arma3_model

[nova river]

Any idea why the magazine on my weapon disappears and reappears properly during a reload in 1st person, but when in 3rd it disappears during the first reload and only reappears after the second reload

class CfgSkeletons
{
    class HVAP1_Skeleton
    {
        isDiscrete=0;
        skeletonInherit="";
        skeletonBones[]=
        {
            "trigger",
            "",
            "bolt",
            "",
            "bolt_catch",
            "",
            "magazine",
            "",
            "safety",
            "",
            "zasleh",
            "",
            "OP",
            "",
            "foresight",
            "",
            "backsight",
            ""
        };
    };
};
class CfgModels
{
    class HVAP1
    {
        skeletonName="HVAP1_Skeleton";
        sectionsInherit="";
        sections[]=
        {
            "zasleh",
            "camo1"
        };
        class Animations
        {
            class zaslehROT
            {
                type = "rotationX";
                source = "ammoRandom";
                sourceAddress = "loop";
                selection = "zasleh";     // must exist as geometry in Res LOD
                axis = "";
                centerFirstVertex = true;
                minValue = 0;
                maxValue = 4;
                angle0 = "rad 0";
                angle1 = "rad 360";
            };
            class no_magazine
            {
                type="hide";
                source="hasmagazine";
                sourceAddress="clamp";
                selection="magazine";
                memory=1;
                minValue=0;
                maxValue=1;
                hideValue=0.5;
                unhideValue=-1;
            };
            class magazine_hide
            {
                type="hide";
                source="reloadmagazine";
                sourceAddress="mirror";
                selection="magazine";
                memory=1;
                minValue=0;
                maxValue=1;
                hideValue=0.18;
                unhideValue=-.87;
            };
        };
    };
};

What I have for it atm

[stuck oyster]

probably related to the mirror hide

try separate it into 2 classes

[nova river]

What do you mean?

[stuck oyster]

your sourceAddress on the magazine hide is mirror

make it clamp like normal animation

and split it into 2 animations that first hide it at right spot then unhide it at at right spot

[nova river]

what does mirror, clamp, and such mean?

Also, its working fine in first person.

[stuck oyster]

but not working in 3rd

[stuck oyster]

I assumed you had put that there on purpose 😅

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Armed_Assault:_How_to_animate_a_model
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Model_Config

youll want to read these

[nova river]

I was following a tutorial for it

I don't see why what I'm doing is wrong after reading that

Mirror just means the animation can play backwards?

[stuck oyster]

yes but you have problem with it not mirroring right, so you want to control it with 2 animations

so it works

I am at a bit loss here to understand why are you fighting the offered solution since you are the one who came to ask about a problem

[nova river]

I'm not trying to fight it, just understand it some more. I'll try to figure out how to make it 2

[stuck oyster]

first turn that one into clamped that hides it at right time

should be pretty straightforward

fiddle with teh hide and unhide values

then once it is visible at start and hides at right time

[nova river]

            class magazine_hide
            {
                type="hide";
                source="reloadMagazine";
                sourceAddress="clamp";
                selection="magazine";
                minValue=0.000000;
                maxValue=1.00000;
                hideValue=0.188;
            };
            };
            class magazine_unhide
            {
                type="hide";
                source="reloadMagazine";
                sourceAddress="clamp";
                selection="magazine";
                minValue=0.000000;
                maxValue=1.00000;
                unhideValue = 0.550;
            };```

like this?

[stuck oyster]

yes pretty much

[nova river]

That worked! Thank you!

Now I just need to figure out how to do a custom reload animation

[thorn geyser]

Nvm. I got it to unwrap, must have been a code hiccup in Oxygen. And lol...

[fervent steppe]

<<<unless you are some sort of masochist

😉

[quick terrace]

@fervent steppe - but you doing buildings aren't you? not really the same, although i do wonder how you are backing AS/ADS, MC and MASKs in O2...

[fervent steppe]

no i dont really count lol most of the buildings are just using the a2 textures supplied..some have been changed/new but a building is way less complex then a gun or vehicle in my mind

hey @quick terrace while your around..you dont happen to know/recall an example off hand of a building or structure in a3 that has sound with it...for example church bells (i did look at the churches..i dont think they toll like they did in a2)

[quick terrace]

not really

[thorn geyser]

I think the sounds are scripted...

[fervent steppe]

used to be simulation=fountain would allow for sounds but i think thats gone

[quick terrace]

tbh i don't really know the existing content all that well, i don't dive blindly, i dive to look for something if and when i need it...

a2 content even less...sorry

[fervent steppe]

no biggie ill figure something out

trying to rig up the oil derricks with sounds and flames at the top

[foggy finch]

@fervent steppe have you tried adding simulation="fountain"; into the config rather than the model?

[fervent steppe]

yea thats what i was talking about actually

i think it was removed

[foggy finch]

ah bummer

[fervent steppe]

actaully simulation=fire works but theres some side effects lol

[foggy finch]

haha

[fervent steppe]

i get oil pumps with sounds

[foggy finch]

simulation="SoundOnVehicle"; <-- tried that? dunno if it works with a3 or if its just a vbs thing

[fervent steppe]

however by adding that line in it moves the model up on the y axis

[foggy finch]

simulation="DynamicSound";

theres that too

[fervent steppe]

and i get a command when close to the center of the model...put out fire lol

[foggy finch]

haha

[thorn geyser]

You could look at the fireplace on how they have done that?

[fervent steppe]

nice ill try those two and see what they do if anything

[thorn geyser]

lol

[foggy finch]

https://resources.bisimulations.com/wiki/Models_and_Classnames:_Simulation_Types

incase you run out of simulation types ^

[thorn geyser]

My mouth waters when I see BISimulations. 😛

[fervent steppe]

hmm wonder if church still works

[foggy finch]

have you tried housesimulated?

[thorn geyser]

Ding Dong

[foggy finch]

I know it works for lights, dunno about sounds however

[fervent steppe]

i think that is inhereted from house_f tho but ill try them all and see what happens...good looking out tho..i always forget out bisims page

<<<You could look at the fireplace on how they have done that?

i actually used that simulation to make a fountain lol

sim=dynamicsound = model gone lol

[foggy finch]

hehe try housesimulated

[fervent steppe]

i did..its a no go

[foggy finch]

ahh dang

must be restricted to lights only

[fervent steppe]

yea i dont really want to use sim=fire

[foggy finch]

I havent actually tried a model with doors using housesimulted yet

[fervent steppe]

hmmm they work in the animation class..i may be able to use that..let me try something

[foggy finch]

yeah well door sounds etc are called from there

[rapid tree]

Hi there, i imported my new heli everythings working fine except that you get killed when the engine is running, i never had this type of problem before, any advice or direction what this is causing ?

[fervent steppe]

well my one thought didnt qwork

time to test something else on my test island and see if it works

[sour bough]

Like it explodes?

Or the guy inside dies

[rapid tree]

the guy gets killed when he gets out of the heli

and the engine is running

[sour bough]

is he impacting the blades?

[foggy finch]

@fervent steppe's test island is like charlie and the chocolate factory of arma assets 😄

[fervent steppe]

lol

[rapid tree]

yes

but idk why cause geos are all correct

[fervent steppe]

i forgot i had it atually which im glad it do.. its very small and quick to binarize

[stuck oyster]

no defined rotor point so it defaults to model 0,0,0

[rapid tree]

What do you mean with no defined rotor point ?

[stuck oyster]

do you have mainBladeCenter and tailBladeCenter defined?

[fervent steppe]

ok sim fire is out anyway...it losses its animation when binarized to an island

[rapid tree]

Velka Osa and Mala Osa ?

[foggy finch]

hmm you could add a source named selection in the model.cfg then do the rest with config on that selection in the sekelton ?

[rapid tree]

I havent checked that but my config is like my other heli, just the model position in the p3d is different and axises, geos are all re positioned, i take a look tomorrow, thanks in advance 🙂

[fervent steppe]

the model itself has animation sources that are on a loop

[foggy finch]

ah yeah I suppose

[fervent steppe]

i tried adding that animation souce in the main config and using a door type sound like that

if that makes sense lol

[foggy finch]

you should be able to do that

will need a cfgsounds in your config for the sound

and just sound = "GenericDoorsSound";

replace genericdoorsound with your sound

[fervent steppe]

yea its not working...hmm wonder if it was because my sound was under cfgSFX

[foggy finch]

yeah could be

[bleak tangle]

Doesn't it have to be in CfgAnimationSourceSounds

[foggy finch]

yeah

[fervent steppe]

hmm

[foggy finch]

P:\a3\sounds_f\config.cpp line 1431 onwards

[fervent steppe]

cool thanks

[foggy finch]

has allt he door sounds there

layout/setup will be similar to that anyway

[rapid tree]

thank you very much that was it!

[fervent steppe]

Well I'm done for the night. It doesn't work unless it's set up like a door which won't really work for this animation. The only other hope is simulation=church but I can't seem to find a base class which the church bell effect demonstrated property

[foggy finch]

hmm

class Church_F; should do it

church sounds are defined in CfgSFX / class Church in sounds_f/config.cpp

[fervent steppe]

Yea I did see that but how are they called is what I'm having trouble locating. For instance in for the fire.p3ds they are done in class Effects

[foggy finch]

yeah i was wondering that too

[fervent steppe]

I guess maybe the same for the church but it's not in the config for the church

Unless it's something that's hard coded...I dunno

http://imgur.com/tsFifSH

[thorn geyser]

BIS is BISimulations, not BI. 😛

[fervent steppe]

That sir is incorrect

[thorn geyser]

...

BIS is Bohemia Interactive Simulations, BI is Bohemia Interactive.... :/

[fervent steppe]

BiSim i

[thorn geyser]

ugh, my bad. lol

[fervent steppe]

Bohemia interactive studio

Lol

[upper tiger]

Hey, can someone give me some idea on what rendering magic causes certain shadows to not render unless there's multiple of the same model being rendered at the same time? It seems to only really happen with small objects on stencil shadows, but I haven't done too much testing with it yet.

[nova river]

Why isn't this working? the test weapon has this same property

This is for the shadow lod

[charred bolt]

Don't put any lod properties in the Shadow LOD.
lodnoshadow (1) only goes in resolution LOD's.

[nova river]

Ohhh ok, why does the test weapon have it on the shadow lod? Thats what I was following...

[charred bolt]

Sadly BI have provided rubbish samples and aren't interested in fixing them.

[nova river]

Oh, ok, well that explains it then. Ty!

[charred bolt]

Haven't noticed that before. Can you replicate with any vanilla vehicles?

[upper tiger]

I couldn't, it seems rather inconsistent as I've got a similar sized vehicle built the exact same way in terms of LODs which doesn't have the issue

[charred bolt]

On your modded vehicle that has issues, how many tri's in SV0, and how many in SV10.
Check there are no LOD properties in those 2 shadow LOD's (see salmon's question above).

[stuck oyster]

do you have hiddenselection in the shadowlod?

[upper tiger]

Yeah for the wheels

[charred bolt]

That could be it, HG's right. Get rid of any camo or zbytek type texture swapping selections.

