FHQ M4 for Arma 3 (Prerelease)

[Zenid 10]

I hope this illustrates what I mean:

Just looks like you're not gripping the vertical grip on the picture on the left.

[Alwarren 2766]

I see what you mean. I was going for a slightly different style of holding the front grip (the "Thumb Break" grip as detailed here).

Compare to this.

It's just that the viewing angle doesn't reveal much of this.

[instagoat 133]

I actually am beginning to think that the one thing to make the reload animation look more "alive" is to also animate the torso. Most tutorials don't help with that though, most games only have to deal with animating the arms, not the whole torso :(

[Alwarren 2766]

I actually am beginning to think that the one thing to make the reload animation look more "alive" is to also animate the torso. Most tutorials don't help with that though, most games only have to deal with animating the arms, not the whole torso :(

Good point. I will see what I can do, although I think that the default anims also do not animate the torso...

[instagoat 133]

Good point. I will see what I can do, although I think that the default anims also do not animate the torso...

They do it very marginally. It's not much, and some anims are really sub-par anyway. A good example is toadie2ks M60 reload, though. Very natural movement because the torso moves along with the arms, gives it a lot of weight, as if the character really has to use strength to pull the charging handle back and slam the feed tray cover shut in the end.

Animations like this are an art form in themselves. In the CS and other fps communities, these anims are usually built by other people than those who develop the guns. Maybe it'd be worth to check out Toadies anim for a gun like this once he makes them available? He seems to intend to publish all his animations for the community to use, so maybe there's something in there too.

Not wanting to talk too much into your work though... I appreciate this gun along with the attachments pack, so thx again!

[HJohnson 16]

I actually am beginning to think that the one thing to make the reload animation look more "alive" is to also animate the torso. Most tutorials don't help with that though, most games only have to deal with animating the arms, not the whole torso :(

The torso isn't the issue, it is the lack of pop and squish and a relatively uniform keyframe rate.

A tad late, but an example being :

Edited February 22, 2014 by HJohnson

[Alwarren 2766]

They do it very marginally. It's not much, and some anims are really sub-par anyway. A good example is toadie2ks M60 reload, though. Very natural movement because the torso moves along with the arms, gives it a lot of weight, as if the character really has to use strength to pull the charging handle back and slam the feed tray cover shut in the end.

Yeah, animations aren't my strong point. These took a lot of work and they still look unnatural. Its also partially because of the weird way that the magazine is animated, since there is no way to animate it by skeleton - you can only use linear movement in in the model.cfg. I actually thought about making my Blender toolbox able to chop up a bone animation into smaller parts of arbitrary precision to animate the magazine more naturally, but that is a lot of work.

Animations like this are an art form in themselves. In the CS and other fps communities, these anims are usually built by other people than those who develop the guns. Maybe it'd be worth to check out Toadies anim for a gun like this once he makes them available? He seems to intend to publish all his animations for the community to use, so maybe there's something in there too.

Unfortunately, these anims (also those by BIS) are only available as FBX or RTM. I cannot import RTM's into Blender without sacrificing the whole IK rig, which makes animation even worse, and FBX import in blender is very rudimentary.

I am actually considering using the motion tracking of blender. It can track points on a movie and, given the camera data, can project them back into 3D. That might make it possible to have some raw data to work with, but again the way the magaziine is moved makes it hard to get any decent movement going.

Not wanting to talk too much into your work though... I appreciate this gun along with the attachments pack, so thx again!

I'm always open for constructive criticism :)

[Alwarren 2766]

The torso isn't the issue, it is the lack of pop and squish and a relatively uniform keyframe rate.

The keyframe rate isn't that uniform, but I agree that there is too little natural "jitter" in it. This was my first animation ever, so it's natural it isn't up to specs :)

[Spartan0536 189]

There are 2 styles the US Military teaches and they are used for 2 different reasons...

The most primary being SPORTS.....

Slap the mag (after its seated in the magazine well)

Pull the charging handle

Observe the chamber

Release the charging handle

Tap the forward assist

Shoot the mother ****** (if at the range its safety switch)

Sports only needs to be used in 2 instances...

1. During initial reload after the weapon has been serviced (cleaned) and when the bolt has been reset

2. After a jam has occurred

The other technique taught is a combat reload also called "Slap-Tap" by some, this is a reload that RobertHammer uses on his M4 pack, its very basic and its quick.

Slap the mag (after its seated in the magazine well) & the bolt catch (the little button that sicks out on the side of the M4/M16)

Tap the forward assist

I am not entirely sure if you can specify multiple reload animations and make them situation dependent, I am just relaying actual military practices that the US Army taught me in ROTC.

[Alwarren 2766]

I am not entirely sure if you can specify multiple reload animations and make them situation dependent

No, that's not possible. There is also no way to differ between having to pull the charging handle or not (tactical vs. dry reload)...

