you an in-depth look at our future plans for audio. In his OPREP "Audio Roadmap Update", he begins by evaluating the work done for Marksmen DLC. What follows is a detailed list of features and technologies that we are planning to work on for the Expansion. We should state clearly that we cannot promise all of this will happen, but we felt we could at least lay out our vision for audio in Arma 3. If even a fraction of this is accomplished, the game's soundscape should be that much richer and more immersive. Thanks to the community for submitting your questions via Megagoth; they helped to structure both this report and development plans generally

Senior Programmer Krzysztof Bielawski has assumed the role of Drill Sergeant for our Artificial Intelligence soldiers. He's added a new parameter for ammo configuration: AIAmmoUsageFlags. This flag does not force AI behavior, but it let's it know how the ammunition can be used. Our initial motivation for this was to train the AI to throw smoke grenades appropriately to mask their movements while suppressed. This has since led to a broader re-factoring with the help of other developers.

The Encoding department has already set the parameter for most vanilla ammunition types. Modders can start doing so as well. A little more information and values were shared on the forums by Designer Ondřej Kužel. Not all usage flags are currently checked in the engine (only Concealment, Countermeasures and the various Offensive flags are). This is still a work-in-progress. And there's more, as Krzysztof reports: "Along with adding a new parameter, we took the opportunity to clean up some older ones. allowAgainstInfantry will still be read, but internally the engine converts it to the corresponding new flag. The airLock param will not be used for AI decisions anymore, but it still is used to define whether the player has the ability to lock the ammo onto a given type of target (ground or air)."

LOGISTICS


Update 1.46's release was a difficult one. It should be obvious, but of course we only want to make the game better, smoother and more secure. While the update delivered modest steps forward in those areas for many, there is also a large group of players who are experiencing critical issues. We can try to explain why it's so extremely difficult to update a live moddable game on the open PC platform, but in the end you should not have to worry about it. The game should just work. We're doing everything we can to get to that state quickly. You could consider switching back to Legacy Build 1.44 (access code Arma3Legacy144) meanwhile, but that's not without its limitations. What are the main areas of concern?
  • We explained the BattlEye (BE) white-listing process last week. It was expected that initially there would be legitimate applications and processes that needed to be approved. BE's team has done that, and some popular applications should already work now. Others actually offer built-in compatibility such as Open Broadcaster Software. Various issues can also be solved by reading through the BE F.A.Q. or contacting their support team if that fails. Having said that, we are considering lowering the level of protection (and strictness of blocking) temporarily to gather more information. This will slow progress towards a more secure public game, but should reduce the amount of issues people are having.
  • There exists a bad crash of various display drivers. It produces very little information besides a DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED message. We also know it happens in some other games, but don't deny that this update has potentially increased the frequency for Arma 3. While we work on a fix, we have spotted some users who claim success by downgrading their drivers.
  • Another crash is currently quite common in the Epoch mod, but not necessarily limited to it. Again, we're collecting information and with the mod team's cooperation, are trying to isolate the cause.

Thank you for your patience and all the valuable information you've shared to isolate the major issues. To end this report on a positive note, modders should check out the latest TECHREP for Arma 3 Tools 0.90 information, including some cool usability improvements for FSM Editor for example.


  June 9th, 2015 - 21:29 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  E3 2015 PC Gaming Show - New Arma 3 Terrain, DayZ, Take On Mars, and more! Official    

It's almost time for one of the most exciting gaming events of the year: E3 - and this year promises to be extra special, with the first ever event dedicated to PC gaming in the history of E3!

Hosted by Sean 'Day[9]' Plott, the PC Gaming Show will take place on Tuesday, June 16, from 18:00 to 20:00 PDT (Wednesday, June 17, 01:00 - 03:00 UTC). In partnership with Twitch, the PC Gaming Show will be streamed live on http://www.twitch.tv/pcgamer/, and feature new game reveals, updates on beloved series, and perspectives from key PC developers.