[upper tiger]

Oh right

Ill give it a shot 🙂

[stuck oyster]

if you want to hide parts you do that with model.cfg animations

[upper tiger]

That was it, thank you both 🫂

[thorn geyser]

Hey um, I know this is a config and model question (and I'm not on ArmA 3 at the moment). But does anyone remember the binoculars having a hand anim pose?

[rapid tree]

hi, how does one make a red cabin light for a helicopter ? i have the config entry from the bi wiki but how can i activate it ingame ? is there an model.cfg entry needed besides in the Sections part ?

[charred bolt]

class CompartmentsLights
They only show in internal LOD's.

[rapid tree]

no model.cfg animation entry for this ?

[charred bolt]

No

[rapid tree]

but how is it activated then ?

[charred bolt]

darkness

[rapid tree]

interesting, thank you very much

[indigo mountain]

1. #creators_recruiting
2. You can't pay someone to put them in-game. You can commission someone to make the models, but not implement them in arma.

[thorn geyser]

In ArmA, anything is possible 😉 : http://i.imgur.com/UmlKrU6.jpg

[wraith tendon]

You mean: "Product Placement" right? 😉

[thorn geyser]

lol

[wide acorn]

Can anyone help me figure out why my test aircraft geometry is physing like this when spawned in game

I have 6 cubes defining

• LOD 1
• GEOMETRY
• GEOMETRY PHYS
• 3 WHEELS labeled as wheel_right, wheel_left, wheel_front
• Memory points for each wheel, center, rim, and axis

Nevermind! For anyone curious, I accidently had the memory points left_rim and right_rim on the wrong sides. Working now lol

[indigo mountain]

Are working ladders possible on a vehicle?

Not currently trying to implement something like that but I had some thoughts and was curious if anyone had tried

AFAIK, ladders just have memory points for the start/end, but I haven't looked into them (and not home to really do so)

[near lake]

Is that normal? It feels like a lot of componments. Maybe too much?
Ive attached you GeoLOD/ componments (in convex)

[near lake]

Thats a learning we could do together. Ladders/ Glass will become my next learning aswell.
Also your idea is top!

[thorn geyser]

Hey guys, I'm trying to work out why my soda can is not in the player's hand through first person (as in here: http://i.imgur.com/Wqco3HW.jpg), whereas in third person it is different: http://i.imgur.com/OSPWnT2.jpg . The item inherits the binocular class, so I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. 😦

btw: is Pipsi already taken? 😄

[rapid tree]

What do you want to know about Glass ?

[dusky dragon]

I think caca-calo is still free

[thorn geyser]

lol

[dusky dragon]

Haha

And maybe Finto or 8up

[thorn geyser]

maybe even Gipsi 😛

[dusky dragon]

Along with Dewy hill, Dr. Propper

[thorn geyser]

Yolo instead of Solo, lol

[wraith tendon]

No

Just, No.

[thorn geyser]

But anyway (I'll work out a name later), I am still puzzled why my can doesn't appear to be in the player's hands, as in here: http://i.imgur.com/Wqco3HW.jpg . Whereas in third person it is different: http://i.imgur.com/OSPWnT2.jpg . It inherits the binocular class, but I still don't understand where I am going wrong. 😦

[near lake]

I would like to develop a good workflow with glass.
I need to know what I need to setup and why I need to set those up

[stuck oyster]

for just purely visual representation you need a alpha transparency texture and supershader material

[near lake]

Ahh thats logic and I simply "kill" the glass if I make it vulnarable in the config. Then I add a cloud mesh for the hitbox and a second modle of the destroyed result. How about animation?

[stuck oyster]

for destruction effects the hitpoint class handles that and connection to animations like hiding the glass geometry part

the sample house has all that set up

I recall at least

[near lake]

Ive it opened atm

[near lake]

Thats still a bit far for me. Im at fixing a door issue rn. But Ive got a specific imagination about how to start

What does it shows me if Ive no animation in Buldozer? Is the area limited to class animation or further?

[stuck oyster]

buldozer reads the animation sources and playbacks those. if yours does not show any animations then your model.cfg is not connecting with the p3d

[near lake]

That was rapid precise. Ive forgot about the matching name of the p3d.
Now Ill just need to invert the handle anim and process the other doors in the house.
Then Ill take a break and decide whats next. Maybe Ill take a nap.

https://tenor.com/view/jar-of-dirt-jack-sparrow-gif-13193343987646052281

My animation isnt playing in the final game. I gues its an issue with the mesh and the vertex groups? Maybe I also forgot to designate the vert group in all LODs

[stuck oyster]

if animation plays in buldozer but not in game via userAction the action script is wrong

you can test animations in game also with Animate and AnimateSource commands

[near lake]

Ahhh I always wondered about them. Its for the action/ output interaction

[near lake]

Ill take a closer look.

Now were talking.

[near lake]

Ive one litte question before I go to bed.
Why are you triangulating everything? Is the engine dealing better with tris?
And how did youve managed to not make them visible after "shade smooth"?
|| Good night, I will read this tomorrow 😄 ||

[stuck oyster]

game renders everything as triangles evetually

[near lake]

Copy this
But its creating issues sometimes in my case

[stuck oyster]

triangulating while modeling allows you to verify uvmapping/texturing stay same

as if triangulation goes differently in engine that can break uvmapping

[stuck oyster]

Arma and Blender use Soft and Sharp edges you need to set accordingly to what you want it to look like

[near lake]

Isnt Flat more performanoce intense because a flat surface has more reflecting from itself? Ive heard something like that

[fading inlet]

What i have:
4 different missiles with the same ingame config but with different models. All models configured fine. They have Resolution, Shadow Volume, Geometry LODs. Each model have in Geometry LOD property: loddensitycoef = 10.
Can someone explain to me why some models disappear in distance and how to fix it ?

[stuck oyster]

doesnt matter. you need sharp edges where you want edges to look sharp

[dusky dragon]

@wraith tendon Try being an optimist, usually helps :p

[wraith tendon]

Not when it comes to "Yolo" or "Swag"

Thats just for mentaly retarded ppl 😛

[thorn geyser]

Lol

[dusky dragon]

Lmao

[grizzled halo]

is there any reason of why 2 vertices inside different vertex groups would be pinned to 3d space when they are properly painted and grouped on their respective groups?

they animate properly in blender, and its only those 2 vertices that have that issue

huh, idk why but when exporting them as p3d they lose their grouping, weird. In any case fixed.

[stuck oyster]

that should not happen 🤔

but maybe they were hidden and didnt actually have a weight

or they were also weighted to some other group

[grizzled halo]

before exporting I made sure everything was properly painted, as I removed the extra vertex groups I had going before to reduce the section count we talked about last week #arma3_model message

At least in blender, when I move the mesh no missing vertex are present and all body parts seems to be painted correctly to a single group. I have no idea what could cause that honestly but just reassigning the vertex to its actual section fixed the issue

[stuck oyster]

If it works then all good.

In here you can see that for some reason the vertex does not have any weight since its all black. The surrounding faces have though. so some sort of data error

[grizzled halo]

a quick note on this that might be relevant to be added somewhere in the wiki that talks about RTMs if people use Object Builder like I do most of the times.

When you update a vertex group like in my case for the stretchy vertices, you need to re-load whatever matrix you are using in case you are working with animations as the group point data wont be automatically updated in the animation currently loaded. Making it seem like the updated V.Group was not actually updated.

[last spindle]

The position of the object is different in the LODs I guess, have too move the ViewPilot back into the right pos

Wait I did not look first, just assumed..... That actually is draw order being messed it up, it is drawing the hand over the can, can try send to back in the LOD

[sly root]

hello am looking for someone to make an art a professional arist to dm me ?

[stuck oyster]

you can start by finding the right channel #creators_recruiting

but also do be aware that most who contact you will be scammers

[twilit dagger]

Hello, when assigning armor rvmats to parts of a tank, does the name of the material in Blender actually serve some value/is it significant? Or is only the path to the rvmat file relevant?

[stuck oyster]

only the rvmat itself matters

it contains all the armor material info

[twilit dagger]

As always, thank you 🙂

Hopefully the result won't end up being a bunker or dying frontally to a BMP-2's autocannon 😅

[cunning temple]

Random question of the day: Why in the bridges folder is there a Bridge_01_PathLod_F.p3d? Shouldn't it just be in the paths lod of Bridge_01 🤔

[thorn geyser]

@P1NGA, all LODs are positioned correctly. Ok, I'll try and fiddle with the pilot LOD for any differences. Thanks

[rapid latch]

How invert bolt direction?

[charred bolt]

Mirror the memory LOD bolt axis points (swap their positions).

[rapid latch]

Thanks!

[valid kernel]

Hey everyone. I’m very new to modeling and starting with a basic drinking glass.

When placed into the game, placing a second glass causes both glasses to start flickering. What would cause that?

[stuck oyster]

what lods do you have on it? what material did you use? whats your texture resolution?

[valid kernel]

1 resolution LOD set at 1.

Just messed with color and alpha settings in the object builder settings under material in blender.

[stuck oyster]

so no material?

[valid kernel]

No

[stuck oyster]

youll want to give it proper transparent texture and a material with shader that supports transparency properly

how do you pack the pbo?

[valid kernel]

I use the tools pbo builder. Model and config go into project folder and the tool does everything for me.

[cunning temple]

addon builder, pbomanager or pboproject? You really want to be using pboproject

[valid kernel]

Yea sorry add on builder. I’ll take a look at pboproject. What’s the difference?

I’m also told that arma doesn’t recognize mats from blender, is there another program to use other than the actual object builder in tools? That thing sucks

[cunning temple]

pboproject works, addon builder is more like rolling a dice and hoping for the best 😄

[stuck oyster]

there is not connection between blender material and arma material

only thing that transfers is textures

materials in arma are rvmat files that are basically text files

you can find samples at P:\a3\data_f

default_super.rvmat is good start as the super shader is the most commonly used one

[valid kernel]

Ok I’ll look at that one

Where do you create the rvmats? Say I use the glass material in blender, can’t you turn that into an rvmat?

[cunning temple]

Just copy and paste an Arma one, open it with notepad++ or something like it. Then edit it to point at textures you using.
If you using arma textures, sometimes you don't even need to edit the file, as it's already pointing at the correct files

In the texture bit of blender, you set the texture and rvmat path. Then when you export p3d from blender it sets the correct path for you in the model

[stuck oyster]

forget anything you have in blender

there is no direct connection between blender material and Arma material

except they are both called materials

[valid kernel]

Will do

I’ll give that a shot. I appreciate the help.

[cunning temple]

You can use https://odolconverter.bytex.digital/ to convert the A3 models. It messes up some of the lod's to stop stealing, but it's a good way to learn how stuff is made as you can open it in Blender / Object Builder

[valid kernel]

Thank you

[cunning temple]

If you use the AiO installer for mikero's tools (pboproject) it also installs Eliteness, which you can use to open p3d files and see info about it. Not the 3D model itself, but what rvmat's are used and named properties etc.
https://mikero.bytex.digital/Downloads

[stuck oyster]

there isnt really much that can be learned that way

the samples provide basic setup already

[valid kernel]

the default_super.rvmat is binarized

like all i see is NUL ACK BS

[cunning temple]

For newbies to modeling it's pretty interesting to see how they model stuff. Also helped me track down some texture paths

[cunning temple]

You don't have a P drive? What did you extract the file with?

