arma3_texture

[graceful blaze]

Here we go

[random peak]

Hey ive been trying to have a go at retexurizing some stuff

but ive been stuck on not having the models show

if anyone i willing to hop on a discord call with me to debug id apreciate it

[lethal condor]

Tell the error message and your config. VC is unreliable way to troubleshoot

[vernal sage]

^ Post your config so that people can help you faster.
Invisible models usually mean one of two things: 1. you didn't define the model correctly in CfgVehicles for the uniform or 2. you defined the wrong texture path for hiddenSelectionsTextures[] (also in CfgVehicles).

But it's best to just chuck your config in a pastebin or something (and pretty please don't take a screenie of the config). List what mods you're retexturing for too (if applicable).

[random peak]

Wait...

do vests lay in the vehicles or weapons in the cfg ?

this is an example for one of the backpacks

retexutring for military gear pack

[tranquil mason]

Vests are weapons, also code blocks are three backticks:
```cpp
Config
```

Don't forget the cpp for syntax highlighting

[random peak]

shit it's getting flagged for spam 😂

        class TAF_JPC_Assaulter_TDP: ItemCore
        {
            author="Wyatt._.";
            scope=2;
            weaponPoolAvailable=1;
            allowedSlots[]={901};
            displayname="TAF JPC Assaulter (TDP)";
            picture="\TAF_VESTS\ui\icon_Vest.paa";
            model="milgp_vests\models\v_jpc_assaulter_base.p3d";
            hiddenSelections[]=
            {
                "camo",
                "camo2",
                "camo3"
            };
            hiddenSelectionsTextures[]=
            {
                "\TAF_VESTS\textures\tdp_vest_jpc.paa",
                "\TAF_VESTS\textures\tdp_gear_01.paa",
                "\TAF_VESTS\textures\gear_02.paa"
            };

anything that looks wrong ? @tranquil mason

[tranquil mason]

That a backpack or a vest?
If its a vest, you're not modifying the ItemInfo (or at least not including it in that snippet)

[random peak]

vest

wouldn't let me paste the whole thing

[random peak]

anything else ?

[tranquil mason]

Looks fine on its own

[random peak]

well it's a big ask but would be cool looking thru the whole thing ?

just a 2 min skim

[tranquil mason]

I mean all the relevant bits are there
Should check your pbo prefix if you haven't already

[random peak]

Property Value
prefix @TAF_VESTS\addons\TAF_VESTS

good ?

[tranquil mason]

No, looks like you're packing your entire mod folder and not an actual addon

Addon builder builds the folder you pick as a single addon. You should be packing the TAF_VESTS folder inside your addons folder

[random peak]

i did I just named the mod and the addon the same shit

[tranquil mason]

What are you using to build?

I assumed addon builder, but with how that prefix it appears to be you are packing the @TAF_VESTS folder and not the TAF_VESTS folder in the addons

[random peak]

yup addon builder

i'll try again with a different name to make it clear

Property Value
prefix @TDP_retex_v1\addon\TAF_VESTS

[tranquil mason]

Show your addon builder options

Like what folder are you selecting

Also the folder name needs to be addons, not addon

[random peak]

yup just fixed it

slight improvement gear model and texture showing up still missing the actual vest

[dense peak]

I have used Adobe Substance for a non Arma project in the past, but I have never used Blender's paint option. What are the pros and cons?

[full quarry]

Blender = Free
SubstancePainter = costs money but has lot of ready tools that take time to set up in Blender

[dense peak]

Thanks, I watched some demos and thought this was the case. I have adobe CC, so I will wait for a free trial and give that a try first.

[white apex]

Is there a guide for the resolution of map marker textures and icons?

[white apex]

Slightly more irritating issue, what might cause an 8 bit image with an approved resolution (1024x1024) to fail to convert to a paa and even fail to load in TexView? A 4k version with an almost identical name gets through just fine. Difference in name is that one says Icon in it and one doesn't, but isn't an issue with other images with the same relationship.

[lethal condor]

Is that an 24 bit (8 bit per RGBA) or 8 bit?

AFAIK 24 is the depth you need

[white apex]

Umm...not sure. GIMP says it's 8bit and Windows Properties says 8bit. The wiki for ImagetoPAA also says to use 8bit but doesn't specify any difference between 8bit or 8bit per RGBA. And not sure that'd account for the issue since the larger version is the exact image just at 4k instead of 1k

Out of 330 items, 51 have failed and I don't have a clue what makes them different

[lethal condor]

I think Explorer (or Property) can tell the depth, but I doubt you export it differently

How do you convert?

Or ImageToPAA, my bad

[white apex]

Yeah just been using ImagetoPAA

Happy to provide one of the 51 images if it'll help

[white apex]

Managed to fix it...by copying the existing image over a blank canvas and exporting it...I'm utterly baffled

[white apex]

Seems to be from some kind of visual artifacting but definitely odd

[severe rune]

the root level emmisive (lol typo...) property does not use its alpha channel.
I'll use the alpha channel of that, as a multiplier in SuperExt's em texture.

[light spoke]

hey im having some trouble packing and finalising my mods if anyone is willing to help :3

it's a small like 12 class retexture

been working on it for a while but nthin worked :<

[severe rune]

emmisive[] = {0,0,0,1};
emmisive[] = {0,0,0,100};
emmisive[] = {0,0,0,1000};

uhh..

[severe rune]

explain what is problem

[light spoke]

Welll ummm~~

Ahhh ill try xD

When i try packing it this msg shows up

[severe rune]

show the paths behind the message box

[tranquil mason]

I was about to say, the last value definitely does affect it

[severe rune]

I just multiply the color, dunno where the green comes from

[severe rune]

uh

[severe rune]

Options button bottom left.
"Path to project folder", set that to "P:\"

[light spoke]

AWHHH IT WORKEDDD!!

thankssss

Hey can i add you ??

[severe rune]

To keep asking me questions that I don't have time to answer? No 😄
But you can DM me if you want, its open

[light spoke]

Dudeee meannnnn

i was being polite

-_-

[severe rune]

🥺

Just being realistic

I do have backlog

[light spoke]

ay ay ayyyy 😹

being smart is a double edged sword aint it xD

[severe rune]

This is so F'ed.
I multiply the emissive texture with 10000. The black areas are 0,0,0,1 black.. But they still become green when multiplied.
Why is my zero not zero

Yeah if I swap the channel its in red.
The texture read is reading non-zero from the green channel 🙁

[neat cape]

if you are able to fix this i got some very neat plans with it

[severe rune]

I think its just the fog

A multiplier up to 100 still works okeyish. Maybe that'll just be the limit then

[severe rune]

Its not the fog, texture fetch is just F'ed.

Fetch a black texture == green.
Hardcode 0,0,0 black color == no green.

I don't know whats happening here

[severe rune]

once the texture drops below highest lod, it becomes green. I'm stumped. There is no green in the texture

[neat cape]

thats kinda really weird

[severe rune]

HOLY FUMB
THE FROBBER

The generated lower-res MIPs of my black texture, have a 1 in the green channel
WHAT THE FRÖP

[wooden lantern]

guh?

[severe rune]

@tranquil mason if you want you can try it out.

This goes into dta/bin.pbo, I think it should be a drop in 🤞
Just set emmisive[] = {0,0,0,10000}; in the rvmat.
Who else wanted this? @kjw.. oh right he's banned

[wooden lantern]

I also wanted this 🙏 thanks gang

I asked u about this like months ago and never got it working prolly cuz of mikeros

[tranquil mason]

@old bluff did

[neat cape]

ill give it a try on these 👍

[raven wren]

I also want this feature haha

[full quarry]

my glowing flowers thank you.

[severe rune]

on next dev-branch you'll also get a signed bin.pbo which you can then copy over to stable 😄

[neat cape]

you were faster xD

[wooden lantern]

wait

question that might be dumb

if i make a ground clutter that's a decal can i apply this emissive onto it

[severe rune]

It works on anything that you can put a rvmat with whatever pixelshader on

[wooden lantern]

the part that might be dumb is making a decal ground clutter

i havent rly seen anyone do it and idk how to even make the decal like model n stuff so 😭

[full quarry]

I would use decals as objects

clutter patterning becomes obvious with objects that stand out

Am not fully sure if decals work as clutter either 😅

the old OnSurface draw types might

[wooden lantern]

OnSurface is the one where it like projects right?

that's what i was thinking about

[full quarry]

yeah the vertex property

[wooden lantern]

so can i just make a plane with onsurface in the vertex property then try that as clutter?

lets see

[full quarry]

yes

[floral fiber]

No I'm not!!!!!

[wooden lantern]

u should be...

[full quarry]

did you bring pizza?

[severe rune]

That musst be a mistake

[tranquil mason]

Dedmen plz fix

[old bluff]

Oh holy shit this was quick

Thanks Dedmen!

[cedar lichen]

is this a fix for the emissive values on the emissive mask rvmats?

[severe rune]

Not sure what you mean by that. Its a new feature

[cedar lichen]

I meant it allows you to increase the brightness of the mask?

the emmisive stage 8 mask

[tranquil mason]

Yes
Wasn't really a bug though

[cedar lichen]

yeah i misunderstood - i thought it was meant to work that way but wasnt

[old bluff]

Trying to figure out how to test this - should I just sit tight?

[wooden lantern]

Search emissive in this channel

it’s just a stage8 and using texgens which dedmen posted examples of months ago

[tranquil mason]

He knows how to use it, he means the shader edit

[old bluff]

Nah, I've got that bit working, I'm trying to figure out how to get the shader edit in.

[wooden lantern]

here

lowkey no clue if this worked but im trying it

[old bluff]

where does it go though, do I just throw it in a mod?

[tranquil mason]

Vanilla files

You'd replace the pbo from vanilla with it

[old bluff]

okie

I tried doing that earlier, but I think I just did it wrong. gonna test.

oh yeah, that did it

[old bluff]

You absolute legend Dedmen.

[mystic drum]

Absolute peak, lets go

[neat cape]

@severe rune you should add to Stage1 - Stage7 the uvTransform

i did some tests now with this you did, works pretty well and i love it, ill show some screens with explains

[wooden lantern]

the texgen is the uvtransform tho right?