Starting the countdown today, one of the things you can look forward to will be the much-anticipated exclusive world premiere of Arma 3's new terrain, which will debut as part of a major expansion coming in 2016. In addition, Bohemia Interactive's Early Access titles, DayZ and Take On Mars are also scheduled to appear on the show.

Remember to mark it down in your calendar, and join us for the countdown at www.arma3.com/countdown. See you there!


  June 6th, 2015 - 12:56 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  Bohemia Interactive gears up for the E3 2015 PC Gaming Show Official    

Korneel van 't Land has informed us about PC Gaming Show featuring new Arma3 Terrain Exclusive World Premiere, as a part of the upcoming Expansion coming in 2016.

Bohemia Interactive is excited to announce its participation as official sponsor in the PC Gaming Show (Powered by PC Gamer), the first event dedicated to the PC platform in the history of E3. In celebration of the golden age of PC gaming, the show will include exclusive reveals, as well as fresh industry perspectives from key PC developers.


Starting the countdown today, one of the things people can look forward to is the much-anticipated exclusive world premiere of Arma 3’s new terrain, which will debut as part of a major expansion coming in 2016. With this expansion, the Arma 3 development team aims to deliver a completely fresh experience, featuring a new large-scale terrain, military vehicles, weapons, gear, characters, scenarios, and more. In addition, Bohemia Interactive’s Early Access titles, DayZ - the open-world survival horror hybrid-MMO game created by Dean Hall - and the studio's space exploration game, Take On Mars, are also scheduled to appear on the show.

"Following in the footsteps of Chernarus and Altis, the new Arma 3 terrain is already shaping up to become one of the most compelling destinations in the series, and we can't wait to show it for the very first time at E3", said Bohemia Interactive's CEO Marek Spanel. "Meanwhile, we also have exciting news to share about DayZ and Take On Mars, which - with the great support and patience from our players - are both working towards their next milestone in Early Access development."

The PC Gaming Show will take place on June 16, from 6PM – 8PM PDT (Wednesday, June 17, 01:00 – 03:00 UTC), at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles, and will be livestreamed on Twitch. Find out more at www.pcgamingshow.com.

For more information about Bohemia Interactive, please visit www.bistudio.com. To keep track of all the latest news, be sure to follow Bohemia Interactive on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

  June 4th, 2015 - 14:56 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  

  SITREP #00109 Official    

On June 2, 2015, Joris-Jan van 't Land has reported a SITREP #00109 on the official Arma 3 web site.

FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Meet The MANW Winners, Remote Script Execution, Extension White-Listing
PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION


As of last Friday, the Steam branch for the 1.46 Release Candidate is available for testing. If you'd like to join the test, or just pre-load the update, open Arma 3's properties in the Steam Client. Then select the BETAS tab and enter access code Arma3Update146RC. The RC branch will now be available in the drop-down above. Please be aware that you cannot connect to 1.44 main branch servers, and the RC branch may still be updated daily until release. Please submit any issues to the Feedback Tracker with clear indication of the version you're running. Early next week is when we're planning to publish this update to everyone, so there still is a solid week of testing ahead of us. Thank you all for your effort and time!

INTELLIGENCE


Get to know the Make Arma Not War winners! We've published a very interesting series of interviews with the winners in all categories (both individuals and team representatives). You'll get overviews straight from the creators, read about the inspiration behind their entries, and catch glimpses of their future plans. Digging deeper, there are some nice behind-the-scenes concepts, fun trivia and insight into the varied development processes. Coming from a broad range of backgrounds, it can be very inspiring to read these stories. If you are an aspiring modder yourself, be sure to check them out!




