arma3_model

[regal wren]

i am going to have to modify some parts a little

like the buttstock , pistol grip ect

wait i forget is it a pistol grip or trigger guard

would attachments look good for this if so which ones?

(ofc im gonna add them later)

just getting ideas of what else to add

[stuck oyster]

you can just add rails

and use vanilla attachment items

[regal wren]

ok do i have to put trigger points in for it to work?

[stuck oyster]

yes. but those things you do after the visual model is done

[regal wren]

ok

[stuck oyster]

(and even after a model is done it might be changed later on if some problem is found)

so dont worry about that either

[regal wren]

ok

can i edit all the measurements later and sculpt it all rn

[pallid nexus]

To some extent, though mesh modelling is an entirely different process to parametric modelling
Blender will do some parametric stuff, but there can be a lot of time spent in setup, and Blender doesn't really like complicated trees of booleans and arrays (gets laggy if the mesh gets too complicated)

[stuck oyster]

needs lot of RAM for that 😅

[pallid nexus]

And a fast CPU
Mostly it was the single-thread performance in my experience
I haven't ever maxed 32gb of ram, and 16gb of ram I only maxed with multiple 2k textures and Arma at the same time

[stuck oyster]

Ive got 64gb and couple of projects that can top that 😅

[lyric field]

is that a vehicle? if so how did you do model.cfg?, to animate it that seems like too much to manually right?

[stuck oyster]

its not ingame yet

[lyric field]

oh do you intend to do it manually?

[stuck oyster]

no 😅 that would be madness

model.cfg export.

[lyric field]

wait you're telling me there is a way to export to model cfg automatically?

[stuck oyster]

or as backup alternative character with RTM

[lyric field]

link to tool?

[stuck oyster]

dont have it at hand

but theres 2 versions on github

the newer one has some more advanced features

I've also talked about it somewhere in here

[lyric field]

is name just something like model.cfg converter or something maybe? il have a scan

[stuck oyster]

animExport if I recall right

[lyric field]

found it https://github.com/Talyataya/animExport

thanks goat

[stuck oyster]

thats the one yeah

now main thing to understand is that this is really meant for complex movements

basic stuff like wheel turning and turret/gun turning on its axis should be done by the normal way

[lyric field]

im working on this and am pretty sure it fits the bill

[stuck oyster]

that one you want to be character

with RTM animation

https://youtu.be/DIJnLer1TXM

[lyric field]

would that still allow me to have it setup as a UGV?

[stuck oyster]

like this guy

[stuck oyster]

no

but vehicles work poorly for legged things

[lyric field]

i guess best way to make people interface with it would be via script then right?

[stuck oyster]

yes

custom command interface would be possible

or it could be just squadmate

[lyric field]

guessing if i want to put an arm style thing i could also do something like a turret and config that like a camera right?

[stuck oyster]

yes

technically it could even hold weapons if you like

[lyric field]

i could do probably do something similar to the western sahara drone even if i wanted

thanks for the advice

[verbal jewel]

Hey im getting the import error saying that "Extra characters, maybe more vertices on face, than supported" does anyone have any idea how i can cut them down more without breaking my model

[stuck oyster]

triangulate your model

[gritty vigil]

Less of an arma 3 model question and more general

For those of you who make clothes, whats your workflow? I've been mostly trying cloth sim on the sample man with stitching but havent really been getting anything that I am happy with, and especially not succeeding at stitching patterns or anything of that sort.

How do yall do it lol, give a guy a tip. Should I be focusing on sculpting instead of sim?

[sturdy finch]

Why is it showing the correct model on other character models but not the player's?

I've made a few weapons now and I haven't ever seen this before so I'm stumped

[fast topaz]

hey guys I have a small problem: I am working on a McMillan Tac 50 and it's almost finished (only waiting for textures) but there is one annoying glitch with the animation that seems to happen everytime i shoot someone who carries this gun and he does not die from it (mainly 9mm to the leg or something): http://imgur.com/a/ihjcf

any ideas what is causing this?

it's a custom animation btw

[storm wave]

Hey how do i fix the vast going down to the knees when i add anything to it

[white oak]

@stuck oyster do you know any guides on making macro maps?

[stuck oyster]

Ive done mine just in blender

what kind of results are you looking for?

[white oak]

mostly just weathering/breaking the pattern for big buildings

[stuck oyster]

manual painting worked for me.

[white oak]

I see did you paint colour on it or was it more like mask painting

[stuck oyster]

painting color

so I could get the kind of water damage discoloration in places and such

[white oak]

fairs, thanks

[storm wave]

pleas some help

[stuck oyster]

is not valid.

remake the shadowlod properly

just copy pasting res lod dont work

[rapid tree]

i didnt

i know how to do shadowlods its just for this vehicle that this occured

[stuck oyster]

well the glitches there are caused by non valid mesh. thats all there is to it

validators can give false results

[rapid tree]

i see

thanks

[stuck oyster]

also possible your changes did not export or are not packed into the new pbo

[lone robin]

I’ve always used substance painter for mine but in terms of blender do you bake lighting into your macro map ? I’ve been pondering trying it out to see what the results are

[stuck oyster]

Have not. Ive use ADSHQ for that

[lone robin]

Have you been doing ADSHQ for exteriors ? I’ve only been using that for interior, I tried one on the exterior of one of my buildings it created some weird darkening at distance

[stuck oyster]

yes

the darkening is exactly why

but it has to be managed correctly

it can fake shadows at longer distance

[lone robin]

Would that be the blue channel responsible for that ? How do you go about ensuring that map is how you want it ?

[stuck oyster]

Testing and tweaking when needed

[surreal hemlock]

Does anyone have a list of what proxies and memory points are required on an optic/scope? Currently i only have "opticView" on the optic model itself. and no memory point on the 2d image for the hud

[stuck oyster]

There is sample sight in the Arma3 samples pack you can check out.

But the required points are whatever you define in the config. (unless you are looking for default names)

[surreal hemlock]

I am looking for default names so i can understand what each point does

Do you happen to know where the sight is located?

[stuck oyster]

With the weapon sample

[surreal hemlock]

that makes sense

[surreal hemlock]

I think ive gotten it to work, however, the hud is... scuffed to say the least

[marsh canyon]

Is that PNG the source?

[surreal hemlock]

yup yup

its applied to a 2d object in a p3d file

[marsh canyon]

And 858x976 resolution?

[surreal hemlock]

no one sec

4096x4096

[marsh canyon]

Then your model's UV or mesh is twisted

[stuck oyster]

maybe not triangulated

so it gets triangulated wrong way in engine

[surreal hemlock]

the uv

uv with texture

[marsh canyon]

How big it is?

[surreal hemlock]

the actual 2d model?

[marsh canyon]

Yeah

[surreal hemlock]

0,124 units by 0,124 units, in object builder

[marsh canyon]

Maybe that is actually just too small

That makes it really hard to render properly... maybe. Wild guess

[pallid island]

Inb4 some rvmat typo

[surreal hemlock]

its got no rvmat

just straight .paa applied to the model

[surreal hemlock]

Right, okay, so now the scope doesnt get put where its supposed to

I believe thats the job of the proxy \A3\data_f\proxies\weapon_slots\TOP

which i have

in editor, it doesnt work, in virtual arsenal it does

editor on the left, virtual arsenal on the right

[sour bough]

You don't have a view pilot or geo lod

[stuck oyster]

👆 this your setup is greatly incomplete

[surreal hemlock]

Oh yeah i know its incomplete, i just wanna get the stuff needed for stuff to attach to it, before i go in and add shadowgeos and such

however, viewpilot i havent heard of before, from what i can see in the example file its a copy of 1.000 with the addition of the safety

[stuck oyster]

its what is shown in firstperson view

you need all the lods anyway. dont test anything with incomplete setup

[surreal hemlock]

there we go

[stuck oyster]

👍

[regal wren]

i have a 32gb ram how do i check my cpu speed? (sorry been sick so im just reading up on old messges)

[stuck oyster]

whats the context?

are you sure you are in right channel?

