arma3_model

[stuck oyster]

but it wont smooth

[tribal rain]

AH there we go see thats what i thought it was doing i thought it would be smoothing it

[stuck oyster]

weight paint wise your arm is basically nightmare design to make in this situation where you have clear joints

and you wont be able to make them operational because you cant give them actual bones of their own

but for even weight smooth weight you can do easy trick

make a tube

or box

weight left side to weapon, right side to spine

then cut it in the middle

them move the weapon end to your arms weapon end and spine to spine end and the middle to the arms middle

then divide again and correct the shape until the tube covers the whole arm

and then youll have pretty smooth weight from one end to another

as the cuts retain the weight the mesh has where they are cut

then transfer that tubes weighting on the arm

https://tenor.com/view/guy-long-hair-mustache-magic-shia-labeouf-gif-17741293

[tribal rain]

alright cool im always down for neat little tricks sometimes working in blender/arma is like getting a gnome to do anything for you you have to trick it into working or else it curses you

[stuck oyster]

I did maybe the first trial of this kind of backpack to weapon feed few years back

I battled with these same things

in the end its best if the arm/belt/cable is as simple as possible and maybe covered with some sort of cloth to hide joints etc

as when done this way it will always deform poorly

[tribal rain]

yeah the sister belt was not too bad as the kind of hard ammo feed that youd see on like mounted turrets is quite forgiving but this smart gun armature has set pivot points which is pain

[stuck oyster]

yea honestly I dont see it working out

[tribal rain]

Literally me at the moment

[tribal rain]

your vote of confidence fills me with hope XD

[stuck oyster]

will it be true to source if it looks like crap 😅

[tribal rain]

https://tenor.com/view/umm-wait-nathan-fillion-gif-4809231

[stuck oyster]

you can try weapon - spine

and then even distribute that to each piece with smoothed ends

but youll see soon enough what I mean 😅

[tribal rain]

i looked at my options ball joints are just 🤮

other than that like you said i could try a flexi side BUT SAYING THAT IVE JUST HAD A LIGHTNIGNT BOLT IDEA

FLEXI CABLES OR HYDRAULICS

https://tenor.com/view/something's-happening-with-you-wade-ellis-duster-something's-going-on-with-you-hbo-gif-1210125961851635187

[tribal rain]

thank you for going through the pain and no doubt screaming into the void so i didnt have to XD

[tribal rain]

also im sure youll be delighted to know that the AI knows of you

Chat GPT 👀

[stuck oyster]

:L

well this time it did get it right

[tribal rain]

i think that means youve made the short list for termination

congrats i guess?

[tribal rain]

this is mega thanks ill have a go at this now

❤️

[stuck oyster]

you could maube get it to work decent enough if you sacrifice the joints and cover them with sock

[tribal rain]

im tempted in all honesty

[stuck oyster]

but I dont see the joints working out 😅

they be bendy

[tribal rain]

Its less joint more disjointed

no bueno

[tribal rain]

this = this

so weird

[warped mural]

what if you paint spine1 all red and leave weapon as is here

[stuck oyster]

Now the problem is the original shape

[tribal rain]

it kinda works like that but only issue is when in motion the final part which "hooks" up to the weapon kind of sways out of touch left to right in relation to the hips movement.

Ive tried doing Spine1, Spine2, ive not tried the other Spine Bones but i was thinking the other spine bones might cause some issue also

[stuck oyster]

As you have modeled it in the animation state, not in the T pose state

[tribal rain]

ok that makes sense

so its offset already then and then when the animation is applied it offsets it further

[stuck oyster]

The T pose state is deformed mess

[stuck oyster]

Yes

[stuck oyster]

But it's needed so it un-deforms

[tribal rain]

so try a simplified Mesh that will become the T-Pose essentially

[stuck oyster]

I think I've posted pictures of my belt feed backpack somewhere in the past here. You can try to look that up.

Or I can post the later when I'm back at computer.

Basically the weapon bone is at the far right side of the character in the T pose

[round bloom]

Do you need to add a proxy of a harness for adding a custom NVG? (dont really want to model a new one)

[stuck oyster]

we dont do scams here

[cunning temple]

Do snap point have to be 0/1 only, or can you use A_5 and V_5 etc? Surely if you just using 0/1, TB will be snapping the objects to anything with a snap point lol

[stuck oyster]

it will still use the other snaps 😅

[cunning temple]

Well I for one am shocked by that 😄

[umbral shuttle]

wait lol wat happened

anyways question for tracks

do I need the UV to go vertically off the uv square like this OR can I

(and Ik this isnt perfect) but have it confined to uv square

[zenith quartz]

Hi everyone! Does anyone know hot to fix this?
https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/187340-reload-deployed-weapon/

[stuck oyster]

Off the square. That way the engine knows the texture repeats

[tribal rain]

apologies did you manage to return to your computer? 24hrs later XD

[cloud zealot]

I'd like to add an ancient pistol to Arma 3, the Colt Walker, is there an animationSource or a way to make the character c_ck the hammer when the weapon is drawn ?

[marsh canyon]

isSelected

[cloud zealot]

What do you mean ?

[marsh canyon]

model.cfg source

[cloud zealot]

aaaaaah

let me see

Hmm i think this is it, i'll test it later. Thank you very much 🙂

[stuck oyster]

I was there but forgot. Will try to remember when I return again

[stuck oyster]

If you want character hands to do something too you'll havw to script gesture for it.

But possible

[cloud zealot]

hmm i see. Is there a tool or something to convert a Blender animation to CfgModel animation ? It would be way easier

[stuck oyster]

The pistol parts animation probably is not very complex

The character gesture would be made as rtm with the character rig.

[tulip portal]

Warning Message: Cannot open object
No geometry and no visual shape while trying to check property cratercolor

iv moved some p3d's and proxys to different pbos changed the file paths
and now arms wont open the models
is there something obvious im overlooking

[stuck oyster]

maybe pathing broke

[tulip portal]

im not sure what crater color is or why edges arnt being found either

[dusky onyx]

what could be the reason?

[tribal rain]

Weight painting being off

Do you have Autocenter 0 on your Geometry LOD?

[dusky onyx]

Yes, I have the auto center listed

[supple orchid]

hi, can anyone help me to make a custom config for a model so that my radar jammer actually works in game , which tools i need to use

[stuck oyster]

You probably need some sort of script for it. I don't think the vanilla game has "radar jammer" functionality.

#arma3_scripting would be the place to ask tips on that and #arma3_config the place to talk about the config.

[leaden quartz]

this is my UV map the highlighted bits along with the zoomed in image, when i paint over them in substance painter the paint goes on top and through these sections and paints what's behind them which is a different colour how do i stop it happening

[stuck oyster]

If you have lot of closely overlapping surfaces you may need to separate them to be able to paint them

[leaden quartz]

already done that and nothing is overlapping

[stuck oyster]

Long shot but make sure the surface is facing right directions

[leaden quartz]

im new to moddeling how do i do that

[stuck oyster]

What do you model with?

Backface culling is setting that makes it not draw the backside

[leaden quartz]

blender and even witht he backface culling off it stil does it

[stuck oyster]

It just would show if it's wrong way.

[supple orchid]

thnk you

[stuck oyster]

Just to make sure no overlapping mesh and no overlapping UVs on same material

[late jewel]

Can anyone point me in the direction of a forum that tells me how to make props? Specifically a building if it matters

[umbral shuttle]

For this pip screen I get this weird effect thats not present on other pip screens, is it too close to the face that is underneeth the pip screen? tried moving faces to top and no success there

[stuck oyster]

there is no full tutorials for that

you should first learn basic 3d modeling techniques

[late jewel]

I've been 3d modeling for several years now

[charred bolt]

Here is some info on the LOD's you'll need to make:
https://community.bohemia.net/wiki/LOD

[cunning temple]

Why do the top set of ponds snap together perfect, but the next row don't snap at all?

[stuck oyster]

Which whay they don't snap?

I'd give all same size snap square

With autocenter0

[cunning temple]

I'll give that a try today, hopefully it works 🤞
Didn't even touch arma yesterday I was too annoyed lol

[stuck oyster]

Yeah I've noticed the snap points are delicate sometimes

Also TB templates don't seem to refresh them very well

I usually delete template, restart TB and load the template fresh if I have to tweak snappoints.

Also I test them in fast loading test project

[runic plover]

Maybe face to close to the background?

[charred bolt]

Yes, probably face too close, as it looks like z-fighting.
If face ordering hasn't resolved it, try setting the PiP faces z-bias to "high".

[umbral shuttle]

oh okay, ill try that next time. easiest solutuion was to move the face a tad bit away which works fine.\

[sullen jasper]

Hi guys, I have a 3D model that I need to be put into a T-pose and imported into Arma 3. The model is already made, I just need someone who can adjust the pose and prepare it for use in the game (convert to P3D, setup config.cpp, etc.).

[lone robin]

If you’re looking for someone else to do your work then post an add in #creators_recruiting

[sullen jasper]

Thanks mate 👋 🫡

[runic plover]

so was the issue like i have mentioned?

[umbral shuttle]

too close the background? I would assume so since I just move it out a bit more

[short grove]

Hi, I'm working on a Piranha V project. I'm importing my model, but it keeps flying as if it has no mass (See the video), even though I've defined it in Geo LOD with 30 Tons. Any ideas on how to fix it (The colors on the model are placeholders Lol)

[formal halo]

Check to see if your geo is below your land contact

I guess it could also be the bounds and axis’s on the wheels?

[runic plover]

dont add the wheels in GeometryPhys LOD, if you did it might be the problem

also make sure your MASS is mostly bottom center (that big blueblack point if you select your whole geometry mesh)

[stuck oyster]

bad physx wheel setup

[umbral plaza]

Hello, I am having a problem setting up oblect builder. I have the sample model loaded and when I try to load into a viewer, it immediatly crashes. My issue is a) how do I access my changelog? and b) Is there a good tutorial on setting up objectbuilder

[modest perch]

can anyone help me figure out why this is happening in substance?

thought it would be normals, but theyre all good

[sour bough]

Can you show topology?

and UV?

My suspicions are ngons or uv overlap

[modest perch]

was UV issue

[woeful viper]

ah finally... instruments. http://abload.de/img/2016-01-18_00001e5yrq.jpg http://abload.de/img/2016-01-18_00002hczai.jpg http://abload.de/img/2016-01-18_00003c6lr9.jpg
texture of the lights not done

[celest arch]

good job I like it

[woeful viper]

this should make tweaking physx a bit more pleasant...

[celest arch]

welll

ok 😄

by the way, have you got any issues with OB and Buldozer? Mine pops up a window "looking for external viewer" and I have to alt tab to it 3 or 4 times before buldozer actually loads

nothing major but annoying as fuck

[woeful viper]

i rarely use buldozer...

