arma3_texture

[wet nymph]

just in case

[orchid oak]

sure, cheers

[wet nymph]

Nws mate

[orchid oak]

main difference is the #defining of ARMA at the top & the dir of all stages for me is {0,0,0} while yours is {0,0,1}

I also have a StageTI at the end, can send the full rvmat if needed

[full quarry]

define arma is not needed

[wet nymph]

It's just a reference RVMAT someone sent me, never changed that and it works so uh

[full quarry]

P:\A3\Data_F\ also contains variety of default rvmats

[wet nymph]

good I guess

[full quarry]

supershader one being the most commonly used

[orchid oak]

would that be the "default_super.rvmat"

[full quarry]

Yes

[orchid oak]

allright, exported all my textures with TexView, Cranked up the params in substance so the materials will be exaggerated, used the default_super as a base for my RVMAT. and still no joy

[orchid oak]

potential problem found. model has 6 uvsets

aaaaaand that solved it, for fucks sake
well cheers for the support here, much appreciated. 🙂

[wet nymph]

Lmaoo

I hate how blender adds uv sets sometimes

Thats why I love using Mikeros. It tells me the error w my pbo and I dont have to look everywhere for ages to find out the problem

I recommend it

[orchid oak]

yeah, I have a faint memory of having this problem when I worked on another model and spending equally as much time trying to solve it lol
I do have mikeros tools lying around somewhere, just need to take the time to learn them, I'm at that modding stage where changing workflow can lead to more issues

[wooden lantern]

soon (tm)

hopefully today

finally there will be a resource for metallic roughness

[full quarry]

ooh sounds cool! got any SP - Arma comparison pictures of your process?

[wooden lantern]

pretty darn close if i say so myself lol

after this much trial and error tho, i hope that it's a useful tool for others, because it took forever to actually get a correct SMDI.

[full quarry]

does not look bad yeah

Id recommend setting up the real lighitng in buldozer for better comparison too

[wooden lantern]

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

[full quarry]

this

since the default dozer lighting is of the older type

also do you alter the fresnel stage at all?

[wooden lantern]

yes

[full quarry]

👍

[wooden lantern]

fresnel is black magic

change numbers until it looks good based on the wiki numbers lmao

[full quarry]

technically the real life values should be pretty accurate if I remember right

[wooden lantern]

well yeah they are but the issue is a lot of the time you're texturing materials that arent accurate to real life

[full quarry]

for sure yes

then one needs to play around with it 😅

[wooden lantern]

mhm

and ik this goes against literally everything ive seen on here for texturing

but it makes so much more sense that when you texture in pbr that the blue should be metallic

because it acts like a mask for the material properties of metal that you define in the rvmat

[full quarry]

well metallic does not really exist the same way in specular/gloss shader

so calling it metallic in this isntance is a little misleading

[wooden lantern]

true but lets be honest im just happy i got a workflow that turns out decently 💀

it's more like specular level in reality

[full quarry]

👍

[wooden lantern]

but outputting converted specular level looks bad when you do it, and outputting metallic turns out better from what ive tested

[full quarry]

it looks good from quick look yeah

im sure your workflow will help a lot of people

[wooden lantern]

that's the plan

cant wait for someone to come out of nowhere and tell me everything i did is wrong and this is how you're actually supposed to do it then share some really useful knowledge everyone could've used like 2 years ago lmao

[celest obsidian]

pretty unique workflow

I'll test it, that's interesting

[wooden lantern]

mhm

lmk what you think

[wet nymph]

Nice

[wooden lantern]

thanks to u lol

[lone ivy]

@wooden lantern hi you

[wooden lantern]

hello?

[real gazelle]

Hi, is there some way to mass replace part of a texture path specified in a .p3d file? I'm attempting to change a bunch of entries all in the same folder but not too keen on doing it one-by-one manually.

[lethal condor]

If they are unbinned (editable) P3Ds, just use text editor to mass edit, that can do

[real gazelle]

Got it, thank you.

[real gazelle]

Doesn't seem to work, I'm afraid, unless I'm missing something.

[nocturne lake]

There's a tool for doing that in object builder Tools>>Mass Texture & Material renaming

[real gazelle]

You have to do it one by one though? That's what I'm trying to avoid

Oh wait, wow, I'm stupid, nevermind. Thank you, @nocturne lake

[atomic jolt]

do you guys why a retextured RHS humvee would just use the inherited texture?

those are my configs for them, but they won't use the textures defined in the config

[nocturne lake]

because the in-editor vehicles use vhc to set textures on init with textureList[]= and you're inheriting that from the desert camo vehicles. You have to either use the base class for the vehicle (which doesn't have a textureList[] assigned) or add your textures to the M1151 base class first e.g. class rhsusf_m1151_base: MRAP_01_base_F { class textureSources { class rhssaf_green { displayName="SAF"; author=$STR_RHSSAF_AUTHOR_FULL; textures[]= { MACRO_M11XX_TEX_SAF }; factions[]= {}; decals[] = {7}; }; }; }; MACRO_M11XX_TEX_SAF is a shorthand for the list of texture paths

then you'd call it in your vehicle class with e.g. textureList[] = { "rhssaf_green", 1 };

[atomic jolt]

THANK YOU! It works after days of troubleshooting

[wooden lantern]

fixed the export name for the alpha channel and added my material filter stack

[atomic jolt]

class cfgWeapons
{
    class ItemCore;
    class InventoryItem_Base_F;
    class UniformItem: InventoryItem_Base_F
    {
        type=801;
    };
  
    class Uniform_Base: ItemCore
    {
        scope=0;
        allowedSlots[]={901};
        class ItemInfo: UniformItem
        {
            uniformModel="-";
            uniformClass="B_Soldier_F";
            containerClass="Supply0";
            mass=0;
        };
    };

  class U_BG_Guerilla3_1;
  class CRM_C_Jacket: U_BG_Guerilla3_1
    {
        author="Brain";
        scope=2;
        displayName="CRM Consignee Jacket";
        picture="\A3\characters_f_gamma\Guerrilla\data\ui\icon_U_G_guerrilla3_1_ca.paa";
        model="\A3\Characters_F\Common\Suitpacks\suitpack_civilian_F.p3d";
        nameSound = "";
        hiddenSelections[]=
        {
            "camo"
        };
        hiddenSelectionsTextures[]=
        {
            "\CRM\data\Gear_textures\ig_guerrilla3_1_co.paa"
        };
        class ItemInfo: UniformItem
        {
            uniformModel="-";
            uniformClass="CRM_C_Jacket";
            containerClass="Supply50";
            mass=50;
        };
    };
};

For some reason this config is showing up without texture

anyone got any troubleshooting ideas?

[full quarry]

make sure this path is actually same as what your folder structure inside your pbo is

[atomic jolt]

it is

[full quarry]

oh its uniform

do you have corresponding unit class for it?

the unit is what you retexture

not the item

the item is just the folded thing on ground or in your inventory

@atomic jolt

[atomic jolt]

Oh, I'll check that out when I'm home friday

[wet nymph]

Question, is there a way to change an objects rvmat through hiddenSelections instead of its texture?

[full quarry]

Yes

there is also HiddenSelectionsMaterials array

[wet nymph]

oh alright, interesting

I'll give it a go, thank you

[orchid oak]

not too sure if this is the correct place. looking to have a MFD/Airframe HUD element draw ontop of glass.
The idea is to move the HUD further away from the cockpit to give it more depth but the canopy glass culls it entirely

[full quarry]

Not really possible in the vanilla way. But you can make the mfd draw on top of the view instead like a helmet mounted hud

It is more a config thing though

There are script commands to render dialogs and stuff on surfaces but that would probably require quite a lot of script magic

[orchid oak]

aw man, sounds like alot of math to get that working right. removed the cockpit glass and moved the HUD super far out, feels awesome to fly in TrackIR with a hud that doesn't lose its accuracy the second you move your head

could this maybe be solved by having floating geometry that can be assigned different textures & somehow moved in model space

[full quarry]

the class MFD hud is drawn inside the defined memorypoints, it does not require any mesh

[orchid oak]

yeah I mean more as a compromise, multiple textures with alpha of say the reticle, horizon lines etc. move them outside the cockpit where they should be drawn as they aren't using the MFD shader then somehow move/animate them via script

[full quarry]

might as well just make the hud stick to the view all the time

since its an option

the animated parts, not gonna work

[orchid oak]

only problem is its a coldwar jet so HMDs etc aren't really possible

unless its maybe possible to fudge the HUD effect via 2D HMD with math and positions etc

[full quarry]

isnt that wide hud you wanted already unrealistic though?

its a game

[orchid oak]

what I'm looking for is a HUD that actually has realistic depth

because in TrackIR when I move my head forwards it offsets the HUD and I cannot aim

[full quarry]

well there isnt really any fix for that im afraid

[orchid oak]

removing the glass and moving the HUD further out works good as a proof of concept. just brainstorming potential ways to simulate the effect without using the MFD shader

[full quarry]

cant

[orchid oak]

would it draw through an object with lowered opacity or is it just being masked by geometry, nomatter the transparency?

[full quarry]

I think it can be obstructed by mesh

[orchid oak]

damn, looks like the only option is no glass. maybe for fixed reticles a simple image outside the aircraft in viewpilot would work.
well cheers for the info, off to sleep

[fathom folio]

Hi, I have a texture bug where you see the grass in a strange way behind my opaque texture (_CO), anyone have an idea how I can fix this problem? thank you

[full quarry]

your _CO texture has alpha transparency

[torpid lance]

Having an issue where the sunlight is turning the textures of a vehicle white. I have my doubts that this is anything texture related (Export, Baking, evmat etc.) because I have two identical models that use the same textures and rvmats. One of these models has the issue where the sun light turns the texture white and the other doesn't. This leads me to believe that it is a p3d issue. I have cross referenced both p3ds and I do not see any differences. Does anyone know what could be a fix for this?

[lethal condor]

Do you mean you have two P3Ds that share same PAA and RVMAT?

And how does it look with/without issue?

[torpid lance]

Yeah, two separate P3Ds that are identical with different names that are using the same textures & rvmat.

For the vehicle that isn't working correctly it just looks like a white haze over the texture where ever the sunlight hits. If there is not direct sunlight on a portion of the vehicle then the texture doesn't have the white haze.