[neat cape]

right is the variant i did before you did that "fix", left is with your variant

with no uvTransform Stage1 - Stage7 this weird specular issues happen, and these issues also change positions when you place other objects close to ithttps://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441539339082272819/image.png?ex=692229a0&is=6920d820&hm=e3f15fc63f5be0020b40ea4f5a26fd652c94c12634581c20642e0ed772c70a4f&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441539655580385330/image.png?ex=692229ec&is=6920d86c&hm=4f0d3df5de071cdfdc3f969d1a61f84c1388501a744d5a0fcece925c3ba7673e&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441539788992938164/image.png?ex=69222a0c&is=6920d88c&hm=92bf64e599dcd106361e04776f71c920ef307a257922b51cff53a4bb8ff816d0&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686

and also the normal maps get deleted or washed

now with uvTransform Stage1 - Stage7

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441548694712221914/image.png?ex=69223257&is=6920e0d7&hm=63cfd36d31c66183c2ac1d542685c569149e0a4e2d38c7e68f45321abb738ef6&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441548766048948357/image.png?ex=69223268&is=6920e0e8&hm=09dc02a42b77a3849528a21ac5d985bb9a221ca31f67c63c8b1f81fb25239366&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441548837721473215/image.png?ex=69223279&is=6920e0f9&hm=e30a991ec8c383ec7bf0d1e45534e96a018bf2c020d713a3feb0e5c5142eb129&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686

normals and specular / smdi still keeps positions, not washed and no issues

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/605797044065533972/1441548535047917618/image.png?ex=69223231&is=6920e0b1&hm=b84fb06ac3c08270ac18f3796aad9fd168cc09a943fcdb67824c3d0e22a94a29&=&format=webp&quality=lossless&width=1219&height=686 and still works

i just did not added the uvTransform to Stage8

really love it, just add lightsources cast shadows and its perfect

[wooden lantern]

post rvmat and texture im curious how bright and parameters n stuff

cuz i want that same green alien glow on stuff

[full quarry]

aa this is maybe texgen related

[tranquil mason]

Yeah I had some issues when trying to use TexGen, some of the maps were seemignly rotated / translated oddly and I couldn't figure out why

My solution for now was to only use TexGen on the stage 8, and use the old method of just uvSource = "tex" in the other stages

[neat cape]

Thats what i did above cause had same issues like on pics above

[severe rune]

It is on there, via the texGen

Maybe a texGen bug, with repro I'll look at it on Monday.
It's supposed to work the exact same..

[neat cape]

if you want ill PM you my plant as seperate addon / source

for repro with 2 variants

[severe rune]

Yea

[neat cape]

Sent it to you

[twin bane]

be curious to see the .rvmat on that one.

[raven wren]

More config related, but your pathing isn’t right.

It’s structured more like

Mod_Base_Folder\vehicles\offroad\data\etc\texture.paa

Are you packing using the p drive

[pastel hill]

so thats what its suppose to be? I typically do missions and stuff like that, this is the first time im jumping into "texturing"

[pastel hill]

I'll go ahead and move this conversation over to the config chat so I aint polluting this one lol

[wooden lantern]

@severe rune what's the proper suffix to use with an emissive map?
like should it be _em, _g, or somethin else

[tranquil mason]

I've been doing _emissive_co.paa because his write up on shaders just said it was a diffuse map

I think his example is _em though.
Mostly commenting so Dedmen will correct me if its wrong

[wooden lantern]

i was debating on em

i like _g

[tranquil mason]

Why _g?

[wooden lantern]

glow

it's what most games use

they call them glow maps

[tranquil mason]

Single letter suffix seems odd, I'd probably do _em if it should be that when converting to paa

[neat cape]

i just use _ca cause i did on my plants the parts transparent

[tranquil mason]

You can just use black

[full quarry]

the _suffix is for imageToPaa/ Texview conversion rules

_em _g dont exit in the rules

_co works since its basicaaly a diffusemap, unless there is also a Alpha component, then you want _CA

or custom rule

[wooden lantern]

i made my own rule

    class GlowMap
    {
        name = "*_g.*";
        format = "DXT1";
        dynRange = 1;
    };

just that

[full quarry]

👍

[tranquil mason]

Didn't realise you could make rules, tools could probably get an update to add _em / _g to just basically be an alias for diffuse. Probably _em based on Dedmen's example

[full quarry]

sure. but also for the game itself it does not matter.

[severe rune]

_em doesn''t exist. Practically its a _co
We just discard the alpha we sample. I could make the alpha of the texture have an impact but don't think thats that useful

[neat cape]

Oops, the example ive sent you is _ca but works too 😅

[raven wren]

I would say its not a bad idea to give it a proper suffix so textures can stay ObjectName_suffix like

datamodule_01_CO
datamodule_01_NOHQ
datamodule_01_SMDI
datamodule_01_AS
datamodule_01_EM

for example, rather than something like

datamodule_01_Emissive_CO

Keeps things standardised

[tranquil mason]

I added a custom rule for _em, having it official would be nice though

[old bluff]

How does one add a custom rule, in what exactly?

[mystic drum]

Aside from naming convention/organization, would there be any particular reason to denote _em if it’s just a diffuse layer that gets passed into the Emissive array? Grey-scaling the image would make it clear that it’s effectively an emissive blackmask

but I’m also aware that specific colours can be passed in, so doing that would make it uhhhh

Not great

[tranquil mason]

Purely for organization / convention, and it's not effectively an emissive black masks because you can add color

[mystic drum]

True

As a note of practicality, copying black masks from substance would make it easy to correlate emissive paints being scratched off in certain places, say, emissive iron sight paints

Lit windows with dirt on them would be another use case

[unreal belfry]

Is there any specific way to make arsenal icons for gear/weapons, like through Buldozer or similar?

[mystic drum]

I generally load my models into blender, load the _co layer in materials, and export a viewport render that I downscale to 256x256

[unreal belfry]

Got it

I'll give it a try, thanks

Also, is there a recommended resolution for those?

[mystic drum]

Depends on monitor resolution and gui scale, but 256 is probably overkill for 1440

Don’t quote me on that

[unreal belfry]

I'm trying to make the small icons that appear in the arsenal next to the name, so 256 should work fine for that

[mystic drum]

So far as I’m aware, items only ever use one icon, so if you assign an icon, it’ll use that icon for inventory and arsenal

If you’re just concerned about the icons in the arsenal, 128 would honestly be overkill for that

But 256 will make sure they look good in the inventory slots

Is this like a helmet, a uniform, a backpack, or is it an inventory item like a magazine?

[unreal belfry]

Primary

For now anyway

[unreal belfry]

Sorry for the ping, but for loading the textures, do I need the png versions or can A3 Toolbox work with .paa files?

[mystic drum]

I load them through blender materials; you’ll need the PNGs for that

Materials->use nodes->image texture->path to file

[unreal belfry]

And no need for the rvmat or the smdi, ti and nohq textures, right?

[mystic drum]

Negative; I’m not even sure blender can use them

The nohq is just a normal map

[unreal belfry]

Got it, I'll give it a try, thanks

[mystic drum]

But the other three aren’t regular mesh maps

Then again, blender is a toolbox that’s constantly surprising me with exactly how much you can do; I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a way to give the computer parameters for reading the data

[unreal belfry]

Tbh I might be able to get the materials close enough through blender alone. The icon is probably going to be too small to notice anyway

[mystic drum]

yeah, that's why I only use _co

there are some other material magics you can use, but like

don't go ham, they're just icons

[tranquil mason]

Blender can use NOHQ, I use it + CO for making my icons

[tranquil mason]

Personally I have .blend files for different types of things (weapons, helmets, vehicles, etc.) and use shader / render setups to make the icons. Then just resize them to the correct resolution in Photoshop

I sent my vehicle one here somewhere, it has camera setups for both the icon (top down view with black lines for different layers) and the picture (full white side view)

[unreal belfry]

Think you could send me a picture of how your nodes are set up so I can have a general idea?

[tranquil mason]

The NOHQ's green channel needs to be inverted

Example render for a magazine

[unreal belfry]

Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try

[mystic drum]

yeah, you just have to pass it through as a height/normal map

[mystic drum]

Hmmmm

Only taking a look at this now: for a met/rough workflow, you’d have to pass the _SMDI into the metallic and the roughness, and then you probably wouldn’t need the _AS layer I’d imagine

I might do some tinkering if I can’t find anything tbh, I think it would be really funny to get Arma 3 mesh maps working in blender

[severe rune]

This sent me down such a hellish rabbit hole with several discoveries.

For one, the shader code actually only has 6 uv coordinates for a Super/SuperExt shader.
Diffuse, Normal, Detail, Macro, Shadow, Specular. (In this exact order, see texGen below)

The Emissive texture on Stage8 of SuperExt, does not have any uv information. Whatever uvSource/uvTransform you set is irrelevant.
It always uses the Diffuse/Stage0's UV coordinates.

The Stage7 env texture, also has no uv transform, because it is based on the reflection coming from the normal.

Stage6 also has no uv because its also based on reflection.

Note, even though Stage 6/7 uvTransforms are not used in Super shader.
If you set the uvSource="tex", then the engine code will still spend time and memory bandwidth to send them to the GPU, despite them not being used.

I said you needed texGen's for SuperExt because you need more than the 8 (up to Stage7) that are available.
But that's not true because you can just use any invalid one for Stage 6/7/8 and it won't matter, so you really only need 6 uvTransforms total.

The next discovery is texGen's.
the texGen number, directly corresponds with the UV information used by the GPU.
NOT the Stage number.

If you set Stage1 to texGen=0, that is only used by like half the engine code.
The GPU will still use texGen1 for the normal map.
texGen0 is always diffuse (Talking Super shader specific here), texGen1 is always normal and so on (order above)

And because I set texGen1 to be uvSource="none" in that emissive sample, and texGen1 is used for normal, its F'ed.

The reason the other variant here works, is because texGen=0 is removed.
And the half of engine using that and other half the other mess.

There is code that fixes when Stages are incorrectly set to uvSource="none". But it respects the texGen assignments, and in my sample its assigned to a texGen with uvSource="tex" and doesn't correct it.
In Sentry's fix there is no texGen assignment, so it instead uses texGen1, and finds the "none" and fixes it.

But the GPU side doesn't care, it always uses texGen1 for the normal, no matter what was assigned in the rvmat.

Now the question whether and how to fix it.

Its more CPU time efficient to send fewer uvTransforms.
My variant only sends 3 (It should go down to 1, but there is some not-yet-done TODO about lowering the minimum), whereas Sentry's variant sends 6.

But with how it currently works that all 6 are always used, it doesn't make sense to send less.
Would need to give the GPU a mapping table of which stage should use which texGen (which is how I though this originally was supposed to work, and maybe it was when it was implemented 20 years ago and we forgot about it on the switch to DirectX 11)

Or we can just forget all about this

[tranquil mason]

I'll be fully honest and say I read that and understood half, but is that be related to some of my texture maps being translated/rotated when trying to use TexGens with your example? Or was that a different thing

[severe rune]

Yes it is

MultiMaterial only has 3 UV coordinate slots for the 4 detail textures.
So the 4th detail texture uses the same UV as the 4th Diffuse texture. No matter what you configure in your rvmat's Stage8.