Alongside Helicopters DLC, in the free 1.34 platform update, we added 4 new Virtual Reality Training courses focusing on ... you guessed it: helicopters. You can get educated about the gameplay mechanics involved with rotary-wing flight by selecting LEARN and VR TRAINING from the main menu. This will boot up the simulation-within-simulation training hub. Select the desired topic by either shooting the 3D marker or walking to it. An unlock scheme guides your progression through the courses, starting with the "Basics". This is what each course will attempt to teach you:
  • Helicopter - Basics (flight basics, flight, takeoff and landing)
  • Helicopter - Weapon Systems (guided missiles, door gunner, unguided missiles, auto-cannon, aerial combat)
  • Helicopter - Sling Loading (mechanics)
  • Helicopter - Advanced (low flight, refuel and rearm, countermeasures, crash landing: auto-rotation, crash landing: tail rotor failure)





1.0% of worldwide rotor-heads have actually achieved "Virtual Pilot" thus far, meaning they have completed all 4 courses. Senior Designer Josef Zemánek suggests that sometimes it's better to just restart if you move too far away and lose control of the aircraft. It's possible to return to the hub at any time by pressing 'Esc' and selecting BACK TO HUB. We'd add that it's important to find fixed points of reference, especially in the VR world, where the unclear horizon can make it hard to orient yourself. Still wanting more detailed guides? Go through Andrew "Dslyecxi" Gluck 's Art of Flight video series!

Marksmen DLC's update 1.42 introduced a few subtle AI suppression features into everyone's game. Check out this simple visualization of the effects suppression has on an AI soldier's precision when returning fire in the "Real and Simulated Wars" blog.




Summer is coming! Team Bravo in the Brno office organised a well-deserved after-work BBQ. The weekly photo shows them toasting with very special beer kindly provided by fellow Czech game developer Warhorse Studios. Cheers folks!




OPERATIONS


Discussion of remote script execution last week, caused a bit of a security concern. Let's address the major points that were raised:

  • These commands will not yet appear in 1.46 main branch. We'll be finishing them on Dev-Branch first.

  • Unlike some seem to believe, remote script execution is already possible now, via scripted methods. This is now a new concept, and quite many mod(e)s leverage the capability. And yes, so too can those with ill intent.

  • There are BattlEye hooks that server admins can use to control these commands.

  • There will be further methods to control, limit and possibly diagnose the use of these commands. We believe this will lead to a more secure environment without restricting the appropriate use of this technology. We'll share our plans soon, so you can evaluate whether they covers all use cases.


Now for some sterner words: while we all benefit greatly from the open development approach, we do believe this only works when there is mutual respect. Alerting us to potential issues, such as the one above, is very much welcomed on our official channels (Feedback Tracker, forums, @Arma3Official, and various others). However, certain community creators organizing aggressive spam campaigns against the personal accounts of our developers, is not helping anyone. It should not be your first method of reaching us when there is ample time to process your feedback in a normal manner. We thank you for understanding.

LOGISTICS


Since Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead it is possible to expand the game's functionality via custom DLL extensions. These offer powerful features to the creative mod(e) out there, but can also open the game to attack. The enhanced BattlEye protection in 1.46 will require extensions to be white-listed, or their access to the game's processes will be blocked. In order to get your extension white-listed, please contact BattlEye support via its web form or support[at]battleye.com. Be sure to include the file name, a description and possibly a download link. You may also contact Online Services Consultant David Foltýn via his Twitter or the forums to speed things along. We are discussing ways of dealing with fast-moving extension development within communities, as well as a more robust extension framework generally.

On the documentation front, Designer Radko Voda has provided an essay on recoil configuration as implemented in platform update 1.42. Find not only a description of CfgRecoils, but even some tips and tricks on how to set up recoil according to your needs. The samples of weapons in Arma 3 Tools were updated to this new level of technology a while ago already.

Senior Encoder Martin Gregor brings us an explanation of a subtle change that was made a short while ago. On the topic of In-Game User Interface, he says: "Names used to show up near cross-hairs when pointing at objects in the world. In order to limit unimportant information, this is no longer the case for decorative or environmental objects. The Editor and Zeus interfaces still show the display names of the objects to creators."


  June 2nd, 2015 - 22:20 By Old Bear   Comment (0)  



 
 
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