Never seen this before, super stumped.

[stray relic]

Can we see screenshots of the issue? (good model v bad model)
Have you checked it's not a shadow issue by disabling shadows in game options?
Have you disabled hiddenSelectionTextures to ensure there are no texture/rvmat swaps occuring?

[torpid lance]

So you actually pointed me in the right direction. The problem was me using 'hiddenselectionsmaterials', it was acting up and breaking. Once I removed that from the config and applied the rvmats in the p3d the lighting issue went away. Thank you.

[silver surge]

good evening so I was trying to make a textuer for a vest, but seem to be at a loss of how to see it in the editor as it is a modded vest but I dont have acess to thoes files only the PAA of said vest, and dont know the coding to make a new Config any help or tips?

[spare nexus]

how can i create .rvmat file?

[nocturne lake]

writing them in a text editor like notepad is honestly the best way

[balmy palm]

had a very strange thing happen that I've never yet had happened to me (to my knowledge)
upon conversion my nohq goes like this, the only difference from previous ones is that, older ones convert to DXT5, this one's goes to ARGB1555, but I have no idea what controls this?

[full quarry]

this looks pretty weird nohq

what does the original look like?

[balmy palm]

perfectly fine, it only happens when converted, and only to this one, all others convert fine

[full quarry]

perhaps presence of alpha channel messes it up?

try converting through Img2PaaGUI

oh no wait

its your resolution

😛

thats not accepted resolution

power of 2

2048x2048 or 4096x4096 for this maybe

yours is 3500x3500

and the converted is for some reason 2500x2500

in any case. wrong resolution accross the board

[balmy palm]

fixed.. thank you!
I think that's because it started as an .ai, the converted to a inkscape .svg - changing size allover the place 🥴

[inner shadow]

anyone know why when trying to add custom patches the colors get changed?

Like I saved the image on the right as the paa file but when applied it uses different colors

[full quarry]

wrong resolution maygbe

[inner shadow]

What resolution should I use?

[full quarry]

power of 2 resolutions

512x512, 1024x1024 etc

[inner shadow]

Okay thank you

[nova siren]

im trying to implement uniform, vest, backpack and helmet, all of those are already in game but rvmaps are causing some problems. in well lighted place they appear to be pitch black, and in the darkness they have full brightness. Issues with shadows only appeared after adding rvmaps

[nova siren]

after deleting all rvmaps entries ist still causing shadows to glitch out, but in lesser extend, the shadows appear to be very sharp and dont have medium shade betwen areas that are in light

[tender knot]

I've found guides for how to make a NOHQ and SMDI texture but I can't find any for making a "AS" map. And the acronym being "AS" makes it even harder. can I just put "\" in front of the "

class Stage4
{
texture="Gen99gear\SBbelt\data\handcuffcase_AS.paa";
uvSource="tex";
class uvTransform
{
aside[]={1,0,0};
up[]={0,1,0};
dir[]={0,0,0};
pos[]={0,0,0};
};
};"

So the error message doesn't show up. Will no AS map cause any issues?

[full quarry]

as = ambient shadow also known as ambient occlusion

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma:_Texture_Naming_Rules this is good reference

[tender knot]

thank you

[full quarry]

it could be your shadow lod isnt properly made and pokes through the visual mesh

but also could be faulty built rvmat

[nova siren]

shadow lod isnt on the model yet

[full quarry]

well another problem then

you need that

even if its just copy of the sample character shadowlod

[nova siren]

i mean, its a copy from samples, but it isnt changed to mimic visual lods

[full quarry]

well does itt poke out?

[nova siren]

there are only hands on those model and they infact dont poke out

[young patio]

sup people me again

So this is an odd question ive got a headgear which has a:
CO
AS
NOHQ
SMDI

All done with an RVMAT etc ive passed it over to my friend who is the one in charge of the unit im a part of textures as well as the author of our unit mod and his looks wildly different to mine

so this is mine

this is his

We think its an RVMAT issue

in particular the AS? but we arent sure

anyone whos better at textures and knows that would be mega helpful

[full quarry]

coudld be the AS is broken yeah

easy to test is to rever the AS texture to the neutral procedural in default_super.rvmat

has the uvmapping changed?

[stray relic]

Yes, that looks faulty Edward.
Check out the correct format for a super shader rvmat here: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Super_shader
In particular match the Stages correctly (ie Stage 1 is NOHQ, Stage 2 is DT etc)

[young patio]

howdy all got some questions regarding textures

[young patio]

this is how my current UV islands looks in substance painter right?

this what the export texture looks like

why are these two images so wildly different? its missing all of the details and edge wear etc

these are the settings i was using to export

and these are the channels i was using

[faint wigeon]

Im trying to make these textures work on this but it just wont work what is it that im doing wrong?

[lethal condor]

Yes it is very wrong. I don't know how to start to tell how you're wrong

hiddenSelectionsTextures only accept the color textures. anything else, like SMDI, NOHQ and such are only accepted by RVMATs

[faint wigeon]

Oh

right, ill try it out thanks

[lethal condor]

And the order you put them into is important too

[faint wigeon]

when i binarize it in arma tools and look at the pbo it doesn't save the rvmats, NOHQ and the others

[lethal condor]

Which software you use

[faint wigeon]

To open pbo or binarize it?

[lethal condor]

Bin

[faint wigeon]

addon builder

[lethal condor]

AB requires you to list all of files (or extensions) to include

[faint wigeon]

should i use mikero tools then

[lethal condor]

You can use it but why not just do what I said

[faint wigeon]

well where would i list the textures because i dont see a option and thats why i added the textures to hidden selection so then it would keep the rvmats

[lethal condor]

?

[faint wigeon]

still doesn't work

it only save paa and the p3d

[faint wigeon]

do you know what could be making it not save .rvmats

it only saves the textures that ive put in the Hiddentextures section

in config

[faint wigeon]

nvm i fixed it, i had to go in to options and change project route and then delete it

[young patio]

if i were to make a texture appear less bright in game what settings would i need to mess around with in the rvmat

and would i need to mess with the co_/ca_ texture?

so far this is what ive got

ambient[] = { 1, 1, 1, 1 };
diffuse[] = { 1, 1, 1, 1 };
forcedDiffuse[] = { 0, 0, 0, 1 };
emmisive[] = { 0, 0, 0, 0};
specular[] = { 0.3, 0.3, 0.3, 1 };
specularPower = 16;
PixelShaderID = "Super";
VertexShaderID = "Super";

im trying to make it so the visor isnt as bright

[full quarry]

you generally adjust the texture itself

either you make it more transparent or you make it darker color with same alpha

[young patio]

copy ill give that a go

thanks amigo

https://tenor.com/view/awesome-ok-great-good-thumbs-up-gif-16351183

[full quarry]

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

[livid knot]

I've spent the eavening messing with rvmats and render flags to try and no render contents behind/within an object, and no luck. I'm curious if anyone here has tried something like this before? Concept is to have a cube and when looking through it, all objects except for the terrain are hidden. Even better if it only culls the faces inside the cube. I thought maybe a form of zwrite could achieve this like it can in other engines

[full quarry]

Materials won't achieve that. Transparency does not block view.

View Occluder geometry might do it, but it should blocks everything behind it, not just in the area of the cube. If you explain the actual use case we can maybe advise on that

[uncut ember]

hello, i'm looking for help, i have a fictional server and i'm trying to extract textures of a mod to edit it so it can match my server

[livid knot]

Same goal to cut uniforms like we talked about in the model chat the other day. I tried view occluders at the start but I cant get them to work I think they need to be baked into the wrp of a map

[uncut ember]

hello?

[livid knot]

Use pbo manager and grab the paa's from them. However you likely arent allowed to reupload any of them. You'll have to check the mods terms

[full quarry]

why u no believe me when I say its not possible

its not a feature in this engine

and should not be necessary at all

[livid knot]

I didn't want to believe it was impossible, just that a way hadnt been done yet

[atomic jolt]

just checked, the uniform item on the ground is the one that's retextured

[neat osprey]

i think im just stupid but i cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a .paa file into gimp

[full quarry]

.paa file is Arma only file

so you would have to save it as png or tga first

[neat osprey]

thats my issue idk how or havent figured out how to

i tried following one tutorial but it was like 8yrs old i pbo manager dosent seem like it exists anymore

[atomic jolt]

anyone here know how to change the reflectivity of a vehicle texture?

[lethal condor]

RVMAT

[atomic jolt]

got any good totorials on editing RVMATs?

i can't seem to find any clear ones

[lethal condor]

No, text editor

[atomic jolt]

?

[lethal condor]

Text editor to edit RVMATs

[atomic jolt]

oh, that can't be too difficult then, right?

the only totorials i found started with 3d model editing programs and stuff

[full quarry]

its likely not really covered by tutorials that much

a lot of things are not

wiki explains the basics of rvmat across few pages there are about it

[dense peak]

Hello, i want to start a make texture but idk how to start this world

an can help me_

?

[stray relic]

Open the .paa file in TexView2 (part of Arma 3 Steam Tools).
File > Save As
and simply replace the .paa extension with .tga.
click Save

[stray relic]

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/RVMAT_basics
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Super_shader

Here is an example from the SOG PF DLC of a helicopter rvmat which you can use as a template.
Open it in Notepad, or better yet, download Notepad ++.

You'll typically be creating four texture maps to go along with your diffuse _co texture.
You link these texture maps to the _co using the material rvmat in the p3d.

So, for most basic editing:
Stage 1 texture = to be the path to your normal map (_nohq)
Stage 4 texture = to be the path to your ambient occlusion map (_as)
Stage 5 texture = to be the path to your specular map (_smdi)
Stage TI texture = to be the path to your thermal map (_ti_ca)

Then change these two to alter how shiny and how tight the hotspot :

specularPower = 37;```
For tweaking further you can read up on detail and macro maps (Stage 2 and 3) the Fresnel values (Stage 6) and custom environmental maps (Stage 7).
Making surfaces emissive is done by setting non zero `emmisive[]=`.

[full quarry]

also in the P drives unpacked arma data ther are few default rvmat examples in P:\A3\data_F

[atomic jolt]

Holy damn, thanks man! I'll check it out

[neat osprey]

danke

[vernal fractal]

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/HQ_Normal_Maps#Optimized_specular_map_onto_bit_depth
question here In R channel is it diffusion map or diffuse map ?
And what are the difrences between 2 ?