[stuck oyster]

means your P drive setup is not right

[valid kernel]

Awesome..

[cunning temple]

How did you set it up?

[valid kernel]

I never set up anything

Just been using my c drive

[stray pewter]

by any chance can someone help me to make my own weapon for arma 3? or a very good and short enough tutorial,I have GIMP and thats it,Im clueless when it comes to this stuff

[charred bolt]

The answer on all fronts is going to be "no", I'm sorry to tell you. Best forget about making your own gun and just enjoy the game.
Or you might get lucky and someone else will make it for you if you post in creators_recruiting channel.

[stray pewter]

@charred bolt why shouldnt i tho? i`d love to make one

[charred bolt]

Because it's like brain surgery. If I said I wanted someone to help me do some brain surgery, but I was clueless about biology, only had a hammer and chisel and didn't want anything but a short excellent tutorial to show me what to do... in other words, no applicable skills or knowledge, and not prepared to put in long hours.

[stray pewter]

@charred bolt so its just very time consuming is what ur saying? and difficult

[charred bolt]

It's a steep learning curve, with poor documentation or tutorials, and time-consuming to do well. To make a new weapon model in blender, texture it in Substance, configure and animate into game, for a beginner, you're probably talking 6 months work. For an experienced modder, maybe a month of dedication (or a week to do poorly).

[stray pewter]

6 months? for 1 weapon? wtf,But its just a model and some actions like the bolt and mag tho no?

[charred bolt]

Today's the 5th. When you've made your beautiful weapon, got it working in game, post a small vid and we'll check the date. 😉

[stray pewter]

but i have no clue on how to make one 💀

[charred bolt]

Precisely!

[stray pewter]

and e.g mods like CUP weapons and all RHS mods,They take months to make their weapons?

[charred bolt]

Probably yes. Not many modders are working full time on it, so have to keep down day jobs or school/Uni, doing modding in free time. It's a lot more work than you understand, and that's when you even know where to start.

[stray pewter]

and also with the list of like people in the server that are devs and stuff,Theres a person called Alwarren playing arma 4?

right now i mean

[charred bolt]

If you still want to have a go, start by putting a simple box in game. Then a box with a door. Use the search function on this discord to get all the help you need to get started, it's all been done many times before.

[stray pewter]

but the guy playing arma 4?

how if its not out

[charred bolt]

When you get stuck on something particular, ask here for advice.

Who does Alwarren work for? Which company is making Arma 4?

[stray pewter]

bohemia i assume

and has a tag of CUP Team

[charred bolt]

Many good modders end up getting jobs with Bohemia.

[stray pewter]

so is he like testing the arma 4 game now? like for bugs and stuff?

stuff like that i would love to do when im older but ofc,Im useless 😭

[charred bolt]

This is a channel for asking about model creating for Arma, not for investigating secrets.

[stuck oyster]

one can also rename any game to anything they want

and yes learning modeling and the rest takes long time

6 months would be pretty fast

once you learn it, things are faster to make

[stray pewter]

ah makes sense

[sullen jasper]

I made a model but i need to make belt options in aceax how do i do that ?

[stuck oyster]

belt options?

[sullen jasper]

Yess like belt on belt off

On vest

[stuck oyster]

you typically make 2 variations of a piece of gear for that

hiding parts of mesh with textures is not good way to do things

[sullen jasper]

So i just remove vest

And make just belt version

After that change that in config

[stuck oyster]

I would maybe recommend learning how the configs work without ace first

then once you have your thing in game you can start figure out what ACE does and how it works

[sullen jasper]

Yeah, I already know how configs work I just wanted to ask if I really need to make a second model without the vest and keep only the belt for the “belt on/off” options. I’ve already got it in game and working with the config, just want to add those toggle options.
Also, one more thing my holster works fine, but when I equip a pistol it appears down by my legs instead of in the holster. Everything else works as it should.

[stuck oyster]

depends how the toggle system works. its not what you call a default game feature

so ace has some sort of script for that

youll have to figure out what it expects

[sullen jasper]

Alright and holster problem?

[chrome ridge]

Hello everyone, I'm currently making my Fire Geometry LOD in Blender, and i would like to ask, does Arma has a single RVMAT for composite armor or do i have to simulate the composition in the Fire Geo (eg. A first layer of Rolled Homogenous Armor 80mm, and a second layer of Textolite 100mm etc.) ?

[stuck oyster]

there is no composite armor simulation but you can make it from separate parts sure

there is no material for textolite but you can create your own penetration rvmat+bisurf file combos

[chrome ridge]

Last question, the hull of the tank must have thickness in order to work right in-game ? (I mean Independently of the armor plates inside) Or it works with just a closed hull ?

[stuck oyster]

no need to have separate hull component

you should have only armor and internal components you want to take damage

[charred bolt]

Best practise is to make it hollow shell with interior components representing fuel tanks, engine, crew compartment.

[chrome ridge]

So, hollow shell, with just surfaces connecting and no thickness ? Armor plates will be inside?

I will send a picture to clarify

[charred bolt]

I removed a plate so you can see inside.

[chrome ridge]

The red colored ones are armor plating ?

[charred bolt]

The armor plates don't need to be the exact thickness of the actual armor, as that can be controlled by the penetration rvmat that you chose
For example
P:\a3\data_f\penetration\armour_plate_23mm.rvmat
P:\a3\data_f\penetration\armour_plate_60mm.rvmat

[chrome ridge]

Seems i did a wrong move. Even though my hull is closed etc, it hasnt got the "spaces" between the outter surface and the inside one. Does that affect the armor rating ?

It's just one surface inside out

[charred bolt]

You don't want overlapping fire geometry if you can avoid it.
The way you're doing it with a single solid piece will "work" in a very basic simplistic way, but it's not really the best method.

Check out the Arma 3 Samples, Test_Tank_01. It has an example Fire Geometry LOD.

[chrome ridge]

Thanks, i will try to make a new hull, Then post some pics when i have completed the LOD

[charred bolt]

It's a bit outdated in some respects (not using the Tanks DLC armorComponent model) but in terms of FG armor plate modelling it's ok.

[chrome ridge]

If im not mistaken the Tanks DLC added the destruction of compartments like the engine, fuel tanks etc ?

[charred bolt]

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

[chrome ridge]

That's what i was now reading

[indigo mountain]

Any idea why a helicopter would do a flip or explode when entering it with the advanced flight model enabled?

[bright echo]

also re: firegeo be careful with having components too close together as arma likes to 'skip' the one behind

this is especially noticeble if you like say have something sitting ontop of an armour plate ie. tracks on the side of the turret

it will shoot through the track, ignore the actual armour and go inside the tank

in such instances its usually better to just add the combined thickness together as a single component

[charred bolt]

Good advice from Kerc too. Once you've made the model, test it all out in game using Dev branch diagnostic exe and the "Shots" command to easily visualise ballistic trajectory and penetration.

[stuck oyster]

Yeah it would be fine to make a penetration material that simulates the combined equivalent strength of the two different armors even if the spalling simulation

[indigo mountain]

Is there a page for how to set up doors in a building / a standalone prop?
Currently we have some doors that are just "manually" done via UserActions but we want to switch them to proper doors so they can be more easily (un)locked from other mods

[stuck oyster]

no dont think so. The user actions for the house sample should work as reference

[indigo mountain]

Oh is it scripted still? For some reason I was thinking it was more engine driven

[stuck oyster]

theres some naming conventions that connect them to the game features I recall

[indigo mountain]

Yeah I've messed with the scripting side to lock doors and whatnot, but I hadn't set up any objects to use it

[north sundial]

It’s mainly naming conventions

I can write up a guide tomorrow for you if you’re talking about compatibility with vanilla and Zeus enhanced stuff

[north sundial]

But the real question is why

😂

[tender gull]

It's for my Sonic unit. Of course, not all of my unit is actually on-board with the idea, because Sonic/Mobian heads-on-human bodies is kinda uncanny looking hahaha

What actually shocks me, genuinely, is that my friggen' Sonic the Hedgehog unit plays more milsim than some other units I've been in

So far we've been using furry heads as a sort of stopgap measure to get the anthro species, but the problem is it's not exactly Sonic and people who join our unit, furries usually, keep mistaking us for a "proper" furry unit lmao

I'm figuring out if it'd be possible to use models that are differently proportioned than humans to use the same Arma skeleton

And like, have a different height as well

Of course, then I'd have to commission whole-ass military gear models for Sonic characters with those proportions, defeating the entire purpose of the retexture mod I've made... lmao

[indigo mountain]

I was yeah, a guide would be nice but I don't mind reading through scripts

[hardy thistle]

work on inside of model, look into ways to work on it, find out the inside part your doing in wrong and have to do research that you put off, model now needs edit to fit human better, what a great day

[stuck oyster]

do you have permission to use sonic characters/ sonic IP?

[tender gull]

Is that even a thing with Sonic? 🤣 Sega is notoriously lenient when it comes to fans using their IP

In fact they even hire fancharacter artists for the comics, there's even an entire online convention for fangames called SAGE (Sonic Amateur Games Expo)

I'm also in an official SEGA server (hence the server tag), they have an entire section for fanart

[cunning temple]

Wasn't it Sonic Mania that was made by people who had built fan games? They do seem more better with fan stuff compared to Nintendo lol

[tender gull]

Yes it was!

[cunning temple]

I really liked that one! I only ever play the first few levels then get bored with Sonic, been that way since Sonic 1 😄
Also gone off topic 😅

[tender gull]

Yep!

I was just answering the question haha

I know how notoriously finicky licensing is when it comes to Arma mods, so I had to clarify

[stuck oyster]

we dont know so someone should find out the facts

[tender gull]

As far as I know

https://screenrant.com/sonic-hedgehog-fan-games-sega-response-legal-allowed/

But if you need a more "official" statement from Sega or one of their representatives, I could try asking in the server I'm in. I will say, it would be a very strange question to ask there, given the themes of the content (Sonic mods in a military simulation game)

[stuck oyster]

we do prefer some form of formal information

even the screenrant topic says "mostly allowed"

so its not clear

[tender gull]

I have asked. I will say this is quite unprecedented and would make pretty big news in the Sonic community if a SEGA representative comes back with an answer

[analog garden]

ur better off just only posting stuff blatantly allowed in here tbh

[tender gull]

I actually agree with that for a different reason, because the thing I did was just a quick test; I did not actually get permission to use that specific model (and I wouldn't release that on the workshop without explicit permission). Until I commission proper models, that is

[north sundial]

In your anim sources you need to use the format such as Door_1_sound_source or Door_1_nosound_source or Door_1_locked_source

        class AnimationSources
        {
            class Door_1_sound_source
            {
                source = "user";
                initPhase = 0;
                animPeriod = 1;
                sound = "GateDoorsSound";
                soundPosition = "door_action_point";
            };
            class Door_1_locked_source
            {
                source = "user";
                initPhase = 0;
                animPeriod = 0.8;
            };

sound vs no sound are kinda self explanitory, but in most BI open door scripts the sound source is usually the main door that opens and has an anim source of a gate opening or whatnot, the nosound source is usually the door handle from what i've found that still needs to animate but make no noise.

The locked source is so the door can "jiggle" as its attempted to be opened when its locked

On your user actions you need to have the classnames for your actions follow this format OpenDoor_1 or CloseDoor_1

class UserActions
        {
            class OpenDoor_1
            {
                //userActionID = 66; 
                displayNameDefault = "<img image='\A3\modules_f\data\EditTerrainObject\textureDoor_opened_ca.paa' size='2.5' />";
                displayName = "$STR_DN_OUT_O_DOOR";
                textToolTip = "$STR_DN_OUT_O_DOOR";
                position = "door_action_point";
                radius = 4;
                aiMaxRange = 5.25;
                priority = 2;
                onlyForPlayer = false;
                condition = "((this animationSourcePhase 'Door_1_sound_source') < 0.03) && (cameraOn isKindOf 'CAManBase') && (alive this)";
                statement = "([this, 1, 1] call BIS_fnc_Door)"; // [object, doorIndex, state] → state: 0=closed, 1=open
                animPeriod = 1;
            };
            class CloseDoor_1: OpenDoor_1
            {
                //userActionID = 67;
                displayNameDefault = "<img image='\A3\modules_f\data\EditTerrainObject\textureDoor_closed_ca.paa' size='2.5' />";
                displayName = "$STR_DN_OUT_C_DOOR";
                textToolTip = "$STR_DN_OUT_C_DOOR";
                condition = "((this animationSourcePhase 'Door_1_sound_source') > 0.99) && ((this getVariable ['bis_disabled_Door_1', 0]) != 1) && (cameraOn isKindOf 'CAManBase') && (alive this)";
                statement = "([this, 1, 0] call BIS_fnc_Door)"; // [object, doorIndex, state] → state: 0=closed, 1=open
                animPeriod = 1;
            };
        };

In this you can also see how we are passing the values to the BIS_fnc_Door script with [object, doorIndex, state] state: 0=closed, 1=open

As well as having the conditions that allow you to detect if the door is locked, when being set to locked via 3den the variable below is set to 1

bis_disabled_Door_1

Where 1 in the variable is the door index, so if you had a 2nd door it would be
bis_disabled_Door_2

I ended up using some more custom icons for my displayNameDefault just as an FYI in my example

But mainly where you see something like Door_1 it needs to change to Door_2 for each door in order to be compatible

Also make sure you update your actions for AI with the new names

// Here are references binding specific positions in Path lod in p3d to specific actions from "class UserActions" for AI to know when to use which gates. The actionBegin# and ActionEnd# is a hardcoded naming system.
        actionBegin1 = "OpenDoor_1";
        actionEnd1 = "OpenDoor_1";
        actionBegin2 = "OpenDoor_1";
        actionEnd2 = "OpenDoor_1";
        // Amount of gates of this house; a parameter for easy processing of all gates on different houses by scripts.
        numberOfDoors = 1;

the number of doors influences how many icons to open the doors seem to appear in 3den

in your model config, mostly the only thing that matters is using the correct anim sources that you setup, the animation classnames don't matter as the scripts use animateSource rather than animate

class Animations
        {
            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;
            };
            class door_left_locked_rot: door_left_rotate
            {
                source="door_1_locked_source";
                sourceAddress = mirror;
                minValue = 0.1;
                maxValue = 0.2;
                minPhase = 0.05;
                maxPhase = 0.2;
                angle0 = rad 0.5;
                angle1 = rad 0;
            };

The position of where the 3d space door open/close/lock icon appears after editing in 3den/in zeus enhanced mainly goes off of the useraction point automatically

I believe that's all that's needed from memory, but lmk if you run into issues

[indigo mountain]

@north sundial appreciate it, currently still cleaning up a lot of other stuff, but I'll let ya know if I run into stuff when getting around to it

[grizzled halo]

i´ve been wondering, what defines the orientation of a ground weapon holder containing a magazine in the p3d?
Props and dropped magazines "stand up" however weapons do not do so even though their orientation is the same. What is that im missing?

[indigo mountain]

I think it's based on the type, facewears are rotated 180 degrees for some reason

[indigo mountain]

Is it intentional that the OpenDoor condition doesn't check if the door is disabled?

[indigo mountain]

How would you go about making the path lod? I looked at the sample house and I don't know how you'd go about making this in blender or some other program

[north sundial]

Yes it’s intentional, if the door is disabled the function plays the locked animation instead of the open one

[north sundial]

Just a series of interconnected single sided polygons, usually triangulated

[north sundial]

Different item base classes use different dummy/holder p3ds which have different orientations of their proxies

Guns are different to medkits for example

[stuck oyster]

To add to that, all the path faces need to face up from the underlying geometry.

[runic plover]

I do these in OB, and using the first LOD as background to see where i got to place them. If you press F9 you got all 4 views.

To the notes and tips by the other, also important is to make the pathes a bit above geometry/roadway so not at same position as these 2 are, or the AI cant "read" the pathes and gets stuck.

Also the In positions need to be a bit more above, more than the regular pathes. And its also better if you got like 3 - 5 In positions at entry positions where you want AI start enter structure. Why 3-5? This is for evelations, if your structure is not flat at ground, so AI has more possible ways to "connect" to the AI pathes

The ActionBegin(s) and ActionEnd(s) need enough space between (as example door) front and back, if not, AI will ignore it and just walks trough the door without using the UserAction.

Also ActionBegin(s) and ActionEnd(s) are defined in seperate in config of your structure, do not forget it.

[grizzled halo]

damn you, arma 3 arbitrary rules!

If thats the case, is there any vanilla magazine that rests in the ground or im I just confusing them with other dropped items?
I would like my mags to be able to sleep confortably on the floor rather than just sleep walking :3

[north sundial]

You just need to rotate the mag in your p3d

(I think, its been a couple months since i last dealt with this)

We have 2 models for the mags, one thats used in the gun so its setup in the correct orientation for that (2nd Pic), and another as an item thats rotated flat for the ground (3rd Pic)

@grizzled halo

Then in our cfgMagazines we have this setup so it uses the non item one as the proxy for guns

        model = QPATHTOF(item_65x48mm_20rnd.p3d); // Dropped item display model
        modelSpecial = QPATHTOF(mag_65x48mm_20rnd.p3d);
        modelSpecialIsProxy = 1; 

In our case QPATHTOF is a macro that quotes the path to the file so just as you would normally path to a model without the macro

Documentation:
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgMagazines_Config_Reference#model="\ca\weapons\mag_univ[.p3d]"

[grizzled halo]

ah, very well. So now a dupe item is needed LOL. Alright, thanks!

[north sundial]

Np 🙂

[thorn spire]

Right side with turbosmooth, Im not sure how do the sleeves... Tried just extending the polygons. It didnt do desired effect.

http://i.imgur.com/OB3ryyw.jpg

*how to

[indigo mountain]

Oh I see, the lock animation is handled in fnc_door as well, that makes sense

[north sundial]

Yep, my assumption is that rather than just hiding the action, giving the player a visual representation of the door being locked is better user experience

[indigo mountain]

We have some more sci-fi doors, where there's two segments that slide away from the center when opening. I think for the locked animation it'd make sense for them to maybe just move a little and then close back. Do you know how I'd implement that?

I also want to clarify I'm not very experienced with models / animations, I come from the more standard config and scripting side. This is from the door's model.cfg though

class Animations {
    class open_door_l {
        type = "translation";
        source = "Door_1_sound_source";
        sourceaddress = "clamp";
        selection = "door1";
        axis = "door1_axis";
        memory = 1;
        minValue = 0;
        maxValue = 1;
        offset0 = 0;
        offset1 = 1;
    };
    class open_door_r: open_door_l {
        selection = "door2";
        axis = "door2_axis";
        minValue = 0;
        maxValue = 1;
        offset0 = 0;
        offset1 = 1;
    };

    class locked_door_l: open_door_l {
        source = "door_1_locked_source";
        sourceAddress = "mirror";
        minValue = 0.1;
        maxValue = 0.2;
        minPhase = 0.05;
        maxPhase = 0.2;
        angle0 = rad 0.5;
        angle1 = rad 0;
    };

    class locked_door_r: open_door_r {
        source = "door_1_locked_source";
        sourceAddress = "mirror";
        minValue = 0.1;
        maxValue = 0.2;
        minPhase = 0.05;
        maxPhase = 0.2;
        angle0 = rad 0.5;
        angle1 = rad 0;
    };
};

I assume it's just needing to swap some values around, I just haven't worked with them enough

With that setup, the doors are basically in the open state immediately, and actually opening the door moves them even farther off. Is it just a case of swapping the min/max values? (I'm testing stuff while asking questions as well)

[north sundial]

I have a lot of sliding sci fi doors too, I believe that if they were locked they wouldn’t move at all as the lock would be electronic and via a keypad or some such so having them open and close slightly doesn’t make sense to me

The options I came up with are ignoring the locked source or adding it to a hide animation that hide and unhides a red screen or light or something like that on the keypad, the function will make it flash giving us the visual feedback but with it being more realistic in how it’s presented

[runic plover]

                    {
                        type="translation";
                        source="Door_1_sound_source";
                        selection="Door_1A";
                        sourceAddress="clamp";
                        minValue=0;
                        maxValue=1;
                axis="Door_1A_axis";
                        offset0=0;
                        offset1=-0.75;
                };
                    class Door_1A_locked_move
                    {
                        type="translation";
                        source="Door_1_locked_source";
                        selection="Door_1A";
                        sourceAddress="mirror";
                        minPhase=0;
                        maxPhase=0.1666;
                        minValue=0;
                        maxValue=0.1666;
                axis="Door_1A_axis";
                        offset0=0;
                        offset1=0.005;
                };
                    class Door_1B_move: Door_1A_move
                    {
                        selection="Door_1B";
                axis="Door_1B_axis";
                        offset1=0.77;
                };
                    class Door_1B_locked_move
                    {
                        type="translation";
                        source="Door_1_locked_source";
                        selection="Door_1B";
                        sourceAddress="mirror";
                        minPhase=0;
                        maxPhase=0.1666;
                        minValue=0;
                        maxValue=0.1666;
                axis="Door_1B_axis";
                        offset0=0;
                        offset1=-0.005;
                };```

thats what i did on my doors

[indigo mountain]

Yeah I'd love to do something like that, the door I've been using at an example doesn't have a screen for it though, so I figured I'd try and make something to give some kind of feedback at least

[quick terrace]

what is the desire effect?

insert an edge loop near the the connection between body and sleeves

[thorn spire]

It becomes too blocky

Tried inserting loops and trying to got get the shape correct...

... Maybe Im trying to niche it too much since Im going to sculpt it anyway 😄

Ive seen people do it by extruding the edge to the lenght to the arm and adjust proportions... Was easier to just use freefform tools on the arm

[grizzled halo]

~~ I have a some questions about the fire Geometry LOD

1- What role does it play in engine?

I understand from the wiki that is it supposed to be the actually collision calculation driver for rockets and bullets in regard of model collision, however you still need to set up materials for the models to define penetration.

2- Does the shape of the fire geometry has to be strict to the shape of the visual lods o can it be, lets say, a pill shaped object like view geometry is in the samples for human like units?

