arma3_model

[storm wave]

You get the p3d

[stuck oyster]

But they can't be edited

You can use them on terrain sure

But you can't edit them

If you want new models, you got to make new ones from 0

[storm wave]

Ah

And how do i do thet

[stuck oyster]

You learn how to model.

Expected time needed 6 months at least

[storm wave]

Is it more deficult them terrain bulding

[stuck oyster]

Yes

[storm wave]

Why

[stuck oyster]

Lot more to learn

Lot more ways to do things

[storm wave]

What if i only want to place a box in the game

[stuck oyster]

Still same

[storm wave]

Well you have any advise where to start from

[stuck oyster]

Look up blender tutorials on youtube

Watch and start practicing

And repeat a lot

[storm wave]

I mean more of making the object into arma 3

Cfgs rvmats and like thet

[stuck oyster]

You have to know basics of everything modeling related first

You can't skip basics

[storm wave]

I know in sketchup

[stuck oyster]

Obsolete knowledge

[storm wave]

And how to convert it to blander

[pastel heath]

I would also advise to learn how to import a simple box in arma get all the stuff you need.
From Lods. UV. texturing. Geometry. Other maps like Normal map. Specular map, Ambient oclusion map.
Then configureing in object builder and in config.
When you learn how to do that with a simple box then you can move to more complex objects.

[stuck oyster]

Sketch up does not make good models

[storm wave]

Yeah thet the thing i wanna learn thet before i learn how ti build a full house in blander

[stuck oyster]

No

[storm wave]

But 😦

[stuck oyster]

You are again trying to jump to the end

[storm wave]

Why would i start model before i know how to make it into the game

Learn how to model its alot to learn

[stuck oyster]

Because then you know If you will ever make the model

[storm wave]

Making it into arma 3 is the basic

[stuck oyster]

It is not

Arma specific requirements need you to know basics of modeling so you know what any more advanced tutorial or guide talk about

[storm wave]

Ok 😃

Where are the guides

[stuck oyster]

You have already got bored with terrain making so guiding you with this without you doing basics feels little bit pointless

[storm wave]

Im not

Im making it olmost every day

[stuck oyster]

Then why do you try to take on yet another massive thing to learn?

There is less specific guides for model making for arma than there is for making terrains. So there is even more you need to figure out on your own.

[storm wave]

Cus its fun and i wanna add thing to may terraines

And make gear 2

I dont think im smart enough to figure thet out

[white oak]

jfc

[storm wave]

?

[marsh canyon]

Had to say, we're believing you are not good enough not to ask Alpha to Omega

[storm wave]

?

[marsh canyon]

One extra not so I corrected but yeah

[storm wave]

?

[inner venture]

What is best to use to texture buildings?

[fluid copper]

I would suggest using trim sheets

[stuck oyster]

I prefer blender because I have made a node material that represents the multimaterial Arma uses and I can paint the texture mask directly on the model in it.

I have posted example of that not long ago if you search the chat history

[stuck oyster]

Trim sheets can work nicely in multimaterial. But also sometimes one might want use super shader type material for say metallic parts like doorknobs and such

[lone robin]

Learn how to make your blender donut first

[meager bronze]

Most of the studf modeled, a few items are done by a friend or just commissioned

[prime needle]

Hey guys, first time doing arma 3 modding for anything more than balancing changes or music. Is someone able to help me out and break down the process in full from when you have a 3D model that is textured and riggedt to actually getting it in game?

[prime needle]

Tried looking online but unfortunately there's no up to date tutorials

[neat iris]

depends obviously on what kind of model, so can point to the right direction

[prime needle]

I'm looking at how to make armour (vests), uniforms, helmets, backpacks and weapons

@neat iris

Do I need to use a certain arma 3 rig for gear?

[neat iris]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxGIgurkzW4
is a good-ish guide to basic to basic porting, the blender interface is old, but i understood with it as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqU3K9m2kMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaA7uaNZKV8

these will help with rigging

main hurdle for me was the interface being old blender, but if you know blender basics youll get through it

[prime needle]

Ah okay, I will watch it now

[carmine gull]

Make sure to watch the second part as well... you may not use Blender, but unless someone releases an equivalent to Alwarren's Arma Toolbox for other 3D modeling suites it feels like the most supported of 'em

[civic edge]

Does anyone know the steps to connect a large structure model ffrom blender to arma 3? Far as I know engine is limited to 50 x 50 meters, but like with large ships in arma I did hear there is a way to make a connection. Anyone know how?

[grizzled halo]

scripted, you make the parts and do scripting magic to make them fit. Usually the creator of the structure pairs up with coder(s) or code it itself

[civic edge]

Thank you for the reply, quite mew to this so figuring some things out

[neat iris]

is there any other "as easy" way to close non-closed like in object builder?
object builer doesnt seem to like bigger poly models and freezes during the close progress

[stuck oyster]

For shadow lod?

Blender for example has similar "close hole" tool. But if you have that much hole to close, the design is all wrong to begin with

[neat iris]

blender does? havent atleast found from my googling a tool as easy

[stuck oyster]

the one in OB makes mistakes too

it does sound easy sure but like you can have "holes" in mesh that should be fixed by fixing the mesh instead of using automation like that

like unwelded seam of 3 points is open mesh

is a hole

but it should not be closed with a face

but by merging the points

[neat iris]

ah! okay that maks sense i guess

[pallid island]

i suppose Blender's Select > All by trait > Non-manifold (in Edge/vertex edit mode) should have similar enough criteria to the shadow LOD's "must be closed"

[grizzled halo]

I was wondering, when creating a cfgWeapons class, there is no way to change handAnim on the fly right?
Would it be possible to simulate it through a gesture or something similar?

[sour bough]

You can make two CfgWeapons entries and script the swap

[bright echo]

this is the best way if you want it to be 'simple' and stay that way

but yes you can use a gesture - spearhead has deployed animations for MGs and the like that do it, think RHS has it too

[grizzled halo]

Yeah, I get that but simple sometimes is not best way imo.
Having 7/8 variants per classname just to add different deployment poses or any other variant of grip doesnt sound that effcient.

Is there any document in how gestures actually work or how are they used?

[stuck oyster]

there is a thing called too much variants

e

[grizzled halo]

yeah, imagine having for example the amount of classnames cups has for the m4s and then atop of that having 5/6 variants for each to have nice grips/thumbstops,etc xD sounds nigthmarish tbh

[rapid tree]

i seperate the model in smaller parts and close them, its time consuming but works well

[past mesa]

whats the correct way to name points in my path lod?

is there a specific naming convention ?

[last spindle]

The names for entry and exit points need to follow convert ntion I believe, others just need too be connected. The samples have paths in the house, check it out

[past mesa]

k

thanks

[alpine matrix]

Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

https://medal.tv/games/arma-3/clips/ibDtLng7dSkSVJQ5a/d1337s7r9ODZ?invite=cr-MSx4UG0sMjQzNTY5OTQzLA

Barrel is properly marked in memory lod, and it only varies per scope

[last spindle]

Also https://resources.bisimulations.com/wiki/ModelsPaths

[white oak]

Thanks for the toolbox @shrewd jay

[shrewd jay]

OMG 🤣

[stuck oyster]

maybe scope points are not aligned right or scope is not straight

or the barrel points are not straight and scoping just multiplies the effect

[alpine matrix]

Hm, should I just verify my memory points then?

I’ve already checked them several times

And it appears fine

[stuck oyster]

do you visually check them or snap/scale them to same side and top plane?

is the scope proxy straight?

[alpine matrix]

Visually

Should I snap/scale them?

It’s only one point in my lod for the barrel

[stuck oyster]

barrel should have 2

[alpine matrix]

I believe I’ve got just usti hlavne(muzzle of barrel)

[stuck oyster]

that is probably why there is problem

refer to sample gun

[alpine matrix]

Gotcha

[rapid tree]

does someone know what needs to be done to have the mounted machineguns of vehicles have reload animations ? i animated them like feedtray cover, bolt movement, trigger, referenced them correctly in the config but they dont animate in game

[polar fiber]

Are they modelled in the vehicle itself or proxied in?

If they're proxies, they wont animate

[rapid tree]

they are modelled in

[stuck oyster]

do the animations work in buldozer?

[rapid tree]

yes

[stuck oyster]

then probably wrong source

so they dont connect with the weapon/turret

[rapid tree]

source is "reload" and reloadmagazine

[stuck oyster]

have you defined them in the animationSources?

[rapid tree]

yes

[stuck oyster]

with weapon = "weapon used in the turret" parameter?

[rapid tree]

its really weird because i made one heli where the anims work and this it dont

[stuck oyster]

is that the actual weapons class name?

[rapid tree]

yes

[charred bolt]

Described with example here: #arma3_animation message

[rapid tree]

it is like you described

[stuck oyster]

something of it its not right then if it does not work 😅

because thats all there is to it

[rapid tree]

okay so the bolt does move but the feedtray dont open, is this because i didnt inherited the reload_anim1 for the reloadmagazine_1 ?

[stuck oyster]

no

maybe wrong timings in the model.cfg class

[rapid tree]

cant be because its from my model where it works

[stuck oyster]

is it all set up to work inbetween 0 and 1

[rapid tree]

you mean minphase and maxphase ?

[rapid tree]

i think i found the issue

nevermind, i thought its because animationSourceBody isnt there but still dont works

[summer geyser]

can someone help me with converting .obj files to p3d? I’m completely new to working with models

[marsh canyon]

Use Blender, ArmaToolBox. No point to convert from OBJ

[stuck oyster]

I guess you are using model from interwebs. Can't skip learning the basics of modeling with such things.

