Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead

Mr Krugga · 28 Apr 2011 at 11:59

So I purchased ARMA II and now I'm wondering if there are any essential mods to get into the game or should I play the original campaign first?

How do you go about optimising the settings (I've got the Steam version of the game so the latest patch is applied)? I've seen a few threads on ARMA forums but they are months or years old and most likely don't include the changes that were made in the latest patches. Is there anything I could do to improve the performance in game?

I've got the rig in my sig, HD5850 at 945/1200 (essentially just above stock 5870's performance), Core i5 @ 3.54GHz on 4 cores and with turbo on (goes up to 4.05GHz on one or two cores loaded), memory at 1350MHz with pretty tight timings (CL7) and ARMA II is on the Crucial C300 drive. I game at 2560x1440 and that's what I set both resolutions at.

I've set:
View Distance to 3000m
turned Shadows to V.High (as I understand it, it's the only option for rendering shadows on the graphics card)
Textures to High or V.High (can't remember)
Terrain to Normal (does it make a lot of difference?)
Objects to High
Memory to V.High (should it be set to Default?)
Quality Preference to V.High
Antialiasing to Low
Anisotropic Filtering to High
Postprocessing Disabled (don't really like the blur and such effects)

Any advice appreciated.

Josh P · 28 Apr 2011 at 12:24

I use the BlastCore mod for better explosions/particle effects etc and would highly recommend it. I use the JSRS sound mods, a cut-down version of SLX for better animations, the LandTex mod for better ground textures/satmap. I use 3 custom islands: Lingor, Capraia and Podagorsk.

Your video settings look similar to mine, I personally don't use AA because I don't like the new ATOC for foliage and can't be bothered messing with config files. I would suggest running at a higher resolution for a SSAA effect, but given that you're already playing at 2560x1440 it's perhaps not necessary! If you find you're getting blocky textures sometimes, have a play with the video memory setting - there have been some problems in the more recent builds where the amount of VRAM is being detected incorrectly.

Mr Krugga · 28 Apr 2011 at 13:27

Josh P said:
I use the BlastCore mod for better explosions/particle effects etc and would highly recommend it. I use the JSRS sound mods, a cut-down version of SLX for better animations, the LandTex mod for better ground textures/satmap. I use 3 custom islands: Lingor, Capraia and Podagorsk.

Your video settings look similar to mine, I personally don't use AA because I don't like the new ATOC for foliage and can't be bothered messing with config files. I would suggest running at a higher resolution for a SSAA effect, but given that you're already playing at 2560x1440 it's perhaps not necessary! If you find you're getting blocky textures sometimes, have a play with the video memory setting - there have been some problems in the more recent builds where the amount of VRAM is being detected incorrectly.

It works almost super-smooth so far. haven't played it much though.

Are Nvidia GPUs generally better with this game, worse or about the same performance wise? I don't mean comparing GTX480 to my card but rather equivalent graphics cards.

Is everyone using a joystick or a gamepad to control aircraft in the game? I found my mouse being over sensitive in some manoeuvres and not responding well in others. Maybe I should fiddle around with mouse settings as well?

I will try AA off, the low setting doesn't seem to do much anyway.

Any way to make sure that Vsync is off in the game? I don't like tearing but prefer smoother game regardless.

BTW, I love modding and it seems that ARMA II has great potential towards it. I think Operation Arrowhead will be ordered later on tonight

rhysduck · 28 Apr 2011 at 16:20

Arma2 is £4 on Steam until 4pm PST today!!
Combined Operation (Arma2 & Operation Arrowhead) is £18.

40% off both to give above prices, and 40% off the DLC.

Josh P · 28 Apr 2011 at 16:26

Mr Krugga said:
Are Nvidia GPUs generally better with this game, worse or about the same performance wise? I don't mean comparing GTX480 to my card but rather equivalent graphics cards.

I think with single cards there isn't much in it, but SLI support is much better than Crossfire I believe.

Mr Krugga said:
Is everyone using a joystick or a gamepad to control aircraft in the game? I found my mouse being over sensitive in some manoeuvres and not responding well in others. Maybe I should fiddle around with mouse settings as well?

I tend to adjust my mouse sensitivity down when playing Arma, I spent quite a while fiddling with settings to get rid of the input lag.

Mr Krugga said:
Any way to make sure that Vsync is off in the game? I don't like tearing but prefer smoother game regardless.

Disabling Vsync for me makes the game unplayable - if you really want to it's an option (recently added) on the advanced graphics panel.

jonneymendoza · 29 Apr 2011 at 01:28

Hi, i am having a very strange issue with my arma 2 CO.

Take a look at the pic below:

it appears like that no matter what map i use.

my current system is a core i7 920 pcu, 480gtx card and 6gb ddr3 ram.

Thanks in advance

Strife212 · 29 Apr 2011 at 02:06

Got latest drivers?

jonneymendoza · 29 Apr 2011 at 10:50

going to try that. strange because when i had arma 2 installed last year, it was fine with my 480gtx

lurkio · 29 Apr 2011 at 11:50

go to your mydocs folder
find Arma 2 dir

open
ArmA2OA.cfg
file

find
AToC=
set it to
AToC=0;

and try again

jonneymendoza · 29 Apr 2011 at 12:51

yea that worked. thanks

Creelers · 29 Apr 2011 at 13:29

I just recently got the ACE mod, I've been missing out.

That coupled with the JSRS sound mod makes the game scary

Garfo · 29 Apr 2011 at 14:27

That ace mod,is it easy to install now etc a exe no making up mod files?

Calneon · 29 Apr 2011 at 16:29

Do these mods, ACE etc enhance singleplayer?

aaron · 29 Apr 2011 at 18:30

would love to get into this game online, is there an ocuk server or anything up? also is the DLC worth downloading?

silversurfer · 1 May 2011 at 17:06

rhysduck said:
Nice flying that!!
Is it me or does anyone else have serious problems with the blur and bloom and general look of the game? It's bloody horrendous! Seems to run a bit like porridge... nothing like the old Flashpoint
Here's some pics to try and explain what I mean;

I'm just not enjoying the game due to the shoddy graphics.. I've seem videos on Youtube and they all most have crisp graphics... Can anyone PLEASE help?

I've tried turning off Post Processing et al and nothing I've tried the Kegetys Blur and Boom mod for ARMA2 but that doesnt seem to be working despite coming up int he addons menu in-game.

Mods: @Ace;@ACEX;@CBA;@ACRE;@JAYARMA2LIB;@UOMODS;@ACEX_RU;@ACEX_USNavy

neoboy · 16 Jun 2011 at 19:39

Only just got round to getting this, found SP campaign and mission rather short. Are there any particular downloads people would recommend for those?

rexehuk · 24 Jun 2011 at 10:51

Hey guys,

Arma 2 free is now out, if anyone hasn't tried this game yet I suggest downloading it and giving it a go.

I've just released this mod to the community... We spent almost 6 months on the project, hopefully it shows you the kind of addons that get released for FREE. Combined operations is well worth the money if you're looking for a game with unlimited replayability online.

Rob
Havoc Company

jonneymendoza · 24 Jun 2011 at 11:06

Not bad

Danthus · 25 Jun 2011 at 21:00

Is this worth reinstalling? I couldn't get into ARMA2 as I found it really buggy.

silversurfer · 25 Jun 2011 at 21:07

OA isnt the same game. They released another update to Arma 2 the other day, you might find it runs better now