In general there are only 8 max uv coordinate sets.
That's why Stage9/10 in multimat also just use the mask UV coordinates.
And the Stage11-14 normal maps use the diffuse UV coordinates.

Wiki says for multi material you need to use texGen's, but that's only half true.
Only for that one half of the engine that actually respects the texGen setting, as the GPU doesn't.

The engine half that respects the texGen's, is the one that decides which Mip level to load, based on how much of the texture is visible on screen.

That does take into account which UVSet is used and the scale of the uvTransform to calculate how large the pixels would be on screen.

This is so confusing.
Multimaterial wiki page shows this example

class Stage11
{
    texture="ca\MultiTest\kostky_NO.paa";
    texGen=0;
};
class Stage12
{
    texture="ca\MultiTest\oblaka_NO.paa";
    texGen=1;
};

It doesn't explain why the texGen numbers there are what they are.
You might assume you can change them, but you can't.

This, doesn't work

class Stage11
{
    texture="ca\MultiTest\kostky_NO.paa";
    texGen=1;
};
class Stage12
{
    texture="ca\MultiTest\oblaka_NO.paa";
    texGen=0;
};

Stage11's texture will still use TexGen0, and Stage12 will still use TexGen1

So digging a bit through history.
HG's comment is wrong #arma3_model message
PuFu's comment is spot on #arma3_texture message
Mikero's comment is wrong #arma3_model message
The bug Dedmen found in 2018 is still not fixed #arma3_tools message
I found why my original rvmat had texGen and uvTransform #arma3_texture message

[severe rune]

The answer to Sentry's problem is this.

Don't use TexGen's (Well you can, if you consider that you cannot influence which TexGen a specific stage uses)

Set Stages that don't use UV coordinates, to re-use another Stage's UV info (its only needed for texture LOD computation) by setting texGen = 0;

(Attached file is wrong!)

[mystic drum]

My model monkey brain cannot comprehend

Too much blender, brain is mush

[severe rune]

Your 7 years and 12 days late answer to that question.
Because its only in the samples as a reference for you to know what it uses. And the engine uses it for texel density (texture LOD) computation (Which is why you need to keep it in your materials).
Which one is actually used on the GPU side is hardcoded inside the game shaders and you have no influence over it.

And also this. Why is because what texGen you set doesn't actually matter to what arrives in the shader!

Very foolish of me to assume a Arma thing would do what you expect it to do... Of course it only half does it but not the actual half that matters to you..

I edited the Multimaterial wiki page to be more clear about the TexGen relations.
The other info might be useful for wiki too but I don't know where and how to write it.

Also btw the pos in uvTransform is only relevant for Terrain/TerrainGrass/Water vertex shaders.
All other vertex shaders ignore the position.
So for most materials, you can safely leave it out of your rvmats to save a few lines.

[lofty prawn]

Hello, does anyone happen to have a seamless patch of the Russian taiga camo from Contact DLC?

[vernal sage]

There isn't an official one AFAIK. Only LDF Geometric + NATO Woodland MTP are in the Samples.
However, the Discord Camo Thread does have a fan-made swatch that you can grab that's fully tileable and is quite close in appearance to the official one. Just search for taiga hex in the Arma 3 channel and you'll find a poster who has the swatch.

[golden apex]

Hi guys, a question about SMDI : I read once (can't remember where 😅 ) that the .paa is done with texview2 set on DXT. Does it mean that, texturing with substance painter, I should export my TGA with an A canal, like specular or glossiness ? Thanks in advance.

[ashen violet]

SMDI is R=white G= Specular map B=Glossiness

There are substance presets that allow you to export textures with the right setup. I’ve had better results saving anything that doesn’t have an alpha channel as a png and converting in texview

[golden apex]

Hello, thx for the answer. I know about existing presets, but I'm not quite satisfied with them, especially when it comes to very bright metal rendering (ie : old car chromes, or aluminium planes). That's why I'm trying something "more" than just tweaking R G & B from the _co map. This DXT thing I read about TexView made me think of an A channel, and I was wondering if anyone had already tested it.

[full quarry]

the channels only modulate the maximum values set in the rvmat parameters

chrome like surface usually needs more special attention

and may require its own rvmat instead of using same rvmat for whole suface with also less shiny details

[golden apex]

Yep, that's already what I'm doing : as I only create artwork intended static props, I really don't mind about optimization and use as many texture sets as needed.

[wanton rose]

Hi all, run into bit of an odd problem
When in shadow I've noticed the underlying tris in the mesh become visible (seen here on the hands). Has anyone run into this before?
My guess is I've screwed up the normal or specular map somehow during the baking process. I'm leaning towards the specular as I've noticed normals tend to disappear in arma when in shadow, where as height (as defined in the specular map) doesn't

[lethal condor]

Which model is yours and trying to fix? Uniform?

[wanton rose]

All the models are mine, but the uniform is what has the issue

[lethal condor]

If you put no tex and mat on the uniform and if it still persists, make sure you don't sharpedge them

[wanton rose]

I didn't think of that. It should be smooth shaded already but I'll give it a go

Nope, didn't fix it

[full quarry]

then it could be badly baked normalmap

[wanton rose]

Mm
I'll have to keep playing with the bake settings I guess

[full quarry]

you can try disabling different rvmat stages by assigning neutral procedural textures on them from the p:\a3\data_f\default_super.rvmat

and it should be visible in Object Builders buldozer preview too which might be faster for testing

[lethal condor]

(Which essentially what I meant)

[wanton rose]

Huh, guess it's not the bake

It is smooth shaded when I export it which is odd
I'm exporting from blender so maybe that's causing the issue? Then again I've exported from blender before just fine

This is the file if you want to take a look

[full quarry]

is it smooth shaded still in the p3d when you open it in object builder?

[wanton rose]

Yep, it is

[severe rune]

Jeez man.
That doesn't work either (I handily "cleaned" it up before posting and after testing..).
If class TexGen0 does not exist, then only Stage0-Stage7 are loaded.
If you want Stage8 to load.. You need TexGen0 class to exist.
And if TexGen0 class exists, that means any uvSource/uvTransform info from the "Stage" classes is ignored.
So to get them to apply, you need to define all TexGen classes (that have anything other than defaults in them)

And, you cannot influence which texGen every stage uses, so you need to define all that are used (In this case actually only 5, because 6/7 don't use any UV info)

So... again

[full quarry]

thank you for looking into it! 🙏

[neat cape]

Thank you a lot will actualize my palmtreeEM with yours again and change all the others again 👍

[tranquil mason]

// In this case we actually do not need to define these as we apply default values anyway. But if we changed anything from the defaults, we would need to define every TexGen class that is different from default.
class TexGen1: TexGen0 {};
class TexGen2: TexGen0 {};
class TexGen3: TexGen0 {};
class TexGen4: TexGen0 {};
class TexGen5: TexGen0 {};
class TexGen6: TexGen0 {};
class TexGen7: TexGen0 {};

Just to make sure I understand, all of these aren't required in an actual rvmat and are just here for demo / explanation purposes? (Bouncing between projects currently)

[severe rune]

If you would have defaults in there then correct

[wooden lantern]

https://tenor.com/view/67-gif-8575841764206736991

[gritty pasture]

I'm making a _cdt texture, anything special I should keep in mind?

_CDT - colored detail texture (colored detail map), fading in mipmaps, average color should be 0.5 in all components

not sure about the average color part

[silver gull]

thats rvmat reference propbly

[tired canyon]

Well folks,

Having an issue gettiny my textures to appear ingame, I am 99.99% sure its how I am typing out the directory.

How would I type the directory to this folder to put in blender?

[lethal condor]

Put in Blender, to do what? Preview in Blender or so you can export them into P3D?

[tired canyon]

for object builder sorry

[lethal condor]

Same thing with you put in config. This is relative to PBO path

[tired canyon]

ahh ok thanks

[lethal condor]

And ultimately, this part is unrelated with you put in Blender to preview your 3D model

[tired canyon]

Yeah I am aware

I have all ok in blender

just trying to get the textures ingame

This is my first dive into modding hence the dumbass questions

[lethal condor]

Nobody makes a dumbass question, unless it makes sense we will tackle it

[tired canyon]

So, I have done it as you have said here, but it cannot seem to find the textures

[lethal condor]

Double check the filepath ingame, in P3D and your PBOPREFIX. Which software to pack the PBO

[tired canyon]

PBO manager

[lethal condor]

Urm, throw that thing out of the window and at least use Addon Builder

[tired canyon]

Ahh ok

[lethal condor]

pboProject or HEMTT, if we want to make sure will work

AB is still a crappy software

[tired canyon]

Ill try one of them thanks!

The paths appear correct anyways, so maybe it is PBO related

[lethal condor]

PBO Manager easily can break anything. Well AB does too

But AB is less unstable

[tired canyon]

just trying with AB there now

Would capitalisation be an issue?

Still getting the same error for some reasn

Turns out I am dumb and its a typo

[white apex]

First time texturing from scratch, does anyone know how I would go about making it so that the black texture isn't metallic but the gold is?

[lethal condor]

RVMAT and SMDI are the key words

[white apex]

I thought that I'd need an SMDI texture, I just don't know how to make one

[lethal condor]

Check pinned Moonie's post. That uses two colors and combined into one, that's not so hard

[gritty pasture]

what do you mean?

I also saw a texview filter for cdt

[nimble knoll]

https://github.com/gerard-sog/arma3-macvsog-columbia-items this will help you 👍

It explains how to add textures and create basic arma 3 objects from blender to Arma 3

[distant musk]

can someone recommend a woodland camo texture like ones used in rhs or cup? im trying to retexture vanilla vehicles and the ones that im finding online are too bright and dont have that type of texture that i need

[mystic drum]

Try changing your AO settings

those are screenshots of the AI models that wander around the arsenal; it's your video settings

it's most visible on white textures, but is present in like, the gussets of most pants

You can see her topology through her shirt

[wanton rose]

Huh, you're right it's HBAO+

Why does it do that?

