Arma 2

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Key points

Multiplayer portion available for free as ArmA II: Free

General information

Steam Users' Forums

Steam Community Discussions

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Availability

These versions all include the ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead standalone expansion required for DayZ and some other mods.

Improvements

Note: Some of this information comes courtesy of this thread on the RPS Forums. Some parts of this section may be lifted word by word from the thread.

Patches

The latest patch for ArmA II: Combined Operations is 1.62. The latest patch for vanilla ArmA II is 1.11. For manual updates, these are available on the ArmA II website. Note that while mods do require the latest patch, none require a downgrade. Beta versions are also available and frequently updated to test newly added features and bugfixes, both via Steam and the developer's website.

• ARMA 2: Combined Operations / Operation Arrowhead / Reinforcements Patch 1.60 to 1.62
• ARMA 2: Combined Operations / Operation Arrowhead / Reinforcements Patch 1.60
• ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead & Reinforcements Patch 1.59
• ARMA 2 Patch 1.11
• ARMA 2 Free Patch 1.11
• ARMA 2 Patch 1.10
• ARMA 2 Patch 1.00 to 1.09
• Latest beta version of a planned patch (Requires fully patched up to date release version. Recommended to experienced users, as these are only beta and some serve for testing)

Startup Parameters

Startup parameters for the ArmA series are quite complicated, due to the engine being so complicated. An extensive accounting of the available parameters can be found here.

Mods

Installing these mods is quite easy thanks to the Six Updater, though it is being replaced by Play withSIX. Alternatively, Armaholic covers popular mods, scripts and addons.

Name	Link	Developer
ACE	http://wiki.ace-mod.net/	Wagn
ACRE	Available within Six Updater	ACRE Team
Zeus AI	http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?89970-Zeus-AI-Combat-Skills	Protegimus
STHUD and STMovement	http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?96791-ShackTac-Fireteam-HUD-(STHUD)	zx64
WarFX : Blastcore	http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=12975	Opticalsnare
DayZ	http://www.dayzmod.com/	Dean "Rocket" Hall

Graphic Tweaks

Set the 3D resolution and the interface resolution to exactly the same value. The value isn't as important, because no matter what, if the numbers don't equal, there will be performance loss. Ideally, both values would be set at 100.

Set Video Memory to "Default". By default (confusing, but keep reading), Arma II will cap the VRAM at an unspecified value. This value is actually lower than the "Default" option in the settings, but will still be named "Default".

Texture Quality is dependent on the amount of RAM in your system, but due to the tweak above, it is safe to set the option to higher values.

Disable VSync.

For a higher frame rate and reduced input latency, turn off the fancy options, like smoothing and head bobbing. To turn off motion blur, either download this mod or set post processing settings to "Very Low". This does speed up camera movement, so experiment to your liking.

For faster rendering, turn on PPAA instead of the normal AA (Anti-Aliasing).

To trick the engine into using all the power that your system has, add these commands to your startup parameters:

-maxmem=[yourmemory]
-maxvram=[yourvidcardmemory]
-cpuCount=[availableCPUcores]
-exThreads=[number] (The number varies. 1 if you have a two cores, 7 if you have a four or more.
Feel free to experiment with this setting to see if anything grants you higher performance.)

Disabling the Intro

Add these commands to the startup parameters:

-nosplash 
-skipintro

Video settings

Field of view (FOV)

The Field of View can be changed in Arma 2 and mods such as Day Z by following the steps below.

1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\ArmA 2
2. Open Username.ArmA2Profile in Notepad.
3. Search for "fov". There are only 2 lines that contain fov near the bottom. They are:

   fovTop=XXXX;

   fovLeft=XXXX;

   fovTop is vertical FOV
   fovLeft is horizontal FOV

1. Use this calculator to find your FOV values in degrees by entering your screen resolution.
2. Convert these values from degrees to radians by entering "XX degrees in radians" in a Google search.
3. Change fovTop to the value you have now, rounded to 2 decimal places.
4. Divide your topFov number by the second number of your resolution's aspect ratio.
5. Take the result of step 6 and multiply it by the first number of your resolution's aspect ratio.
6. Change fovLeft to the value you have now, rounded to two decimal places.
7. Save the file.

Some suggested FOV values in radians for typical setups are:

Setup Type	fovTop	fovLeft
1920 x 1080 at 90 FOV	1.03	1.83
1680 x 1050 at 90 FOV	1.13	1.80
2560×1600 at 90 FOV	1.13	1.76

NOTE: Range finding by using certain scopes like the PSO scope might not be accurate anymore when playing on a non-default FOV.