[celest arch]

me too, just during composition of lods / proxies

but when I do, I get annoyed to the bone. It's something with OB, because TB has no issues. Also, if I "send to" from windows explorer a proxy to buldozer (arma3.exe with parameters) it works straight away

[rapid tree]

Is this a custom made Elite Ranger ?

[modest perch]

yeah

https://discord.com/channels/105462288051380224/1371714757911908363

@rapid tree

[rapid tree]

Nice

[storm elk]

Quick question, I've been wondering what's considered good practice for small arm poly counts
I've been aiming for around 15k based on what I've read and heard but I'm wondering if I'm aiming a bit low

[stuck oyster]

15k for a weapon is on the high end

arma3 weapons start from around 5k

some might go above 10k

[charred bolt]

Probably about right. Could push it to 20k.

[stuck oyster]

but only if needed

[charred bolt]

Depends if a pistol or a dirty great mg.

[stuck oyster]

yeh

[eternal crater]

What of a robot model

Like an armor

[stuck oyster]

not really any vanilla comparison point.

default uniform is maybe 5-8k

so as little as you can make it with

is always best for performance

[eternal crater]

20k will be too much right

[stuck oyster]

it is rather high end

id try to cut it down if possible

[eternal crater]

Okay

[foggy coyote]

Hello all! I'm new here. I've been retexturing and texturing for about a year now. And I want to take my skills to the next level. I'm very interested in modeling high polly assests such as vests helmets, back packs and accessories. I haven't really had any modeling experiance but I've had a few people point me in the right direction. I've decided to use 3ds MAX. However I have no cluse how to use it lol. If someone would be kind enough to help me set it up so its ready to use and model for Arma specificly that would be much appreciated. Many Thanks Legonerd.

[north sundial]

I've been testing out the alternate shadow method using the named properties

sbsource visualex
prefershadowvolume 0

And it does save time and works pretty well but the model has "lines" all over it?

I've noticed this on BIS models that seem to use it too like the tanoa barracks

is there a method to fix this? or is it the tradeoff?

[stuck oyster]

it depends a bit on sun angle and if the surface is absolutely straight. not really much that can be done about it though

tradeoff basically

[north sundial]

Oh I see, well that makes sense seeing as the editor defaults to midday

[obtuse rain]

@foggy coyote Looking to do hard surface or organic (clothing/animals)?

Oh, you said that.

You might want zBrush or 3D Coat as well for adding detail to those kinds of things quickly.

For helmets and accessories you probably want to hit YouTube up for SubD modelling skills.

[fringe marlin]

Is it possible to have a physical property on a model that does not produce any bullet impact effects and holes? The whole purpose of the model is to be invisible and block any projectiles.

[stuck oyster]

custom penetration material perhaps

or one that does not have any effects

void.rvmat might be like that 🤔

but flesh is funnier

[fringe marlin]

i do have an rvmat and bisurf file, tho frankly no clue what i am doing. 😄

i can send the parts i have so far and which materials are references in the p3d

tried the values of the void.rvmat and bisurf, same result. lots of dirt kick up and visible bullet holes

[stuck oyster]

you used it in the firegeometry lod right?

[fringe marlin]

lemme check.

[stuck oyster]

ok so yeah void isnt really useful for that

you said you want it to block shots right? all of them?

[fringe marlin]

yup

the rvmat is in the vislod... guess that is the cause

[stuck oyster]

so void would let everything through

and from quick look vanilla dont have bisurf type for what you want to do so custom one is in order

Density=10000;
rough=0.1;
dust=0;
bulletPenetrability=0;
soundEnviron=Empty;
isWater=false;
friction=0.99;
restitution=0.33;
impact = hitMetal;
soundHit = Metal;
deflection = 0;```

so this is not yet complete

you would need impact sound that has no sound

and soundHit that has no sound

[fringe marlin]

the sound, is this just a cfgSounds entry or similar? because a sound file that has completely silent is made easily

[stuck oyster]

its this stuff yea

[fringe marlin]

yeah that looks like sound config

so, bullet holes are gone, but it still kicks up dust when shot.

[stuck oyster]

dust 0

[fringe marlin]

it is at 0

[stuck oyster]

it may be related to the impact = hitMetal part

dont remember off the top of my head

[loud agate]

https://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/41i74j/in_memory_of_one_of_the_greatest_video_game/

Well guys I did it, I finally did it. I finally figured it out.

[fringe marlin]

hmm alright. anything i can do there?

[stuck oyster]

also hit effects are tied to ammo

[fringe marlin]

i changed it to some other impact values, like hitPlastic and default_Mat. same result however

[stuck oyster]

try put the penetration rvmat on geometry lod and remove hitgeometry lod

[fringe marlin]

there is no geometry los, as it should be invisible and you should be able to walk and drive through.

[stuck oyster]

ah

right

so I think I recall the impact effect are be defined in the ammo classes instead

you can define the impact type in the rvmat

but the corresponding effect is defined in the ammo hitEffects

now I dont rember if ut defaults to default effect type or no effect if you create a new impact type

[fringe marlin]

hm alright, i wil be digging around that hit effects. i doubt i will create a new effect as that would mean adding it to every ammo in the game + mods which is just not feasible

[stuck oyster]

Try if it has any effect if its not defined

as it might not have any

[fringe marlin]

like this
impact = "";
or this?
impact = "totallyExists";

well, both are the same effect

still dust kicking up

[stuck oyster]

ok so it defaults to the "default" effect

[fringe marlin]

so it seems

[runic plover]

i did this to my Disruptor sonic beam

        {
            Hit_Foliage_green = "";
            Hit_Foliage_Dead = "";
            Hit_Foliage_Green_big = "";
            Hit_Foliage_Palm = "";
            Hit_Foliage_Pine = "";
            hitFoliage = "";
            hitGlass = "";
            hitGlassArmored = "";
            hitWood = "";
            hitHay = "";
            hitMetal = "";
            hitMetalPlate = "";
            hitBuilding = "";
            hitPlastic = "";
            hitRubber = "";
            hitConcrete = "";
            hitMan = "";
            hitGroundSoft = "";
            hitGroundRed = "";
            hitGroundHard = "";
            hitWater = "";
            hitVirtual = "";
            default_mat = "";
        };
    };```

in cfgAmmo

oh wait, you got a Object not a Weapon

[fringe marlin]

yeah sadly the other way around. tho switching over to just useing a3\data_f\penetration\plastic.rvmat worked

no idea why it did not take the custom rvmat at all

[main dune]

When it comes to shadowvolumes, I’ve been told and or read that it should be LOD 0 and 1000 with 1000 being an extremely low poly model. But someone just informed me that the LOD number is not in reference to distance or load order like normal LODs when it comes to shadows. Instead the number defines type of shadow or what the shadow is used for? Does anyone have any information on this? Or could weigh in?

[charred bolt]

SV0 (detailed) and SV10 (simple) for vehicles, that's the norm. Can't say why it's that way, but the numbers don't refer to distance.

[foggy coyote]

@obtuse rain What do you mean by hard surface and organic? And yeah I might be getting zBrush.

[tulip narwhal]

Hello,
Does anyone knows if the total mass defined in the oxigen LOD it is in KG?

And if It is overwritten by the mass on rtd xml ?

Thank you

[charred bolt]

Yes, Geometry LOD mass is in kg.
Can't remember if there is a mass parameter in the rtd, but if there is set it at the same value as in the Geo LOD.
Centre of Gravity distances from reference mem point (rtd_center) are important too.

If it works in buldozer, but not in game, then it indicates something missing in the config.cpp. Set the model.cfg hatch animation source class name to match that in the config.

[tulip narwhal]

So it should be and rtd_center memory point to reference all positions in the xml sections to that point. Right?

[obtuse rain]

@foggy coyote Hard Surface would be weapons and vehicles, where you tend to want the precise lines and curves you get from SubD modelling. Organic would be living/clothing, where you tend to want more hand-edited detail rather than precision.

For fabric folds and detail like stitching and lacing zBrush/3D Coat are going to be substantially better.

[slow pine]

how does doors work?
i see they are defined as a vertex group in the sample, but no idea how to create them.

[peak copper]

Why does my PTT & radio (left of the picture in red) not have a front mesh when it does in blender? It uses the exact same texture as the ones on the right, but the ones on the right are fine. I tried copy and pasting it and it does the same.

[peak copper]

memory points, 5 each door

1 door = 1 vertex group if im correct

each door needs a memory point on each corner and the doorhandle for the interaction

[slow pine]

how i set up the animation of the door?

[charred bolt]

Inverted faces?

[lone robin]

Appropriate named selection ie the doors vertex are named “Door_#” and then named selection in memory lod for both axis and trigger. Basic way is to have a vertex point where hinges would be and name that “Door_#axis” and then a single vertex point at the center of the door and that would be the trigger to open/close it and that would called “Door#_trigger” also geometry would require the doors to be present with named selection matching resolution lod so if res lod 0 has “Door_1” the geometry would also need “Door_1” for animation to work. Once that is done the rest is done in your model.cfg.

[slow pine]

thanks

[subtle bison]

in theory yes, but in reality not always. for example the ugv realistically should not weight 4.5t, etc but it has that much mass anyways. same with lots of other vanilla vehicles

so I guess the tl;dr is.. assign mass as much as you need, barely anyone cares

[tulip narwhal]

In this case , they are helicopter (uh-1h and ec-135h) models, so I guess components mass is important at least to properly define the center of gravity.

Not sure if that total mass is overwritten by the xml parameter which by the fact, exists ( @charred bolt ) but I think it does.

What I really thanks to Apollo is the rtd_center memory point thing. With that as reference for the positions of main rotor and tail rotor the model was flighing correctly at first attempt 😱

[white jay]

81mm Mortar baseplate

http://i.imgur.com/aGsLuMh.jpg

Proportions still of but hey

[charred bolt]

There is a trick with Geometry LOD mass distribution, which is to use "artificial mass" boxes, which contain most of the mass, but which are not assigned ComponentXX selection names (and therefore have no collision), which can be easily moved around to fine adjust Centre of Gravity. You might put 3/4 of the mass in those boxes, and auto-distribute the rest to the actual vehicle mesh (making sure each component is non-zero mass and not too low).
Object Builder can show the CofG by selecting the whole object in the Geo LOD and turning off direct3D, look for the cross hair.

[tulip narwhal]

Thank you !