[regal wren]

yea

[regal wren]

.

this part

[stuck oyster]

normally you wont have to worry about that

[regal wren]

ok

[stuck oyster]

you will need super complex model to have problems

[regal wren]

alright

[strange summit]

Do you know how much it takes from the front, the tops, the edges and the triangle for Arma to take it into play and its optimal selves and that I can lace the visualization on buldozer without spitting everything out

[thin wigeon]

Not sure if this is a model question or a texture question or an animation question, apols if it's in the wrong place.
I'm wanting to place some net curtains behind windows to make them look more lived in. Ideally I would like them to have some limited movement that reacts to wind (if the glass is broken) or player movement like the flags, is it possible to reuse that logic or does it only work for sideways mounted, I've been trying to make sense of the a3 assets but it's not clicking how I could do that. Has anybody got any pointers or example models please? Or am I asking too much of the engine again 😄

[stuck oyster]

Id say thats a bit too much yeah

flag can be made hanging. but it would need to be separately in mission placed thing

it would likely clip through at wrong wind direction

[stuck oyster]

can you maybe rephrase that. not quite sure what you mean

[cinder summit]

hello chat, I got a issue that I’ve been trying to troubleshoot for the better half of 6 months-

So, I have a weapon model. I have imported the weapon model (which I have done previously) and it seems to have been imported perfectly fine. However, unlike my other weapons, when you try to press play in Eden editor with it loaded, the model crashes the game- now the weird part is that the model loads fine in Zeus, and through the arsenal, meaning if I add it to the Ace Arsenal list and grab it in game, easy pz I can test everything and the gun works great. All my animations apply, my model cfg applies, it’s all good. So, now I’m sitting here, days down the drain, trying to figure out an error that will not show up on logs- and I even took a glance at the mdmp files but in my experience those aren’t too telling unless the error is obviously and mem related.

Regardless, that’s my problem as it stands. It’s been passed through O2, and through the hands of any other modder I could convince to help out and take a look. I can send the P3D or the blend here, and the model.cfg as well, just let me know if you all want it.

Any sliver of an idea would be extremely helpful, thanks <3

[strange summit]

Sorry, I have a bit of trouble expressing myself, but what I wanted to say is that, being a novice in 3D modeling for Arma 3, I would like to have some information on the modeling conditions to obtain high-quality creations that are optimized for servers. I was informed that there is a number of faces to respect if we want our model to be correct, and that a model with too many faces causes Buldozer to crash and makes it too heavy for the Arma 3 engine, resulting in poor model quality. As I have issues with the Arma 3 Tool software on Steam, I would like to know if there are tutorials or documents that explain how the Arma 3 Toolbox plugin works and if this plugin contains all the tools of Arma 3 Tool. And above all, I would like to know how to visualize the model like in Buldozer or its substitute in Blender with this plugin.

[north sundial]

The limit is based off of vertex normals not face count

It’s 2^16 vertex normals limit

As for the arma 3 toolbox for blender it doesn’t 100 percent replace things like object builder but it does a pretty good job

You will still need bulldozer to visualise the model in engine and check anims

I would put forward your issues with the arma 3 toolbox in the #arma3_tools channel to get them sorted

[marsh canyon]

We still need to know specifics about your model to tell anything

[north sundial]

If you use arma 3 diag exe it may give you more info when the game crashes?

I’ve found it’s good at informing on issues that crash the game

[charred bolt]

No, it's 2^32.
#arma3_model message

[stuck oyster]

Recommended tri counts are of course less than that.

[north sundial]

Ah the wiki needs updating then

[stuck oyster]

Buldozer stops at some 100k

[stuck oyster]

What can be said to be recommended tri count depends widely on what you make. Smaller items have less and larger things like vehicles or buildings have larger recommendations.

General of thumb typically is that the least amount of tris that you can do the thing to look what you want.

And the you also need good set of resolutiob distance lods to lessen the draw load at long distance.

There are no tutorials or documentation for everything though.

[strange summit]

So it's 2^32 for the normal vertex limit for a vehicle?

[strange summit]

He stopped for 100k of what?

[stuck oyster]

no

lets say 40.000 triangles is maximum for you

keep things simple

[charred bolt]

Buldozer fails at around 120-130k polys.
2^32 is technical limit but game won't work if you try it.
Do what HorribleGoat says and max at 40k for your project, and make resolution LOD's that go down to 1k.

[strange summit]

thanks

[lapis basin]

Hi ! I have a quick question. Is there a way to see which current Resolutions LOD is drawn ? I know you can see the resolution LOD with the GX cube with which you can see the different LOD with different color, but is there a command that can make us see the current drawn LOD ?

[stuck oyster]

No. Why do you want to know?

[lapis basin]

Just to see if my resolution LOD was working that’s it.

Because it’s far away I can’t really see if the LOD change or not

[stuck oyster]

Does it matter? But yes it changes if the engine determines it needs to change.

I don't think you need to be concerned about the far distance unless you have some visible glitches

[lapis basin]

It kind of does I think. If my models are always loaded at their highest resolution it will destroy the FPS of everyone.

But thank for the answer anyway ! I played with the distance to see if it worked and it seems it’s working ^^

[stuck oyster]

Up close they typically are. And if it's very complex model yes it causing issues can be normal.

Model can have bugs/design flaws like section count being abnormally large that will have impact.

Last distance lod should be something below 1000 tris. Below 500 is even better.

[marsh canyon]

You can also make a obvious signature to the certain LOD so you'll know which LOD is currently shown

[lapis basin]

From what I understand Sections are a combination of material and texture, I only have One material and textures for each of my model. that mean I have 1 Sections per model right ?

[charred bolt]

When I'm testing resolution LOD's I temporarily place some boxes above the model, 1 for each number of the LOD. So LOD 1 has 1 box above, LOD 6 has 6. You can then visibily see them in game and know which LOD you are looking at, which helps to fix mesh or texture glitches.
Yes, sections are a combination of material and texture - but this will also include procedurals and renderTargets and mesh with no texture or mat (such as proxies), and in addition, textures/materials which are face sorted or z-bias'd will be separated from each other in sections. So section count is often higher than you expect.

[lapis basin]

Is there a way to have the amount of sections on a model ?

[charred bolt]

What do you mean?

[lapis basin]

Is there a way to know the number of sections on a model ? Other than having to guess with the Wiki Page xD

[lapis basin]

oh 😅

I mean I don't use object builder so that's probably why I never knew about it

[charred bolt]

You almost certainly will need to use Object Builder at some point to get your model in game, even if you do most of it in Blender.

[lapis basin]

For now what I do is pretty basic, I didn't had to use it. But I guess if I do more complex thing I'm going to at some point.
Thank you very much for the tip ^^

[fleet storm]

I've imported objects into the game, is there a way to make the model have collision so players can't just walk through it?

not really sure how to do it, so any help is appreciated

[charred bolt]

Add Geometry and Geometry Phys LODs.

[stuck oyster]

geometry lod descripptions in the pinned messages

[fleet storm]

thanks

[cinder summit]

[dusty lichen]

Hi just curious anyone know how can I make the WS SLR Rifle grenades to appear on the rifle? Its working config wise, I can fire them everything works. It just the model of the grenade not appearing on the muzzle of the gun when switching to GL mode

[stuck oyster]

It would need magazine proxy for the grenade

[dusty lichen]

i see, ok i will look into it thank you

[storm wave]

are models from arma 3 importable to arma reforger or arma 4

[stuck oyster]

no arma 3 models have not been released for such use

[storm wave]

released?

i mean if i make a model for arma 3 can i import it into arma reforger

[lone robin]

Look at the reforger specific requirements, other than resolution LODs everything else is different.

[stuck oyster]

you can but it will need to be remade to fit reforger specifications

[dusky onyx]

Why do I see my helmet model in first person?

[marsh canyon]

Because you lack Pilot LOD

[dusky onyx]

I already added it, but the problem was not solved.

[marsh canyon]

No

[bright echo]

you need to make it empty if you dont want it visible

[marsh canyon]

Blank Pilot LOD

[dusky onyx]

it worked, thank you so much

[stuck oyster]

your helmet is about as complex model as a car

so thats not really good

also you got 10 sections on it

which is also not good

this is lag helmet

[south badge]

In case of vehicles with interior, is there some recommended thickness for the "shell" of the vehicle? I have gone with the realistic 10mm value, but it seems that at longer range, either through some Z bias or mipmapping or something the beige colour of the interior seems to become visible on the outside.

This is not a LOD issue, since the problem at hand gets progressively worse the longer the distance in spite of the furthest LOD already being drawn.

[stuck oyster]

at that range your lods probably should not have interiors

[south badge]

Well, I removed everything from the interior except the inner walls

[stuck oyster]

those too

[south badge]

I think I did that and I had obvious issues with windows / openable doors basically making the vehicle see-through

Or should there no windows / openable parts either at max range?

Just a "blob" with no inner faces?

