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AFOF_Murdock

ArmA II Editor Manual - RELEASED

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ARMA 2 Editor Manual

UPDATED TO NEW VERSION, CHANGELOG BELOW

Here peeps, I know a lot of people (including me) started out from scratch with the Editor.

I also know it's a huge pain to google every single bit about the Editor that isn't logical.

And it's more of a pain to go through all kinds of forum threads and wikis before you finally find your answer.

So i present

the answer itself

The ArmA II Editor Manual - Mustknow Guide for ArmA II Editing

The guide from the simple to more complex features of the ArmA II Editor.

It contains large (by large I mean shot on a 1080p res) screenshots, coding for dummies and all external links and tutorials to get you started creating fair enough ArmA II missions.

(doesn't contain all answers, but 45 pages isn't bad, is it?)

Anyway, here is the download link

http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=13109

Changelog

- Added links into PDF file

- Changed annoying yellow/white colors to blue/black colors

- Other minor edits

I will provide the actual Word file on the Armaholic webpage (unfortunately I do not have the time to support the manual anymore) so the community is free to edit, update and translate it as they wish, as long as I'm credited for the original file. Thank you for the support.

Edited by AFOF_Murdock
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Wow! Thanks for the effort.

It's looking really nice and detailed. I'm sure it will be of help to new mission makers. (and maybe some old ones as well)

Kind Regards

Melvin

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For those who don't think downloading the manual is worth it because they don't think they'll find what they need, here's a list of the most distinguished advanced features:

- HALO jumps

- CAS and Artillery

- Cutscene creation

- etc.

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Will download and check it out

I believe Mr Murray is soon releasing his Updated Mr Murrays Editing Guide Deluxe wich is pretty much the basic bible of arma and arma2 mission making.

You might want to talk to him about cooperating or sumthing..

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Some random comments:

You need to fade out your background, black text gets lost against background frequently and white/yellow text is impossible to read over the lighter areas. Fade the background and put colored text on a darker, more solid background or callout.

Crop down your images so that only the important parts are visible letting you have more "zoomed in" pictures. Many of the examples are so small as to not be able to read any text or easily see the differences since they are all full screen images (with a lot of space not needed) and compressed and shrunk down too small to be useful. You have to zoom in to 300% for the text in pictures to be clear.

Your briefing section doesn't actually tell people how to add briefings, instead it tells how to use a 3rd party program? Why entirely leave out such an important section?

Not including a classlist due to "space" is a really odd decision.

Making the TOC be links would increase usefulness of the PDF as well. The bookmark section is nice though. Page numbers are 1 off from the PDF pages however.

Printing isn't bad, except for the black text on background issues and many pages with negative space at the bottom.

Also wouldn't have used addon maps, like the Vietnam one, for examples. It only leads to confusion and "I can't get this to work" type situations. Instructions should be as default as possible. :)

Might be nice to include a "companion" file with this with all of your examples so people can see in the editor how it should be.

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Exactly what I was looking for, as I've just recently picked up the game, and have spent most of it in the mission editor. I definitely look forward to future editions!

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Great to see it released in BIS forum. Hope to see future improvements in the manual. Thanks again

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Some random comments:

You need to fade out your background, black text gets lost against background frequently and white/yellow text is impossible to read over the lighter areas. Fade the background and put colored text on a darker, more solid background or callout.

Crop down your images so that only the important parts are visible letting you have more "zoomed in" pictures. Many of the examples are so small as to not be able to read any text or easily see the differences since they are all full screen images (with a lot of space not needed) and compressed and shrunk down too small to be useful. You have to zoom in to 300% for the text in pictures to be clear.

Your briefing section doesn't actually tell people how to add briefings, instead it tells how to use a 3rd party program? Why entirely leave out such an important section?

Not including a classlist due to "space" is a really odd decision.

Making the TOC be links would increase usefulness of the PDF as well. The bookmark section is nice though. Page numbers are 1 off from the PDF pages however.

Printing isn't bad, except for the black text on background issues and many pages with negative space at the bottom.

Also wouldn't have used addon maps, like the Vietnam one, for examples. It only leads to confusion and "I can't get this to work" type situations. Instructions should be as default as possible. :)

Might be nice to include a "companion" file with this with all of your examples so people can see in the editor how it should be.

Firstly, I've changed the white/yellow text, I just have to update the file. That's fixed.

Second, if you zoom into the images they are easily readable because they are 1080p images. Simply use Ctrl+Mousewheel

About the briefing section, there's everything you need to know. It tells you where to place the files and how to create them. I dont know what to tell you. The third party program is there because it makes it much easier than writing codes. It says there you simply have to save the briefing file in the mission folder and it says how to create the init file to show the briefing at the mission begining.