[short marsh]

Okay my Tunguska is bouncing around like a ball, and was wondering how to fix it. I setup the Geometry LOD to the Sample Model to start with, but it's bounding around crazy (Incedentally I got the achievement for being Arma'd, so it wasn't for naught)

[charred bolt]

Could be any of a large bunch of things, so share as much detail as you can.
Including:

• Geo LOD and total mass
• Geo Phys LOD
• Memory LOD with wheel related points ONLY showing (4 window view)
• class Wheels { } code
• Other physx parameters from config.cpp
• Can you check animations in buldozer?
• What software are you building with?

[short marsh]

Geo LOD: 34000.000kg Geo Phys LOD: 8.145kg Class Wheels code is the Sample Model physx.hpp is attached. I can check anims, but which one? Object Builder

[charred bolt]

Screenshots of Geo and Geo Phys LOD too please.
Don't need to see animations in buldozer, just want to check you are able to view them if needed - some people can't get buldozer working.
What software do you pack with (make into pbo)? Addon Builder? Mikero? HEMTT?

[short marsh]

Addon Builder.

I stuck with the Sample Model for both Geo And Phys LOD though

[charred bolt]

Which one is Geo Physx?

[short marsh]

The one without the small boxes

[charred bolt]

Ok - so the driving interaction of the tank with the ground is fully controlled by physx code.
You shouldn't have any tracks modelled in the Geo Phys LOD, which could touch the ground.
Please refer to these posts on correct memory and Geo / Geo Phys LOD set-up:
#arma3_model message

[short marsh]

Okay

I don't think I have any tracks modeled but I'll raise the geo model up a bit to clear the ground, much appreciated.

[charred bolt]

What are those things then? lol

[short marsh]

Lol that's BIS's fault lol, don't blame me because they did the model wrong...

Oh, maybe I should lift it up though...

[charred bolt]

You could look at the example and reasoning I gave or continue to enjoy space flight

Just fully remove the tracks from the Geo Phys LOD and see if anything changes.

[short marsh]

Yeah maybe that's why, but I got the "Arma'd" achievement, so it wasn't for naught, but will do

[tulip narwhal]

This applies to helicopter skies? I have noticed also that if I remove the wheel part in the xml, helicopter slides alone as if it is wheeled.

removing that code helicopter slides

[charred bolt]

I kept the <wheel> params in, but it's super important to get the <MountStation> points correct.
On that heli I had ground contact points for Skid Front Left, Skid Front Right, Skid Front Left Tip, Skid Front Right Tip, Skid Back Left, Skid Back Right and Tail Skid.
I highly recommend you don't put any rotors in the Geo Phys LOD.

To answer your original question, no, heli's are different to wheeled or tracked vehicles and can have skids/gear in their Geo Phys LOD.

[tulip narwhal]

Thank you!

[gentle merlin]

Whats the correct way to reduce shader complexity for optimizing res lods? Can i just delete the stage for normal mapping for example?

[stuck oyster]

no stages cant be deleted, that breakst he whole rvmat

all reslods should use same rvmat

except in some cases last lod might have simpler one if its made as whats referred to as MLOD which is sort of as simple shape as possible with baked texture on it

house last lod could be basically just a box with with the texture of all the parts baked on it

[gentle merlin]

suppose im referring to that - i just read on the wiki you should do that for the very long-distance LODs

[stuck oyster]

vehicles/uniforms dont usually use that

they are small enough to drop from drawing when buildings still would swap to mlod

[gentle merlin]

i see

i suppose then i can just drop the use of a .rvmat alltogether for the long distance ones

[stuck oyster]

trees and foliage also use sort the sort of crossed billboard planes as last lod

[stuck oyster]

If it looks ok then sure, but the rvmat basically is still needed soon enough when the lods change so I dont think there is much benefit from that

maybe only when all the same type of things are veeery far away

but that usually changes fast

[gentle merlin]

understandable

[stuck oyster]

at far distance rvmat can fake shadowing for example

the textures mipmap so their draw impact lessens at distance

[gentle merlin]

for context im basically just trying to optimize as much as i possibly can (i already have 10 LODs) for my units (the uniforms especially are quite high res) - already at an acceptable performance level but still trying to find new ways if possible

based on what you're saying it's not exactly worth the hassle to do the whole last-lod no .rvmat thing

[stuck oyster]

often not 😅

with big buildings it can be good

[gentle merlin]

if there isn't anything else i might be missing (there isnt much it seems outside of setting lodnoshadow on res lods and using an okay amount of LODs) then i'll probably end the optimization there

[stuck oyster]

as they can stay at far distance more often

[stuck oyster]

sounds reasonable yes

[charred bolt]

10 LOD's I would suggest is unnecessary.
Even with a super high poly vehicle model at say 110k tri's, using the 50% reduction "rule"
1: 110
2: 64
3: 32
4: 16
5: 8
6: 4
7: 2
8: 1
You could go lower than 1k in the last LOD for non-vehicles, say down to 500 tri's, but even then that's only 9 LOD's when starting at over 100k and I don't think there is a measurable performance difference at such low polys with modern pc's.
A typical uniform might be 9k, so probably shouldn't require more than 5 res LOD's.
Of course, you can do as you feel, just giving some experience based advice which might save you unnecessary work or which actually might make things worse (not using 50% rule for example).

[gentle merlin]

hmm... i see... to give you an idea - it's for a unit, and all the slots combined for a single set (uniform, vest, headgear, backpack, facewear) are about 50k polys with 6 sections in total - the reason i went with 10 LODs is because previously i had 5, and it was switching to LOD 1 (with the max quality one being LOD 0) after about 20 metres, which is fair, but then after each couple of metres it would switch to LOD 2, then LOD3, all the way to LOD5, at practically the same distance (only a couple metres between them) - which no longer seems to happen with more LODs

im not sure if it's just the environment i was testing in or my settings that skewed the results, but practically skipping LODs1-4 and going almost immediately to LOD5 after like 25 metres was a bit odd

[stuck oyster]

the game is trying to optimize the scene as much as possible and different types of objects (unit, vehicle, house) likely have different rendering importances too

50k is pretty heavy too

for uniform

there is no settings of lod distances directly

[gentle merlin]

oh the uniform's like 20k, it's 50k combined (with a full set) of gear

[stuck oyster]

but there is a named property for skewing the lod importance

[stuck oyster]

right yes, still hefty for a unit id suppose.

[gentle merlin]

fair

[stuck oyster]

normal character probably barely breaks 20k with all gear

[gentle merlin]

yeeah

[stuck oyster]

it could be worth testing without some of the high lods just to see how it behaves at 20k-30k total range

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Named_Properties#loddensitycoef

and you can test this

[gentle merlin]

interesting... this is like the time it takes for a LOD to switch after being "triggered" for a switch?

[stuck oyster]

no it should kinda scale the switch distance

[gentle merlin]

ah

alright i'll tinker with these

right now the performance-quality ratio seems decent with the current 10 LOD setup but i'll experiment further

[stuck oyster]

if it works then its fine

[gentle merlin]

(Honestly if anyone spawns more than like 50 of the units im making within a 100 metre radius they're doing something wrong 😂 )

and about 150 was the mark where performacne started to dip

so it should be fine

[stuck oyster]

ah

but thats exactly what people will do

[gentle merlin]

of course!

lol

on the note of modern PCs - thing i did find weird is how drastically the max LOD did actually affect performance - im used to working in unreal (cinematic stuff) with scenes that have dozens of millions of animated polygons and being able to fly around at a smooth framerate, with dozens of materials per mesh, yet in arma it seems to have had more of an impact

i imagine more of the load is put on the CPU than it is on a GPU in a more modern engine

(granted last time i did work on something drastic like that it was in pure diffuse without lighting which might've played a part, but still)

[charred bolt]

I've done tests with models in scene around 1 million or more polys and it can cope fine. So if you were seeing issues with your gear set, it might be more to do with section count, which you can check in object builder.

[gentle merlin]

were they skinned and animated polygons? since iirc that makes quite a massive difference

it's 6 sections in total btw

[charred bolt]

Yes, fully textured and animated. Tested up to 60 million tri's and was still getting 15 fps. Noticeable drop off after 2 million but not much before. That was on my old pc too. I probably should re-do the test as it was informative, but conclusion to me at least, was that max poly count was no longer the key performance issue that it used to be. Particle effects, number of AI and pathfinding (map design), much more important.

[civic stratus]

If I have a selection defined in hiddenSelections[], but dont assign a texture to it, will that make it invisible by default?

[gentle merlin]

i see... yeah im gonna play around with it, reason i doubt it's the section count is because seeing the LODs switch quite clearly improves the FPS; yet all LODs have the same number of sections at the time 🤷

[deft jasper]

Im trying to make a bridge piece, but i cant gegt the textures and i also cant see it in the model viewer even i have applied, and i get a grey texture ingame when i applied light concrete...

iS ANYONE ABLE TO HELP?

caps sorry

[faint cave]

Sup, would anyone be able to get my blender model into arma 3 as a mod, would pay a few bucks. It's a headgear bandana with a skull attached to it.
Sorry if this is the wrong channel for this.
PS: I hate Arma Tools, with all of my machine spirit

[unique maple]

What's wrong?

[faint cave]

Tried, but it's just a pain in the arse and I dont want to learn it for just this one model, so Ill rather pay someone too do it for me, this one time

[muted lintel]

commercial use of the Tools is against the EULA, so paying someone to implement your 3d model is not allowed

[faint cave]

fuck me i guess

[unique maple]

What is the error you are getting? Have you tried Arma 3 Object Builder add-on for Blender

[faint cave]

commercial yeah, but what if the other person also bought Arma 3 those giving him access to Tools

[muted lintel]

No, being paid to make a mod is commercial use of the Tools

[faint cave]

I got the ArmaAToolbox for blender, is there something else to make my life easier?

[muted lintel]

doesn't matter if they own the game/tools or not

[faint cave]

okok

[unique maple]

it depends what the problem is? so what is the error you are getting when you try to export the model you've worked on?

[faint cave]

I dont have a problem per-say, my friend modeled me this asset and I just need to somehow bake the texture maps from blender

so I can add them to the file hiearchy

and continue

[unique maple]

So you clicked on to Shading on the top then Render icon on the right and with in Render clicked Bake button?

[stuck oyster]

there are tons of guides for basic blender use. Baking instructions will be pretty easy to find

[north sundial]

Is 30cm off the floor of the model too high for a path lod?

for some reason AI are able to walk into the path, open the door fine, walk around inside but when I tell them to walk out again they can't fathom it

all connected, pos points only assigned to one vertex and action begin and end points assigned to two

they just refuse to come out

And the mesh is triangulated

Just some overall weird behaviour
https://gyazo.com/9a515a24f7554aef5e2fa44643e950cc

[north sundial]

Redid the path lod from scratch and fixed, must've been something skewiff

[woeful viper]

now the "fun" part begins... making animation classes for all the gazillions buttons i painstakenly created

[restive pond]

what are the required LODs for an Arma 3 object/prop?