[stuck oyster]

yes just a blob should be fine at that distance

if you want to be fancy you can bake the interior views to a plane and use that

[south badge]

Damn I probably cant make myself redo 21 vehicles

[stuck oyster]

but it can be just black or basepaint color

[south badge]

I´ll try one to see if it helps

[stuck oyster]

if you got interiors at that distance its quite big design flaw

sorry

[south badge]

I guess I can cheat it by creating one additional resolution LOD for each vehicle using one "blob" base, and then the different turrets and whatevers can be pasted over from the previous resolution LOD

[stuck oyster]

could work

[umbral shuttle]

for pylon proxies, I want to have 4 of them but 2 different proxy paths. regarding the Ids do I have to have them like so:

path/to/proxy1 id = 1
path/to/proxy1 id = 2
path/to/proxy2 id = 3
path/to/proxy3 id = 4

or do i have it like so

path/to/proxy1 id = 1
path/to/proxy1 id = 2
path/to/proxy2 id = 1
path/to/proxy2 id = 2

I am pretty sure its first case, just looking for confirmation

[polar fiber]

Why even have more than one proxy path? It doesn't serve any purpose besides looking at the model in buldozer

[stuck oyster]

the path dont matter, it just marks where the thing will be attached to

but yes each configured pylon uses its own id

it works similar to gunner or cargo proxy

[umbral shuttle]

Okay cool ty

[umbral shuttle]

One for like guns and the other for missile tubes, idk I thought it was best to separate them

[stuck oyster]

the config is what dictates what you can put on the pylon

its shape is only for visual aligning

[pallid crow]

got the model done

what do i do next?

[stuck oyster]

may need some cleaning up

whatts going on with the black faces?

[pallid crow]

the black triangles?

those have decals

[stuck oyster]

oh

how many triangles is it now?

I guess the next step is to gamify it

[strange summit]

Good evening
The bulldozer breaks down at about 120-130k polys. Somehow I could do so that my model can be below this level I think of Decimate from Blender but does it not distort the model?

[stuck oyster]

make low poly version, bake textures

[stuck oyster]

what kind of model?

typically the lowpoly model is specifically made

if you have bought a model, youll need to remake a game fitting lowpoly one

there is not good automation for that

[strange summit]

a little fiate art find on asseto corsa

[stuck oyster]

asseto corsa?

the game?

[strange summit]

Yes

[stuck oyster]

you cant take models from other games

thats theft/ripping

we have 0 tolerance for that

consider this your only warning on the subject

[strange summit]

It's for my personal learning and in view of the many videos on the net that explain how to modify his vehicle of this game even I did not see where was the evil being given this was for my educational purposes

[stuck oyster]

no

0 tolerance

you want personal learning, you start to make things from 0

no skipping with stolen models

that teaches you nothing good

[strange summit]

in this case or find courses on the field of 3D vehicle, because apart from the people who only work outside via plans of vehicles already existing and find on the net I do not see or I could find this

[stuck oyster]

youll need to learn the basics on how the tools work and, then you can start to apply that knowledge to make something actual

and start make something simpler first

maybe some object you have home you can use as reference

then you can make something using pictures as reference

its complex process you learn easier in small chunks

[strange summit]

Okay, I see thank you

[slender storm]

Hello! looking to make some custom unit models (with their own animations and such). I'm already familiar with the process of modeling > texturing > rigging > animation, but I am unfortunately unfamiliar with how to import them in Arma 3. So a few questions to ask:

a.) where can I find a complete tutorial of exporting models into Arma? I would prefer videos, but if its a website / document I wouldn't mind reading.
b.) would animations be done in-software (I use Maya) or within Arma 3 in itself?
c.) I would assume that ground-up models need scripts to work (Reload states, Aiming, Poses, Gestures). Are there already existing scripts in-game to help with this, or do I have to make my own?

[stuck oyster]

you dont find complete tutorials

animations done in 3d software

movement etc configs exist but for custom units they need to be remade

not scripting, config

unless you want some sort of scripted special features

Id recommend starting to learn understand arma configs and assets importing with something simpler first

[slender storm]

Gotcha, thanks for the response! 🫡

[modest perch]

just a little upgrade for the covies

still gotta do the cockpit and the underneath for the front section

[fast topaz]

hey guys I have a small problem: I am working on a McMillan Tac 50 and it's almost finished (only waiting for textures) but there is one annoying glitch with the animation that seems to happen everytime i shoot someone who carries this gun and he does not die from it (mainly 9mm to the leg or something): http://imgur.com/a/ihjcf
any ideas what is causing this?
it's a custom animation btw

[cinder summit]

tripod spotted

ive been looking for a decent tripod model to import myself forever, good luck with yours o7

[stuck oyster]

Sweeet

[vivid valve]

Help fix please

[charred bolt]

Add a Geometry Buoyancy LOD
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/LOD#Geometry_Buoyancy

[vivid valve]

On the contrary, I need the car not to float.

[charred bolt]

You still add the buoyancy LOD so that it knows how to sink.

[vivid valve]

Previously, cars would sink without it.

[charred bolt]

Cars will sink without it and any time you run dev branch you'll see an error message that it doesn't have a buoyancy lod

[vivid valve]

Do I need to insert something there or just create it?

[charred bolt]

As with other Geometry, if you don't provide a specific LOD (example Fire Geometry) it will default to using the Geometry LOD.
For buoyancy calculations (including how things sink) this is really bad, because the buoyancy object should be VERY simple (like 1 component), whereas Geometry LOD's are often 30-40 components.

Example of a car

[vivid valve]

help please man

[runic plover]

Maybe in Geometry LOD add property buoyancy = 1 or = 0

[vivid valve]

It still gives an error when I set it to 1

[runic plover]

Wrote buoyancy correct?

[vivid valve]

What does it mean if it is correct?

[vivid valve]

I have the same parameters on other cars, they sink, but this one doesn’t sink.

[runic plover]

Try to copy one of your working ones and put stuff of ayrus step by step into it

[vivid valve]

Everything is the same

[runic plover]

If it is it would work like your other ones which are working

Hard to see or tell you where the "error" is, also i never had such error before / didnt see such error before.

Best way is to find the error while you do a copy of one of your other one which works and put stuff from ayrus into it step by step. Step by step i mean copy one step into it, pack and test and continue with next step.. maybe error appears again or maybe with luck its fixed.. sometimes Arma is weird tbh

[livid canyon]

What causes the triangles to be visible in the transparent part? I've tried Sort Alpha.
The mesh is 4 layers of faces, 2 per door.
Texture is #(argb,8,8,3)color(0,0,0,0.7,ca)

[charred bolt]

Inside and outside glass meshes are separate objects and not double-sided?
Recalculate normals?
Face sorting - inside faces (both together), then outside faces (both together)?

[lapis basin]

Hey guys ! I have a question regarding optimization. How do you guys test for your model perfs ? I have models but a lot of people are complaning of optimization problem. I've added more Resolution LOD but doesn't seems to do be enought.
Lowering my Resolution 1 Mesh would absolutly destroy the details that I want to be left in.

[sour bough]

How big is your res 1?

[charred bolt]

Unlikely to just be poly count although that can be done badly.
Section count (texture/rvmat combo's), texture size, geometry (s) complexity, shadow poly count, unoptimised PiP's etc

[lapis basin]

Depends I have multiple object, I have one that is at 12 tris, and my biggest is at 10k tris

[lapis basin]

Sections count is a one if I understood the doc correctly (Only one texture and RVmat), Possible for the texture size. I think the texture artist did 4K (Maybe we should reduce) How to determine a geometry complexity ? all of the shadow LOD are just basic rectangles.
What are PiP ?

[sour bough]

How many of em?

[lapis basin]

2, but it just a variation of the same model. My second Highest model is at 3k

[sour bough]

I mean like, in the use case

How many of the big model

[lapis basin]

10

[sour bough]

I'd reduce either the vert count of the model or the number you use a bit, but honestly I doubt it's the visual lod causing problems here

[stuck oyster]

how many materials do those models have?

[lapis basin]

File or HiddenSelection ?

[stuck oyster]

assigned on the model

do you have a lot of "variants" in same model hidden with trasnparent textures?

[lapis basin]

The variant is a p3d file

[lapis basin]

        hiddenSelections[] = { "camo1", "camo2" };
        hiddenSelectionsTextures[] = {
            QUOTE(TEXTURE(SmallDoor_WallLight)),
            QUOTE(TEXTURE(SmallDoor_WallLight))
        };
        hiddenSelectionsMaterials[] = {
            "",
            QUOTE(MATERIAL(Light))
        };

[lapis basin]

Other than the hiddenSelection I didn't config a default texture so it's just white without the HiddenSelection

[stuck oyster]

all models should have texture assigned in the p3d for default

that bakes in material info

on binarization

are you buidling something complex from small parts?

in small area

[lapis basin]

They only have the RVMAT for the geometry fire

[lapis basin]

Yes

[stuck oyster]

unrelated

[stuck oyster]

that is the problem then

the engine isnt really meant for that

[lapis basin]

ah

[lapis basin]

I tried doing that never could figured it out

Should I make composition directly a 3D model ? So that I have "bigger" piece ?