[lethal condor]

I thought I am familiar with it 😓 I actually forgot a PP could do it, nice catch

[mystic drum]

Bad handling maybe? I'm a model guy, I don't know much about the technical aspect of the engine. KJW told me when I was panicking about a model I spent a stupid amount of time on having the exact same issue

[wooden lantern]

bad shading on model

not exactly but it’s the easier way to explain instead of the shader code 😭

[wanton rose]

Ah
This is the second time an Arma bug has driven me insane lol

[wanton rose]

I'm guessing this is something engine side that I can't fix

[mystic drum]

Negative, not that I’m aware of

Unfortunately, HBAO is the more comprehensive AO setting, it’s just not great for anything with a stark white texture. One of the guys I follow on Instagram that makes A3 screenshots, I think it’s Ajax, has it on for his scenes, and it’s been hard for me to unsee ever since

[wooden lantern]

yup

shader issue that’s existed for genuinely as long as I’ve owned the game at least

generally only rly see it on skinned models and badly imported props

where something normal related breaks

[wanton rose]

Huh
At least this is easily fixable unlike the other bug I ran into

Thanks @mystic drum for the solution

[mystic drum]

Nw

Not really a solution imo, but HDAO is fine for normal gameplay; better to know it’s a setting rather than something model-side

Interestingly enough though, I first noticed it on the white variant of the PASGT helmet from the DLC assets a couple years ago

I thought the game was trying to make a liar out of me; couldn’t replicate it on that particular piece of gear for the screenshots lol

[wanton rose]

Good to know I wasn't the only one losing it lol

[narrow token]

Hey everyone, I was a GTA V Fivem objector so I used to create liveries for GTA V.
I really want to now start making Liveries for Arma 3, is there anyone who can help me to lern the basics?

[tranquil mason]

Rvmats are text, not images

To derapify them, you can rename it to .bin and then use the BinToCPP in the A3 Tools

[full quarry]

you are not supposed to rip models

we have 0 tolerance for that

this is your only warning

[lusty crest]

I'm sorry, I was in a coma for 21 years due to an accident. I woke up recently and wanted to continue my passion – modding Operation Flashpoint. I remember how much fun it was digging through the game files, extracting models, changing textures, and creating my own models based on the ones from Operation Flashpoint. I had to relearn how to speak, walk, and use a computer. I learned that the world had changed a lot while I was in a coma, and it took me a long time to get used to the flood of information that was dumped on me. I apologize, I didn't know I couldn't do that anymore. I won't be modding anymore. Thank you!

[full quarry]

You can do modding

just dont rip things

ripping is forbbidden

modding is allowed

ripping is not modding

[lusty crest]

I apologize again, this is very strange for me to hear after 21 years in a coma. In 2002, the guys and I thought differently, but apparently I slept for too long...

[tranquil mason]

You were in a coma for 21 years, and were awake by at least 2002 per you. But your account was made in 2018

[wooden lantern]

https://tenor.com/view/dexter-gif-1878760417600646737

[unborn ice]

clearly someone prepared this account in 2018 for his arrival

[unborn ice]

There's some pretty decent retex tutorials in the arma 3 wiki, that can get you the basics, and the pinned should have useful information.

If you're making new textures for mods, make sure they have hiddenselections before you work on it, and I think most of the basegame equipment does, so you can always start there!

[sudden stream]

100%

[raven wren]

It’s giving the same vibe as that navy seal wall of text back in the day

[lunar wedge]

would anyone say the base game CSAT camo is more of a desert camo than med camo?

looks very yellow and sand like compared to the NATO multicam

[wooden lantern]

the Mediterranean is arid/oceanic climate

so it kinda makes sense

dry hot summer so everything is bleached in the sun, mild winter

lots of long dry spells

CSAT camo doesn’t make sense at all but that’s my reasoning for why I think

[distant musk]

guys i'm trying to download this gimp plugin (https://github.com/gruppe-adler/paa-gimp-plugin?tab=readme-ov-file) and it requiers grad_aff (https://github.com/gruppe-adler/grad_aff/tree/dev) and i have absolutely no idea what that is, there is nothing in readme about how and where to install this

[lunar wedge]

Its not yellow though but yeah pretty much I'm surprised they dident make it just hex multicam

[sharp valve]

Anyone know the origins of this bis_klan.paa I found recently? Google search takes it back to a "Bohemia Dev Squad [BIS]" and the .paa files associated with it have 0 info online

[raven wren]

It’s the Bohemia interactive emblem, just been the default texture for the clan sections on things for years

[sharp valve]

the thing is that very weird .paa files are in the same folder as it

ones that have no ingame anything

this thing

Very odd

[full quarry]

they are just remants of tests and stuff that got cut out

dont worry about it

[sharp valve]

considering 85% of the assets from the "new" updates since 2019 DayZ are all in the April 08/2019 build of the game i'd say that most are used

[lethal condor]

AFAIK it's been there for more than two decades since OFP

[brittle rivet]

You need the latest version from releases: https://github.com/gruppe-adler/paa-gimp-plugin/releases
And the exe get put into C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\<GIMP version>\plug-ins
It only works with gimp 2 though
gimp 3 can't load it

grad_aff is only needed if you are going to build the plugin yourself

The installation information is right there in the readme for the plugin

[fervent fable]

Question! Does anyone know how to make a portion of a texture seem lifted? trying to place some patches (on the back/arms)/reskin a leather jacket from base arma. Thanks!

[tranquil mason]

Make an rvmat with a normal (nohq) texture to add depth

[white apex]

Finally managed to get a model into Arma, it lets me place it down in 3DEN, but it's having troubles loading the texture and I can't really figure out why. Does anyone know if there's anything in particular you need to do in order to get a .p3d to load a texture properly?

[lethal condor]

Post the error mesaage

[lethal condor]

That means your texture path is not correct and the game fails to find a texture that should be found in the path

• How do you pack the PBO?
• How do you assign the texture to the P3D?

[white apex]

Addon Builder does the PBO, I've yet to have an issue with it.

The texture was put onto the model when I had it in Blender, I exported it to an FBX and imported it into Object Builder and it just stuck wanting it, there's no config that I've used for it. I've tried editing the .p3d to a few different options for file path formatting and nothing's worked so far

[lethal condor]

• Where is your working folder and the texture?
• What is your PBOPREFIX?
• Do you have P drive?

[white apex]

The texture is in the same place as the model, just one folder deeper.

I don't have a PBOPREFIX in my PBOs.

Yes, I have the P drive mounted, otherwise I wouldn't be able to run Object Builder, but I don't actively use it to store files.

[lethal condor]

• That means it's not placed in the same place though
• That likely mean you have unintended PBOPREFIX
• You better to learn how to use it after this peroject

[white apex]

Last I checked that's why there's a filepath, or are you trying to tell me that the textures and the models need to be in the exact same folder?

That's a largely unhelpful statement, I might not have a $PBOPREFIX$ file in the PBO but it's not like I don't reference the whole filepath where I need to. I just don't know if, or where, I have to for the .p3d to actually find the texture.

I've never had an issue from not using the P drive to store files before, but this is my first foray into doing models and textures so something may be different. I'm happy to learn, but when the official documentation is about as clear as a tar pit it's not the easiest thing to do.

[lethal condor]

• No, that was a statement where your wordings doesn't seem to be correct to describe that situation. Having different folder is fIne
• HavIng $PBOPREFIX$ in a PBO will not resolve anything, but assiging iT into the PBO in a correct way. I don't recall how $PBOPREFIX$ should behave regards of Addon Builder but AB should have a textboz to assign

[white apex]

That's part of what I'm trying to decipher, I've edited the .p3d file to direct to both relative and absolute filepaths and it doesn't seem to make a difference, it's still not finding it.

Addon Builder has an option to set an Addon Prefix, yes, but it says it auto-computes it if left blank and that's what I do, I always figured it just put the three letter prefix at the beginning of the addon name, which is what I do manually anyways

[stray relic]

Open the p3d in Object Builder, check if the texture path is found there (green icons).

[white apex]

It doesn't, it's got a yellow question mark

[stray relic]

So your path is wrong there.

For more help on that, you'll probably need to show us your file structure from p:\ and what you have set for the path of the texture in OB.

[white apex]

I don't even know how to check the path of the texture in Object Builder

[stray relic]

RMB on the texture in that list, select "rename (in object)",
which gives you a window with the path to the texture

[white apex]

Okay, so the Current LOD doesn't have the right path, but the model folder has them just fine by the looks of this?

Would it be as simple as renaming it to reference the proper path?

[stray relic]

Hard to tell if you don't show us the requested info

Except to answer your question directly. Yes, of course you need to use the proper path. Using the wrong path is, wrong.

[white apex]

Well as previously stated, I don't tend to use the P drive to store things just because I'm unfamiliar with it, but the path to the textures folder I'm aiming for is the following:

G:\160th Special Operations Regiment\160th SOR Source Files\SOR_Props\data\models\passport\textures

Also I might've fixed it by accident, I selected the model in the viewport and dragged the texture from the Model Folder section onto it and now it's green in the Current LOD section

[stray relic]

I recommend using the p drive for your project files.

I also don't recommend using spaces or capital letters in folder names.

[white apex]

I don't use them in folder names for Arma anyways. I'm doing research on how to set up the P drive properly as well, I've just managed to avoid using it because I'm a bit paranoid about losing files

[raven wren]

The p drive is just a “virtual” drive based off of a folder location

Usually documents/armawork

[stray relic]

p:\ is only a map to a real location

I'll leave it with you Kenny, I need to go out for a bit

[raven wren]

You just run arma 3 tools and it has an option in it to setup the p drive and it will do the work for you

[white apex]

Also I just realised that I thought I answered a question of yours earlier but didn't, the path that Object Builder wanted to use for the texture was just

\textures\sor_passport_afghanistan_ca.paa

[white apex]

I haven't found the spot to set where it aims for, best I found was mapFolders but that came up with a whole bunch of other references I wasn't too sure of

[raven wren]

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

[white apex]

I was on that and then moved to the Work Drive page since it's meant to be more up to date

The wiki has me bouncing all over for info these days

[raven wren]

https://youtu.be/wZ-OkQeaiAQ

From
2:33

There’s both a bat file and a gui option

[white apex]

I'll take a looksie, thanks

[raven wren]

Ah yes you are right

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

This is the correct wiki page

[white apex]

To be fair I think they're about as helpful as each other. On the bright side though, I managed to do something right and fixed the texture issue I was having!

Now to see if I can fix it having a massive box around it, though not even sure where to look for that

[raven wren]

Yes now you have the p drive object builder defaults to appending p: to the start of file paths

You can see it in object builders settings

Technically you can change it

[lethal condor]

I wasn't needed whenever I take my dinner, then

[fervent fable]

What do you mean exactly by nohq? New to all of this, sorry.

[lethal condor]

nohq = Normal Map, if you're new to this word... I think you want to search a little bit research of 3D graphics

[fervent fable]

definitely - if you have any suggestions for somewhere to start for the A3 scheme do tell please. All I know is designing the actual outfits/livery schemes, not the modeling lol

[neat cape]

You can read trough here:
https://pmc.editing.wiki/doku.php?id=arma3:texturing:basics

Or here aswell:
https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Texture_Map_Types

Arma3 is using a old methode, its not like newer methode of PBR

[lime igloo]

thanks for the copypasta

[distant musk]

plugin for some reason can't find libgimp😭
i have 2.10.36 version of gimp

its a rebuild for 2.10.28 so il try to download older version of plugin

it didnt worked

[stray relic]

There are some issues with the gruppe adler paa converter which mean you may not want to use it.
#arma3_tools message

[distant musk]

oh ok

[royal token]

Try mine :)

Its not for gimp, but it's local and takes both PNG and tif

[distant musk]

ive already downloaded photoshop

[distant musk]

its much easier to use tbh

[dense peak]

Hello guys I'm having an issue when I try to retexture the AMV Marshall, there is the error : "picture /a3/ armor_f_beta/ apc_wheeled_01/data/ui/apc_wheeled_acrv_ca.paa not found"but i have this file in the pbo when i take the amv in virtual arsenal and i select them, the game crash. do you guys have any ideas?

