FROM: Project Lead

TO: Arma 3 Users

INFO: Internal Marksmen prototype, Update 1.36 released, REPception

PRECEDENCE: Flash

SITUATION

As we enter the last month of the year, the team is focused on one more 2014 development milestone: the Marksmen DLC sandbox prototype. This means having a final plan for the exact assets and features that we'll finish during the first quarter of 2015. Said plan is backed up by internally playable prototypes. This could mean the first version of a new weapon's model, a scripted prototype of a gameplay feature, a proof-of-concept for a scenario, etc. The feasibility studies should wrap up soon and we'll have go / no-go moments for some of the tech. Having a solid sandbox foundation will later help the designers to use it effectively while developing playable content. We are trying hard to get some very cool stuff in the DLC and accompanying platform update, and it's looking splendid so far!

INTELLIGENCE

Did you miss the exact change log for update 1.36? Take a look at SPOTREP #00037! Perhaps you've noticed we delayed the release of the update by a day. In fact, this change of plans was so last-minute we had already begun to release the accompanying Arma 3 Tools update. The reason for the delay was the discovery (based on community reports) that one of the multiplayer server optimizations caused a potential instability. We had tested these multi-threading optimizations on special profiling servers for a few weeks with good results. Then we found a thread safety problem in a few freshly submitted crash reports. It was decided to take those optimizations out of 1.36 and continue to develop them via the special profiling branch. Certain other optimizations remained in tact, such as tweaks to the file system.

There are still 2 recurring crashes that we know about, but cannot solve at the moment. One is related to the PhysX libraries and we hope to address it by an update of the libraries in 2015. The other occurs also in our other games and we believe it to be connected to Steam. We are still working with Valve engineers to solve this one.

OPERATIONS

QA Specialist Ondrej Kužel performed a post-flight inspection of the Advanced Flight Model for rotary-wing aircraft, introduced in Helicopters DLC / platform update 1.34. His report follows an earlier look at the integration of third-party middleware RotorLib to support the AFM. It mainly looks back at what we believe was a very productive example of community collaboration. Be sure to expand the hidden bonus section dubbed "Oukej's Frequent Flyer Bonus Miles" for some tips and tricks!

LOGISTICS

Leading the way for update 1.36 was yet another iteration of the Arma 3 Tools suite (available in the Steam library for anyone - filter for "Tools"). The Tools Commissar himself, Julien Vida, does a good job of providing some context to the changes in his status report: changes to existing tools, a new tool and fresh samples. Considering those samples, the previously mentioned PSD source template for Taru liveries is available on the Tools Dev-Branch. An issue causing suspiciously long packing when using Addon Builder is being investigated.