Nvm that would absolutely destroy my sections and I would have enormous amount of them

So I can't really do something about it apart from finding a way to get rid of some tris and having less model in my build.

Well thanks for your help guys, I really appreciated it !

[stuck oyster]

we can approach it from direction of what are you trying to make?

[umbral shuttle]

for the UV of a tank track, do the parts that are off the uv screen need to be on the y axis or can they be along the x axis?

[charred bolt]

y-axis

[umbral shuttle]

😦 was hoping I could just use uvpackmaster split overlapping islands

[charred bolt]

tank tracks will be separate texture

[umbral shuttle]

yeah I got to that part (painfully), and I got something that works well but was tryna make it better since some small problems

[stuck oyster]

mimick how the vanilla tracks are set up

the texture is meant to be repeating

[runic plover]

didnt know about that so its better to add to all my vehicles the buoyancy lod? cause atm i dont have any errors showing up (profiling) but if this will be needed in future id like to add to prevent error messages

[livid canyon]

4 separate objects, yes. Tried Recalculate normals and then the sequential force sorting. Seems to have switched which triangles are the artifact xD

I needed to select the outer faces and Move Top, rookie mistake.

[charred bolt]

I'm not 100% sure if it's absolutely needed for every vehicle, but I've been adding one since the diagnostic exe started throwing unhappy errors about it when missing, regardless of whether it's amphib or should sink.

[livid portal]

Hello, just out of curiosity, i may already know the answer (doesn't work) but let's say a model got LOD0, LOD2 can you then skip to LOD4/5 and then have the same effect as if you had LOD3/4 made?

[charred bolt]

No, trying to fiddle the LOD system will lead to poor performance

Just keep halving the polys (tri's) until you're down to somewhere around 0.5 to 2k in last res LOD, depending on type of asset.

[livid portal]

Thought so, would have been a nice one though

Yeah, been doing so, was just a curious thought

[stable marsh]

Is it possible to hide selections using hideProxySelections[] besides uniform? I tried doing so far its not working

I'm trying to hide a part of nvg if helmet is equiped and other part if something like cap ir equiped

sections are also defined in model.cfg

[mossy matrix]

Hey there, I tried to implement a helmet into Arma 3 but its not exactly looking like its supposed to. The color seems to be way to vibrant and the overall helmet paint is way to rough, while the metal is way too shiny. I also have some touble with the normals, they look like they are somewhat flipped, as it has some weird shading along the edges (good visible on the Plum blossom vent and the chin strap).

[sour bough]

welcome to Arma more or less

work in base color and use scout's export stuff

[stuck oyster]

also note that you have 2 completely different lighting setups

the game lighting there for example is far more yellow compared to the editor white light

[mossy matrix]

Where do i find those? I was currently using these for Substance Painter https://github.com/MoonieFR/SubstanceToArma

[sour bough]

https://github.com/Scouter407/Arma-3-PBR-Workflow

scout is a good kid

[mossy matrix]

Yeah that is a good point, but then i still have the problem that the helmet surface is way too rough, while the metal that shines through is way too shiny. Do you happen to know what values are more noticable in arma in terms of Roughness and Metallic maps?

[mossy matrix]

Thank you very much!

[sour bough]

(yes i know scout it 18 now they're still a kid)

[stuck oyster]

there is a quite big difference between pbr rendering and specular/gloss rendering that need to be taken into account. the recommended export guides can help with that

[mossy matrix]

Yeah that is true, havent worked much yet with specular/gloss maps, so will definitely look into it. Thanks for the help!

[stuck oyster]

PBR has pretty much replaced it

but before PBR it was the norm

[livid canyon]

Why would a simple object of the model cast shadow fine, but the vehicle be messed up?

[analog garden]

https://tenor.com/view/goku-gokushadow-goku-in-shadows-goku-meme-real-gif-15989473805649035144

[stuck oyster]

same p3d?

perhaps hiddenselections in shadow lod?

[sour bough]

Did you join the discord just to do that

I was gonna ping you before and couldn't lmao

[analog garden]

no i just clicked into here bc im trying to remember how to set up the insignia selection

ive been in here for a while idk

[sour bough]

o

I think it's just a selection called insignia

[analog garden]

yeah that's what i thought too i wasnt sure of any other specs

[livid canyon]

I'll check for that.

[stuck oyster]

model.cfg section list entry

also the selection can be redefined in config

insignia is what BI uses as default

but Id guess it has to be inherited from a valid parent class

[analog garden]

alright, ill try it out

thx

[stuck oyster]

did the sample have insignia selection 🤔

might be it didnt

[analog garden]

i kinda gave up on checking the sample files for info 💀

oh wait

the helicopter has it

it's called "klan" in there

[stuck oyster]

sample character actually did have it too

[analog garden]

strange
why insignia and clan

[stuck oyster]

different encoder 😅

or sample might be cut from different time of production

[analog garden]

well clan works

and setting it up like the helicopter has it

[stuck oyster]

yeah looks like clan is for vehicles

insignia is used for the tag in units

the insignia may be used by arsenal functions

[analog garden]

ah that's the difference ok

[stuck oyster]

honestly I dont remember exactly. but that is my faint recollection at least

[bright echo]

you can use clan on units too

its for the squad.xml while insignia is for the scripted arsenal insignias

[stuck oyster]

ah there thats the thingy! 👍 thanks!

[bright echo]

that 'squadTitles' class also lets you have the squad name

so per allVehicles 'clan_sign' selection would be turned into text (same as license plates) that displays the name of the clan/squad

[sour bough]

Well that's

Unfortunate

[analog garden]

no it's just the czech translation it's ok

[livid canyon]

That was it! Praise 🐐

[hexed rover]

Hola a todos algun creador de ropa para arma 3 que me brinde su servicio y el precio por un conjunto?

Hello everyone, is there any Arma 3 clothing creator who can offer me their service and the price for a set?

[stuck oyster]

heya you can use #creators_recruiting (template in pinned messages) to look for help

[hexed rover]

Thank's

[winter wadi]

hey all, does anyone know if the devs of bohemia ever released the p3ds for their weapons? I know in the past they did that for arma 2 upon the release of arma 3.. just looking to port over the weapons from arma 3 to reforger.

[sour bough]

Arma 3 LDP's are In Progress (TM) and have been for years

I wouldn't count on it tbh

[winter wadi]

rip

[livid canyon]

No don't do that

[stuck oyster]

🤣

[umbral shuttle]

hello I have no idea why this happens, but for a turret if I spawn just one object of it only parts of the shadow shows, but if I spawn anything else that uses that same p3d again (so 2 turrets) the full shadow shows. Maybe cause I have only shadowvolume 0?

nvm I had HS in shadow lod LOL

who woulda thought

[umbral shuttle]

I only checked cause of this

truly the GreatGoat

[stuck oyster]

https://tenor.com/view/batman-batgoat-goat-tribe-ada-goats-goat-gif-24400260

[north sundial]

Rookie mistake, we've all been there haha

[umbral shuttle]

its eulers fault 🙂

[bold flare]

posting screenshots of ip rights violating content is not allowed

[lapis basin]

Hi ! I have a quick question. I have some assets that I’ve made they are just objects so there is no complex logic behind them (just some walls,floor, doors) but I suspect that they cause a little bit of desync. How would I proceed to see if that’s really those assets the cause ?

[stuck oyster]

Remove assets, see if it works better

Game isn't designed for big things to be built from small parts either.

[lapis basin]

It’s because we did some mission without them that my suspicion started. It’s just complicated to measure exactly their effects

[stuck oyster]

yep theres not really much else to do but to test different combinations

[atomic path]

How for the love of god do I make one wheel of a tank turn slower?

anything I do just makes the weel cut the animation mid-rotation and return to 0

it's model.cfg related of course

[stuck oyster]

need special animation source if I recall right

[stuck oyster]

like this perhaps

although it might need 2 if 2 works

since it does say using this overrides the normal

but dont know can you override it with 2 different classes

[atomic path]

can I just slower all wheels somehow?

without scripting

[stuck oyster]

this is config entry

otherwise, no

well maybe you can also try with the min max value and phase in model.cfg

[atomic path]

I refuse to believe wheelL and wheelR are some constant hardcoded numbers

It must be possible to influence those

[stuck oyster]

dis

[atomic path]

I have no idea how to use it tbh

It goes from 0 to 1 depending on the speed

so it's not something I can override with a constant

[stuck oyster]

if I recall right its possible to alter its animPeriod

[modest perch]

the big boi

[stuck oyster]

👍

[night summit]

can you update the download link on this pin when you are able, cheers

[stuck oyster]

what link?

