arma3_model

[marble steeple]

OK, I removed all properties from the shadow LOD but it has UV mapping, how do I remove it?

There are two UV sets in the UV editor and the other one is empty. Do I just select all faces and select the empty map?

Or do I have to somehow delete them both?

[fervent steppe]

Delete the one uv channel.

[marble steeple]

Does it only delete it from this LOD and not the others?

[fervent steppe]

It should only delete from the current lod..... Backup just in case 😉

[marble steeple]

umm, it doesn't let me delete it

the delete button is grey

[fervent steppe]

That is pretty interesting penny...if that's the case the shadow lods will become much more detailed

You should be fine...there no textures mapped to it right?

[marble steeple]

yeah, no textures

I can delete the UVSet 1 but not the UVSet 0

then if I close the UV Editor and go back, UVSet 1 is there again

[fervent steppe]

Honesty I don't think it will matter. Main thing is. Closed/triangulated/sharp edges

[marble steeple]

How do I check if they are triangulated?

[fervent steppe]

Select the whole model. Structure>>triangulate. I think

[marble steeple]

also, some of the faces are inside out

if you know what I mean

Does that make a difference?

[fervent steppe]

Well. Maybe @quick terrace can weight in on that. I mainly do buildings. I've seen some buildings have inverted faces but I change all them because once I open them I need two sided to make the closed

I would think as long as it's closed...

[quick terrace]

all faces should point one way or the other

[marble steeple]

Got it working!

I think it was the triangulation

that was the last thing I changed

[quick terrace]

if your mesh is already inside visual LOD, there is no need to have these with inverted normals

[marble steeple]

Thank you so much, guys!

Now, I gotta make a note of all these and pass it to our modeler.

[bleak tangle]

In terms of what was said in that sitrep, I'm not really sure how to test it. Do I spawn 100 of an object that is using the resolution LOD for a shadow and compare it between 1.54 and dev?

I'm not sure if it's meant as convenience to allow people to skip making a shadow LOD with better performance than the current state, or if it is supposed to allow for more detailed shadows

[quick terrace]

i doubt it is implemented

either way

i read it as a automated way to create a SVL from the existing vis lods

[fervent steppe]

Yea the way I read it it is something they are going to implement.

Then remove because it causes massive lag 😀

[woeful viper]

i can't imagine how this automated thing will be more efficient... I imagine they do it because they've seen so many bad p3d's without proper optimized shadow lod that they cap it themself? just speculating...

[pseudo elbow]

Is there a way to make it easier to preview rvmats in game?

Right now I have to rename the material to a new file name, then run setObjectMaterial script with a new path

I can script it so apply material each frame, but is there a way to skip renaming? Avoid file caching somehow?

[stuck oyster]

-filepatching startup parameters

and live load file setup in arma install folder

[bold flare]

filePatching also doesn't stop the cache

A superflush should clear out the cache. But I tried that with textures recently and it somehow didn't work

[visual hull]

im very new to blender. like this was my first ever project on it. idk how good it could have been but all im missing is the mag. how does it look?

if anyone wonders this is the new SAK-21 by Stenzel Industries

[stuck oyster]

very good for first project so good job

[plush forge]

I have this "light leak" problem that is starting to break my spirit.
Using sbsource = visualex.
I am more than 100% sure that the geometry is connected. (Select all linked returns all the walls and ceiling and floor of the room in blender).

The other side of the ceiling is the roof, but that is also merged appropriately in case it was some light getting through there and then the ceiling back faces.

Any ideas, I am at a loss by this point.

[stuck oyster]

wireframe?

[plush forge]

Of..?

[stuck oyster]

the wall/roof corner

is it light or is it artifact on the AS texture?

[plush forge]

I have rebaked the ADS. It looks clean.

[stuck oyster]

does the surface look like different material or am I mistaken?

or is it just the different light

[plush forge]

I think the normal is more pronounced because those strips are receiving direct lighting.

[stuck oyster]

is the dark blue line sharp edge?

[plush forge]

Seam.

They are also sharp though.

[stuck oyster]

the wall/roof corner above the window is same bleed right?

[plush forge]

The alcove you mean?

[stuck oyster]

these

could there be something funky with teh uvmapping?

[plush forge]

I assume they are. But tbh it has happening on all walls in this room, at the wall - ceiling join.

[stuck oyster]

overlapping edge with something else?

[plush forge]

UV's are pretty clean.

[stuck oyster]

its defnitely per pixel thing not related to face/vertex shape

not fully triangulated though

have you tried that?

[plush forge]

Manually triangulate the faces?

[stuck oyster]

these are faces I think

so there might be squished geometry there?

[plush forge]

Hang on. Let me exclude the geometry that isn't part of this room. (Only this room in the whole model has the problem btw).

This is the problem room.

Interesting that the rooms with "worse" geometry don't have any issues.

[stuck oyster]

maybe it bleeds through from elsewhere

[plush forge]

I was thinking that, but I have done similar checks on the exterior, at least the parts immediately around the room.

Thought it could be gaps in the exterior and then the light is coming through the backface of the interior.

[stuck oyster]

if you remove everything else but the room does it work?

bit of empirical debugging

for science

[plush forge]

Just the interior? Or the exterior part of that room as well?

[stuck oyster]

could try just the interior

then try with exterior

I guess it can also be in same model

just moved offset

or copied offset

for easy 1 object comparison

[plush forge]

Eh, I already separated everything and turned it into an edit lod.

Not sure what I was expecting, but this makes sense. As all the faces that point in the direction of the sun are backfaces.

I'll put the exterior of the room back on and see.

[stuck oyster]

wanted to see theres no opposite dark spots or something weird like that

[plush forge]

Yeah.

It looks correct given the circumstances.

[stuck oyster]

yes

which is good start at least

[plush forge]

And we are back.

This is what I put back in. Just the exterior shell of that room.

So this would imply it's something in the exterior. Though as far as I can tell it's as air tight as the interior is. 🤔

[stuck oyster]

triangulation might show non manifold parts

or at least enable find non manifold face tool to find them

the non uvmapped faces on the edges I pointed out earlier might be part of the problem

[plush forge]

This is my camera clipped into the ceiling. So the space between the interior ceiling and the exterior roof face. Interesting that the width of the light bleed is a little bit bigger than that gap. The backside of that gap is the front face of the exterior wall. Might just be a coincidence.

[plush forge]

Oh those once you highlighted are mapped properly they are just very thin.

[stuck oyster]

how do they look on the model?

[plush forge]

They were fine. Can't see them right this second as they are in the now detached part of the model. 😛

[stuck oyster]

this is how the roof wall is modeled right?

so its all one mesh

[plush forge]

(Topology isn't pretty. I didn't clean this one up when I started work on it. 😅 )

[stuck oyster]

can you try dissolve the strip

or scale it Z 0 and merge

[plush forge]

Just that face or all the way around?

[stuck oyster]

yeah the thin bit as I think there may be something funky with its edges

the size would correspond to the light you see

uvmapping will break a bit for the test

but for the test that wont matter

[plush forge]

Does it help or hinder to know that I got about 20 models with varying degrees of this issue? xD

It's changed..?

[unkempt token]

How thick is that ceiling gap in meters? Any chance I could peek at it or one of your other models experiencing this in blender?

[stuck oyster]

Im guessing the edge are not fully solid

do you have some edge split modifier applying on export by any chance

[plush forge]

0.145403m

[plush forge]

Nope.

[stuck oyster]

its definitely around that strip

[plush forge]

Does seem to be. That strip matches up with the Z position of the interior ceiling and the exterior roof.

[stuck oyster]

try select nonmanifold in editmode (vertex) to see if anything pops up

[plush forge]

Only the windows and other obvious ones.

[plush forge]

Well I cleaned up the topology to be more sensibly distributed. Still present but shapes have changed again. 😣

[stuck oyster]

🤔

[white oak]

Put a bevel on it

[stuck oyster]

it should not need any.

[white oak]

True but I've had that fix ceiling leaks before

[plush forge]

Bevel on what edge?

[white oak]

Where Ceiling and int wall meets

[plush forge]

Just a single segment?

[white oak]

Yeah

0.5-1cm should work

[unkempt token]

Just as an experiment could you try thickening the outer part of the wall with the windows? It could just be good ol' shadow bias / Z bias or whatever it's called, I've had this issue with some of my models in another game

if it's 0.14 try 0.3 just to experiment

[plush forge]

Bevel didn't work.

1cm.

[stuck oyster]

if you pull the lower edge of the bevel down what does that look like?

as it looks like the beveled face is not catching the light

[stuck oyster]

well now it is

[plush forge]

It was before, just not always super prominent depending on distance and viewing angle.

At this point I might just decide to live with it. 🤷

Weird as didn't come across any model causes of this for 90% of the building in SPE.

[white oak]

Are you exporting with mark sharp/smooth?

Since in p3d sharp marked edges are split

Could be why

[stuck oyster]

No they should not be

At what level would it split them?

[white oak]

While packing or going from blender -> p3d
The edge becomes two overlapping edges
One for each face

[stuck oyster]

I've done a number of buildings with sharp edge corners and this has never been an issue.

[plush forge]

Shaded flat and took all sharp edges off. No difference.

[stuck oyster]

If you throw a solid cube around it as new external wall does that fix it?

Bit more empirical confirmation

[bright echo]

i only have a bit of experience with 'visualex' but is there any other lods? does it generate the shadow from the currently visible lod?

cuz im wondering if a lower detail lod is being used for the shadow and causing the bleed

although I guess that wouldnt explain when the outer walls were removed

[plush forge]

but is there any other lods?
Only thing missing is lower res lods. All service lods are present.

[bright echo]

yeah res lods is what i meant

oh well nvm then

[plush forge]

Around the whole thing? Or just the problem room? And in place of the current exterior or around that too?

[stuck oyster]

Around whole thing no need to remove anything

Just to see if the corner shades right then.

It should

One thing to also try could be remove the lodnoshadow property

And also without material applied on the model

[plush forge]

Big box does indeed solve the issue.

[plush forge]

No effect.

[plush forge]

Still present.

[unkempt token]

I wanna pin this on wall / ceiling thickness maybe

[plush forge]

Almost all of the buildings in SPE have less thickness than this. At least for the interior walls and we didn't have the issue there. 🤷

I did also test increasing hte distance between the outer and inner wall to 0.2m and it still persisted.

[stuck oyster]

If you remake the outer shell from a cube as simple as possible does that fix it.

[plush forge]

Idk. Will have a look in a little bit. Need to eat and have a break, more than a bit fed up with this at this point.

[plush forge]

It does not.

[plush forge]

It may well be ceiling thickness.

Which is really confusing as I have 100% got models with thinner ceiling gaps than this that work. 🫠

Also other parts of the same model have the same gap distance and work fine...

[calm cedar]

Hello ! Does anyone know a mod with russian dress uniform ?

[runic plover]

probably a UVSet issue?

[indigo mountain]

#general_chat_arma

[plush forge]

How so?

[calm cedar]

my bad sorry !

[runic plover]

i dont know i had such issue too but ive never worked with multimaterial and i hat UVSet0 and UVSet1 and it happened, when i have deleted UVSet1 it worked then. but for multimaterial you need UVSet0 and UVSet1 if i can remind exactly

[plush forge]

Yeah, need both for multimat.

[fervent steppe]

Lol

[visual hull]

anyone know what the next step is for me? model,bones,textures are done.

[stuck oyster]

Lowpoly game model and texture baking.

[visual hull]

yup. then what next?

and im guessing the Low poly model doesnt need bones or anything cuz its just gonna be a distance thing?

ive made the model as optimized as i could while making it so

[sour bough]

Low poly is the one that goes in game

High poly is for baking

[visual hull]

ohh but its allready optimized for ingame

from the start

[sour bough]

could make a high poly for baking

Until your model is done and baked, this is just standard modeling for games

Then, the importing starts

[south badge]

What's the polycount?

[visual hull]

20K

[sour bough]

Little on the high end but there's stuff in the marksman dlc with similar

[visual hull]

yeah think im fine

probably mods with twice that

that run fine

[sour bough]

Fine-ish

It stacks up

That's a tri count, right?

[visual hull]

theres like almost no triangles on my model

[sour bough]

It will triangulate on binarizing so you should ideally triangulate beforehand so you have control of it

[stuck oyster]

Is the model uvmapped?

[visual hull]

yes

[stuck oyster]

How many textures?

[visual hull]

1 few billion it felt like

but it wasnt crazy just many small patches

ima just say this. ive used close to 60 hours making this model to be has low poly and high quality as i could and if this isnt good enough and i have to start over ima freakout

[stuck oyster]

It's probably fine. You'll need the reduced distance lods too though

Otherwise the game renders your 20k faces even if the gun is 10km away

[visual hull]

i mean after 3km it should delete the gun model entirely no? after 400m it should change the gun into a low poly

[stuck oyster]

if you have the resolution lods made that it can switch to yes

[keen bison]

Anyone had luck with importing a _co file and it lays ontop of the P3d fine in blender? i really cant crack the code

Cant seem to get the uv map to fit the _co texture...

Any ideas?

[stuck oyster]

there should not be anything speacial about that

where is the model from?

[keen bison]

It’s a P3d model from a .pbo

[stuck oyster]

binarized one?

oh this is that life thing

so first of all. we have 0 tolerance for unbinarizing stuff and give no support for such.
second. I am very doubtful those models are used with proper licensing to begin with

[keen bison]

Not binarized buddy… I get you guys are strict with such things and the rights and licensing is still proper

[lone robin]

If you have the model in blender you just have to use materials nodes and then convert your _co to png and apply that to the base color in blender

[finite siren]

Yo if anyone is willing to help me with a ford f-350 superduty 2009 and have it imported in arma that'd be really great and helpful

[stuck oyster]

Is the model from some other game?

[north sundial]

Stuggling to figure out what im doing different. My fence uses the same _ca texture and material as the back alley fence on the right but for some reason, mine has alpha issues when looking at the horizon and the basegame one does not

I have moved the alpha faces to the top and hit sort alpha after doing that to no avail. I have sorted alpha without moving to top and moved to top without sorting alpha. None of these options seem to make a difference?

[stuck oyster]

Same rvmat?

[north sundial]

Yep same rvmat

[grizzled halo]

probably alpha sorting shenanigans. There are vanilla assets that are "see through" when they are supposed to be fully solid like some lamp post, electric poles and concrete fences.

[finite siren]

I don’t think so it’s somewhat a base model that can used for other games

[sour bough]

"I don't think so" isn't really good enough to know you can use something. Is it listed somewhere?

[finite siren]

Yes it is and it was imported into a game

So safe to say yes

[sour bough]

Can you link it?

I don't think it having been imported before is safe to say yes

[stuck oyster]

I'm not super happy about the dodgy answers. What's your source for the model?

[finite siren]

Ill link where I got the model later im busy rn

Actually here it is https://www.artstation.com/marketplace/p/503DY/ford-f-350-super-duty-free-3d-model

[charred bolt]

Just to give you a heads-up, a vehicle like this would normally use 50k to 90k vertices in LOD 1. This model is 3.9k, so whether it is "worth" importing to Arma (assuming it's source is legitimate) is questionable.

[south badge]

Say no to these stupid lifted trucks!

[thorn locust]

hey guys, I'm new to ArmA modding and I'm trying to mod a vehicle from a mod I downloaded, but the texture wont apply properly.
I used PBOManager to extract the .p3d and .paa files from the pbo, and using the Blender addon ArmA Toolbox for Blender I imported the .p3d model. I converted the .paa textures to .png successfully, but when I try to apply the texture to the 3d model, it appears as a solid color only. Any ideas?

not sure if this is important, but the model imported with a bunch of different meshes

[stuck oyster]

Normally p3ds in pbos are binarized and can not be extracted.

[sour bough]

... How did you extract the P3d?

Uh yeah what goat said

[stuck oyster]

What kind of license does the mod have?

[thorn locust]

i used a debinarizer app

[thorn locust]

debinarizer

[sour bough]

Well, there's your problem. That ain't kosher

[stuck oyster]

This equals stealing and is strictly forbidden

[thorn locust]

oh damn my bad
i didn't realize that

[stuck oyster]

Many do make the mistake at first. As long as you learn from it and don't do it again you have a chance to be productive member of the community

Models are the property of their maker and mod maker might not even be the original creator if it is a bought license model.

[thorn locust]

gotcha, thanks

ahh I just checked into the steam page, the models are bought from a guy on CGTrader

[quiet aurora]

Does anyone know of any good guides for exporting models from blender with textures and settings up hidden selections for one model with multiple options

And also a guide for weapons like do I have the mag and muzzle break on the weapon model or do I do them separate etc

[finite siren]

I have the blend file for it but all I need to know is where I can find a better model of the f-350 pickup

[south badge]

Risk getting ripped off / scammed buying something sketchy online or learn 3D modelling and make it yourself

[finite siren]

I mean here’s how it looks but I’m sure there’s a better model out there

This is inside of blender by the way

[tall burrow]

Porting the Arma 2 S8 helicopter model from ca\air\s8_launcher; I've gotten it in-game, and positioned the pylon where I want, but why are my rockets firing up and down instead of forward?
on the modelling/object builder side of things, im a noob, so all I know how to do is mass-change of file pointers and position adjustments

[stuck oyster]

Missing/wrong named memorypoints for rocket firing position/direction maybe.

[tall burrow]

Sounds like that would be it

[quiet aurora]

doesnt anyone know where i can find a list of the memory points?

[stuck oyster]

There is no list specifically. There's points that need to correspond with config

[north sundial]

Anyone got any more ideas on this?

Is there a way to view the alpha sorting or anything?

I know you can move them up and down but is there a menu in object builder that shows you the faces and their priorities or something

[stuck oyster]

No. Ob has no visualization

You would not see this in ob anyway I think.

Are the solid parts on a texture that is _co without alpha cannel in the source texture?

[north sundial]

Yea that’s correct, the mesh and the solid parts are separate using ca and co respectively

[stuck oyster]

The alpha against the sea is buggy like that sometimes. What you could try is make copy of the texture and turn the fully transparent parts to 99% transparent

Or make a copy of it and save it as _co with alpha channel so it would be saved/comverted to paa with 1 bit alpha, that could combat the mipmapping smoothness of the transparent edges.

Or test make it paa with no mipmapping

[quiet aurora]

can anyone help with this issue? when i have an optic on i look down the barrel like image 1

but with no optic i look down the direction set by the eye in the model, am i missing a memory point specifict to optics in my model?

[marsh canyon]

You need a pilot LOD

[quiet aurora]

ahh would that just basically be a copy of the normal 0 LOD?

[quiet aurora]

that fixed it, perfect, thank you

now i just need to figure out why my magazine doesnt sit in the magwell properly when the vanilla ones do

[marsh canyon]

Magwell is a part of proxy

[quiet aurora]

yeah ive got the proxy done and all the vanilla mags load into it fine, but then my own mag is too far forward and high, ive tried moving the magazine around in object builder but nothing, or do i also need to add the mag proxy to the magazine?

[stuck oyster]

You need autocenter 0 named property in the magazines geometry lod

Otherwise the made recenters it by the models overall bounds

[quiet aurora]

ahh, thank you, this is a huge learning curve haha

[stuck oyster]

Lots of parts yeah

[quiet aurora]

do you know of any good tutorials i could watch/read?

[north sundial]

Okay so I figured out its caused by me fixing a different issue

I have forcenotalpha = 1 applied to fix this ghosting issue

Because such a large surface area is obviously transparent

I notice the basegame fences suffer from the ghosting too

I guess theres no way to fix both at the same time

Ah actually seems like there is

If I make the fence itself a proxy, and include it like that instead with forcenotalpha set to 0 I don't get the ghosting or the alpha issues

see below, the gate VS the individual fences on the sides

Thanks for your help @stuck oyster

[runic plover]

What might help is (thats how i fix such) select your wired mesh part, ctrl+c, delete, ctrl+v

I got _ca stuff always as single mesh and this method works for me with windows and other stuff i do, maybe it will fix your issue

Oh didnt see its fixed already

[north sundial]

Proxies to the rescue haha

[past vale]

I need help for creat some panel like this if someone know how to do ?

[stuck oyster]

Proxies are actually good option for that yeah. Good work!

One thing from what sentry said about copy pasting the mesh is that I think if the alpha transparent mesh and solid mesh are joined together that can be an issue

[north sundial]

yeah no, they were completely seperate from the start

Just one of those #arma things

[obtuse rain]

Doing it during binarization might be fine.

They might be switching to only ever using shadow buffering which is far less sensitive to poly counts.

[quiet aurora]

is there any templates for vests for getting the memory points like spine1 etc in the correct spot?

[stuck oyster]

the sample vest should have the required things

with the spine1 do you mean mesh weighting for animations?

dont know why there would be a memorypoint for spine1

[quiet aurora]

I forgot about the samples, thank you

[quiet aurora]

Just to get the vest to sit properly on the body I couldn't remember if they were memory points or weighting

[stuck oyster]

weighting basically

the basic requirements are same as with headgear for which I have a pinned message on the channel

the weighting is just more complex than just single selection

[quiet aurora]

Ahh perfect I'll give that a read 🙂 thank you

[stuck oyster]

its not a very complex model so youll want to learn basic 3d modeling and uvmapping and texturing

[grizzled halo]

good solution, its a bit baffling to see so many vanilla assets have this issue haha

[stuck oyster]

actually one thing you will want to check on is that if the proxies draw for long enough distance

there is also a limit on how many proxies there can be on screen at a time I believe

if you build a lot of things from proxies in single scene, things may start dissapearing

far distance lods could be made without them for example

[north sundial]

Yeah its only the mesh thats proxied in so you can't see them from very far away anyway

And yeah the proxy isn't present after res 2

[near lake]

My GeometryLOD always have the problem that its not convex. After recherche Im quite sure that it means angles with +180°.
What is a good way to create a convex hull without loosing my shape?
Dont know if this is the right spot, Ill also post in modelling related discords

[stuck oyster]

make it out of many pieces

[near lake]

Copy confirm. So Ill improve that method.
Do you know some technices to do it? Or a plugin? On point: Youve got any tips?

[stuck oyster]

no plugins do it right

its just manual modeling

[near lake]

https://tenor.com/view/pepe-gif-8493382194019209370

So lets go!
I summary shortly:
Ill have to watch the inner angle. So Ive to invert what I see from the outside.
If I detect a non-convexity:

• Separate in contigues meshes. -> join them together again (no merging)
• If still some remain: cut them into 2 pieces >180°

[stuck oyster]

sure I guess

you make it sound so complicated 😅

[near lake]

You catched me hahaha
I do this to detect knowledge gaps. Because, if I can "explain" I can do.

Thats also why my work/ learn balance always explodes at some point.
Because Im a sponge of motivation that sucks all in and assemble it and fires.

Btw.: Ive rebuild my railing 3 times now because geometry or personal mood
Now Ive to develop a techniqe to cut it into those convex parts...

# I DID IT AGAIN!

As tip for beginners:
At first highlight the non convex spots and mark them seam.
In that way you sometimes can select whole parts with "L -> Seam filter"
Always loose your selection so holes become more visible. After
seperating all convex parts, join them together again and "CleanUpMesh -> Fill Holes" done

[stuck oyster]

for collsision this whoul basically be just one box

or box and the post

for firegeometry and this small piece you dont need the beveled corners

[near lake]

Thats true. I gues Im diving to deep at some points hahaha
Simplyfy fireGeometry is an skill on its own I gues.

Keep it beauty and performant <- The golden rule that Ive broke in that case. But Ive learned a great lot. Even Substance Painter pays of

[stuck oyster]

it is yes something you learn by doing

[near lake]

Ive also thought about replacing those bars with an plane and show it via alpha texture. But I felt not ready to combine those many steps at once.
What I also need to learn are the handling of diffrent LODs. Talanted modders who did the tide with the ocean or an elevator. Told me that this will
become key in interiour topic.
I also will need to understand why I turn my shadowLOD to resulution to 0 or 10.
Thats exactly what your already saying. Im slowly at the point where I can do something. (yay)

__________________________personal blabla
This was also the first time Ive ever done something in Substance Painter.
Meanwhile its so nice to setup the .rvmat and its componments. Also I was able to learn so much from that file format.
*And dont think I would ever forget why I know this and who helped me to climb the mountain of ice! ❤️ *

[stuck oyster]

this is solid piece and textured planne would not look great

if its wire mesh then sure texture plane is best

[near lake]

facepalm of course. My alpha texture would lead into weird paralax issues because its only 2 dimensional

[stuck oyster]

no parallax available for object textures

[near lake]

I need practise with alpha textures to talk about. I should shut.

But Im just happy at the moment

[stuck oyster]

how many components is that?

[runic plover]

I would do it with 33

[near lake]

I really want to apologize. I will need to find out how I can subscribe to the channel

I havent understood those compomnets fully now. So I now they separate meshes into their parts.
But I also know that they need to be named exactly after "ComponentXX" so I gues they also have a function later.
That would include that I have to have an eye on tht. but those are many ifs and whens and less knowledge

To anwser your question. The ObjectBuilder Plugin from MrClock detected and assigned 32 componments

[stuck oyster]

You could optimize that down by making the vertical poles just 1 straight piece instead of 3 components per pole.

[near lake]

Good morning and greetings from germany 🇩🇪 @stuck oyster

Thats a good idea. Ive also tried to take care of your advice with the geometryLODs and simplyfied the shape
red = geometryLOD - white = low poly mesh

[stuck oyster]

For collision this can be good yes. There is one thing I forgot though and that is grenades collide with the collision geometry lod so in things that should not block grenades the holes need to be present.

[near lake]

Thats a real good aspect. Ive also thought about the penetration because some objects are shoot through positive and how I will have to do it.
We will see. At the moment Im writing one of the "first" multimaterial.

[twilit dagger]

Hello, may I ask for a bit of clarification? How do the "tracks" you have modelled in your Phys LOD not interfere with code-based PhysX wheels? It looks like the lowest point is at around the axis of the wheels. Is it truly fine like that?

[charred bolt]

Yes, it's fine as long as the suspension doesn't allow for the track base to move up past that point.

[twilit dagger]

Ah, thanks 🙂

Does it add any extra accuracy/value/whatever to the calculations the game engine makes?
I've seen some models have the tracks interfering with the wheels, some models where they barely touch the tracks (namely the sample) and some which are even missing the lower ~half of the hull 😅

[charred bolt]

Don't think of the tracks mesh in the Geo Phys LOD as doing anything, other than being solid blocks which provide collision with other physx objects. They need to be moved high enough off the ground that they don't interfere with the code based physx interaction where the suspension is fully compressed upwards, determined by the maxCompression value.

[twilit dagger]

ahhh

That would also explain why that one model is missing half of its lower hull - How likely are you to get on-top of another tank? 😆

[charred bolt]

You should have a good physx model for the underside of the vehicle, very important. If you do it badly, you'll end up with the infamous space-rocket response.

[twilit dagger]

Oh don't worry, I don't plan on cutting corners 🙂 (or parts of the vehicle)

But regarding PhysX, I had an interesting result today when I tried to align the axis and boundary of the sprocket in the memory LOD with the Resolution LOD - tank accelerates to 400 km/h, then flips 😄

[charred bolt]

That's the usual starting point for tweaking the physx. You get all your memory points correctly placed, make sure your Geo Phys LOD isn't interfering, then go to work on the physx config code.

[twilit dagger]

It might be the Geo Phys LOD causing what happened. It's still the default sample T-72 and I'm modelling an Abrams 😄

[charred bolt]

For sprocket wheels, you'll find best results by placing the boundary memory points out to the sides, rather than underneath the axis.

[twilit dagger]

Thanks 🙂 I noticed that in your guide and the sample has it like that as well

[charred bolt]

Don't forget to set the correct mass in the Geo LOD

[twilit dagger]

I did, more or less. But that too still is the default Sample LOD 😅 the only one I've made thus far is Res 0

[candid mason]

Is there a way to specify by vertex or similar the exact position that should be considered the "center" of an object for the purposes of rotating it around in 3den later?

Especially in oblong objects where it has an overhang.

For instance, a gun turret should have the "center" at the middle of the base, rather than offset towards the end of its long barrels.

[stuck oyster]

turn off autocentering for things that can have it turned off

and for things that cant make fake centering points around it so autocenter does not mess it up

[candid mason]

Do you know where I can find any sort of documentation on that?

I assume it's part of oxygen, and I'm a blenderToolbox person so I've got a blind spot there

[stuck oyster]

autocenter is named property

wiki has page for named properties

[candid mason]

Oh, that's good to know.

[stuck oyster]

and chat history here is full of references

[candid mason]

Thank you. Knowing it's a named property is 99% of my work done.

Actually, while the wiki mentions cars, does the autocenter=0 work on buildings?

[grizzled halo]

yes

[candid mason]

Oh, wonderful. Thanks.

[stuck oyster]

driveable vehicles cant use it

static turrets might not also work with it

but buildings, props and anything used as proxy should use it

[candid mason]

Neat.

[hollow fulcrum]

hrmm

[tulip narwhal]

Hello I'm trying to move an object in an specific direction (Green arrow on picture) not just plain X or Y coordinate, but i can not work it out.. need help please.

[marsh canyon]

...In OB?

[tulip narwhal]

yes

[marsh canyon]

Don't

[tulip narwhal]

can't be done ?
ok

[marsh canyon]

It's not a tool to make a model

[tulip narwhal]

ok.

not trying to make a model anyway, just trying to make minor changes on the MFD on a helicopter.

[marsh canyon]

Still

[tulip narwhal]

I see. no problem, I will try to export the model to blender and do the fix there.

At least I know is not possible, not recomended..

Thank you 🙂

[charred bolt]

Moving it freehand (dragging) is easy, but if you need to move it by a specific distance at a certain angle (not along major axis) then it's hard to do in Object Builder, and better manipulated in Blender.

[tulip narwhal]

Thank you.

[hollow fulcrum]

how soon is the shadowLOD foo supposed to be the new thing?

that would cut a very significant amount of time off of things left to do on some larger assets. (ie.. like it would be retarded to do the work if it's not going to be needed, i'd just wait.)

[fervent steppe]

Hehe

[stuck oyster]

Where is the model from?

[north sundial]

I made my first ever 3D models in object builder 😂

Well I attempted one in sketch up, found it too hard at the time and found it easier to model directly in object builder

Somehow

[tulip narwhal]

The model is from the FFAA mod Chinook, I'm one of the mod founders, (check on ofpec or bohemia wiki if you like). I'm just not a modeler, i'm more programmer.. but kind of alone right now.

just wanted to update MFD on all mod helicopters and adjust the AFM xml config also.

[stuck oyster]

just making sure no funny business going on. 👍 Object builder gets rather difficult with things like that though. I think it might be possible to do what you want in it. but I cant really say how or be fully sure since its been ages since I've needed to do anything with it.

[crimson zodiac]

How hard is it to port objects from Arma 2 to Arma 3?

[hollow fulcrum]

i guess that is mostly dependent upon your depth of knowledge regarding ArmA things in general. not really hard. although the learning curve could be steep.

[tulip narwhal]

I was just playing with “transform 3d” -> “edit local axis” where it seems to adjust the axis to the object position, but doesn’t allow to move the plane/square (or at least I don’t know how to do it). The idea was to move the plane I have to use to “represent” the fuel / torque / rpm bars… and moving them on the local object axis direction was feeling easier.

[crimson zodiac]

Is it as easy as getting the P3D, and adding it into the game as if you would with a custom one? ie. Defining it in configs etc.

[hollow fulcrum]

in some cases yes, with vehicles, structures, or anything using PhysX classes, no.

actual model work needs to be done. that being said there are a couple rather large mods that cover most of this already.

[crimson zodiac]

Yeah. Though I haven't found a mod with the object I'm looking for in particular - the pumpjack from Takistan. So I've been thinking about porting it over to A3 myself.

[hollow fulcrum]

ask the CUP guys to add it. pretty decent group of peoples there.

something like that should be trivial either way though. nothing really special needed.

[crimson zodiac]

Alright, I'll try it myself and see if I run in to any trouble. Thanks!

[hollow fulcrum]

np

[fervent steppe]

What's the pump jack?

For a car?

Or a pallet jack?

[edgy pulsar]

Or the oil derrick jacks?

[fervent steppe]

I gotta add those oil derricks into the jbad mod actually.

[grizzled halo]

im getting the following error in blender

any idea what it could be?

model doesnt have non manifolds nor ngons

[stuck oyster]

The export failed once and left "tempstuff" collection behind

delete that so it can process it again

[grizzled halo]

jesus, i didnt even noticed it created extra collections

thanks

[grizzled halo]

sorry to bother again, but do you happen to know what the "integer out of ranger error" is when importing BVH into object builder?
I´ve been doing animations for some time like that but this is the first time i get that error.

[stuck oyster]

I dont really use BVHs

[grizzled halo]

its alr, was worth a try anyway hahaha. Hopefully someone can chime in and give me a pointer

[willow nacelle]

Hello, does anyone know how to put trucks in the game? I already have my model done and I want to put it in the game. The thing is, I don't know. I'm a developer of Arma 3 vests and helmets, but I still don't know how. Put armored vehicles created by me If anyone is willing to help me, please say so.

[modest quarry]

are different bone count errors an issue with model.cfg or the vertext groups on the model

[charred bolt]

If you mean the bin log subskeleton errors, dedmen confirmed they are spurious and I'm still hoping he will fix it soon.
#arma3_texture message

[orchid dawn]

Hello I have a custom model I want to make it compatible with arma 3 how can I do that

Or can someone help

[stuck oyster]

what kind of a model?

[stuck oyster]

is there any particular reason why you would want bvh into object builder and not handle animations in more animating friendly tool first?

[orchid dawn]

Like a robotic one

[orchid dawn]

Should I DM you if you can make it for me

[stuck oyster]

no I cant make it for you

people here make their own work

where is the model from?

do you have any 3D modeling experience?

@orchid dawn

[orchid dawn]

It a custom model

[stuck oyster]

that does not really tell me where its from

😛

[orchid dawn]

I commissioned someone to make it lol but not from this server at all

[stuck oyster]

right

so you have no experience in these things?

[orchid dawn]

Not at all

[stuck oyster]

then you have a long road of learning ahead if you want it in game

[orchid dawn]

Yea I may know some basic things about blender

[stuck oyster]

is it a big robot?

[orchid dawn]

Not too much

[stuck oyster]

but not man size

[orchid dawn]

Can we talk in DMS so we don't overload the server with notifications and I don't get notifications from this server so I may reply late

[orchid dawn]

Yea a man size

[stuck oyster]

its fine in here dont worry

[orchid dawn]

Alright

[stuck oyster]

if its man shaped and size then you might be able to set i up to use arma man animations

if not it will need compleletly new set of animations

but all in all what you want is a difficult project to start with

[orchid dawn]

I can send a screenshit

[stuck oyster]

I would recommend learning with something simpler first

[orchid dawn]

Shot lol

[stuck oyster]

please dont send shit

💩 🚽

[orchid dawn]

🫢🫢 that was an error

[stuck oyster]

just a bit of a joke

[orchid dawn]

Yea I know

[stuck oyster]

the channel should accept screenshots if you have accepeted rules #rules and verified #✔role-selection

[orchid dawn]

yea

here it is

[orchid dawn]

done

so what next

[stuck oyster]

well you would have to make it same pose as the arma man.

although from looking at it, the arms and legs are not same length probably

so oit wont fit properly

[orchid dawn]

okay how will i do that

[stuck oyster]

alternatively you could make it fully new animations

[orchid dawn]

is that easy

[stuck oyster]

no

nothing about this is easy

[orchid dawn]

oh no can i refit the ;legs

then

[stuck oyster]

maybe

[orchid dawn]

i guess it will be more easy than making the animations

[stuck oyster]

you can find the arma man sample from "Arma3 samples" on steam

[stuck oyster]

possibly

[orchid dawn]

okay it in what file format?

or can you just share the file here ig

[stuck oyster]

now the process of learning all this will be long.

I cant really tell you every step and hold your hand through it

[orchid dawn]

thold my hand this one time

[stuck oyster]

no

it would take days

you would probably benefit from learning more about basic blender working first

[orchid dawn]

i think i found it

it in p3d file format

right

how will i load this in blender

[stuck oyster]

there are couple of Arma Blender toolbox addons you can use

[orchid dawn]

Like which one

[pallid nexus]

https://github.com/AlwarrenSidh/ArmAToolbox
Or
https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/arma3objectbuilder/
Or alternatively, learn to use Object Builder from Arma 3 Tools (not really recommended, it's old)

There's a lot of good information on the BI wiki, which will help as you learn all of the stuff to make a mod
Mascer's ArmaRig might help with matching the skeleton https://www.moddb.com/games/arma-3/downloads/armarig

[orchid dawn]

yea

it not working

[stuck oyster]

which one did you get?

[orchid dawn]

i have tried bothj

[stuck oyster]

you can try older blender version in case neither of those have been updated to the latest blender

or you didnt yet find the right version

also btw did you pay for that model of yours?

[orchid dawn]

yea absolutely

[stuck oyster]

you might have been scammed

since that looks like chappie

and theres ton of free models for it

[orchid dawn]

really

[stuck oyster]

if someone "made" it just for you then probably

https://suryqata.gumroad.com/l/chappiebyvito like heres one

[orchid dawn]

i think he made it from scratch

[stuck oyster]

could be

[orchid dawn]

i can import this directly in arma

[stuck oyster]

no

haha

no no

[orchid dawn]

You know someone i can just commission to do this am tired

[stuck oyster]

no I doubt you could affort real game dev rates for this kind of thing

and mod making cant be paid for

well you could pay for someone to set up the character Id suppose

since thats more just blender work

for you this is few weeks or few months of project

[grizzled halo]

custom skeleton for creatures although not rather hard to make are time consuming if i need to add or remove bones, as im not the only person working on this animations, doing it using BVH streamlines and shortens the times I need between previews by just previewing the armature movement in OB

[stuck oyster]

🤔

what program you use to make them?

[grizzled halo]

blender

[stuck oyster]

there should really be no reason to need such step

also blender exports RTMs as well

[grizzled halo]

I havent done so successfully, its why I diverted to bvh

[stuck oyster]

odd

all animations I've made export nice and tidy to rtm

[grizzled halo]

if I do anything that is not using the OFP2 skeleton it just doesnt export for whatever reason

[stuck oyster]

blender cares nothing about ofp2manskeleton

[grizzled halo]

but the toolbox does

apparently

[stuck oyster]

which one?

[grizzled halo]

give me a sec, let me check my current version

[stuck oyster]

clocks?

or alwarrens

[grizzled halo]

alw

[stuck oyster]

ive used that

[grizzled halo]

it should be the latest

4.2.0

[stuck oyster]

as far as I know it know nothing about ofp2manskeleton

it exports whatever your armature has

granted I am probably a version behind still

but I doutbt it would have changed

[grizzled halo]

i was until recently in a past version as I had an ancient blender

so it might be the reason

[stuck oyster]

nothing in the new features lists about such at least

[grizzled halo]

yeah, its probably something on my end but i was so sick of not being able to do anything regarding rtms that i moved along using bvh which have been working alright until recently

im pretty sure at some point in the past i actually asked you about bvh workflow since i was already having issues with the rtms

[stuck oyster]

😅 Its been a minute since I had to use that

it worked better than FBX to Object Builder though

[grizzled halo]

i was actually planning on doing it that way oof

[kind lion]

i think the pumpjack from arma 2 is included and working in cup terrains already

no clue if you can spawn it through the normal editor though

if it comes from arma 2 terrains there's no reason it shouldn't be already there tbqh fam

[chrome ridge]

Been trying to make sense of Arma 3 modeling for years now. For the last two days i am trying to import a T-62 model i found on sketchfab in Arma 3 from Blender (at first for personal use). Not so much info available about the process. Though i know some of the basics like that i should divide the tanks into separate parts, make geometry, views, and LODs like that, key details are missing from my knowledge (like vertex stuff and lots of other things). How did you modders got to learn how to model and import? Most of the projects i started in the previous years ended in stalling because i didn't know how to proceed further.

[stuck oyster]

Start smaller. Just something simple like a box that you model and texture

Then you can animate it's lid to open on user action

Having a random model from the internet is not good for learning as that model might be poorly made and not at all game compatible.

[grizzled halo]

@stuck oyster do you happen to know the name of the skeleton exporting script for blender? i know it exist as ive seen it mentioned a couple of times, but i havent found the name yet or a link to it

also this is the bvh error ive been getting, in case someone with extra knowledge on the tools could chime in

[stuck oyster]

we could try debug the rtm export issue as well.

[stuck oyster]

https://forums.bohemia.net/forums/topic/234351-animexport-blender-to-modelcfg-complex-multi-bone-animations-for-objectsvehiclesweaponsetc/?tab=comments#comment-3483092

since we are back online you can find bit of info on my joyrney to get the export work

https://github.com/Talyataya/animExport/releases

[grizzled halo]

oh, we are back online? Thank christ allmighty

[stuck oyster]

read only

but YES

[grizzled halo]

so much info being lost by not having the forums 🙁

what even happened to them

oh, deprecated software

rip

[stuck oyster]

🙏

[grizzled halo]

ah, so it was one of Talya´s tools. He keeps on helping me indirectly. Skelexport was what i was looking for, thanks

but yes, let me get done with what im importing to arma and during the week i can definitely give it a try for direct rtm export

thanks!

[north sundial]

Sad times, glad it’s back as an archival resource though

[twilit dagger]

Hello. Am I understanding correctly that the "size" of the sprocket (distance between sprocket axis and boundary points in the memory LOD) affects the top speed of a tank? 🤨
(not sure if it fits better here or in #arma3_config)

[charred bolt]

Yes, it can do if done a bit "wrong".
Move the boundary point on the sprocket wheel slightly below the horizontal with it's axis, and if speed is being affected, move it closer to the axis point.

Make sure there's no other physx object interacting at that position too, similar to how you raise the tracks off the floor in the Geo Phys LOD

[twilit dagger]

I've now managed to reach >1000 km/h before rolling over 😄

Got the ArmA'd achievement from it 😆

Well, guess I'll just leave the "diameter" of the wheel as is from the sample mod, as my tank had an accurate top speed as is 😄

[grizzled halo]

is there any head strap p3d usable in arma files? I know the nvg harness exist but its missing a head strap, is there any?

[marsh canyon]

Do you mean a sample model?

[wooden osprey]

Hello! has anyone ever made a rig for a model that was supposed to be imported into A3?

My first time trying to rig a purchased model, i honestly thought about getting A3 rig for blender, adjusting the pose to the uniform, transfering vertex data and weight and then using armature return it to regular pose but it failed... what else can i DO?

[marsh canyon]

Do you mean a uniform?

[wooden osprey]

yea

bought a UF Pro uniform without a rig

so my idea was to adjust arma 3 rig in blender to match the shape of the uniform, then transfer weights and move from there

[marsh canyon]

This is not the rig you put in

Rig is available in Arma 3 Samples, you need to import one of them and make your set of armature

[stuck oyster]

you dont put the rig back into Arma3 anyway

you just need the same shape and weighting

[wooden osprey]

yea and i wanted to transfer it from the example character and switch to "rest" position

[marsh canyon]

The rig is on the A-pose, as is

Not bent A-pose like that

[wooden osprey]

the weighing transfered properly, but the clothing assumed it's thier rest position and i just wonder if i can revert that

here is "pose" and "rest" position

[marsh canyon]

So is this a Blender question or?

[wooden osprey]

more likely blender, or if someone done it in different program i can go with it

[warped mural]

isnt modeling uniforms for a3 usually supposed to be with arms straightened, instead of in this 'rest' pos?

[marsh canyon]

What he said as well

[marsh canyon]

Not sure what did you done between before and after there

[wooden osprey]

so i got a model, without a RIG and this is how it looks straight from the import

and i thought, using rig, adjust the character, transfer weights and revert it

[marsh canyon]

"Revert"?

[wooden osprey]

return to "rest" pose and basically got the uniform bent into shape

[stuck oyster]

that wont work because the weighting and animating starts from the T/A pose

[marsh canyon]

I don't think that's the theory, even though I can't really iunserstand it

[stuck oyster]

you would have to make the rig in the same pose first

then weight it

then animate it back

[marsh canyon]

Just appliyng the rig won't do any useful

[stuck oyster]

then apply animation

and use the original arma rig

[wooden osprey]

doing it right now, thanks a lot

thanks guys!

[rocky igloo]

I'm working on a set of binoculars is there a sample/example of binoculars so I can get the memory points needed etc?

[stuck oyster]

the arma2 released datapack has binoculars in the samples I recall

they should work as reference

[rocky igloo]

ooo good shout can i find that on steam like A3's or fourms?

[stuck oyster]

BI wiki
Arma 2 public data packs page - samples section

or about like that anyway

[rocky igloo]

Cheers! I couldn't find the standard binos in there but found the soflam that will do perfectly.

[grizzled halo]

yeah, anything of that sort to reference as a proxy

[cosmic idol]

Not sure if this would go here but might as well ask it here. For a weapon i want to make/have made but want to have a custom grip on it how would one go about that? Would it be like an animation thing or something else. To give some insight I would like to possibly do one of two things. First one being like a dual pistol grip where the same pistol is in each hand. The second would be a single pistol but like a one handed grip type thing

Please ping me with response to this

[stuck oyster]

cant have dual wielding

[cosmic idol]

I know you can cause I have seen it done some mods

[stuck oyster]

natively you cant

the weapon model does not work like that

well ok maybe in very janky way

[cosmic idol]

The way it was done was weird where it was like just a single weapon but had a left and right hand for the fire modes

[stuck oyster]

if you can link the mod we can probably tell you a bit about how it was made

natively there is no 2 pistol wielding

[indigo mountain]

We just use two handguns in the p3d itself and have a script to automatically swap between two muzzles on the gun when firing, which use different mem points for where the bullet originates from

[north sundial]

^ thats how I know its done too

[cosmic idol]

Got ya what about changing model of just a single handgun from holding with both hands to a single hand is that possible?

[indigo mountain]

Just needs a custom handanim afaik

[sour bough]

Yesn't

You can make the left hand go anywhere you want, but it'll still be IK'd to the right hand (the gun, basically)

[stuck oyster]

pretty much this yes.

[cosmic idol]

That is fine keeping the right hand on the gun more thinking of just like for the look of the gun having it be one handed might be better but 🤷‍♂️

Thank yall for the help

[stuck oyster]

if you try to do anything special with the pistol, main thing to remember is that the pistol proxy where the model gets glued on in game is tied to the right hand so it always moves with it. it cant separate from it

[sour bough]

You can do it with one magazine/muzzle iirc

This

[stuck oyster]

any nice reload animations are the most problematic part

[sour bough]

yeah

you have to either do weird shit with attaching or do the model.cfg export addon

it doesn't help that reloading dual pistols irl is, uhm,

Cumbersome and stupid

[stuck oyster]

😄

[indigo mountain]

Just move the pistols out of eye-sight and they magically have new magazines

[sour bough]

True!

[stuck oyster]

armpit autoloader

or sleeve autoloader

https://youtu.be/cNBHxQWidQE?t=341

[sour bough]

Short guy strapped to your back who you trade the guns with and he loads them while you've got the other pair

[stuck oyster]

or matrix style just grab new guns

[sour bough]

Reaper Overwatch, grab more guns from your magic trench coat

[north sundial]

Do the real Hollywood thing and just give the guns infinite ammo

[twilit dagger]

Hello, I'm working on making a View Cargo model for my tank. I'm making by removing unseen vehicle parts or parts of a single model from the Resolution 0 LOD. In some cases, when removing unseen, it results in this weird shading. Any ideas what causes this and/or how to avoid it?

(I'm assuming this weird shading will also appear ingame)

Disregard, found a solution. This fixes it:

[willow nacelle]

Does anyone know any tutorials or important information for making a car?

[modest quarry]

Stumped on this "Different bone count" error I've been getting. Model is properly rigged and moves on animations in blender but when ingame it throws the error

Is having multiple skeletons in the cfgSkeletons section of the mode.cfg a possible cause or have I messed up the rig on this thing 4 seperate times?

[last spindle]

Look who's back, back again @Hatchet. Long time

[charred bolt]

Can you screenshot the error message and when/where you are getting it?

[lofty linden]

Hey, i'd like to know if bag-config object can support a secondary weapon proxy ? i put one in my bag model but the sec weapon doesn't show up

[modest quarry]

Im gonna be honest, I made 0 changes and just moved all arma man rigged models to a seperate PBO and they started working

I genuinely have 0 clue why, or how

but they do now

[surreal axle]

Hello, everyone. Could you please advise how to remove the triangle marked on the screenshot? It appeared after I attached the hat to the body using Blender and model cfg.

[grizzled halo]

the model cfg might have been trying to feed incorrect data to the modesl that dont run with ofp2 skeleton

[twilit dagger]

Looks to me to be a proxy triangle. 🤔 Find it in Blender and delete the face, but keep the vertices and edges.

[grizzled halo]

does the magazine proxy used in placeable weapon props (groundweaponholders) show at all? All the vanilla placed weapons have no mags in their model but they do inside the containers, and im seeing that same thing happen with mine

[bright echo]

usually the magazine is in the 'container' along with the weapon and not in the weapon so probably not

[indigo mountain]

For ground holders like that the magazine is loaded into the weapon, at least it looks that way in the inventory iirc

[bright echo]

doesnt for me

if you pick it up it'll automatically load the magazine instantly but visually it isnt

[north sundial]

I would assume it unloads the mag so you can pick it up seperately?

I think it also depends on if you placed the gun in 3den or something vs if a unit is killed and the mag is loaded

1s will test

Placed in 3den vs placed from unit

Looks like 3den doesn't load the mag by default

The ground weapon holder is perfectly capable of showing the mag is what i mean, its just not placed with it loaded when using 3den

[bright echo]

no its just unloaded because thats how the ammoboxes/weapon holders work

you add a transportweapon and a transportmagazine, if you run a script you can 'fix' it so the magazine is in the weapon but yeah by default they're not

[north sundial]

I was trying to find the script for that out of sheer curiosity

private _holder1 = createVehicle [
"GroundWeaponHolder",
getPosATL test1,
[],
0,
"CAN_COLLIDE"
];
_holder1 addWeaponWithAttachmentsCargoGlobal [
["TCP_launch_M41","","","",["TCP_2Rnd_102mm_Mag_HEAT",1],[], ""],
1
];

You can do this to create one and it will have the mag loaded on the floor

[pseudo knot]

https://youtu.be/Cz2JYluA1yo?feature=shared
I've found this video on YouTube, and the U-boat looks INSANELY good
Im sure that it's not a part of any big ww2/submarines mod, and had seen through all steam workshop/modding sites, and found nothing
Through other videos of him, I've found his steam acc, but I don't think that he would accept my friend request. Does anyone know him? I'll add steam profile link later

I dunno really where to ask this type of questions

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198006770304

That's him

[tacit hull]

wow that does look INSANELY good

[indigo mountain]

Ah then I was just misremembering

Would be nice if there was like a LinkedItemsMagazine

[north sundial]

I swear it has something to do with if the weapon holder is simulated/scripted or not

But could be wrong

[bright echo]

weapon holders are just ammo crates there's nothing special - simulated just means it has physx

[north sundial]

To enable the animations

[bright echo]

would be nice but would probably be a mess to do at least from the box side of things

I wrote a function to do it for the panzerfaust boxes in SPE which was yeah just checking what was in the cargo post init and applying it via addWeaponWithAttachmentsCargoGlobal

I considered doing it for our 3den weapon holders but I was afraid of it breaking something so kept it just for the panzerfaust box

[grizzled halo]

it actually does, the page in the wiki actually tells you this. They give you an example with a rocket launcher and a way to actually add the tandem charge into it for it to show, but that just not efficient, it resets the position as is re-placing the ground weapon holder for some reason, not as in you having to re-place the model, but that its up vector normalizes to horizon somehow

I assume that the holder type is "Weapon_Empty" being forced by Eden

(i cant find the specific thing about the rpg but I know I have read it a couple of times in the past)

but yeah, LinkedItemsMagazine when dedman 🤣 ?

[pseudo knot]

rn im on old forums and found another his channel https://youtube.com/@cervantes117?si=L6r25tftl7BykFWn

[crimson zodiac]

Yes, the oil pumps @edgy pulsar

I found the .p3d files in the Arma 2 OA directory, and I've written the configs for it, though when I try to binarize it with AddonBuilder it gives me an error. Any ideas why?

[thorn geyser]

The model is already binarized.

All the .p3d files in ArmA are binarized, except the example files they release.

[crimson zodiac]

Yes, but to get it into PBO format I need to run it through addon builder right? Which binarizes automatically. (?)

[thorn geyser]

is the binarized file mixed with unbinarized models?

[crimson zodiac]

Nope, the only models I have in the folder are the ones I got from the A2OA directory, which are all binarized.

[thorn geyser]

so just uncheck the binarize option and it should work. 😃

[crimson zodiac]

Alright I'll try that 😃

Also one other question

[thorn geyser]

Yup sure.

[crimson zodiac]

How will the model know where to access the texture files? Since it's not in the same directory as it was originally in A2OA

[thorn geyser]

well it is impossible to rename the directories. But have you already searched for the model in the samples BI released?

That is if its binarized

[crimson zodiac]

Yeah, it's a pretty insignificant model so I can't really find it anywhere. Which is why I've turned to actually porting it over.

[thorn geyser]

Have you looked here?: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Public_Data

[crimson zodiac]

I'll take a look, thanks.

[thorn geyser]

No problem. 😃

There you can find content BI have released in unbinarized format. They are pretty big to download, but worth it if you were to port more stuff over.

[crimson zodiac]

Btw unchecking the binarize option worked 😄 I'll see if it works in game

[thorn geyser]

It might, but I doubt the textures will. 😦

[crimson zodiac]

Yeah that's what i'm thinking as well

[thorn geyser]

If you have Object Builder, you will notice that there is a section called 'Mass Texture & Material renaming...' under Tools. In there, you can rename the directories the textures will be read, thus making the model and its textures fully working. Unfortunately, when the model is binarized there is no way of doing so unless it is unbinarized at first.

[carmine gull]

@crimson zodiac @thorn geyser Unfortunately, when the model is binarized there is no way of doing so unless it is unbinarized at first.
Hence the value of the unbinarized files (and what people tend to mean by "source").

[thorn geyser]

@carmine gull, my bad. It is actually 1 AM in the morning for me. XD

[smoky lava]

Hi guys. This is the first time I've seen this. The geometry works correctly before the animation. And after opening the door, part of the collision breaks. How can I fix such a bug?)🫃

[thorn geyser]

Hey, does anyone know if it is possible to rotate a UV model on its x,y and z value?

[charred bolt]

The animated part is moving outside of the object bounding sphere.
In Object Builder probably add a memory point at the position of the end of the gate so the bounding sphere is increased.
Not 100% this is correct but you can try it!

[stuck oyster]

100% correct

[north sundial]

I ran into this issue very recently, I can’t quite tell, is this a sliding or rotating gate?

Ah rotating, I’m just confused about what’s happening in the 2nd picture

I found it better to have the model of the gate in the open position initially, this meant that fire geo as well as normal geo worked correctly

Then in order to get the gate to spawn closed and still work with basegame door scripts, set angle 0 to the amount it needs to close, I.e rad 90 in the animation in the model config

This is the way some gates and bar gates work

The problem after that is ai pathing seems to go off of what geometry is in the way at binerization or before any anims are applied to decide if they should go on a path lod to walk though the object

In this setup they will simply walk through in my experience

I fixed this by making a small geometry rectangle under the gate itself with a one side labelled as a named selection with an axis that spanned the length of the gate, setup a translate animation with an animation source that initialises as 1 to immediately move one of the faces into the other rendering it not a problem for players but kinda forces ai to go on the path lod rather than walk through it

Solves all the issues I came across when doing a hinged gate

If needed I can get pictures of what I’m on about when I’m back on my pc

[charred bolt]

Did you try just adding a single un-named memory point as I suggested, instead of all that extra stuff?

[north sundial]

Yes

Fixes the geometry but not the fire geometry

In your example you also need a memory point at the extents for the visual lod to stop it going out of view when the original bounding box isn’t visible on screen

What I put above fixes all possible issues I found with swing gates

Any other way seems to fix one thing but breaks another

[charred bolt]

Thanks for the explanation - sure that will be useful for those doing this kind of thing.

[north sundial]

Will get some pictures and code snippets later on as I appreciate it is a rather complex solution haha

[runic plover]

I have added points in the Roadway and it fixed

Its misterious i know.. i had such stuff with my GDI and Nod Gates

[north sundial]

Set Gates open by default in the model so their maximum opening is covered by the bounding box when binerized (Doing this means that the geometry, fire geometry and view geometry and render extents work perfectly for this type of gate)

In your model.cfg set angle0 to be the angle of the door in order to close it. This forces the gates to be closed as they load, but keep the 0-1 animation phase state as 0 = closed and 1 = open for various scripts such as the 3den door opening and zeus enhanced door controls

            class door_left_rotate
            {
                type = "rotation";
                source = "Door_1_sound_source";
                selection = "door_left";
                axis = "door_left_axis";
                minValue = 0;
                maxValue = 1;
                angle0 = rad -95;
                angle1 = 0;
            };

This enables you to have perfect gometry lod interactions, keeping the model rendered on screen, as well as work with basegame door systems. However, doing this will break AI pathing for this object.

From my experience, AI will only recognise a structure needs a path lod to navigate through if there is geometry blocking them in some way at floor level. To fix this I added a small thin cuboid along the bottom. This forces the AI to think that it must go around the object, or enter a path lod to navigate through the object. (Highlighted in red, ensure its 3d, has a component and has weight)

Unfortunately as is apparent with this setup fixing one bug leads to another drawback, in this case this small geometry cuboid causes the player or vehicles to collide with it if the gate is raised enough for it to collide with the player or vehicle.

This can thankfully be fixed by animating the geometry fix we implemented to "collapse" on itself, rendering its effects null and void in terms of collision, but still keeping the AI happy as it was in the way at the time of binerization.

For this select 4 of the vertices on either side of this cuboid and give it a named selection we can animate I.e path_geo_fix

Then add in an axis in the memory lod from the vertices you just named to the other 4 vertices on the other side of the cuboid and give it a named selection as well, I.e path_geo_fix_axis

Now we go into cfgvehicles and add an animation source with init set to 1

            class path_geo_fix_source
            {
                source = "user";
                initPhase = 1;
                animPeriod = 0;
            };

Once done, go back to the model.cfg and add path_geo_fix to your skeleton i.e.

    class FenceWall_Hinged_Gate_Large_01_Skeleton: Default
    {
        skeletonInherit = "Default";
        skeletonBones[] =
        {
            "door_left", "",
            "door_right", "",
            "lock_1_hide", "door_left",
            "lock_2_hide", "door_left",
            "path_geo_fix", ""
        };
    };

And finally, Add the animation to translate the 4 vertices along the axis named path_geo_fix (Its important its not a hide animation as for whatever reason hide animations can sometimes bug out with geometry and even when hidden, the player/ vehicles will still collide with it, Also setting offset0 to 1 instead of using an animation source with init = 1 caused issues as well where AI forgot that part of the geometry existed again)

            class path_geo_fix_translate
            {
                type = "translation";
                source = "path_geo_fix_source";
                selection = "path_geo_fix";
                axis = "path_geo_fix_axis";
                minValue = 0;
                maxValue = 1;
                offset0 = 0;
                offset1 = 1;
            };

Now everything is done you will have a rotating gate that has perfect rendering, geometry lods, AI pathing (as perfect as that can possibly be haha)

The player ingame will be none the wiser of the pain you had to endure to get the gate to not be able to be walked through, shot through, disappear when slightly out of view, Allow AI to walk through it without going on the path lod to open the gate or get stuck on some invisible geometry

Final note, theres a chance some clever clogs will look though the above and say "actually, its really simple, just do this" in which case don't listen to me haha

Just what I ended up having to do to fix the problems I encountered

[charred bolt]

Great write-up Kenny.

[north sundial]

No problem, hopefully saves some people some time and frustration

[stuck oyster]

If it works its fine. The path_geo_fix probably can be hidden too but translation is fine since its same amount of animtion classes anyway

I think firegeometry has worked on gates with extended points I made

but I dont have any specific reason why

like said, if it works in this instance reliably then 👍 👍 👍

[north sundial]

I had issues with the hide animation leaving residual collision behind, I could see it was visually hidden using diag exe diag_drawMode "geometry". But still stopped me crawling through the gate, using translation kept it reliable

idk why though

[stuck oyster]

odd. yeah

but you have solution that works

[north sundial]

12 year old game things

[stuck oyster]

gift horse

[quick terrace]

do you mean UVW?

[thorn geyser]

Yeah. The unwrap function in OB doesn't seem to work as much, so not sure how I am going to UV map my model. :/

[fervent steppe]

<<<If you have Object Builder, you will notice that there is a section called 'Mass Texture & Material renaming...' under Tools. In there, you can rename the directories the textures will be read, thus making the model and its textures fully working. Unfortunately, when the model is binarized there is no way of doing so unless it is unbinarized at first.
@thorn geyser not 100% true. Mikeros move folder will work but if it's a binarized model you obviously will need permission from the owner

[thorn geyser]

@fervent steppe, Really?!? I didn't know that was actually possible. Cheers for the info! 😄

Hey guys, I got a pretty stupid question to ask (and yet I should know this by now). Why are there so many tiles in a UV editor, and can they be used for one particular texture?

[willow nacelle]

Hi, does anyone know why my clothes aren't showing up?

[marsh canyon]

Your config is anyhow broken

[thorn geyser]

Drinks are on me 😉 : http://i.imgur.com/AtumYyS.png

[north sundial]

Have you defined model = your model

[exotic nymph]

Hello everyone, I have a question: if the arm spread angle and leg spread angle of a uniform model are different from those of the model in the Arma 3 sample (but all the bones are correctly bound), will this uniform still work properly?

[stuck oyster]

no

the shape must be same

[fervent steppe]

Pepsi gonna be mad at you

[thorn geyser]

lol, I'll change it later, its not gonna end up in public anyway. 😉

Just a prototype texture

[fervent steppe]

That's what they all say 😉

[thorn geyser]

haha, lol. But I do suppose in the DayZ mod they went that path. 😛

[light star]

was it "peeps" or something .. free to use that 😉

[thorn geyser]

I was considering of using Sunkiss, but i realized that they would kiss my ass if i did. LOL 😄

I gotta go to bed, I think my spirits are going off the charts by the looks of my comments, lol. (2:39 AM)

spirits... get it? hahaha

[bitter mirage]

Good afternoon, everyone in the group — could someone point me to a tutorial or show me how to create items for Arma 3? I want to create an item to complete an existing addon.

[north sundial]

Define what kind of item you’re talking about

Like an inventory item?

[bitter mirage]

Specifically, I need to create an item for the inventory of the vest, clothing, or backpack. I need to create a laptop that can be used to view the satellite layer from an addon.

[rocky igloo]

Hi all wondering if there is a way to assign materials to my items in blender before export to Object Builder? I wanna minimise how much I have to do inside Object Builder if it's at all possible.

[stuck oyster]

yes it is possible and preferable

There should be dialog box in the materials tab for assigning Arma material path that corresponds to assigned blender material(s)

[north sundial]

Assuming you are using arma toolbox by alwarren rather than exporting as obj or fbx or something and importing again via object builder

[north sundial]

#arma3_tools message

There is also arma object builder for blender, but I don't use that one so couldn't advise on it

a3 toolbox allows you to do almost everything you can in object builder, in blender

[stuck oyster]

the Arma Object Builder is similar to to toolbox with more features

the name is unfortunate as people do confuse it with the Arma Object Builder

[north sundial]

I think the layouts different though is what I meant

[stuck oyster]

it is yes

and some things work a little different

[north sundial]

I think there are intel items in basegame that can be carried but have no function like an explosive or ammunition. then you could script a check for the players inventory to use the satellite if they have the laptop item?

nvm they can't be carried it would appear

[stuck oyster]

usually such items are fake magazines I think

hmm. fancy idea brewing

if only I had the time 😄

[north sundial]

haha

[stuck oyster]

so i'll share

so there could be this "fake weapon"

that accpets these "fake magazine" items

and they could be loaded on the fake weapon to become visible and then look like they are carried

[north sundial]

Could be cool

Could even technically have a tablet, and the mags are usb's

[stuck oyster]

true

[silk narwhal]

Heyo, quick question about bringing models in Arma 3.

I wanna start making my own objects / characters, where would I start first, learning Blender or some other app?

Sorry if this is the incorrect channel but I never got into this side of modding before and thought this channel made sense since it's about arma 3 and models

[stuck oyster]

learning blender is good first step

[silk narwhal]

Alright appreciated

[quick terrace]

@thorn geyser use anything but O2 for unwraps...

unless you are some sort of masochist

[dusky dragon]

LOL

[exotic nymph]

Is there any Blender add‑on (or Python script) that can directly set a model’s pose to the Arma 3 standard? I’ve tried adjusting it manually — the arms and legs are manageable, but the fingers are very hard to align accurately (my model also includes gloves).