[reef gate]

I’m trying to mod eagle 1 from helldivers 2 into ARMA 3

Is it against TOS for me to make my own model that’s very similar to the one from helldivers 2

By that I mean basically blocking the 3d model to make my own version

[ionic brook]

I'm terrible at descibing things so please bear with me:

Has arma got the ability to create custom rope objects which when dropped leave an object in its place on the floor? Imagine a ship dropping its full anchor chain, or a wich completely unrolling and the rope dropping out?

[reef gate]

I mean ACE does it with the fuel hose

And towing

Also whenever you sling load

[ionic brook]

So when they detach they fall to the floor and stay there?

[reef gate]

You might have to attach it to an invisible object but yeah

[ionic brook]

Ok, I'll look into the ace code. cheers.

[stuck oyster]

If you have permission to use the IP and likeness then doing your own model would be fine.
The permission to use the IP should come first though.
You can of course make something new and unique that is similar but not same

[reef gate]

Do I need to ask the helldivers 2 devs lmao

How are there so many Star Wars/ HALO mods?

[stuck oyster]

yes

[stuck oyster]

star wars mods are not allowed, none of them have permission to make them

Halo IP enjoyes quite special permissivive fan fiction rules

and we respect each makers/IP owners wishes

[reef gate]

As far the the tier list of getting lawsuited goes

I’m guessing straight ripping assets is a no go

[stuck oyster]

definitely

[reef gate]

If I make my own eagle 1 loosely based off it is that cool

I just wanna be able to fly eagle 1 lmao

[stuck oyster]

if its loose enough and you dont call it the same should be alright

[reef gate]

Peagle 1 it is

[analog garden]

the 3 trillion Star Wars mods on the workshop

it’s all such a silly thing lmao

[stuck oyster]

In a way yeah. I enjoeyd the old Star Wars much more than what it is now. but this isnt the place for such discussion

[analog garden]

truthful statement

[rapid tree]

Why does people dont make something original, similiar thing to star wars and make their own ip ?

[analog garden]

because then it gets hit with the “oh that’s just Star Wars” and still ppl get mad

[stuck oyster]

There is already one such mod for reforger.

[rapid tree]

Tbh you might know i was a ripper when i started modding but i tell you when i created my own stuff, get models made for me and do inspired Factions of one of my favourite Games its so much fun.

Actually putting the Kit together, make new textures is way more fun then taking a model and port it.

I got bit off topic here but what i wanted to say is that a Star Wars like mod can be more fun than the original

[analog garden]

It could be
Will anyone do it?
Probably not to the extent of content 3AS and JLTS has

plus webknights stuff for droids and all that

[stuck oyster]

There are few original scifi mods that are cool

[rapid tree]

those 3 should just be one team

[grizzled halo]

there is only jolly cooperation if the teams are willing to do so. It's basically fantasy as different people have different workflows and opinions/standards.

[analog garden]

loud incorrect buzzer

they all do stuff differently

same with all the halo mods

[grizzled halo]

dont ask about thomas

jk

[analog garden]

💀

don’t mention that name

[rapid tree]

who is thomas

[analog garden]

he doesn’t know

former optre dev

known for a lot of stuff

[stuck oyster]

Best to not dig up any past issues

lets focus on making stuff

[analog garden]

true so who wants to help me add some furry models

need some tactical furry content fr

[alpine matrix]

any chance anyone could give me some guidance on this issue? Im currently making an MRAP and when i tried adding different camo variations for the Appearance editor the camos dont work and my antennas show(antennas are typically hidden on spawn and have an option to hide in appearance editor). i've removed the stuff i added involving the Camo options and my antennas are still unfunctional.

Already checked model config and model itself, i still have the proper selections.

also good to note that my base MRAP works fine, no issues. Only my Armed one.

[short marsh]

Need some help with muzzleflashes, the left minigun won't show the muzzleflash, while the right one does. I looked at the Sample and it didn't do much, but keep it in one spot. What do I add in the model.cfg the appropriate entry so the game puts a muizzleflash on it? I have one entry for the new Samples one, but do I need to modify and add that to the .cfg so the muzzleflash shows? And yes, I have the proxies in the right spot

[rapid tree]

hit me up i can help you

[rapid tree]

Are you using your own weapon config or vanilla ?

[short marsh]

My own config

[rapid tree]

Okay do you have defined the muzzleflashes in the section part of the model.cfg ?

[short marsh]

So far one, the right minigun works fine, but the left one is the issue. They all have proxies too

[rapid tree]

Do you have the muzzleFlashes defined in the model.cfg ?

[short marsh]

So far one. I tried to add a MuzzleflashROT_1 but it didn't do anything

Okay I'll give it a shot

[rapid tree]

Do you have the correct SelectionFireAnim in your turrets ?

[short marsh]

I think I do, and noted there wasn't a "zasleh" in the area you specified. I'm packing it now to see if that was the issue

[rapid tree]

Is your Muzzleflash called zasleh ?

[short marsh]

Yeah they're both listed "zasleh" and "zasleh_1" in the properties of the model. I think that it wasn't llisted in that area you specified it wasn't showing

Still borked, didn't work on this test. I'll have to mess with it tomorrow though.

[stuck oyster]

each muzzleflash selection that is used in turrets need to be defined as sections in the model.cfg sections list

and match in model and in the above mentioned selectionFireAnim parameter

thats about it

[rapid tree]

What Text programm do you use ? Those colors look nice and useful

[stuck oyster]

notepad++

custom coloring

because I like green

[rapid tree]

Nice looks easier to read

[stuck oyster]

default c++ syntax highlight

[rapid tree]

I use sublimetext3, it does highlight stuff for me to but only if converted to .cpp my model.cfg is always white

[fluid copper]

You might have to set it to use c++ highlighting. Sometimes notepad++ doesnt default correctly either

[stuck oyster]

Notepad++ allows setting of custom file extensions for any language highlight

[grizzled halo]

custom muzzle flashes are plane proxies that display an image right?

[stuck oyster]

Typically yes. But shape can be anything

[short marsh]

Okay thanks

[rapid tree]

@stuck oyster could it be possible that my Reloadanim for the mounted lmg dont work because it has no reloadmagazine time like it instantly reloads

[marsh canyon]

Vehicle weapon doesn't consider RTM animations

[rapid tree]

no i mean feedtray cover up, hide magazine etc

[marsh canyon]

It is a part of CfgWeapons or CfgMagazines entry. The reload time to re-set magazine is defined somewhere around there

[rapid tree]

i know but could this be the issue that it dont show the animation when it instantly reloads ?

[marsh canyon]

If it instant, anim is also

[rapid tree]

kinda makes sense

[rapid tree]

Thank you so much it works!

[short marsh]

Do I have to name the proxies different too? I added what you said, but still no worky with the left minigun muzzleflash. I do have two of the same muzzleflashes and that could be the problem?

[stuck oyster]

should not

each proxy is independent thing

[short marsh]

Okay

[stuck oyster]

only thing I can think of is typo somewhere

[short marsh]

Anyway I tried it and didn't work. I'm thinking that somehow "zasleh" is bugged

Maybe

But I'll go over it and see

[stuck oyster]

try some other name

[short marsh]

Okay

[stuck oyster]

myMgFlash1 and 2

[short marsh]

Okay

[stuck oyster]

in config/turrets, model.cfg/sections, p3d

[short marsh]

Right

[short marsh]

Thanks HorribleGoat, it did the trick, renaming the muzzle flashes.

[stuck oyster]

👍 maybe there was some weird typo that was not visible 😅

or some inheritance that did not work right

[short marsh]

Maybe or something, whatever it worked and that's good 🙂

[inner venture]

I learnt through this one, was hard cus couldn´t see shit with 720p

[neat iris]

use the 1080p quality

[cursive sleet]

On weapon models for like F18 and drop a cruise missile, is it possible to run animations in that?

[inner venture]

that one max has 720

[neat iris]

the video you quoted has 1080p

[inner venture]

huh then I got confused, I remember a video by a guy with strong german accent working with similar like-trenches and importing into arma

[hexed fulcrum]

Hello there, I'm trying to create a mod, right now I'm working on the character, I managed to import the skeleton for the body and work on it but I can't find a usable one for the face and expressions, when I try to export it from the samples (bust.p3d) I find all the bones collapsed on the pivot, does anyone have a complete skeleton with facial bones for 3ds max/fbx or can you tell me how to import them without errors thanks :)

[inner venture]

Guys quick shading question: Why it goes banding like that? It is somehow related to shadow but I´m not entirely sure how it is supposed to work. Thanks in advance

also there are bands on the floor as well

Ok guys it´s the texture normals, if you rotate the texture layer together with normals it does this weird thing

[stuck oyster]

Why would you rotate it?

[finite stump]

Whats your mesh look like?

And do you have a shadow LOD?

[grizzled halo]

is there any info on wiki in how decals should be used?
I want to add "tactical stickers" to camos

[marsh canyon]

So similar to insignia?

Also which kind of asset?

[grizzled halo]

are they limited to which kind of asset could they be applied or is it something that can be usable everywhere?

[marsh canyon]

Uniform and backpack are the only dynamically setObjectTexture able

[grizzled halo]

ah, so decals are more in line with something that is dynamically changed then?
Perhaps im thinking of the wrong terminology then

[marsh canyon]

Still, what exactly is your goal?

[grizzled halo]

if the term to be used is not decal, I would say basically make a stamp to be applied in textures

but that more in line to actually texturing whatever with the stamp in

right?

[marsh canyon]

Nothing is different than insignia or any other sections

[grizzled halo]

I see, then its not something you could change rapidly without modifying the texture of the objects themselves

alrigth, thanks!

[stuck oyster]

Yeah A3 does not have that kind of decal on texture projection.

Some things can be done via second uvset and different rvmat stages but that's not dynamic either so probably not what you are looking for

[restive pond]

i cannot have import any of the p3ds from the samples. it only shows the res LOD

it seems i get the same error as if theyre binarized??

