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Arma 3

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Arma 3
Arma 3 cover
Developers
Bohemia Interactive
macOS (OS X) Virtual Programming[1]
Linux Virtual Programming[1]
Publishers
Bohemia Interactive
Retail (Europe) Peter Games
Retail (Russia) Buka Entertainment
Engines
Real Virtuality 4
Release dates
Windows September 12, 2013
macOS (OS X) Early access[1]
Linux Early access[1]
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC, Expansion pack
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person
Controls Direct control
Genres FPS, Tactical shooter
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary
Series Arma
Arma 3 on HowLongToBeat
Arma 3 on MobyGames
Arma 3 on Wikipedia
Arma
Arma: Cold War Assault 2001
Arma: Armed Assault 2006
Arma 2 2009
Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead 2010
Arma Tactics 2013
Arma 3 2013
Arma Reforger 2022

Arma 3 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person FPS and tactical shooter game in the Arma series.

General information

Port Report: Arma 3 Alpha
Bohemia Interactive Forums
Feedback Tracker
Steam Community Discussions
Performance Guide

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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Europe only. 2 DVDs for Czech copies and 1 DVD for the rest of Europe. Available for purchase on the developer's website. Deluxe Edition also available here.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Apex Edition, Contact Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Developer website (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Steam DRM.

Version Differences

The Apex Edition includes the Apex Expansion, as well as the Karts, Helicopters and Marksmen DLC.
The Contact Edition includes the base game and Contact DLC.
The Ultimate Edition includes all officially developed DLC for the game.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Apex
Windows
Art of War Charity Pack Intallty paid with all developer's proceeds being donated to charity, and later available free to all game owners.
Windows
Contact
Windows
CSLA Iron Curtain Creator DLC
Windows
Global Mobilization: Cold War Germany Creator DLC
Windows
Western Sahara Creator DLC
Windows
Helicopters
Windows
Jets
Windows
Karts
Windows
Laws of War
Windows
Malden
Windows
Marksmen
Windows
Tac-ops Mission Pack
Windows
Tanks
Windows
Zeus Free to all game owners
Windows

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Use the -skipIntro -noSplash command line arguments[2]

Skip launcher

Use the -noLauncher -useBE command line arguments[3][4][5]

Notes

If the launcher is skipped, Steam Workshop content will not update or download.

Game data

Game options
Game options

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3\
macOS (OS X) $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.vpltd.Arma3/GameDocuments/Arma 3/
Linux $HOME/.local/share/bohemiainteractive/arma3/GameDocuments/Arma 3/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/107410/pfx/[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3\*.Arma3Profile
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3\Saved\
macOS (OS X) $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.vpltd.Arma3/GameDocuments/Arma 3/Saved/
Linux $HOME/.local/share/bohemiainteractive/arma3/GameDocuments/Arma 3/Saved/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/107410/pfx/[Note 1]
Steam Workshop mission files are also stored in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Arma 3 - Other Profiles\<user-id>\Saved\steam.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Has option available but does not store any game data.[citation needed]

Video

General video settings
General video settings
Display settings
Display settings
Antialising and Postprocesses settings
Antialising and Postprocesses settings

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Use ArmA FOV Changer
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
SMAA (Standard to Ultra), FXAA (Standard to Ultra), CMAA, FSAA (2x, 4x and 8x) and SSAA/downscaling via Sampling Quality
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate or refresh rate cap, see Frame rate limit to set a cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.
Range finding by using certain scopes like the PSO scope might not be accurate anymore when playing on a non-default FOV.

Frame rate limit

Instructions[6]
  1. Anywhere inside the game, press LShift+Numpad Minus.
  2. Type in FPS.

Notes

It toggles around the following values: 60, 40, 20 and unlocked

Input

Mouse settings
Mouse settings

Audio

Audio settings
Audio settings

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Effects, Music, Radio communications, VoIP
Surround sound
7.1 or use X3DAudio HRTF.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

Network

Multiplayer types

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP 2302-2303
This game supports Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) for automatic port configuration.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
See Helix Mod: Arma 3.
vorpX
G3D, DirectVR
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.
Devices
Tobii Eye Tracking
Use Tobii Game Hub. Supports head tracking.
TrackIR

Issues fixed

Forcing correct monitor

Edit configuration file[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open Arma3.cfg with a text edtior.
  3. Find forcedAdapterId and change the value to 0 for your primary monitor, 1 for secondary, etc.
(Linux only) Run the game with the --eon_force_display=x command line argument, where x is the monitor ID starting from 0.[citation needed]

Fix intermittent screen freezing

Disable analytics[7]
A bug in the analytics code causes all the game threads to block during HTTPS initialization, which can cause 10-30 second freezes (the time it takes for the failed SSL connection to drop). This issue can be fixed by opting out from analytics.
  1. In the launcher, select Options in the top-right corner.
  2. From the drop-down menu, select Launcher Options.
  3. Deselect Enable analytics.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 10, 11
OpenGL 4.1 Linux only
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
64-bit can be forced with the -win64 command line argument[8]
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Input DirectInput, SDL SDL limited to Windows's XInput mappings[9]
Anti-cheat BattlEye [10]

Command line arguments

See list of available command line entries for Arma 3

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) AMD dual-core Athlon 2.5 GHz
Intel dual-core 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 45 GB
Video card (GPU) AMD Radeon HD 5670
Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT
Intel HD Graphics 4000
512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 10 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Sierra 10.12.5
Processor (CPU) quad-core
Intel Core i5-4570S
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 21 GB
Video card (GPU) Metal 2.0 compliant
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M or better
1 GB of VRAM
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 16.04, SteamOS 2.87, Mint 18, Fedora 25 or LTS versions
Processor (CPU) Quad core
Intel Core i5 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 21 GB
Video card (GPU) OpenGL 4.1 compliant
NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
AMD HD 7470
1 GB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/107410/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (107410) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References