Nya Armed Assualt skärmdumpar

[granQ]

men med nya nätkoden kanske man kan klara sig utan ai för hel del uppdrag..

roligast är trots allt mission med två sidor som har varsit uppdrag "defend the artillery postions/attack the ..".. ai kommer "aldrig" bete sig som människor.

[Jotte]

Nä AI lär ju aldrig bli som människor men det är lite nedslående att se AI:n genomföra sin vanliga "åsna mellan två hötappar" dans när de blir beskjutna mot slutet av videon.

Fast det är ju tid kvar till release och Ai problemet går ju att lösa till stora delar med lite smart skriptning i nuläget också. ;)

[Jotte]

William Porters blog har updaterats igen med
med två nya "foton".




Större versioner finns på blogsiten.

RPG Vault har lagt upp del 2 av sin förhandstitt på ArmA.

[Jotte]

Lite mer info, särskilt angående modning och multiplayer
Länk till artikeln

Members at ofp.info released article about their visit to OFP workshop and meeting with BIS.

This article is about modding and new multiplayer capabilities, also covers some new Armed Assault Features.

Key points:

- Weapons have real 3D optics, the indirectHit values of the weaponsââ,¬â,,¢ bullets were erased. This means that your bullets either hit or they donââ,¬â,,¢t, which will improve the gameplay a lot.

- Multiple gunner positions will definitely be possible in Armed Assault.

- They also invented a new system to prevent cheaters. The server configuration will have the option to determine which addons, given a certain signature, should be loaded into the game. This should prevent ââ,¬Ëœcheater addonsââ,¬â,,¢ from being activated.


General information

First of all we were informed about the general game play. As was already stated in many prior interviews, Armed Assault will feature character switching in the Singleplayer mode. This can be configured by the mission editor: Every unit set to ââ,¬Å"playableââ,¬Â, an option that in OFP is still exclusive to the Multiplayer mode, can be commanded. This option can also be changed via scripting in the course of the mission. The AI wasnââ,¬â,,¢t that impressing in the demo, but Rastavovich assured us that this will change for the final product.

Weapons have real 3D optics, the indirectHit values of the weaponsââ,¬â,,¢ bullets were erased. This means that your bullets either hit or they donââ,¬â,,¢t, which will improve the gameplay a lot. We also asked about the new inventory system used for weapons and items, but Rastavovich wouldnââ,¬â,,¢t want to give us any information about it. He stated that it should remain a surprise for the community.

Multiple gunner positions will definitely be possible in Armed Assault. Not only that turrets can freely be nested into each other, Armed Assault will enable an open number of custom turrets. BIS already joked about creating some huge WWII battleships with 12 cannon turrets. In the current version of Armed Assault, the UH-60 already has two working miniguns on both sides of the helicopter. The long desired commander MG will be included in the tanks of Armed Assault, BIS still have to solve minor problems, which is why we canââ,¬â,,¢t see them on the current pictures yet.

Multiplayer

One thing that will be very interesting is Armed Assaultââ,¬â,,¢s Multiplayer mode. According to BIS the number of players only depends on the connection and strength of the used server. Numbers like 200 players a game were already unofficially stated, but BIS never had the time to really test this case. Voice over IP will be fully supported in Armed Assault, like in the current chat system players have the option to communicate on different layers (vehicle, group, side, global) to not disturb each other. Whether we will actually notice the different units speaking, Rastavovich couldnââ,¬â,,¢t tell. Much more likely an icon indicating the talking player will appear on the screen.

Join in Progress is possible for multiplayer games, but there is no need for fears. If anything, this can still be prevented by locking the server. Furthermore Rastavovich assured us that BIS is very concerned about the communityââ,¬â,,¢s interest. Many new features will be implemented to attract new players, but for the old hardcore OFP players BIS will leave the option to turn off most of it.

One important point in the Multiplayer development is that BIS will surely develop both a Linux as a Windows server version. They also invented a new system to prevent cheaters. The server configuration will have the option to determine which addons, given a certain signature, should be loaded into the game. This should prevent ââ,¬Ëœcheater addonsââ,¬â,,¢ from being activated.

Mission making

Also the mission editor will contain useful improvements. Mission makers will be provided with the so-called ââ,¬Å"libraryââ,¬Â ââ,¬â€œ a type of mission giving you the option to look up and test the strength values of weapons and addons right from within the game. BIS will include a Mission Wizard, providing players with template missions. This way also players that donââ,¬â,,¢t find the time to work on missions for several weeks or months will be given the possibility to create interesting scenarios in a short time. Missions in Armed Assault can also be within addons.