[GabeGuitarded 1]

No, that's not possible. There is also no way to differ between having to pull the charging handle or not (tactical vs. dry reload)...

Could be done with a script (switch statement to check if currentWeapon is one of yours, then check ammo count, then playMove the animation). Is there an event like onReload that you could listen for? EDIT: this might do it.

Some people are averse to using scripts, but it would be pretty lightweight and hard to mess up.

Edited March 1, 2014 by GabeGuitarded

[Alwarren 2766]

Could be done with a script

Not really. Yes, you can playMove an anim, but you would still need to synchronize all the anims to the same magazine motion, because that is part of the weapon, not the character, and weapons cannot use a user anim source.

I am hoping (but not holding my breath) that the animation refactoring will bring in some new features besides disentanglement of the animation internals. For example, weapons should use either their own skeleton for reload animations, or better yet, the ManSkeleton should contain a proxy bone for the mag, just like with "weapon" and "launcher". The only difficulty for that approach would be hiding the mag, but then, you can just move it out of the way, or keep it in your hand, etc. In any case, it would allow for better, less mechanical reload animations than are possible now.

I've made a ticket, but alas, I do not believe any dev has even seen it yet. I wish the modder's input would get some weight *sigh*

[GabeGuitarded 1]

Oh, wow, that's a shame. It's about time they consider making it possible to have proper reload anims, hopefully they see the ticket.

[.kju 3241]

one missing sound in the latest version:

Cannot find a sound file fhq_m4_a3\m4a1\sfx\gl_reload.wss

[Alwarren 2766]

thanks for the pointer, kju. I'll check it.

[Tier1Voodoo 10]

How about making it with Magpul CTR Stock and Magpul PMAG? It should be nice

[Alwarren 2766]

How about making it with Magpul CTR Stock and Magpul PMAG? It should be nice

I was planning something like that after I finished the Remington pack. Right now a lot of time is spent on CUP.

[boomit4 11]

So, are you eventually gonna add some Machine gun packs that include like M249 SAW/Para, M240B, and the Mk48? I'd like to see that done, you do great work, Alwarren!

[Tier1Voodoo 10]

I was planning something like that after I finished the Remington pack. Right now a lot of time is spent on CUP.

I see... Thanks for the reply, mate. You just made my day :)

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

I was planning something like that after I finished the Remington pack. Right now a lot of time is spent on CUP.

Did u made progress with the Remington pack? I might asked before Christmas if you would port it to Arma3. Hope to get my hands on these guns soon ^^

[Alwarren 2766]

So, are you eventually gonna add some Machine gun packs that include like M249 SAW/Para, M240B, and the Mk48? I'd like to see that done, you do great work, Alwarren!

Not at the moment. I don't know yet what I will do after the Remington pack, but I have a mind to try something else, like an island.

Did u made progress with the Remington pack? I might asked before Christmas if you would port it to Arma3. Hope to get my hands on these guns soon ^^

Some progress, but not a lot. I dunno if I posted these pictures before, but here goes:

These are the in-game models rendered with Blender's Cycle engine. In the meantime I added a woodland and winter camo version, and working on the reload animations. The latter are a PITA, I am not really good at it and making them look decent is a challenge.I will probably release the first version of the pack with the ACR and M2010 once the reload anims are done.

[boomit4 11]

I think maybe you should do some sort AR-15 pack with civilian weapons, I think that'd be cool.

[LSD_Timewarp82 21]

Not at the moment. I don't know yet what I will do after the Remington pack, but I have a mind to try something else, like an island.

Some progress, but not a lot. I dunno if I posted these pictures before, but here goes:

http://i.imgur.com/gn1KtUrs.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KZhNgPzs.png

These are the in-game models rendered with Blender's Cycle engine. In the meantime I added a woodland and winter camo version, and working on the reload animations. The latter are a PITA, I am not really good at it and making them look decent is a challenge.I will probably release the first version of the pack with the ACR and M2010 once the reload anims are done.

Hope u are done soon with the Animations, like i said, this Weapons looks so great, cant wait to Kill some CSAT clowns with them ^^

[Kaxii 11]

Some progress, but not a lot. I dunno if I posted these pictures before, but here goes:

http://i.imgur.com/gn1KtUrs.pnghttp://i.imgur.com/KZhNgPzs.png

These are the in-game models rendered with Blender's Cycle engine. In the meantime I added a woodland and winter camo version, and working on the reload animations. The latter are a PITA, I am not really good at it and making them look decent is a challenge.I will probably release the first version of the pack with the ACR and M2010 once the reload anims are done.

Somone will need to make a replacement pack for those to replace the MX's!

[Garra 10]

Excelent work!