Another one of those "tell us newbs how to mod" thread

[TheSensorium 1]

'If you choose to put script files in folders, they are then accessed by relative path of the mission.sqf file' - a direct quote from an A2 scripting guide - yet if I reference any sound in scripts from the same folder - it wont work.

There are many modders out there with the same questions, and with this thread - I hope to explain what one of the number one questions is: How do we WORK WITH ARMA to create mods?

Many 'modders' out there can write scripts, can get their heads round relatively easy functions, if statements and the likes, but just don't know how to configure these scripts to work with ARMA's mission files. What makes ARMA's file infrastructure different to everything else? That's the question quite a few modders have right now.

If you are a veteran/experience ARMA modder (both past and present), what would be your number one piece of advice for modders new to the ARMA series?

[contrails 10]

Number one piece of advice? When asking for help, ask specific questions, not "tell me how to mod".

To answer what the file structure is like:

everything is based off the .pbo. So whether in a mission or in an addon, the root of the .pbo is the root of your file structure.

Let's say you have a mission called CO40_runaway.stratis.pbo and are looking to reference a script surrender.sqf:

If it's in the root folder (where the mission.sqf is that your tutorial is talking about), just reference surrender.sqf. If its in a folder called "scripts", then reference scripts\surrender.sqf

Similarly for an addon, a texture called body.paa inside the folder data would be referenced data\body.paa

So to specifically answer your issue, if your script is inside a folder, it doesn't matter - it still goes off the root folder. You'd need to reference where your sounds are in relation to the root.

[TheSensorium 1]

What you are saying is common practice in most things, but for some reason just isn't working in my case. It will not reference from the mission folder for whatever reason. The sound will not be played when instructed with \sounds\filename.ogg (as, like you say - it's inside a folder called 'sounds' within the mission file test.stratis. This sound file will only play if I use the entire folder tree from c:// upwards. I know this is supposed to work, but it isn't - and this is what is making me think that maybe there are unique ways of modding with ARMA that you wouldn't normally do with any other game/project.

By the way - I'm not trying to reference a script - referencing a script works fine - it's playing a sound file VIA a script I'm having the problem with using playsound3D

Edited March 9, 2013 by TheSensorium

[contrails 10]

What does your cfgSounds look like?

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Description.ext#cfgSounds

[TheSensorium 1]

class CfgSounds

{

sounds[] = {samplesound};

class samplesound

{

name = "samplesound";

sound[] = {"samplesound.ogg", db-10, 1.0};

titles[] = {};

};

};

[contrails 10]

Hmmm actually it seems to be an unrelated issue -

you're using, correct? http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/playSound3D it appears to be a function to play a sound that is not defined in cfgSounds. Looks like then it would start referencing from the root of your A3 installation (useful to play from addon .pbo's)

the command you want is: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/playSound

playSound "soundname";

where "soundname" would be "samplesound" in your example

[Messiah 2]

If you are a veteran/experience ARMA modder (both past and present), what would be your number one piece of advice for modders new to the ARMA series?

Searching

(Whilst this my sound quite standoffish, learning by doing, trial and error, reading guides and tutorials is by far the best way to mod this game. Every conceivable question has been asked a hundred times before, and the A2 guides are just as relevant for A3)

[DavidO 1]

I'll borrow the thread a bit so as not to create a new topic about it, in case someone who knows is looking here.

With ArmA 2 I could use arma2p to get all the arma 2 content to p:/ca.

Is there something similar available for ArmA 3, or do I have extract all the .pbo files by hand and put them in p:/a3 (or wherever it is supposed to go).

[max power 21]

Some forum rules to keep in mind:

Please search before posting a new thread. If you are having specific problems, someone may have already solved it.

Make sure you are posting in the right forum or right thread.

Please use descriptive thread titles. Users should not have to read the body of your post to find out what it is about.

The number one piece of advice anyone can give, I think, has already been given. Make friends with doing research on the forum and other community resources.

[TheSensorium 1]

Contrails, thanks for that - it has helped. Now to look into the different arguments that I can use with playsound - Unfortunately, both playsound and 'say' work fine for local clients, but the .ogg cannot be heard by others in the immediate vicinity. Now it's time to do some searching to see how other local players can hear the sound!

Thanks again for your help :)