Arma 3: Launcher

1.24

The official Arma 3 Launcher was launched July 14, 2014 with the Bootcamp update 1.24. http://arma3.com/news/bohemia-interactive-deploys-arma-3-bootcamp-update#.VCsNUWddUug

It's main purpose is to enable easy management of local and Steam Workshop mods including their load order and custom presets, setting up game parameters and display Arma 3 developer news.

Branch and Version

• Ribbon: Colored ribbon in the top-right corner now identifies the currently used Steam branch.
  • Default (=Main branch): no ribbon
  • If the launcher is executed from an install from Game Updater, the displayed ribbon might be incorrect.
• Game version is displayed under Arma 3 logo.

News

Displays news from [1].

• Older items are being loaded as you scroll down
  • To load additional items, click Load more at the bottom

Parameters

Additional information can be found here: Arma 3 Startup Parameters

Basic

Allows setting up launch parameters. Pages are separated to Basic and Advanced.

Moreover, all Launcher resolves all parameters set in the Steam's set launch option dialog and displays them in the Basic/Command line parameters.

• Mods - Loads the specified sub-folders for different mods. Separated by semi-colons
  
• No Splash - Bypass the splash screens on startup of Arma3
  
• Skip Intro - Disables world intros in the main menu permanently
  
• Windowed - Displays Arma windowed instead of full screen
  
• Profiles - Profile name to load
  

Restore default setting: turns off all parameters.

Advanced

Advanced

• Par - Reads startup parameters from a file
  
• Check Signatures - Introduced to provide thorough test of all signatures of all loaded banks at the start game
  
• CPU Count - Define number of CPUs/cores available
  
• ExThreads - Option to define extra threads
  • File operations - use a dedicated thread for file operations (enabled when ExThreads is 1 or 3 or 5 or 7)
  • Texture loading - use a dedicated thread for loading textures (enabled when ExThreads is 2 or 3 or 6 or 7)
  • Geometry loading - use a dedicated thread for loading geometry data (enabled when ExThreads is greater than or equal to 4)
    
• Enable Hyper-Threading - Enables the use of hyper-threading CPU cores which might slightly improve performance in certain scenarios
  
• Malloc - Particular allocator to be used
  
• MaxMem - Memory allocation limit to number (in MegaBytes)
  
• MaxVRAM - Defines Video Memory allocation limit to number (in MegaBytes)
  
• Enable File Patching - Allow unpacked data to be loaded
  
• No Logs - Don't store the log
  
• World - Select a world loaded by default
  
• Profile Path - Location of user-profile folder
  

Client

• Server IP - Server IP to connect to
  
• Server Port - Server port to connect to
  
• Server Password - Server password to connect to
  
• Host Session - Start a non-dedicated multiplayer host
  

Host

• Server - Start as dedicated server
  
• Server Port - Port to have dedicated server listen on
  
• PID - File to write the server's PID (process ID) to
  
• Ranking File - Generates a ranking file
  
• NetLog - Enables multiplayer network traffic logging
  
• Cfg - Selects the Server Basic Config file
  
• Config - Selects the Server Config File
  
• BEpath - Defines the path to BattlEye
  
• Dedicated Server IP - Allows server process to use defined available IP address
  

Author

• Buldozer - Starts Buldozer mode
  
• Init Script - Runs scripting command once in the main menu
  
• Do Nothing - Engine closes immediately after detecting this option
  
• No Pause - Allow the game running even when its window does not have focus
  
• No Sound - Disables sound output
  
• No Land - Starts with no world loaded,
  
• Shows Script Errors - Introduced to show errors in scripts on-screen
  
• Autotest - Loads automatically a series of defined missions and on error writes to a log file
  
• Beta - Loads the specified beta sub-folders. Separated by semi-colons
  

Compatibility

• No Context Buffers - Turns off multicore use. It slows down rendering but may resolve visual glitches
  

Mods

Description of current Mod Handling in Development Branch: Arma 3 Launcher - Mod Handling

The Arma 3 Launcher Mods menu allows you to configure Steam Workshop mod content. From here you can see a list of all your subscribed content.
Workshop now supports uploading unlimited size items containing multiple files. Multiple-file mods follow the standard behavior of mods in Launcher with the following change. Because Steam Client handles such files differently, new functionality was introduced in Launcher to display the status of the item.

⚠

All downloads are now handled by the Steam Client instead of the Launcher. When downloading updates for multiple-files mods, Steam Client will not provide the update when any Arma 3 related application (Arma 3, Launcher, Publisher) is running. Please, exit all the applications to allow updates to be pushed from the temporary download folder to a proper folder. Updates while those applications running will be enabled once Valve delivers this feature.

• : Allows you toggle the orientation of the mod list to ascending or descending simply by clicking on it. This list indicates the order that they are loaded into Arma 3. Load order is vital for some mods based on their dependencies as they may cause undesired behavior if not set correctly.
  
• ?: Checkbox to load or unload mods. Checked state means the mod will be loaded into the game when clicking Play button.
• Name: Name of the mod
• Preset: Here you can save, load and name various presets of addons. This makes switching mod sets much faster rather than ticking boxes each time. The current unsaved preset is preserved when the launcher quits
  
• Mods List: Complete list of mods. To view various mods options and information, click on a list item. You can drag and drop an item between other loaded items to load it and change it's load order at the same time.
  
