FROM: Project Lead
TO: Arma 3 Users
INFO: Eden Editor, UGL Reloading, Update 1.52 Released
PRECEDENCE: Flash
SITUATION
Welcome to all new recruits who have joined the growing community after the recent sales on Bohemia Interactive Store and Steam! You've arrived at the front lines during exciting times. We've just released maintenance update 1.52, which, allowing some time for servers and mods to adopt it, should help a little with stability and performance. The next update promises to be rather significant. As discussed last week, plenty of things are starting to appear on Dev-Branch, and await your evaluation. Some things will make it into 1.54 in November, other things may require more time in the incubator. Enjoy your time with Arma 3!
INTELLIGENCE
We were humbled by Southpaw's nice and visual explanation of our DLC strategy. In the interest of transparency, a few tiny corrections: the unrestricted free use of premium content is available in VR Garage / Arsenal (not the Editor), and only the passenger positions aren't locked (gunners are). We know the strategy can sometimes be a little confusing to explain. Thank you Zach for sharing the message in this effective way. For more background you can read our OPREP on Content Licensing.
OPERATIONS
Sandbox Designer Radko Voda has visited the forums to explain the improvements to Personal Protective Equipment now live on Dev-Branch. In the most basic terms, there is added precision when detecting what parts of a character are protected by armor or not. If you get a chance to try the changes and feel something still needs tweaking, now is the time to share your thoughts.
Using the new reloadMagazine2 animation source, Encoder David Sláma has worked together with Artist Martin Valášek and Animator Paweł Smolewski to finally get Under-barrel Grenade Launcher reloading animations in the game (Mk20, Katiba and TRG-21 for now, MX coming up). This seems like a simple change that could have happened much sooner, but due to the way the special muzzle and magazines for grenade launchers are simulated, it required some creative implementation. We would also like to animate an actual grenade, but this faces yet more technical obstacles. We're prototyping a solution, but cannot yet guarantee it will be feasible.
The Eden Editor Public Beta has experienced a very productive first week. We're receiving a lot of positive feedback and valuable constructive criticism. Plenty fixes, tweaks and additions have dripped into the build on a daily basis. For a more in-depth look at Eden and its road map, we invite you to read the latest OPREP by Programmer Filip Sádovský and Designer Karel Mořický (follow them on Twitter for bite-sized updates throughout development). Our Prague QA team and embedded QA Assistant Vojtěch Kovařič also deserve kudos for their hard work to get the very initial Beta release in good shape.
Let's also highlight a few extra notes on Eden Editor:
- Scripters and modders may find the new type of UI menu controls and connected script commands very powerful to build their own interfaces. The same applies to miscellaneous UI features being implemented to support Eden (like multi-line tool tips). Find an initial dump of commands here, but we'll also update Community Wiki soon.
- Some selected improvements may be back-ported to Zeus, but we don't yet know which ones. Eden and Zeus share the same foundation and developers, but it's not a simple matter of copying the tech.
- As discussed in the OPREP, ultimately this editor will fully replace the current 2D editor. There will be a transition phase between the release in early 2016 and the main Expansion, during which both will be available. Some people were worried they would lose 2D editing, but you can of course switch to 2D mode using M by default (we also want to make it possible to set this as default view). It's our goal for the new editor to be everything the old one is, but much more productive and useful.
- There exists a function to export to Terrain Builder, but this editor is not meant for terrain editing itself (it is for scenario editing).
- One of the more powerful aspects of Eden is the ability to mod the editor itself and write custom plugins. Some mods have already started to experiment with this!
LOGISTICS
Bohemia Interactive's various offices and teams are on the look out for great new comrades. Available roles range from (Tools) Programmers to Artists and more. If you're interested, or know someone who might be, please visit the careers page for more details.