New Arma III screenshots & plans for 2012 post E3

[sirico]

After several months of radio silence - packed full of development and hard work - I'd like to outline some of our plans for 2012. It's been extremely rewarding to see how well things are moving forward, and, over the forthcoming year, we would like to share our progress with you on a more regular basis.

Recently, many new faces - from both other Bohemia Interactive studios and outside our company - have joined our team, which has significantly strengthened our development as a whole. It makes Arma 3 the largest ever project undertaken by Bohemia Interactive. Their experience, enthusiasm and excitement has been a welcome addition and is already paying back major dividends. An official 'welcome to the war', guys!

Looking forward, this year we're proudly showcasing our work at both E3 (June 5-7) and Gamescom Cologne (August 16-19). If you have the time, please come along and meet us to experience what we've managed to achieve so far, and get a sense of what's still to come. Of course, we'll set out more detailed information about our attendance closer to the time.

Following E3, we plan to open up the game to our players. This process starts with the release of a playable build of Arma 3. We call it the 'Community Alpha'. It's intended to enable people who'd like to try the game early on in development help us to shape it up - and make Arma 3 the greatest release of the series. Ours is a large and complex game - being developed by a relatively small team - so we really appreciate your opinions, thoughts and feedback.

The Community Alpha will be quite limited in terms of the assets it includes, with the goal of providing enough content to experiment with the brand new bits of gameplay and technology. It also enables our passionate community to prepare their mods for the very latest version of the Real Virtuality engine. Then, later on in the year, we'd like to open up our game up even further with a more extensive beta program. The exact details, however, we intend to set out closer to their launch.

As you may have recently picked up on, we plan to delay the full Arma 3 release. With this additional time, we're focused upon creating a feature-rich, polished, and bug free experience. For us, it all comes down to delivering a quality product. We've achieved a great deal, but we don't want to rush things at the expense of what we finally deliver.

DirectX 10/11 has been implemented. PhysX is working - particularly, rag-doll animation looks really impressive! The UI is undergoing a redesign, with the focus upon improved usability. Indeed, ease of use, and particularly accessibility, has been an entire goal in itself. We've heard your feedback, and we want to make the game easier to learn for those new to the game, without sacrificing anything that makes our game unique. We have reworked our animations using completely new motion capture recordings. The result is the most realistic animations ever achieved in the series, as well as additional gameplay features.

The visuals and graphics, such as color, lighting, and effects - are quite breathtaking and a massive leap forward for the series. The scale of the map truly cannot be comprehended from the screenshots... it is HUGE, vastly beyond anything seen previously. Last, but certainly not least, we are committed to delivering you a slick and rock-solid multiplayer experience. You can already experience some of the low-level fixes and optimisations brought about by the major release of Patch 1.60 for Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead, and Multiplayer will be something we're keen to talk about as development continues.

   

We have adhered to a strong focus upon backward compatibility throughout the development, meaning we (and of course even you) are in a position to get older assets into A3 very quickly, just with few tweaks here and there. There are, of course, the new features which would require additional settings.

Looking at our previous work, the fidelity of the British Armed Forces units was the foundation for work on character models in Arma 3, which are of a quality far surpassing what we've created before. While technologies like shotgun dispersal in Private Military Company helped to provide a platform for the implementation of things like mines and explosives in A3. Take On Helicopters, meanwhile, goes from strength to strength with recent updates and the forthcoming 'Cougar' patch and Hind DLC. Various new technologies at work in Arma 3 - like volumetric clouds - are on display in this game, and of course, we'd recommend to take a look at all of these great games to get a flavour of what's yet to come.

I'm really looking forward to sharing with you the results of our development. To kick things off, we're in the process of putting together a couple of developer's blogposts starting with sound recordings and our field trip to Limnos. You can see the brand new screenshots we've made available, which give a flavour of the developments we're making. Nothing is more rewarding for us than working and getting involved with people from the community who are as excited about the game as we are. I look forward to keeping you informed about our development as often as possible!

Daniel Musil
Project Lead Arma 3
Courtesy of BiStudio.com

[TheMuffinMan]

Beautiful!

[Slib]

I think this is looking like a rig killer for me

[Broadsword]

It is looking stunning, here is the confirmed features.
Source: Modsaholic, Armaholic forums.

