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Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

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Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#41

Post by dijksterhuis »

jefc1111 wrote: post #16

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...

playing on a certain private server using sog:pf cdlc + the alive mod with a group of people who knew our shit was genuinely some of the most intense and immersive gaming experiences i have ever had.

you're pinned down as a 10 person group in a jungle clearing, everyone hunkering down behind some fallen down trees cos that's your only cover ... you're surrounded by enemy in all directions, the whole team is running low on ammo, tracer rounds flying over everyone's heads, your medic is wounded and trying to patch himself up ... you're trying to call in air support using only grids and compass bearing desperately hoping that you've got the grids right and the human pilots don't fuck it up and wipe out the whole team ... you've gotta try to organize some sort of extract helo in all of this mess, but chances are they'll get shot down if they try to extract you here ... suddenly mortar rounds start going off all around you because the ai have communicated your location back to the mortar installation you were trying to recon ...

as team lead, what do you do? what's your decision? how are we getting out of this mess? you don't get to think, there's no time to think, thinking is death. what do you do?

so fucking cool.

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#42

Post by giancarlostoro »

murdockq wrote: post #40
giancarlostoro wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, did you work in the Orlando office? ;) I worked with a guy at the Research Park in Central Florida who used to work for Bohemia Interactive (I forget on what). That's kind of funny, I remember him noting that it was a PITA to work with the Arma codebase.

Yes, that was the the place, I was one of the first engineers in that office but we got up to about 50 full-time devs at the peak before they started getting moved over to Europe for lower cost labor. It was a total PITA to work with but not due to the engine itself but some choices that were made over time to use IN CODE FEATURE SWITCHES since it was before git and branches. There were thousands of features added an…

Hehe, yeah I'm not sure when John Stewart would have worked there or what the pain points were for him, but he worked there for a bit. I met him when we both worked for KeyW (which got bought out by Jacobs) back in 2017. I think Bohemia is still in Orlando, I met someone in 2021 ish that was trying to get me to apply to work there, but I had just become the tech lead for the eCommerce Platform at Red Lobster at the time so I passed on that suggestion, plus I was fully remote.

That does sound like a nightmare to work with, especially since there's a lot of context switching going on too. Too much mental overhead.

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#44

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

dfox wrote: post #25
tombot wrote: post #14

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.

It had, another thing is that it used somewhat questionable system for CD key validation, which is stubbed out in this release ( https://github.com/BohemiaInteractive/CWR/blob/main/engine/P... ). One thing is 120bit RSA (readily broken with a graphing calculator at the time of release), another thing is the provenance of the RSA implementation code in the original binary.

what is provenance?

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#45

Post by busterarm »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #42
murdockq wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that was the the place, I was one of the first engineers in that office but we got up to about 50 full-time devs at the peak before they started getting moved over to Europe for lower cost labor. It was a total PITA to work with but not due to the engine itself but some choices that were made over time to use IN CODE FEATURE SWITCHES since it was before git and branches. There were thousands of features added an…

Hehe, yeah I'm not sure when John Stewart would have worked there or what the pain points were for him, but he worked there for a bit. I met him when we both worked for KeyW (which got bought out by Jacobs) back in 2017. I think Bohemia is still in Orlando, I met someone in 2021 ish that was trying to get me to apply to work there, but I had just become the tech lead for the eCommerce Platform at Red Lobster at the t…

The team is still there. BISim was sold to BAE Systems now and they go by OneArc (onearc.com).

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#46

Post by busterarm »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #41
jefc1111 wrote: post #16

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...

playing on a certain private server using sog:pf cdlc + the alive mod with a group of people who knew our shit was genuinely some of the most intense and immersive gaming experiences i have ever had. you're pinned down as a 10 person group in a jungle clearing, everyone hunkering down behind some fallen down trees cos that's your only cover ... you're surrounded by enemy in all directions, the whole team is running l…

Did ShackTac for a while. I agree but also in so many ways it's not immersive at all.

Like all the years the physics were just busted and tanks would flip over and explode because the engine couldn't handle the terrain geometry. Really sucks the fun out of your all-night commitment when that ends your mission for the night "because realism".

Getting a vehicle squad assigment was pretty much an 80% chance this was going to happen to you at some point.

Very eye opening experience though. It's disturbingly easy to mess up your navigation and radio comms and start having friendly squads shooting each other when obscured by trees... The wrong squad leader (and/or inattentive teammates) will get you killed as fast as anything.

If you want to learn rigid comms discipline, that is the right place to learn it.

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#47

Post by jaxefayo »

tombot wrote: post #14

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.

It was copyright protection, not anti cheat, and I thought it was fun/interesting as well!

It was called FADE https://kotaku.com/now-this-is-how-copy-protection-should-be...>

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#48

Post by jaxefayo »

dvratil wrote: post #13

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.

Same trajectory here! Started wanting to make missions in jr high. The community was great about having tutorials for the scripting engine and mission editor. Learned all sorts of programming concepts from doing that, then learned HTML from making pretty-looking briefings for the missions. By the time I started taking some programming classes in HS, I had some decent foundations.

It’s also great that they’ve been consistent about keeping their scripting commands wiki up to date with each new engine update.

The one thing holding Reforger back IMO and why I always go back to Arma 3 is the lack of mission editor/Eden that made it so easy to just try out some mission idea in the OFP/Arma/RV engine.

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#49

Post by dijksterhuis »

busterarm wrote: post #46
dijksterhuis wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

playing on a certain private server using sog:pf cdlc + the alive mod with a group of people who knew our shit was genuinely some of the most intense and immersive gaming experiences i have ever had. you're pinned down as a 10 person group in a jungle clearing, everyone hunkering down behind some fallen down trees cos that's your only cover ... you're surrounded by enemy in all directions, the whole team is running l…

Did ShackTac for a while. I agree but also in so many ways it's not immersive at all. Like all the years the physics were just busted and tanks would flip over and explode because the engine couldn't handle the terrain geometry. Really sucks the fun out of your all-night commitment when that ends your mission for the night "because realism". Getting a vehicle squad assigment was pretty much an 80% chance this was goi…

yeah vehicles can be fucked even today. we avoided vehicles for the most part unless it was extracts/air support, cos we were doing vietnam sog recon team stuff.

> If you want to learn rigid comms discipline, that is the right place to learn it.

military style comms are so damn efficient compared to normal workplace business speak it's unreal. i have tried to bring some of the stuff i learned from arma runs into work with mixed success.

Re: Bohemia Interactive: Cold War Assault Remastered Source Code on GitHub

#50

Post by beaker52 »

throw2ih020 wrote: post #22
beaker52 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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.

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