[gentle merlin]

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

[grizzled halo]

Hello fellas, got a couple of questions for you:

• For positioning of props (2m-3m) that are always intended to be standing, does defining the LandContact memory point defines how does it attach to the ground and what vectorUp does it follows?

• Using the property Autocenter = 1; makes the bounding box of the object the exact center of the model + additional clearance or does it make it a strict bounding box that uses the length, high and depth of the model as a defining factor for the box size?

• AI only requires a properly made Geometry LOD to be able to collide with it right? Not required to do horizontal pathway lods or anything similar, correct?

[stuck oyster]

1. Land contact points can be used with slopelandcontact named property to make object skew with the ground slope. (often used on wallsl

2. Autocenter takes the whole bounds of object (all lods) and centers it around that. Personally I hate that in terrain objects and have it disabled in everything I make so that I can define the center point myself.

Example of crappy autocentering would be the banana tree that is autocentered so that the actual plant is like 1 meter offset to the side of the "center"

3.geometry lod defines collision yes, roadway is for what surface can be walked on.

Working geometry limit is about 50 meter in diameter.(for typical terrain setup and how it gets split into grid)

[grizzled halo]

ty Goat!

[short marsh]

Okay I'm at this point with my Tunguska, and don't know what to do to get it to sit right. It slides along looking like this. I did some things and it got to this point. What do I have to edit to get it to sit properly?

[gentle merlin]

@charred bolt figured i'd just update you - turns out the performance isssue wasn't due to polycount, it was cause the shadow LOD was too detailed, and i can only assume overdraw was the reason it really chugged when too close

[high junco]

so i learned that the arma 3 character model fits in to my gundam, and that gave me an idea to mod it into arma 3 but idk how to mod, and idk if it should be a vehicle or armor, if anyone does want to try to mod it on there own time i will gladly send the model over just i would like to help with what i can and credit

[woeful viper]

Where did you get the character if you dont know how to mod? Making mechs is the hardest thing to do in this game... if you dont do it yourself, it's unlikely someone will.

[grizzled halo]

probably something to do with your center of mass

[short marsh]

Okay then what is the issue, do I center it or move it down toward the ground? I got to that point by centering everything

[grizzled halo]

try fully centering it in your work space

[short marsh]

Okay

[grizzled halo]

~~Im a bit confused, how are indexed animation sources supposed to be used?

I have an animation that must play upon reload.0 only but I dont see it activating on my end, its not even showing in the Object Builder previews~~

Nvm, I misunderstood the use of the indexed animations

[kind arrow]

Already assuming the answer is no because the base game never does it from what I can see but is it possible to hiddenSelections on weapon attachments?

Made an attempt same as I do for weapons but didn't work this time around

[short marsh]

As far as I know there isn't hidden selections for attachments, gotta make individual versions of camo and such.

[grizzled halo]

^^

sorry for the necro of this comment, does the ammo source work from 1 to 0 considering that ammoCount is, idk, 30?
so each bullet would be 0.033?
Or can we use the actual ammoCount?

nvm, I figured out what I was doing wrong

[kind arrow]

Fair, was my assumption. If it could be done through selections imagine BI would have done it for the apex green hex attachments and such. Thanks anyways

[short marsh]

Yeah so far no word on that, so maybe in the future, but I don't expect it to happen, so no problem

[kind arrow]

Not a biggy, was more something for 3rd party retexture support on the model rather than for doing variants

[short marsh]

Yeah it's no biggie either, but they don't do it for Pylon weapons. It'd be nice of course to save the amount of files, but as such we're stuck with what they do.

[azure pier]

Hey, I have a question about how you set up the rifle grenades if you do not mind

How did you set up the magazine proxy for the muzzle?

And what did the selection part of the model cfg look like?

And a general question: is there a way to add a model to the muzzle class itself so I can define a muzzlePos and end?

[empty vigil]

scroll up to see what the model.cfg part for the rifle grenade look like

[azure pier]

Sorry, meant the model itself

[empty vigil]

just use the arma 3 magazine proxy

same one used for your rifle mags

[azure pier]

Anything else? Naming, anything?

[empty vigil]

nothing else, just copy paste the one you already use for your rifle mag and place it at the muzzle
if it look out of place when you try it that mean your rifle grenade 3d model is not centered

[azure pier]

I see

[azure pier]

Now to see if I can make it work by adding a model to the muzzle class

[empty vigil]

oh almost forgot, the proxy you set at the muzzle, select it and also name it "grenade" you can see in the picture i made that when the player put is weapon on grenade launcher mode, it show the rifle grenade

[azure pier]

Okay, that MIGHT be why :P

[empty vigil]

lol its been a while since i touched it

[azure pier]

Thanks for your time

[high junco]

It was given to me by the guy who made the spartan armor for operation trebuchet

If ur talking about the mech I made it

[woeful viper]

there is a gundam mod for a3 (i recall seeing videos on yt) - but it always looked a bit wonky with the animation. (imo - not doing the mechs justice). Because they used a "simple" way to animate it, but it just drives like a tank basically...

[rare egret]

Don’t know if this is the right chat but does anyone know how to close the canopy/ladder but not the landing gear for the Firewill’s F-16 (doing it for screenshots)

[lone robin]

Correct spot would be #arma3_questions

[dim dew]

Can anyone help me importing objects into Arma 3?

[stuck oyster]

We do try to advice on the process but youll have to explain where you have problems

practice is best done with simple things

[rare egret]

Thank you

[grand cloak]

In object builder when respecifying texture paths, how do you use the name "mask"?

This stuff, Mass texture & material renaming tool.

[stuck oyster]

replace\*```

[grand cloak]

Saint, thank you.

[trim isle]

Hello guys, I'm finishing my studies in a week and I would like to start an adventure with the Arma 3 modification, I would like to create or import roads, if such roads exist, to Tanoa and slightly change it. The best way to start learning is to learn Blender for example or another tools? Ultimately I would like to change the Overthrow mod in my own way and I bet that to do it comprehensively I would have to learn scripts, SQF and C++ languages, but for now I'm thinking about some experiments with road textures.

[short marsh]

Yeah about that... You need the source files to do that, so that road texture project may need to be shelved.

[trim isle]

What do you mean by source files in this case? Could you write an example what it can be? 😊

[livid canyon]

For reference you can look at Arma 2 Samples roads, and how CUP Terrains have ported them.

[short marsh]

Source files being the in PBO'd files for the terrain, you can't modify a terrain without the source files. Like Ampersand mentioned you need to get the files from BIS and modify the textures for the roads, then pack it so the game can use it. Since you won't get the files you need to learn how to make a terrain of your own

[trim isle]

Thank you very much guys for explanation 😇 I wrote this in my diary for further searching and learning 😊

[short marsh]

No problem. However some modders that do mod stock terrains can help you though as I have a mini mod from years ago that retexures the Altis and Stratis terrain files so it looks better. It doesn't overwrite but it works great to retexture the roads, so there's some hope

[stuck oyster]

For small changes it may not be worthwhile thing to do.
Technically possible to path roads to new file through config, but if you don't know how the road shape file works and how you could edit it.
It is little bit unknown if it would work fully either.

[short marsh]

Is it Arma to have units walk through a container? I don't mind it because it doesn't really affect life in the game, but I notice that the AI will walk around a vehicle and trying to make my containers more believable if they don't walk through it. So the question is what do I have to do so they walk around it I got the View Geometry but I don't know if I need to do something special for it.

[stuck oyster]

where is the container?

is it inside a building?

AI walking on building path will ignore objects "blocking" its path

[short marsh]

No it's outside

[stuck oyster]

is it animated?

[short marsh]

Usually I pick it up for a mission

Some are, like the mortar and so on

[stuck oyster]

can you as player walk through it?

[short marsh]

I don't think so, never tried honestly

[stuck oyster]

geometry lod is what dictates collision

[short marsh]

Okay

[stuck oyster]

and its what AI avoids too

[short marsh]

I do have them, guess it's just Arma then?

[stuck oyster]

test if you can walk through it Id suppose

[short marsh]

Okay

[stuck oyster]

could be geometry is invalid

[short marsh]

Okay if it is then what do I do? I have the gravity boxes for the geo lod, but not sure if I need them

[short marsh]

Well I can walk through it, so it's valid, just Arma being Arma I guess

[short marsh]

Yeesh I should watch my spelling

[charred bolt]

If you have a valid Geometry LOD and mass set, then you should NOT be able to walk through it.

[short marsh]

Yeah I messed up, I can't walk through it, so the Geo LOD works, wasn't paying attention to detail when typing

[stuck oyster]

this is not an advertising channel

[stuck oyster]

if you want to make stuff thats fine

taking is not

[queen heath]

Bro i try to export weapon from blender in p3d format but blender give lods error if a anyone can help me

[unkempt onyx]

hi all this is a big ask but ive recently made a model with a friend of a aircraft in blender and was wondering if any1 could help me get to the process from model to arma 3

[crimson zodiac]

I'm trying to re-skin an existing in game uniform and the vanilla normal map is affecting the outcome. So I see there are vanilla normal maps in the folder and I'm thinking how can I add a custom normal map to my uniforms?

idk if this is the right place to post or if I should go to texture makers instead..?

[south badge]

One day people will learn to describe their problem in detail right away.

But it is not this day.

[obtuse rain]

The problem is a lot of the mid-frequency detail is encoded into the normal map too (like fabric wrinkles).

One thing you could do though is convert the existing normal map to a height map, edit that, then convert it back to a normal map.

[crimson zodiac]

How can I do that? Also how would I be able to apply that to the existing uniform?

[obtuse rain]

There's a few tools that do it.

Substance Designer has a node that can do it if I recall correctly.

[crimson zodiac]

Okay thanks. And do I just apply it through the config? Is there a variable that does that or do I have to apply it to the actual .p3d model?

[muted lintel]

advanced tank movement, Its crazy what tech is available in 2035

[short marsh]

Well I restarted, but this is where I'm at. I know it needs textures and all, but it tends to go on the right side now

It doesn't slide around though

[stuck oyster]

physX wheel config dont match whats on the model

[short marsh]

So how do I match it?

[stuck oyster]

so it makes wheels at default radious at model 0,0,0

[short marsh]

Okay

[stuck oyster]

write wheel config one wheel at a time

and make sure corresponding memorypoints exist

[short marsh]

Okay I do that how? I don't know what to edit

[stuck oyster]

have you studied the sample tank?

[short marsh]

Somewhat, I'm trying to follow it step by step

[stuck oyster]

well it has the physX config part you can look at

[short marsh]

Or close to it for the vehicle I'm doing

Yeah I got the physx stuff handy

[stuck oyster]

and find corresponding memorypoints that the config refers to

[short marsh]

Okay

And match them up to the physx?