Scripting

The scripting engine of Armed Assault will be improved a lot. It was changed to be more efficient; scripts are loaded and compiled only upon the first call and remain there until the end of the mission. Strings and functions are treated separately, functions in general have a bigger importance in Armed Assault. So we will receive a couple of new commands for functions like the ââ,¬Å"switch caseââ,¬Â. The same .sqf functions are also used in the new versions of Oxygen and Visitor to script and automate different creation processes. Though it is yet doubtful whether those scripts will be made public.

Tools

We were glad to hear that BIS plan to publish several tools and documentations prior to the release of the game. A new version from Oxygen Light with several new features will be released to the community. BIS also developed a new tool named Linda, which helps the designers generating vegetation in a natural way. Most possibly this tool wonââ,¬â,,¢t be released to the public due to its complexity though. We were told that no single tree in Armed Assault is modeled by hand anymore.

Modeling

Modelers will be happy about the new information in the addon sector. Armed Assault brings a whole revolution to animations of models. So custom animations arenââ,¬â,,¢t located in the addonââ,¬â,,¢s config.cpp anymore ââ,¬â€œ they are written into a config file with Oxygen, which is then included in their .p3d file. This way a model can be used by several classes without having to redefine the animations every time.

All of the hardcoded animations are defined with ââ,¬Å"controllersââ,¬Â. First of all, users arenââ,¬â,,¢t required to learn Czech anymore. Secondly, this controller can link several different animations together ââ,¬â€œ getting rid of any script solution. Animations, also user-defined ones, can be freely nested into each other. If a turret and an MG turret have separate animations, they can be linked to move together. The animation type ââ,¬Å"rotationââ,¬Â gets a new brother called ââ,¬Å"translationââ,¬Â, enabling linear animations.

Models can be mapped with extended materials. With the right settings they can look very realistic. Armed Assault features Detail Maps and Normal Maps as well as HDR. BIS also invented a so-called ââ,¬Å"Second UV Setââ,¬Â. This technique makes it possible to overwrite the UV maps on parts of the model with UV maps of textures in a better resolution. What exactly the difference between this new system and the current face mapping is, Rastavovich couldnââ,¬â,,¢t tell. Textures will be loaded together with setObjectTexture in Armed Assault, but it is unclear whether they finally will be saved together with a mission. The model size for the most detailed models of BIS lies at around 6000 Polygons ââ,¬â€œ the new mapping technologies make up for that.

With the new version of Oxygen, the community will be provided with better import functions from 3D Studio Max and Maya, but still Oxygen will be necessary to make the addon compatible with the game.

And we can reassure you: Airplanes will exist in Armed Assault! ;-)

Map editing

The new Visitor 3 can convert satellite data to maps, including their height-maps and surface textures. Again, a Visitor light, token away some of the features, is meant to be released to the community. Due to the new streaming technology the size of the maps isnââ,¬â,,¢t limited in any way. Rastavovich showed us a map with a size of 82Ãâ€"82km, mapped with satellite pictures and meant for the military. BIS experimented with cell sizes up to only 5m, but this will probably represent a problem with large maps. The new version of visitor also supports .png import.

The above-mentioned functions can automate different processes in Visitor. Objects can be placed per random placement, power poles can be automatically created along roads. The most impressive thing we were shown was an automatic process to fit streets in the landscape. To make them look more natural, the world around them gets flattened or cut, streets going up a hill in serpentines actually look like real streets afterwards. Right now, it is rather unlikely that rivers will find their way into Armed Assault.

Plans

We were assured that BIS plan an outstanding support and documentation for the community. A wiki for the modding community is intended to be published yet before Armed Assault. Members of the community will be able to add any information they find out about the engine to this wiki, to prevent it from getting lost.

BIS also plan to introduce so-called ââ,¬Å"Certified Content Developersââ,¬Â ââ,¬â€œ content creators that register at BIS and receive a better support than in the forums and avoid a lot of speculations. Certain PBO signatures will be given to those members to ensure a minimum quality. These signatures work together with the anti-cheat system mentioned above.

Last but not least ââ,¬â€œ the question of questions, the one, the most important order of words, that has to be asked at all costs not to bring OFPââ,¬â,,¢s matters of causality out of order: When will it be released?

Nothing new to tell there: Still the release is intended for Q3 2006, dependent on the developer this date may push back a little.ââ,¬Â

[Jotte]

Killarna på Mapfact.net var närvarande vid samma tillfälle som det artikeln ovan baserades på och har en artikel med liknande info plus lite till och ett gäng bilder;
HÄR

[KeyCat]

Bara ett klargörande för rättvisans skull ;)

Det var Mapfact.net gänget som arrangerade "OFP Workshop II" där bla en BIS representant deltog och diskuterade/demonstrerade Armed AssaUlt.

/Christer (a.k.a KeyCat)

[Jotte]

Ja mitt ordval av närvarande var lite missvisande. :p

[Jotte]

SimHQ ArmA AAR