[night summit]

unless im doing something stupid, I think the link for the lighting files is broken

[stuck oyster]

aa

no sorry thats not my doing

but here

[night summit]

thanks

[stuck oyster]

the config in it is probably old so youll want to adapt it to the config you have on your p drive

instead of just copying the config over

basically you just need to find and insert the same includes in right places

[night summit]

got it, thank you

[south badge]

I´d suggest you post these things in the appropriate channel, production_showcase

[stuck oyster]

this is fine too though for occasional progress picture

its nice to see what people work on

[stuck oyster]

did you get it to work btw?

[sour bough]

I love his little teef 🙂

[foggy pivot]

Trying once more to get into A3 modeling. Is there a mannequin that isn't just 90% clutter? Looking at the template/example from A3 Samples just... there's alot going on lol

[stuck oyster]

you eventually need all of it

[foggy pivot]

:(

[stuck oyster]

you can clean off the proxy triangles though

simple select and delete

[foggy pivot]

Are _Template and _Example the same?

For the A3_Character, that is

Different file weights but they look visually similar. Not really sure which I need. Or where to start lol

Example has the full body, I may need that

[stuck oyster]

ye

and head can be found in the bysta.p3d in template_rtm folder

[foggy pivot]

Weird how the model is in like 5 pieces

[stuck oyster]

it can be plaved int he corner of head proxy triangle for correct positioning

theres multiple LODS

[foggy pivot]

Yeahhh

[stuck oyster]

and you can read about those in the wiki

and what they do

[foggy pivot]

I know a little bit about LODs but idk if Arma does anything "different" with them

Should I keep the character_example where it is, when I import it into blender, or am I good to move it up, where the origin is at the feet, isntead of the pelvis?

[stuck oyster]

no moving

[foggy pivot]

Gotcha

[stuck oyster]

that is the default pose and position everything needs to be at

[foggy pivot]

Sweet. I can work with that

Is there any good reading on what I need to do for Arma 3 modeling specifically? I can make models easily. I love doing that. But I feel as if the importing will be the difficult part

[stuck oyster]

well not really arma specifically

theres few guides that go over basics like from El Tyranos, Sokolonko, Battlestad

basic model stuff has not really much special to it

[foggy pivot]

Aight. I just figured since the game uses its own model format, texture format, etc, there is some weird thing I'd need to do to follow that

[stuck oyster]

well those of course but the mesh and texturing is very much common methods

[foggy pivot]

Aight sweet

[stuck oyster]

1 uvmap

[foggy pivot]

1 UV??? 😭

Makes sense, but still, rahh 😭

[stuck oyster]

many materials/textures

[foggy pivot]

Oh ok that's fine then lol

[stuck oyster]

it dont matter uvs overlap

[foggy pivot]

I'll probably make a hat or something simple first ig

[stuck oyster]

well technically theres few things that use second uvmap too

but typically people dont need that

especially at the beginning

[stuck oyster]

👍 finally reasnoable beginning 😄

[foggy pivot]

The whole reason I'm getting into this is because I want to make half decent modernized Stalker 2 stuff for A3 lol

[stuck oyster]

just not directly from stalker.

[foggy pivot]

I intend on doing everything myself, I abhor asset rippers

[stuck oyster]

tricky bit is even using the IP as too close reference

you can do something similar though but not copy the designs directly

[foggy pivot]

well poop

I hadn't even thought of that lol

Well I can make a hat, so that's good lol

[foggy pivot]

I think the longest part thus far was getting a texture I liked

[foggy pivot]

alright uhhh

I am not sure where to go from here lol. I have my model, and my textures and model

[foggy pivot]

I need a proper guide. The one I am watching is very... loosely organized

[stuck oyster]

dont exist im afraid

[foggy pivot]

Turns out my issue was ngons anyhow

quads to tris my beloved

[foggy pivot]

@stuck oyster Would you happen to know the optimal place for the Shadow LOD?

The guide was VERY vague on where it goes

[stuck oyster]

wha do you mean where?

[foggy pivot]

"make sure there isn't any Z-fighting" is the simplest I can interperet it

Looking at the human model, it seems a very low poly, slightly smaller, model works. But for brimmed hats...? ??

autocenter or aoutcenter...

[stuck oyster]

z fighting means surfaces are on same level

so shadow mesh needs to be beneath the visual mesh

[foggy pivot]

Yea I know what z-fighting is. He just didn't explain at all what you should do with the shadow mesh

[stuck oyster]

and yes typically its made as lowpoly as possible

[foggy pivot]

Gotcha

[stuck oyster]

it just casts the silhouette

[foggy pivot]

The guy made a typo in autocenter and I don't know if it was intentional or not 💀

Do you need to close the shadow LOD or every LOD

[stuck oyster]

shadow needs to be closed

geometry lods you copy from the sample

[foggy pivot]

Gotcha, sweet. The reason I'm asking specific questions now is that when I got the hat in game it appeared at pelvis level so I figure I did something wrong

[stuck oyster]

there is related pin in the pinned messages

[foggy pivot]

Awesome

It needs to be named model.cfg doesn't it

I do have a question for you. What is the purpose of -baseballcap_01 in the vertex groups?

@stuck oyster brainless question for you. Does the number attached to the LOD mean in what order it appears?

[stuck oyster]

yes

[foggy pivot]

BRO.

This guide got it wrong, then!

[stuck oyster]

0 1 2 3 4

4 being last

[foggy pivot]

😭 thanks man, you're the best

[stuck oyster]

https://tenor.com/view/batman-batgoat-goat-tribe-ada-goats-goat-gif-24400260

[foggy pivot]

Shadow is on 0, or 1?

I think it's 0

Good news:

it uses the right LOD now.

Bad news:

????

I think the rvmat is borked

[stuck oyster]

or vertex normals didnt export right

[foggy pivot]

I think it was the rvmat??? I either broke the RVMAT further or fixed it but now its fine

Ah yea the RVMAT didn't load

I have no idea why...

(Well I do after trying to replace it and I do not remember how to re-assign it lol)

I have no idea how rvmats work lmao

[foggy pivot]

Ah I figured it out

[umbral shuttle]

hi hello so I am tryna learn wat to do for multimaterials stuff, so I got this so far. the red mask is that wood bit up there, blue is that hexagon area, and green is that concrete area inbetwen. So the black poriton is the area in red and well its kinda dookie looking. I scaled the uv up for the 1st uv set adn that made the red/blue/green areas look nicer but is there anything I can do for the black part of the mask?

there is also 100% chance I just dont know wat I am doing

[foggy pivot]

What did you make that in? Blender?

Also might be a question for #arma3_texture

also: oof. Dunno what this means

[umbral shuttle]

the texture? im just using existing tile textures from optre cause Idk how to even make tileable textures

[foggy pivot]

The model :)

[umbral shuttle]

ye blender

[foggy pivot]

Is it all one material, or do you have multiple materials?

[umbral shuttle]

only 1 material

[foggy pivot]

Blender supports multi material. You don't need to stuff everything in one.

[umbral shuttle]

I just did 1 just for sake of simplicity

[foggy pivot]

Simplicity can cause textures to look blurry lol

But I get you. I have my hat all on one texture so there isn't 4 outputs when trying to import it in

[umbral shuttle]

I just wasnt sure how to do multimaterial at all so i didnt want to complciate wat I was doing iwth more then 1 mateiral

[foggy pivot]

Ive come to the conclusion that my RVMAT is probably still borked. It doesn't want to use my normal map for some reason. It also keeps saying it cant find a .paa file that I had renamed to update... idk why

[umbral shuttle]

ah nvm, the texture I was using was just not good lol using altis example I can see it tile

Okay so now for the great question of section counts, if a multimaterial can have 4 textures, is it better to have 1 mm or 4 textures?

performance wise

[steady topaz]

question. How would one make the proxy triangle not show up with the muzzle fire

[charred bolt]

Can you explain your question with a little more detail?

[steady topaz]

lets say i fire my gun. And i have a proxy that has a zasleh and a @@armaproxy vertex groups attached to it. the triangle or proxy object shows up along side the proxy object the @@armaproxy has pathed to.

[charred bolt]

So you see a muzzle flash and also an actual triangle in game?