[marsh canyon]

1. Blender? Which Blender ver?
2. Which ToolBox version?
3. You sure it has more LODs?

[restive pond]

v4.0 blender, with 4.0.0 toolbox and im checking the plane and car p3d

they should have more LODs because i have imported them before

[marsh canyon]

You sure that P3D is openable in OB? You sure you didn't overwrite it accidentally?

[restive pond]

ok they areopenable in OB, so i didnt rewrite any of them

but how can i put that into blender

this is the error message

[marsh canyon]

Maybe update Toolbox, check pinned

[restive pond]

that worked, thanks alot

[woeful viper]

@last spindle "There is currently no text in this page."

i dont understand the question Jonas... can you rephrase it?

do you mean you want to animate the missile model?

[cursive sleet]

Yea

animate it

[hexed fulcrum]

it seems that my message has been ignored so I'm writing again, I need the complete skeleton with all the proxies and facial bones to import it into 3ds max because the one available in the samples is not complete and I can't import the rest correctly, someone would be so kind to provide me with one in a compatible format such as fbx or 3ds? Thank you

[cursive sleet]

it will be launched from airplane

[inner venture]

I´m not sure about shadow LOD, I tried making them using simple polygons but they would cast weird shadows or cast none at all so I usually would just leave it without shadowLOD. I tried reading the wiki for shadow LOD requirements but didnt understand a thing. If you could explain what shadow LOD has to have, that would be perfect. This is the LOD 0.000. Then the Geometry. And then FireGeometry.

[marsh canyon]

What exactly it does mean by not complete and can't import the rest?

[hexed fulcrum]

Hi, the example file in the sample does not have head bones, I'm referring to the one in .fbx and .max format, the p3d ones are complete but i cant manage to import them correctly

[marsh canyon]

Still not sure correctly means here

What exactly is your goal, also?

[woeful viper]

you can animate with a constant time base animation, e.g. rotation. i remember someone making a throwable spinning "razorblade" disk in Arma 2)

[hexed fulcrum]

I just need the complete arma man skeleton with body and facial bones to create a character (the body and the face) i managed to create the body but i cant import the bones for facial expression (when im tryng to import from p3d the bones are all dummys collapsed in to the pivot so i cant figure out animations on the face)

[woeful viper]

idk if other animation controllers work

[marsh canyon]

Body and face uses different RTM, different P3D, if that is the question

[hexed fulcrum]

yes i just need the skeleton for the face

[marsh canyon]

bust.p3d have the bone

[hexed fulcrum]

as i said i cant manage to import from p3d correctly

[marsh canyon]

What it does mean by correctly again?

You can't import bust.p3d?

[hexed fulcrum]

if i try to import the .p3d directly in to max the file is not recognized, if i try to export a compatibile format form oxygen such as fbx the skeleton is missing or not in the right position for the facial expressions... there is a standar procedure for importing p3d?

[marsh canyon]

Screenshot? I don't think I am following this at all

[hexed fulcrum]

lets say i have to create a new head/face for arma... firs you create the head mesh (done) then you have to rig the mesh face in to the bones for making the expression animation working... so you need a skeleton for the face and you can start making the skin weights to it... i just need a working head skeleton for max , i dont know what screenschot do you need

[marsh canyon]

How it is not aligned

[hexed fulcrum]

all the bones are in the same spot x 0 ,y 0, z 0 so if you rotate the jaw bone for example the jaw will drop on the floor xD

i dont know why but i cant drop images here

[stuck oyster]

Maybe you import it at wrong scale?

What sample do you try to import?

[hexed fulcrum]

bust.p3d since i need the facial bones

i cant post the screenshot

[stuck oyster]

That would be the one yes. Though it probably does not contain skeleton info at all so that's why you get fake bones at 000

[stuck oyster]

You need to complete verification at #✔role-selection

You don't need the skeleton to be in right shape to export weighting

But it is of course helpful to test it in source instead of iterating through game

[hexed fulcrum]

exactly so where i can find these bones?

[stuck oyster]

You can't.

Though there may be community made head skeletons somewhere around

You can still export it and put it in game

P3d does not contain the skeletal information

[hexed fulcrum]

yes but without knowing the original position of the bones i cant manage to do correct weighting and making facial expression... meaby just the eyes and neck

btw thank you for the help ... at least i know what the problem is now

@inner venture https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/LOD

for your model just copy the geometry and made it a little smaller

also make sure is triangulated and closed

[inner venture]

it should fit inside the visible geometry?

[hexed fulcrum]

form the wiki " Shadow LOD must be slightly shrinked compared to resolution LOD otherwise the Model may look partly or completely shaded in the game. ", just make a bit smaller so the shadow not collide wit the main lod

[inner venture]

I hope reforger does not do this weird stuff

[marsh canyon]

This does mean your Shadow LOD does not meet the proper condition

[hexed fulcrum]

I think you just use the main lod resolution as shadow, you can notice the knob part for example is emitting his own shadow trace, instead you should use a simple shape like you did for the geometry collision and fire geometry... just a bit smaller.. in your case is just a box but make sure faces are traingulated [/]

[inner venture]

Gonna try shrink it more

Ok I shrunk it 0.99mm and enclosed all smaller items. But why it now has this dark gradient on the lower side and a hole in the upper side¿

[hexed fulcrum]

what shape are you using for the shadow? as i said your shadow is detailed you should NOT use the main lod resolution for the shadow

[stuck oyster]

Smooth shading edge on the model

Or artifact baked in Normalmap

[inner venture]

Ok i just decided to ignore for now the gradient, why it does something like that on the top of the object? How can I make all normals on the upper side point in same direction in Object Builder?

Ok for anyone who finds same thing, select the flat object with weird shading, and selecting Sharp Edge and Recalculate Normals both at the lod 0.000 and ShadowVolume solved it for me. I didnt do it for the rounded stuff

[short marsh]

You gotta make something simple, like a rectangle to represent the shadow of the box. It needs to also be triangulated. For something as simple as that box, you can just use a rectangle and be done with it. It only gets interesting when you have to do something like a vehicle and such. But remember basic shapes for the Shadow LOD

[stable marsh]

How should I approach this kind of retopo? http://snag.gy/ee3mQ.jpg Should I just do one single mesh or seperate the buckle from whole mesh and do the retopo of it seperately?

[analog garden]

ok gang
it's time to cry

im learning how to do pip

going to turn this entire black screen in front of me into a view of the camera

[fluid copper]

I imagine pip is actually pretty simple, you set up the origin of the view with the direction, make sure they move with your camera, and then assign the face of the screen to be where the pip is displayed. I've done it with car mirrors before and its pretty easy

[analog garden]

saying it is one thing

doing it is another

added render targets

set the material

added a new vertex selection

added the pointpos and dir

does nothing 💀

[marsh canyon]

Check Video Settings then

[analog garden]

max

that's all i need right?

[inner venture]

How can I find and delete this rogue texture user?

[analog garden]

im guessing it's a p3d triggering that right

[inner venture]

Yeah

Its clearly somewhere in p3d

[analog garden]

and do u know what p3d is being placed when you get that

[inner venture]

yes

I need to find what uses that texture in p3d

[analog garden]

open the p3d
select all
ctrl e to open material menu
find that texture
replace it

[inner venture]

yeah I dont think it has any users, maybe a rogue material left when importing an .fbx?

[analog garden]

it's a png not a paa?

[inner venture]

Yep its a png

it is in the textures for this model, is there a way just to delete it?

Its some rogue mention stuck somewhere

[stuck oyster]

You can select mesh for it

Deleting it would leave the mesh with no texture

[stuck oyster]

Png and tga extensions in p3d paths is fine. It gets transformed into paa when P3d is binarized

Using tga enables texture to show also in the OB viewports

Png might load in too

[inner venture]

how?

[stuck oyster]

Right click the texture entry in the list

Should pop up menu thta has stuff you can do with it

[inner venture]

This is what happens if I right click it, all options are pretty much greyed out

[stuck oyster]

Look at current lod list instead and change lods to ones that actually have the texture

Now you are looking at whole model list but the texture is in another lod

[inner venture]

Got it brother, it was in the RoadWay LOD

[stuck oyster]

👍

[stuck oyster]

You do want correct surface paa set on there for audio

[inner venture]

what would be the generic wood .paa?

[stuck oyster]

From a3\data_f\surfaces

Don't remember them by heart sorry 🤣

[inner venture]

okay no problem

[stuck oyster]

But their names say what they are

Some are also for either interior or exterior surface

So that walking and shooting can sound different outside and inside for exampme

[charred bolt]

pointPosition and pointDirection are memory points.
You set the texture of the face(s) to contain the PiP to #(argb,512,512,1)r2t(rendertarget0,1.0) and make sure it's not included in any section[] selections, such as camo or zbytek.
You also need to UV map those faces, typically across a whole UV island.
bboxes[] = can be used to improve performance, but only on static PiP; when the memory points are animated, bboxes breaks the auto-update of the image.

[analog garden]

yeah so i got all of those 💀
copied the faces from the optre pelican by opening the p3d
so it should work

[inner venture]

Why it goes like this?

[hexed fulcrum]

• Make sure steam is open and your P: drive active.
• Check that the arma3.exe is not running as administrator
• Try to select again the path to the arma3.exe , you can also try the arma3_x64.exe (works for me)
• This is the command line: -buldozer -name=Buldozer -window -noLand -exThreads=0 -noLogs -noAsserts -cfg=buldozer.cfg
• Other info: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Buldozer_Manual

[last spindle]

Some animations controllers work, time does not.....clockSecond / Minute / Hour do work

For the missile anims talked about above

https://youtu.be/mt8S0DfS4ZI this uses clockMinute for the fins

[analog garden]

section counts

if you have stuff on the viewpilot like pip

will it have as big as an impact on everyones performance

because it's not like the pip is rendering on anyone else, just the pilot

[charred bolt]

PiP is generally hard on performance for whoever can see it, although improved in an update with the introduction of bboxes[], but you have to set them up.

