If you’ve played ArmA 2, then you’ll know how painfully realistic the engine that Bohemia built can be, if you haven’t then you probably should, even if just for the incredible DayZ mod so many are making a fuss about right now.
Real Virtuality, Bohemia’s game engine, has been created specifically for war simulation, be it for fun or training. It’s been in development for more than 10 years now, and it by George does it show.
Previous incarnations of Real Virtuality have been used across the ArmA titles, Operation Flashpoint games and the VBS products used by the United States Army amongst others. It means serious business.
ArmA 3 is the first product to use the still in development Real Virtuality 4, and if you hadn’t guessed, is a title based on war combat. What makes it so unusual though, asides from the realism, is the sandbox nature and reliance on unscripted events.
Below we feature several new videos from Bohemia showcasing the RV4. The first focuses on vehicle simulation, and while it’s probably not the most action-packed video you’ll see all day, there’s a bit where a goat nearly cops it.
Note the typically British countryside and equally typical overcast weather accompanying it; having spent a lot of time in England I can assure you there’s some unparalleled realism right there (the dynamic weather is genuinely impressive).
ArmA 3 also features diving, but not just any old computer game diving; it’s realistic diving full of war and death! The man in scuba we see in the demo uses a rifle made for underwater killing, had you any idea such a thing existed?
The featured video also shows an SDV (that’s a SEAL Delivery Vehicle/Swimmer Delivery Vehicle for the non-soldier readers). The underwater vehicle has a periscope with which players, as suggested, could mark targets to assist troops or airstrikes.
It’s worth pointing out has fantastic the sound is; the underwater experience is massively enhanced by the dampened (!) samples.
The third video we’ve embedded, entitled “Night Ops”, shows off the realistic night-time lighting, with campfire glow, muzzle flashes, moonlight and night vision all shown off.
Also shown, albeit quite dimly, is the gear system and some of the results and possibilities of kit customization.
More videos are expected to arrive in the near future, they’re cryptically titled Helicopter, Support and Infantry, let me know if you figure out what might be in them.