Can somebody explain me the process of makeing SMDI textures?

NVM just read the pinned messages.

[quartz cave]

Anyone have any luck texturing the scientist coveralls from Arma 3?

[silver saffron]

Hey folks, i'm stuck on this glass issue i cannot understand: every thing seems good and in place, rvmats paths are referenced in the p3d too. Can't spot the issue by myself

[stray relic]

Is your glass double sided?

[silver saffron]

Yes it is

[stray relic]

Try removing the inside faces as a test.

[silver saffron]

Alright

[faint wigeon]

Im having a problem with my helmet textures and im wondering if its the rvmat because if you zoom in you can see the details but the actual texture just doesn't work, i made sure that I've put the textures in config and checked the texture path on the helmet but im just wanting to make sure its the rvmat before i start trying anything else, i didn't have the same issue with my vests

[outer needle]

Do you have a shadowlod set for your helmet?

[faint wigeon]

Yeah i have a couple of shadowlods

[outer needle]

try isolating them and see if you texture shows correctly, maybe its bounding outside the helmet itself, since shadow will render differently in really close range

[silver saffron]

By removing the inner faces, this is the result

[stray relic]

So that has fixed the triangulation problem seen from the outside. You can adjust your texture transparency if that is too "dirty".
You'll then want to put back in the interior glass - best to use a separate mesh facing inwards.
After adding the interior glass in the res LOD, select the exterior glass mesh and bring those faces to the top of the stack.

[silver saffron]

So, if i understood correctly, i can duplicate the exterior glass mesh and invert the normals so that they face inward? Then add it into the res lods again and that's it? This one i'm afraid i'm confused about: "select the exterior glass mesh and bring those faces to the top of the stack"

[faint wigeon]

still doesn't work

[full quarry]

make sure you dont have multiple uvsets

[faint wigeon]

I only have UVSet 0, UVSet 1

[full quarry]

do you have some use for UVSet 1?

as typically you only have UVSet 0

Set1 has only very specific usecases in Arma

[faint wigeon]

no, should i delete it then

if im not using it

[full quarry]

well it may contain some of the uv mapping that should be in uvset 0

so preferably go to your source model and fix it so all parts have same UVset

[silver saffron]

Judging by the face orientation that must be it yep, gonna test it

[stray relic]

Yes, you can duplicate the mesh, but also physically separate it from the exterior glass so that there is a small gap. Invert the normals.
In Object Builder select the exterior glass faces and use Faces > Move Top

[silver saffron]

Nice, what's the purpose of this "faces move top"?

[faint wigeon]

theys no Textures needing UVSet 1 so i deleted it and triad that but still doesnt work

[stray relic]

It moves those faces to the top of the z-buffer stack to help avoid z-fighting.

[silver saffron]

Okk, i guess i have to do that even if i already moved them in blender by leaving a very small space

Roger that

This option is new to me, that's why i'm asking

i duplicated meshes before for normals issues, but didn't knew of this option

[stray relic]

It's particularly important for transparent (_ca) textures to re-order the face sorting. It'll be something you end up doing a LOT if you mod vehicles in earnest.

[silver saffron]

Good to know, thanks!

[faint wigeon]

But ive just got know idea why the textures aren't working when ive done my vests and stuff i didnt have any trouble like this

with my vvests

[stray relic]

If you make a copy of your paa texture in .tga format and place it with the .paa, then change the texture in Object Builder to .tga, and switch on solid textures, you can see whether the colour appears directly in Object Builder

Example

[faint wigeon]

ill try that

[faint wigeon]

Yeah texture doesn't show

half of the helmet is pink and then rest is grey

[stray relic]

If it's not working in Object Builder that discounts config issues such as hiddenSelections and also material rvmat or shadows.
Maybe show us a screenshot of the helmet, with the faces selected and the face properties box open, showing the paths to the texture and material?

Also show the UV mapping for that texture and the texture itself.

[faint wigeon]

Like this

[stray relic]

The main texture for your helmet is called reflectiveband?

[faint wigeon]

No

its just what faces its mapped to

you know different textures have there rvmat and basic texture set so it knows where to find it

[stray relic]

How many textures do you have on the helmet?
In Object Builder select the main texture that you are having trouble with the display of, and show it selecting the mesh, with face properties open.

Then show the UV, filtering only that texture, with texture background switched on.

Example

[faint wigeon]

when i filter it to main texture it says failed to load bitmap

[full quarry]

that is rather crazy polycount for a helmet

[faint wigeon]

Yeah ill be changing that soon just was putting it in game to try it out

[stray relic]

What pixel size is your texture?

[faint wigeon]

4096 x 4096

width 144.5 and Height 144.5

[stray relic]

Maybe path to texture is wrong

Ah, yes it is

You have ? in front of the textures in the list, indicating that Object Builder can't find them

Are you using a p: drive?

[faint wigeon]

yeah

[stray relic]

What is the path to the texture in Object Builder and compare against path in Windows Explorer?

[faint wigeon]

Its the same

[stray relic]

It isn't...

OB can't find your texture. That's what you need to fix.

[full quarry]

OB path to thexture in settings not P:\ perhaps

[faint wigeon]

Right

[stray relic]

I've asked to see the path used

[faint wigeon]

give me 5 minutes and i might have fixed it

ill let you know

[faint wigeon]

in windows?

[stray relic]

Both OB and Windows

[faint wigeon]

where do i find that im still new to OB

[full quarry]

file - options

[faint wigeon]

ive put path for textures to p drive now

[full quarry]

that will make OB supplement game compatilbe paths with P when it loads textures

[faint wigeon]

is that what you mean?

Im just confused

i just found out that addon builder isnt saving curtain textures again

[full quarry]

you are not using P drive development environment

[faint wigeon]

Do you mean this? Sorry if im getting things wrong

[full quarry]

no, P: drive is commonly virtual drive (but can also be physical partition) that acts as representation for the games internal file system and all the tools are built around it

[faint wigeon]

this is what it looks like when i enable the texture option

Im just trying random things now

i just dont know why its decided to not load the textures, ive checked the file path in OB and in file explorer and its the same

i just don't have a clue anymore

[faint wigeon]

it was a rvmat issue so now i need to the fix the rvmats

i dont know whats wrong with them though because im using the same code as my vest

but i just renamed it and changed the texture path and stuff inside the rvmat so i just dont really know why it was doing that

[faint wigeon]

?

[faint wigeon]

If you have something to say, Say it i don't mind the feedback

[silver saffron]

Peeps, i got this rvmat issue. Tested with no render flags (no changes), tried the renderflags of NoZWrite (drivewheel looks like it is out of the glass) and NoAlphaWrite (no changes), AddBlend (no changes too), NoColorWrite (no changes too)

[silver saffron]

Just now i realized the sun happens to go through?? Maybe this is connected to the fact that the texture suffix is ca, since the glasses are part of the interiors uv map? I'm totally lost

[full quarry]

the glass should be its own _CA suffix texture

must not mix transparent parts with non transparent parts

and _CO textures must not have alpha channel at all

[silver saffron]

If this model is uv mapped this way, i may try then to create two paa of the same texture, just one for the glass(ca) and one for the interiors(co)? Then obviously assign the right paa in obj builder to the right mesh parts.. only thing to pay attention in this case is to avoid the glass uv islands in the co paa to interfere with the ca counterpart. Can i just delete the pixels in the co regarding the glass islands without anything to worry?

[full quarry]

id recommend new uvmapping

you get better use of the texture space

[wooden lantern]

new OPTRE falcon textures and materials I made

pretty happy with my understanding of RVMats at this point and the conversion from substance painter to in game

[full quarry]

sweet

[atomic jolt]

currently working on this (this is for a retexture btw, so working with the files that i have). I don't seem to have an SMDI of the aircraft, however i do have a spec

looks grey instead of the classic pink SMDI image

could that cause the shiny ness?

for refrence: The aircraft, the texture and the spec/smdi image

[stray relic]

Potentially yes.
The _smdi for superShader should be:
Red: 1 (white)
Green: specular map
Blue: specular power map (black = matte, white = shiny)
As an experiment you can try replacing the stage 5 texture in the rvmat with this procedural;
texture = "#(argb,8,8,3)color(1,0,0.5,0,SMDI)";

[atomic jolt]

damn, thanks man! i'll check out the code solution first, if not i'll try to make an SMDI myself

also small side question to check if the RVMAT file is right, does it matter that the file paths end with .tga while the files themself are .paa files?

[wet nymph]

I personally always path to paa

[stray relic]

No you can use tga or paa, doesn't matter which.
But I prefer tga, and also use tga in the p3d, so you can see the texture in Object Builder.

[atomic jolt]

less shiny 🥳

[wet nymph]

Can bulldozer show the tex in tga?

And will the textures (co, nohq, smdi etc) appear in game if it's in tga?

[outer needle]

tga compiles (or is it compression?) to paa when binarizing, so yeah

[wet nymph]

interesting

But if I leave the path in my RVMAT to a .tga, you said it is converted to a PAA. How will the rvmat work if it can't find a .tga file in there?

Or does the rvmat also change its path automatically to .paa

[outer needle]

I want to believe there is some sort of fallback in that case but im not sure at all, I use TGA for OB only

[full quarry]

Buldozer autoconverts paa from tga if tga is used on path and it will load the paa.

This is good checking out updated textures too. Don't need to manually convert the paa

[full quarry]

Yes

[wet nymph]

Nice

I usually just start up bulldozer to preview textures in arma lighting, instead of doing it through the viewer

So personally I dont see the point of me using tga that much, since bulldozer shows the .paas in my p drive

[floral fiber]

i would imagine its easier to get an answer in reforger channels

[wet nymph]

Oh shit this is an A3 texture channel

Thought it was for general arma

mb

[crisp timber]

So I'm looking to texture an RHS uniform but I can't separate the layers from the camo, and the creases it's just one big layer, how would I go about separating them? I have read the RHS EULA and have no intention of re-texturing the files named in said EULA

[full quarry]

Well if there are no ready blank template it can be quite difficult to remove camo patterns like that

[crisp timber]

I'm sure if I spend enough time in gimp I can figure something out

[wet nymph]

It's REALLY hard to remove camo patterns

It works with simple camos with 3-4 colors, but not multicam for example

If you are allowed to, use the NOHQ and AS as overlays in gimp, then overlay your camo on a gray layer

[crisp timber]

I'm trying to retexture the m93 which I think there is a solid green variant so I may be able to desaturate it and do it that way

[wet nymph]

Yeah thats a better way to do it when there is a solid color version

You keep some of the details if the NOHQ/AS isnt enough

[crisp timber]

I can't find the nohq for it but I may need to do some file diving

[atomic jolt]

Anyone know if it's possible to disable the worldmap reflextion thing on glass windows?

it's creating hideous reflections making it hard to see through, and turning it to false or removing the file path to the texture don't do anything

[stray relic]

Increase the transparency on your _ca glass texture and / or reduce the specular power.