So the bonename would be a named selection then?

From the physx to the model right?

[charred bolt]

I've written quite a lot about setting up tank physx in the past. Do a search on my posts with "physx" if you're interested.

[short marsh]

Okay I will. But looks like I need to redo the whole axises and stuff

Now it's doing this:

[short marsh]

Where do I find this content then? Is it on the defunct BI Forums?

[livid canyon]

In this channel

[short marsh]

Yeah found the search function, but what do I do to fix the above? Looks like I'm close to solving this issue.

[livid canyon]

Everything just has to be correct. Look at the information and screenshots that were requested from the last person being helped, ie mempts, and provide those.

[short marsh]

Okay

[livid canyon]

I see a few that don't look like they are aligned vertically

[short marsh]

Okay, so which ones do I move then?

[livid canyon]

Either the center or the boundary. Those 2 for each wheel need to be in a vertical line.

[short marsh]

I fixed the Basic Damper Okay

[stuck oyster]

anything that moves needs to be perfectly aligned and centered

basically

[short marsh]

Okay so I need to just align stuff?

I did some of that, but it's still raised up like that in the above pic.

[stuck oyster]

you also need to set damper animation length

[short marsh]

Okay, DampingRateInAir?

[stuck oyster]

no in model.cfg

[short marsh]

Okay, what value do I need to adjust?

[stuck oyster]

I dont remember specifically

cant do that close hand holding sorry

[short marsh]

Haha okay no worries, I can ask around

[stuck oyster]

Apollo has really explained these all in the past

[short marsh]

Yeah I looked them up, and didn't see many posts on it, so no help on that.

Unless I'm missing something

[stuck oyster]

he does have almost 6000 messages to go through here Id suppose 😅

[short marsh]

Yeah I'm trying to filter them'

[livid canyon]

We need Apollo Samples xD

[stuck oyster]

the Apollo Files

[short marsh]

Yes we do, I think I got it working though

Messed with the mem points and stuff, and it's sitting almost good now

[steep inlet]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3268417231&searchtext=ihwcu

i want to add this uniform model to my mod, and the owner already gave me permission, but how exactly do i add this to my mod without visual glitches etc

[pallid nexus]

If you don't mind having a dependency, then just extend the base class with retexture configs
If you want to avoid a dependency, it should just be copy the model files over, and set file paths appropriately
Just matching the file layout and config structure in the IHWCU mod should work

[steep inlet]

so lets just say the path of the original mod's pbo is characters_f_ihwcu/uniforms/.p3d

i have to match it?

[pallid nexus]

If you are using it as a dependency, then follow this: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=238437456, probably still useful for retexturing with model transfer, since the process is about the same
This is useful for both methods: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Characters_And_Gear_Encoding_Guide
If you are copying files over, the path must be the internal path for Arma 3
Vanilla stuff is a3/characters_f/data/... as far as I remember, and obviously varies depending on the model
If you have P: drive set up properly, and are using pboProject, then the path is just the path to the file on the P: drive without the drive letter

If you aren't already using pboProject or hemtt, you should start
Both catch addon errors much sooner, and you will have less issues and waste less time fixing minor config erros
(Catching errors while packing the pbo is much better than getting to starting the game, only to find that a semicolon is missing in a config files)

[steep inlet]

no im not using it as a dependency, im making it completely standalone

[steep inlet]

ill see what i can do!

[steep inlet]

i believe this issue is because of the rvmat file, how do i fix this?

[stuck oyster]

Without source files from the maker you cant

You can only use it as dependency

Which would be the proper way

Otherwise you just bloat workshop with duplicate data

[steep inlet]

ask the maker it is

[limpid bobcat]

Is there a Arma3 mod that tries to keep up to date with near future vehicles and weapon systems?

I found the "AbramsX" mod but it doesn't seem that accurate to what we know about the M1E3 Abrams.

[short marsh]

Kinda the wrong topic for that question

Wrong channel more like it, go to #arma3_questions

[stuck oyster]

Nope

[limpid bobcat]

Couldn't get a response in General so i tried to think what group would have the best chance of knowing.

[stuck oyster]

#arma3_questions Is best place when you don't know.

No answer can also mean there isn't anything like what one asks for.

[limpid bobcat]

I get that, but generally from my experience the lack of an answer just means nobody knows.
Sometimes you fall into a random group who is working on such a thing.

Thank you though

[foggy coyote]

@obtuse rain Ok I get what you mean now! Yeah so for me I would like to do vests and stuff like that. I will look inot getting a copy of Zbrush. Many thanks. I may be back for some more help on how to use it 😃

[south badge]

Could someone please help me figure out how to get rid of this muzzle flash? I haven´t defined any memory points for it or added any proxies, it simply shouldn´t be there. I don´t know if this is something that is getting inherited from somewhere or not, I just need it gone

[marsh canyon]

This is not a part of model but config, aka particle

[south badge]

let me check. I defined some stuff in there, but not a muzzle flash

I assume it is inhereted from the missiles_titan_static weapon

Hmm, the config only shows the two effects that I defined

(AutoCannonFired)

[stuck oyster]

Gun particles are the effects yes.

I don't think that's muzzle flash though.

Maybe something in the ammo

[charred bolt]

{
    effectsMissileInit = "RocketBackEffectsStaticRPG";
    initTime = 0.1;
};```

