I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Bohemia Interactive. Their games have always had a charming “designed by a software engineer” feel, which I appreciate.
Also, Operation Flashpoint was the reason I learnt to code and ended up having a career a software engineer, so I owe BI for that. My first real foray into programming was writing scripts, specifically to trigger unguided bomb releases from planes onto moving ground targets using some shoddy trigonometry as a 14 year old kid.
I have a lot of fond memories of that game. I still remember being awed by some of the mods created by this guy: https://kegetys.fi His name has lived rent free in my head for 2 decades now. Legend.
Same here; I remember playing ARMA 3 during the early-2013 public alpha, which was an eye-opening look at how the gaming sausage is made in real time (and before Early Access was as established a concept as it is now).
I was rather disappointed when I heard that they had been acquired by BAE Systems, but on further inspection it seems like that was only the BI Simulations arm (responsible for VBS), now rebranded as OneArc. My guess is that a release like this wouldn't have happened were they not still independent.
An Arma mod on my resume helped me eke out the interview for my first full time tech job. As janky as the engine was, I have a soft spot for it. It's a game/platform that _wants_ the user to customize it and have a stake in its technology.
I remember my first ever job application and interview being with a local flight sim mod company. I was knee deep in 3d modelling and texture art at the time, so I thought I had a great chance.
It turned out that they needed someone to paint light masks over towns and cities for their night shader. I was so hyped for it and it sounded like something I could almost do with my eyes closed.
I was rejected. Kinda thankfully, because a week later got a much higher paid job as a software developer and the rest is, as they say, his story.
Funny, I had a similar experience. I wrote a script that enabled players to "call in" mortar support, by looking at the target and selecting a distance. Also using shoddy trigonometry and also one of my earliest programming experiences. Very basic from today's perspective, but I was mighty proud back then and so hooked!
I was a member of the arma 3 on unix (mostly linux) community before Proton was released and somewhat usable. The BI community managers were very forthcoming when we had questions and they also enabled proton support for battleye as soon as it became feasable. Definitely not the worst game studio regarding linux support.
This is what stop killing games seek turned up to 11.
From Steam demo description:
> This release is free, and it is two things at once.
> A playable demo
> A self-contained slice of Cold War Assault you can download and play right now - the classic open-world sandbox, vehicles, AI and mission system that defined a genre, running on a clean, modern codebase.
> An official asset pack
> The demo doubles as a sanctioned asset pack for the Arma community. The bundled game data is provided as raw material you are free to study, modify and build new Arma content from. If you have ever wanted to learn how a Bohemia game is put together, or wanted clean reference assets to start a mod, this is for you.
This game was on my cousin's dad PC about 20 years ago. There were no name on the icon, it was just titled "war" (assumingly by cousin). Later I got Arma: Armed Assault on Steam, when all my friends played Arma 2/DayZ and I couldn't, because my PC was a potato. Spent hours on sandbox editor making big warfare.
I learned HTML thanks to Operation Flashpoint so that I could write mission briefings in the editor...one thing led to another, and I have a successful career as a software developer. Thanks, Bohemia Interactive.
I believe this game had some interesting anti cheat, it would still let you play if it knew it was cracked but would just make your aim worse and worse until you gave up.
Not being a big gamer, I can'comment with much authority. I've played a bunch of Modern Warfare(s) and Battlefields, and Squad. But they all feel pointless to me when ARMA 3 exists.
It's _so_ janky but in my mind way more immersive for reasons I just can't fully explain, though they are something to do with the fact that good comms is the key to fun and success. It's also got a pretty major learning curve...
I actually worked on the Poseidon engine back when I was at BISim for serious game Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2) which was the spin off built for military training.
The codebase here is so much cleaner and better organized than the version I remember wrestling with on a daily basis, and if you remember how buggy and unstable the DayZ launch was for users it can all be traced back to this since it was never envisioned to live as long and scale as far as it did. Fun fact Poseidon was the original internal game name they were building in 1999 before changing the game name and renaming the engine to Real Virtuality.
It's also easy to forget just how far ahead of its time this was since this shipped large open worlds with maps that were 12.5 km × 12.5 km and that was really easy to mod with a runtime scripting language SQF, not a separate mission editor. This was all in 2001, which is three years before Half-Life 2 would come out.
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[ 2783 ms ] story [ 1974 ms ] threadAlso, Operation Flashpoint was the reason I learnt to code and ended up having a career a software engineer, so I owe BI for that. My first real foray into programming was writing scripts, specifically to trigger unguided bomb releases from planes onto moving ground targets using some shoddy trigonometry as a 14 year old kid.
I have a lot of fond memories of that game. I still remember being awed by some of the mods created by this guy: https://kegetys.fi His name has lived rent free in my head for 2 decades now. Legend.
I was rather disappointed when I heard that they had been acquired by BAE Systems, but on further inspection it seems like that was only the BI Simulations arm (responsible for VBS), now rebranded as OneArc. My guess is that a release like this wouldn't have happened were they not still independent.
It turned out that they needed someone to paint light masks over towns and cities for their night shader. I was so hyped for it and it sounded like something I could almost do with my eyes closed.
I was rejected. Kinda thankfully, because a week later got a much higher paid job as a software developer and the rest is, as they say, his story.
I wish other game studios would release their software so many years after release.
From Steam demo description:
> This release is free, and it is two things at once.
> A playable demo
> A self-contained slice of Cold War Assault you can download and play right now - the classic open-world sandbox, vehicles, AI and mission system that defined a genre, running on a clean, modern codebase.
> An official asset pack
> The demo doubles as a sanctioned asset pack for the Arma community. The bundled game data is provided as raw material you are free to study, modify and build new Arma content from. If you have ever wanted to learn how a Bohemia game is put together, or wanted clean reference assets to start a mod, this is for you.
It was later turned into the Arma series and re-released with this name to fit the series branding.
I've played them all - this was the best of the lot IMHO.
It's _so_ janky but in my mind way more immersive for reasons I just can't fully explain, though they are something to do with the fact that good comms is the key to fun and success. It's also got a pretty major learning curve...
The codebase here is so much cleaner and better organized than the version I remember wrestling with on a daily basis, and if you remember how buggy and unstable the DayZ launch was for users it can all be traced back to this since it was never envisioned to live as long and scale as far as it did. Fun fact Poseidon was the original internal game name they were building in 1999 before changing the game name and renaming the engine to Real Virtuality.
It's also easy to forget just how far ahead of its time this was since this shipped large open worlds with maps that were 12.5 km × 12.5 km and that was really easy to mod with a runtime scripting language SQF, not a separate mission editor. This was all in 2001, which is three years before Half-Life 2 would come out.
Also anybody remember when this used to be called Operation Flashpoint ?
it had this weird paperish/dried out flat texture look that was quite characteristic and major appeal for me.
even now im amazed how much depth this game has , many many fun nights online