[steady topaz]

correct

but only when the gun is fired. Meaning that the zasleh works with the proxy, but the actual triangle also exists as well

is there a vertex group im missing or?

[charred bolt]

It doesn't sound like the proxy is correctly set-up or that you have some other named selection on it, other than zasleh.
Here's an example.

[steady topaz]

these are my vertex groups, the camo is ONLY on the gun, and the magazine is ONLY on the magazine

[charred bolt]

How does it look in Object Builder, that's the important bit?

[charred bolt]

right click the proxy, select rename, screenshot (like my example), to show proxy path

[steady topaz]

i can give you the one in blender but the one in OB only shows: proxy::...\muzzle_flash_rifle_m4.001

\a3\data_f\proxies\muzzle_flash\muzzle_flash_rifle_m4

[charred bolt]

You can't right click and "rename" to get the proxy path window like I've shown in my screenshot (blender is totally irrelevant to this issue at this stage)

[steady topaz]

nope

i think i was able to

hang on

[steady topaz]

might be a specific window

named selections right?

[charred bolt]

yes

[steady topaz]

oh lmao. i had to click on move to proxy

[charred bolt]

That was what I was looking for - something wrong with the proxy set-up.

proxies aren't normally produced in blender, at least in the work flow I'm used to

Are you using a p drive? What are you packing with?

[steady topaz]

addon builder. and no i dont use the p drive

[charred bolt]

You probably need the p drive and most people will recommend moving from addon builder to mikero's tools or alternative with error checking

[steady topaz]

should i just name the proxy to a3\data_f\proxies\muzzle_flash\etc

and also i have only had problems with mikero breaking my stuff because its not in the p: drive and have developed in the p: drive with only issues

i only use it as a p3d and config reference

[charred bolt]

mikero's tools don't break your stuff, it just refuses to build your stuff when it's broken

which is what your current situation indicates

[steady topaz]

which is all the time. yet its the way many other devs do the do

[charred bolt]

Do a search on this discord for why a p drive is commonly used if you're interested in resolving the issue.

[steady topaz]

im going to recreate the proxy in object builder. since it was your recommendation.

would i need the objects or does object builder do that automaticly

that aint too bad. Thanks :)

[charred bolt]

I can't give you further advice other than to set-up a p drive, extract the a3 game files to it, and then it will likely just work.
If you don't want to use a p drive, you'll need advice from one of the many other devs you know that don't use it.

[steady topaz]

no its ok. I found that your object builder method seems to do well

thanks for the help :)

[steady topaz]

to give a little update incase your curious, or if it helps anyone else. in order to properly make it a proxy you need to make sure that the Proxy has a check mark. This tells arma to make it invisible and properly a proxy.

thanks for the help apollo.

[modest perch]

i know goat said it's fine for me to post here, but what channel are you talking about?

dont even see it kek

[stuck oyster]

#1056183794979328120 is where one can have a thread for a project

[modest perch]

yeah it wasnt on my channel list by default, had to add it - which is odd

[stuck oyster]

discord by default hides channels you have not selected to participate in I believe

[night summit]

Nah, haven't got it working yet. I have added the header files and includes in the P:\bin folder, but it doesn't seem that model viewer is referencing those files

[stuck oyster]

right

then its probably reading from the actual bin.pbo in arma3 install folder

you can try rename it to something else temporarily so the budlzoer swaps to reading the P drive files

[night summit]

that has fixed the lighting, thank you.

Now the controls in buldozer have switched to WASD rather than orbiting the model xD

[stuck oyster]

it now reads different settings cfg for it too

also remember to rename the bin.pbo back since actual playing will need that

I think buldozer should keep using the P drive data

[foggy pivot]

So. Who can guess why an .rvmat no longer wants to assign to a model?

Because I have no idea 💀

This is the only error that pops up. I know why as I had to move my textures into \data\headgear\Skye_H_PatrolCap because I don't want to just mash all of my textures and files together... But I have no idea where it is being referenced to fix it

[stuck oyster]

so do you have P drive set up?

or how do you pack the pbo

the path you need to for textures etc files need to match what gets packed inside the PBO

[foggy pivot]

I don't have a P drive because I already have a dedicated E drive for modding, having two would be pointless.

I use addon builder just bc it's simple

It sounds like I messed up the pathing

[stuck oyster]

typically P drive workflow simplifies this as P drive acts as the root of the engines file system

[foggy pivot]

How far back of the root do I need to go for pathing? I figred stopping at addons would be good. Do I need to do the mod name, and all, too?

[stuck oyster]

so P:\MyMod\MyMod_MyItems\file.123 in config or model reads as texture = "MyMod\MyMod_MyItems\file.123"

you shold not have addons in the folder structure

addons is the folder pbo goes into

[foggy pivot]

Really? Ah.

[stuck oyster]

but is not related in any way whats inside the pbo

[foggy pivot]

I usually keep my work folder mod the exact same as the packed mod

But I'll try that instead

[stuck oyster]

local mod folder is not related to mod filepaths

[foggy pivot]

I see

So it would be this?

"F:\A3_Skyes_Wearables\WORKZONE\SkyesWearables\addons\headgear\data"

(turns out its my F drive, not E)

A3_Skyes_Wearables is the overall root of everything, as I have alot of other stuff in my F drive for other games modding stuff

[stuck oyster]

so P drive is different thing only related to Arma

[foggy pivot]

Should I just go and setup a P drive lol

[stuck oyster]

P: can be physical drive but commonly it is a virtual drive

and the files are somewhere on your computer in a folder that gets read as the virtual P drive

Imo it is easier to make mods with it

I dont really know the nuances of working without

I hear its possible

I see people struggle with it 😅

[foggy pivot]

I've been doing it this way, forever, not that it's the right way, but I've never had pathing issues until now so

Then again I still have no idea how far back I need to go with the rvmats anyway, so ????

[stuck oyster]

you can for example open up your pbo and see the folder structure

match that

[foggy pivot]

I just need a "big book of standardized practices" lmao

Even after "Fixing" everything, it is still looking for a file that doesn't exist. Infuriating.

There is nothing that looks for patrolcap_co.paa in any of my configs. I have NO idea where it is looking for that

what

How is the .p3d looking for texture files??? It can do that???

I cursed myself.

or not 😭 I thought that would do it

[stuck oyster]

for blender theres separate dialog to assign blender material corrseponding textures and materials

in P3D the assignements can also seen in Object Builder

[foggy pivot]

Where would this be?

The one on the left?

[stuck oyster]

select mesh, hit E

[foggy pivot]

I am filled with hate :)

Where does it get this information? I want to know so I can assign it properly in the future

[stuck oyster]

somewhere in Blender

in the material tab

[foggy pivot]

Which is hilarious because all I did was rename the material 😭

[stuck oyster]

which toolbox you use?

clocks?

[foggy pivot]

I am... almost completely unsure. I have Arma 3 Toolbox and Arma 3 Tools

Let me verify that

[stuck oyster]

wheres the toolbox from

[foggy pivot]

I have Mr Clock's Object Builder, and Alwarren's Toolbox

[stuck oyster]

theres Alwarrens original and Clocks Tooblox/Blender Object Builder

😅 they each have their own dialogs

[foggy pivot]

😭

[stuck oyster]

clocks might have some more automation regarding the material. but he has more indepth readMe too

[foggy pivot]

I might stick with Alwarren's for simplicity as that's what I've been using. I completely forgot I had object builder until now lol

[stuck oyster]

and bunch of tutorials too now that I think of it

both can be used

[foggy pivot]

anger

[stuck oyster]

their dialogs just dont work cross addon

[foggy pivot]

I was wrong this is what I wanted

[stuck oyster]

you dont want the relative pathing though

and if you use the file browser you better have P drive

and proper Arma project foldering

[foggy pivot]

That was the full path no relative

[stuck oyster]

otherwise you still need to check the path in the pbo and write it there correct

// is relative path

[foggy pivot]

Really? Blender shortened the path, then wtf

[stuck oyster]

theres a settings tab in the open dialog

[foggy pivot]

You rock

[stuck oyster]

me goat, you sky

no rock

rock in different cave

[foggy pivot]

goat rock >:(

Even after doing all this path junk it still was like "nah" lmao

[stuck oyster]

again look into the pbo itself and see where it starts the foldering

[foggy pivot]

Ok so I do need to start at the MOD root?