[late canyon]

Was hoping to make a quick roundel for a vehicle's texture spot, the GM Leopard I. However, I can't seem to get transparency.

[full quarry]

Did you save it as with _CA suffix before converting to .paa?

and do you save the png/tga with alpha channel transparency?

[late canyon]

I did see a Steam thread mention the suffixes, but it didnt do a good job explaining them.

I added _ca to the title, added an alpha-0'd layer to the background and saved as .png before converting using Gruppe Adler's online tool, but got the same result :/

[full quarry]

if you look at the png in windows photo preview does it have white background?

what program did you use to make it?

[late canyon]

Paint.net, the saving preview showed the transparent checkerboard - I was hopeful because I had previously defaulted to JPG and forgot that it doesnt handle transparency well then x_x

[late canyon]

I have a plugin for .paa files, and it opens as transparent. Hrn.

[full quarry]

does it show transparency in texview2

[late canyon]

Near as I can tell

[full quarry]

Looks alright

does the tank originally have transparent decals?

[late canyon]

I'm pretty sure, yeah

[full quarry]

how do you pack the pbo and why not use the texview2 or image2paa to convert the texture?

[late canyon]

PBO is unpacked, I'm just working with an image file in the mission directory. And because it was slightly faster than spooling up Arma Tools, and has worked out for my replacement helicopter textures so far.

[brittle rivet]

Probably the plugin
I had issues the the GIMP plugin from Gruppe Adler not doing transparency properly (white artifacting where there was partial transparency)
Texview2 could read the file properly, but there was artifacts on the transparency in Arma
Opening and saving the file using texview 2 fixed the paa

[late canyon]

Ill have to give that a try; I used the official imageToPaa and still had issues, but now Im afk and wont be able to work on it for some time.

Its a minor issue anyways, a throwaway detail that will drive by the players, and I can at least remove the west german cross to make it neutral. Or dig in hard and make a full texture replacement and just bake it into the skin.

[fervent fable]

any decent free alternatives to Adobe substance painter? ya boys broke lol

[mystic drum]

I haven’t tried them yet, but Blender has it’s own texturing capabilities I think

You’d need export settings would be the big thing

I’m not sure how compatible (if at all) substance painter export presets are with blender, but even if you have to make them from scratch, it’s something to look into

[raven wren]

https://www.foundry.com/products/mari/non-commercial

You can use mari for free it would appear

But probs would need to create your own export presets

[mystic drum]

^

Took a quick peak

The good news is that 4k is all that arma can take anyways as far as I know, and that’s in 8-bit rather than 16, so the throttling there isn’t a problem

The one thing they’re not very clear about is the object count and texture sets?

[raven wren]

There is a limit of six UV texture patches per object, but unlimited channels and layers.
You can work with a maximum of five objects at once

[mystic drum]

I’m used to nothing I work on having more than three texture sheets anyways, but if that’s only six material assignments per object maximum, that could get problematic

[raven wren]

In a single file

[mystic drum]

Can you hide individual mesh sets?

[raven wren]

Unsure but you can always split larger models with many uv sets up I guess

Like a tank, you can do the turret and body separately

[mystic drum]

I mean that if your carrier plate and your radio are separate meshes in the same object and material, I know that Substance Painter won’t let you hide the radio, but a buddy of mine has something on his tablet that allows him to hide a mesh without hiding the whole object or material assignment

[full quarry]

Blender can be used for texturing no problem.

The thing you get in paid tools like substance painter are the ready made tools for the process.

In blender you have to set up more stuff yourself or get addons that add you more ready tools.

[turbid swallow]

Hi All, how do I go about changing plane background image?

[lethal condor]

class Plane_Fighter_03_dynamicLoadout_base_F: Plane_Fighter_03_base_F
{
    class Components: Components
    {
        class TransportPylonsComponent
        {
            uiPicture = "\A3\Air_F_Gamma\Plane_Fighter_03\Data\UI\Plane_A143_3DEN_CA.paa";
        };
    };
};```

[turbid swallow]

@lethal condor You are epic!

[silver adder]

That path is definitely not right, it starts with 'picture' and continuous on too list a BI pbo....it should be more like "mymod/data/x.paa"

Actually it might just be unclosed brackets or qoutes in the config

[tranquil mason]

Pylon images are 75% opacity btw

If you want to match vanilla at least

[fervent fable]

Looking to make some custom designs onto the armor plating of ODST uniforms. How would I go along with that?

[lethal condor]

1. Export the said file using a PBO unpacker software (BankRev from Arma 3 Tools can do it, IIRC)
2. Convert the said PAA file into a PNG
3. Do whatever to the PNG using a image edit software
4. Make a config and proper config and folder structure
5. Pack it into a PBO, load it as a Mod
6. Enjoy

[lethal condor]

Whut

[full quarry]

is good steps!

thanks

[dense peak]

Ok thank for you answer, i found this in config file picture = "\A3\armor_f_beta\APC_Wheeled_01\Data\UI\APC_Wheeled_01_ACRV_ca.paa"; the code line is good no ?

[errant locust]

What's the best way to be able to tell the dimensions of a blank texture object in the editor so I know how to size my custom textures in photoshop?

[full quarry]

there is no way to tell texture dimensions in editor I think

[errant locust]

is there a way to tell at all?

[lethal condor]

Is that square User Texture the object in question?

[errant locust]

Yes, as well as the leaflets

[lethal condor]

User Texture is just a 1:1 texture
Leaflets texture is accessible in one of orange PBO

Technically, aspect ratio doesn't usually matter if you apply a tex into an P3D object

[errant locust]

nice, ty

[empty wind]

are there any up to date and easy to understand guides on how to create custom uniform textures? never personally tried anything like this before so the most idiot-proof guide would be best

[lethal condor]

This channel

Hard to tell if there is any "correct" and "all in one-ish" tutorial

[full quarry]

I recall someone made a youtube tutorial which may have been posted here a couple times 🤔

[mystic drum]

Are we talking custom uniform textures as in like

Yoink the .paa, multiply layer it in 2d, and import as a reconfig

Or full on 3d viewport retexturing in like substance

One of these things is not like the other, and depends on…

A lot of things tbh, but mostly licensing

[dense peak]

did you unpack a BI pbo and repacked it again? D:

[wide shadow]

what's the recommended texture size for a player uniform (new, not a retexture of an existing asset)

[full quarry]

I recall most uniforms are split to 1 material for top/shirt and 1 material for bottom/pants+shoes

resolution wise most Arma3 stuff is 2K tops

mods CDLCs push 4K

[wide shadow]

oh, excellent

I was worried I'd be limited to like one 1024 texture or something

[full quarry]

👍

[lethal condor]

Nothing is limited to 1k, but 4k (4096 to be exact)

[grim kraken]

I think Arma can load 8k textures if you're insane

(you should not)

[trail sequoia]

There are plenty of signs/pamphlets that are in non 1:1 aspect ratios

ie here's the signs from tanoa

[mystic drum]

"I'll make it fit"

ehehehehehehehehehehhhh

[dense peak]

yeah 😃

[round wraith]

can someone help me

my retexture turned blue in arma 3

[lethal condor]

And what was supposed to happen? Not blue?

[round wraith]

its supposed to be a woodland camo

but ts turned into teal

[lethal condor]

Resolution of the tex?

[round wraith]

oh yeah I was thinking that might be the error

1080x1080

[lethal condor]

Invalid

[round wraith]

it has be a power of 2 right

[lethal condor]

Yes

[round wraith]

alr thx

[finite zealot]

What do you guys recommand as texturing software, Quixel Suite, or Substance Painter,

[neat cape]

1024x1024 or 2048x2048

[dense peak]

@dense peak never ever do that.

you need to create your own pbo

[round wraith]

@lethal condor

my uniform got cooked

what happened

why is it so bad quality

[lethal condor]

?

[dense peak]

you should find all the needet info in that post or in the link he includet:
https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/150842-retexture/?p=2391653

[lethal condor]

What is "good"

[severe rune]

Looks good to me lol

[round wraith]

brother

do you see the difference

[lethal condor]

Saturation?

Or different texture?

[full quarry]

well if you compare your texture and the original texture you can probably start seeing differences in how they look

[lethal condor]

We don't share the "difference" anyways. We don't have a crystal ball

[round wraith]

oh yeah

okay well what about these white linse

where teh seams are

how do I fix this

[round wraith]

its like one has more details

like fabric texture

but mine doesnt have anything I thought nohq added this

[lethal condor]

It is just about your texture doesn't cover that part

[round wraith]

I see

@lethal condor you see in here it looks dark but in arma it becomes a bit cartoony and light

[full quarry]

did you compare it to the original?

[round wraith]

yes

[full quarry]

and what does it look like compared to it

[round wraith]

let me send

[full quarry]

so if you compare the saturation for example the original is more desaturated

this is typically needed for Arma as the engine lighting needs that kind source as it "blows out" color

[round wraith]

I see

[full quarry]

next up is the biggest challenge of retexturing which is that when small details are baked into original texture they can be very hard to recreate in a new texture drawn over it

[round wraith]

Hmm

Let me try desaturatign it and fixing the places with wihite lines

[full quarry]

the original texture is made in a way poorly that it does not seem to have any color bleed set up

[round wraith]

Hmm

So I should desaturate the image

And what else

[full quarry]

so you can find youself a most common color like a green or brown and fill the background with that

or black is better than white/grey you got

but also preferably solid ring of color bleed around it

[round wraith]

alr

thx man

[round wraith]

@full quarry

YO bro

Actually I got it to be good like you said

But how do I have teh quality like this oen the right

They're same resolution btw

[full quarry]

do you apply same RVMAT on it?

Also yours has less details drawn on it like if you compare these areas

[round wraith]

man I dont even know how to add those details tbh

how did they add ti man

[round wraith]

yes

these two use the same

[full quarry]

the making of 3D model process is a lot different from retexturing process

[round wraith]

oh yeah they probably used substance painter

[full quarry]

those kind of details exist in a high poly model and they get baked on the simplified game model as textures

[full quarry]

that too

[round wraith]

hmm

[full quarry]

retexturing is different kind of process and great results require more manual painting

[round wraith]

Is tehre anyway to like get the p3d file and use it in substance painter also with the texture and retexture it there

[full quarry]

no

[round wraith]

cause I know how to use substance painter

[round wraith]

so you can only retexture on a 2d scale?