[analog garden]

i thought you couldnt set them up on vehicles

[charred bolt]

bboxes are fine unless the memory points are animated - so for viewports, mirrors etc, no problem. For a targetting pod with moveable optics, can be an issue.

[analog garden]

what would the best way to set up bboxes for this? i havent done it

3 draw calls, the two side reflectors come from the same camera

[charred bolt]

Some info here
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Cars_Config_Guidelines

[spare ermine]

Is there any video tutorial on adding body armor to the game, I couldn't find it myself

standard lessons from arma are not productive

[grizzled halo]

the one from sokolonko for uniforms is pretty much it.

Vest are weighted in the same manner as a uniform to chest selections. Damage is pretty much calculated with your geometry and the config values which are in themselves really self-explanatory

[pallid island]

self-explanatory

[grizzled halo]

well, having a config entry called hitXXXX in samples might point you somewhere

[astral bramble]

Anyone know how to fix this on my vest? it also shows in-game.

[analog garden]

best solution for getting pip accurate to outside colors? it feels very washed out or too dark randomly

is it related to

renderQuality = 0;
renderVisionMode = 0;

bc i see there's a HDR option for vision mode

and idk what quality even does, explanation aint too clear

[mossy mulch]

pip just does that most of the time

[analog garden]

ugh

i wish it was good

[fluid copper]

That looks like a lod definition, you likely don't have the lod defined correctly. If you dont want it in general then you can just delete that part of the mesh

[stuck oyster]

Well why did you make such triangle?

Such things don't appear from nowhere you know😅

[pallid island]

inb4 it's a misfigured pistol proxy for the holster or something

[astral bramble]

It’s the pistol holstered proxy

[stuck oyster]

Don't apply exported Arma material to it

[grizzled halo]

By any chance, was the problem some mods had with PIP scope scenes in the past (the one when the character leaned the scene skewed on the pip window) due to how the memory points were being placed or that was due to an entirely different situation?

[rapid latch]

Hello. How make bike?

[rapid latch]

Are there any differences from a regular car?

[stuck oyster]

Basically it is same

Just different shape

[molten pecan]

Hello, I'm wondering how I can delve into this world of vehicle modding.

Wanting to work on a project of transporting an IP into Arma 3 and I will need to make some vehicles to do so.

WIP tank turret.

I have ABSOLUTELY no scripting experience but I have around almost two years of modeling experience.

But I believe that there are some pre-existing vehicle templates for the scripting portion, but it doesn't explain the modeling workflow, animating, etc.

[analog garden]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-thousand-yard-stare-thousand-yard-stare-cat-ptsd-cat-soldier-cat-war-gif-9110270742088459827

what IP

[molten pecan]

Classified for now, for reasons.

But uh how do I get started?

[hexed fulcrum]

First of all, setup your arma3 development environment, this includes installing arma3 tools, arma3 samples and possibly the arma3 development branch, all this from steam, then proceed with installing the P drive, a virtual folder where you can find all the necessary extracted files of the game and used as workplace for your mods. Once you have all this ready and running you need to learn how arma3 manages game files and the correct way to create them, in your case for the development of 3d models/vehicles you need to learn the various geometries/lod, collision, shadow and so on ... when all your assets are ready you have to export and import them into object builder, assign the various parts of the model to names and selections that the game recognizes for ingame logic, export the obj as .p3d, create a model.cfg which contains other information about the model, and finally configure your addon via the config .cfg and then package everything with a tool to create the addon file (.pbo) such as addonbuilder or pboproject from mikero tools. This is obviously in broad terms so you will have to delve deeper into each step.

[molten pecan]

Alright, bit by bit that is approachable.

However, I am curious will I need to know the scripting engine to make vehicles or are there templates out there for certain vehicle types?

[hexed fulcrum]

You can find some examples in the arma3 samples folder

open them and see how they are made

[molten pecan]

Alright, what about animation? Don't want the tank just hovering.

You want it to look and act like a tank.

[molten pecan]

Already have Arma 3 Tools installed.

I can get the samples from steam?

[marsh canyon]

Arma 3 Samples is also a part of Steam

[molten pecan]

Now what are the rules about n-gons, tris, and quads?

[marsh canyon]

n-gons = a face with more than 4 verticies. Which is always invalid for various game engine due to it is mathematically complicated to calculate

[molten pecan]

So stick to tris.

[marsh canyon]

Technically you can use quads. But yes, if you better always stick to tris

[molten pecan]

Works for me, quad topology makes me suicidal. Anyway, alright I'll try to digest all this and see what I can get done tonight.

The part that scares me the most is the scripting portion.

[hexed fulcrum]

For animations i think the vehicle use selection of a specific part like the wheel and the movement is done by config that tell the game to rotate that mesh but I'm not an expert in this

[molten pecan]

So it's best to keep things like the tracks, wheels, chassis, and turret their own separate models?

But have them share a texture map.

[hexed fulcrum]

you can setup the texture maps as you want but adopt general guidelines for games like not 100 maps for one model xD

[molten pecan]

Yeah that's what I saw from poking around some vehicle texture maps from some mods because I was able to successfully retexture something last night.

Alright what is the rough ballpart for polygon count? What is too high?

[marsh canyon]

If you use Diag exe and diag_drawMode "Wire"you can compare easily

[molten pecan]

Shouldn't be that bad.

The IP I'm implementing is from a form of media that isn't known for high poly models per se.

Of course I take liberties so.

[molten pecan]

Ah, yeah I'm gucci.

[woeful viper]

I think there might be some missunderstanding there, as a general concept. It doesn't matter with what face type you model anything in your 3D Tool of choice. In a game ( in any game), it has to be triangles, because thats how GPU's render it. But exporters will do that for you anyway. Only point is that they might do it differently than you expect, so you might as well triangulate before export yourself.
Having quads or ngons in your tool doesn't matter. And you are not forced to stick with "just one type" in your tool either.

the only thing where quad-only matters is for subdivision workflows, but that is generally not done in games, because it is so expensive (in terms of calculation) to do, and is used only for high-detail modelling, for the purpose of creating nicer textures.

[analog garden]

Can’t you import quads to p3d?

I’ve seen someone do it

[woeful viper]

you can. But when you binarize it will get turned to triangles anyhow... and it might choose a different triangle orientation than your normal map was created for... which makes it look all wrong

[analog garden]

ohhh

ok

[analog garden]

RVMat is applied when you open the object in bulldozer through object builder, but when you look at in game they seemingly disappear

any ideas on what it could be?

[hexed fulcrum]

Check the path to files in the config also the addon folder/structure can be wrong

[stuck oyster]

how do you pack the pbo?

[analog garden]

Addon builder

(Not my choice)

[stuck oyster]

that lets you pack faulty paths so most likely the paths dont correspond to the folder structure that gets packed into the pbo

[analog garden]

ugh

I hate addon builder why did ppl have to decide to use it

try packing with mikeros

spits out 3 gajillion errors

[south badge]

Arma itself is full of errors, so it just makes sense that the modding tool creates mods with errors as well

[cursive sleet]

Okay thanks :)

is it in a proxy?

[mossy mulch]

use hemtt 🫡

[tropic geyser]

Hi All, is anyone making a bedford or an old Unimog i can use for the Tonali Defence Forces for CUP?

[rapid tree]

You can but not via blender

[rapid tree]

That never happened to me once, idk why people are saying AddonBuilder is bad or the A3 tools, i literally never had problems like faulty paths etc

[analog garden]

Yeah the issue is it doesn’t tell you anything

Addon builder itself works as intended

[rapid tree]

What should it tell me ?

If the config has errors it tells me

[stuck oyster]

it has nearly no debug info on mistakes you might make. but if you got no problems with it good for you

[stuck oyster]

also Blender does export quads, but there is not reason to do so

[rapid tree]

Yes but not with the Arma Toolbox i think

[stuck oyster]

it does export quads.

but not ngons that have more than 4 points

but like it has been discussed, quads are not really good for export.

model should be triangulated before uvmapping to make sure the triangulation does not mess up UV when its done

[rapid tree]

yes agreed, also i heard that arma triangulates quads in game is that true ?

[stuck oyster]

Pretty much all games do.

[rapid tree]

i see nice to know

[marsh canyon]

(Sidenote: because math can't solve how the face should shape if is not tri or maybe quad)

[hexed kestrel]

The CLV mod has an old unimog

[last spindle]

No, it is not a proxy, proxy objects cannot be animated.....not sure how missiles on planes work, I would think you could get animations too work during flight.

[analog garden]

this yeah

when I’m working at 3 am and path something wrong

I want to know

instead of just seeing failures

[lone robin]

So after I’ve got a few buildings in game all of a sudden I can walk through some of the doors on a couple buildings and this was not an issue before when testing each individually. Could this be a naming conflict?

[marsh canyon]

What exactly you're doing? What you work on? What building has issue?

[stuck oyster]

how big buildings are they?

walking through typically means geometry is not valid or does not exist

[lone robin]

I have 3 buildings, the first one is fine. The second houses doors were fine until I added the third building. Now I can walk through the second and third buildings doors but all other geometry related functions work for both. Testing them as their own individual mod the doors worked fine but packing them into a single addon seemed to have done something

[marsh canyon]

How do you pack the PBO?

