H-21C Workhorse/Shawnee

[NightIntruder 710]

Hi there!

Hi there.

I try to convert beautiful FSX's addon - H-21C Shawnee (also known as "flying banana") for A2OA, with given permission from its author, who is Mick Posch.

The problem is, I am completely fresh in A2 engine and its tools. On the other hand, I am a little experienced in 3ds max and quite familiar with ArmaToolBox for max, however I still came across various issues while exporting the project into Oxygen2.

I am looking for any help regarding superShader materials and model.cfg. The project is at a stage where max model is textured and animated by a standard, max-methods. Any "step-by-step" instructions would be extremely appreciated.

Additionally, I am seeking any contact with UNSUNG makers.

Regards,

NI

[nettrucker 142]

Hi there!

Hi there.

I try to convert beautiful FSX's addon - H-21C Shawnee (also known as "flying banana") for A2OA, with given permission from its author, who is Mick Posch.

http://imageshack.us/a/img221/3236/h21cpodglad3.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img692/4367/h21cpodglad2q.jpg

The problem is, I am completely fresh in A2 engine and its tools. On the other hand, I am a little experienced in 3ds max and quite familiar with ArmaToolBox for max, however I still came across various issues while exporting the project into Oxygen2.

I am looking for any help regarding superShader materials and model.cfg. The project is at a stage where max model is textured and animated by a standard, max-methods. Any "step-by-step" instructions would be extremely appreciated.

Additionally, I am seeking any contact with UNSUNG makers.

Regards,

NI

Hi there

looks fantastic. You can contact the Unsung team in their official thread in the Addons MODs complete section. You could also send SGT. Savage a PM to get in contact with them.

Keep it up.

cheers

[max power 21]

Just a heads up, we ask you not to use the tags of another mod maker to promote your own thread / addon / model without permission. I have edited your topic title to remove the UNSUNG tag.

[nodunit 397]

Glad to see an addon from outside the game with written permission for once, thats the way to do it.

Firstly to convert the model you will need to export it into a .3ds format, then download the BI tools here http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/BI_Tools_2.5 (click the release candidate)

You're mostly going to want Textview 2 (texture conversion tool, be sure the textures are in tga format for this) and Oxygen (the model tool) All UV's will be ported over however if there are uneven quads then they will be converted to tri's upon import.

Furthermore sometimes the import will warp the faces, so you may want to go back and check the topology to be certain that lines weren't..twisted.

This is the O2 manual, it will detail the key shortcuts for you http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Oxygen_2_-_Manual

Firstly, when it comes to texturing all special textures are tied together through an Rvmat, the specular (smdi), normal map (nohq), ambient occlusion (as) and environment maps as well as a few others.

To further clarify this please check the community wiki here. http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_RVMAT

This might help you http://tactical.nekromantix.com/wiki/doku.php?id=arma2:texturing

If you can, I'd suggest you get this http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?82188-ArmA2-Modding-Toolbox-for-3ds-max-V1-1 as it has many video tutorials detailing at least much of the process, starting here

[NightIntruder 710]

Thanks gentlemen, especially for links, explanation and hints. I apologize for causing misunderstanding due to inappropiate topic's name.

At the very beginning I wanted to do all needed work in 3dsmax through using ArmaToolBox, however it seems to be quite problematic (anyway, are there any reports saying that ArmaToolBox doesn't work with 3ds max 2009?). NodUnit has convinced me to give it a second thought (thanks!):) and perhaps to focus more on O2 then 3dsmax. Still it requires a lot of learning, so it's time to get back to work unless I find some explanation of errors :/ What worries me right now, is that the conversion from quads into tri's might be the cause for errors during export into 3ds/p3d from 3ds max, which likely means that there are more work to do that I had thought.

