SITREPs

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Release, Post-release work

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Last Thursday's release was a big moment for the team. It was a relief to get the game out there. Of course we realize that for most people reading this obscure development blog, it had less of an impact than to someone buying / installing the game for the first time. For those wanting a changelog from the last Beta patch, check out SPOTREP #00010. We're focusing on reading and watching all the constructive feedback and criticisms, while solidifying our short-term and long-term plans.

Daily development branch updates fired up again yesterday. If you're willing to deal with the usual disclaimers of that experimental build, it will have lots of fixes coming. Main branch patching is planned on a 2 to 4 week cycle. The short-term cycle will partly be synchronized with the release of campaign episodes, but we may get some patches in-between.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: First patch, Firstlook 2013

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

We are in the final stages of preparing for the first post-release patch / main branch update. This does not yet contain the first campaign episode. There are a couple of fixes and improvements that will benefit the larger playerbase and would be good to get out. Recent optimizations benefit the performance of Altis, especially in scenarios with lots of AI units moving about. There are also a few fixes for Japanese and Korean versions - such as re-enabling blood and correcting broken font issues for some texts. The goal is to release later this week, but as per usual, this depends on testing.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Patch released, Hotfix expected, Light Shafts

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

The first post-release patch was released last Friday. It sported a long list of miscellaneous fixes and improvements, but also significantly increased Altis performance for a group of players out there (not everyone). They especially benefit from this during large-scale scenarios where a lot of AI units are maneuvering across the terrain. The Artificial Intelligence work that did not make it into release, was also included in this patch ... and said work is still on-going. Unfortunately the patch also caused a multiplayer instability related to PhysX simulation. It has proven hard to debug since it involves external libraries. Our programmers have finally found useful debugging information, and once they have a confirmed fix, we hope to hotfix 1.02. Apologies to those not able to enjoy MP at the moment.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Firstlook AAR, Documentation

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

This past weekend the two Dutchies in the development team visited Firstlook expo in The Netherlands. It was great to meet up with some of the Dutch multiplayer communities (like Tangodown), modders (e.g. the lads behind Arma 3 Life) and individual fans. Kudos to MSI Europe for hosting us. Thanks for visiting and helping to support the game!

We did two main stage demos on a huge screen and audio setup - and it felt great! The crowd probably suffered temporary hearing loss when Korneel van 't Land ambushed the audio technicians by firing the Slammer cannon at maximum volume! The smoke machines kicking in on stage when we threw smoke grenades in-game was a nice touch also. The first part of the demo was an introduction to those new to Arma, but we concluded with a few upcoming content teasers. Confirmed to arrive with the first campaign episode: the Rahim CSAT marksman rifle with DMS marksman optic, 4-five pistol with MRD optic, and the Zubr revolver with Yorris optic. We also showed concept work for the CSAT CAS airplane and a new AAF IFV - part of the additions scheduled for the other two episodes.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Campaign episode - Survive, Rain, Fatigue

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

The final stages of development of the first campaign episode - "Survive" - are wrapping up this week. Splendid voice-acting and animation work has made its way from recording & processing into the game - bringing it all to life. Together with our various testing teams, we are playing through the episode many times to find potential issues ahead of the October 31 release. Meanwhile, other members of the team are working on the second episode, previously teased content additions, tools, and a number of unannounced additions.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Report In!, Config Arrays

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

As a final test before releasing campaign episode 1 next week, we are still considering to stage it on devbranch this Thursday. Whether it will happen, depends on evaluations of the latest version today and tomorrow. If we do go ahead, we would like to again request of you to try to keep spoilers to a minimum while reporting issues. Thanks in advance! For the majority of players we would recommend playing the campaign on the main branch instead. This should produce a more stable experience throughout, not risking new issues due to the daily and experimental nature of devbranch (e.g. potential savegame incompatibilities).

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Survive!, Altis updates

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Almost there! "Survive" will be officially released this Thursday, and will be automatically downloaded like a patch. Many people have already survived on devbranch and we have enjoyed reading the feedback! A few critical issues were found and squashed (e.g. crashing in the campaign menu having user-made campaigns installed). With the broader release looming, here's a couple of things to keep in mind: ...