Yeah, the classlists really aren't there due to "space" :p but because I didn't have the nerves to put them in the manual. Yet.

Yes, I thought about adding the links. I actually hoped MS Word would transfer the hyperlinks into a PDF when I select "Save as .pdf...". Turns out it didn't. I'll include that in the updated version.

I really didn't notice any problems with black text on background, but if you say "printing" and you literarilly mean printing it on a piece of paper, I gotta tell you the manual was optimized for PC usage and for Adobe Reader/Acrobat to be honest.

I've used a couple of addon maps, but I've added a note at the begining that the screenshots were taken of a modded version of ArmA II: Combined Ops, but that the principles remain the same. I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get it to work just because it's another map.

I never thought about the companion file. I might publish it, but separately from the manual. Still just an idea, though.

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skimmed through it , got as far as the video and quit cos it was LOUD AS FUCK and wouldn't stop.

what i did notice that some of it is hard to read .. take for example the waypoint type page its hard to find the info you want from that page at a glance due to it all being bunched up together. you could have put 1 or 2 spaces in between each one , spacing it out more and making it easier to locate the info you want.

theres more than enough spare room at the bottom of the page

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skimmed through it , got as far as the video and quit cos it was LOUD AS FUCK and wouldn't stop.

what i did notice that some of it is hard to read .. take for example the waypoint type page its hard to find the info you want from that page at a glance due to it all being bunched up together. you could have put 1 or 2 spaces in between each one , spacing it out more and making it easier to locate the info you want.

theres more than enough spare room at the bottom of the page

Well, the loudness of the video depends on your own personal audio settings. Plus it was filmed from inside ArmA 2, so I doubt the game is any more silent to you (depends on your settings). Also the video should have a start/pause bar on the bottom and if it doesn't you should be able to right click on it and press Disable.

About the waypoint type list - The list doesn't seem too hard to read because the types are listed on the left and written in bold text, like this:

Type 1 Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Type 2 Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Type 3 a bit less Blah

:D

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Nice work and thank you for the time you spent on it!

It looks like a project that can grow and grow.

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Well it was my plan to make it grow and grow, especially with help from the community because I've really spent a too long time in a too small amount of days creating that manual, so I'd like if someone experienced reads the manual to contribute to it by providing the information he/she'd like to see.

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so I'd like if someone experienced reads the manual to contribute to it by providing the information he/she'd like to see.

You got what you asked for already, to a certain extent. :p

Some random comments:

I keep kylania's site open in a tab in Firefox every time I'm messing around in the editor. There's plenty of great stuff there, and the site's design means it isn't another complication (like some community sites I've seen around, especially for other games).

Aside from that, kylania's suggestions are quite relevant. Especially the font/background colors. If it's difficult to read your guide, I personally don't care how informative it is, I won't give myself a headache deciding if what I'm seeing is a c or e, t or f. If it's not legible you've got a problem, mate. Just sayin'.

Oh, and massive full-screen screencaps aren't really necessary, and if you just cropped out the unnecessary parts of the images you'd reduce your file size as well. Smaller files are easier to download, and thus more user-friendly. That's the whole idea, isn't it?

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I love the examples however I really wish a lot of guys who take the time to do this would add the reason they do things, What I mean is I am a Noob and will probably read this 5 times to more advanced players when I see something like this

player setPos [getPos player select 0, getPos player select 1, (getPos player select 2) +1000]

My mind says 2 things :

1) Fantastic found what I needed and I copy and paste it!

2) I wish I knew how to do that

Some examples of what each part of the commands are and why you would choose to write it would be helpful to me.

Examples are the best by far and to accompany mission examples are also gold.

I also liked the style of Mr Murrays guide however what I find confusing as a new guy wanting to get into this scripting thing is the approach that Mr Murray takes is exactly what I want he explains why he does things and gives a foundation. But some of it is outdated and I am then not sure what to read.

The last thing I would note is that you asked for constructive criticism and I think kylania was offering that, I am sure that he as well as all of appreciate and want to see you continue with these efforts as it helps the whole community. I for one love any information I can soak up. I think the point he is trying to make in terms of the briefings and tasks. Is that It would be nice if the noobs could understand the coordination of creating the briefing with tasks and triggers. That would help the overall learning which I assume is your goal.

So overall I love your tutorial and I hope you expand on this continually!!

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I love the examples however I really wish a lot of guys who take the time to do this would add the reason they do things,

player setPos [getPos player select 0, getPos player select 1, (getPos player select 2) +1000]

My mind says 2 things :

1) Fantastic found what I needed and I copy and paste it!