[atomic jolt]

my ca files are currently just procedural colors

i guess i could try to make ca glass files myself

[atomic jolt]

I reduced the specular power and made the _ca layer practically just an empty image and it still has the exact same strong reflection

i even made an enviroment map that is just clear and even then there was that same bright enviroment reflection

if it helps, the RVMAT is refrenced here in my base model

[hollow depot]

Hey can someone please tell me how to reference a different mod for a vest's model and attributes, i put a class in the conifg with the same name and put the pbo as a required addon, i know i'm doing something wrong but don't know what

it used to be cleaner but kinda started shoving shit in hoping it would work 😅

[lime thicket]

in your glass rvmat, search this line : specularPower=X;
X is your current specular power, lower it down until you get desired result

if you can't, just use the A3 glass textures and rvmats

[outer needle]

Hello fellas, I've been wondering, is the highlight/gloss in vanilla weapons managed by rvmat or is it partly baked into the CO?
Specifically speaking, some curvatures seem to be brighter independently from light position or light presence at all.

[full quarry]

Perhaps pictures of what you mean?

[outer needle]

sure, I can share later in the day since im @ work right now

[full quarry]

👍 Sm/smdi can control specular power in different pixels so maybe that is what you see

[outer needle]

this is what i mean

[outer needle]

its like a sunspot independent of light

[lethal condor]

If you wonder you can try to remove materials and see

Actually sometimes brighter part and darker part are baked into CO

[outer needle]

fromt eh vanilla weapons?

[lethal condor]

Yes

[outer needle]

yeah, thats what im assuming its being done in this case, Since i managed to get similar effect with darkness by baking multiple AO layers in my diffuse

[outer needle]

mind enlightening me on how 2 do so?

[lethal condor]

hiddenSelectionsMaterials

[outer needle]

ty

[full quarry]

also if you apply a solid color as hiddenselection texture you can see if that shading is still visible

if not then it is baked in the CO like Polpox says. Which is quite likely

[lethal condor]

Just thought of a diag command that shows CO, SMDI, NOHQ or such colormap without shader 🤔 it could be a niche command

[floral fiber]

its a baked lighting filter

[lethal condor]

Or shadow+AO, dunno

Dodmon pls implement

[full quarry]

its baked on the co

seems like MK20 has quite a lot of that

[outer needle]

yeah, was just looking at that

time to figure out how to get that luminance going on my end

[full quarry]

make greyscale luminance overlay from the plain one

[floral fiber]

its literally just baked lighting in substance painter

[full quarry]

making same thing for your own model then?

thought you talked about retexture

[outer needle]

Im still learning x) Cant master everything at once otherwise im going to go crazy

[floral fiber]

yeah just make sure you turn it down for arma

55% transp with sun turned off usually works best for me

[outer needle]

any tip to bake the normal into the CO from within substance?
Having to reimport the grayscale normal file is a bit too labarious when there is a lot of components

[floral fiber]

idk i usually just do that in rvmat

[lethal condor]

So I have retried/revisited my old idea (fig 1) and it worked better (fig 2) 😄

[wooden lantern]

pls

Try inverting values then going from there

Starting from white is easier than black

[lethal condor]

I'm not a dev

[lethal condor]

And I've already nailed it and satisfied enough

[wooden lantern]

true it feels like u r sometimes tbh

[wooden lantern]

understandable have a nice day

feeling pretty finalized on this

[wet nymph]

Good stuff

[lethal condor]

On-the-fly texture/material update

Dev-Branch's Diagnosis Exe can reload textures/materials everytime you Alt+Tab and focus back to the game. This is very handy feature to preview your texture and materials without renaming your files or relaunch the game (which normal exe requires).
To launch Diagnosis Exe, please refer to this post: #arma3_config message

1.Prepare config

Let's say you have a CfgVehicles item and you want to make a retexture of it. Put a local file in absolute path so game can recognize the file outside any PBOs.
Pseudo config:cpp class CfgVehicles { class yourVehicle { hiddenSelectionsTextures[] = { "P:\yourVehicle\yourVehicle_co.paa" }; hiddenSelectionsMaterials[] = { "P:\yourVehicle\yourVehicle.rvmat" }; }; };Arma 3 supports three file types: PAA, JPG and TGA. Of course in the final product you always should to use PAAs, but if you want to export your texture faster, you can use JPG to preview.
diag_mergeConfigFile is also a good debug command to apply config change without restart.

2.Check in-game

Once you apply the config and updated your texture/RVMAT, you now should be able to check the updated texture/RVMAT.
This can be a very useful method to making a retextured asset or such, and increase your workflow.
Note: don't update your textures/RVMATs while put the focus into Arma 3, as it can disable the write access to the files, so you have to Alt+Tab to leave focus

[full quarry]

Maybe put png as the fast test alternative as jpg will have quality heavily reduced and may look way worse than intended

[lethal condor]

Does png work?

I prefer to check in jpg because it is (nearly) always faster to export so preview

[ocean yarrow]

Question before I start diving way deeper into trying to figure this out:
Are PAA's only allowed to be 1:1 (64x64)? Or is it allowed to be 1:2 (64x128) or even 1:3 (64x192)?
Because I'm trying to get a 1:2 picture to work, but it just looses color. And I'm thinking that the format doesn't allow anything else other than 1:1 ratio.
I know they have to be 2^x, but the wiki states 2^x / 2^y which made me believe x and y can be different, but from what I'm experiencing this is not correct?

[trail sequoia]

X and Y can be different as long as they are powers of 2

[severe rune]

What is the resolution of your broken image? And what is the filename before you convert it to paa

[ocean yarrow]

it was 128x384... 384 is not a power of 2, I changed it to 128x512 and it works. Problem solved.

[stable swallow]

finally i found the perfect values for me to be satisfied with smdi, rvmat

[stray relic]

Well done, a very satisfying feeling.

[stable swallow]

indeed and thank you

[floral fiber]

rvmat tweaking is a never ending rabbit hole

[stable swallow]

Not really i have the perfect values found for me, i even noted the metallic roughness values for ensuring the same smdi throughout all my models

[floral fiber]

not all metal is created equal

[stable swallow]

I know. But i like to have consistency

[desert crypt]

does anyone know where i can find the NATO beret

i wish to make my own beret for my unit

[vernal sage]

In characters_f_epb.pbo (for the baseline texture that has a generic U.S. Army flash):
\a3\characters_f_epb\blufor\data\headgear_beret02_co.paa

In characters_f_epc.pbo (for the two unique versions that have a flash of the 111th Infantry Division's emblem with or without the eagle badge):
\a3\characters_f_epc\blufor\data\headgear_beret02_colonel_co.paa
\a3\characters_f_epc\blufor\data\headgear_beret02_colonel_eagle_co.paa

In characters_f_exp.pbo (Used by the Gendarmerie beret which is basically a carbon copy of the NATO beret but with slight material/texture changes; it's free to use even though its base model's located in Apex's files):
\a3\characters_f_exp\headgear\data\h_beret_gen_f_co.paa

In characters_f_enoch.pbo (Used by the LDF's beret which is also a copy of the NATO beret but with its custom materials/texture; be aware that it uses the Contact expansion as a requirement since it has a custom model in the expansion's files):
\a3\characters_f_enoch\headgear\data\h_beret_eaf_01_co.paa
\a3\characters_f_enoch\headgear\data\h_beret_eaf_01_ca.paa <-- note that this one is an unused texture that has an alpha channel

Oh, and one last one in characters_f_oldman.pbo which is a bit of an odd one out because it's technically an Apex asset but is actually free to use (you don't need Apex even though it has a custom model):
\a3\characters_f_oldman\headgear\data\h_beret_csat_01_co.paa

[tropic crater]

@young owl what did you do to make your cut outs for class selection (player skin models) on koth? or did you just cut them out in photoshop in post?

[young owl]

Yeah, I just make a screenshot and resized in photoshop

[brazen oriole]

Anyone know where to find the _TI thermal layer for the Contact Modular Vest?

assumed it would be in characters_f_contact but no joy

Found it

characters_f_enoch

nvm I found the asset but there is no thermal layer. I obviously have no idea what I am doing, expect to see me back in here in a few days once I've figured out what I don't know lol

[full quarry]

What is it you try to do?

[brazen oriole]

I want to make the modular vests have a really dim thermal signature, like the CTRG stealth uniforms do.

at the minute they glow like a candle

would be even cooler if I could make them heat up around the ballistic plates but starting simple to begin with

[brazen oriole]

Don't suppose you know how to work with thermal layers do you?

I've done plenty of retexturing, I've just never worked with the thermal layer before

[full quarry]

I recall there should be wiki page that describes what the different color channels in it do

[brazen oriole]

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

Yeah I spotted it, I'm just not quite sure how to make it work

Normally I would start from what already exists and then reverse engineer it to figure out how it works

but I can't actually find any ti_ca textures for the vests and uniforms I'm trying to do

[full quarry]

if its existing item you retextture, you dont really need to do anything to it usually

unless you want to reduce or increase heating

[brazen oriole]

Yeah so normally it's very hot in thermal imaging

and I want to make it appear colder

But I can't even find the thermal layer for the stealth uniform

and that's what I wanted to compare it against

[full quarry]

since alpha controls the body heat you would make the alpha channel darker/closer to black

[brazen oriole]

that makes sense, but where is the original ti_ca texture that I'm trying to change the alpha channel on?

or is there just not one?

