The Real Virtuality Engine Evolution

So recently I have been playing the ArmA (Armed Assault) Series which got my attention due to the popular zombie survival modification “DayZ” for ArmA 2. For those of you who do not know, or have never heard of ArmA – it is a military combat simulator. The ArmA games are developed by a Czech independent company called Bohemia Interactive Studios. The studio is also known for developing the VBS series (Virtual Battlespace Systems), those are military simulators which rely heavily on modern game engines, and therefore are used by many armies across the globe.

Back to the topic. The ArmA Series are based on the Real Virtuality game engine, an engine which has been in constant development for over 10 years, and which is also developed by Bohemia Interactive. Since the moment I started playing ArmA 2, I started following the development of the next ArmA title – ArmA 3. This year, ArmA 3 was finally released (release date September 12th, 2013), and because it is using a new generation of the Real Virtuality engine, I decided to do a little comparison between them.

To begin with, the very first game that was published by Bohemia Interactive was Operation Flashpoint (released in June, 2001). It is another military simulator very similar to ArmA, which was based on the Real Virtuality 1 engine.Nowadays, ArmA 3 uses the Real Virtuality 4.

The pictures below are a visual comparison between the Real Virtuality 1, 2, and 3 engines (top to bottom in each picture):

Click to zoom.

Real Virtuality 1

• DirectX 7 (Fixed Function)
• Large exterior world with highly detailed simulation
• Real-time shadows and lightning
• High resolution photo realistic textures
• Dynamic daytime and weather effects
• Dynamic audio simulation (including speed of sound)
• Semi autonomous AI
• Built-in scripting language with ~350 commands

Real Virtuality 2. Key Improvements:

• DirectX 9 (Shader Model 2)
• High Dynamic Range rendering
• Real time data streaming
• Satellite texture support
• 400 new scripting commands

Real Virtuality 3. Key Improvements:

• Multicore support
• DirectX 9 (Shader Model 3)
• Parallax texture mapping
• Hemispherical lighting
• Micro AI (gestures, suppressive fire, centimeter precision)
• Built-in dynamic conversation system

And now for some key differences in between the Real Virtuality 3 and the newest Real Virtuality 4 engines (left to right characters – Operation Flashpoint, ArmA, ArmA 2, ArmA 3):

Real Virtuality 4. Key Improvements:

• DirextX 11
• Volumetric Cloud Systems
• Underwater bullet physics
• Ragdoll animations for characters
• Vehicle suspension physics
• New lighting

And as a final bonus for those of you who are really interested, a video which shows almost all of the visual key features in ArmA 3 vs. ArmA 2 engine: