New PC First Impressions

Well the parts of my new PC arrived today, I carefully assembled it over the course of about an hour, burnt a new Win 7 RC disc and installed it on the Solid State Disc (SSD) in around 20-30 minutes. I didn't actually time the OS install, but I sat down to eat and before I was finished the PC was at the desktop waiting for me.

Unfortunately at first there was something dodgy going on, every few seconds the PC would freeze and jerk around, I thought perhaps it was a faulty SSD as I'd heard horror stories. For about four hours I was tweaking bios settings, disabling defragmenting (really bad for SSDs) and other windows features that could have caused the problem. Then I read a suggestion to choose another SATA port on the motherboard, gave it a shot and now the speed is blinding.

I've since tested VBS2 on this spec, set everything to Very High in the video settings and both view distance and object distance to 10km, and still got a fairly reasonable frame rate at ground level on Sahrani. I wouldn't play at those settings as I could see things going downhill pretty fast! That and 10km view distance isn't really useful for dismounts. I will be testing ArmA2 later, this should be interesting.

Jamie.

New US Army Promo Video for VBS2

For those of you who haven't noticed, there's a new promo video on the VBS2 website for the US Army. Fortunately I have you guys covered! Music is the standard Pirates of the Carribean style from previous promo vids, in fact it's identical to the music from the UK MoD video. But we're not watching for the music!



Jamie.

eMagin z800 Goggles on Sale!

For those of you who want to push the limits of virtual reality with a few toys, and with the cash spare, feel free to check out the emagin z800 goggles, similar to the ones used on the Loadmaster training system provided by BIA and LaserShot. VRealities.com has these on sale for $200 USD off the normal price, at $1299 USD. Check them out here.

The z800 goggles are probably the cheapest you can find on the market right now with built-in head tracking via gyroscope. You can get other goggles much cheaper than these, however they aren't head tracking capable, meaning a separate solution is needed, such as a 3DOF gyroscopic tracking sensor or Track IR, both available from VRealities.com. NB: This is not a paid advertisement, simply mentioning these goggles because they're awesome, if I had the cash spare, I would buy them myself, however I just spent around $2500 on a new PC.

New PC Spec:
1 Antec Three Hundred Case
1 Intel Core i7 920
1 Western Digital Green 1TB WD10EADS
1 ASUS P6T Motherboard
1 Corsair TX-850 850W Power Supply
1 OCZ Solid State Drive 3.5" Adaptor Bracket
1 Corsair HX3X12G1600C9 12GB (6x2GB) DDR3
1 EVGA GeForce GTX 285 2GB
1 G.Skill Falcon 64GB SSD

Feel the Power?

Jamie.

Modern Warfare 2 Promo

For the CoD4 players out there, there is a new video based on Modern Warfare 2 out, showing what's in the prestige pack. They make claims of real working NVGs and such, they do help you see in the dark but they're not operating on the same principle as what are seen in operation with militaries around the world. Video below:

For anyone who's interested, pause the video with the front end pointed at you, you'll see a series of bumps around the lense, these are IR LEDs, essentially the thing in the middle is a webcam with the IR filter removed, and on the user end are 2 low-res monochromatic displays.

Jamie.

Acceler8ion Bug

ALCON,

The Acceler8ion module has a bug with LBT export in 0.02. Please do NOT use this export function until the fix is released with 0.03.

The released of 0.03 to the test group is a little while off, and will be forwarded via the usual means. The Changelog is fairly ambitious.

Jamie.

Helicopter Cannon Stow

For interested military or similar parties conducting scenarios involving attack helicopters or the ARH, I have a new system in development to allow the gunners to stow their cannon at the press of a button. Currently it supports the Cobra and ARH, however I am expanding the system to allow the end-user to easily plug the functionality into any other vehicle in VBS2, with custom stow angles, additionally the plan is to allow configuration of the key settings during a scenario through the RTE/C2 menu, which is stored for the user profile.

All beta testers are set to receive the next iteration of this system for a closed beta test, guiding comments are welcome to shape the development of this addon. This system will not be available to the Serious Gamers group at this time, for testing or otherwise.

Jamie.

VBS2 Marksman Video

Still cruising YouTube, found this video of the VBS2 Marksman system all up and running, great concept. Just wish it was a little more like the WTSS where recoil is a little more evident, to me at this stage seems like an arcade shooter. This dome system is the same one employed in the Call For Fire System though and looks to provide a good 360 degree capable screen. Hopefully they'll release video of the call for fire system in full swing... HINT HINT!

Jamie.

Language Trainer Video

Thanks to Panthera (VBS2 Serious Gamer) for the heads up on this video, looks impressive!

Alelo is responsible for the integration of their language training solutions into the VBS2 engine, providing customers with virtual role players you can interact with in-game. For the military users, this is a lot like the tactical language series most of you will be familiar with. For the gamers, it's a lot like the A2 conversation system, with the exception of actually using your voice. From my limited experience in foreign languages I've found it's best to learn by actually using the skills and vocab as you learn and these products seem to be geared towards people like myself.

Jamie.

Final Warning

Oliver Christie (Also known as BlackKnight63),

Consider this your final warning, you contact me again, further action will be taken. You have been identified as a known security risk to VBS2 customers and I have subsequently been instructed not to contact you, since you've found my blog and decided to contact me here, this is where I will respond.

I have no power or authority over any element of BIA's forums so you wont find a way back through me. Additionally I can't do anything about your EULA breaching activities, I am not and have never been employed by BIA. Stop your attempts to contact me now, you have been warned.

Jamie.

AI Enhancement + Acceler8ion + Reminder

Just a quick update on the AI Enhancement, it is progressing quite well, I've got OPFOR aggressively suppressing BLUFOR even after they leave view, and they sometimes go nuts with the GP-25 grenades. I also have nearby groups getting into the fight, if they can see your last reported position they will fire on you to support their mates. I have found that surviving under such conditions can prove difficult at times. My next goals before I open it up to closed beta are to allow them to take better cover positions and sort of react as the real enemy does, also I'll be working on their flanking ability.

As for the terrain related module, Acceler8ion, work continues on 0.03 for the closed Beta. Please note that there is currently a deficiency in LBT export where it will flatten your buildings down to ground level, I'm working on a fix and this will be available in 0.03.

Also, for those of you who wonder why I take my current role and my hobby so seriously, it's for the blokes like the ones shown in the following video. I've been shot at and died a thousand deaths in simulation, but I've learned from every one of those encounters, these blokes don't have that luxury:

Jamie.

Files Feed Down

Please note, subscribers of my VBS2 files feed, filefront.com recently changed their site design and along with it they forgot about the RSS feed for files. I will leave the feed button up until I get confirmation on any new RSS location or if they're dropping the concept all together.

Jamie.