[stuck oyster]

depends if you use pboPrefix or where the config is located

[foggy pivot]

Bc my work mod and packed mod have the exact same pathing internally

Do I need to have it reference the @skyeswearables, instead of just skyeswearables? I think so but

Well something changed lmao

Had this issue before. I thought it was a broken rvmat. Maybe something else entirely. yay!

hey atleast my RPT tells me how bad i am lol

[night summit]

I've gone down a bit of a rabbit hole with it. Renaming bin.pbo doesn't seem to have any effect.

The model viewer keeps reverting to bin.pbo in the game directory whenever it can find the product.bin file in the Dta folder. If I rename product.bin, Buldozer then falls back to using the files from P:\bin, but when it does, it fails to load the Buldozer profile correctly so the controls revert to the default WASD.

[stuck oyster]

whats your buldozer startup line?

Ive had it be probelmatic before myself too

and I think it may have been only 64bit exe worked right

[night summit]

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Arma 3\arma3_x64.exe -buldozer -name=Buldozer -window -noLand -exThreads=0 -noAsserts -world=stratis -worldcfg=stratis -cfg=buldozer.cfg

not the end of the world, but its not ideal

[stuck oyster]

Looks same as mine I think

you could give the 32 bit arma 3 exe a go

theres in unfortunately lot of inconsistency how these things seem to work

[night summit]

nah no difference between 32 or 64bit

i think arma wins

[foggy pivot]

It seems that regardless of whatever path I set as the rvmat/co path it literally never reads

Yay!!!!

oh my gOD this took forever

And the normal map isnt even that good lmao I put in all this effort just to want to go fix the normals 😭

Thank you, everyone, for helping 🫡

(especially you goat you're the goat)

[stuck oyster]

remember you likely need to invert the normalmap greencolor channel

[foggy pivot]

What would that do

I mean to replace the normal texture as the one I used is kinda mid

[stuck oyster]

Arma needs -Y normalmap

[foggy pivot]

How odd

[stuck oyster]

something something difference between openGl and directX stuff

[foggy pivot]

OH. My Substance Painter exports OpenGL normals so I believe it already does that

Unless I have to do it anyways in which 🤮

[stuck oyster]

susbtance can be configured to export it right

there are also some example templates in pin I think

[foggy pivot]

The one thing that guide got right was the export lol

[stuck oyster]

here or #arma3_texture

[foggy pivot]

But I'll probably grab an export tempalte anyhow

JDTOOLS.com has one, dunno if it's the right one tho

[lime solar]

Have you setup your P drive properly?

[night summit]

got it working fully
I needed to add languagecore_f.pbo to my P:\Dta folder to get the profile to load

[stuck oyster]

👍

excellent

how did you end up figuring that out?

maybe we can persuade Mikero to set that up by default with arma3p

and did you just copy the pbo or unpack it

[night summit]

copied the files one by one from my game install to the P:/Dta folder. Just the packed pbo in there

this is the config file im using if anyone else comes asking

unpacked languagecore_f.pbo does not work, just tested it

[stuck oyster]

interesting find. Will have to find another instance to test it

could very well be solution to an obscure problem

like my setup works as is

😅

so cant confirm

[steady topaz]

hey @stuck oyster you know how to reset the windows to default in Object Builder

[stuck oyster]

which windows?

[steady topaz]

like all of em instead of reinstalling it

[charred bolt]

No reset button. Either do it manually or possibly reinstall

[steady topaz]

oof

well thanks anyways

[foggy pivot]

@stuck oyster So its been a minute ik, but my mod now dumps this into the RPT constantly, all bc I use F:/ at the start of my path

I cant imagine that is intended for mods but the rvmats works NO other way

[stuck oyster]

cant have drive letters in paths

must be "folder\file" or in some cases "\folder\file"

[foggy pivot]

That is hilarious. Because if I don't include the disk, it literally never reads the rvmat

I guess I have to use a P drive huh?

[stuck oyster]

when the game runs it dont know of your computers file system

well

I recommend it

[foggy pivot]

The rvmats load fine when I include the disk 😭

But when I dont it never loads them. Hilarity!

[foggy pivot]

I will setup the P drive after work and then see if it works then. Any other organizing recommendations for good practices?

[stuck oyster]

get mikeros toolset

all in one installer is pretty simple to get that all done

arma3p from there sets you up with unpacked A3 data

using the armaTools method works rarely

windows10+ issue

I like to structure my mods with simple way:

P:\MODTAG\TAG_contextNameLikeVehicles\p3ds, config, modelcfg\data\textures rvmats. and so on

technically theres no rules on that though

also you should give pboProject from Mikero tools a go to pack pbo

as it checks filepaths and various common errors and complaints if theres problems

[foggy pivot]

Gotcha. I wanted to use mik tools but I always felt lost

[foggy pivot]

Generally question: Since the template body does not have a skeleton (as far as I can see) how can you see what bones/vertex groups are where?

[stuck oyster]

you can copy from the sample

and tweak

there are also community rigs out there that can be used to preview weighting

[foggy pivot]

You can copy weights??? Hell yeah

[stuck oyster]

but the skeleton itself is not part of the model

its saved in the animation files

[stuck oyster]

weight transfer tool

[foggy pivot]

Ahh. I am used to "OG" modeling where I bind stuff to a skeleton for easy weighting

[foggy pivot]

Wicked

[stuck oyster]

for sure it is easier to test stuff

the community rigs like one from Macser works for that

[foggy pivot]

Oh sweet. Where can I find that?

[stuck oyster]

moddb had links at least

Macsers armarig

[foggy pivot]

And does the weighting actually transfer to the body easily or is it just for testing

[stuck oyster]

weight transfer is a good startup but usually needs tweking to fit the topology of your model

[foggy pivot]

Yeah thats all good. As long as it can do 90% of the hard stuff for me I don't mind finetuning

[stuck oyster]

as to modling things like uniforms, it is good to have similar joint topology to keep weird deforms to minimum

[foggy pivot]

Hard stuff being full body weight painting 😭

[foggy pivot]

Ye I will do lots of research. I tend to copy the body and work on it from there but I may try different things and see what I can do

Actually if I end up copying the body it should copy the weights for me...

[stuck oyster]

yes

but also editing mesh can easily break weighting

depends what you do and how

[foggy pivot]

I am careful

[stuck oyster]

you can of course always transfer weights again

its not really an issue

[foggy pivot]

Very true. I'm excited to get to work but I need to get a good base going

[livid canyon]

The tail is proxied in and the whole proxy is animated for the fold. Looks fine at LOD 0.
Why would lower LODs draw the tail proxy twice?
The cube is on LOD 6. If I view it in model viewer it does not draw another tail section.

[charred bolt]

Check what named selections you might (inadvertently) have on the tail proxy in the broken LOD's.

• create new LOD, copy and paste just the proxy from broken LOD to the new LOD, look at named selections.

[livid canyon]

it does seem to be

[charred bolt]

So now look for config entries that might reference "Tail_boom".
Do the same in model.cfg, checking all occurences.
I'd recommend tail_boom, rather than the capitalisation, as if you use both in the p3d, you'll get uncertain results.

[livid canyon]

Only in model.cfg bones and 1 anim

I tried to make a LOC 7 with just the tail boom proxy plus a cube, but I guess it's too low poly to switch to.

[charred bolt]

How many LOD's in the tail boom proxy? Have you tried as an experiment just reducing it to a single res LOD?

[livid canyon]

The proxy is only a single LOD. it does also have a Tail_Boom selection in it. could that be an issue?

[stuck oyster]

check for hidden vertices too

[charred bolt]

Shouldn't do - not possible to animate inside the proxy

[stuck oyster]

at longer distances you could just have the tail as normal mesh since its getting reduced

[charred bolt]

As it's only a single res LOD, try just putting the mesh directly into your main p3d and see if it all works

[livid canyon]

Yeah I'll try that.

[stuck oyster]

I think proxies do weird things at distance anyway

also does the proxy have autocenter = 0 named property?

everything used as a proxy needs that

[charred bolt]

They might, particularly with which LOD inside the proxy displays, but not sure about why it seems to be duplicating, unless there are two of the mesh, perhaps one hidden in the main p3d and then also the proxy.

[stuck oyster]

can there be 2 proxy triangles sharing same proxy definition 🤔

maybe not

[charred bolt]

yeah something like that could be the problem - check the proxy selection is only 3 verts, not 6.

[livid canyon]

hmm I made a clean lod 7 with 3-vert proxy pasted in, then pasted in most of the mesh, and it doesn't draw the extra tail.

I added autocenter to geo in the proxy, middle LODs still showing extra tail.

I guess I'll have to re-do each lod carefully xD or just put the tail in the main model

[charred bolt]

I'd only use a proxy if that part was used on multiple other main models, and even then, only if it was super complicated. Otherwise I'd put it in the main model from the start, which then allows for hiddenSelection reskinning, damage material swapping etc.