[lone robin]

I use mikeros, I pack each building as their own pbo

[marsh canyon]

I'd ask this to make it sure too

[lone robin]

One of the houses is 20m long, like I said the doors for that one were working correctly. And the other, most recent addition, is 12m long

[marsh canyon]

Hm then size is not the conceen

How is the folder/file structure

[stuck oyster]

when you say can walk through doors, do you mean when they are closed or open?

classes dont affect geometry

unless something gets hidden

[lone robin]

When they are closed. I’m an idiot, sorry to bother the group. I believe I’ve found the issue. The doors are properly named in the geometry lod but they ie “Door_x” but don’t have aren’t assigned a “Component_x” like the building that is working correctly does.

[ocean mantle]

what does it mean?

I have modding many models before, encountered it first time

[stuck oyster]

something wrong with that model somehow

it does not say what exactly

[ocean mantle]

okey, i figure it out

i have just forgotten to change the model path in config

the game cant find the p3d file

[stuck oyster]

odd that it doesnt just say cant find the file but throws that kind of error

[grizzled halo]

is there a way to update uv coordinates in a p3d model/selection without having to re-export from the toolbox or any other file compatible format?

[marsh canyon]

No

[grizzled halo]

ty

[muted tapir]

it is possible to animate uvs via config

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_UVAnimations

[grizzled halo]

not what im looking for but thanks.

[gritty iron]

Hi, first-time on this channel, please be kind. I'm looking to dip my toe into making models. I'd like to start with a simple panel - literally a cuboid. Is there a guide or video to this simple task somewhere?

[stuck oyster]

for making models you need to get familiar with your choice of modeling program first

like Blender

there are lot of tutorials that go through basics of modeling, UV mapping, texturing and anything else modeling related

once you understand your tools, you can start looking into the Arma requirement part

(for Arma stuff there are very very little in way of specific tutorials, so you need to have good grasp of the modeling basics to get forward)

[gritty iron]

thanks
let's take it i'm able to make my cuboid in blender
is there a guide on specifying that it's made of wood, for material visuals and bullet penetration purposes?

[stuck oyster]

no

😅

not specifically at least

[charred bolt]

Next step is to download and install the Arma toolbox for blender to allow you to export to p3d format

[stuck oyster]

there are some Blender to Arma tutorials, you can look up ElTyranos, Sokolonko and Battlestad for starters

I think there was some newer ones too but cant remember the name

[charred bolt]

Then setup Arma dev environment with p drive and tools, such as mikeros pboProject

[stuck oyster]

they go over various topics so you will need to mix match information

[charred bolt]

I need to make a tutorial, the number of times we go over this for new comers

[stuck oyster]

😄

we can get Lou to put it up on the Wiki

[charred bolt]

Poke me with a stick until it's done

[gritty iron]

i have object builder, buldozer, mikeros working

[stuck oyster]

also might add, in case you have models from somewhere on the interwebs. using models from other games is stricktly forbidden

[charred bolt]

Excellent. Export your cube to p3d.
Generally create a config.cpp text file and also possibly a model.cfg file for animations.

[gritty iron]

ok i will look into arma toolbox for blender and those blender to arma tutorials

[charred bolt]

Textures are 2^n x 2^n in size. Use tga, which will get converted to .paa

Materials are defined inside rvmat text files which are applied to faces in blender or in Object builder

[gritty iron]

ah so that's done still in blender

[charred bolt]

For common super shader, the material file links the normal (nohq), specular (smdi) and ambient occlusion (ao) along with other parameters to each face/uv

[stuck oyster]

nearly everything can be set up in blender model wise

[pallid island]

inb4 firegeo rvmats, proxies and model.cfg animations kick in

[grizzled halo]

simple and "intuitive" imr

[hard oasis]

i have a vehicle 3D that doesn't have hit-points on it's turret, to add hitpoints to it, is as simple as creating "memory points" and assigning them all to a selection? (i know there's the fire geometry after that)

[stuck oyster]

yes it is same as adding hitpoints to any part of the vehicle

[hard oasis]

the thing is, i never made new hitpoints, i was given the model to tweak damage issues and i noticed the turret doesn't have a hitpoint, are they just a bunch of empty points that works through tying them to a ~~hidden ~~Selection and then calling them in the code or do i need to do something else?

still a newbie in modding vehicles

[stuck oyster]

hitpoints have no connection with hiddenselections

but they do need named selection to connect with config yes

[hard oasis]

ok ty

[hard oasis]

How does LOD calculates the distance it will change? is it based on amounts of polygons Res 0 and Res 1++ have or is it something else?

i'm asking this because a mod i'm a fan of has a problem with all LOD's appearing in sequence in a very small distance between each other

[charred bolt]

The game changes LOD's automatically based on a number of factors relating to your PC's ability to display the scene. You shouldn't consider trying to control it, but instead only use modded assets that are well made - poor ones have either no additional resolution LOD's or don't follow the 'rules';
When making an asset, start by making sure its LOD 0 triangle count is within the "typical" range for that type of asset, and minimise "section" count (draw calls).
Create each subsequent resolution LOD with half the number of triangles. ie. LOD 0 was 32000, make LOD 1 at 16000.
Keep making res LOD's until you've reached somewhere in the region of 500 tri's to 2000 tri's (asset dependant). This will typically require up to 7 res LOD's.
eg: 64k, 32k, 16k, 8k, 4k, 2k, 1k

If you've got an asset which perhaps has far too high a poly count, or has poor LOD creation, consider junking it.
With good assets, you should barely see any visual change as you move away from it.

[hard oasis]

ty

[south badge]

Actually, what is more resource heavy?

One texture set (section) at 4k resolution, or two texture sets (sections) at 2k resolution?

[bold flare]

one 4k uses more memory.
2x2k uses more cpu for passing the textures around

Tradeoff. Usually you have lots of memory but are cpu limited, in A3 atleast

[south badge]

so I can pick my poison, nice

[bold flare]

But also, the 4k texture is more likely to be down-scaled and only load the 2k mip. So you'll have lower quality

[south badge]

Yeah I gravitate towards 2k more

[white oak]

afaik below extreme settings arma instantly downscales any 4k to 2k

Also if you're using substance adobe needs a you to have a 40k$ computer for 4k textures

[south badge]

Bit of a pain for bigger pieces that require more sets, but it is what it is

[white oak]

multi-mat is your friend with bigger objects
ie for static planes I made for the map I'm working on uses multi for the fuselage and on places where I need fine detail (ie. warning stickers) I overlay another face with an alpha texture

[alpine matrix]

i have all eye points marked in memory lod and i have a View pilot but my eye position goes in my rear sight post, any ideas?

[blissful spire]

howdy folks, having some issues with my propellers for my amphib APC. I have it floating and everything works etc etc, but when its floating on the water, i cant actually move/turn the vehicle any. I have the engineeffectl and engineeffectr mem points in the memory lod, with the memoryPointsLeftEngineEffect and memoryPointsRightEngineEffect entries in the config set to the mem points. Im using the marshall IVF (APC_Wheeled_01) config as a reference guide, and I'm at a loss as to why its not working as intended.

[charred bolt]

Those memory points are not doing what you think.
Try playing around with the config parameter:
engineShiftY = 1;
use positive and negative values

[grizzled halo]

slide the memory point backwards, its inside your selection from 2 to 3 inches is enough, if you want to get more technical and the length of your weapon allows it, you can align the memory point to actual reference position for that weapon

[blissful spire]

Ill try -1.0 then and see what happens

[charred bolt]

It depends on where your CofG or model centre is. Try a range of numbers from -3 to +3 before giving up.

[blissful spire]

should be slightly above the mem points

[charred bolt]

The mem points are irrelevant

[alpine matrix]

i slid it back a lot and nothing had changed

its really odd

[grizzled halo]

place the mem point in your first view lod and activate the mixed view to be able to see poligons and vertex, send a screenshot

[grizzled halo]

whats the memory point called?

Are you inheriting from vanilla config or you created your own?

[alpine matrix]

its just called eye

i have eye and eye_look

[alpine matrix]

created my own config

never had this issue either

and ive been using the same config for weapons forever now

[stuck oyster]

does your weapon have viewpilot lod?

[grizzled halo]

press the mem point selection and check if you dont have a duplicated vertex, afaik, if there is more that one point called the same it will get the first point and ignore the rest

[alpine matrix]

yes

[stuck oyster]

I think it might take the middle of the whole selection in some cases at least

[alpine matrix]

i only have one it appears

[grizzled halo]

then everything points to config issue

a typo somewhere maybe?

[blissful spire]

Tried +/- 1 to 3 with no luck. so idk what im doing wrong now. Same with -5

[grizzled halo]

ended up using a free alternative but i still have this on my sights.

The texture quality and mod size have drastically improved after setting a texel goal thankfully. Went from 2.5gb to just below 1gb. Its incredible how much it has changed in the past 2 weeks of iterative improvement

[alpine matrix]

i dont believe theres anything in my config that could change my eye point

[finite stump]

Has anyone seen a problem where their structures geometry will sometimes not work in eden but move it slightly in eden and it works just fine?

[white oak]

Geometry not working in eden? Could you elaborate a bit more

[finite stump]

I can walk through parts of the buildings wall but if I move the building then the I can't walk through it

[white oak]

Is this a large building perhaps?
Say, around 70-80 meters wide

[finite stump]

I have it within the supposed 50m from center bug that BIS says

[white oak]

That might be your problem there
afaik that info isn't complete
Your objects width should not exceed double the texture size of the terrain its going to be used on
Most terrains use either 32 or 40 meters for the texture size so that limits you to 64m or 80m maximum width

[finite stump]

The structure is 55m x 44m so it shouldn't have a problem. The fact it doesn't work in one x-y pos then move it to a new x-y pos and it does work is what the main problem is

[grizzled halo]

how far from the shoulder is the weapon?

[alpine matrix]

Not very far

It worked originally

Then broke

At some point

[grizzled halo]

Sorry to necro this. I think I understand what you meant by this now.

The original question was:

When making a 2D scope model, what considerations should be done to convert from the 3d scope to 2d?