[full quarry]

yes

except in rare case where author might make the source model also available

but as said

that is rare

[round wraith]

hmm I see

So what about these small details?

Do they just require a lot of hours to etch in or is there an easier way

[full quarry]

time and effort is the key

retexturing is easier if there are template files that separate color and details into different layers

so you can basically just swap color under details

but in your case that does not exist so you have to do it manually

[round wraith]

I see

Thanks for the tips

Thanks bro

[round wraith]

I perfected it

[turbid swallow]

Hi All, quick question. Why do I get these white lines on the edges even though I have added 20px overspill to the textures?

[unreal flume]

Does anyone have retexture templates for the Vanilla Mohawk helicopter?

[ancient smelt]

Foxone: Substance Painter and Substance designer, unless you've spent yonks texturing in Photoshop and can't move from it.

[hallow jay]

Honestly I think it´s just the game being broken. I added a 20px margin to my UVs this time thinking it would fix this issue, but it still didn´t do anything

Close-up there is no issue, but if I zoom out the glitches become more apparent. This is all within one singular LOD.

I am starting to think the game requires some minimal thickness on all meshes so it doesn´t glitch out like this. Can´t really explain it in any other way

[full quarry]

No minimal thickness

But are those merged/welded mesh edges or separate?

[hallow jay]

They are both separate meshes. The tit is welded on with a normal map, while the hatches are, well, hatches 🤷

Not sure but somehow the beige colour of the interior is leaking out around the edges of the meshes at longer distances

I was hoping increasing the margin would help, but it doesn´t seem to have done that much

Strangely enough I have never had this issue when it came to statics, it only started occuring in the case of vehicles with interiors

So I am not sure if that is due to the interior base colour leaking out, or the lower overall texel density or what

[full quarry]

My guess is that there is a gap between the mesh

[stray relic]

Can it also be caused by badly formed normals? might be mis-remembering that

[hallow jay]

I honestly have no idea how to diagnose that 🙁

But given how these are very simple meshes I don´t think there ought to be any issue with their normals

I also can´t figure out how to make normal maps work well on objects obstructed from direct lightning by the shadow LOD. No matter what I do practically everything inside a vehicle looks almost comically flat and with visibly sharp edges.

And I really don´t feel like including bevels into the low poly just for the sake of trying to fix this.

[full quarry]

normalmap dont work without light to shade it

[wooden lantern]

generate a height map from the normal map and overlay it onto the diffuse

or use curvature filters in painter

[hallow jay]

Could someone please give me a hand? I am losing my mind at this point.

All the meshes are on the same texture set. The texture has no beige colour on it. Why are the ingame textures still messed up?
Everything is properly unwrapped...

[hallow jay]

I pressed sort faces in OB and it became even worse lol

[hallow jay]

even in OB it gets displayed correctly, what the fuck...

[full quarry]

does your texture carry alpha channel?

[hallow jay]

No, it is a _co.

I threw in the towel after 3 hours of trying every solution under the sun. New UV, new Blender material, new texture... The only thing that worked was moving the P3D and the textures to a completely different mod, building it and then starting the game

Basically no matter what I do in this particular mod, I can´t fix it.

[full quarry]

does the source file carry alpha channel?

are the white faces the other side of the hatches? are they inverted to also face up or do they face down?

can you see them if you hide the top green faces?

_CO can still carry 1 bit alpha channel

sometimes that can mess things up

[hallow jay]

Basically it is only the hatches that are breaking, the hull itself is fine.

It is almost as if multiple texture sets were overlayed on them at the same time

[full quarry]

why is there such a surface there facing up?

or do you not have backface culling on?

[hallow jay]

Uhm I am unsure, this is what it looks like in Blender. Just a standard hatch

Not a face direction issue

[full quarry]

ah that was picture from in game so it definitely is a face that faces up

so you need to find where that face comes from and delete it

it exist on your model

[ashen violet]

What does the UV itself look like in blender with those hatches selected?

[hallow jay]

It´s perfectly fine, I re-unwrapped it multiple times

I´s like there are three different texture sets overlayed on top of one another on these particular faces. The dark green is the exterior texture set, the beige is the interior texture set, and the wood/bright green is a texture set of all the knicknacks that are inside the vehicle

I just ended up deleting all these meshes since there is no point in having them on the last resolution LOD anyway

[full quarry]

thats what I said

[hallow jay]

There is some very, very odd issue happening with these meshes on all the LODs. I went back to think about why this issue was happening, and originally I thought it was just a LOD issue, or the issue was insufficient padding.

But then I created a test vehicle that only had a singular resolution LOD (highest quality) and the issue persisted, so it was not caused by that.
So I assumed it was a padding issue. But then I thought to myself - the particular texture set the affected meshes are on has no beige / white colour, so even if it were a padding issue, it should not be manifesting itself with a colour that is not present on the texture set.

[full quarry]

and you should not have any mesh like that facing up anywhere inside the hatches

there should be just the outer green surface facing out and inner white surface facing in

Arma3 does not draw the backside of a face

so if face is shown it is facing that direction

my guess is you have accidentally closed all those pieces with extra mesh

[mystic drum]

If I may, material assignment in the P3D is also something to double-check

[hallow jay]

Technically I should delete the back face of them, yes, but I don ´t think this is necessarily wrong, no?

[mystic drum]

If a face is linking to the wrong .paa, it doesn’t matter what the UV shows, it’ll show the wrong texture

[hallow jay]

Well, I did everything in Blender, and I tried multiple solutions. Triple check the paths, create a brand new material with the same textures, move the textures to a different folder. Change the texture name. Then move it to a different folder. Nada.

Based on what I see on the screenshot ingame the are 3 different .paas linked to these particular faces

Somehow...

[mystic drum]

Just looks to me like it’s all the bluish green pieces that are getting the wrong textures; are you using Mr Clock’s blender addon?

[hallow jay]

I am using the Arma toolbox

[hallow jay]

Yeah originally they were dark green, but then I re-unwrapped them and moved them to the brighter green texture set, since this is the last resolution LOD and I want to eliminate as many sections possible.

[mystic drum]

Have you tried testing the textures in blender?

[hallow jay]

No, good idea, I should do that

[cedar lichen]

are you using hidden selections

[hallow jay]

There are for camos, yes

[cedar lichen]

because you might have these parts assigned to the old selection

[mystic drum]

Check the vertex groups that define your hidden selections, yeah

[hallow jay]

Hmmmmm. Let me test that. What confused me was that in OB everything looked okay. It only broke once it was ingame.

[cedar lichen]

yeah that's probably hiddenselections then

as presumably you set your textures in config

and if the vertex selections are wrong you'll end up with what you have there

[hallow jay]

That sounds logical, I will give it a shot.

[mystic drum]

https://tenor.com/view/star-trek-star-trek-tos-spock-eyebrow-raise-huh-gif-16834356

[mystic drum]

Vertex groups can be aggravating lol I had a set of NVGs a week or so ago that wouldn’t show up until I zoomed out and saw them poking out of the thighs

“Gee, weighting it to the head might help” lol

[cedar lichen]

yeah that's probably the most common thing posted in this discord at least model related lol

[full quarry]

There should be no backfaces

thats wrong way to model things

only faces that can be seen

[hallow jay]

Yeah

One could argue that technically the last LOD should maybe not even have interior, but then again there are openable doors / hatches, and that would then look weird

[mystic drum]

If this is a lod that’s being seen from 300 meters away, you might as well axe the interior and blot out the windows, yeah

[full quarry]

one can bake flat planes with interior visuals

or just dark planes closing the openings

are there flipped faces inside this?

[hallow jay]

No, only interior faces

(the bottom face should be deleted, yes)

[full quarry]

is there interior face that is facing inside the hatch?

this face that faces down can not be seen from upside

this face has to be inside the hatch

[hallow jay]

None

[full quarry]

it wouls be part of the interior mesh

since it has the interior texture

[hallow jay]

Ah, how can I check in OB what texture is assigned to a particular face? 🤔

The UI is killing me

[ashen violet]

I’m a little late to the game, do you have an interior on the last lod ?

[hallow jay]

Yes

I progressed a bit in identifying the issue.

These two sort of "turret base" meshes are exactly identical when it comes to geometry. But one of them is glitchy and the other one is not.
They have different UVs (albeit the pixel margin and etc are identical on both of them), and they are also on different texture sets (same set as the respective vehicle´s turret).

Everything else is identical between the two vehicles.

So this is not caused by the mesh, and neither is it caused by the interior of the vehicle.

I am not sure if it is possible, but what I wanted to verify now is that whether there exists any sort of possibility that I would somehow have more than a single texture assigned to any face at the same time. And that the beige texture set is below the green one, and is somehow leaking through due to mipmapping

[ashen violet]

Best practice, especially with a last LOD is to not have any interior or any major features for that matter. It should essentially be a simple object that resembles the shape of the vehicle with a single material. Typically a diffuse bake from the highest poly to the last lod. You could also bake a normal map for more detail

[hallow jay]

For example here at the front there is no interior modelled below the "hatch". So it can´t really be that.

[hallow jay]

For the sake of testing I created a test vehicle with only a single highest quality LOD and it did not solve the issue.

There is something very specific happening, because across all the vehicle variants I created only two texture sets are messed up - The one with the hatches, and the one belonging to the turret of the bottom vehicle.

Everything else works fine, even though the baking settings are identical across all of them.

Anyway I leave it for today, I´ll try some other stuff tomorrow.

[stray relic]

As a test, change the rvmat for the textures affected to:
\a3\data_f\default_super.rvmat
so that it doesn't reference your _nohq, _smdi or _as map textures.
Any change?

[hallow jay]

I shall check once I scramble out of bed

[full quarry]

Not possible to face have 2 textures

[hollow notch]

Does anyone have the same texture but without the camouflage? Could you send it to me?

[rigid kindle]

broooo how do i make patches not break bruhhhh everything was in order and arma decided to f it self and gives me inverted colours in game

[full quarry]

use acceptable power of 2 resolutions

[rigid kindle]

its 4096x4096

@full quarry?

[full quarry]

check if it really is

also thats insane resolution for tiny patch

1k is already high

[mystic drum]

I’m almost convinced that a patch that high-res would be impossible to actually see, like

4096 over three square inches would be something like 537.5pixels per cm^2

iirc, I think the highest I was ever able to get a texture on a 4096x2048 texture was something like 45 or 50px/cm^2?

[hallow jay]

Unfortunately this did not solve it.