2) I wish I knew how to do that

I agree, I am a noob too and I am spending much time studying the scripting with a furrowed brow. I also wish people would take a few minutes to explain what the script means. Some add comments to lines of code in the sqf files which is excellent. Big thank you to all those that do.

That one is exlained here:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/setPos

Player setPos = Set the position of the player

getPos player select 0 = x coordinates current

getPos player select 1 = y coordinates current

(getPos player select 2) +1000 = z coordinates +1000m

If you run it from a trigger in the editor you will find yourself 1000m in the air above the spot you were standing on, without a parachute!

Edited by PELHAM

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Bah I feel dumb I never realized I needed and X and Y coordinates but It makes sence

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I love the examples however I really wish a lot of guys who take the time to do this would add the reason they do things, What I mean is I am a Noob and will probably read this 5 times to more advanced players when I see something like this

player setPos [getPos player select 0, getPos player select 1, (getPos player select 2) +1000]

My mind says 2 things :

1) Fantastic found what I needed and I copy and paste it!

2) I wish I knew how to do that

Some examples of what each part of the commands are and why you would choose to write it would be helpful to me.

Examples are the best by far and to accompany mission examples are also gold.

I also liked the style of Mr Murrays guide however what I find confusing as a new guy wanting to get into this scripting thing is the approach that Mr Murray takes is exactly what I want he explains why he does things and gives a foundation. But some of it is outdated and I am then not sure what to read.

The last thing I would note is that you asked for constructive criticism and I think kylania was offering that, I am sure that he as well as all of appreciate and want to see you continue with these efforts as it helps the whole community. I for one love any information I can soak up. I think the point he is trying to make in terms of the briefings and tasks. Is that It would be nice if the noobs could understand the coordination of creating the briefing with tasks and triggers. That would help the overall learning which I assume is your goal.

So overall I love your tutorial and I hope you expand on this continually!!

^+1 and well said. This is a great manual and I like it a lot, but would love that the background is soften down a bit and able to make it printable.

Keep it up. :)

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I love the examples however I really wish a lot of guys who take the time to do this would add the reason they do things, What I mean is I am a Noob and will probably read this 5 times to more advanced players when I see something like this

player setPos [getPos player select 0, getPos player select 1, (getPos player select 2) +1000]

My mind says 2 things :

1) Fantastic found what I needed and I copy and paste it!

2) I wish I knew how to do that

Some examples of what each part of the commands are and why you would choose to write it would be helpful to me.

Examples are the best by far and to accompany mission examples are also gold.

I also liked the style of Mr Murrays guide however what I find confusing as a new guy wanting to get into this scripting thing is the approach that Mr Murray takes is exactly what I want he explains why he does things and gives a foundation. But some of it is outdated and I am then not sure what to read.

The last thing I would note is that you asked for constructive criticism and I think kylania was offering that, I am sure that he as well as all of appreciate and want to see you continue with these efforts as it helps the whole community. I for one love any information I can soak up. I think the point he is trying to make in terms of the briefings and tasks. Is that It would be nice if the noobs could understand the coordination of creating the briefing with tasks and triggers. That would help the overall learning which I assume is your goal.

So overall I love your tutorial and I hope you expand on this continually!!

About number 2. in your example. Read this in the manual, it's page 32 in the PDF but the manual says 31.

allow you to select an exact (x (east-west), y (south-north), z (height)) position
object1 setPos [ getPos desiredobject select 0, getPos desiredobject select 1, (getPos desiredobject select 2) +offset]

this changes the Z position

player setPos [ getPos player select 0, (getPos player select 1) +50, getPos player select 2 ]

this offsets the Y value

player setPos [ 50, getPos player select 1, 2 ]

this sets the X position of the player unit to 50 and the Z value to 2, while the Y value remains unchanged

I think the manual says it all more or less, and explains it too.

I agree kylania was giving constructive criticism. BUT

I added links into the PDF.

The background doesn't seem to affect my reading, if someone finds it problematic play with your brightness/contrast settings.

I left the images fullscreen because when you edit the mission, you don't see only the important stuff you see the whole screen, and if there's a lot of stuff going on it may be hard to find what you're looking for. These full screen images DON'T have a lot of stuff going on and thus enable newbies to more easily familiarize with the entire interface. (my opinion)

I didn't design the manual for printing (i say again), and "porting" it into a printable shape would be too complicated. Sorry :(.

The companion file is being created, but you'll have to wait a while.

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Thanks. Would love an update with more "What you can expect in a mission" update, like how call a UAV, how to get a choppe to pick up and extract, and how to insert, and such things. Would love for co-op playing.

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