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Tools

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

The positive reception of "Survive" has boosted team morale and excitement to make the "Adapt" episode a fitting continuation. Asset producers are finalizing the new sandbox content, for which we can finally share more teasers soon - including 3 added vehicles. That is not to say "Survive" came with just the campaign episode. Have a look at the full SPOTREP, and go in-depth with the cool blog written up by Creative Director Jay Crowe. Besides the second episode, what else are we working on at the moment? Coming up is the Arma 3 Tools release (read on for more) and a more traditional update of main branch later this month.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Campaign episode 2, Fatigue

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

The second campaign episode is currently undergoing its most busy development period. The playable content team is evaluating the scenarios, gathering internal feedback and starting final iterations of the flow and logic. Meanwhile the texts (briefings, hints and dialogues) are all being fleshed out to prepare for this episode's final voice acting and MOCAP work. And, there's still a significant new multiplayer feature coming to Arma 3. We look forward to finally speak about its specifics soonâ„¢.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Update 1.06, Tools release

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

While we are working on the 'Adapt' episode, let's focus this week's report on the other kinds of Arma 3 support! The next main branch update (1.06) is in final testing at the moment. Assuming this goes well, we'll update the game later this week. The update is primarily focused on miscellaneous fixes and on-going maintenance. One important aspect is the fix of surround sound character dialogue, during the campaign especially.

Another release now in final testing: the Arma 3 Tools package on Steam. Modders will finally receive the first iteration of this suite, focusing on building add-ons. It makes it easier to prepare their new models for the game (Binarize, Oxygen, CfgConvert, etc.). Included as well are special 'render worlds', which are basically single color backdrops for e.g. chroma key machinima work. A collection of Arma 3 sample models and configuration files provide clues as to creating your own characters, cars, tanks, weapons and buildings. In no way is this a one-time final release. As with the game, we will be updating and iterating the package. Later iterations will go beyond add-on building, providing additional and improved tools and samples. When will all this start? It should drop together with the aforementioned game update! After release, you'll find it in the Steam library's Tools section - ready for a quick install.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: AAF vehicles, Licensed data

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Last week was packed with reports; after the usual SITREP, we followed up with a SPOTREP for the 1.06 patch release. On the same day there was the premier TECHREP, to keep track of the release and updates to the Arma 3 Tools suite. Initially we'll be updating the tools on the same cycle as the main game, but we'll see how that goes. Keep reading for some hints of useful additions to the package coming up soon!

Another thing in the pipelines for imminent staging on devbranch: three more vehicles and a sniper scope! These will be part of the next game update. Find some more details in the full report.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Asset library, Announcing announcements

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

This week's report will be a little dry. We are going to be announcing several things later this week or generally soon™. One such announcement is to provide a specific date for the deployment of the 'Adapt' campaign episode. As the designers iterate the more open and free scenarios of this stage, other developers have jumped back into the voice recording studio this week. The briefing performance capture was recorded a while ago, but now it's time to do the final scenario conversations for all actors - as well as some new radio protocols (one of which by our own designer Nelson Duarte as an Altian local speaking English). Meanwhile Audio Lead Jan Dušek is mastering the last of five new music tracks added as a score for the episode.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: AAF Reinforcements, Dedicated Servers, Winter holidays

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Welcome to the last SITuation REPort in 2013. We'll be out of comms for a few weeks during the holiday period, returning on 14.01.2014 with our weekly updates and many awesome things. Wrapping up the year, tomorrow sees the release of the 1.08 game update - including the AAF Reinforcements Pack. But that's not all! We can finally bring you the free and stand-alone Dedicated Server package on Steam - for Windows and Linux. The tools suite will be updated with a few fixes as well.

2014 is going to be an amazing year for Arma 3. Things are only just getting started, and we are all committed to continued support. Thank you for your contributions to making 2013 a spectacular ride. Have a fantastic winter holiday period, and see you all soon!

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

The next SITREP will be send on 14.01.2014. Have a great winter holiday!

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Adapt, HDAO, MP optimizations

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

The time has come to resume normal operations ... welcome to Arma 3's 2014! The team has rapidly geared back up for 'Adapt' release prep, and next Tuesday it's go-time. We would like to stage the episode on devbranch later in the week, but let's see how things go as we are currently testing under data lock. Then we have an exciting multiplayer announcement dropping in February, and we'll be wrapping up the campaign with development on its final episode. Plans beyond that are being outlined with plenty of awesome stuff coming to everyone. Good times ahead!

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Adapt released, Humble Bundle

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

After staging the "Adapt" episode last week, it was nice to get it fully released yesterday. Have a look at the full changelog in the SPOTREP. Modders, specifically animators, may find an interesting addition to get their work converted for use in Arma 3. Owners of the (Digital) Deluxe Edition will find goodies in the Bonus folder. There are 9 new tracks for the second campaign episode (MP3 and FLAC), as well as translated versions of the digital map for most languages.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Scanning the horizon, Hotfix, Altis changes

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Our Creative Brit, Jay Crowe, posted his "Scanning the horizon" blog last Friday. In it, his eagle eye was trained on the upcoming year and how we intent to keep supporting Arma 3. It's too early for specific details on what will be released when, but there's lots in the pipeline spread across all fields of the game, platform, tools and community.