But I moved one step closer to a solution. I applied the base colour texture in Blender and compared it to what I see ingame:

Just to make sure I nuked all the other materials from the blender file, there is only one present in the whole vehicle´s file, the one with the linked texture.

Somehow, the damn game is still pulling different textures from somewhere else. For example the logs still have the old texture applied to them??

No other texture in the P3D

No log texture on the _co itself

Where is it coming from???

The same is true for the interior of the vehicle

Is this some cache/hemtt issue?

[stray relic]

The usual head-banger that has happened to all of us, is that we have accidentally changed the path for where the pbo is built and the changes are not actually being loaded into game.
So make doubly sure that the pbo loaded is the new one.

For pboProject, I'd suggest deleting the temp cache. For HEMTT, no idea.

[hallow jay]

Is there a command that would bring up all the textures present on a model ingame? 🤔

Yeah, I deleted the cache, didn´t help.

I then removed all materials from the 1st LOD:

There´s still textures in-game on it...

[stray relic]

You removed materials or textures? or both?
How are you verifying that your built pbo is the one being loaded?

[hallow jay]

I removed the Blender "material" that holds the texture info.

I know I am loading the correct PBO because if I make it load the 2nd LOD the textures come up

[stray relic]

Well blender has nothing to do with Arma. It's the p3d that counts.

[hallow jay]

Well, I export the P3D from Blender, no? So if a LOD has no texture assigned to it in Blender, then the exported P3D will also not have a texture. At least that´s what I assume?

[stray relic]

You know what they say about "assume"? 😉

[hallow jay]

Well, if I select the 1st LOD it doesnt mention any textures present on it

I´ll try removing all the textures from all the LODs then

[stray relic]

So what I would do if I was trying to understand this is:

1. add a new box in LOD 1 and verify that I see that appear in game
2. remove all TEXTURES from the P3D, and see if any textures show in game
3. if there are textures, I'd guess it's hiddenSelections, so I'd be looking to remove all "camo" type selections

[hallow jay]

That sounds sensible, I´ll try it

[hallow jay]

Yeah, it was the hiddenSelections.

Though now it leads me to wonder how the hell can hiddenSelection be causing graphical glitches on the model. You can see how initially there is no beige colour around the edges of the turret on the 2nd LOD (where I removed the hiddenSelection vertex group), but when I make the game load the 3rd LOD (where the vertex group is still present) the glitches appear

Obviously removing the hiddenselections vertex groups makes no sense because that will make the vehicle be unable to change camouflages

[raven wren]

Ohhh it’s that thing

If it’s hidden sleections you can get issues where a vertex is on two or more camo selections

If you have them not split, and assigned it can override the intended camo assigned

So in blender when setting up camo selections, I select the material, split the selection (I think it’s alt + M) and then assign the vertex group to it

Repeat for all other camo selections

If you’ve got this problem already, you’ll need to remove everything from the camo selections and start again to be sure

[hallow jay]

Yikes, I'll give it a shot, thanks

[stray relic]

All your textures/materials should be on discrete mesh (can be separated). Then when you apply camo1 to texture1/material1 and camo2 to texture2/material2 you don't get the problem Kenny describes. He's quite right, you shouldn't have camo1 and camo2 sharing any vertices/faces. But that's similar to checking your model for "sum of vertices not equal 100" in the binlogs too with regards to animation bones.

[hallow jay]

Yeah I checked and this is actually not the issue

I removed all vertex group assignments, then assigned the whole mesh to camo1 and it did not fix the issue 🤔

I´ll leave it for today

[warm anchor]

Hey! i was wondering if someone can help me out

[lethal condor]

Nobody because nobody knows what help is required

[warm anchor]

I just need help retexturing helmets and vests

[full quarry]

youll have to explain more what the problem is so we can give guidance how to proceed

[warm anchor]

Well the problem is that i find the textures, i just dont know how to do it

[full quarry]

do what

like for real

more words needed to understand

[warm anchor]

Retexture the hrlmet

Im sorry im still half asleep

So i exported a helmet texture from an arma mod (VSM) and i want to retexture it, put a flag on mostly and put it into the game as a different mod

[full quarry]

that would involve turning the texture (paa) into png/tga via saving it as one via texTools2 (Arma tools from steam)
then editing that image in your choice of image editor (paint etc)
converting that image back to paa and writing a config to go with it that paths the helmets hiddenselections to use your new texture instead

[warm anchor]

could you maybe show me?

[full quarry]

there are info about that in the channel history and on the internet. I dont have the kind of time to hold your hand through it

[warm anchor]

well ive been looking trough the channel and watched multiple videos, cant figure it out but also im willing to pay for it

[full quarry]

if you can be more specific what part you dont undertand that can be easier to answer

[warm anchor]

the texturing

the only thing im trying to do is put a flag on a helmet and a name on a vest

[wide shadow]

what goat said was pretty clear I think, unless you have more specific questions. you can just download the import/export tools off of steam, and the actual image editing is up to you in whatever program you want. writing a config and making a .pbo with it is what actually gets the exported file into the game

[lucid halo]

Am I correct in looking at the ground textures that they don't have an AS or SMDI unless that is taken care of in the NOPX?

[ashen violet]

Correct, just _CO and _NOPX for terrain textures. I have used _SMDIs for roads though but that’s different

[alpine pecan]

i want to retexture NLAW but i dont see a value in config where texture is and hiddenselectiontextures doesnt seem to work?

[full quarry]

it might not have any

yea just checked, the model is not hiddenselections capable

can not be retextured

[alpine pecan]

shucks, i guess imma hack ace's dragon or smth

[lucid halo]

I have a texture thats a decal with a _CO texture and I have another version that is the same texture but with a alpha channel, so _CA. The _CA comes out darker then the _CO. They are using the same RVMat. Is there a stage that is needed in a _CA texture that I am unaware of?

[full quarry]

What shader type is it?

_ca can behave diffrently sometimes

[lucid halo]

I think I just found the problem. I had super selected for both Pixel and Vertex. I switched it to Normal and Basic and that seemed to fix it

[jade briar]

anyone know why there is no shadow on the zulu? the shadow LOD is casting on the ground and everything else but no shadow on itself

[full quarry]

check your rvmat that it is A appliead/loaded B valid C no broken ambient settings/AO texture

also it should be supershader type

[jade briar]

the rvmat is identical to the heuy on the right, ill confirm one more time

[full quarry]

does the cobra texures contain alpha channel? are solid and transparent surfaces mixed in same texture files?

[jade briar]

nope

the cobra is made up of like 5 textures, and its happening on all those sections

also this is happening

its AO

it goes away when i dissable AO in the video settings

[full quarry]

tthis means you have alpha transparency in the solid texture

[jade briar]

oh

what should i do?

[full quarry]

remove alpha channel from the source _Co textures and convert to .paa again

[jade briar]

wilco

[burnt fjord]

i am getting this error when trying to open a normal map in textview2, any help?

[full quarry]

where is it from? what resolution is it?

[burnt fjord]

a model from 3dma, 4096x4096
its a heafty 60mb file and i tried downscaling it to 2048x2048, but that throws the same error

[full quarry]

could be its not suitable bit depth

[brittle rivet]

Try opening it with GIMP. I've had decent success with getting bad files to work that way
(Check the bit depth, as HorribleGoat suggests)
2048x2048 is fine for texview2, there are many textures that size already in Arma (the vanilla uniforms are mostly 2048x2048
4096x4096 will work as well iirc

[burnt fjord]

it opens fine in GIMP, i was trying to open it in textview to save as .paa

[brittle rivet]

What bit depth does it show in GIMP?

[burnt fjord]

idk if this is it

[brittle rivet]

That might be the issue
You can try changing it to a lower bit depth
Image > Encoding > whatever bit depth you want
I don't know if texview2 supports 16bit colours, but 8bit worked
The manual I found said 24bit TGA (32bit with alpha) is supported

[burnt fjord]

switching to 8 bit worked, ty

[languid heron]

What would be the best way to change a multicam pattern to a flat black in photoshop?

[brittle rivet]

Best method, just don't
Find a black or other single colour texture to start with
Then it's just recolouring

If you don't have a single colour, then use the NOHQ, SMDI, and AS to aid in cutting out the shapes, and use the recolour tools to make multicam into black
It's tedious to do in GIMP, probably tedious in photoshop as well but maybe not as much

[turbid swallow]

Hi Everyone, after taking damage my model turns black colour, what could be causing that?

[full quarry]

full black or just darker?

[turbid swallow]

full

[full quarry]

and what type of object is it and what kind of damage effects have you set up for it?

[turbid swallow]

For example: when I shoot the glass, the rest of the model turns black colour but glass stays the same.

[full quarry]

building? vehicle? how have you set it up to behave?

black usually means broken rvmat

[turbid swallow]

plane

[full quarry]

damage texture swap is default behavior

but would need setting up

[turbid swallow]

I have the HitGlass1, HitGlass2 etc setup in the Hit-points and in the config.cpp in the class Damage under mat[] = {} I have rvmat entries setup. Is that what you mean?

[stray relic]

Show us your class Damage code, and then post the code inside the damaged rvmat.

[turbid swallow]

https://pastebin.com/cXVU91uB

[stray relic]

Do you have a zbytek selection name assigned to textures with the rvmat plane_g4supergaleb_default.rvmat?
Is zbytek in your model.cfg sections []?
Not the cause of your issue, but you shouldn't have a trailing comma (,) after the last array entry in class Damage.
Is the code below class Damage for Soko_G4_Super_Galeb_body_1_damage.rvmat?
Try replacing the code with this as a test (there should be no change when damaged):

    {
        "Soko_G4_Super_Galeb\data\textures\default\plane_g4supergaleb_default.rvmat",    
        "Soko_G4_Super_Galeb\data\textures\default\plane_g4supergaleb_default.rvmat",    
        "Soko_G4_Super_Galeb\data\textures\destruct\Soko_G4_Super_Galeb_body_1_destruct.rvmat",    
    };```

[turbid swallow]

So when I did as you have suggested, model does not get black anymore and i get damage only on certain sections, eg: that part of the cabin, horizontal stabilizer, flaps, aileron and nothing else. And zbytek is in model.cfg sections[].

[stray relic]

So that probably means that your Soko_G4_Super_Galeb_body_1_damage.rvmat or the texture maps used in it, needs improvement.
First of all, put your class Damage back as you originally had it.
Then try changing in your damage rvmat

specularPower = 60;```

If that doesn't help, swap the normal for a procedural:
```class Stage1
{
  texture = "#(argb,8,8,3)color(0.5,0.5,1,1,NOHQ)";```
and then swap the smdi for a procedural:
```class Stage5
{
  texture = "#(argb,8,8,3)color(1,0,1,0,SMDI)";```
That will tell you if either of your nohq or smdi damage textures are bad.