However, the question has changed since then.
Let's assume I want to make a 3D sniper scope that has a x8 magnification.

Vanilla Arma handles those by creating a texture overlay and zoom in order to simulate the inside of the scope.

Whatever other scope that has lower magnification or even red dots uses the 3D model of a scope.

For red dots and x1 magnification scopes, the scope seems movable on par with the weapon when using ADS. It will readjust position constantly and other type of movements.

For 3D scopes that are magnified they seem to be glued to the center of the screen and then zoomed in.

What I wanted to know originally is if this type of scopes (3D scopes that are magnified and somewhat static) use a different model in the view pilot with geometry adjusted or if they use the exact same 3D model with some different config than red dots.
And if that's the case, where I could read about that?

[stuck oyster]

the red dot/holosight reticle moving is achieved by a special material that causes the effect

if reticle uses just normal super shader for example, it does not have that parallax effect but remains where it is

[grizzled halo]

not the reticle but the actual scope model

for example, the model of an ARCO keeps aligned to the center of the screen while the model of the ACO keeps aligned to weapon. If you move while ADS with the ARCO the whole scope and weapon wont wobble (only the camera I believe)

[stuck oyster]

well models are same at least, that much I can say off the top of my head

theres no special scoping lods

[grizzled halo]

I see, so then it has to have some sort of config for those specific type fo scopes

ty

[stuck oyster]

yees I believe so

I think these may be things you want to compare and experiment with

[grizzled halo]

ty. I will ask in config makers and see if anyone knows more about that and once i have the chance test in game, the pointer is greatly appreciated

[stuck oyster]

👍

its been a minute since I made my last scope so good to hear other experiences too 😄

[short marsh]

Been trying to get a turret to lower and raise the view and it's stumping me. It rotates fine so there's that and it works more or less. Just trying to get the small "turret" to move up and down so a player can engage aerial targets. I'm basically trying to do what the Titan AA turret launcher does, lower and raise so I can see aerial targets and engage them.

I got the memory points setup but I think I'm missing something for it

It's part of a turret too, just trying to get the viewport basically moving so it's practical

The turret is named OtocVez and Otochlaven for reference as that works fine, I don't need to mess with that.

[charred bolt]

Sounds like you need to add a parent to otocvez, which will be the bit that you animate up and down.

[short marsh]

Okay, I'll try that

[charred bolt]

Parent selection doesn't even need to be "real", can be a dummy bone. But when you animate it, the child selections of otocvez and then otochlaven will follow it's movement.

[short marsh]

Okay

[blissful spire]

im back, and im still having issues with my amphib vehicle. Confirmed that the engine stays on and doesnt flood, double checked my geo phys and bouyancy lod works since the vehicle stays floating. But i have no movement at all

[charred bolt]

buoyancy = 1 in the Geometry LOD property?

[blissful spire]

Yes, same with autocenter = 1 per the boat creation wiki

[charred bolt]

try without that

[blissful spire]

just makes it sink everytime without it last i tried

but ill try it again since i changed the weight around

[charred bolt]

otherwise you can send me the files in dm and I'll have a look

[blissful spire]

So i didnt sink without the autocenter = 1, but its still not going anywhere. I added a shape into the reso lod thats tied to the propeller animsource thats supposed to rotate when in water and it doesnt actually start rotating even though it does in OB

[short marsh]

@Apollo I may have to have you look at the files as I'm still not grasping anything. I tried doing like my helo turrets, but no luck

[cursive sleet]

The missile will just have 2 wings that will deploy/rotate outwards from the missile

[blissful spire]

lmk Apollo, ill send the zip over to you whenever

[charred bolt]

yeah send it

make it quick as it's 2am...

[blissful spire]

hang on im packing now

[grizzled halo]

So it was just the effect of having a closer eye position and tighter FOV by config.
Im going to have to create a p3d for what i want to do with the modelOptics situation and either making reticles or using PIP solutions.

Thanks for the feedback

[hard oasis]

what happens if i go beyond the limit of triangle? and just to confirm, triangles are the same as faces right?

[marsh canyon]

What does it mean by limit of triangle?

[charred bolt]

A triangle is a closed 3 sided face.
A quad is a closed 4 sided face.
A polygon is a closed face with any number of sides.

[hard oasis]

i'm aware ArmA 3 has a limit to 3D polygons or something right?

[grizzled halo]

per lod, yes

[charred bolt]

Yes, sort of.
What do you want to make?

[hard oasis]

I want to know what happens if i cross that 2^16 limit

[charred bolt]

It's no longer 2^16, much higher.

[hard oasis]

really?

i was aware it was 2^15 and they updated it to 2 ^16

which changed from ~32k to ~64k

[charred bolt]

#arma3_model message

[hard oasis]

ty

[shell echo]

what is the recommend amount of polys for assault rifle in arma 3

[charred bolt]

Keep it below 20k tri's, aim for 10k.
Res LOD's down to below 1k.
1 to 3 textures depending on attachments.

[stuck oyster]

you will still want to keep your model optimized and in within reason

the more complex mesh you have the more performance it will take

[shell echo]

Ok

[shell echo]

would i have to make animations for the model. This sounds stupid to me but i want to ask anyway

[charred bolt]

Yes

[grizzled halo]

do the barrel memory points define where bullets are created?

I've noticed that on some placeholders i have bullets that can collide with geometry before exiting the barrel when shooting, same with gas clouds popping from handguards

[shell echo]

ok

[shell echo]

can i check in blender or website to see how much poly it has

[charred bolt]

Is it your model? What file format is it in?

[shell echo]

fbx?

[charred bolt]

You're asking me if it's fbx? How would I know?

[shell echo]

nvm it is in fbx

mb

[charred bolt]

And the first part of the question?

[shell echo]

the model is in fbx format i believe

[charred bolt]

Is it your model? What file format is it in?
We have established the answer to what the file format is. It's fbx.
What about the first question?

[shell echo]

oh

how can i check the specific number of poly that the model has

[analog garden]

u can look at blender with statistics

[shell echo]

ok

[analog garden]

or look on sketchfab if u got it from there

there's a count beneath the model viewer usually

[shell echo]

i got it from cgtrader

[stuck oyster]

as it kinda sounds like you did not make it, you cant really skip knowing how to 3d model by using such models

[analog garden]

yeah that should give you a count as well

[charred bolt]

If he can't answer a question like "is it your model" within a page of asking, there's little chance of making it into a mod. Sounds harsh, but no point wasting time.

[stuck oyster]

im gonna guess it most likely is nowhere near game usable

[short marsh]

Usually aren't given how detailed some get.

[south badge]

And then even if it eventually gets into the game it will be basically unusable due to a lack or resolution LODs, because the author has no idea how to create them

[short marsh]

I've tried some models that were done, but they're too high poly. You can get lucky but overall sometimes it' s better to modify some BIS stuff

[short marsh]

Or even work on your own, but it's possible to keep them detailed without breaking the game too.

[blissful spire]

Thanks to Apollo, i was able to get my amphib vehicle working, now the issue i have is its much faster going in reverse in the water then forward. Not sure how to fix this

[stuck oyster]

what was the fix if I may ask? amphib vehicles are pretty tricky things.

whats your mass center like? I think that could play part in the speed

[blissful spire]

according to apollo
memoryPointTrackFLL type memory points. was what i was missing.
COM is fairly center and near the bottom

[stuck oyster]

it comes down to the small things 😄

[blissful spire]

although the wiki doenst mention that i need them is all. but its fixed now, amphib wise so im not complaining

[stuck oyster]

wiki is unfortunately incomplete in many places

[blissful spire]

has anyone else been getting weird issues with sharp edges in blender 4.2 during modeling? IE the cylinders

[stuck oyster]

no autosmooth?

or possibly duplicate vertices?

[blissful spire]

Negative on both

which is why im confused. Its on all my older models too

[stuck oyster]

turn off autosmooth and turn it back on maybe

and remove manual sharp seams if there are any

oh and could be baked ind custom normals too from somewhere

[blissful spire]

i have manual seams but not on the cylinder

i may just try to redo the cylinders and see if thats a problem. It is an older model imported back into blender from a saved p3d of the model

this is gonna suck lmfao. redoing the whole cylinder seems to fix the issue

[hard oasis]

is there a proper documentation to implement Passenger/Cargo TurnOut/TurnIn Action?
//edit: answering my own question https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/176408-adding-firing-from-vehicles-feature-to-existing-addons/

[jagged tusk]

why does the back bit of the excal round there spin?

[hard oasis]

this helped me understand how it works

[fluid copper]

The problem is definitely baked normals like goat said. These can be removed very easily in Blender. Its in the same menu as the checkbox for autosmooth, the little green triangle thing, I think the tab is called data or somrthing

[blissful spire]

I'll take a look on another model. I just redid the cylinders since it was fairly easy to do. Thanks

[south badge]

Clear custom split normals
Shade smooth
Auto-smooth 180 degrees
Mark all edges that are supposed to be sharp as "Sharp"
If there are still artifacts, add WeightedNormal

This fixed all issues for me. In case I still have issues after these steps, it is almost always bad topology. But in the case of a single cylinder this will not be the case.

[compact zenith]

Anyone an idea for adding a memory point to a backpack to use it with bone rotation with attachTo command?
I have a custom backpack which needs a memory point as a attachTo point on my backpack

[compact zenith]

as you can see it is not where it want it to be

do I have to add it as a bone to the model cfg?

unitBackpack player selectionPosition "pistolholster" returns a position

[pale valley]

So, still fairly new to 3d, does sharp edges/shade flat/shade smooth transfer into oxygen 2? Does it work via importing .obj's?

From blender... to be specific

[fluid copper]

It works as a p3d, unsure about an obj. Id suggest exporting as a p3d anyway

[pale valley]

Thanks... is the only way to export to .p3d to install the blender arma 3 add on?

