FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Unofficial translations, "Support" documentation, Launcher local mods
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
There are not a lot of development updates to report on this week. Marksmen DLC production proceeds at a good pace. We've also taken the first data snapshot for the 1.36 update, and the programmers are preparing their special EXE branch. Once both are combined, the team's embedded QA devs will begin full build tests. They will be assisted by our shared multi-project QA team in Prague, especially for multiplayer. This includes several large-scale sessions involving 30 or more testers, and simulated 64+ client sessions using Headless Client technology. Besides that, we'll likely be requesting your assistance for even larger stress tests (on the CHIMERA test servers). To this effect, you can expect the usual Steam Release Candidate branch to open soon.
Do you prefer reading these reports in your own language? There are a few kind souls in our community who are translating the weekly SITREPs into French and Russian. It's hard for us to verify what may be lost in translation, so our English original on the Dev Hub is the only official source. However, many thanks to these volunteers for contributing in this way!
INTELLIGENCE
It's time to create your own "Support" MP scenarios! Designer Václav Oliva has posted an excellent step-by-step guide to the Community Wiki with help from mode creator Jirí Wainar. Once you've set up your own scenarios, be sure to share them on Workshop for everyone to enjoy!
Have you unlocked many of Arma 3's Steam achievements yet? It's very interesting to see the global statistics, though these are admittedly a little skewed. The achievements were not there from the start (especially considering the Public Alpha), and new batches of achievements have been added per major release. As for the design behind our achievements, we've deliberately stayed away from things we don't find fitting for Arma. You'll not likely see things like "Killed X enemies with head shots". Rather, we've tried to let the achievements be a guide for content you may have missed. And to challenge you to achieve top results in some areas. Do you have any good ideas for achievements?
On a related note: we plan to make it possible to end Faction Showcases in a more straight forward way in update 1.36. This will be done for the "Showcasing" achievement especially ("Showtime" and "Meet and Greet" only require you to start them, not complete them).
OPERATIONS
Programmer Lukáš Bábícek has in recent weeks been working directly with Intel engineers to find and implement optimization opportunities. This has yielded some results you may not directly notice, such as terrain rendering and shadow improvements. One addition is directly visible however, namely the inclusion of anti-aliasing post processing effect CMAA. This effect is available on Dev Branch in the video options (PPAA drop-down). It should be faster than SMAA while retaining a similar quality level.
LOGISTICS
Support for local mods in the launcher has arrived on Dev Branch. Launcher programmer Jirí Polášek reports: "The launcher has been extended with a long-awaited feature called 'local mods'. It allows for users to add their Arma 3 mod folders directly to the 'Addons' tab instead of using the plain 'Mods' parameter field. These mods are treated same way as Steam addons, and you can easily turn them on and off and include them in presets. To add a mod, press the '+<folder>' button in the 'Addons' tab.
Apart from adding local mods manually to the list one by one, there is also an option to continually detect mods in specified folders and automatically include them in the list. Open the launcher options (gear icon at the top right) to set up your monitored folders."