Confirmed features of Arma 3

Use this thread to post confirmed features for the upcoming ArmA 3.
I will update the first post with new information once it's posted here. PLEASE keep it civilized and on topic.
If you mentioned something new and it's not added to the list by the end of the day, PM me with the info.
(give the source to your confirmed findings also, any posts not related to this thread will be deleted)


GAME REQUIREMENTS
(Note that this may change )

OS - Windows 7 / Vista
CPU - Intel Core i5 or AMD Athlon Phenom X4 or faster
GPU - Nvidia Geforce GTX 260 or ATI Radeon HD 5770, shader Model 3 and 896 MB VRAM, or faster
RAM - 2 GB
HDD - 15 GB free space
DVD - Dual Layer compatible
DirectX® - 10/11


General game features :

Single-Player Campaign:

Evolve from a lone prey into a military commander in the open-ended & story-driven campaign.

Customizable Soldier Load:

Choose your uniform (2), assemble your weapon kit, change your loadout, get loaded up.

Physical simulation & improved animations:

Take advantage of PhysX™ supporting the vehicle simulation, in-game interactions and the revamped animation system.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE Pettka has confirmed that the PhysX in Arma3 works fine on systems with AMD/ATI cards .
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Multiplayer Gameplay:

Challenge both cooperative & competitive scenarios with full support of dedicated servers for both Windows and Linux.

Completely Extensible & Moddable:

Design & create countless customizable scenarios using the intuitive & easy-to-use mission editor.


Extended list:

Underwater Ops (2)
Volumetric clouds
HALO
All the buildings on Lemnos can be entered and are destructible .
Weapon modification on the fly is now possible.
The net code is being optimized. Ivan said more players that on OA should be possible.
3D editor is confirmed.
Action menus will be improved
Helicopter sounds will be on par with the ones in TOH.
Arma 3 will include the TOH flight model , but not in the main campaign .
The Mk8 SDV will have a periscope .
The player will be able to attach explosive charges to enemy boats.
The player will be able to remotely operate mortars .
Helmet mounted cameras
Tanks with railguns
Objects like tactical vests will have weight and different carrying capacits.
Headgear will offer different levels of projectile protection.
The game will feature more powerful sounds , similar to popular sound mods.
PvP will be improved.
Improved wounding system ( no specifics for now )
Improved MP interface
Improved command interface
The player will be able to wear civilian clothes
Hands are moving on the steering wheel
Different muzzle flash samples
Grenade launcher zeroing works like in real life
The player will be able to attach satchels to vehicles.
There will be a dropdown menu in the editor where you can customize your soliders gear such as camo,headgear, balistic vest and backpacks.
Fastroping will be suported.
Shockwaves will be simulated.
Different camo-types ( urban etc)
4 times more detailed ground texture
Improved Data-Streaming
Improved micro AI and pathfinding
Improved water ( visually aswell physically-PhysX)
Your loadout will affect your mobility- enhanced fatigue system
Blending from animations to ragdoll
Iimproved UAV's
Iimproved artillery system- set the angle etc manually
Higher particle limit
More audio samples
Heat haze effect
Vehicles can now be towed.
Micro UAV's that can be deployed on a squad level.
Some weapons platforms can be operated remotely and some can function on their own.
All the stationary armament can be dismantled and transported by troops or vehicles.
The MP chat system will be improved.

[Slib]

Specs = rig death

[Dazzle]

what do you mean by rig death?

[sirico]

Look at the specs, then at your rig. Pick up your rig find a suitble bin or window place pc into/throw said bin or window. Buy new PC remembering to empty the bin/ replace window in couple of years to repeat the process.

[Slib]

Look at the specs, then at your rig. Pick up your rig find a suitble bin or window place pc into/throw said bin or window. Buy new PC remembering to empty the bin/ replace window in couple of years to repeat the process.

[Dazzle]

Lol I am not all tha up on computer specs but I am fairly sure my comp has better than all that anyway

[sirico]

Just push the turbo button in and you'll be fine, aww man just realised my case doesn't have one

[MigEater]

The screenshot of that Albatross.

If anything I'll end up buying this for the aircraft to fly around in :/

[Hans_UK]

  cannot wait for it and it is hard doing just that, hope I can get my hands on a beta version soon....

[Sharpe]

I'm gonna need to get a job so i can upgrade my PC! Hopefully my computer can play it just about in its current state though

[xizic]

These screenies are looking good I wonder if rocket will move over to ArmA3 when it comes out, imagine what DayZ could look like using this games engine and graphics. But then again considering the new game map is going to be 900 square kilometers that's quite allot of work for one person to do. Still would look crisp as hell.

[raze]

aye new GFX for me and new OS :-)
it will be worth it though, this community continues to grow from strength to strength and they aren't going anywhere soon. Imagine what cool mods we will get from this engine given what we now have in Arma 2 ;-)