Arma 3 cars config guidelines

[pettka 694]

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Cars_Config_Guidlines

Feel free to use it according to our modding license

It roughly describes new features for cars in Arma 3, You still would need to know the basics from A2/OA.

Edited March 19, 2013 by Dwarden

[Sealife 22]

fantastic , thanks for your valuable time and effort for writing this :)

Much appreciated

diag_mergeConfigFile

Made my day/life much easier reading about that too

Edited March 19, 2013 by Thromp

[Jingle 0]

Very gracious of you pettka, you have openened the doorway for many new vehicles into the arma 3 world.

[Sealife 22]

hi i believe i have followed throughouhly but i am geting error where steering is working in res lod but the effect of turning seems left sided only . my arma.rpt says only

Wheel reference not initialized

does that give an obvious clue to some mistake i make ?

EDIT

in addition second geo lod with 4e013 crashes the game :( looks like new tools needed

Edited March 19, 2013 by Thromp

[adumb 0]

Been waiting for this! Now to get some MRAP's in ArmA3.

[JDog 11]

Hi pettka, thanks for this. If you'd be so kind, I'd like to know... is there currently (or are there plans for) any way via scripting or config to prevent the rigidbodies/PhysX from sleeping when at rest? For example, to use when placing vehicles on a large flatbed trailer, a train cart, or an aircraft carrier - so that they do not slide and fall off when the vehicle/object under them moves. The same question would go for infantry units as well. Thanks.

[pettka 694]

Hi pettka, thanks for this. If you'd be so kind, I'd like to know... is there currently (or are there plans for) any way via scripting or config to prevent the rigidbodies/PhysX from sleeping when at rest? For example, to use when placing vehicles on a large flatbed trailer, a train cart, or an aircraft carrier - so that they do not slide and fall off when the vehicle/object under them moves. The same question would go for infantry units as well. Thanks.

I could give it a try and ask the programmers, they may have some surprise in their sleeves :icon_twisted:

You may somehow hack it meanwhile by using some cyclic script which sets position of the vehicle to it's current position once every ten seconds, that causes it to get back to PhysX scene.

[Smurf 12]

An attachto command for that wouldn't work?

[JDog 11]

AttachTo is one of the many things I tried for the carrier in Arma 2. Unfortunately, with that, once it's attached, it's locked in position relative to the position of what it's attach to, so you can't drive or move it around from where it is. Also I think I tried the idea of setting a vehicle to it's own position in Arma 2 as well but ended up going with just applying a small force to it to "kick it awake". Unfortunately though, even if that did work now for keeping vehicles on a moving carrier's deck, it still wouldn't solve it for infantry since I think their physics behave a bit differently and they'd still slide off a moving carrier.

The only thing I can think of that would make it fool-proof is somehow allowing or scripting the vehicle/infantry aboard a moving object to be like a "child of" that object, so it's parent's movements (a carrier for example) would directly apply to it as well, while also allowing it's own movement in that parent's object-space. That would make it simple and also look smooth and not like a hack where stuff is sort-of sliding or popping around. That or somehow hard-coding it so that this automatically happens to objects for whatever they are grounded on top of.

Obviously, this has limited uses, like for an aircraft carrier or standing inside a C-130, but with the new ocean mechanics and physx in arma 3, I'm sure the community will want to be making more in the way of ships and boats, and the requirement of needing to be seated when one is moving and not able to stand out on a deck or walk about the ship while in transit is not really fun, and having this functionality would greatly improve those experiences. So, here's crossing my fingers for it!

[Bee8190 10]

Where can I enter the suspension parameters? The wiki doesn't state if I need oxigen to play around values like physx. Please realize not every forum user has a programming backround

[pettka 694]

There are three main sections of the wiki - first one is about changes in the model (p3d), the second about it's model.cfg file and the longest contains parameters to be used in config.cpp (later binarized into config.bin). For some basics about creating the addon look into Mondkalb's tutorial.

[austina1986 14]

Hello pettka, can you by chance post up with the location of the A3 vehicle weapon proxies? I'm looking through the pbo's using Eliteness 2.95 but cannot figure out what is what. To anyone else that has brought across working vehicles (not just via config and A2 content) can you please post with a config.cpp example please? I've seen examples for weapons, characters and headgear (I've used the weapon config and headgear configs and modified them to my needs) but for the life of me cannot find a config.cpp that is compatible for vehicles.

Thank you in advance, will hope to hear back soon.

Regards,

Austin.