3- If the model used for the fire geometry of a humanoid, is a mesh that matches all the vertex groups with simplified geometry, closed and convex is enough or does it still need to have its components defined? If so, is there anything else that would be missing here?

4- If the model cant be a singular mesh for the fire geometry, does it means that the body parts for a humanoid have to be separated by vertex groups and each properly closed?

Thanks in advance guys~~

[stuck oyster]

Found the answers?😅

[grizzled halo]

yep

but maybe you can help me figure out another issue for shadow lod :p

what causes a shadow lod to display this kind of issue?

Its for a creature Im working on, model is triangulated, closed and sharp however game doesnt like it 🙁
Its also not the traditional issue about triangulation, as there are sections of the body straight up missing instead of stretching out.

Tried simplifying the lod up to the point of making a cylinder and it display such model as a shadow properly, so I suspect something in the model itself its not ideal for shadows, I just need to figure out what

[unkempt token]

I think your shadow LOD needs to have all the faces inverted, i.e. facing inward to the center

[grizzled halo]

according to both blender and OB, they are all facing outwards

[unkempt token]

Reverse just the shadow lod faces

here's the vanilla sheep's shadow lod for example

Could also give it gpu / soft shadowing by sticking sbsource as a namedProperty into your geometry LOD with value visualex

[grizzled halo]

doesnt that create a diffuse shadow with worse performance than the stencil?

[unkempt token]

Hopefully someone corrects me if I'm wrong but I think it's ultimately better both because you don't need to make a stencil shadow (it's 2025 pls just move on) and the shadows are now the responsibility of the gpu more than the cpu

[grizzled halo]

ill try with the normals flipped, but until this point all the SV had not issues

ill let you know what comes out of it in a moment

[unkempt token]

Yee let's see if it helps hopefully

[grizzled halo]

it certainly looks different now, however still a similar issue

[low hedge]

is there an efficient method to make geometry lods? i've been just stapling dozens of basic blender cubes together but i feel like theres a better method

[grizzled halo]

for the moment being this will do until I have time to do a proper stencil model, idk what wrong with the one I currently have hahaha 😅

thanks for ther info on the shadowbuffer

[unkempt token]

yup hopefully tomorrow someone can advise better on stencils, I never do them at this point 😭

[grizzled halo]

i wouldnt mind using the shadow buffer if only there was a way to enforce it to the rest of the stuff, it kind of creates a bit of scene imbalance with how smooth it is x)

but thats just me being picky

anyways, thanks. Hopefully someone else chimes in the previus presented problem

[charred bolt]

visualex doesn't work for vehicle interior LOD's like View Pilot/Cargo (including characters) forcing the use of stencil shadow volumes.

[runic plover]

wouldnt be bad if this gets fixed, these visualex shadows are looking a lot better

[stuck oyster]

Do you have hiddenSelections in the shadow mesh? If yes, remove those.

The inversion @unkempt token mentions can help if shadow lod is a lot simpler than the visual mesh and would cast shadow on it.

It does not affect the cast shadow though.

[north sundial]

I’ve usually seen this because the shadow mesh has textures applied to it

[grizzled halo]

no textures on mesh for SV

[grizzled halo]

no sir, p3d has no hidden selection at all yet

whats weird is that If i create a basic shaped stencil, it would work, so it makes me wonder what breaks in current one and if this is a matter of complexity current SV has 2.5k poly, however in the past i had no issues with this kind of larger poly counts in sv even if its not ideal

[grizzled halo]

thats good to know

[stuck oyster]

2.5k is not a problem. (Not great but should still work)
Did you export it to p3d with the toolbox? Does the shadow mesh have any texture/material assigned?

[grizzled halo]

no texture or materials.

Yes exported on toolbox.

all normals point outwards too

[charred bolt]

Can you show the SV0 (one wire frame, one solid faces) in Object Builder, include the status box with points/faces count, named selections and textures/materials?

[grizzled halo]

yeah, give me 5 minutes

[grizzled halo]

@charred bolt good enough?

this ones should be better

and yes, the face count and point count is different since I was reworking the lod, the problem persist though.

[charred bolt]

A couple of things to try:

1. Remove the UV mapping from SV0
2. As a test, delete all the named selections - just to make sure the shadow isn't being messed up by animation
3. Use Object Builders menus:
   a) Structure > Topology > Non-Closed (none)
   b) Points > Select Isolated (none)
   c) Faces > Degenerated Faces (none)
   d) Select All, Structure > Triangulate
   e) Select All, Surfaces > Sharp Edge

Then some questions:

• shouldn't you have a View Pilot LOD for 1st person view?
• what properties do you have on the LOD 0 and Geometry LOD?

[grizzled halo]

• The unit is going to be an agent with custom FSM, its not intended to be playable so no VP Lod.
• Property for Lod0: lodnoshadow = 0
• Properties for GEO: Buoyancy = 1, Class = man, Autocenter = 0, lodnoshadow = 0, sbsource = visualex (this one was added post issue, to be able to deploy shadows for preview pics)

I´ll try options 1 to 3 in a moment

[charred bolt]

LOD 0: lodnoshadow = 1
Geo LOD: remove sbsource and lodnoshadow properties, add prefershadowvolume = 1

@grizzled halo ^^

[grizzled halo]

for option 3:

non closed: 0 selected
isolated points: 0 selected
degenerated faces: 0 selected

Model was already triangulated, did it from OB anyways to test
Model was already sharp, did it from OB anyways to test

Let me get this ingame and ill report back on this one

[charred bolt]

The point of checking in OB was to make sure you weren't relying on blender to have exported closed/triangulated/sharp, in case something went wrong during the export process (as can sometimes happen).

[grizzled halo]

I tried also exporting that lod with both Toolbox and Object Builder addon from Blender yesterday, both do exactly the same so I dont think its a matter of corruption, but something wonky with the geometry itself (or the selections/uv as you mentioned above)

option 3 no luck, trying the selections removal now

[charred bolt]

I'd guess it was the LOD properties, as what you had were definitely wrong.

[grizzled halo]

exporting without selections and uvs now

[grizzled halo]

@charred bolt 😮 it works

now to figure out if the issue is just the UV set on the lod

ok, so the problem are the selections, uv set removed on a fresh sv lod does nothing

what should I be looking for to pinpoint the issue?

[charred bolt]

So just to confirm, this is what I recommend for your SV0

1. closed, triangulated, sharp
2. no uv map, texture or material
3. no named selection related to texture swapping (camo, zbytek etc)
4. no isolated points or degenerated faces (both might show as non-closed, but worth double checking)
5. lodnoshadow = 1 in res LOD's
6. prefershadowvolume = 1 in Geometry LOD (and no sbsource property)

As for named selections that are animated, you can check the Shadow LOD in buldozer just like you can a res LOD.
Open buldozer and cycle through the available animations (pulled from model.cfg where class name matches the p3d file name), changing each from minValue to maxValue and observing animation result.
In this particular case you'll probably find that with all animationSources at 0, it looks ok, but as one or more are cycled through to 1, it breaks the shape. Making a wild guess, it will probably be some vertices that are included in the wrong selection name pulling the object out of shape.

[stuck oyster]

Rename all selections so you don't have . In the names

Also need to do this in armature

And export animations again.

[hallow steeple]

Where are the Arma 2 assets? I think they were release for public use?

[marsh canyon]

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

[hallow steeple]

wait- how do I open it now? x3

[marsh canyon]

Open what?

[hallow steeple]

p3d Files

[marsh canyon]

Object Builder

[hallow steeple]

it says they're bin'd

[marsh canyon]

Or Blender

[hallow steeple]

?

[marsh canyon]

What file you downloaded

[hallow steeple]

ALDP_A2_PBOs_ADPL-SA_APL-SA_part3.zip

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_Licensed_Data_Pack#ALDP_A2_PBOs_ADPL-SA_APL-SA_part3.zip

[marsh canyon]

Oh I was supposed to post this: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_2_Sample_Models

[hallow steeple]

ah oki

I am thinking I make my own model- or try. And attempt to reference sample models and stuff, and try to match it up to the Tanoa town name sign's UV xP
Assume there's a blank sign texture already in the game

oh this is perfect for the UV :O

oh huh- new plan!
What must be done to move an object from A2 to A3? :P

[marsh canyon]

A properly made config?

Your question is too vague to answer

[hallow steeple]

Just the model, I think-

P3D file, then can redo letter textures and stuff

I have opened into Blender- so many things :o

[cunning temple]

Do the blender donut guide, so then you know basic controls and what words to google 😄

[hallow steeple]

Arma specific or?

[grizzled halo]

oh boy, thats a lot of animation re export if thats the case let me see if removing the . from the selection names actually does fix the issue in a static pose before going ahead and changing my source files otherwise thats going to be a bunch of work with no gain

[arctic pawn]

Does anyone know where to get the right arma tools for blender? I downloaded a zip file but it seems to be wrong in some way. If I try to enable it it just says "no module named armatoolbox"

[stuck oyster]

I'm pretty sure it can cause some issues

It has special uses in processing

Like selection starting with . Gets removed on bibarise

Like the .sp snap points

[halcyon copper]

How to export file from blender to p3d? 😭 😭 😭 🙏

[sour yacht]

Hey I have issue to export blend fail to P3D, does anyone have solution for that. We tried with Chatgpt but it didnt wor so well. We download and installed Arma tool box but gpt told us to do something we didnt have that.

[cunning temple]

https://github.com/AlwarrenSidh/ArmAToolbox/releases

[halcyon copper]

Me and my friend are kinda stupid can you do vc with us and explain it?

[cunning temple]

no lol
Just google installing blender plugin, it's about 3-5 clicks to do it

[halcyon copper]

Yeah those 3-5 clicks are taking us 3hrs+

[sour yacht]

We tried to export but its always 0B file

[cunning temple]

If you can't install a blender plugin, you might want to leave modding arma

[round prawn]

how to change blend file to p3d file vehicle ?

[indigo mountain]

Not really sure what this would fall under, but model seems the closest.
I'm trying to make map icons similar to vanilla, but not sure how best to go about that

Vanilla one for reference

The side images are pretty easy, just a flat color and orthographic side profile, but I'm stuck on the top-down

[tacit hull]

wow thats cool Dart Awsome

[stuck oyster]

screenshot from top orthographic view and bit of manual touchup if you want te same kind of transparent /black details

its tiny though

so dont worry too much about it

[bright echo]

Yeah I think the BI one is just an overhead with parts cut out/manually drawn on it

you can probably get away with a flat colour render

which is what iirc the arma 2 era ones were

[stuck oyster]

Ive used the OB top view screenshot with black background and flat shading 😄

and bit of manual drawing

blender top ortho with flat shading works too

[bright echo]

blender is what I used yeah with... free style? i think its called, it puts an outline around things

[stuck oyster]

https://tenor.com/view/funny-crazy-gif-3550736

[bright echo]

lol, I think it makes it a bit overly detailed for the icon considering its like, 16x16 at best when it's actually on screen 90% of the time

[indigo mountain]

Yeah I was wanting to find a way to make doing the details easier so I wouldn't have to do them by hand for every vehicle we have

Didn't think there'd be a simple blender option to get the same effect, but thought someone might know how to get closer to it. I think vanilla's icons look pretty nice

[stuck oyster]

could try turning on cavity shading in the solid draw view and tweaking the values

it can bring out edges and crevases

[indigo mountain]

Managed to get to this, which I think looks pretty good before any manual changes

[bright echo]

is how it comes out with the 'freestyle' option in blender

but imo can be a bit noisy at such small sizes

[indigo mountain]

I just tried the relative setting there, that's almost perfect

[stuck oyster]

👍

[stuck oyster]

what is it?