[stuck oyster]

no

[exotic nymph]

I found a T2A‑Pose plug‑in online. Does Arma 3 use the standard A‑Pose?

[stuck oyster]

no

[warped mural]

Use the arma 3 samples rig and pose it to what the uniform model pose is, weight the uniform to the rig as best you can, move the rig into default arma 3 position, apply it so the uniform stays in that pose then delete the weighing from the uniform and do it from scratch appropriately.

(disclaimer: i have never done this but it seems plausible 😁 )

[stuck oyster]

no

he is doing the right way of reposing the rig he has to the arma man pose shape first

but he just needs to be more careful with it

@exotic nymph where is your model from?

its not from some other game is it?

[grizzled halo]

I would only wish that the toolbox and object builder addon had an option to take relative paths like Object builder does instead of forcing you to work within the p drive like Mikero's/HEMTT does.

[stuck oyster]

😑

[grizzled halo]

you cant blame me for hoping for more native/legacy functionality compat :p

[daring thunder]

Does anyone has an idea why the second object of that Building doesn't load right? It seems to be an error with that glass.

[stuck oyster]

might need alpha sorting or you might have trasnparency in your solid surface textures or not right texture naming conventions

[grizzled halo]

alpha sorting

what goat said, yes

diffuse for glass texture end up in _ca?
you RVMAT properly set?
properly sorted alphas?

[daring thunder]

Ah okay. I put the glass all the way up. The Building itself is made of two diffrent objects because of arma limits.

[stuck oyster]

that is part of the problem then

[rich meadow]

https://github.com/gerard-sog/arma3-macvsog-columbia-items I wrote this procedure for inventory items that can also be dropped.

There are also some examples provided 👍

[minor bridge]

Hello everyone I'm looking for someone to help me make a character if you are interested you can dm me

[silk narwhal]

Ty!

[rocky igloo]

Oh yeah that does seem like a nice addon for Blender cheers!

If I wanted to control where my weapon is held I'm guessing that's gonna be a memory point. Is there a memory point for this purpose that I could define?

Can't seem to find one that's used in the samples.

[north sundial]

I believe it’s based off of model position in relation to the origin point

And you need to add autocenter = 0 in your geometry lod so it stays where you put it

The hands are an rtm animation, but there are many in basegame that usually suit most normal weapons you can use

Just play around until you find one that may work

[rocky igloo]

Ahh ok got ya. I just recompiled with autocenter = 0 I'll give it a try, thanks!

[rocky igloo]

Is this also the case for rotation. I have the position correct now but it's rotated to the right by like 40 to 90 incorrectly.
I have the position applied in Blender etc so i don't think that's an issue. Is there an attribute/parameter similar to autocenter = 0 but for roatation?

[north sundial]

Shouldn’t be

Something funky is going on there

I think the front needs to face -y in blender

[rocky igloo]

Ooo I'll double check that against the samples I have it on positive Y

[north sundial]

I could be wrong on that

I’m an environment artist so I just know the front of my structures need to face the - y for editor previews

[rocky igloo]

So turns out sample rifle faces -X I'll rotate, apply it and see if that fixes my problem 😂

[north sundial]

Ah yeah that’s makes sense actually

Knew it was something funky

[rocky igloo]

That worked cheers Kenny 🙂

[north sundial]

Np

[stuck oyster]

what kind of character would that be?

[twilit dagger]

Does that apply only to Geo, or any other LODs?

[grizzled halo]

@stuck oyster sorry for the ping. I managed to export rtm straight from blender, but this is the issue ive been having

is this because there is no model.cfg with skeleton defined for my test?

static pose looks good

[bitter mirage]

Can you explain the topic in more detail?

[stuck oyster]

ObjectBuilder has trouble importing rtms so it's not really the best in testing them. Does this use custom skeleton shape?

[north sundial]

Just geometry lod, check the wiki for named properties

I think if you have an edge case without a geometry lod, they can be applied to the first resolution lod

[north sundial]

I was incorrect, the intel items in basegame are just props, you could configure the laptop as a weapon or magazine or some other type of item like a toolkit so it can be picked up however

[north sundial]

@bitter mirage Gerard posted this tutorial that may be useful

[grizzled halo]

yes sir, ive tried rebuilding my skeleton and reexporting my rtms using the object builder added and that yielded much better results. However im still unsure in how to test without putting the animation ingame, as other mods with custom creatures that provide source files to fiddle with are actually able to be visualized through object builder matrices slider thingy

[stuck oyster]

personally I just run mine through game

when export etc works you should not need to review them in OB but to only worry about how your conifgs connect them

as the animation should be 1:1 to what you see in Blender

[grizzled halo]

there the option to export as model animation through cfg for rtms rigth? I guess i could do that just to "preview" in bulldozer

[stuck oyster]

no

thats not for rtms

model.cfg animation is different thing

you can try set the rtm reference skeleton in the OB settings

the other sources you refer to might be using same naming as ofpmanskeleton

and work because of that

[grizzled halo]

I assumed that was automatically done while using the model.cfg file

can you elaborate?

[stuck oyster]

although I did forget this was for loading up binarized rtms in buldozer, not the matrix list

Like I said I dont really use OB to view them

[grizzled halo]

rip

i will try importing the model as a dummy object and have it be animated by a custom source, atleast that way i wont have to preconfig the creature as a whole before i even know if the animations we have are good to go

ty anyway

[stuck oyster]

I dont think that works

and its a lot of extra work

the animation as you see it in blender should be as it is in game

if you verify your workflow with one animation from blender to game then that should be enough

[grizzled halo]

alr. I will try then.

I have a doubt though. Should the definition of the skeleton match 100% the vertex groups in the P3D or would defining the skeleton as it was done in blender to influence the vertex groups would be enough?

I have a lot of "auxiliary" vertex groups that share weights with their respective main vertex groups which are then binded to their respective bones and im unsure if I should include the definition of such auxiliary groups

[stuck oyster]

are the auxilary groups animated?

Im not sure what you mean by that tbh

can you show pictures?

[grizzled halo]

atm no, but I can in the afternoon once im home.

As for the auxiliary groups being animated, not separately from the main group, no. They are painted to the same areas in some sections, essentially like how insignias are painted to the shoulder of the default arma man for example, or how the head section has multiple sub sections in a single group for ease of manipulation.

[stuck oyster]

so they all have their own bones that are also part of the Arma model.cfg skeleton?

there are some rules in the weighting like max 4 bones can affect single vertex

if that is followed the weighting should move 1:1 ingame compared to blender

[grizzled halo]

yes, that why im wondering if that sections too have to be defined in the skeleton or just having the main sections that influence the area would be enough

[stuck oyster]

Im not sure what you mean by these separate sections

and main bone/section

sounds messy to be honest

[grizzled halo]

ill send you a SS later if thats ok

[grizzled halo]

@stuck oyster Hey goat, you available?

this is what i meant with auxiliary selections:

Foot_l is main
Foot.L is auxiliary

As you can see they are painted to the same vertex group

Its what i was wondering, if in the skeleton both should be declared deriving from its previous bone extension

[stuck oyster]

what does the auxilary selection do?

but no you should only have the main

I dont see any reason to have second duplicate selection

[grizzled halo]

its a special selection that we will attach stuff to or use as control groups for effects we are planning

[stuck oyster]

am not tracking

[grizzled halo]

we have like 5 auxiliary selections only, not everything is duplicated in case you were going to ask thatg

[stuck oyster]

where are they going to be used?

in Arma?

or in Blender?

[grizzled halo]

arma

[stuck oyster]

im sorry it makes not sense to me

you could just use the main selection

was there a corresponding bone in the armature?

[grizzled halo]

that the argument ive been locked on for some time now 🤣

[stuck oyster]

there should not be

you can have selection like for how example the hidden selections "camo" etc are

that have nothing to do with animations

the bone name selections are what animate the thing

anything else should be just full vertex 100% selections

the smooth weightpainted selection does not have any purpose beyond animating

[grizzled halo]

I think im lost then, what does the CfgSkeleton defines?
The bones in the armature or the selections in the body?

[stuck oyster]

bones in the armature

so the bones that get written in rtm can move same named weighted mesh in the p3d model

[grizzled halo]

ah, so the skeleton defined used the same bones that the rtm was animated with

[stuck oyster]

if you compare to armaMan

you see the weighted selections that correspond to bone names in model.cfg

[grizzled halo]

i see, that clear up A LOT of fog

[stuck oyster]

and then other selections for hit texture swapping and camo and stuff like that

important here is selections

as those vertex groups = named selections in p3d

sections are also selections and are defined in model.cfg but they are not animation related but connect with other engine features

like hiddenSelections need to be defined as separate sections so the texture swap system can access them

[grizzled halo]

so in the selections do I still need v.groups that match the bones names or just the bone data from the RTM in cfgSkeleton is enough for the animation to play (besides config ofc)?

[stuck oyster]

for animation anything not named as the bones is not needed

and I would recommend removing any groups you dont have use for

there might also be problems with bones/selection with . in the name so avoid those

underscore only

[grizzled halo]

alr. Thanks for your time, you cleared the doubt i had 🙂

[grizzled halo]

Goat, thanks for your time. I have succesfully visualized my anims. Turn out i was just missing the armature transformations, im just bug dum dum