[fluid copper]

Yes

[hard oasis]

How do i change the direction of a CargoTurret, i've been playing with the CargoTurret Settings and the only thing i managed to make is increase the rate at which i can look around, but not change the direction my character is looking when Turned Out

[hard oasis]

I specifically want to when i'm turned in the player to be facing a same direction everytime, and when turned out they're facing a different direction, i saw that with CUP Tigr Gaz, they are sitting looking to the sides of the vehicles but when Turned out they're either looking foward or backwards depending on the FFV slot

[stuck oyster]

needs custom FFV action where the animation turns the character to face where you want it to face (proxy faces always same direction)

[hard oasis]

is there a documentation or something that does that?

[short marsh]

You can also find the mod if subscribed (good luck with that) and find the config, and convert the config.bin to a config.cpp to figure out how to do it. Hell, it's a necessity to figure out how to do things around here, as I don't think there is any documentation.

But I would think the proxy has you facing in that direction, and then when you turn out, it puts you in a new direction. You can find the Discord and see if they will show you how to do it

[stuck oyster]

not really. it requres some understanding of the configs and how to make animations

[hard oasis]

i'd have to make a new animation directed to the position i want?

[stuck oyster]

yes

[hard oasis]

i see, ty

[stuck oyster]

but the direction change needs to be done in the pose space

since the proxy will always face same way

[charred bolt]

For FFV, cargo proxies can face any direction you like in the res LOD and just use standard BI FFV rtm.

[hard oasis]

how would that work, do i set this in the model or is it on the config?

[charred bolt]

Just position the cargo proxies pointing the direction you want them to face.
It's only weapons in vehicles that must face forwards in the p3d.

[hard oasis]

in the Lod 1.0 or in the ViewCargo Lod?

[charred bolt]

All res LOD's, ViewCargo (Pilot/Gunner), View Geometry, Fire Geometry

[hard oasis]

wouldn't that change the direction that seat is oriented when Turned In?

[charred bolt]

Oh, maybe I read your question wrong - do you mean you want the character to rotate during turn-out, so facing one way when turned in, facing another way when turned out?

[hard oasis]

yes

using your image as reference i want the seat like that when turned in but when the player turns out they are facing the back of the vehicle

i'm aware of 2 mods that have something similar

[charred bolt]

We do it in multiple places in the SOG: PF DLC...

[hard oasis]

CUP with their Tigr Gaz where if you Turn Out in the slot with the hatch, the Turn out animation is 90 degrees to the front or to the back depending on which hatch you're using

like you're sitting facing the side of the vehicle but when turned out you will be facing the front or the back depending on the hatch

[charred bolt]

You can make a custom FFV animation as HorribleGoat said, or you can rotate the proxy on turn-out using the animationSourceHatch animation source in model.cfg.

Example code snippets from a 180 deg rotating (and translated) FFV turn-out on SOG's M113.

[hard oasis]

omg thank you, this sure will help

[charred bolt]

In the above example, the cargo proxy is given the selection name cargo05 and is set-up as a bone in the skeleton.

[charred merlin]

Do you still have this File and could you please send it to me? Having no Idea how I implement custom Muzzle Flashes and an example would help immensely!

[hard oasis]

i just noticed i had the cargo selection proxy be the same, how should i proceed with it like this? will it work if i use selection = "cargo01"; on both of my hatches animation on the model.cfg or should i separate them in the 3D proxy and then select them separately

class gunnerhatch_1
            {
                type="rotation";
                source="hatch_1";
                selection="cargo01";
                axis="cargo01_axis";
                minValue=0;
                maxValue=1;
                angle0=0;
                angle1="rad 180";
                animPeriod=0;
                initPhase=0;
            };

[north sundial]

Keeps it steady i guess? increaces the accuracy or something

[ocean mantle]

why the HitHull doesnot take damage

the shots have touched both the armorComponent and hitpoints

the armorComponent name and hitpoints name are correct

[quick terrace]

@stable marsh single mesh, it is easier to weight. and there is no chance of clipping/and or weird protusions

[charred bolt]

Reduce the HitHull minimalHit to 0 and check again.

[ocean mantle]

figured it out, changing the penetration rvmat from 5mm to 20mm fix it

when i applied armour_plate_5mm.rvmat on it, FG became like this shape in game

no hitpoints in FG anymore

[stable marsh]

@quick terrace and what about the buckle itself? If I want to maintain the detail I would have to seperate right? Or just don't bother and do the bump in that spot?

[quick terrace]

hm, then keep it, just make sure you weight correctly the entire part

[analog garden]

what happens if you have pip-ception

like a pip camera pointing into a mirror to another pip screen

does it get funky

or does it just show up as black

[quick terrace]

the issue is that the underlaying geo is gonna be simpler

and will most likely deform differently

but well, you'll see once you get there

[mossy mulch]

iirc shows up as black but try it

[quick terrace]

anyways, if you keep it as separate, i recommend having a loop edge just below where the belt is

[stable marsh]

I will probably do one mesh at the beggining. I will see how the normal map looks like. If I'm not happy I'm gonna retopo the buckle seperately then

[quick terrace]

rigid parts should deform differently on the other hand, so you could make it a separate object either way

[analog garden]

lmao I’m away from my pc rn that’s why I asked but I’ll try it tonight

also wonder if u could make a scroll wheel action to show/hide pip

[stuck oyster]

Yeah it can be controlled by action. If nothing else then by hide animation

[analog garden]

stupid idea but like

cloaking

square that matches the bounding box of whatever ur cloaking

pip cameras opposite the faces to make it “seamless”

would be 6 extra section counts tho

[pallid island]

and then camera FOV isn't synced properly and the cloak looks funny

[stuck oyster]

It's a bit weird looking most of the time yeah. Needs more directions and it can be seen easily by disabling pip xD

[woeful viper]

adacas i think you might want to increase the roundness of the edges on the entire belt+buckle if you make one mesh. Otherwise there will not be gradient for the normal to pick it up nicely

[mossy mulch]

ive tried to do "see through" pip before and it was thoroughly meh

[stable marsh]

The belt is not subdivided yet

I know it should have 90 degress angles

should not*

[stuck oyster]

For my optical camo implementation I preferred to hide the whole character and add some fuzzy refraction effects on top

[grizzled halo]

the best option for the cloaks is using transparent like mats, i think you can even use water as a mat

[stuck oyster]

https://youtu.be/DYRXnpA2Qjk?si=WqbWlYjTrFB5qlAH

[grizzled halo]

there is this one crisis mod that does something like that

[grizzled halo]

ah this is how the predator mod works, pretty good effect, makes unit effectively invisible like >20m or so

[analog garden]

ugh I wish I could figure that out

[stuck oyster]

Yeah you can see the fuzzy refraction close up

[analog garden]

id love to implement cloaking right into halo for the semi-powered infiltration armor

[stuck oyster]

Especially when it moves

Just need to make the transition more gradual

[analog garden]

any chance u can share some scripts/how u did it or no

[grizzled halo]

its rather simple tbh, you can pretty much achieve it by creating multiple particle vehicle thingies and attach it to the upper parts of the character. Really depends on how you want to do it and what kind of effect you want, We did a mirage like monster like that by creating a shower of refraction particles

since tweaking the particles themselves is what takes the most time

you can acchieve a lot with that specific particle

although its incredibly cinematic on video, images wont do it justice ever

[woeful viper]

@cursive sleet Aircraft, when a missile is not fire, use a proxy for the weapon obviously. When you fire the missile/ bomb, it will change to the actual projectile model. They can be different - i do not think that you can animate the wings to fold out for the projectile model. The animation controllers are lacking for that. Unless you could catch it by script somehow, but i find that dodgy... Just make the projectile model with unfolded wings and the proxy model with folded wings

[stuck oyster]

Uuh

Looks fancy!

[stuck oyster]

I have a topic about it on the BI forums

Something about optical camo testing or concept

My journey with it is document there

[pallid island]

the real optical camo is friends you've made along the way

[analog garden]

splendid

I will read it and be confused lmao

think I’ve seen it before

cuz I’ve definitely seen that video

[cursive sleet]

Yea that works :) thanks

[hard oasis]

What could be the reason for Proxies not appearing in the Buldozer?

what am i doing wrong? they do work in-game

[stuck oyster]

Maybe wrongly set up P drive.

Or object builder

[hard oasis]

i also have a Proxy from within my folder, it does not appear also

[hard oasis]

what would that mean? the file i want to use is there, in that folder, but i doesn't come

[stuck oyster]

Do you have p:\ set as path to textures in object builder settings?

It is possible to have P drive in way that the tools can't access it fully. Often happens if p drive is mounted through the Arma Tools launcher and if OB is started from the launcher shortcut

[woeful viper]

you might wanna check this https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/108667-tutorial-weapon-proxy-handling-on-planes-choppers/ most of it still applies

[hard oasis]

I did mount the P drive through ArmA tools for the first time but i did remove the P drive and re-mounted it through the Arma3P
i may be stupid but
Deleting everything inside and doing
subst p: /d in the console should've done it right?

[stuck oyster]

The tools launcher mounting may be set to automatic and can persist over restart

[hard oasis]

how would i do a clean re-mount of the P drive without any issues?

[ruby lion]

hey guys, someone know why a 50 kb fbx get 23mb big in object builder

[hard oasis]

re-did all proxies after reinstalling thew P drive it worked,
now i'm trying to adjust the Turn Out animation, i managed to get the RotationY right
but i need to adjust the Translation to make the final Posistion after rotating go back to normal but i can't seem to make it work,
type="translation"; only moves the model in the Z axis
type="translationx"; doesn't move at all by changing the values but the starting post is somewhere else outside of the vehicle like 1 meter off the X axis

[pallid island]

are you providing the axis for "translation"?

