Arma3 Characters Modding Tutorial

[Vespa 1]

Hey guys, I prepared some material for Arma3 characters modding:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Modding_Characters

I plan to expand it with configuration and implementation stuff soon.

Let me know what you like, and what you miss.

Stiltman's excellent guide to retexturing existing Arma3 uniforms and vests

!!!>>>Mondkalb's complete units addon example<<<!!!!

descrition how to add custom helmet by Stiltman

example config of a vest, by RavenDK

STALKERGB's Weighting overview - skinning directly in Oxygen2

Character retexture guide by Scarecrow398

additional/general Arma modding info:

OFPEC (Operation Flashpoint Editing Center) tutorial collection

Configuration of Arma1 soldier

Armedassault.info tutorial collection

Texturing and materials in Arma

Edited March 12, 2013 by Vespa

[R0adki11 3949]

Wow, thank you. I wasn't expecting to see this so soon :)

[Stiltman 3]

Awesome, thank you a bunch :D

[.kju 3245]

Vespa our dear dev hero :bounce3:

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Wow, didn't expect something like this so early on.

I don't even do character modelling at all really, but I can't thank you guys at BIS enough for providing these resources.

[Dwarden 1125]

stickied ;)

[cross888 10]

I love you vespa.

[ProfTournesol 956]

A very good step in the right direction toward supporting modding.

[R0adki11 3949]

Can we use an existing Arma2 config and model.cfg to get Characters into game?

[Vespa 1]

I have no idea myself. Configs are not my area, but I will try to ask around. If some skilled community haxxor feels like providing insight, I welcome that!

[freakjoe 3]

Thanks a lot for this!

[antoineflemming 14]

Hey guys, I prepared some material for Arma3 characters modding:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Modding_Characters

I plan to expand it with configuration and implementation stuff soon.

Let me know what you like, and what you miss.

EDIT:

descrition how to add custom helmet by Stiltman

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?147988-Helmet-Addons&p=2318293&viewfull=1#post2318293

Well this explains why only the caps, tactical vest, and underwear have hiddenSelections. Is there a chance you could add hiddenSelections to all the uniforms, headgear, and vests? Trying to make a combat shirt, OPSCORE FAST helmet, and Crye CAGE Plate Carrier reskin, but there are no hiddenSelections on those.

[astast 12]

Thanks a lot for this really :D

I will get right to it :D

[Vespa 1]

Well this explains why only the caps, tactical vest, and underwear have hiddenSelections. Is there a chance you could add hiddenSelections to all the uniforms, headgear, and vests? Trying to make a combat shirt, OPSCORE FAST helmet, and Crye CAGE Plate Carrier reskin, but there are no hiddenSelections on those.

right, thanks for pointing that out -will be arranged.

The actual crye vests HAVE "camo" selection on them, but dunno what else need to be done in config. Helmets lack it, so I fix

[antoineflemming 14]

right, thanks for pointing that out -will be arranged.

The actual crye vests HAVE "camo" selection on them, but dunno what else need to be done in config. Helmets lack it, so I fix

I tried putting hiddenSelections[] = {"camo"}; before my hiddenSelectionsTextures[] code. But, after doing that, the vest is invisible and it can't read the uniform texture. weird.

[Binkowski 26]

Well this explains why only the caps, tactical vest, and underwear have hiddenSelections. Is there a chance you could add hiddenSelections to all the uniforms, headgear, and vests? Trying to make a combat shirt, OPSCORE FAST helmet, and Crye CAGE Plate Carrier reskin, but there are no hiddenSelections on those.

Or you could model them, and texture them. Then put them into the game and onto units using the modulation system.

Also, regarding hidden selections make sure you have added them in the model.cfg of your addon.. like how did on my US Marines..

class CfgModels
{
class Default
{
	sectionsInherit="";
	sections[] = {"tex1","tex2","tex3","tex4","hat"};
	skeletonName = "";
};

[antoineflemming 14]

Ok, I got the vests to work. Was a problem with my texture path. The combat shirt isn't working, however. Anyway, thanks for the help. This should make my upcoming mod a little easier.

[lennard 447]

I didn't expect this to come this soon. This is why I love BIS.

Thanks for this useful stuff :)

[ardvarkdb 104]

Thanks for providing the example models so quickly. Personally, I am very excited to finally be able to implement customizable headgear properly, no longer having to use the various workarounds from Arma 2.

[slatts 1978]

Sweet :D Could we see something similar with weapons?

[freakjoe 3]

I'm having a little problem here.

I've done some small changes to the example vest p3d provided by you, created a config and binarized it.

So, it shows up just fine in game but it isn't placed where it is supposed to be placed but inbetween my legs instead.

Here is a screenshot showing what I'm talking about :

If you take a close look, you'll see the vest between my legs.

Here is my config :

enum {
destructengine = 2,
destructdefault = 6,
destructwreck = 7,
destructtree = 3,
destructtent = 4,
stabilizedinaxisx = 1,
stabilizedinaxesxyz = 4,
stabilizedinaxisy = 2,
stabilizedinaxesboth = 3,
destructno = 0,
stabilizedinaxesnone = 0,
destructman = 5,
destructbuilding = 1
};

class DefaultEventhandlers;
class CfgPatches
{
class FJ_Clothing
{
	units[] = {};
	weapons[] = {"FJ_TestVest"};
	requiredVersion = 0.1;
	requiredAddons[] = {"A3_Data_F","A3_Weapons_F"};
};
};

class cfgWeapons
{
class Vest_Base;
class VestItem;

class FJ_TestVest: Vest_Base
{
	scope = 2;
	displayName = "Test Vest";
	picture = "\A3\characters_f\Data\UI\icon_V_plate_carrier_1_CA.paa";
	model = "\FJ_Clothing\test_vest.p3d";
	class ItemInfo: VestItem
	{
		uniformModel = "\FJ_Clothing\test_vest.p3d";
		containerClass = "Supply100";
		mass = 50;
		armor = "5*0.5";
		passThrough = 0.7;
	};
};

};

Any help regarding my problem would be greatly appreciated.

[ravendk 25]

Thanks Vespa!

This is fantastic :)

[Binkowski 26]

Is the vest weighed with the proper selections? That is the only reason why I can think of it acting that way.

[freakjoe 3]

Is the vest weighed with the proper selections? That is the only reason why I can think of it acting that way.

I have kept all of the selections provided in the example model. I didn't even know that there needed to be a geo lod.

Is there a model.cfg that is needed?

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Is there a model.cfg that is needed?

Probably! Stiltman's said the example model.cfg from the Arma 2 samples worked when he tried making a custom helmet model so it might be worth a shot using that. I think you just add an inheritance to the bottom of the model.cfg he posted along the lines of

class name_of_your_model : ArmaMan {};

Otherwise I imagine we'll have to wait and see if Vespa can sort us out with an updated model.cfg for whatever changes may have been made to the main human skeleton.