Test on the airfield.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu0YGRQ8OBY

some screens by crisB
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?150190-Stuttering-and-bad-performance-with-latest-Dev-Build-Editions-Testing-Thread&p=2340193&viewfull=1#post2340193

There is something wrong with this surface type. It may only be higher fps players that notice or have the issue. But its there and needs addressing.
From the screenshots leon86 put a link to clearly shows a dramatic frame rate drop. I don't get the stutter as bad as leon86 but there is a slow down in the game.

Got the same Issue with the DEV Build!

It has to do with the dev build, getting this rpt:

Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav
Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav'
Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_1.wav
Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_1.wav'
Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav
Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav'
Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_1.wav
Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_1.wav'
Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav
Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav'
Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_1.wav
Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_1.wav'
Error: Failed to open file a3\sounds_f\characters\footsteps\dirt_run_new_4.wav

and so on, and so on

Ah, so it's the missing sound that causes the stutter. good find.

chrisb, the massive near instant drop from 80 to 50 fps is very noticeable even though both are highly playable fps. it's the relative difference that causes it which is why i'm campaigning for an fps cap.

For me it makes the game unplayable; made a test with 2 groups against each other in an area with much of the grass-less surface. Normally I play with around 40 fps, it went down to 15-20 with massive stutter making it totally unplayable.

the stutter might be worse if you have 5.1 sound, dunno, for me its terrible.

I just rolled back to the orig build, no stutter and completely fluent gameplay. Noticed that there are certainly footstep sounds for the grass-less surface, so I'm convinced the rpt that zuff found is the cause of the problem.

Info updated. Setting this ticket to "approved", since it is well formatted and always reproducable.

Watching the error spam to the RPT file (using a "tail" utility) is frightening, btw.

Latest devbuild fixed it.

Arma 3 Build: 1.16.123.633

I have arma.rpt spam with the error:

Cannot load sound 'a3\sounds_f\characters\cutscenes\dirt_acts_treatingwounded_in.wss'

I think this is the reason why I see AI go into a perpetual healing loop because a sound file can't be loaded, it is associated with animations:

["acts_treatingwounded01","acts_treatingwounded02","acts_treatingwounded03","acts_treatingwounded04","acts_treatingwounded05","acts_treatingwounded_loop"]

I'm not entirely sure if all those animations are real; I just assumed the number counts on some because I kept getting 05/03/_loop

@Pancake do you have any repo steps for us?

It's fixed. Ticket can be closed.