[hard oasis]

class gunnerhatchl_posx
            {
                 type="translation";
                 source="door_2";
                 selection="gunner_hatchl";
                 axis="gunner_hatchl_axis";//*probably*
 //                sourceAddress = clamp;// (default)
                minValue = 0.0;//rad 0.0
                maxValue = 1.0;//rad 57.29578
                offset0 = 0.0;
                offset1 = 10.0;
                 animPeriod = 0.0;
                 initPhase = 0.0;
 //                memory = true;//(default assumed)
            };

i think so

the offset value is currently 10 so i can figure it out when i manage to make it work

[pallid island]

and is that axis by any chance aligned with Z direction?

[hard oasis]

i redefined the axis wrong

https://tenor.com/view/facepalm-really-stressed-mad-angry-gif-16109475

now it is working, i selected the wrong memory point when defining it

ty

[ruby lion]

a piece of paper with 250 verts , gets so big in object builder

exporting fbx with blender worked

weird bug in maya

[analog garden]

maya exporters are really messed up rn iirc

have a friend who uses maya as well and also talked about something like that

[ruby lion]

yea maya is a bit special atm

[ruby lion]

canbeoccluded is set 1 by default for an p3d , is that correct ?

like I dont need to add the property

[candid python]

some one should make the lancer mk2 from gears of war

[marsh canyon]

Then you do it.

[rapid tree]

how can i handle multiple muzzleFlashes of different guns in one turret ?

[analog garden]

think so

[analog garden]

look at MLOD of rhs little bird maybe?

MLOD has memory points right

and that thing has dual mini guns

• model + config

[analog garden]

all u say is “I did a lot of testing here’s a sample rvmat” then no one posts any other actual files/ideas on how to do it, or I missed something

it’s all theories
game theories

[ruby lion]

Spawned in 10k custom objects 500meters away into arsenal.

Without Empty LOD (Objects are Visible) : 45fps
With Empty LOD (Objects are all hidden): 47fps

Putting down Object Draw Distance down to 400 meters:

Fps going up to 80.

if I use {_x hideobject true;} forEach allMissionObjects "All"; 80 fps

If I delete all the objects 300 fps

Like whyyyyyy? Its not even a complex object. It dosent have an geometry , neither a shadow lod

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/460196811332780032/1264020966561022044/image.png?ex=669c5ac2&is=669b0942&hm=8930ccea260aebf576babc405a4602f7ac4a8cca2c8c3add881f2b5c0878ff58&

[fluid copper]

Theres geo somewhere, thats what the yellow is in the screenshot

[ruby lion]

thats the lod 1

I delete even the geometry , which dosent matter anyway because it was empty

I would like to know what the difference is in an non visible object which also has no geometry vs object draw distance not rendering the object.

like the non visible object should not get rendered at all

[fluid copper]

Whats your fps with no objects spawned?

[ruby lion]

if I use {_x hideobject true;} forEach allMissionObjects "All"; 80 fps

If I delete all the objects 300 fps

[fluid copper]

So you're confused about the 47 fps then

I'd have to guess that its still trying to render the the object, like calls are being sent to the gpu

[ruby lion]

I'm confused why empty lods are still getting calculated even tho there is nothing to render. It would work similiar to hideObject , which should make a huge impact on the fps

[fluid copper]

I would think hideObject would tell the gpu to not even try rendering, where as having no visual things in it still means that arma is telling the gpu to try and render it, as well as all the calculations required to decide which lod to use whether the geo lod does anything even if empty. Try deleting your lods and having an entirely empty p3d and see if that does any difference

[ruby lion]

I tested it once with no geometry and only the lods, but it was the same. can try tomorrow with an empty p3d

for baked in objeects on a map I guess/hope it is different

[fluid copper]

Why would you have empty p3d's be apart of your map...?

[ruby lion]

What 😂 No I mean in general for objects, when they have an empty lod that it actually show a difference in performance

[fluid copper]

Again, why do you want to have empty lods?

[analog garden]

when an object is super far

it wont render

period

is how i understand it\

like why would paper on the ground render at 3 km

then when u get close it's actually detailed

[fluid copper]

That is correct, however does not relate to Hungry's question if thats what you are referring to

[analog garden]

im referring to what u asked

bc that's what i understand hungry wants

based on what he was just working on lol

[fluid copper]

Ah I see what you're saying. I've never heard of having your last lod be empty as something you should do. Arma stops rendering things that arent visible to you by itself anyway. A piece of paper on the ground 3km shouldn't be rendered either way

[analog garden]

Yeah but like if ur in a plane loitering then you’d still see it bc of arma logic

I think that’s the idea

Occlusion culling is cool but it’s sadly not a catch all

[fluid copper]

I highly doubt arma 3 only uses occlusion culling

This is just speculation at this point though, a dev would have to chime in

[cursive sleet]

Okay thanks :)

[stuck oyster]

Isn't that enough?

[rapid tree]

dual miniguns are different since you select both muzzleFlashes and link it to one. The BTR needs to have seperate ones

[analog garden]

for my goofy ass??? nuh uh

[analog garden]

ohh, yeah check the BTR from RHS then maybe lol or just any base game vehicle

[ruby lion]

So I made some more tests and, yeah, HideObject actually gave me a lot more FPS, obviously because the engine knows it can skip the object. But one thing that is just weird is that even though the object has no shadow, no geometry, no physics, just 3 LODs where one is empty, it still costs so much performance for the renderer to check if the object can be rendered or not. Like, the object itself costs no performance, but the render checks do.

putting objects quality setting on very low gives you a lot of fps since it decreases the calculation range , same for object visibility range setting

like its probably even faster to make a script which unhides the object using hideobject if you getting close to it than having a empty lod , especially for not so complex objects like debris/trash on the ground

[stuck oyster]

It may be keeping it ready for draw or it still is involved in various simulation checks even if it passes them faster than other objects

[halcyon rampart]

Even if your object is hidden you still spawning something in so the engine is reading the data for the spawned object just a bit less because it can't be seen
There's visual view and then there data/software view.

[stark ember]

Is there a reason why whenever i import a model into object builder as an OBJ the vertex groups from blender aren't transferring over?

[halcyon rampart]

That sounds like either your object isn't exporting correctly or you didn't assign it as a arma property so the object doesn't export

[stuck oyster]

Yes, model format technicalities. Best to use Arma toolbox addon to export directly to p3d

[stark ember]

So there's no way to preserve vertex groups upon import? I've had issues with smoothing groups when exporting as a p3d that weren't present when exporting as an obj

[stark ember]

it should be exprorting correctly, whenever i import it back into blender the groups are there

[halcyon rampart]

Just checking but your using arma toolbox addon right

[stark ember]

yeah

[stuck oyster]

Toolbox should translate into P3d as it is in blender

If it does not you do something wrong you need to fix

[stark ember]

I don't know how to explain it or if it's just an issue on my end (i've had multiple people experience it doing the same thing) but when exporting as a p3d the smoothing groups would be incorrect on some of the edges but just exporting as a obj instead fixed it

old pic but can be seen here
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/816084991951765536/1130656062861758575/image.png?ex=669cfdc3&is=669bac43&hm=d185b45bbf421981a1a3c739a7b7d17d0e0164d4a702b8763c6507339b63b125&

[stuck oyster]

Do you have saved custom normals?

[halcyon rampart]

Hmm then it should be exporting vertex groups and all, exporting it as a new model so not over saving your old one and see if that does it, you can also try copying all you assets in blender loading a new blender project paste your stuff then export it again, blender has a weird bug where sometime thing don't all export.

[stuck oyster]

Are you using blender sharp edges

[halcyon rampart]

Smoothing group are you using modifiers or vertex groups?

[stuck oyster]

Blender and object builder/P3d both use sharp/smooth edges instead of smoothing groups

[stark ember]

im not super familiar with the modeling side of things, i just import primarily, but the edges aren't marked out as sharp/smooth i just leave it as auto smoothed and export from that

[halcyon rampart]

As goat said sharps & seams are the only thing you need, modifiers will not be carried over either

[stuck oyster]

The model probably has custom normal saved then. That does not transfer properly

[halcyon rampart]

On edit mod if you right click on edge mode hit (2) you can mark sharps and/ or seams this is what gives us the sharp edges with p3d's

[stark ember]

i think this is the case, is there a way to work around it/make it functional for arma use?

[stuck oyster]

Of course

Icywolf there has a lead for you to try out

[stark ember]

So I have to go through and manually mark out sharp edges on my model in that case

[halcyon rampart]

Pretty much

[stuck oyster]

Autosmooth would also export out but you can't see it right with custom normals. You need to remove those

[halcyon rampart]

There's a blender feature that can mark sharps & seams but that's not always perfect so Manuel is the best way

If you hit alt left click on a edge you can grab the hole loop

[stark ember]

Alright, thank you both for the help I appreciate it

[rapid tree]

btw scout i fixed it

[inner venture]

Guys how would you add a shadowLOD to something like this?

with ruffled surface?

[analog garden]

Niceee

[analog garden]

flat plane

[charred bolt]

Can't you use visualEx rather than Shadow LOD?

[slim granite]

Anyway to like have a model and a tool to auto create collisions?

[analog garden]

https://tenor.com/view/cat-thousand-yard-stare-thousand-yard-stare-cat-ptsd-cat-soldier-cat-war-gif-9110270742088459827

nothing that automatically does it does it well

best thing with automation I’ve found was decimate -> weld -> simplify

[rapid tree]

does this work for geometry stuff ?

[grizzled halo]

any idea of why my textures wont be showing on my selections?

Only boots show for whatever reason, according to blender, I actuall exported the correct uvsets but im not sure anymore 🫠

[grizzled halo]

fixed it, jesus christ what a convoluted way blender has for merging UVs