[full quarry]

it would read in the original Rvmat

[brazen oriole]

class StageTI
{
    texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(0,0,0,0)";
};
ambient[]={1,1,1,1};
diffuse[]={1,1,1,1};
forcedDiffuse[]={0,0,0,0};
emmisive[]={0,0,0,1};
specular[]={1,1,1,1};
specularPower=150;
PixelShaderID="Super";
VertexShaderID="Super";
class Stage1
{
    texture="a3\characters_f_exp\blufor\data\u_b_ctrg_soldier_f_nohq.paa";
    uvSource="tex";
    class uvTransform
    {
        aside[]={1,0,0};
        up[]={0,1,0};
        dir[]={0,0,0};
        pos[]={0,0,0};
    };
};
class Stage2
{
    texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(0.5,0.5,0.5,1,DT)";
    uvSource="tex";
    class uvTransform
    {
        aside[]={1,0,0};
        up[]={0,1,0};
        dir[]={0,0,0};
        pos[]={0,0,0};
    };
};
class Stage3
{
    texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(0,0,0,0,MC)";
    uvSource="tex";
    class uvTransform
    {
        aside[]={1,0,0};
        up[]={0,1,0};
        dir[]={0,0,0};
        pos[]={0,0,0};
    };
};
class Stage4
{
    texture="a3\characters_f_exp\blufor\data\u_b_ctrg_soldier_f_as.paa";
    uvSource="tex";
    class uvTransform
    {
        aside[]={1,0,0};
        up[]={0,1,0};
        dir[]={0,0,0};
        pos[]={0,0,0};
    };
};
class Stage5
{
    texture="a3\characters_f_exp\blufor\data\u_b_ctrg_soldier_f_smdi.paa";
    uvSource="tex";
    class uvTransform
    {
        aside[]={1,0,0};
        up[]={0,1,0};
        dir[]={0,0,0};
        pos[]={0,0,0};
    };
};
class Stage6
{
    texture="#(ai,64,64,1)fresnel(1,0.7)";
    uvSource="none";
};
class Stage7
{
    texture="a3\data_f\env_co.paa";
    useWorldEnvMap="true";
    uvSource="tex";
    class uvTransform
    {
        aside[]={1,0,0};
        up[]={0,1,0};
        dir[]={0,0,0};
        pos[]={0,0,0};
    };
};

Still can't see a ti_ca texture

class StageTI
{
    texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(0,0,0,0)";
};

Is it this bit?

have they just set the thermal texture to be a solid, unchanging grey all over?

[full quarry]

yes looks like it

that is where it would be defined

also its all black

[heavy edge]

Hello, i need help with texture or more thing. I made new model and simply texture. In Bulldozer is texture loaded but not in arma.

rvmat:

ambient[]={1,1,1,1};
diffuse[]={1,1,1,1};
forcedDiffuse[]={0,0,0,0};
emmisive[]={8.4646047e-007,8.4646047e-007,8.4646047e-007,0};
specular[]={0.47799945,0.47799945,0.47799939,1};
specularPower=130;
PixelShaderID="Super";
VertexShaderID="Super";

class Stage1
{
texture="Test_Tank_01\data\tank_nohq.paa";
uvSource="tex";

};
class Stage2
{
texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(0.5,0.5,0.5,1,DT)";
uvSource="tex";
};

class Stage3
{
texture="Test_Tank_01\data\tank_mc.paa";
uvSource="tex1";

};

class Stage4
{
texture="Test_Tank_01\data\tank_as.paa";
uvSource="tex";
};

class Stage5
{
texture="Test_Tank_01\data\tank_smdi.paa";
uvSource="tex";
};
class Stage6
{
texture="#(ai,32,128,1)fresnel(4.47,1.16)";
uvSource="tex";
};

class Stage7
{
texture="a3\data_f\env_land_co.paa";
uvSource="tex";
};

[heavy edge]

@full quarry PLS

[full quarry]

I check the channel pretty often, no need to tag me for attention unless its to reply to something

😛

texture not showing up in game means the path is not right

[heavy edge]

ok and where can by bad this path for texture or what kind file?

[full quarry]

you assign texture on the p3d

[heavy edge]

in config ?

[full quarry]

in the model

[heavy edge]

here?

[full quarry]

yes

the path that gets written on the model does not match what the path is in the pbo so it cant find the texture

[heavy edge]

Ok thanks.

[full quarry]

you may need to work on the uvmapping a bit there. 😅

[wet nymph]

💀

[ashen violet]

Is it possible to retexture trees ? Just in terms of removing the leaves to create a dead tree look

[lethal condor]

Usually no

[full quarry]

No is correct.

Also they don't look good like that

[lethal condor]

Theoretically, it actually is possible, if you create a CfgVehicles class and do a magic

[full quarry]

I don't think they have sections defined that could be used for hiddenselections. Only way would be make a mod to overwrite vanilla texture folders, but that would replace all of them on all maps and not make a variant.
And it would not look great since the leaf planes are not that accurately positioned that the branchings would connect right.

So ok yes technically possible, but practically not really in way it's useful

[lethal condor]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3004547615
I used some kind of magic there, actually

[torpid lance]

Trying to export a texture with a transparent texture from photoshop as a TGA file. However, when ever I export the image as a TGA it fills the part of the background that are supposed to be transparent as white. How do I get rid of the white?

[neat cape]

Try save it as .png

[full quarry]

youll have to check photoshop manual for how to save transparent stuff

apparently its not very straightforward

[torpid lance]

Saved as png, but when in bulldozer or in game the road textures have a white outline so Ice reccomended it be exported as tga.

I just might have to do that. I had made an alpha for it, but it must not be applying or exporting when I save as TGA.

Nvm i figured it out, you have to export the tga as 32bit.

[stable swallow]

And call the texture _ca.paa

[floral fiber]

was reading through rvmat basics on biki; what on earth is a detail map?

similarly, is there any way to make the rvmat rely more heavily on the smdi for specularity? atm it doesnt seem to be doing much

[junior berry]

Do you guys know why my A3 Unit Emblem is not coming out correctly

When I save as PNG from Photoshop Cs6, it leaves these weird artifacts around the logo

[lethal condor]

What artifacts

[junior berry]

example

see how this looks perfect? (no idea how I did it)

awww wont let me post photos

https://units.arma3.com/unit/shadowdefense

here notice the unit logo has these weird white artifacts around it

[junior berry]

Did you see it?

[lethal condor]

No...?

[junior berry]

https://units.arma3.com/unit/shadowdefense If you click on the units page for arma nad look at the unit logo, you can see the artifact outline (its white) on the Unit Logo.

[lethal condor]

Do you mean this

[junior berry]

Yes.

[lethal condor]

It is because your alpha has actual color and it's white so very visible

[junior berry]

Im using Photoshop CS6, when I add the item layer, I remove the background and SAVE AS .png

Oh so it is the alpha

[lethal condor]

400x400 is not a resolution you can use in Arma anyways

[junior berry]

its 512 x 512

[lethal condor]

Okay, the resolution is Units' faulty then

[junior berry]

So perhaps I do need to mess with the Alpha, any idea how to do that in Photoshop CS6?

Do I just make it transparent or?

[lethal condor]

No I'm not a Photoshop user

[junior berry]

Ah okay. What do you use? GIMP?

[lethal condor]

Yes GIMP

[junior berry]

Perhaps I can give that a try.

[lethal condor]

Basically what you just need to do is, create fully opaque texture with black background, and transfer alpha

[junior berry]

Is there a easy way to do this? I honestly barely know how to use GIMP

[lethal condor]

Just use Photoshop?

[junior berry]

I would but honestly I have no idea how to edit the Alpha Channel Layer, When I go to the layers tab I got RGB and then the individual R, G, B, channels. nothing that says transpraency

[lethal condor]

I really don't know how Photoshop works, but there plenty is a lot of guides how to, because this is actually a generic/simple question

[junior berry]

So it seems, any idea where I could look, i tried googling it and have had no luck 😦

[junior berry]

What exactly am I looking for? How to remove the Transpraency Alpha or? (I don't really even know what that is)

[lethal condor]

https://superuser.com/questions/173194/converting-grayscale-shades-into-alpha-channel
This maybe

[junior berry]

dang I followed instructions for gimp and no luck

Oh god finally i did it in photoshop

[junior berry]

ughhh now i forgot how i did it

[junior berry]

So apparently all it took was a black 2nd layer in photoshop at 1% Opacity. -_-

[gleaming quiver]

is there any way to access the texture files of the new cdlc's helicopter? or can that just flat out not be retextured until they update the game files with the actual .pbos

[lethal condor]

Some source PAAs are distributed in Rotators' server already

[gleaming quiver]

oh?

how could I find that

[lethal condor]

Pinned in #reaction_forces and its server's #901057622617247744 message

[clever breach]

so im trying to add a custom flag into the game i have arma 3 tools but i have no idea what i should put as the destination directory im very new to this

[fickle yacht]

how does one make a p3d file? I basically need to convert a .paa into a .p3d for particles

[vernal fractal]

p3d is the 3d object.

[severe rune]

particle p3d's are special

usually you just use billboard and put a different texture on it, why do you need a new model

[void wing]

how would I reference mods? this keeps erroring, im trying to retexture a uniform

[lethal condor]

The file path does not work like that. You need to specify in the path PBO/game recognizes. You don't need to re-declare model path anyways if just a retex

[severe rune]

Look in config viewer. And copy the path from the existing class

[fickle yacht]

i try to make the ingame snowflakes into particles,
i tried direct path to the gamefile paa,
seperate png and as repacked the png back into a paa, but it complains and outright CTD, complaining about that file having LOD or sth, didnt wrote down the exact wording.
I looked at universal and they are p3d's, im simply trying to copy what works and is established. Im happy to hear alternatives

how could i edit the a copy of the existing universal billboard?

[lethal condor]

1. Open Object Builder
2. Click Front button (one of red/green one)
3. Create > Plane > Ok
4. Press E, apply texture and material there
5. Save as a P3D
6. Use it

[fickle yacht]

highly apprechiated!

[full quarry]

Should be possible to use the snowflake texture on the universal particle P3d too I think.

[void wing]

what would be a good way to make the icons for items (the icons next to the names in arsenal)

[harsh inlet]

Anyone have some RHS retexture templates

I remember there being some google drive with a bunch of them but I cant find it

[hallow jay]

I use Gimp

[sleek temple]

Gentlemens, please send \a3\structures_f_enoch\data\env_land_co.paa to me in a private message. somehow the texture disappeared....