• Status: Signifies the status of the mod

Icon	State	Status in Mod Info	Description
	Not Ready	Not Ready Verifing... Checking..	Item is being initialized.
	Busy	Downloading... Synchronizing... Removing... Working...	Item is currently being processed. It cannot be loaded into the game.
	Corrupted	Corrupted	Item is installed and corrupted and cannot be loaded into the game. Causes: mod target path is not set mod target path doesn't exist mod target path doesn't contain Addons directory mod target path / Addons doesn't contain an *.pbo or *.ebo file
	Update Queued	Ready, update queued (on Steam)	Item is installed and is queued for update. Update will not be processed when the Launcher, Publisher or game are running. This will be marked in the Progress bar.
	OK	Ready	Item is installed and ready to be used.
	Listed	Not Installed	Item is not installed, waiting for download by the Steam Client.
	Installation Queued	Not installed, download queued	Item is waiting to be installed by the Steam Client.

• • • Updated

Mods in the state of " Update queued" will be updated by the Steam Client once all the applications (Launcher, Publisher, game) are not running. When the Launcher starts, such mods are labeled as updated. The label serves only as a notification and can be removed by clicking the mod to open Mod info. The label will also disappear on the Launcher's next start on on the game start.

• • • Auto-included

Mods auto-included by scanning folders specified in Options are marked with an auto-included label. The label serves only as a notification and will be removed on the Launcher's next start.

• • Mod info: Click on an item to open extended mod info. Here you can see additional information like image, size and last update time. Buttons enable you to open the mod page in Steam, open the mod installation folder, and unsubscribe and delete the mod
    
    • Image: click opens item's Steam Workshop page
    • Source: the source of mod is indicated by a watermark icon
      • Steam: for mods subscribed from Workshop. Also marked by a Steam watermark icon
      • Local: for mods included from disk. Also marked by a folder watermark icon.
    • Mulitplayer: mods with multiplayer signatures are marked by a green sign icon in Mod info and on the collapsed item. Mods partially signed (not all PBOs have a matching signature) are marked in Mod info.

• + Steam: Opens Steam Workshop home page with mod tag pre-selected to allow easier mod subscribing
  
• + Local folder: Opens browse folder dialog. User is able to include his local (non-Workshop) mods into Launcher to manage them from one place
• mods can be also drag'n'dropped into the Launcher window

BattlEye

• Enable BattlEye anti-cheat software - when enabled (default), it will launch BattlEye anti-cheat service before launching Arma 3
• BattlEye Log - displays the BattlEye messages and status updates. Messages can be coppied to a clipboard.
  • BattlEye initialization progress is also presented on the progress bar

NOTE: BattlEye EULA needs to be accepted. If not, the service is not launched.

Options

Open Launcher Options by clicking on the cog icon in the top right corner (1st icon from the left). Options allow you to set up application wide settings for Launcher.

• Language: switch Launcher to a Language of your choice. Default: English. Additional: Czech, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and Russian. Depending on a region, Japanese and Korean language pack might be also available.
  
• Disable Launcher's UI hardware acceleration: Checkbox disables hardware acceleration for WPF rendering for Launcher. This is Launcher only, does not affect the game in any way. Default state: HW acceleration enabled.
  
• Minimize Launcher to tray: When minimized, the launcher will appear in the notification zone instead of the task-bar.
• Mod Management: Allows you to define folders to continuously scan and auto-include any local mods found into Launcher Mods tab. Use Add and Remove buttons to include to delete your folders.
• Action after game start:
  • Do nothing
  • Minimize Launcher - minimizes Launcher after game starts
  • Close Launcher - exits Launcher after game starts
  • Close Launcher after game ends - exits Launcher after game ends

Application Menu

Application menu contains links for most relevant project and company pages. Use it to quickly navigate to: Feedback Tracker, Bohemia Interactive support page, Arma 3 Steam Workshop home, Community Wiki, Bohemia Interactive website, Arma 3 Website.

• Export Launcher logs: collects Launcher logs and configs and packs them to a zip archive in user's Desktop folder. This action is here to make launcher feedback and improvements go smoother. When reporting a Launcher issue on Feedback tracker, please, include this archive.
• Game version: displays the game (.exe) version
• Branch current Steam branch is displayed
• Version: the menu also includes Launcher's version. Click to copy the version number into clipboard.

Play and status bar

• Play: Start the game with a current Launcher setup of mods and parameters. Mods tab will get locked when the game is running.
  
  • Play now allows quick selection of mod presets including unmodded game.
• Status bar: displays the workshop mod download progress and notifies the user when the steam is offline (making the workshop unreachable).
  • Progress bar will now display notification when the mod updates handled by Steam Client are waiting for user to quit applications.
    • Progress bar will now display the state of BattlEye service initialization when launching the game. BattlEye has to be enabled in options.
    • Use arrows to switch between Mod downloads and Service progress bar.
    • When the service is initialized, the status switched automatically back to the Mods downloads.

Logs

Find Launcher logs in Users\yourUserName\AppData\Local\Arma 3 Launcher\Logs
When something goes wrong (in several attempts, because Steam can have a bad moment sometimes :) ), please, create an issue on http://feedback.arma3.com (launcher category) and include these logs.

Troubleshooting and the safe mode

Check the troubleshooting webpage to learn about required redistributables and known issues.

Note: Missing redistributables should be automatically installed by Steam on Launcher's first start.

Find more information about the Unusual process exit error here.

Command line parameters

Launcher recognize following parameters (parameters are not case sensitive):

• -safeMode: the Launcher will start in the safe-mode;
• -noHwa: the Launcher will start with graphic hardware acceleration disabled (only the Launcher, this switch has no meaning for the game itself);
• -noLauncher: skips the Launcher and starts Arma 3 directly;
• -useBE: used together with -noLauncher it also starts the BattlEye Anti-cheat Software before starting the game;
• any other parameters are considered to be parameters of Arma 3 and are passed to the game as they are.

See Also: Arma 3 Startup Parameters