ARMA 2 Free - For Combined Ops Lite

[Meta87]

Was always wondering what the ArmA2 free had different than paid. Thanks for the update!

[Draeger]

I have Arma 2 Free installed, patched to 1.11, but not through six-updater. How do I get six-updater to acknowledge A2f as installed so I can get COlite?

[Sickboy]

I have Arma 2 Free installed, patched to 1.11, but not through six-updater. How do I get six-updater to acknowledge A2f as installed so I can get COlite?

How did you install it? Official installer, which created the proper registry entries? In that case SU should auto detect it, e.g on A2 OA AutoDetect, or A2 AutoDetect game profile. You could try and force the CO game profile, but shouldn't be needed.

Did you configure any paths in SU? Perhaps clear the fields for auto-detection, which should work if all registry entries for your ARMA games are in order;
http://www.six-projects.net/Six_Upda...%20pack%20etc) and next item in case of Steam.

Lastly if SU does not detect you have CO (lite), if you have an Addons folder in your arma2 oa game folder, try removing it and restart SU.

[B00tsy]

Will ArmA3 be free too? I think its great not having to buy games anymore that I can't play on max settings and HQ textures anyway

[Leon86]

well, it wont be free on launch. besides, you'll want mods right?

[Bosnian]

Ok, that's excellent to know! Thanks for the heads-up!

[BasileyOne]

well, it wont be free on launch. besides, you'll want mods right?

i hope OA won't be "free" too[in present state in Arma2 vanilla-meaning/approach], unless BIS insisted on using cheaters pressure on playerbase to switch to more recent products[despite less satisfactional experience/opinion with/about them].
my guess is is one-two extra steps would be essential to make freely released games, less suitable to lightspeed install/cheaters need, while maintain/keep them absolutely free in financial perspective/mean/sense.
dunno what it would be ? Twitter/Google+/Blogspot/Facebook activation and using placed on BIS Google+/FB-page special, Google+/FB-app for Arma2/Arma3 activation ?

[MAVEN]

BUMP

Sorry about bringing this one up.

A friend got me a full ArmA 2 bundle recently. Before that I was using ArmA 2 and ArmA 2 Free only (I used OA, but gave my copy away long ago).

I already have ArmA 2, ArmA 2 Free (both installed) ArmA 2 OA, ArmA 2 BAF, ArmA 2 PMC and ArmA 2 ACR (not installed yet, waiting for this response). The thing is, that all of those are on steam, except the ArmA 2 Free.

So I was wondering. Is it possible to use ArmA 2 Free with ArmA 2 OA, combine them and still be able to:

>Play on OA and CO servers.
>Use all mods/addons made for ArmA 2 as well as OA and DLC's via OA executable.
>Open ArmA 2 Free editor and edit previously made missions in ArmA 2 again.
>Play ArmA 2 Free standalone for testing purposes.
>Play CO without performance loss (and possible gain, also is A2F content loaded/rendered via OA executable after A2F and OA are combined)
>Add A2F on steam.

In addition to that. Is it possible to simply copy-paste ArmA 2 addon folders (texture/audio) to original ArmA 2 folders, then overwrite them and then still use ArmA 2 with mods without any issues? And if so, would steam's verifier report anything, would VAC freak out?

The reason why I want to try this is because I want to gain disk space, get some performance boost until I get a new gaming system, use A2F content for compatibility tests since I am making missions for A2 and A2F players whilst being able to play OA and DLC's as if A2 was installed (which is, but I would uninstall it if using A2F is possible as a substitute, or keep ArmA 2 but with A2Free content).

Please don't forget that I am asking for steam versions, not regular standalone A2/OA/DLC's games.

Any help is MUCH appreciated. Perhaps a developer could clarify this one the best

UPDATE: Seems like I answered my own questions.

I will put this here maybe someone else finds this useful:

A2F + A2OA turns into CO Lite as mentioned on the wiki page.

What I did however can be best classified as A2CO LQ (Lower Quality) without big difference (except disk space and performance)

If you have a high end gaming machine that can run A2Co all maxed out on biggest resolution and several monitors even on 30+ frames, you won't need this, however if your system is mediocre and you would like to see some game details on higher or highest settings without performance loss (and some boost) you can try this.

Bear in mind, that this procedure is tricky and is NOT RECOMMENDED FOR AVERAGE USERS. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

A2CO LQ (Steam tested):

What you need:
>ArmA 2 and ArmA 2 Operation Arrowhead (DLC's optional)
>ArmA 2 Free.
>Moderate experience with mods.

How to do it:

1. Install ArmA 2 Free (Don't run it yet)
2. Install ArmA 2 (for steam, verify cache integrity and update the game)
3. Decide what you are going to replace (I personally recommend foliage such as trees, shrubs, rocks, also dubbing and perhaps characters etc, however I do NOT RECOMMEND modifying UI related files, Editor related files, and generally any other files that work better with ArmA 2)
4. Locate ArmA 2 Free directory and find a folder named Addons, select files you want to patch into your original ArmA 2 (please note that it is VERY important to select all corresponding signatures for each PBO selected (ArmA 2 has 2 signatures (bi and bi2) while ArmA 2 Free has additional one (A2Free) and that it is not recommended to just copy paste everything as this may cause issues)
5. Copy selected files (or cut them straight from A2Free Addons folder if you wont use ArmA 2 Free) to ArmA 2 Addons folder (for steam users, Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 2\AddOns) and confirm replacement.
6. (Steam users) Open steam, go to library and find ArmA 2, under properties disable updates for ArmA 2 (optional, but recommended, however you will need to update manually when there are changes) also, don't verify cache integrity once you apply this patch method.
7. (Optional) You can now uninstall ArmA 2 Free (don't delete missions and save games on prompt when uninstalling as those are needed by ArmA 2)
8. Run ArmA 2/ArmA 2 OA/Any dlc or mods.

Pros:

>Some 40-50% performance gain with little difference (depends from your settings and what you replace)
>You can use this kind of ArmA 2 CO to run mods even with ArmA 2 vanilla executable (works on steam also)
>You can save up to 8 GB of disk space.
>You will additionally save from 512 to 1 GB of RAM memory usage (when playing) which means that your game can load more objects at same RAM memory usage or even lower than before.
>You can have ArmA 2 and ArmA 2 Free installed and you can use both (just like I do now, so that I can test my missions with both versions) whilst having this method applied.

Cons:

>Requires ArmA 2 and OA, won't work other way around.
>Useless if you have a high end gaming system.
>Doesn't require additional parameters to run (such as A2CO Lite does)

Hope someone finds this useful.