[stuck oyster]

proxies can be made reskinnable too actually. At least the kind that just add mesh as an object.
It involves the CfgNonAIVehicles if I recall right

this stuff

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgNonAIVehicles_Config_Reference

[charred bolt]

Yeah, that's how we do wrecks. But can't imagine it's ideal to use on a "working" model

[stuck oyster]

no probably not

[livid canyon]

Yeah not sure why it was proxied out in the first place. without the proxied bits, LOD 0 is 9k faces, so not terrible, right?

[charred bolt]

A heli like that could be 80k in LOD 0

[livid canyon]

gotta pump those numbers up!

[stuck oyster]

in the olden days that was a lot 😄

[steady topaz]

Hello again! Question: if my helmet is attached to the head, yet is offset would anyone know why, or how to fix it?

Like the helmet rotates and moves with the head. Just offset.

[stuck oyster]

is not modeled in right space maybe

compare with the sample hat

[steady topaz]

i did, define "right space"

[stuck oyster]

where characters head is at

[steady topaz]

oh

ic

i didnt know that affected it

[stuck oyster]

all things need to be modeled in right position

[steady topaz]

Yep. I know this from the stupid Roadway limitation sigh

[steady topaz]

still nope

[stuck oyster]

requirement are listed in the pins

those all all there is to it

[steady topaz]

thats why im confused becuase it was fine before

[stuck oyster]

check the weighting

[steady topaz]

but all of the "Requirements" are good

Head vertex group is assigned 100 to whole object, same with camo

[stuck oyster]

are there other vertex groups

[steady topaz]

so lower case head?

[stuck oyster]

case matters yes

must match

[steady topaz]

#arma3_model message

[stuck oyster]

whatever matches the model.cfg skeleton

looks to be Head

[steady topaz]

mine references the sample one

so Head

but ill try head, because arma

[stuck oyster]

actually model.cfg does have "head"

how do you pack the pbo?

[steady topaz]

i swear if you say try mikero and p: drive. sigh
Addon Builder

[stuck oyster]

cant help further with that

try "head"

instead of "Head"

[steady topaz]

i did funny enough both head and Head work with linking to that vertex group lol

[stuck oyster]

and make sure its being binarized

[steady topaz]

same issue. But i will try from scratch with a new model. Since the one being used is basic and only for ref. And try again with the info provided.

[stuck oyster]

I cant think of anything else that it would need

than what is in the pins

now got to get to painting some things

[steady topaz]

otay. Thanks for the help as always :)

[stuck oyster]

(PS use P drive and Mikeros PboProject and save yourself lot of trouble)

[edgy scroll]

Trying to get into making models for arma, is there any good toutorials out there, hoping to use blender for the most part.

[stuck oyster]

Do you know how to use blender in general?

[edgy scroll]

yes, been making models for fiveM the last 6 years

[stuck oyster]

Ypu can do pretty much everything Arma modeling related in it just fine.

Modeling basics are pretty much same everywhere

[rich meadow]

https://github.com/gerard-sog/arma3-macvsog-columbia-items created this procedure for basic arma 3 objects.

Can be a good starting point 👍

Contains examples files , etc. Last time I followed that procedure to the letter was 3 month ago , so it should still be up to date 👍

[sleek echo]

hi guys, anyone know what the center point for the command boundingBoxReal is? Im asking here as suggested by someone in #arma3_scripting. As its to do with model space co-ords.

boundingBoxReal [_ehicle,'geometry'];

This is the command for a hatchback it returns this
Min geometry point
[[-0.989059,-2.52638,-1.36978]
Max geometry point
[0.905163,2.20161,0.264737]

as you can see from the Y co-ords it cant be from the center of the model as the min has 0.3m extra. so what the origin point?

[desert notch]

center point depends on:

1. whether you enabled AutoCenter in model properties
2. the vertices used in the shape

first the bounding box is calculated by simply computing the min max of the vertices (includes animations too in total bounding box, but not in per lod bounding box, which is a bug and causes some issues, e.g stuff like bullets passing thru geometry)
if you enable autocenter, the game stores the bounding center and offsets the model

also I should point out that creating simple objects ignores this offset

[sleek echo]

so autoCenter would cause the origin point to be in the dead center of the geometry (as im using the geometry lod) ? ofc if it is enabled.

And if it is not it is calculated by the min and maxes of the vertices? So the min points Z will be 0?

and the max whatever the highest verticie is. But where is the origin point when its using the verticies to calculate it for say Y and X

[desert notch]

no the bounding box gets centered

[desert notch]

I'm pretty sure vehicles always have autoCenter 0?

check the config

[sleek echo]

im not sure, i dont do modeling im just trying to understand how that command places the origin of the co-ords it provides to use that for some placing calculations in game 🙂

[sleek echo]

it would be in the config.cpp of the vehicle im looking at? But will be different for each one no?

[desert notch]

for vehicles to work correctly I'm pretty sure you must always disable it

but anyway I don't do modeling either, so I'm not 100% sure

[sleek echo]

right so this means that [0,0,0] would be in the center of the model because the bounding box is centered around the [0,0,0] origin in the model builder?

but with autocenter off do you know how it would calculate the origin point? It calculates the min and max based on verticies that makes sense, but they have to have a point to measure from

[desert notch]

yeah

[desert notch]

[0,0,0]

[sleek echo]

right and thats [0,0,0] in the model builder e.g object builder so thats why it could have a bigger Y co-ord in the min or max?

[desert notch]

yeah

[sleek echo]

because the object could be longer is one direction from the [0,0,0] center

ok gotcha

thanks alot for the help thats going to make my life easier now I understand all that

[desert notch]

I guess I was wrong

it's enabled

[stuck oyster]

Vehicles use the default enabled mode. They f
Should not have the property at all

[desert notch]

ah you're using the geometry LOD

that uses the properties in the model

not config

[sleek echo]

yup it gives a much better hitbox because its where it interacts ofc

[sleek echo]

my goal is placing vehicles bumper to bumper for sotrage and ive completed that now it works so thanks for the help 🙂

[desert notch]

yeah but it doesn't have auto center: namedProperties _hatchBack doesn't have autocenter which is why the BB is not centered

[sleek echo]

yup makes sense

[desert notch]

technically this is a bug tho 😅

it's more "accurate" because it doesn't use the animations (and also it's only 1 lod while normal boundingBoxReal uses all lods; some LODs have helper points which make them ridiculously large)

[sleek echo]

im not sure it is? Because its pulling the min and max points from the lod you select, which the geometry lod just shows the points where physics will interactive with the object, I dont think thats a bug

If you want to know the max points with animations as you said basic boundingBoxReal does that

but I dont think asking it to pull the min maxes from a lod that dosnt have animations is a bug, its just pulling the min and max from what is in that lod (in this case where physics will interact)

[desert notch]

#arma3_feedback_tracker message
the bug is due to using the fireGeometry bounding box which doesn't account for anims
yes you can fix it using model bounding box, but still I'm sure it was an oversight not to include anims in lod bb calculations

@bold flare ^ pls fix 😅 (using model bounding box for intersection check instead of LOD BB)

[sleek echo]

well thats interesting.... What command were you using to detect the BB?

and what params

[desert notch]

nothing. I just looked at the game code
I wanted to fix it by accounting for anims in LODs.
but I forgot (and I guess using model bounding box is just easier...)

[sleek echo]

oh ok I understand now haha. I get the issue lol.

Yeah I guess its not affecting me currently because most vehicles dont have anims that move the geometry too much except turrets if people put the barrel in the geometry lod. So thats why ive not seen or had this issue yet I guess

because as you can see the points are calculated fine if no anims are done haha. just as you showed it breaks with anims because it dosnt move the geometry oof

(blue line from min to max of geometry lod)

[sleek echo]

another question for you, Vehicle in vehicle do you know what positions of the loaded object that uses to calculate if it will fit? Ive basically made my own version for reason I wont spend forever going into. It works well except for boats.. because this is the geometry lod for the assult boat lol.. and i cant find a smaller one for it.

[desert notch]

you mean you want to make it touch the ground, or do you want the vanilla ViV cargo size?

[sleek echo]

I want to know what model space points of the loaded objects the ViV system uses to calculate if it will fit in the ViV cargo size

This is my own ViV system working not vanilla. But that assault baot has such a large geometry lod it wont fit in a CH-47 Chinook with my code but the vanilla system allows it. So I assume it must be using a different lod or size to calculate if it fits

[desert notch]

it uses the geometry lod