[turbid swallow]

did that, no change, however, when I try to blow it up with rpg, the rocket passes trough those parts that damage is no show. Its smomething in the Fire Geometry but I can't figure it out.

[dire laurel]

any1 got any idea can you use substance painter to create .ca maps ?

As for new model/texture maker i can say that substance painter works for me and im totally noob what comes to creating textures...

[silver gull]

just look for tutorials how to handle alpha maps in substance painter, _ca textures are nothing else then diffuse textures with alpha channel

[lilac siren]

Hello everyone, i'm making a tank mod and i'm having a problem with my textures not loading when i place my tank in the editor. I made the camo using Substance Painter. Do i need to have a model cfg first or will the textures work just by being assigned in Blender (Object Builder addon) ?

My problem is that my textures even though they are assigned in Blender materials, dont show in Arma Editor and get an error "cannot load texture : "path" ". Is it a config, model cfg or just a path error? I tried many different paths and made all letters lowercase in the virtual path in Blender, but still did not load the PAAs. TexView2 opens the PAAs fine. I haven't got a model cfg, only a cfg vehicles. Is there a possibility that the textures don't show because there is no skeleton ?

This is the error

[stray relic]

Do a search here for details on setting up a "p drive", "mikeros pboProject", and even if not the cause of the texture path errors, you will want a model.cfg for your mod.

[lilac siren]

I have a P drive, i don't think that is the issue, as i gave a relative texture path on each material tab in Blender, with all sorts of changes, from P drive location, to shortened relative path, even changing all letters to lowercase.

The game just wouldn't open my texture. If you have no other ideas about the cause of it, i will try after i give a model cfg. If that doesn't work, i will try to reproduce my maps from Substance as a last resort and watch about stuff like DTX and all that. If that wouldn't work either then i don't know i will probably dump the mod cause i can't texture my tank from the start. It already took me a lot of time.

[stray relic]

Your path is wrong, it's that simple.
Suggest you show your drive and folder setup, the path to texture in Object Builder p3d (not blender) and use pboProject to pack it (because it will tell you errors rather than pack rubbish).

[lilac siren]

Okay, i will send it on a while. Hope it's this simple issue and I'm just to dumb to resolve it for a whole day now 🤣

[full quarry]

Bad uvmapping maybe

[lethal condor]

But you want to make sure you are using the right UV

Especially if you have multiple of them

[full quarry]

Im guessing we can try debug it from the beginning. wheres the model from and whats your experience in 3d modeling

[lilac siren]

I changed some path files and the P setup, though Object Builder still says "Missing Textures"

Μy Driver and mod path:
P:\t_64\data\textures...

Blender Material path

[tranquil mason]

You shouldn't have the P in those file paths, they should be the "arma" path to the file

[lilac siren]

My texture file setup

[lilac siren]

It auto-assigned it AFTER it was made P3D, because my mod is in P Driver for now.

[tranquil mason]

They still shouldn't be there

¯_(ツ)_/¯

[lilac siren]

Object Builder gives me missing textures when i press "Check Textures"

And when i use PboProject i get this:

Files exist though

[lilac siren]

It is because of the relative path. Before it was made P3D it was like this:

[full quarry]

the path in object builder can have P: its removed on export as far as I remember

the paths dont seem to match what you try to pack though

[lilac siren]

I believe that even if i pull the mod out of the P drive and is in the arma 3 folder it still wont work. Cant understand why it cant see the files

[full quarry]

for example here your folder paths are not same

t_64 and T64

[lilac siren]

I saw that also. Will check inside the RVMAT

But i think that even if i correct the RVMAT i will still get missing textures

[full quarry]

mod files should be on P drive in the file structure of your mod so that when you pack pbo the solder structure matches what you put into the pbo

and write in configs etc

[full quarry]

since you have not packed with pboProject your pbo is probably broken

fix errors so pboProject can make you a proper pbo

[lilac siren]

Will update in some minutes... im really curious

[full quarry]

object builder might not see your paths correctly if you have messed up settings

like in OB options (file menu) you need to have path to textures as P:\

[lilac siren]

I did not get any texture errors or rvmat ones in PboProject now

Will check if OB can see the textures

Path for Textures in Options

Pressed Check for Textures

same thing

[full quarry]

no

just P:\

[lilac siren]

🎉

Point is, i don't know if the game will load them after i pbo the file and throw it in the Arma 3 directory

Should i load the mod as local from P drive ?

[full quarry]

you still have to make a local mod folder for it and add it to the mod list in the launcher

dont put pbo in p drive

only modding files on p drive

[lilac siren]

So standard procedure. @LocalModfile

etc

[full quarry]

yes

[lilac siren]

Cool, thanks a lot ... But im not too optimistic 🤣

@full quarry So, tested it and something ridiculous happened. Game crashed when trying to spawn the tank with no errors. Just closed

I have placed the tank before, when it was just the white P3D model. But now even though i get no texture error, game crashes. Is it a memory issue or does it need a model cfg ?

[full quarry]

dont know. hard crashes like that are not exactly common

you can check if the rpt log of the crahs has any info

[hallow jay]

I think my game only ever crashed if the path to the .p3d was wrong in the config

[lilac siren]

After finding any script errors i could, i got these texture errors.

here starts loading them

Then here is where it finds the error i suppose

[full quarry]

your rvmats are made wrong then

[lilac siren]

Checked the rvmats. No more errors. The error is on the PAAs. This one specifically. Do you think it would be good to turn all of my PAA into 8bit ?

[full quarry]

its wrong bit depth

[lilac siren]

Tbh i don't much about this stuff, but as far as i understand, the bit channel depth should be 8bit per channel ?

[full quarry]

yes

also rgb

[rare ginkgo]

does anyone know where i can find the directory for the caveat font? tried looking in uifonts_f_data but it isnt there

[lethal condor]

a3\ui_f_enoch\Data\CfgFontFamilies\Caveat

But there is nothing to do with the PAA files on your end?

[rare ginkgo]

thanks, also no, i just wanted to find the directory for it to see what other fonts were available

[lethal condor]

You don't want to peek the files like that, but check config. Everything is listed there, if there is nothing else, that's the dead end

Config always is your first goto to see anything

[rare ginkgo]

got you, thanks for the tip

[lethal condor]

(Please note: even if the config states nothing, there can be some unused files... but very unlikely)

[idle tendon]

Hi guys, i'm looking at making skins for Sabre's Mil Aviation Mod but saw the images on steam have better skins than the mod. Does anyone know how you get these or how to contact Sabre?

[hexed plover]

Replying here for posterity, the issue was fixed by setting RenderFlags[] = {"NoZwrite"}; to the transparent material's RVMAT

[noble garnet]

Is there any known differences going four 512 textures, compared to just one 2048?
From what I understand that it would become four section counts going with the first method. Which the community consensus is worse. Though, a 512 color texture = 128kb, same texture at 2048 is 2mb and both at DXT1. It should be better, no? Considering the memory overhead is lower

(size values taken from texview)

Trying to search for answers in forums and discord only comes to the conclusion that it doesn't matter as the quality would be the same (same amount of pixels), but there are none that mention that increased texture size, means increased memory usage

[full quarry]

in grand scale of things the 1 texture is better

but what kind of texture setup you should use can depend a bit on what you do

[noble garnet]

so on paper one would prefer as an example; a vehicle that has decals baked down, rather than having the body texture and then a shared decal texture- focusing on performance rather than the fact it's easier to work with

as I understand even doing shared textures doesn't matter in the end due to it being still a draw call

ohh small backtrack, could just reduce section count on the next LOD

[full quarry]

well purely from performance standpoint sure

but for better visuals and easier decal use, one would use actual decals

decals having a shared texture is the best compromise

[stray relic]

Having decals separate from the main textures also allows for easier re-skinning, either by the mod maker or third parties.

[noble garnet]

Indeed, but as I said, focusing on performance to understand the limits of Arma 3. As now returning back to modding as a hobby while in the industry really shows that arma has some interesting conundrums, or at least the information available on the wiki isn't sufficient. Like I can't even find information about texture compression beyond that NOVHQ uses DXT5.
The importance of texture sizes is more important in today standards, due reading from the harddrive is SLOW, and of course things like that can be circumvented by making texture sizes lower or caching a detailed material that will be reused several times.

I don't have anything I am implementing yet but got curious on performance as looking back to my older stuff, felt overkill doing 4k things for the smallest stuff when I am now doing 512 for a pair of shoes

might do a drastic test of comparing two 4k vs sixteen 512 to see difference between section count vs texture size

[full quarry]

its more in grand scheme of things

like if you have lot of assets on screen with sixteen materials instead of 1

single one probably does not have noticeable effect

[noble garnet]

Yea had the intention to spam equal amount in the scene and compare performance between them

[full quarry]

youll likely need a lot of different ones.

not sure if its worth the hassle

[turbid swallow]

All fixed now, thank you for all your help @full quarry @stray relic

[wooden lantern]

it does matter huh

ur not gonna see a performance difference on 1 draw call versus 4 draw calls 😭

just stick with one usually tbh or do 2 and have a main texture and a lower quality decal sheet

[noble garnet]

well from searching and asking it seems no one can agree on anything, as even the wiki encourages to minimize section counts

[wooden lantern]

no one can agree because it's a non negligible difference unless u make something so incredibly unoptimized and then you'll notice lmao

less section counts is better but will like more than 5 section counts kill u? no

[noble garnet]

well still no one can provide a good answer overall ¯_(ツ)_/¯ and I'm curious on aiming for optimization in general.

as one thing that's odd is the wiki mentions this
To highlight the impact of section count, a quote from modeller "P1nGa" about a test he did with a Performance Testscript created by JonBons on reddit: you can find some surprising results, like my Minimi Mk3 has almost 5k more verts, than the most common used M249 at the moment, but in almost all of the tests i get 5-10fps better, essentially because the other one has like 13 sections, and mine as 4 . That is 5-10 fps for just one weapon.

but nothing on whether those 13 sections were all 4k or anything about it

just a nothing burger of an answer

I see normal maps in general are DXT5 at least so that shit gets pretty expensive if there's several of them

but I also got console optimization engraved into my mind

[full quarry]

if you want optimized you dont use normalmaps at all

the moment you consider visual quality with normalmaps you can drop any compression considerations

otherwise its just waste of time

you are overthinking it like 100x

there is no X number of sections a model should have

basic formula is. lowes possible impact with the visuals you want to achieve

(additional clause, no need for 4k textures everywhere)

[noble garnet]

alright perfect, that's a good answer for me

[full quarry]

asset development can be a rabbit hole

😅

[noble garnet]

ah could be worse tbh

[wooden lantern]

or just put 4k textures everywhere and notice how no one ever notices or blames it for anything

[wooden lantern]

DDS compression formats decodes the same way