We've discovered an error in the 1.10 version that merits hotfixing just the executable before we do a larger game update. A performance profiling tool meant just for devbranch, has made its way into the main version. Ironically, it can actually cause lower performance in certain situations. The hotfix to the game and Dedicated Servers will likely be released this week.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Community Guide season 3, OPREP

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Later this week we'll be premiering the third season of the

created in cooperation with Mr. ShackTactical himself: Andrew "Dslyecxi" Gluck. This episode will take a good look at Air Assault movements - inserting and extracting ground-based forces, by helicopters in this case.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: OPREP - Analogue control, Community Wiki upgrade

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

One of the on-going development tasks to improve the Arma 3 sandbox focuses on controls - specifically analogue vehicle controls in this case. Encoding Lead Petr Kolář has written the second OPREP on this topic. He discusses changes that have been released on devbranch, and which greatly improve control over cars when using analogue peripheral devices such as steering wheels, joysticks or joypads. These controls are in addition to the standard set (catering more for keyboard and mouse), and need to be configured manually for your device. Get behind the wheel and try it out!

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Zeus announcement, Zeus Beta release

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Last Thursday we unveiled the free Arma 3 Zeus DLC with a trailer to introduce the multiplayer concept. That was followed up with a livestream on Saturday to actually show a full session of it being played and to answer some questions. It was especially satisfying to do a sneaky devbranch release at the end! The whole stream is

. Now that the Zeus Beta is out, its principle designer Karel Mořický and programmer Filip Sádovský will be improving it, fixing reported issues, introducing new features, and bringing it towards the full release in Q2 (after the final campaign episode and the jets).

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: OPREP - Refactoring anims, Patch incoming, Zeus intel

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Our offices were recently invaded by a Eurogamer.net Task Force. They chatted with our developers, and recorded an impromptu Let's Play Arma 3 Zeus. The video quality is not great due to their recording setup, but there is a sneak preview of two new vehicles. You'll see the CSAT CAS jet in action with work-in-progress animations and sounds. A vehicle we have not yet spoken about, and which is coming to the 'Win' episode, is the Tempest heavy truck. Further diversifying the factions, this vehicle and the usual variants for ammunition, fuel and repairs, will be added to CSAT (as an additional vehicle, not replacing their fleet of Zamaks; avoiding issues in existing scenarios).

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Alpha anniversary, Zeus intel

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Tomorrow will have been a year since the release of the Arma 3 Alpha. Thanks to your enduring support and the hard work of the development team, Arma 3 has evolved into a cool military package. And it continues to grow and mature. As a small bonus for this mini-anniversary, we're including a new variant of the Slammer MBT in tomorrow's update. The Urban Purpose variant features a commander machine gun turret, a smaller caliber cannon, shorter barrel, and enhanced armor.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: 'Win' devbranch & release, Weather for everyone, Zeus intel

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Internally we have just applied the 'data lock' for the 'Win' campaign episode and associated content (jets, truck, Altis locations!). We are no longer adding new things to this milestone, but focusing on getting it ready for release. The first public release moment is staging on devbranch, hopefully later this week. Then, on March 20th, we open it up to everyone - packaged as the 1.14 update.

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: 'Win' release, Terrain Builder, Object IDs

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

Thursday is the day we will finally deliver the complete "The East Wind" campaign. We made the commitment to bring you three episodes, and we're glad to now make good on that. Combined, we think the episodes produce for a worthy singleplayer experience. Don't forget to explore beyond the primary objectives. There are side objectives that expand on the goings-on, e.g. when patrolling away from your camps.

And there's lots more in the 1.14 "Win" update: ...

Full SITREP

[DnA 5029]

FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Campaign completed, Zeus development wrap

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

There were lots of releases last week: the conclusion to our campaign, CAS jets, new Altis locations (which in many other games could be considered a new 'level' by themselves), Terrain Builder and more. Get all the Intel from the SPOTREP and TECHREP. And because you can never have too many REPs, encoder Martin Gregor has posted an OPREP about fixed-wing configuration. He discusses what went into taking the static 3D models, and adding functionality to them. Encoders tackle the configuration and tweaking of weapons systems, flight models, cockpit instruments and component animations to name a few things. There are also some differentiating characteristics between both CAS jets. Finally, he mentions further tweaks (to the flight models), which are already coming up.

Full SITREP