[lethal condor]

Why? Just reexport

[sleek temple]

reexport just for one tex?)

[lethal condor]

Yes, what else?

[near warren]

Is it acceptable to take an Arma texture, then change it's transparency and save as new file?
I want footstep texture, but slightly less noticeable x3

[iron thunder]

No. But you can ask in #other_ip_topics

[copper helm]

Does anyone do commissions for custom face textures? I want one made and am not very good at it.

[full quarry]

#creators_recruiting is the place to post such

[small needle]

when arma 4 comes out, will we be able to translate our arma 3 mods? does anyone know?

[full quarry]

not directly

some source data might be reusable

[late patrol]

Hello. Anyone can tell me if is legal to re texture a uniform of, lets say, RHS or 3cB factions and upload it as a mod? Just the texture, and as a dependency of their mods. I want to retexture some gorka uniforms and some vehicles.
I have seen other do it, but I want to be sure.

Its imposible to contact both mods creators.

Thanks

[full quarry]

if their license allows it, yes

[late patrol]

and do you know if RHS or 3cb does? I am not a lawyer.

RHS page has been down for ages now..

[full quarry]

RHS had few things that cant be retextured as far as I can remember, what those were, I dont remember

the license comes with the mods too

and I think is visible on the steam workshop page too

3CB I dont know

[late patrol]

Both say "Reuploads of any content (in part or full) on steam workshop is prohibited" but it wont be a reupload, it would be just a modify texture.

No other info is provided.

[full quarry]

right yeah looks like their info on their website is not available at the moment.

@frozen blade you dont have RHS license at hand do you? what part was the thing that cant be retextured?

[late patrol]

https://3cbmod.wordpress.com/released-mods/license-and-disclaimer/

This is the 3cb one, but again, I am not a lawyer

[frozen blade]

for some reason the website is down…and i am on mobile

[stray relic]

"impossible to contact mod author"

• you only asked on the 3CB discord a matter of 1 hour ago. Try having some patience and wait for an answer.

[late patrol]

Sorry, I found out your discord after I posted that.

Some of us are not very good at social network and english is not my main lenguage

Not bad intention or otheriwse

[stray relic]

No problem then - someone from 3CB should reply to you within a day or so I would expect.
In general retextures of mods, especially when they provide hiddenSelections for the purpose are encouraged or perhaps tolerated, although there are exceptions which should be stipulated in licenses. However, you're doing the right thing to ask.

[late patrol]

Thank you, and sorry for the misunderstanding

[frozen blade]

RHS does tolerate retextures despite our ND clause

[late patrol]

Thank you!

[frozen blade]

https://www.rhsmods.org/page/EULA + @late patrol

RHS ACU - base class name: rhsusf_army_acu_uniform
RHS ABU - base class name: rhsusf_airforce_abu_uniform
RHS BDU - base class name: rhsusf_army_bdu_erdl_uniform
RHS Boonie - base class name: rhs_booniehat_camo & rhssaf_booniehat_camo
RHS 8point - base class name: rhs_8point_camo
RHS Covered M1 - base class name: rhsgref_helmet_M1_mit .
Notes
exceptions include, where available, insignia, identity and rank HiddenSelections```

[late patrol]

Thank you! Very kind of you.

[fleet dune]

Hey, could anyone help me with making custom helmets or is that a different channel?

[wide turret]

Making a custom faction with RHS. Need to retexture their cdf/russian uniforms vests helmets and vehichles. Whats the best way to go ab that?

[tropic crater]

If i want to make 50 different versions of an image that I want to load up in my UI sort of like a progress bar with a custom image background, is there a way to condense the image from 50 images to something smaller? like image state or something like that?

[tropic crater]

nvm, this dude explained EVERYTHING so well lol:

#548246314383835146 message

[fleet dune]

Can anyone guide me with retexturing some stuff?

[tropic crater]

https://dontasktoask.com/

give something specific

[fleet dune]

I want to retexture some stuff like helmets, vests and uniforms. From either CUP or RHS if thats even possible for me to do legally?

[tropic crater]

yes its legal and you'll want to make your mod into something that uses CUP/RHS as a dependency on the workshop.

1.) go to files and grab the .paa file for the model you want that ends in _co
2.) open in tex2view and save as a .png
3.) open in image editor like photoshop/gimp
4.) do work
5.) save as png
6.) convert back to .paa using text2view
7.) make your mod

[fleet dune]

When you say use something that uses it as a dependency do you mean the actual like uniform mod by one of them or like the mod I make?

[tropic crater]

when you go to make your mod, you still need the base models from CUP/RHS which you will use in your config, causing a dependency on having CUP/RHS loaded

[fleet dune]

Im like brand new to this stuff so I have like 0 clue about any of it personally im just going off what you say and im trying to find certain files etc

But have 0 luck

[tropic crater]

find the classname of the item you want to modify first, and look it up in the config to find the file path

[fleet dune]

so like find the file of this item?

CUP_B_RUS_Raid_bag_Winter

[tropic crater]

so now you look up in the config viewer the path to the .paa file:

there are 4 of them for this config

[fleet dune]

Config viewer is that smthn I gotta download?

[tropic crater]

no, but ADT makes it easier to view

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2369477168

[fleet dune]

So I have a helmet

["\CUP\Creatures\People\Military\CUP_Creatures_People_Military_Extra\opscore\data\CUP_ops_core_black_co.paa","\CUP\Creatures\People\Military\CUP_Creatures_People_Military_Extra\opscore\data\CUP_ops_core_part_1_tan_co.paa","\CUP\Creatures\People\Military\CUP_Creatures_People_Military_Extra\opscore\data\CUP_ops_core_parts_2_co.paa",""]

What do I do with these lines?

[tropic crater]

find them in the addon files and use those files to make them png, then you can edit them in photoshop

[fleet dune]

How do I search for this?

[tropic crater]

open up the game's folder and look in the !Workshop folder (you will have to show hidden folders)

[fleet dune]

I dont see the workshop folder if you mean it would be in the Arma 3 folder?

[tropic crater]

its in there

[fleet dune]

Oh its hidden

how do I unhide it?

[tropic crater]

non arma, basic computer knowledge can be googled:

[fleet dune]

I've only found a .pbo file

?

[tropic crater]

they are inside the pbo files

[fleet dune]

so extract?

[tropic crater]

using your preferred pbo extractor

[fleet dune]

Then get the _co.paa file?

And how are you able to tell what parts of the helmet is which?

[tropic crater]

the fun part. you dont lol. you just have to keep messing with it

[late patrol]

Hello

I am trying to retexture a Gorka uniform and I am haveing this issue:

I cant remove it and its depends on the sun hitting the texture

Any clue on how to fix it? Thanks and sorry for bad english

[livid knot]

Its likely apart of the rvmat, take a look and see if there is a specular map

[late patrol]

yea, but how can I edit rvmat? I am doing a retexture, not re moding

[livid knot]

You can set the rvmat through the config as well. Look up how to make an rvmat, you could also copy the existing one. Its just a text file

[shell bone]

Hey, so I'm trying to reskin a uniform and helmet with the same camo pattern. Any recommendations on how to get them to match brightness or is it just trial and error?

[full quarry]

trial and error

though live updating game files for testing can be useful

you can look up filepatching on the wiki

and I think we have some examples for that in one of the _maker channels pinned messages

[lethal condor]

I pinned it here

[late patrol]

is there anyguide or help? I try to remake the rvmat with config, but tha game just ignore it

[full quarry]

no, not really. usually retexturing does not need the rvmat to be changed

in your case you would probably copy the existing rvmat and change values in it to disable that

most likely it has green specular effects to mimic the shinyness of the orginal material

[late patrol]

I did, but game just ignores it sadly

[full quarry]

then you did something wrong

or didnt change right things

[late patrol]

Yea, I am sure of that.. is there any example of a retexture with rvmat?

[full quarry]

no

but like

its just rvmat file

and the hiddenselectionsmaterials[] = config parameter

[late patrol]

But where do I place it and how do I call it in the config file?

[full quarry]

you put the file where you put your texture

and path it there

as in normal retexture mod is basically new texture files + config file

so your retexture mod would be new texture files + new rvmat files + config file

[late patrol]

hiddenSelections[]=
{
"Camo1"
};
hiddenSelectionsTextures[]=
{
"CTU_Uniforme_Malvinas\data\CTU_gorka1_co.paa",
"CTU_Uniforme_Malvinas\data\CTU_gorka1_co.rvmat"
};

Something like this?

[lethal condor]

hiddenSelectionsMaterials[]

[late patrol]

Hooo..

https://tenor.com/view/the-universe-tim-and-eric-mind-blown-mind-blown-meme-mind-explosion-mind-explosion-meme-gif-18002878

[late patrol]

Ok, now the addon builder tool is completing ignoring my rvmat file and is not place in it the PBO? Any clues for this? Thanks in advance

Ok, I fix it

Thank you all!

[full quarry]

👍

[shell bone]

Gotcha, gotcha, thanks gang.

[wide turret]

Anyone got a template for RHS russian uniform retextures?

[outer needle]

ask RHS team (most likely Pufu?). Afaik, there is no templates + there is some restriction to certain assets

[frozen blade]

there are no templates released by RHS, not sure if anyone did any

[frozen blade]

restrictions = https://www.rhsmods.org/page/eula#list-of-files-we-do-not-allow-3rd-party-re-textures:

[wide turret]

Thanks!

[olive gale]

Hello in which pbo is the pilot helmet

[vagrant jetty]

Does anyone know how to find the hiddenSelections for p3d files? Trying to retexture a vest and I'm having trouble with the hiddenSelections, and I don't know how to find them in the p3d file (I don't know how to open them either.