[indigo mountain]

I also crank the exposure up to it comes out as white, without needing to mess with the actual materials for each model I import in

Here's the blend file (without my model in it)

There's cameras set up for map icon and side profiles

I think I might want two scenes for those though, since the side profile is completely just flat white and I don't think you can change render settings per camera

[stuck oyster]

different settings per viewport?

or right if its rendered then yeah you would need some scipted buttons to swap

[bright echo]

interesting, doesnt work as good with the model I threw into it

[indigo mountain]

What's it look like for you?
Tried with another one and got similar results

[indigo mountain]

Yeah I think the line thickness will ideally need to be tweaked per model

[bright echo]

yeah even when I set it to absolute it just gets washed out too much unfortunately

it looks better if I scale the model up

[indigo mountain]

Makes sense, mine was a fairly large one

[bright echo]

so zooming the camera probably would help alternatively

yeah

[azure pier]

Do I need to move the model up to make the hands over it or...?

[stuck oyster]

Probably missing viewpilot lod in the gun

or is it actual weapon?

[azure pier]

Ahhhhh, okay

It's an actual gun

[stuck oyster]

or something script attached

[azure pier]

Actual weapon

[azure pier]

Anything?

[stuck oyster]

did you add the viewpilot lod?

[azure pier]

Isn't that for vehicles?

[indigo mountain]

It's for everything*

[azure pier]

I see

[indigo mountain]

ViewPilot is what you see in first person

[azure pier]

Understood

Nope

That did not work

[stuck oyster]

could be bad texture with transparency

or broken rvmat

try it without texture

[azure pier]

Weird

I got rid of the texture, but it applies only in third person

Lemme try something, noticed I had an empty material slot active in blender

[stuck oyster]

did you really add the viewpilot lod?

😅

[azure pier]

Yes

[stuck oyster]

though if the texture remove only affects the 3rd person then the viewpilot still has the textures

[azure pier]

I also noticed the bullet is angled way too much

Like it launches at a massive upward angle

[stuck oyster]

your shot direction memorypoints are not aligned straight

[azure pier]

Alrighty

Now back to the hands not blocking the weapon completely

[azure pier]

That did not solve it, sadly

[stuck oyster]

perhaps you are not packing the pbo or playing with the updated pbo

[fossil obsidian]

and use correct normal map...

[azure pier]

I am using the newest PBO

[stuck oyster]

does your geometry lod have autocenter 0 named property?

[azure pier]

I'm going to apply transforms and hope for the best

[azure pier]

Indeed it does

[stuck oyster]

it is indeed best to keep the object at 0,0,0

[azure pier]

Let's see if it fixes anything at all

And it didn't

[azure pier]

Update: it seems the texture file is somehow missing, despite it being in the folder structure

Okay, removing the P: fixed that.

@stuck oyster Any chance transparency anywhere other than the set UV area screws with the end product?

Like anywhere other than the colored areas?

Yes it can, it seems.

Adding Forcenotalpha = 1 to the GEOMETRY lod did the trick :)

[white jay]

I have just begun looking into making my first model. I managed to use the Arma samples and configs to make a flying car by fusing the car and helicopter sample together. It worked well enough as a concept piece. I have a decent understanding of how the layers and variables work. To add my own memory points to a new model, would that be done in Blender with Python? Or in Object Builder? Any links to tutorials and the like appreciated.

Just a heads up, I have done static 3D modeling in the past, I can handle the art side, just new to making something functional.

[woeful viper]

yes sure, normalmap during modelling the base mesh. I always do that.

[thorn geyser]

Speaking of textures, how do I create a _nohq texture? I know how to do _ca and _co, but not _nohq or any other bump map.

[woeful viper]

do you know what it does/ how it works?

^important for knowing how to make one

[thorn geyser]

Well I think I know that it gives the normal texture more depth. But I don't know how to create one.

[grizzled halo]

tried doing this, same issue with reexported p3d with underscores instead of .

for the moment being im going to move out of the SV stuff and revisit the issue in the future, SBSOURCE will be used instead

[woeful viper]

_nohq is a standard normalmap. "hq" is misleading

http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Normal_map

[thorn geyser]

Thanks.

[marsh canyon]

Short answer: a memory is just a vertex

[stuck oyster]

Ok so you need to save the texture without alpha channel so it contains no transparency. That's the proper way to fix the problem.

[white jay]

Thanks for the reply. I was reverse engineering, and ran to a point of burnout when I was asking. Just searched the configs, and I see how to go from "a dot in blender" to function in the config.

[white jay]

I know there is a balance between performance and visuals, but is there a "standard" or recommended number of LODs for the render side of a flying vehicle? I see in the samples that aircraft have more layers, and the car has one. I will be making a very low flying, and compared to traditional aircraft, slow traveling vehicle. So, I assume I may be ok with just one or two? I am learning all of this as of a week ago, so please talk to me like a I am a newb. Wanna learn.

[stuck oyster]

the rule of thumb for distance lods is halving tricount from previous one until you are somewhere sub 1000

the last lod really just needs to have same silhouette as its drawn at very long distance

there is no given amount of lods though

5 often can be enough but depends on your model

I think I've rarely seen 10+

at the far distance range you can drop detail faster than halving too

[white jay]

That is all very helpful, so it is just a matter of render distance then? I wasn't sure if Arma took velocity and stuff into account when rendering.

[stuck oyster]

at 500 tris range it makes little difference to go further down

[stuck oyster]

its scene complexity overall, not just distance

[white jay]

I think I understand now, the numbers above will take some of the guess work off. As far as complexity, does that deal with the number of objects in a frame at a time, or something else?

[muted lintel]

A bunch of different factors, the engine will decide based on those which of the LODs is best suited

[stuck oyster]

yeh you dont have to worry about it much else than making the lods so the engine has them to work with

[white jay]

What is the best method for scaling and positioning seats for drivers and cargo? My only thought is to use the Samples unit as a mannequin. I assume there is no way to test the default animation poses, without loading the game each time.

[stuck oyster]

the Macser Armarig can be used and duplicated for creating multiple seat poses simultaneously

its object space origin equeals proxy triangles right hand angle corner

[white jay]

Thanks! That looks like a great tool. Gotcha on the triangles.

[orchid spruce]

why would the rotors on my helicopter not get damaged by collisions? they have geometry collision that works, they have hitpoints that work, I can shoot them to damage them, but they take no damage when colliding with objects, they don't get destroyed and blown off like they do on vanilla helicopters

and I have the RotorHFullyDestroyed animation

[stuck oyster]

undefined rotor simulation memorypoints and rotor simulation size

[charred bolt]

Physx collisions (not ballistics) are handled in code.

[orchid spruce]

where are those defined?

[charred bolt]

mainBladeRadius = 9.1;
tailBladeCenter = "rotor_02_center";
tailBladeRadius = 9.1;
tailBladeVertical = 0;```

[orchid spruce]

is the radius in meters?

[charred bolt]

as always yes

[orchid spruce]

ah yeah that was it

I didn't define the main radius so it I was just inheriting 0 from the base classes

I noticed on vanilla helis it makes a sound when the rotor breaks off, how do I do that? on mine it just breaks off with no sound

[near lake]

Are here people who also thought about making a foldable gate?
I would like to build that and would enjoy if anyone could share its experiences

[stuck oyster]

https://youtu.be/fTq4jc3L5LI?t=61

[near lake]

So its possible 😄 #hype!

[stuck oyster]

animations of mechanical things basically work like the real things

[near lake]

I dont know if this is understandable but thats how I would start to try

[north sundial]

You just need them to rotate and counter rotate while being patented to the other panel like they are in real life

[stuck oyster]

this

[north sundial]

I.e with 3 panels

Panel one rotates on its left axis on the wall or something +90

then panel two rotates -90 on an axis parented to panel one

and finally panel three rotates +90 on its axis parented to panel two

Not at my pc but that’s as simply as I can put it

Think of it like folding a piece of paper

[near lake]

Alright I can imagaine. But how do I open it or better slide it aside?
Am I doing that with the end points?

[north sundial]

Don’t need to

The rotations will pull it over automatically

[near lake]

Huh?

[north sundial]

I have a very simple version I made like a decade ago I can shoot over later on if that would help

[near lake]

That would help a really lot
I would like to rebuild it for a spray cabin gate because one of our builders wished to build a GAZ factory

[orchid spruce]

is there a way to use hiddenSelections in proxy models?

like if I have a vehicle and its body is in a proxy and I want that body to have texture sources

[indigo mountain]

You cannot unfortunately

[white jay]

I am tinkering with blender to get started on my first serious model. I have had the same error on different layers, during different attempts. One of the LODs fails to validate, and won't export the entire thing. Anyone know the most common reasons for that error? I am new to it, so it could be something very simple.

[indigo mountain]

Look at the logs

[stuck oyster]

this might have been related to that

at least for wrecks

[orchid spruce]

is that both in model.cfg?

[stuck oyster]

config.cpp cfgNonAiVehicles

[orchid spruce]

hmm I'll try it

so if those hiddenSelections would match the main model it should work?

[stuck oyster]

possibly. I have not used this myself but I recall it was discussed somewhere here before

[orchid spruce]

would the proxy model also need a model.cfg entry with the camo sections then

oh there's a wiki page on it https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Setting_Textures_for_Wrecks

[stuck oyster]

solving this will be a good logic exercise

[near lake]

Ive also thought in the exact same way hahaha
Time for brain melting. But after that I should be able to perform nice anims on structures

[orchid spruce]

oh yeah it works

if it has the section in the model.cfg and that cfgNonAiVehicles it takes on the texture sources of the main model

[stuck oyster]

👍

success

[orchid spruce]

oh yeah on a similar topic, is there a way to apply damage materials to that proxy model?

[indigo mountain]

One more thing, should actionEndX be the close door action, and the actionBegin/End2 supposed to be Open/CloseDoor_2?

[north sundial]

I've only ever seen open specified @indigo mountain as ai don't really ever close doors behind them haha

[stuck oyster]

door closing would have to be built into the action AI does

either with some condition like if in safe mode, also close door after or stuff like that

and in combat mode dont

or do if you are polite breacher

[north sundial]

@stuck oyster Am I allowed to send files in this channel?

[stuck oyster]

probably?

[indigo mountain]

Is the end action just like the other side of the door then?

[stuck oyster]

try it out

if its blocked you cant 😄

[north sundial]

@near lake

It was indeed not blocked

[stuck oyster]

noo he was supposed to solve it

[north sundial]

The config is super old and deffo won't work off the bat to get ingame but its just setup for the animations

[near lake]

I really really thank you a lot. I will try it allone at first, burn down the world, explode my pc, get a family and die after Ive finished

[north sundial]

Just trying to help with the knowledge I have gathered over the years haha

[stuck oyster]

is okay

[north sundial]

Atleast for future people that want to make that kind of anim theres an example that works on here now

[indigo mountain]

What about the second part of this, should actionBeginX be OpenDoor_X?