[NightIntruder 710]

Erghhhh, sorry for bothering you too much guys, but I've got a questions regarding texturing:

1. Is it really necessary to make A2 material in 3ds max to export the model into O2 (I've got a problems with it) ?

2. Maybe it's enough to make standard ones with diffuse maps included only?

3. I did imported the model into O2 as 3ds but it lost its textures paths somehow and show itself in O2 as a mesh only . Am I to gather all needed files together in single folder or what?

4. Imported model doesn't show in Buldozer due to lack of textures error. Well, actually it shows itself but completely invisible. Any ideas?

[max power 21]

Exporting materials from max is a good way of marking faces to assign your 'real' textures and materials in o2. That's pretty much all it's good for.

[NightIntruder 710]

Thanks MaxPower. It seems that I have managed to export 3ds into O2 and it eventually appeared in buldozer. Although, there is another small issue (wrong alpha channel?) - a lot of transparent places on both fuselage texture and rotor one. I don't know why...

[/img]

EDIT: OK, I have sorted it out. Textures must be 24-bit without Alpha channel (and the alpha was included in this case).

Edited May 25, 2013 by NightIntruder
Change in pic dimessions

[NightIntruder 710]

I've got it working (more or less, including glass) in buldozer. As you can see, it is textured only with diffuse, there are no bump or specular maps yet.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/545/preview2jn.jpg/

It boost my apetite for final effect ;)

And question: how to make a two-sided rotor texture in O2 (that one that is blurred)? - I've figured it now. There is no way to do it directly, only substitutes.

Edited May 25, 2013 by NightIntruder

[xagerman 10]

super

[max power 21]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that problem was related to texture naming. Textures no alpha or a 1 bit alpha should be named with the suffix _co. Texture with complex alpha should be named with the suffix _ca. This tells texview/buldozer how to convert the file, and the game engine what to do with it.

[NightIntruder 710]

Thanks MaxPower. Probably those _ca textures are more demanding in terms of performance, aren't they?

Guess what? I've got another question :) This complex model has more detailed cockpit and cargo compartments (last one has some drawbacks as well though so I am most likely going to attach the cockpit only). How to attach them to model? By proxy in 0.000 LOD or should I include them in some of those "View-Geometry" LODs? What I want to achieve is the same resault as in AH-6 of Arma3: when you are outside the chopper a dashboard and other things are less detailed. When you are inside, seating on a pilot seat, you can see cockpit model with full resolution and max detailed. How to do that?

[max power 21]

If you're only using _ca textures on semi transparent objects, I don't think performance is an important consideration.

To make LODs you have to make copies of your model and delete parts you don't see or won't notice missing, tailored for that LOD. Check out the arma sample models to see how BI does it.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Sample_Models

[NightIntruder 710]

Perhaps I haven't explained my problem clearly enough, I am sorry. A laungage barrier. Mick Posch's model has two meshes - one for external view with its texture set and another one for internal view (from cockpit or cargo compartment) with different texture set (better resolution). Both meshes are co-located in the same place. The second mesh is more detailed however I have done p3d model based on the first one (for external view). I want to have better view from inside the cockpit by using the second mesh. Pictures are worth thousands of words as they say, so...

First mesh, external view:

Second mesh, cockpit and cargo:

The second is more detailed and includes indicators with better textures (yes, the goal is to have working indicators in the cockpit). What's more, all invisible parts of the fuselage have been removed in the second mesh for obvious reasons, as you can see.

And, yes, I have looked into BIS samples. It explained me nothing regarding using different model/mesh for view from cockpit/cargo. I am affraid. Anyway, thanks for the answer Max, I really appreciate your efforts.

Edited May 26, 2013 by NightIntruder

[max power 21]

Then you would copy one mesh into some resolution LOD, and the interior one into a view cargo LOD as one might conclude from looking at the p3ds... unless I am not understanding what you're asking...

[NightIntruder 710]

I came across another issue... The model does show itself in Buldozer, however there is an error window says: No entry "bin\config.cpp.cfgSkeletons". Another problem is that Binarize.exe crash during binarizing and a log file takes more than 1.5GB.