Create your own ammo and remove the missile init effect that you are inheriting.
```class tklama_M_Titan_AT: M_Titan_AT
{
    effectsMissileInit = "";
    initTime = 0.1;
};```

[south badge]

ahhhh, I see, cheers, I didnt know about this

Okay, seemingly this is actually the **muzzleEffect ** inside the ammo. My effectsMissileInit was empty already.

Though I cant figure out how to animate the position of the muzzleEffect. Even though I used the ammo source to change the position of the missile based on ammo count, this does not seem to affect the **muzzleEffect **

[bright echo]

those ammo effects are pretty basic and only have the position of the projectile

they're probably running before you move them

[south badge]

Yeah I worked around it by removing it and replacing it with a proxy that I can move together with the missile

cheers 🙂

[north sundial]

Kinda odd one, im getting a weird stuttering when a specific strucutre is placed, Its something to do with the geometry as when I pack the model without the geometry the stuttering goes away. Its all closed and convex topology, correctly weighted got all the components assigned, no sharp edges, creases or bevels in terms of the attributes in blender.

All faces have the correct normals, no split normals or sculpt mask data. No animations applied to it. The total components are 144 with 2208 faces (they are triangulated), In contrast I have a very complex structure that has 18.6k faces and over 1000 components (Im aware this sounds insane, the shape of it required it) and It has none of the stuttering issues whatsoever.

For the life of me I cannot figure it out, any ideas?

https://gyazo.com/a9ccad68df39a1036307fe299d30a23a

As can be seen here, the first object causes stuttering, but then multiple other objects dont and a much bigger and complex object doesn't either. i've got not clue what the issue is

I've also tested lowering the section count to 1 but still has the issue

[charred bolt]

Try running it on the diagnostic exe from dev branch and check the rpt afterwards.

[north sundial]

Will give that a go

Nothing of use unfortunately, It mentions some of the path lod points are too high to be used and that the container was moved? Im assuming when I placed it

Moved object d82ce080:tcp\structures\military\deployable\fob_utilitycontainer_01\fob_utilitycontainer_01.p3d (class Building) not in landscape 1828.21,5627.96 (0,0).

in debug.log there is this
62.484: Skeleton FOB_UtilityContainer_01_Skeleton does not have pivot file defined. Fallback to matrix based animation blending. Setup CfgSkeletonParameters/FOB_UtilityContainer_01_Skeleton/pivotsModel.

but things like some of the cargo houses have the same thing so probs not that?

[celest arch]

Hello people, let's say I want to bulk-edit a named property in the geolod for 50 p3ds. Is it possible to do it?

I tried with notepad++ but when I change my property, the geolod disappears from the p3d

[stuck oyster]

Normally buildings don't have anything to do with pivots model

Why does yours use one?

Do you use rtms on you building for something?

[north sundial]

Nope, no rtms

How would I check incase somehow one has been applied or something?

[stuck oyster]

Configs I suppose

[north sundial]

Ah then no, no rtms defined in the configs

There were loads of structures and prop things throwing that error on the debug log too

Like the cargo houses and I think a portaloo haha

[stuck oyster]

That does not sound great

[north sundial]

Yeah not sure really, loads of basegame stuff has that error

[stuck oyster]

Without mods too?

[north sundial]

Id have to check that part, will give it a go later

[limpid egret]

is there a good tutorial or documentation on how I'd make a vehicle mod from scratch? Every tutorial I could find on youtube is 10 years old and is more so about repurposing an existing vehicle than anything else

[cloud zealot]

I learned watching videos on Youtube. These 10 years old videos are useful. Get Arma 3 Samples and take a loot at the samples, it will help you. In order to have a good understanding of Arma 3 engine, starting with a boat can be usefull

[obtuse rain]

voltagenetworks: You'll have to use hiddenSelection textures to point it to a new rvmat.

[stuck oyster]

No

[south badge]

Is there any reason why some reputable content creator hasn't yet made publicly available an unbinarized version of some of his mod?

It would certainly help a lot of people, no?

[livid canyon]

Are you suggesting that you're disreputable? XD

[hollow fulcrum]

🍺

[stuck oyster]

Some have made. but honestly there is very little to be seen.

Model.cfg animations all follow same rules and configs connect to memory points/selections same way

[hollow fulcrum]

@celest arch Thats a good question. I can't actually think of anything that would do that directly in automagical form without rigging. Which named property you wanting to add?

[short marsh]

I've been thinking for some of my work on a GitHub style format for those interested, given that I've done some stuff and so on. Overall it really depends on what they want to be usable and so on, stuff like IP rights and so on is a big concern.

[south badge]

From my experience it would have definitely helped me to have debinned files, p3d and configs with commented lines explaining what does what. At least during the period when one is only starting out, is trying to use the wiki and so on.

Particularly for someone like me, who isn't naturally gifted when it comes to configs and programming languages.

Though one could reason it might be too late into A3's life cycle already

[warped mural]

yes please gib well explained guide so i dont have to watch 8yo 5h long yt videos for troubleshooting something minor

lots of ppl here have plenty of knowledge that could be used to make a sort of 'book' about different aspects of modding arma that could be very useful to non experienced modders

ofc its not like you guys would get paid to make it, you would be making it of your own free time and will, but it sure would help plenty of ppl

[stuck oyster]

sure

but we dont really have that kind of time

or energy

or skill to write it

its not like people hoard the knowledge

but its not always very easy to share in easy to digest coherent way

I doubt you would read 100 page book to solve that minor thing either

[warped mural]

fair

[stuck oyster]

like how do you explain/write down 10 years of experience in this stuff

I sometimes conteplate it

[warped mural]

a text document can be searched for specifics
for videos i feel like the transcript isnt reliable, could end up wasteing time trying to find something that isnt there

[stuck oyster]

oh yeah video is not good format for this

I contemplate writing more stuff down sometimes but it usually ends up trying to figure out how far down does the guide need to go to be useful

"to turn on the computer make sure its plugged in and press the power button"

so best I've managed are the horribletips I sometimes pin on these channels

[warped mural]

im thinking of maybe a tutorial going step by step on how to add lets say a weapon into the game from scratch, then its sectioned off into 3d modeling, model config, config, functions, animations, other stuff idk, then it has comments in all lines giving a brief explanation of what each line does. Somewhere near the end of that section it could have a longer explanation or different example for the more complicated lines of code.

[stuck oyster]

yeeeh

[warped mural]

yea i see your point

[stuck oyster]

thats a ton of work 😅

[warped mural]

yea, one can only dream😢

[celest arch]

I wanted to switch from dammage tree to dammage wall (a2 to a3)

did it by hand 200 models 😐

[hollow fulcrum]

thats sub optimal

[celest arch]

definitely not optimal for my wrist

[hollow fulcrum]

you have more to do, or was that all of them?

[celest arch]

for that property, it was all of them

but maybe in the future I'll need to bulk edit some more stuff.... far future 😄

[hollow fulcrum]

haha gotcha. holla if it happens again. pretty sure it can be automated without too much buffoonery.

[obtuse rain]

Are these unbinarized? O2 has SQF scripting support and a command line version to run batch jobs.

[celest arch]

mlods yeah.... ok I'll check it out!

[obtuse rain]

Failing that I could probably whip up something, but I'm pretty sure that'll work.

[celest arch]

thanks 😃

[obtuse rain]

O2Script.exe is the command line version.

And there's a folder in there with existing scripts and a command reference.

[celest arch]

/*
Named selections manager 1.3:

File:
namedSelections.bio2s.

Author:
Joris-Jan van 't Land
Bohemia Interactive Studio

Description:
This tool is used for managing named selections in models.

there it is

no sorry fail

but yeah, guess I could arrange somehting up

[hollow talon]

I created a building and when I'm running around on it, it suddenly disapears, but then reappears as soon as you look back or to a different angle. What would cause this issue?

The building is 20m x 20m x 32m high

[hollow fulcrum]

the size should be fine so long as it's centered on the origin.

if it's not that could cause issues. how many res lods do you have?

there is a thought rolling around in the back of my head somewhere that is 'the typical' cause of this. but for the life of me i can't recall what it is.

[north sundial]

Webknight does alot of his stuff as open source

Things like buildings, weapons and vehicles are quite clearly documented in the a3 samples

[obtuse rain]

Is your geometry LOD representative of the bounds of the house? If the bounding box ends up wrong (which you can check in eliteness) it might be culled from drawing based on that.

[sullen jasper]

For me it took few days to learn how to write configs

Right now im learning modeling for my group

But true trying to find some good tutorials is hard

[hollow talon]

k, I'm back, well I don't think the building is perfectly centered. And the Geometry LOD isn't one object, it's a few different objects. Also I'm using proxies for the different parts of the building, because there would be too many verties if it was in a single file

I only have 1 Res Lod, a Geometry Lod, Fire Geometry Lod, and then a Roadway Lod

I'll be adding more Res Lods, just haven't gotten that far yet

[marsh canyon]

"Don't ask to ask just ask"

[obtuse rain]

Do the proxies extend outside the primary geometry substantially?

If so you might need to move the geometry into the main model.

The BIS buildings often just have LOD 1 in proxies and every other LOD in the main model.

[grizzled halo]

yep, but you got to consider that a lot of the stuff WBK does is out of the ordinary. Very few people have the time or expertise to do the kind of mods he does, especially custom creatures. Without a stablished framework and a strong animation team, its next to impossible. I assume that why he does it open sourced as much as possible, to avoid people bombarding him day and night in how he did x y or z in his mods.

It's not like people go and ask him VERY specific questions in how to achieve similar functions that could be answered concisely because people who know what they are trying to achieve usually tend to do their own solutions, like Phenosi for example, but the grand majority just straight ask him "wow, how did you do it?" It just saves time for everyone asking and for him explaining

[hollow talon]

k, and yes the proxies do extend outside the primary geometry lod. I'll go ahead and put in the geometry lod of all the proxies into the main file

[north sundial]

Yeah that was my point, the files are open sourced so people can learn from them as they are abit left field. Standard stuff like the types of things I mentioned previously are appropriately documented in the a3 samples so poeple can learn from them

Nearly everything is commented in the code

[south badge]

Appropriately documented

A3 samples

Pick one

I found them to be rather rubbish

[grizzled halo]

yeah, documentation for modding A3 is a bit weird, I understand why coding is the main focus, but the wiki has a severe issue of redundant info or separated/orphaned info that can lack context. There is also the issue that a lot of the things in there are written in a way that feels like you need to have previous modding experience that while make sense once you dip yourself in how to do stuff, for a total newbie can be quite cryptic.

[bold flare]

we need newcomers who recently understood how it works, to do wiki editing and explain it on a newcomer level

[south badge]

What should be my goal when it comes to the last resolution LOD of a vehicle?

Should all misc objects on the outside of the vehicle (antennas, hatches, tools, whatevers) be reduced down to their most primitive shapes, or should they be completed deleted?

If I delete them I end up with a lower polycount, but then I run into the issue of some chunks of geometry "appearing" out of thin air when the game switches from the last LOD to the penultimate one

[grizzled halo]

irl, antennas basically blur with env and vehicle shape +200m unless observed with high clarity magnification, I just end up removing them beside 3rd lod

[south badge]

Maybe this is my problem during the texturing process, but when using procedural masks in SP practically all objects like this get a layer of dirt under them (due to AO), and when I remove them from the model completely it uncovers the dirt and it is pretty visible even at longer ranges

Mostly flatter, rectangular components that cover up some "space"

hatches, ropes etc like this are a pretty good example

[grizzled halo]

its kinda normal unless you make your own materials. I recently had to tweak mine to make dirt less visible too since it was generating coloring artifacts

You could also do a separate CO texture for longer distances if it bothers you that much I guess but that might be a bit extra

[rare zodiac]

New to looking at models, probably a known issue, not seeing any immediate messages about it: trying to open any model in the object viewer, I get an error and the program closes. The log in the same folder mostly has this error when trying to load the extensions:
23:49:28 - [7A60](Plugins) Invalid module. Missing link to InitPluginModule function (127)