[full quarry]

check its original config

the config will tell if it has them

if the config dont have them then most likely the model dont have either

[vagrant jetty]

I did, while it has the three textures it doesn't have a hiddenSelection for it

Most likely cause it's calling it from another config

Also the textures for the part I want to retexture were in the file, and were being called for the vest

[full quarry]

Look at its class in game config viewer

it shows all the final parameters it has

[vagrant jetty]

I tried that and I couldn't find where it was located

[full quarry]

or use the original class as parent for your new vest and inherit all the correct hiddenselection parameters

like a boss

[vagrant jetty]

I'll try that real quick

[vagrant jetty]

Tried that, didn't work

For some reason the vest I'm trying to retextuure doesn't have anything in the hiddenSelection thing

Yet somehow it's using all three hiddenSelectionTextures listed in the config

[full quarry]

All models have default textures applied on the model

if it dont have hiddenselections selections defined then it dont have any

if its from a mod you can report to the mod maker to fix it

or find something else to use

it does not sound like its retextureable

[vagrant jetty]

Dang...

Its weird though cause I can change the base camo of it, but not the extra bits on top of it

[full quarry]

in game config viewer would show if it has hiddenselections defined

[vagrant jetty]

But like, it's getting a texture from somewhere. I don't know how or where

Is it just somehow baked into the p3d?

[warped moat]

afaik, the texture itself can't be baked into the p3d, but the selections and the path to a default texture can be.
here's the example helicopter from A3 Samples. you can see the default textures in the top-left, and the selections in the bottom-right.
so, it's taking the texture from somewhere else, applying it by default, but hiddenSelectionsTextures can overwrite it. that's why you don't need a separate model for each texture

if you're lucky enough to have access to the unbinarized model or the model.cfg, you can simply look in there to find the selections.
speaking of the model.cfg, iirc that's merged with the p3d when binarizing it so unfortunately that's not something you can usually find in a mod's files.

if you have neither of those, you can look through the mod's config and see which selections they used. unfortunately, that means you can't use anything that they didn't.

[vagrant jetty]

Is there a way I can find the model.cfg in the config viewer?

[warped moat]

since it's merged with the p3d when binarized, I doubt it.

a lot of mods will use "generic" selection names (i.e camo, camo1, camo2, camo3, from largest selection to smallest selection), you can also try to guess those.

[vagrant jetty]

Alrighty

Thanks for the help

[lethal condor]

_obj = createSimpleObject ["\A3\Characters_F\BLUFOR\equip_b_vest02",[0,0,0]];
selectionNames _obj;```One way to check available possible selections

[vagrant jetty]

Is this a code I need to execute in the debug console?

[lethal condor]

Yes

[vagrant jetty]

I got all the positions now, just gotta do trial and error

[calm tangle]

How can i remove the water effect in a submarine ? This page talks about anti-water rvmat, where can i find it and how can i apply it so plyers on't see water effect ? https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3:_Ships_Config_Guidelines

[lethal condor]

Should be a config work, not texture, model or RVMAT

[calm tangle]

Ok, thank you

[late patrol]

Hello, maybe anyone can help me

I am retexturing a uniform, and each time I use hidenselectionmaterials, I end up with this shadow bug:

even useing the original .rvmat file

hiddenSelections[]=
{
"Camo1"
};
hiddenSelectionsTextures[]=
{
"Uniforme_Malvinas\data\NAS_gorka1_co.paa",
};
hiddenSelectionsMaterials[]=
{
"Uniforme_Malvinas\data\NAS_gorka1.rvmat",
};

Any help is more than welcome

[lethal condor]

Engine issue. Not your fault

[floral fiber]

usually problem with model

[frozen blade]

the issue is 100% in regards to the SVLod not being triangulated and/or closed

[full quarry]

Or the svlod contains hiddenselections camo selection

[late patrol]

So, no posible to fix?

[frozen blade]

no way to fix it unless you have access to the .p3d, i assume you don't

[frozen blade]

so then is a 50-50 :))

[late patrol]

No, I dont have access to the p3d. Thanks anyway. Very kind

[full quarry]

you can report to the mod maker if they can take a look and fix it

[late patrol]

Nha, is ok, they have been too kind to allow me to retexture, I dont want to bother them. Thanks anyway, I will try to modify the Gorka1

[full quarry]

it is a bug though so they might want to fix it

[late patrol]

Good point, I will, thanks

[stable swallow]

Hello is someone experienced with opacity textures and to make them work in arma 3. I have a model of a Bren805 and the magazine should be transparent, the 3d artist made an opacity texture for it ?

[full quarry]

transparency/opacity is defined by the alpha channel of the texture

textures with transparency are saved with _CA suffix before converting to .paa

[stable swallow]

that i know but i mean more the merging of the opacity into the base color

[full quarry]

Arma does not have that kind of thing

you would probably do that in image editor of your choice

[stable swallow]

just the opacity texture in an alpha channel ?

[full quarry]

sounds about right. dont exactly know what you have there

probably right way

[stable swallow]

kind of worked

thank you

[full quarry]

id recommend making sure you get right kind of files straight from the artist

but also if they work in say PBR that wont really ever work straight in Arma

[stable swallow]

any idea ?

[full quarry]

no alpha sorting most likely

[stable swallow]

i tried faces move to top already

[full quarry]

that typically is the solution for these issues

[stable swallow]

i know

[full quarry]

as per #rules no crossposting

[simple monolith]

Ah my bad

[stable swallow]

Btw i fixed it

[full quarry]

what was the fix?

[stable swallow]

i messed something in blender up so the mag was duplicated, then i had to assign the texture with 2 suffix one as _ca for the transparent part and one _co for the solid parts

and of course face on top

[full quarry]

Oh yeah duplicate makes sense.

but would not have guessed that to be the thing

👍

[stable swallow]

the result

[safe pendant]

Hi guys, scripter trying some texture editing here, having issues understanding .rvmat files

when I open the default A3 .rvmat files they look like this for me in notepad++:

 raP       *    StageTI V
  ambient 
  €?
  €?
  €?
  €?diffuse 
  €?
  €?
  €?
  €?forcedDiffuse 
    
    
    
    emmisive

instead of ```sqf
ambient = {1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000};
diffuse = {1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000, 1.000000};
forcedDiffuse = {0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000};
emmisive = {0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
specular = {0.300000, 0.300000, 0.300000, 1.000000};
specularPower = 80;
PixelShaderID = "Super";
VertexShaderID = "Super";

class Stage1 {
texture = "WaterTank\data\water_tank_01_NOHQ.paa";
uvSource = "tex";
class uvTransform {
aside = {1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
up = {0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000};
dir = {0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
pos = {0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
};
};
class Stage2 {
texture = "#(argb,8,8,3)color(0.5,0.5,0.5,1,dt)";
uvSource = "tex";
class uvTransform {
aside = { 1, 1, 0 };
up = { 0, 1, 0 };
dir = { 0, 0, 0 };
pos = { 0, 0, 0 };
};
};
class Stage3 {
texture = "#(argb,8,8,3)color(0,0,0,0,mc)";
uvSource = "tex";
class uvTransform {
aside = { 1, 0, 0 };
up = { 0, 1, 0 };
dir = { 0, 0, 0 };
pos = { 0, 0, 0 };
};
};
class Stage4 {
texture = "WaterTank\data\water_tank_01_AS.paa";
uvSource = "tex1";
class uvTransform {
aside = {1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
up = {0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000};
dir = {0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
pos = {0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000};
};
};```

what I am doing wrong? Are the A3's default .rvmat files binarized? Should I use something else rather than notepad ++ ?

[outer needle]

yes they are

just unbinarize them, I dont remember the process for that, but the tools have an addon for that

[safe pendant]

I can't find it either 😦

[full quarry]

mikeros toolset does that pretty much automatically if you happen to use that

@safe pendant

[outer needle]

unbin or something like that

[stable swallow]

cfgConvert or something like that

[safe pendant]

Thanks! Even the free tools?

[safe pendant]

Sadly "unbin" doesn't exist on the BI A3 tools folder

[safe pendant]

"Error, unexpected beginning = instead of x"

[stable swallow]

huh ?

[full quarry]

yes

[safe pendant]

Eliteness did the trick! Thanks!

[vernal sage]

CfgConvert supports this by default. You can just drag the .rvmat onto BINToCPP.bat. Just make sure you have file extensions displayed in Windows Explorer so that you can change the .cpp back into .rvmat.

If you need batch conversion, just use CfgConvert's GUI to specify your folder(s).

[olive gale]

does anyone know in which pbo the Pilot helmet is in?

H_PilotHelmetFighter_B

this one

[lethal condor]

Check in config viewer then

[olive gale]

found it thanks

[lyric temple]

who have intrest in retexture any item in arma 3 arma reforger

[full quarry]

you have and luckily you can also do it with little practice

[knotty marsh]

(and please don't crosspost; I deleted from #reforger_discussion)

[deft bolt]

Any particular reason why my object is vaguely see through?https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1235249304071962705/1235249305246498826/image.png?ex=6633af10&is=66325d90&hm=5e49ee6a98d8ead6bb88cdf196bd4066d2ec0d6b6fa7d57632b172e9a05b508c&

Not sure if this is a texture/model/rvmat issue so hopefully in the right spot

[full quarry]

you have either mixed transparent parts and solid parts together and have alpha channel on solid part texture = no no

or you just have solid texture with alpha channel saved (possibly baked texture with transparent background) = no no

[deft bolt]

👍

[spare nexus]

How can I fix the UV mapping on safety pin?

[full quarry]

could be you have inverted faces there

looks more like that

you will want to fix that in the source

and make sure you have backface culling enabled so you can see what faces point to wrong direction

[spare nexus]

thank you it helped!

[safe haven]

I am trying to recolor the Jay dude head, but my new texture is only applying to the eyes. I have edited the rvmat to use the new texture, still no joy.
my mod cfg entry goes like this

class jay2: jay
{
displayname="Guarani Jay";
texture="\GuaraniNam\data\guarani_jay_co.paa";
material="\GuaraniNam\data\guaranijaymats.rvmat";
};

I have no warning error, but the head texture still remains the original one, except for the eyes, whereas I have a whole new face I wish to slap on the model.

[full quarry]

the dev heads may not be set up for texture swapping

might be you cant do it

[outer needle]

there is surprisingly a lot of vanilla objects that have this issue, like poles and fences, its super-notable on concrete more than any other material used by the game rvmats itself.

