Arma 3

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		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.
Steam		Apex Edition, Contact Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Developer website (unavailable)

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

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 you skip the launcher, workshop content won't update or download.

Game data

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

Display 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]

Anywhere inside the game, press LShift+Numpad Minus.
Type in FPS

Notes

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

Input

Mouse settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

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

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play
Asynchronous multiplayer

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

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

Instructions^{[citation needed]}
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open `Arma3.cfg`. Find `forcedAdapterId` and change the value to `0` for your primary monitor, `1` for secondary, etc.

Specific parameter for linux users only^{[citation needed]}
You can also use `--eon_force_display=x` command line argument on linux builds, where x is your monitor ID. Under Steam, set command line like this : `%command% --eon_force_display=0`

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.

In the launcher, select OPTIONS in the top-right corner
From the drop-down menu select Launcher Options
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	8/10
Processor (CPU)	AMD Dual-Core Athlon 2.5 GHz Intel Dual-Core 2.4 GHz	AMD FX 4300 or better Intel Core i5-4460 or better
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	45 GB	70 GB, SSD / Hybrid HDD / SSHD storage
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon HD 5670 Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB of VRAM DirectX 10 compatible	AMD Radeon HD 7800 Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Sierra 10.12.5
Processor (CPU)	Quad core processor Intel Core i5 4570S	Quad core processor 3.0GHz+ Intel Core i5 4670 or better
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	21 GB	26 GB
Video card (GPU)	Metal 2.0 compliant NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M or better 1 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M or better AMD Radeon HD 8970M 2 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 or better	Intel Core i7 3.4 GHz AMD FX-8350 4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	21 GB	26 GB
Video card (GPU)	OpenGL 4.1 compliant NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 AMD HD 7470 or better 1 GB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GT 660 AMD Radeon HD 7850 or better 2 GB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^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

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Experimental Ports | Arma 3
↑ Arma 3 Startup Parameters - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Crappy ARMA 3 steam launcher (solved) :: Arma 3 General Discussions - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Arma 3 Launcher - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023
↑ BattlEye service implementation - ARMA 3 - DEVELOPMENT BRANCH - Bohemia Interactive Forums - last accessed on May 2023
↑ ArmA: Cheats - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Arma 3 randomly freezing - last accessed on 2019-01-22
↑ Arma 3 Launcher - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023
↑ jaycee_1980 comments on ARMA 3 does not recognize Logitech Extreme 3D Pro correctly. - Reddit - last accessed on 9 June 2023
↑ BattlEye – The Anti-Cheat Gold Standard - last accessed on 9 June 2023

[Proton_path_note-6] 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.

[Experimental_Ports-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Experimental Ports | Arma 3

[2] Arma 3 Startup Parameters - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023

[3] Crappy ARMA 3 steam launcher (solved) :: Arma 3 General Discussions - last accessed on May 2023

[4] Arma 3 Launcher - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023

[5] BattlEye service implementation - ARMA 3 - DEVELOPMENT BRANCH - Bohemia Interactive Forums - last accessed on May 2023

[7] ArmA: Cheats - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023

[8] Arma 3 randomly freezing - last accessed on 2019-01-22

[9] Arma 3 Launcher - Bohemia Interactive Community - last accessed on May 2023

[10] ycee_1980 comments on ARMA 3 does not recognize Logitech Extreme 3D Pro correctly. - Reddit - last accessed on 9 June 2023

[11] BattlEye – The Anti-Cheat Gold Standard - last accessed on 9 June 2023

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[5]

[Note 1]

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[10]

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