Am I missing something on how the program is supposed to work? I've tried through the command line (ObjectBuilder and O2Script) and without steam.

[hollow talon]

the building is still acting up, not sure why, but I'll continue to try different approaches

[bold flare]

Verify files via steam?
Never seen that before

[charred bolt]

Did you get it all working? If you're still stuck and haven't been able to solve it, you can zip up all the files needed to build the project and DM them to me, I'll take a look for you.

[north sundial]

Just for documentation purposes, I figured this out, the root cause was cylinders in my roadway because I was lazy when making it and just copied some of the cylinder parts which seems to make the calculation for physx go abit haywire if the faces are connected but have differing normal directions

if you imagine this cylinder was complete and went the whole way round

Idiotic on my part but make sure your roadway mesh only points relatively up haha

[charred bolt]

You probably don't want a roadway LOD on a vehicle. It breaks something important (but I can't remember what!).

[stuck oyster]

@north sundial are these parts actually something one might walk on?

[north sundial]

easily

Its ramped so I thought id put it on to stop people doing the bumpy stuff when interacting with geo without roadway

mainly just there as a catchall

[north sundial]

Just a static (atleast atm) so doesn't move

[charred bolt]

That's ok then. I looked up my notes - it breaks mid-air spawning for air vehicles.

[north sundial]

Interesting, breaks in what way?

like they just fall to the ground?

[charred bolt]

Destroys the engines and falls to the ground iirc

[north sundial]

Not ideal haha

[short marsh]

I have Quiggs looking at it now. I don't know when he'll get to it, but if he doesn't in a few days I'll DM you with the mod.

[charred bolt]

It was a time limited offer for today as I had some free time, now passed.

[short marsh]

Drat didn't know that, It'll probably be available next time your free time is ready. He's a busy man, so I don't expect a quick turnaround, maybe next time.

[short marsh]

Was thinking if I could shoot you the files anyway so if it comes up (a free time) you'd have the files already? Or just hope for next time?

[cosmic blaze]

Hello. I am trying to make skyscraper models for an arma 3 terrain. Are there any considerations that I should take note of? Like is there an engine constraint on model size and if so how do mods like OPTRE implement skyscrapers in their mod?

[stuck oyster]

Footprint of 50x50 meters is safe. Beyond that collision clipping is likely happen.

Height can be more, but the larger the object, the larger it's simulation range. which can lead to bad performance.

The model will need very good optimized resolution lods.

[lethal anchor]

Heya all, I am looking to make a custom weapon. I've got some experience in Arma 3 modding (years ago), I'd like to know if there are any updated tools or practices, or even a tutorial. I could take a look at?

[charred bolt]

Unfortunately no spare time expected for rest of the month but you have someone else looking at it so should be good.

[short marsh]

Okay fair enough

[icy dirge]

Hey guys i got this Bench im making but the action point is behind the bench.. How do i change that?

[finite stump]

Is there a setting for a model that when you set it to be simple object and local only in a mission that it wont throw non network object errors?

[bold flare]

No. You need to not use any networking commands on it. But often its mods doing it that you have no control over

[storm elk]

I've been working on a uniform and I was wondering what causes this to happen. I've tried playing with the head and neck weightings but it doesn't seem to fix it. I'm hoping I don't have to go back and tweak the mesh lol

[terse elm]

hey @hollow fulcrum long time no speak

[stuck oyster]

Too tight model combined with bad weighting

And possibly the suit neck topology is too different cut so it can't follow the vanilla mesh movement

[storm elk]

Damn, time to tweak the model I guess
Thanks man

[gentle merlin]

A good trick is to firstly match the topology of the part that is overlayed on the neck with the neck's topology, and then use the data transfer modifier in blender to match the weights, will eliminate any clipping if it works well

[storm elk]

Thats what I did, I think its just too tight

[gentle merlin]

It mustve not applied right or you didnt match it perfectly cuz otherwise it would wrap around, i can tell especially on the back of the neck that its nowhere near close. It could be 0.0001m tight as long as those elements match and it wouldnt clip

[stuck oyster]

Triangulation also needs to match so mesh deforms same way

[storm elk]

This is the current set up I've got. Other than some small spots it should be fine no? Maybe it's a triangulation issue like goat mentioned?

[marsh canyon]

If your uniform is (supposedly) compatible with any head in Arma 3, you shouldn't do this but add the head as a proxy

[storm elk]

You shouldn't add the head as a proxy? I was under the impression that's how the head was added to the uniform?

[marsh canyon]

"But" add the head as a proxy

[warped mural]

i think it is, hes just using this head model as a reference

[storm elk]

Oh sorry I misunderstood lol, no I was just using the head as a reference for the screenshot

[marsh canyon]

I see

[stuck oyster]

it does not match the topology at all basically

[storm elk]

Mm, I see what you mean. Thanks man

[stuck oyster]

it might work with right weighting

but also it might not

also you will want to triangulate before making textures and exporting to game

[gentle merlin]

Yeah what goat said - the topology is vastly different

You either match the topology or you make it wider and try more weight adjusting

[subtle bison]

since last update my o2 can't start buldozer anymore correctly. it crashes o2. does anyone know what might have happened?

[bright echo]

need to remake bin folder etc

arma3p can do it for you

[short marsh]

You gotta copy over some files to the Buldozer folder in order to get it working.

[rotund jetty]

Hello, we're building a shooting range in Arma 3 and animating its model. Each booth will have a button. Once there, we'll click it to move forward and then return after shooting.

[stuck oyster]

You will want to learn how model.cfg animations work.

Button actions are configured in the buildings/objects config.cpp user actions and the animation are set up in the model.cfg.
That kind of rail needs only simple translation animations

[subtle bison]

doesnt seem like the issue this time. i just ran arma3p again to regen everything, but it still crashes

also it takes a lot of time for o2 to find a viewer before it even starts

it's also not buldozer that is crashing, but o2

hm. maybe this is a model issue.

ok, i need to do more tests.

[south badge]

Sounds like the model is above the bulldozer vertex limit?

I am getting the same crash if I try to open a model above the limit via bulldozer

[subtle bison]

yeah, looks like it for now.. this is a test model with lots of crap in it.

but it was crashing with everything else before i ran arma3p, and it took a long time to find the viewer, so either way, i fixed something

[subtle bison]

started the game, tested something, went back to o2.. now it's searching a long time for a viewer again. this is so annoying.

[north sundial]

Do you have the arma 3 launcher open?

[subtle bison]

yes, but it was never an issue in the past

[north sundial]

I’ve found that conflicts and causes long load times recently

Close it and restart the viewer

Works for me at the very least

[subtle bison]

god damnit, you are right

[north sundial]

Happy to help 🙂

[subtle bison]

what an annoying issue

[subtle bison]

random question. is it possible to detect if it's "dark" (sun down) via model.cfg?

[stuck oyster]

no but something like sun angle would be super useful animationSource

[subtle bison]

damn. a script it is, then.

[sudden bridge]

Same for me !

[grizzled halo]

eyyyyyy, green name. Gratz!

[south badge]

Is it possible to make a static weapon work with an extendable tripod / base?

I can´t figure out how how to deal with the gunner proxy.

If I model and setup everything in the lowest position then extending the weapon would presumable lift the player off the ground if I link the proxy to the weapon bone. But if I do not link the proxy to the weapon bone then it will look weird as the player´s position will not move together with the weapon, resulting in it looking bad.

[stuck oyster]

you can link proxy to move up

and then have legs tied to a legIK bone that negates the body moving up

[south badge]

Hmmm 🤔

[stuck oyster]

so the legs stretch down but rest of the body moves up

alse hands can be tied to the gun itself to keep them on the handles

[south badge]

Is there any reference anywhere I could look at?

[stuck oyster]

[south badge]

The hands I do know, didnt know about the legs

[stuck oyster]

why so hard questions 🤣

[stuck oyster]

pretty much same but different config variable

same thing controls things like feet moving with pedals

[south badge]

Ah, is there a config entry? I'll have to go take a look

Okay cheers

[stuck oyster]

the config entry defines what vehicle selection hands/legs are tied to

also same thing for driver

so hands move with driving wheel etc

I made pretty nice use of this in the SOGPF TOW jeep

[south badge]

Yeah I am aware I have already done that for drivers, didn´t cross my mind I could use this solution for the gunner as well

[livid canyon]

Clearly you haven't made enough helicopters! XD
Also you are solving a 20-yo problem of tripod statics juuust not being able to shoot over a rock or fence 💪

[south badge]

or not being able to see due to a single blade of grass

[subtle bison]

daily question: anyone knows if it is possible to make those volume light 3d models show up only in NVG mode?

for example the vehicle proxy lights

maybe it's rather a texture question, not sure.

[charred bolt]

In their class Reflector,
irLight = 1; // infra-red only

[raw rivet]

is this a weighting issue on the shadow lod or a proxy thing even though my shadow lod has no proxies

[charred bolt]

Probably the shadow isn't closed.

[tacit karma]

I hate helmets...
http://abload.de/img/rhs_promo_6b7m19psnm.jpg

[hollow fulcrum]

@terse elm hey buddy, yeah.. MIA for minute battling white coats.

back in action though! prepare for more porn. although i haven't touched anything since about 2 days after you all saw me last haha

[terse elm]

i would like to borrow your moment of ur time at some point ran into a few issues with some projects, if thats ok

[hollow fulcrum]

sure you want to meet me on the AS teamspeak?

[terse elm]

cant right now, maybe tomorrow or later tonight?

[hollow fulcrum]

later tonight is good. i'll be tied up tomorrow around that time in your world.

[solid nexus]

hey everyone, posting this before I go to bed. How do I properly export my files from substance painter? I seem to be stuck at this preset issue. I followed this guy’s tutorial: https://youtu.be/l5NvcEnS8m4?si=iN9oJgInpKYfsZja but my .sdmi png is not exporting because of a texture set issue. I can send pictures in the morning if that helps

[subtle bison]

yes, but that doesn't have an effect on the proxy model?

(i actually didnt tried it, just assumed)

ok it actually is affected by it. i really should have tried first

[stuck oyster]

You'll want to copy the shadow from the sample man. You have copied your up in uniform directly into shadow lod and yes it's broken but it's also way too detailed.

[rotund jetty]

I have a model like this. I adjusted the UVs but they are all intertwined. How can I solve this? I will transfer it to Arma 3 without damaging the UVs. It should be a single mesh.

[stuck oyster]

is it a model you made?

[rotund jetty]

yes

[stuck oyster]

what kind of texturing you intent to do on it?

[rotund jetty]

We'll just adjust these UVs.

[stuck oyster]

overlapping uv is normal if you use multiple materials/textures

but if its all in one texture, then it can not overlap

[rotund jetty]

we will combine it all

[stuck oyster]

you probably want to look into multimaterial for this

combining it into single texture would make it look very low resolution

[rotund jetty]

Can I send you the model?

[stuck oyster]

sorry no I cant do that hands on helping

its just stuff you got to learn

[rotund jetty]

When you pack it all in, UV maple gets damaged and grows.

v

I can open a screen for you

[vital hare]

Hello, do you know why my object disappears as soon as it is above or below water? thanks for the help

I've already tested rvmat but that's not the problem, even without rvmat the problem remains

[woeful viper]

Hey look, the Hatchet is back 😃

[stuck oyster]

What type of shader have you used for it in the rvmat?

Have you both solid and transparent parts on same texture?

How do you pack the pbo?

[vital hare]

I use a wood texture wood_CO.paa and a grid texture grille_CA.paa and I use pbo project for pack

[hollow fulcrum]

haha hey buddy, how are things in your world?

[woeful viper]

well its getting a bit stressfull... master thesis deadline is soon :/

[hollow fulcrum]

oof, better you than me! i did see some imagery of your doings the last couple days. looking stellar as usual.

still waiting for a tank to drive around and fire massive projectiles at things 😀

[woeful viper]

thx... i shouldnt be doing that though xD i spend way too much time with it when there is more important things to do

[hollow fulcrum]

meh.. pretty sure thats all of us here.

[woeful viper]

doesnt help to have crazy ideas for your virtual fantasy tank toys when trying to write something "academic" with sense

[hollow fulcrum]

😆 i could see the conflict there. i hope the thesis goes well for you though. sure you'll be a little lighter on your feet once thats out of the way.

[woeful viper]

3 kg at the very least

[rotund jetty]

hi I set up a shooting range, but there's something like this: I shoot, and after a certain point, there are no bullet marks left on the shooting board.

Can anyone help immediately?

[hollow fulcrum]

lol

[stuck oyster]

they dissapear on their own

they are not permanent

that is normal