[north sundial]

Pretty much

        actionBegin1 = "door_large_01_open";
        actionEnd1 = "door_large_01_open";

Is what I have on mine

[indigo mountain]

Alright cool, I figured as much but wanted to check

[north sundial]

From my testing you are essentially defining a "zone" on the path lod where the AI will use that action when entering that zone

If they hit the actionEnd first they will still open the door from the "end" points

the start and end in that case are just a way of defining the extents of the zone

[stuck oyster]

yes

you could have 2 actions, one on each side of the door with its own begind and end points

[indigo mountain]

Would probably be simpler to just use a wrapper function for BIS_fnc_door for the action statement, and then just check the animation phase instead of passing a value directly

[orchid spruce]

hmm my rotor blur doesn't seem to be fully working, I have the selections defined in the config and the part where it unhides the blurry one works but it doesn't hide the regular rotors

I don't need to have animations in the model for hiding/unhiding that stuff, do I?

[north sundial]

You need essentially the same setup for unhiding the blur rotors for the normal ones but flip the hide and unhide values

So when the blur ones get unhidden the normal ones get hidden

[orchid spruce]

what setup? I thought the config defined selections do all the work

I couldn't find any examples of a helicopter having animations for hiding/unhiding the blur in its model animations

[charred bolt]

It's a special case for helicopters, not requiring any hide animations in model.cfg. Controlled by config.cpp:

selectionHRotorStill = "rotor1_static";
selectionVRotorMove = "rotor2_blur";
selectionVRotorStill = "rotor2_static";```
and add those selections to model.cfg sections[]

[orchid spruce]

I did all that

the blur ones do get unhidden but the regular ones don't get hidden

[charred bolt]

Check whether you have any other selection names on the static rotor selections

[orchid spruce]

I have the "camo" selection on them

[charred bolt]

Yes, that could be the issue if you're using it to set hiddenSelection textures on the blades. Remove and test.

[orchid spruce]

so if you want rotor blur you can't have retexturable rotors?

[stuck oyster]

hiddenselections probably conflict with it yeah

[orchid spruce]

oh yeah removing the camo selection worked

[civic stratus]

can someone help me with an animation issue? I can't select the animation in buldozer.
modelCfg: http://pastebin.com/raw/nzyE5gR4
config.cpp: http://pastebin.com/raw/5sqrXZiM

just a simple hide anim

[fervent steppe]

this is for a sign?

[civic stratus]

yeah

[fervent steppe]

im slightly confused as to why you are using a eventhandler

[civic stratus]

im gonna edit that and have it run a script to hide and unhide the selection in a sequence

its supposed to be a neon sign that I want to blink

[fervent steppe]

what like blinking?

[civic stratus]

yes

I just need this animation to work and all will be good

I worked out the rest

[fervent steppe]

you may be able to have it blink using the lighting effect without having to use an eventhandler

[civic stratus]

go on?

[fervent steppe]

minValue = 0.0;//rad 0.0
maxValue = 0.1;//rad 57.29578
minPhase = 0.0;//rad 0.0
maxPhase = 1.0;//rad 57.29578

i think in this case max value and max phase would be the same

1

"signUnlit","signLit"

whats the first bone?

well the reflector class has a blinking=1 or 0 but that probably wont give you the effect your looking for..but if you just want a nice light you can use that and skip the eventhandler..then you can shoot it out with out to much additional coding because it is handled by the engine

[civic stratus]

ii tried the reflector class

it looked like a car light cone

which I didnt want

so im just using an emissive rvmat selection

[fervent steppe]

ah ok

[civic stratus]

as for the bones, i have no idea what I need to do

[fervent steppe]

so your trying to hide and unhide each selection

[civic stratus]

just the Lit version

the lit version has the rvmat, and faces on top

so I just want to unhide/hide it to give the illisuon of a blink

[fervent steppe]

so why do you have two bones listed then if its only one?

[civic stratus]

i dont know 😛

what should it look like

"hideLit",""?

[fervent steppe]

yea if thats what the bone is called

[civic stratus]

shit

its signLit, not hideLit haha

[fervent steppe]

i usually make my bones and the class names the same to avoid confusion

[civic stratus]

works now

im dumb

[fervent steppe]

happens 😉

[civic stratus]

getting a stupid packing error now, nothing in the logs

that point to an error

"model.cfg" cannot have externs

but if you look at the model.cfg I linked earlier theres no external dependencies I dont think

[fervent steppe]

remove the class rotation

class Rotation;

this line

[civic stratus]

haha, I did about 10 seconds before you said that

[fervent steppe]

😃

[near lake]

Lets try, we will hear in https://discord.com/channels/105462288051380224/122121444703338496 😄
Im also excited to see how far Im able to solve this

[errant pumice]

can someone copy me working line for Object Builder? reinstall on win11 is hell 😉

for ExternalViewer

[stuck oyster]

did you run arma3p to setup P drive?

[errant pumice]

i have to do entire workdrive backup before that

[charred bolt]

D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Arma 3\arma3_x64.exe -buldozer -name=Buldozer -window -noLand -exThreads=0 -noLogs -noAsserts -cfg=buldozer.cfg

[orchid spruce]

do model proxies not respect View lods? like I have a proxy that has a ViewPilot lod in it, but when that proxy is used in another model, the ViewPilot just uses the main lod and not what is in the ViewPilot in the proxy

[willow nacelle]

Hello, does anyone know why my vehicle appears like this when I start the game?

[white jay]

I am working on my first vehicle. I am getting an error that my two visual LODs failed validation, and were skipped. I have looked at the in-program log window, and have run the root folder debug and read the output. Can someone please tell me where to look for this error? I have searched and cannot find anything more specific.
in blender

[twilit dagger]

Are you using the ArmA 3 Object Builder addon for Blender?

[twilit dagger]

Have you correctly applied all transformations in Blender?

Then the console window should provide enough info. Which LODs are you having issues with?

[willow nacelle]

yes

[white jay]

I am having trouble with Resolution 1 and View - Cargo

[twilit dagger]

Have you worked on the geometry LOD yet? Maybe the vehicle is just so terribly back-heavy? 🤔 Does it land on its wheels or stay like this?

[twilit dagger]

How can those even fail validation? 🥴 Only thing I can think of is not being made up out of triangles.

[willow nacelle]

or it could be

I'm going to change it

[willow nacelle]

it stays like this

[white jay]

I am new as of a couple days ago. Not all triangles yet. I will go try that. Sorry for the newb mistake, lol.

[twilit dagger]

No worries, I'm working on my first mod myself 😄 Just trying to give back to the community and help if I can 😄

[twilit dagger]

I'd quadruple check that location, rotation and scale are at neutral values in Blender 🤔

[twilit dagger]

Definitely do check the console in Blender, because I just tried removing some triangulation and it still passed validation 🥴

[stuck oyster]

your physX wheels are not defined right so it uses default size

which has 1 meter radius

[willow nacelle]

if everything is correct

[willow nacelle]

are they wrong?

[stuck oyster]

yes

physX wheels are done with config and memorypoints

and you dont have the wheels in the geometryPhys lod

[charred bolt]

I think I went through all the stages for making car physx work on here a few times, search function might work.

[willow nacelle]

thanks

It's a little misaligned but I get it.

[ionic kiln]

Ok so question. How would i go about putting texture on this. I know how to do it coding wise but when i do it im only getting this. Am i missing an extra step after just importing into object builder to make it a P3d or do i need to do more

[stuck oyster]

depending on your workflow you might have assigned it texture in blender before exporting to p3d or you can also do it in object builder

assuming the model is already uvmapped and you have already made a texture for it

if that is not the case youll have to go back to learn all that

[ionic kiln]

thank you

[runic plover]

Little question, probably someone already had such issue and would know how to solve it
In short:
• Tank vehicle with destrType = wreck; in config
• Tank vehicle has damageHide in cfgSkeletons & defined in cfgModel (model.cfg)
• 3D model has Wreck LOD + proxy with path to the Wreck model
• Wreck model has Geometry / FireGeometry / ViewGeometry LODs

I destroy the tank, its main Geometry / FireGeometry / ViewGeometry and visual LOD disappears which is good, Wreck gets activated and visible which is also good so far.

Now the problem, Wreck has collision for other vehicles and also for infantry but FireGeometry and ViewGeometry doesnt work, and this confuses me.. is there something i have missed?

As info, tank vehicle is a 2 legged mech vehicle and the main body is not at bottom like tracked/wheeled vehicles and the wreck itself is the mainbody (but proxy in Wreck LOD is at 0,0,0 and Wreck model main body is also at 0,0,0)

[charred bolt]

Lots of questions that come to mind and quite a few possible reasons.

1. Verify that "Wreck Fire Geometry doesn't work" by using dev branch diagnostic exe and switching on Fire Geometry mode to visualise (really nothing present?)
2. If above point shows no FG, double check wreck FG LOD - closed, convex, all parts with ComponentNN names and penetration materials? How are you checking that (in blender, in OB?)
3. Autocenter = 0 in wreck model Geometry LOD?

[runic plover]

1. can give a try, didnt test with dev branch yet.
2. Wreck FG has a very simple 2Component (Component01, Component02) closed / convex mesh with penetration material.
3. autocenter=0 ive tried already, HorribleGoat gave me this tip also, no success.

its just weird collision works

[charred bolt]

When you think you've done everything right and it should work (especially as you're experienced), I'd question whether my assumption that something wasn't working was actually correct. Hence the need to verify using something extreme like visualisation of the FG in dev branch, or using "Shots" to check that bullets do indeed pass straight through the wreck with no penetration noted.

[runic plover]

ViewGeometry is also not working cause in 3rd person the cameraview isnt going close to my back as infantry + AI is able to see me and kill me, so im sure FireGeometry will also notice nothing.

[stuck oyster]

did the m113 ramp have similar thing? that it didnt register when it was open in the wreck

[charred bolt]

Ah...

Was it something to do with cfgNonAiVehicles?

[runic plover]

ive told this HorribleGoat yesterday too i can remind in OFP something about this

[charred bolt]

@runic plover Are you transferring textures to the wreck?

[runic plover]

i just have a tileable wreck texture on the wreck and also a simple rvmat file

[charred bolt]

Checked notes, this is what I found, may not be related
removed cfgNonAIVehicles as this breaks display of wreck destruction textures

[runic plover]

so i should try to add cfgNonAIVehicles and define the wreck model?

[charred bolt]

I don't think it's related to your issue. This was if you have multiple possible camo schemes on your main vehicle, using hiddenSelections, and want to transfer them across to the wreck.