What does it mean? What's more important, the chopper doesn't show in game saying: "Cannot open an object blabla\blabla.p3d". I must have messed something in config files for sure. Could someone look into my files below, please?

EDIT: I've sorted it out eventually, however still no luck with the model working in game.

Edited May 31, 2013 by NightIntruder

[NightIntruder 710]

Still there is also some problem in config.cpp. Is the file transfered somewhere or any virtual drive made during binarization the model ??? I have no "W" drive for sure... Also I've noticed that during binarizing the model console process is activated in background (it shows in task manager).

File p:\int73_h21c\config.cpp, line 398: /cfgModels/: Missing '}'

Error reading binary file 'p:\int73_h21c\config.cpp'

W:\C\El\ParamFile\paramFile.cpp(753) : Class destroyed, but still locked - I'M WORRIED ABOUT THIS LINE

[NightIntruder 710]

Another quite annoying issue with model lighting and weather effects. There is no both "rain wall" effect and nav lights visible from certain angles and from cockpit during heavy rain as linked video shows. For me, it seems to be connected with upper texture of blurred rotors.

Strange...*** Did anyone face such issue?

Edited June 3, 2013 by NightIntruder

[NightIntruder 710]

BAD SHADOWING

As pics below clearly show, there are certain areas strangly shadowed. It looks like inverted shadows or opposite shadows, I don't even know how to describe it. I am struggling with it for a couple of days. Any ideas how to fix it or where the problem may lay?

[nodunit 397]

Looks as though it could be related to rvmat, specificly unnamed materials. Do you have a normal map with an _smdi extension or a special texture file with no extension?

Edited June 5, 2013 by NodUnit

[hcpookie 3770]

SOMETIMES I can fix that by selecting the face, and then hitting F5 to "recalculate normals". Not saying that will fix those texture shadow problems for you, but it has worked for me in the past.

Overall looking very good!

[max power 21]

Yeah this looks to me like a bent normal issue.

[NightIntruder 710]

Looks as though it could be related to rvmat, specificly unnamed materials. Do you have a normal map with an _smdi extension or a special texture file with no extension?

Thanks for replies gentlemen, much appreciated!

I use _nohq (normal), _smdi (specular) maps and environmental reflection map. All those have extensions, however they could have been prepared in different way (for FSX engine, as .dds) since I've simply opened them in TexView2 and saved as paa files, changing their names accordingly and removing alpha channel when neccessary.

What's more, I used the same rvmats on another version of the model with different set of diffuse textures but smdi and nohq as well as rvmat were the same as in the previous try. The outcome was identical.

---------- Post added at 10:13 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:48 PM ----------

I did normals recalculation several times with no luck :/ As I said, with different textures set the problem remains, even at night although not so visible:

Normals look correct:

This are rvmats - all three linked with fuselage surfaces are the same in terms of values.

Of course, maps are different. I haven't found anything unusual in nohq maps. These are smdi:

Edited June 5, 2013 by NightIntruder

[nodunit 397]

Ah there's your problem, the rvmat is missing several stages which are required, otherwise you get wonky results. You also need to structure the textures in each step specifically, otherwise the effect will tie itself to a texture it shouldn't.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee200/NodUnit/rvmat_zpsff2e5da6.png you may need to zoom in a bit but set up your rvmat steps (just the steps, not lighting or NoZWrite) like this and see if that does anything.

Do note that the bottom most stage is the environment map, not used in this rvmat, also the numbers are there mostly due to not using an actual texture for that particular stage.

If you need to add more stages then at the top click Insert-Panel-Stage.

Edited June 5, 2013 by NodUnit

[NightIntruder 710]

NodUnit, I really appreciated your help :)

I had to uncheck NoZWrite flag and played with emmisive stage values for some time but eventually it started working.

I've added environmental map as the last stage but somehow I cannot see any noticable effect it creates. As you said also, I will try to change procedural normal mapping into those textures already created by the author of the model. Beside this it works like a charm, thanks!