[rotund jetty]

No, it doesn't appear when you shoot.

[stuck oyster]

you need firegeometry parts too for that

[rotund jetty]

There is fire geometry

@stuck oyster

[stuck oyster]

its probably not made properly from convex parts

each geometry requirements are listed in one of the pinned messages

[rotund jetty]

Can you tag me in the message?

[stuck oyster]

sorry no. its not very complicated to find it.

[rotund jetty]

firegeometry lod
-handles bullet/etc hits
-has same build requirements except mass(closed, convex, component,)
-each component can additionally have penetration material that defines the parts hit properties (armor, sand, glass, flesh etc) (P:\A3\Data_f\Penetration)
-is usually the most model accurate lod since it handles visual hits from bullets and the type of effects that might pop out of surface

??

Is this the message?

one minute

Do I need to give mass as in geometry?
@stuck oyster

[stuck oyster]

all the requirements are listed there

[rotund jetty]

Which line is it written on?

[stuck oyster]

you need all the requirements

for each lod

[rotund jetty]

All are available for Fire Geometry

[stuck oyster]

I dont understand what is unclear

just make sure your geometry lods fulfill all the requirements listed

[rotund jetty]

Brother, the bullet marks do not appear on the shooting board after a certain distance.

[charred bolt]

If you place a standard Arma 3 asset, such as a wall at the same position as your shooting board, do the bullet impact marks appear there?

[rotund jetty]

I'm trying now

[rotund jetty]

@stuck oyster How do I identify components?

[livid canyon]

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Oxygen_2_-_Manual#Geometry_LODs

[bold flare]

Do the bullets go through the board (as if the board wasn't there, meaning they are not hitting the fire geometry), or are they stopped by the board but also leave no impact decal?

As in, does the geometry not work, or does it work fine and just the decals don't work

[subtle bison]

i'm pretty sure this is becaues you can't really animate stuff like that without breaking the bullet holes

we have a similar issue with the foldable ballistic shield in ws

one thing you could try is to make the target a proxy model

or you will make them separate objects and attach them to the animated mempoint via script later. that's probably the way i would go anyways

[bold flare]

But some bullet holes are working on it in the video
Yeah I would also recommend scripting it. It also seems like you might run into geometry size limit, especially when you try to go bigger.
With script you can just attach more metal beams to make it longer

[subtle bison]

actually i just retested our ballistic shield and the bullet issue seems to be gone. dont think i ever actively tried to fix it. so either something changed over the past 4 years in the engine or i fixed it without even realizing. 😄 so yeah, weird thing, no idea. still -> script is the better way, imo

[charred bolt]

Assuming all geometries are correctly formed, bullet holes not showing is usually because isDiscrete = 0; or the FG mesh is not close enough to matching the res LOD mesh.

[stuck oyster]

autocentering actually might be breaking it

[bright echo]

you mean turning it off?

[stuck oyster]

could fix it yea

Im thinking autocenter messes with the bounds like it messes with nearly everything else 😅

[bright echo]

but like every physx vehicle needs it on, and they generally have working impact marks

[stuck oyster]

but less far away animated parts

[bright echo]

oh true

[rotund jetty]

Bullet marks are not visible when fired

[bold flare]

That doesn't answer my question

[rotund jetty]

translate does not translate well

@bold flareBro, what should I do to make the bullet marks visible?

[stuck oyster]

!issuewarning @tribal timber asking for how to steal models.

[high scarab]

Done.

[stuck oyster]

this is your only warning about the subject

I suppose ban it is then

[rotund jetty]

@stuck oysterBro, I downloaded a shooting range, I looked at the model, but it's the same as mine.

[tribal timber]

Thanks for you HELP. I've always dreamed of stealing a MY model from MY mod.

[stuck oyster]

if its your model you would have the source files

[tribal timber]

I work either with FBX (without adapting to A3), or with ready-made P3D

No .blend saves on a3 adapting

[stuck oyster]

where do ready made p3d come from then?

[tribal timber]

From my FBX

I can apply textures, make bindings, but it's a waste of time.

And I'll say it again... Thank you for your help.

[stuck oyster]

your explanation makes no sense

fbx does not transfer into odol p3d

[stuck oyster]

odols are binarized and that happens when a mod is packed

[stuck oyster]

so I dont believe these are your p3ds if you dont have the originals

[tribal timber]

I have FBX originals (as well as textures) that show the process of creating models from and to. At the moment, I have lost access to MY OWN P3D, which I made from FBX. At P3D, I'm working on the entire ADAPTATION to work with the GAME. From CAMO to LODs + Weights.

[marsh canyon]

The point about unbin the P3D is, it is not allowed even if you are the author. You need to get the source

[bold flare]

Ripping models is not supported, even if you're trying to rip your own.
The binarization process is not supposed tobe reversible

[tribal timber]

For the first time, a logical answer

Thanks

[rotund jetty]

@marsh canyonI modeled a shooting range, but when I shoot at the target, the bullet marks are not visible.

[stuck oyster]

please stop pinging people. if anyone has solutions they will answer.

[tribal timber]

This p3d old version with old UV map.

[stuck oyster]

well make new p3d from the source

[tribal timber]

Instead of explaining that even the developers don't have a method to extract the disassembled P3D, you insulted me and my team.

Thanks

[stuck oyster]

you are the one asking how to rip models. the warning stays.

Im not even convinced you are the author of the models.

[subtle bison]

i dont understand. i've already posted a suggestion - don't do the whole thing in a model file, but make parts and then assemble it in script. everything else is a waste of time 😄

[hollow fulcrum]

so did any of you guys make anything useful/fun/cool over the holidays?

[bold flare]

And I asked a question for which I still didn't get an answer

[dusky dragon]

i started working on a BvS10 Viking

[rotund jetty]

Watch both videos why this happens

[subtle bison]

model animation moves the mesh part away which then causes issue with the fire geo / bullet detection

just split the objects, there is very likely nothing else you can do to fix this

[woeful viper]

nice Foxone

i drove around alot in the unarmored version, its amazing how much stuff fits in there and how mobile it is in snowy/muddy terrain

[rotund jetty]

@subtle bisonCan i use proxy?
For split

[subtle bison]

i dont know, try it

[hollow fulcrum]

pictures! porn! makes me happy.

😉

[dusky dragon]

@hollow fulcrum soon my padawan, soon :D

[hollow fulcrum]

lol, im a padawan now. awesome.

[dusky dragon]

You will be granted the rank of jedi upon the release of the BvS10

[woeful viper]

jedi? Hatchet already sits at the jedi council mate

master jedi more like it

[dusky dragon]

Not accoding to Yoda he doesnt

[woeful viper]

btw - i played jedi academy recently. I only discovered it this christmas, was awesome, despite it's age. Loved Jedi Outcast back in the day

never knew it had this successor

best lightsaber game ever...

[dusky dragon]

Nice!

[cloud zealot]

How do we make optics (not scopes)? Is there a tutorial or something anywhere ? I keep looking at everything i can find but all i can see are p3ds with only 1 resolution lod made of vertexes and no selection.

I'd like to make an optic that only shows the direction and the elevation of the turret

[cloud zealot]

I found a solution actually just need to make a RscUnitInfo

[remote peak]

got a question, i assume i need to learn modelling to add cages to the M1117 yes?

[pale valley]

not only that you would probably need to make a M1117, too. (unless there's a way to do it via scripting, but I doubt it)

[wind belfry]

foxone, are you planning to make it 2 part vehicle where there is driving unit and cargo unit?

@Brian/Foxone

[woeful viper]

making this vehicle work properly in terms of simulation will propably be a major pain in the arse

Best bet might actually be a wheeled vehicle as basis, and then use the steering of the vehicle wheel base to animate the units movement in relation to each other

[remote peak]

modding of pain and suffering

gotta go find a tutorial i guess

[pale valley]

@remote peak
The thought of learning to 3d model was daunting to me too, as it turns out, I love it - you might, too

[remote peak]

any starter recommendations?

[stuck oyster]

start small

and keep making things.

3d modeling is really one of those things you keep learning by doing it and eploring how different tools work

[remote peak]

i mean i kind of got that part handled in a fusion360 sense

dont know how similar it ends up being

[stuck oyster]

some same principles, very different tools

[remote peak]

i see

[north sundial]

Do what I did, learn how to model by modelling in object builder. After that, everything is easy haha

[scenic knot]

Hey guys, this might be a simple question but anybody know how to make sure the cargo passenger's head/camerapos/perspective stay on their head? Its like his head rolls off and straps itself down on an arbitrary spot

[charred bolt]

Do you have the cargo proxy in both the resolution LOD (eg LOD 0) and also a View Cargo LOD?
Have you set these parameters appropriately?

transportSoldier =   ;
cargoProxyIndexes[] = {   };```

[worn anvil]

Hello everyone!

As a beginner creating models on Arma 3, I have two issues with my bulletproof vest. The first is the shadow, which is buggy and I can't seem to fix (see attachment 1), and the second is that when the character moves in a certain way, he or she passes through part of the vest (see attachment 2 - the video). If anyone can help me, I would be very grateful! ^^
https://medal.tv/fr/games/arma-3/clips/ihRVDnv5Hlhu6ttsl?invite=cr-MSw2ZGUsMTkyNDg5Nzcy

I just saw that I even had to move the vest away from the character's body to alleviate the problem but it still persists.....

[charred bolt]

Shadows must be:

1. closed
2. triangulated
3. sharp

[worn anvil]

How can I do this pls ?

[charred bolt]

What software are you making the shadow with?
Those things are fairly basic 3d modelling skills, perhaps "closed" is slightly more advanced.

[worn anvil]

I use Object Builder. Yes, I know, but I haven't touched it in over a year, and my only experience with modeling was guided.

[charred bolt]

Triangulate: select shadow, press / on keyboard
Sharp: select shadow, press U
Closed: Structure > Topology > Find Non-Closed

[worn anvil]

I just did it, saved, rebuilt my addon, restarted the game and still the shadow problem

And would you also know how to solve my second problem or not pls ? ^^

[stuck oyster]

you will need to go back to modeling basics and probably better to learn blender.

making game models requires set of skills

also since you say youre beginner, wheres the model from?

[quasi tangle]

If I wanted to make something like this in the game, how would I go about doing such a task?

[sour bough]

You have to weight paint the vest so it's not stiff.

That said, I'm also curious where you got this from.

[umbral shuttle]

can tankX simulation support being amphibious?

[charred bolt]

#arma3_config message

[umbral shuttle]

oh lol I didnt think anyone would ask same question

[real venture]

New to RV4 modding, is there a way to have or emulate inverse kinematics for vehicles and such?
(not sure if I should be asking here, in #arma3_animation)

[marsh canyon]

For what is the question

[real venture]

Looking into making some walker-type vehicles

[marsh canyon]

So a tank-ish vehicle

[real venture]

yep

[marsh canyon]

The short answer: I believe yes
Longer: You really should to use a decent amount of SQF scripts and massive patience to make it work, it still uses some P3D works

[charred bolt]

Basically no IK available for vehicle animations.
Walker-type vehicles are not particularly suited to the Arma engine. They have been attempted a few times by the most experienced (10 year vets) modders, and almost nothing has been released, so that gives you some idea of the immense complexity you would face in trying yourself. I'd recommend not bothering.

[gentle merlin]

Tbf its not impossible per se, webknight did make working imperial knights and those new mechs he released, but to do that you need to have a wide skillset so to the usual modder yeah its not something to attempt

Even with that example it is very clear arma isnt friendly to those "vehicles" 😄

[runic plover]

I did also Mech stuff (3 2legged and 1 4legged mech) 100% vehicle.
2005 OFP i did a mixed soldier mech anim with rtm anims and vehicle, and OFP had a lot more limitations than Arma3. Currently i prefer being 100% vehicle mechs, no MP issues but ofcourse rtm animations will look better but only works with a mix of character and vehicle

[real venture]

With scripting it should be somewhat possible?
I figured I can just try to recreate some IK solver but if it's not as simple as that...

[runic plover]

With scripting you can define when vehicle moves forward or backward and you can also define its speed. So you can call its animations you got defined. You can only use rotation and translation and this you need to mix together to anim sources

[real venture]

I'm not too familiar with arma scripting but are rotation and translation of specific parts modifiable through scripts? If they are then making basic IK doesn't sound too difficult unless I'm missing some caveats

[runic plover]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/731541343201001483/1353489964184375437/titan_stomp_tests3.mp4?ex=687e1102&is=687cbf82&hm=b3d48234eaa7035a2bd58699886107f19fca64b911ad36f6c5120456b7a997e1&

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/731541343201001483/1353489978470039572/titan_stomp_tests4.mp4?ex=687e1105&is=687cbf85&hm=825e5a8d007d3f2a7dc5951f562fe9be1a78bfb1e42338b960e7bc576e423239&