ArmA2: First impressions of Chernarus

Comments Posted on Jun 04, 2009 Posted by administrator

I've gone German...apparently.

Since the German release of ArmA2 i've been reading about all these bugs people have found. When I reviewed the 505 version I didn't actually see anything like the sort of problems people are now reporting. So I thought I'd go buy the german version for the sake of "journalistic" curiosity and objectivity. (And of course I was too impatient to wait 2+ weeks).

After the 505 Preview we were asked a lot of questions, which we tried to answer as best we could. After the initial German release and many of the early bugs came to light and I got even more questions. So in an effort to answer some I'm going to try and write a series of blogs for Armaholic comparing our impressions of the 505 version we were shown withthe German 1.01 release.

These may not be daily but i'll do my best to keep them coming out every few days. So if you have any questions send them over and i'll try and get some answers for you.

So here I am. ArmA 1.0 in German, patched to 1.01 struggling to remember my basic german and grinning like a school boy. Well lets start this "honest review" by being honest. My German is crap. Its so bad its safe to say that Bablefish does a better job than me. So I resorted to looking around for an German to English patch. There are several out there: A leaked one from BIS apparently and a some community made ones. After trying one or two out, I settled on making my own, a few hours with a German speaking friend and things become clearer. Our effort is not complete and wont be for sometime but its got the basic functions covered and doesn't crash/lock up or require you to click a popup...yet!

As I said in the 505 Press day preview, my own PC isn't too different from the machines used in the demo so I was pretty confident that I'd have no problems. For the most part I didn't. Cranking the resolution up to my monitor's native 1920x1200 had no obvious effect on the FPS all the settings were on high with 2000m view distance, it was fantastic.

505 Press Day Demo PC	My Own PC
Windows XP 32bit Core2Duo E8400 @3Ghz (not overclocked) 3Gb of RAM Nvidia 9800GTX+ Graphics	Vista Home Premium x64 Core2Duo E8400 @3.00 Ghz (not overclocked) 8Gb of RAM EVGA 8800GT KO 512mb

First impressions of Chernarus Walking around the towns and villages was amazing. There are plenty of screenshots out there now but you don't really get the same feel from static pictures as you do walking around. It really does feel far more realisitc, thanks to some of the new tech BIS has developed or adopted. The new parallax mapping system now gives you far more detail than ArmA1 ever managed. Some of the buildings are textured so well you need to check twice to see if they are actually modelled or just textures. Much has been siad about the lighting. It really is pretty good, shadows are deeper and far more natural. In the default time of day in the editor it looks just like a crisp autumn morning in eastern Europe (and some parts of South London with the wrecked tanks) but the effect is slightly ruined by the overdone HDR bloom effect. Now, it really isn't game shakingly bad and dont listen to the guys screaming 'it blinds you". Thats just pure bollox. But its just a bit too much and after a while I found it pretty distracting. But not to the point it ruined gameplay. (I'd like to understand the reasons why that "feature" wasn't seen as a problem?) From a modder's point of view i can see the work that has gone into ArmA2. You have to credit BIS for that alone if nothing else. The attention to detail is amazing. The sheer number of new buildings and textures. The effort required to produce all this monumental and it really has been worth the wait. You can happily spend ours walking, driving or flying around admiring the scenery and snooping around the houses and factories.

BIS have previously said Chernarus that was made using real world terrain data. Flying around the map this is blatantly obvious. The scale of the landscapes feel natural and believable. The valleys roll down to the sea in very credible fashion with hills and features that just add to the 'wow' factor. I've had the game 5 days and I've spent a lot of that just exploring. BIS have obviously taken their time to create something so detailed and special. Forget all the things you hear about bugs and crashes, the islands alone are worth getting the game for.

Chernarus the "island" is 15360.0m x 15360.0m with a 7.5m grid pitch which gives you some very impressively detailed terrain. For those of us that closely followed ArmA2's developement this is isnt really a huge surprise. But I have to admit its far better than i thought it would be. As i said in the 505 Preview Chernarus' total area (235.93km2) is smaller than ArmA1's Sahrani (419.43km2). But the total usuable landmass is much greater. More than twice what we are used to. This is going to have a huge impact on the playable life of the island when it comes to MP games like EVO and Warfare. There are far more areas to learn and conquer. Chernarus is bordered on two sides by the now infamous "infinite terrain". And while I was (and still am) a bit disappointed with how it appears I am happy to wait and see what BIS do with it in future patches. I've never had cause to stray out into these areas, apart from in the editor, so it really does have no affect on the SP game at all. BIS have said they are going to rework how it appears so its best to reserve judgment until they patch these areas before making any sort of comments.	Chernarus Facts: 225 km2 of real world data 1 million 3D objects 350 kilometers of roads 50 towns and villages 2 dams and numerous small lakes and ponds Certain hilltops reach an altitude of over 700m Almost 100km2 of forests Urban areas contain ports, factories Military installations including large airfield Direction and distance signs accompanying road network Civilian population and wildlife
So thats it for today. Over the next few days I'm going to try and post a more detailed lookinto the new features and the modding aspects of the new engine. If you have specific questions PM me off the Armaholic, BIS or RKSL Studios websites and I'll answer your questions in the upcoming blogs if i can. Rock

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Comments

0 # SGdaman 2009-06-04 19:29

Mate,

Loving these articles. Can i put a request for info on the Carrier, ships and USMC faction please? The kit, what the models are like and the features.

keep blogging along

Cheers

PS ignore Deanosbeano hes just a jealous old man

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0 # tedbell 2009-06-04 23:46

I have a question. Where are the 3D clouds? I have seen them in a few of the previews. In others, there is only the texture-mapped skybox.

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0 # tedbell 2009-06-05 02:56

Ahh. Now I see that I have to add a Weather game module. Nevermind! They look really cool and fluffy

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0 # Gabe Logan 2009-06-13 18:15

What kind of framerates you getting at high with your system at 19x12 ?

I've heard it's ropey.

Also, not too many jaggies by the looks of it.......I assume with HDR, AA is not possible...so is the postprocessing doing a decent job ?

Cheers.

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