[pettka 694]

Hello pettka, can you by chance post up with the location of the A3 vehicle weapon proxies?

This doesn't depend on me only, we all hope that we would have enough time to broaden our documentation anytime soon :icon_twisted:

[icewindo 29]

Thanks for this tutorial, Pettka - how do I setup the physx lod in A2OA Oxygen2? As I understand it we have to manually add a "4e14" lod which would show up as second geoemtry lod somehow but I don't get how.

[pettka 694]

Thanks for this tutorial, Pettka - how do I setup the physx lod in A2OA Oxygen2? As I understand it we have to manually add a "4e14" lod which would show up as second geoemtry lod somehow but I don't get how.

It's just as You have stated - create a new lod (either completely or via duplicating an existing one) and select Properties. This allows you to change the kind of lod, simply insert 4e14 down into the resolution part of window. It's going to show you the Geometry lod name instead, but rest assured that is the correct one :icon_twisted:

[icewindo 29]

It's just as You have stated - create a new lod (either completely or via duplicating an existing one) and select Properties. This allows you to change the kind of lod, simply insert 4e14 down into the resolution part of window. It's going to show you the Geometry lod name instead, but rest assured that is the correct one :icon_twisted:

Thanks - but when I do that it'll show up like this and not a second geo lod :

If I then go to the properties of the created lod it has "4e+014" as entry in resolution

edit: it seems to need "4e13" as thromp suggested - with that i get the proper results - but apparently also other problems exist then (guess we'll wait for official tools update):

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?152492-How-to-fake-a-new-LOD-PhysX-step-by-step&p=2367158#post2367158

Edited April 7, 2013 by Icewindo

[Sealife 22]

ANother problem for me is that these new cars dont recognise the Roadway Lod in a buildig so they drive straight through my ramps , maybe Geometry in the object does it all now or something ? or we need also some physX roadway /Geometry in structure too to keep the Landcontact happy ?

[pettka 694]

ANother problem for me is that these new cars dont recognise the Roadway Lod in a buildig so they drive straight through my ramps , maybe Geometry in the object does it all now or something ? or we need also some physX roadway /Geometry in structure too to keep the Landcontact happy ?

It should be the same lod as in cars - PhysX Geometry. I jut need to double-check if it is 4e13 or 4e14 to be sure :icon_twisted:

[Sealife 22]

It should be the same lod as in cars - PhysX Geometry. I jut need to double-check if it is 4e13 or 4e14 to be sure

Thanks for checking , but i dont think it matters either way because doing the right one and getting 2 Geometry lod in O2 seems to Break the whole thing .

About Roadway Lod not changing , i will double check but it seems so far roadway is not recognised and car sinks through to Land below, it could be again tho the building (bridge/Ramp ) has no PhysX lod or is that lod purely for the Vehicles physics ?

Many Thanks

[pettka 694]

It seems like I have made a typo in the documentation, the correct physX lid is 4e13. But if You are unable to add it for structures, simply use Geometry lod instead, it should do the trick :icon_twisted:

[Sealife 22]

Unfortunately adding any second Geolod simply crashes game after ,

will wait for new tools , My main problem is that where the Roadway does not fit exact the Geometry the PHYSX vehicle or "carx" will not regognise the roadway and simply clip through till it meets the Geometry .

However with old "car" physics it follows the Roadway LOD gladly .

[blu3sman 11]

Can someone explain the difference between parameters latStiffX and latStiffY? Why two axis for lateral stiffness?

Nevermind, found some comments on physx params

Tyre lateral stiffness is typically a graph of tyre load that has linear behaviour near zero load and flattens at large loads. mLatStiffX describes the minimum normalised load (load/restLoad) that gives a flat lateral stiffness response. mLatStiffY describes the maximum possible lateral stiffness divided by the rest tyre load, specified in "per radian".

Now its even more frustrating..

Edited April 21, 2013 by Blu3sman

[fabio_chavez 103]

is there any way i can make these "volumetric lightcone" sprites visible at daytime?

id like to somehow emulate the illumination of the dust infront of the headlights, that would occur during a duststorm:

http://youtu.be/oeKCPH6SKr0

please check my thread

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?153392-Questions-about-Arma3-Lighting

[davids 10]

Is there any chance of this being updated to include 'rigging' PhysX for the tracked vehicles, I noticed they use the simulation 'TankX' and would obviously like to get the befits of this new simulation!

Thanks!

[kdk11 1]

Any guidlines for doing the same thing, only with the helicopters?