Any input to avoid that would be nice, if you dont mind :p

[full quarry]

problem is caused by massive amount of alpha surface on the model which flags the object to be rendered with alpha pass.

first thing is to always split transparency required textures into their own _CA textures, and own materials so they are separately sectioned
Then the solid part _CO textures should not have alpha channel at all.
Sometimes models like the grated fences have just more alpha surface though and it may not be avoided.
There is a named property, forceNotAlpha which can sometimes help, but it can also cause different kind of artifacts
And in some cases the alpha surfaces can be separated into their own proxy and loaded into the main model separately. It can sometimes work well

though excessive use of proxies should also be avoided

and distance lods might require combined mesh (often at distance you either dont even need the transparent texture or the artifacts are not really visible. win-win)

[outer needle]

thats good advice

is something like this mentioned in the wiki somewhere?
If not, it could be useful for creators 👀

[full quarry]

nope

just stuff I've picked up along the years

validity is quite certain, but I do retain right to be wrong

🤣

[outer needle]

I swear im going to end up making a "tips Anthology by Goat" document for stuff that we have asked about haha

[severe oasis]

Hi I ve seen recommendations regarding giving a building different materials using a material map with 4 colors (R G B and Black or smth) but can I do like the same but manually?

[safe pendant]

Anyone knows what makes a uniform retexture require a particular DLC? It is when using the model? The _generalMacro? The Texture?

I am asking because I am retexturing Nikos Aged but want to use the Formal Scientists Suit from Contact as a general macro but don't want the new uniform to require the DLC....

[lethal condor]

_generalMacro does nothing. It is their internal debug parameter. The DLC dependency is only happened on particular P3Ds. It's not about texture

[vernal sage]

Pretty sure the Formal and Informal Scientist outfits don't require DLC ownership. They're "free" models since they exist in characters_f.pbo (\a3\characters_f\civil) rather than characters_f_enoch.pbo.

[safe pendant]

Indeed, you are right! sqf model = "\A3\Characters_F\Common\Suitpacks\suitpack_civilian_F.p3d";

[safe pendant]

Great! Thanks 😉

[floral fiber]

use polpoxs mod to see if it requires a dlc or not

the icons just mean it was added with that dlc

(its really annoying)

[crystal anvil]

How do people make textures for models of other mods? (For example, reskinned RHS vehicles for a new faction). More specifically, I'm interested how one would obtain the model files for those vehicles

[full quarry]

retexturing is not done with models

thats how original textures are done sure

but retexturing is just made by painting a new one by usine old one as reference

no model involved

[crystal anvil]

I know there's a 2D texture file but I was thinking it'd be easier to paint directly on the model

[full quarry]

no

thats not possible

wrong resolution, not correct _ca suffix, not converted to paa

also wheres that vest from?

[faint wigeon]

Its someone's custom vest thats just getting me to retexture the patch, why?

[faint wigeon]

And also With the netting that i was doing it wasn't the opacity map it was the texture its self that had to be transparent

[full quarry]

opacity map is not a thing in arma 3

[faint wigeon]

That aint what you told me last time, So i had to figure it out, so i was letting you know that i did end up doing the netting and for anyone else whos trying to do netting/scrim just let me know If you need help

[full quarry]

i am fairly sure I have never said opacity map is a thing. texture transparency is done through texture/images alpha channel

[full quarry]

as you can see I have told you texture needs alpha channel

[faint wigeon]

Yeah but you didn't say that Opacity doesn't exist so that led me to believe that its a thing in arma

[full quarry]

Well you cant blame me for that. Im not here to hold everyones hand on everything

but good for you on figuring it out

thats the way to do it

[faint wigeon]

I Wasn't blaming you i was just letting you know that the information wasn't very helpful

But cheers

[floral fiber]

flb, ripped content mod

[severe oasis]

Hi has anyone made a compilation of different settings of specular, specularpower and fresnel for different types of materials ? (Wood, aluminium, cloth, etc)

[full quarry]

of course..

[full quarry]

no but you can compare to vanilla rvmats and see what they have

[sterile frigate]

Can anyone here tell me what color it is or what to do in photoshop so that part of an image becomes transparent, when I convert it to TGA > PAA, because when I use the layer mask to have transparency and transform the image into PAA, In the game it is white and not transparent.

[lethal condor]

What about PNG to PAA?

I recall TGA doesn't really support alpha

[sterile frigate]

Now it worked, I transferred it directly from PNG to PAA

[full quarry]

Tga should with alpha just fine

[floral fiber]

is there any way to keep normal detail in shadows

[cedar lichen]

probably baking it into the co

[floral fiber]

is there an easy way to do that in substance im missing

[valid cloak]

thats my vest, isnt FLB, because FLB is whack...

[outer needle]

is there any info on texel density for vanilla arma textures?

[full quarry]

no

they are not super consistent with that

[outer needle]

is it too drastic of a mismatch?

Im not an expert on that topic, but just trying to make my maps on the stuff im making consistent for quality purposes

[full quarry]

well I suppose most assets are in similar range, dont think there are any mentions of what texel density they average with though.

Id maybe make a test asset and compare couple different uv scalings to figure out what might be ok direction

dont worry about it too much though

[outer needle]

roger

[deft bolt]

Yep this was the issue, thanks!

[empty nexus]

Mhm @full quarry thinking about mixing dry grass an green grass together as an overlay by spraying. Are there things i have to consider?

I mean... I could spread them over a larger area to match with cell size 2?

[full quarry]

you mean for mask? or as new ground texture?

[empty nexus]

Ah damned, thought it was the terrain channel. Sorry 👀 i meant gdt

[full quarry]

with grass Id suppose doing bit of manual masking to make sure blades of grass dont cut off at weird spots and such can be a final touch type of thing.

and use same mask then to combine nopx too

[empty nexus]

Well see what i can do, thx 🙂

[full quarry]

it can be useful to have a mixed GDT to go between 2 but also it does add some more challenge in fitting all ground types together

if you have a plan for it then no problem

[empty nexus]

Yeah...gimp can basicly blend more pictures together. Thing is more that nopx stuff or the lighing one. That rainbowthing 🤣 i am mixing them always 😝 co.paa an nopx.paa

But maybe..its going to work 🙃

[tulip dirge]

Does anyone know in what PBO I can find the strider?

[lethal condor]

soft_f_beta

[tulip dirge]

legend

love you

[ripe hollow]

In SubstanceToArma there is a included MetRough spsm. Is this supposed to be used to derive custom smart materials from or are you supposed to layer it over a smart material to export the met/rough data correctly?

[torpid lance]

Which channels in substance painter impact the SMDI?

[floral fiber]

depends on your export preset

[ornate stream]

Some ppl are retexturing sings for there terrains.Custom base signs etc.How is this done? Is there an unbinned p3d we can use? Also,

[lethal condor]

Short answer: pboprefix magic
Long answer: checking the pbo will tell you more

Basically overwriting folder using a correct pboprefix make confuse the game which folder to check, then boom profit

[ornate stream]

thanx!

Wow!! I can do alot of things with that....I suppose some carefull edits to the required addon list too? or just clone?

[lethal condor]

Everything within

[ornate stream]

rgr!

[lethal condor]

Which means you need to have more than you want to modify. Not the best way anyways but some only way to do

[ornate stream]

wow..i didnt realise other ppl do hacky type shit to get things working too..lol

Thank you m8!!

Been learning to texture myself lately.Its good to know if your a habitual modder.👍🏻

Thanks for your work over the years too m8!!👍🏻 👍🏻

[full quarry]

you can also get bunch of signs from A2 data if I remember right and have no need for the hacky overwrites that will mess up other terrains

[somber hill]

im hoping that his is the right place for this but im trying to retexture a beret ive got the texture file i want to use in paa format, nad im a bit stuck on what i do next, cheers for any help

[livid knot]

You convert the paa to a png with texture viewer, then edit the png to your liking, re-convert it. Then set up a basic config that modified the hiddenSelectionsTextures entry within the beret's class

[manic mulch]

is there some quick way to make NOPX textures?
i have the normals and displacement textures already, but manually going on GIMP, decomposing the channels of the normals and putting the displacement on the alpha, all of this for each texture, is a very time consuming thing to do.
I've seen things like substance player for the textures on Enfusion, but i wonder if someone created something like it for A3.

[full quarry]

might gimp batch operations be of use?

[manic mulch]

nop

[ornate stream]

Can i use a nopx from a GDT to make a nohq? I have made a tex using the concrete GDT tex for my pavement pieces but now need to do the same make big file out of many and rescale the nohq file.Iam tried a couple of times but the nighttime/headlights lighting is broken.:(

[full quarry]

Removing the alpha channel should work yeah

[ornate stream]

Thanks!!

[spare nexus]

How can i fix look of this image 1 is before saving as _ca and 2 is after saving as _ca

[nocturne lake]

Why using _ca and not _co? _ca is only needed for transparent objects

[spare nexus]

i saw in config that m67 grenade has _ca too but now i tried _co and it's the same

[full quarry]

This thing should be all co

Dunno what m67 is but don't trust that config

As to the pictures, what is the actual problem?

[sullen vapor]

think they mean the compression happening to the pic

top of the dome, shadows/highlights get lots of artifacts

[nocturne lake]

Not much can be done about that other than introducing more noise and colour variation to the texture to break down the nearest-neighbour compression

Large blocks of single colour, especially dark colours, tend to suffer more from compression artefacts

[frosty pumice]

is there an official/proper way to create 3D icons for gears/equipment in the arsenal editor?

[floral fiber]

not as far as im aware

[frosty pumice]

How do most modders do it?

I'm specifically talking about which program would be best for this. Whether its blender or photoshop, etc.

[frosty pumice]

no need to answer this ^ i got it

[full quarry]

what did you end up doing?

I cant really say if there is any established best practices. I've preferred orthographic blender renders myself for weapons and items at least

[frosty pumice]

thats what i ended up doing, with the uniforms i took a screenshot from the arsenal in-game and just crop out the character in photoshop

[full quarry]

Now that you mention it I recall for SOGPF we used a screenshot script and invisible/seethrough character to get shots in game

so only the equipment was visible

[frosty pumice]

i wasnt that suprised that there isn't a "proper official" way to do it, seems like its part of ARMA modding lol

[floral fiber]

i just take them ingame lmao

[frosty pumice]

why do these vehicles have different lighting? their rvmat stats (specular, specularpower,etc.) are identical and their SMDI textures have the same shade of red.

[full quarry]

typo in config and hiddenselectionmaterials dont apply?