[runic plover]

i have multiple camo shemes like 9 color variants, winter and other variants for all vehicles i did

but how does it react to the FireGeometry and ViewGeometry and makes it non functional while the Geometry works

[stuck oyster]

What im thinking is that maybe it does not like when the wreck drops down on ground from the legs

idea

try some vanilla wreck model

[runic plover]

ill give it a try

i also found in the AiO config in class cfgNonAIVehicles this:

    {
        autocenter=0;
        scope=0;
        animated=0;
        model="";
        simulation="alwaysshow";
    };```

[runic plover]

same issue, collision works but fire- and viewgeometry doesnt work

when i replace path with a vanilla wreck

and also with cfgNonAIVehicles nothing changes

[orchid spruce]

I can't seem to get a multi-barrel weapon working no matter what I try, I've not pretty much exactly replicated how the vanilla Cheetah has it, I have a usti hlavne selection which contains a usti hlavne 1 and usti hlavne 2 points on each of the barrels, same for konec hlavneand then in my turret I have memoryPointGun[] = {"usti hlavne 1","usti hlavne 2"}; but the weapon seems to just refuse to use any of these memory points, the shots always just come from the center of the vehicle

the weapon also has shotFromTurret set to 0

it behaves as if those memory points just don't exist

can you just not do that on helicopters or something?

if I set shotFromTurret to 1 then it uses one of those memory points but only one

[umbral shuttle]

perhaps I am misremembering but for tanks the wheels going up and down is mainly controlled by the various memory points, so what does the wheels in geo lod do?

[stuck oyster]

collision agains the wheels

for characters at least

[charred bolt]

Geometry LOD - non physx collisions, including characters
Geo Phys LOD - physx collisions, including grenades; so don't put wheels in this LOD, at least they should be above the highest point the coded physx wheel can be compressed to

[umbral shuttle]

what do you mean by for characters atleast? like if a tank tries to run over a person?

[stuck oyster]

yes. characters dont collide with physX

or at least so I remember

and the config and memorypoints defined wheels are physX

(which is why you dont have extra wheels in physX ggeometry lod)

[umbral shuttle]

extra wheels as in the front sprocket or gear wheels whatever they are called the ones that dont move?

[ionic kiln]

Ok so i got models and i want to hook them up to the character so i can start coding them in. How would i go about it/is there any actual good videos that help? cuz ive been looking and theres not a lot of good videos

[charred bolt]

The physx of vehicle wheels are fully modelled by config code, taking their axis and bounding points from the Memory LOD.
Therefore you do not want any geometry in your Geometry Phys LOD that could interfere with that interaction.
So, yes, at the position of ANY wheel which you have included in config class Wheels, which may or may not include sprocket/return wheels, you do not want geometry modelled in the Geo Phys LOD, up to the limits of the suspension movement.

[stuck oyster]

physX geometry wheels that overlap with the config generated ones

[stuck oyster]

did you make the models?/ do you know 3d modeling?

[ionic kiln]

My friend gave up on his project so hes giving them to me. Like ik config just not modeling

[stuck oyster]

then youll need to shelve those and learn the basics of modeling

as you will need that to understand what you are doing

ready made models are not a shortcut

(more often they need ton more fixing )

[ionic kiln]

ok. anyplace specifically i should start?

[stuck oyster]

Basics

youll have to be able to make models in order to edit them

[umbral shuttle]

okay cool thx I understand

[umbral shuttle]

ty

[runic plover]

Because your defined weapon needs also these defined points in config

[gilded bane]

Heya, anyone know what this is about ? https://gyazo.com/d34d1c8c3d97ec065d5b1bcce11c330d

Quite the annoyance

[orchid spruce]

does it? the cheetah weapon does not have them defined, it only has usti hlavne and konec hlavne defined as muzzlePos and muzzleEnd

only way it uses the numbered ones is for the gunfire smoke effects

[thorn geyser]

Hey guys, just a small issue that I am having with my model. I want to achieve a diffuse and specular level seen in Bulldozer: http://i.imgur.com/qmpE6pD.png . Unfortunately, in the game, it appears as this: http://i.imgur.com/1PDnUUs.jpg . Is there some kind of input I should use in my RVMAT to make it look like the one in bulldozer? Thanks 😃

@gilded bane , did you try capping/closing any holes in the model?

[woeful viper]

effect of specularity depends on map lighting settings... try it on altis

[thorn geyser]

ok

[last spindle]

toooo hot to keep going, so WIP..... http://i.imgur.com/fSAVoWu.png

[thorn geyser]

@last spindle , not bad. 😉

BTW: @woeful viper, it worked just like you said. Yeah it had tot do with the map lighting. 😃

[drowsy igloo]

How can I learn building modeling in ARMA 3? I'm creating a drawing in SolidWorks, transferring it to FreeCAD, and then importing it into Blender, and that's where the problem starts. Because I've done so many transfers, I can't get a handle on the mesh loop and I can't paint the building. I need to learn this. Do you have a video tutorial set?

[cunning temple]

Why not build it in blender and avoid all the extra hassle 😄

[quick terrace]

@last spindle oh nice, i also have the same mag done and in game 😉

http://i.imgur.com/bEbWmKE.png

[undone knoll]

having this issue on bulldozer. Shirt looks fine, but pants and boots don't have their normal maps placed correctly. Already did normal recalculations on both the blender file and buldozer, none have worked to fix the normals looking weird. I've also tested them all seperately and they continue to have the same issue. I've made sure to check the RVMAT to ensure nothing is off, and all the pathing is good. What could be happening here?

been dealing with this for a good month or so, it's killing any motivation to finish the project

[marsh canyon]

o2script time

Check ArmaToolBox's o2script path

[runic plover]

Looks for me like rvmat path incorrect or in the rvmat file the pathes incorrect or wrong settings in the rvmat file or endings on your texture files are not correct like as example normal map pants_nohq.paa or at least px sizes incorrect, needs as example 512x512, 1024x1024, 2048x2048 or 512x1024 etc

[runic plover]

Or this yeah

But shirt (upper part works so i dont think its the O2 script thing)

[marsh canyon]

Hm that's a point

Are you sure the face is not flipped (backface culling)

...Hold on I was dumb. Flipped face won't show like that after all

I am thinking of nohq is flipped (R, G or B channel wise)

What it does look without assigning tex and or mat

[undone knoll]

i'll check again but yeah all of the files were exported from substance painter as 2048 x 2048 px, and the RVMAT pathing is all correct, only missing the .paa at the end but it still works.

some faces on the boots and pants do have what looks like a normal map, or at least shading, so i'm thinking it might be something to do with the size of the UVs not matching what they should be in object builder, but I have no idea how to even start to troubleshoot that :/

[runic plover]

Also a issue could be is if you have 2 UVSets

If you are in OB, check if you got UVSet0 and UVSet1, if its like that, delete UVSet1 and only keep UVSet0

• (just a try worth) select whole mesh in OB and press F5

[runic plover]

I dont think its this because the shader takes same uv coords like your texture does, and your texture does look correct and not blurried or stretched

[marsh canyon]

Still you want to see how it does look without RVMAT

[grizzled halo]

there is no really easy way for a CAD to ARMA pipeline. You must either be willing to deal with the bullshit of retopology in blender or shed a couple hundred bucks for Plasticity3D which has a pretty solid, decent and serviceable CADtoBlender addon that greatly automates the process as long as your cad model is final.

[grizzled halo]

going from any CAD software into blender is really difficult for some people

[stuck oyster]

still need to learn blender to be able to do all the technical stuff in it

[grizzled halo]

of course, but if you can reliably automate 90% of the work, its actually convenient to do so hahaha, back when I started (which I'm still using cad) i was going 25k+ models as my final "low poly" models for "simple" stuff, with current automation I was able to take it lower than 10k reliably

[stuck oyster]

👍

[drowsy igloo]

because ı dont know how can ı use or drawing to blander ı know only cad

[grizzled halo]

you will need to learn at least a bit of blender, but if you semi automate your process it wont be neccesarry to learn absolutely all the tricks to make "game ready" assets

[drowsy igloo]

I'm eager to learn if you have a recommended video set, but all of them are old videos filmed three years ago, and they can be very confusing alongside the new version.

[stuck oyster]

the basics are still same even if buttons are in bit different places

[drowsy igloo]

Sometimes these menu changes can be very confusing

[grizzled halo]

you will get used to it, every major blender change they reinvent the wheel and restructure a lot of the menus

[undone knoll]

checked this just now, still no dice :/

[marsh canyon]

Once again, how it does look without RVMAT

[tawdry veldt]

Can anyone quickly tell me max size on buildings? I think maybe a height size of 65m? but I can't remember for certain. would be usefl to know if there's an x,y limit too

[marsh canyon]

There is no Z limit but X and Y does

[undone knoll]

like this

[marsh canyon]

Then it does mean your RVMAT or texture within is the issue

I'd say double check nohq R, G or B is correct and not inverted

[stuck oyster]

50m is pretty safe

[tawdry veldt]

Ah I am back to front then 🙂 thanks both

[stuck oyster]

large buildings should be split into parts anyway

[undone knoll]

thanks, I'm checking the rvmat rn, i'm not familiar with RGB though, what would I be looking for?

[marsh canyon]

How it does look

[tacit igloo]

hey guys, does anyone know how to fix it?

i mean ads

[undone knoll]

FINALLYYYYY

so in total, there was a lot of problems on the RVMAT

well, not really, actually it was just because it was missing that .paa at the end

that fixed it

[undone knoll]

@marsh canyon @runic plover thanks a bunch for all the help gents

[grizzled halo]

do you have your eye mem points defined?

[runic plover]

no problem

[tacit igloo]

yeah, but I dont know if I placed them correctly

[tacit igloo]

ah okay i fexed it

[stark plaza]

Can Blender completely replace Object Builder? I mean, if I export P3D directly from Blender without going through Object Builder, will there be any problems?

[stark plaza]

I tried exporting a model from Blender, but it might have been too large, and the 32‑bit Object Builder probably crashed because it exceeded the 4GB memory limit. So I’m wondering if it’s possible to skip Object Builder altogether?

[stuck oyster]

ok so

techically yes sure

but for you

no

your model is probably way too complex

so lets start from that

what kind of a thing are you making?

(or did you make it?)

and how many triangles it has?

shortcuts may be used only if you absolutely know what you are doing

[cunning temple]

Also there is size limits https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/LOD

[stark plaza]

It’s a house model, but with very detailed interior. The total triangle count is 226,199.

[stark plaza]

This number shouldn’t cause the game to crash when imported into Arma 3, right?

[south badge]

Why so many triangle when few do trick

[stuck oyster]

This is very high end for the engine.

If you have furniture and such built in those would be better as separate models.

Also you would want to use bulldozer preview from object builder to make sure any building related animations work correctly

[cunning temple]

Isn't the big houses about 15k?

[stuck oyster]

big cathedral (exterior only) is 65k

as one of the more complex buildings

the ghost hotel is split into 3 parts

roughly 20k a piece

the Saigon embassy in SOGPF is split into 2 parts roughly 100k a pop

its very complex nearly fully open building

also furniture has been proxied in

the Hanoi Train station is at 65k middle piece and 40k side wings

complex also nearly fully open building that one too

so 200k single object does sound a bit excessive and probably not going to work great in engine

@stark plaza

[white jay]

I have been learning blender, and managed to do some vehicle and static object stuff. As far as uniforms, I know I can handle the 3D modeling itself, and the texturing. Can someone point me to a wiki or tutorial to any other steps? I am not sure what goes into making the model function as bending fabric, etc. when on the unit in game. Any info appreciated.

[stuck oyster]

charactesrs are moved around by skeletal/armature animations