Military Command and Control Post [WIP]

[Richards.D 761]

Hello ladies and gentlemen:

I've been making architecture and buildings for a long time now, and the knowledge of how to build for Arma has only recently been taught to me. In the past years I've been working on buildings, and I've started on some working vehicles too. It has been a slow and arduous process, as there is evidently a steep learning curve. I've really never released anything to the community, as most of my work has been private mods for my unit, or buildings for Life Servers. I decided I am going to release something for the first time, and I believe Arma 3 is an excellent place to start. I've completed the model, ableit not textured at the moment. I wanted to add an asset that can be used by command personnel, but honestly this serves no purpose. It is purely to increase immersion. The asset I am working on is a C2 or Command and Control post. These are used by commanders in various forms who need to move with their unit and are usually very mobile. This model I made is created from scratch, so there is not any worries about royalties/stealing and so forth. Please suggest any improvements I could make! I am rather busy at the moment, so I am not sure when I will release this asset, but it is coming quite nicely.

Here is a photo.. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! I tried to make the model rather detailed, however the file size is still excellent (I think ~7k poly count atm)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23389642/ScreenHunter_79%20Jul.%2007%2016.png (656 kB)

UPDATE: Photos

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23389642/arma3%202013-07-08%2023-21-27-75.png

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23389642/arma3%202013-07-08%2023-22-06-64.png

Regards,

Richards

Edited July 9, 2013 by RichardsD
Added Photos

[schaefer 53]

Very nice work!

Looking Forward for updates.

Good luck!

[TFM_Callas 1]

Looks sick. Would be great for Command in milsim missions.

[kylania 567]

Purty! You should look into making the monitors mempoints so that you could add actions to them (assuming the TKOH addaction to a piece thing works in A3). :) Or at the very least give them and the projector screen hidden textures so we can customize the building.

[astast 12]

This is going to be great in game :)

[Richards.D 761]

SITREP: I have the asset in game, and working. I made the texture file for the projector an independent image, so yes you can change that. How would I set it as a hidden selection however? Would I just name it in the O2 as say "Camo", and include that little line in the config file about hidden selections?

[TFM_Callas 1]

Wasn't there a mod for PiP player cameras? Something about a heads up display where you could watch what your squad mate was doing? Might not be a bad idea to figure out how that works and then use the projector to do that. Or maybe do the computer screens into view ports. Also, will those chairs be.....sittable? lol

[Richards.D 761]

There is a Heads up Display thing, and if I knew how to implement that I absolutely would. Could I also perhaps make the projector a PiP map view or something? That would be oustanding. If anyone has any tutorials on that, it would be awesome.

Also, there are no chairs, so no worries lol. Other than some texture issues, it is fully functional (not that it does much of anything lol)

I updated the thread with a few photos of the asset in game.. please if anyone has any tutorials on the PiP thing, or map to extend functionality, please share! Any real time stuff would be way cooler than a lame photo on the projector.

[schaefer 53]

Might be a good idea to ask BadBenson or TheDog88

how they get their PIPscreens working in their ARP 2 Objectspack?!

---------- Post added at 04:36 ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 ----------

Might be a good idea to ask BadBenson or TheDog88

how they get their PIPscreens working in their ARP 2 Objectspack?!

[Richards.D 761]

Outstanding, I've sent a message to Dog on his topic to see if he can provide me some information on the matter. The addon is almost ready for release; once I finish the RVMATs, add a few sounds where required and get that PIP working, I believe I shall release it.

[bad benson 1733]

great model. some small suggestions.

bake some AO into your diffuse map. maybe even bake some normals to make it look less sharp on the corners. and i think it might help, if you would drop the contrast on the outside textures a bit to make it fit with those little military huts already present on stratis.

about PiP: with that number of screens i can tell you that PiP is not really worth the effort right now. i found it's best used on one or two screens in a vehicle like BI does or on handheld stuff like our tough book in arp_objects. other than that it's a gimmick that only causes problems with not much gain other than laggy screens that cause FPS to drop and act weird in MP.

that might change later but you should concentrate just on the model for now. if you set up the screens ready for hidden selection stuff the rest is just scripting anyways. so just do that and anyone can add PiP to it, if they want.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Bad Benson

[ei8ght 11]

very great Idea , i love it :o

[Richards.D 761]

I did some of the RVMATs for the textures and darkened them ALOT. Also added more mud/other crap to them so they are a bit more worn.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23389642/arma3%202013-07-09%2015-27-26-83.png

[schaefer 53]

Good work brother!

Keep it up:ok:

Ist People like you who make this Game Special!

[SavageCDN 231]

Wow this is great... love to see more military-style buildings especially with cool features like cameras!!!

[Richards.D 761]

Right, almost ready for the first release.. 2 issues to fix and then it is go time!

1. Hitbox for the desk doesn't work - easy fix

2. Hidden selections. I've never really included those onto a model, so I am slightly confused. If anyone could help me that would be appreciated. Do I simply need to:

- Name the area that is the hidden selection "eg. camo"

- Add a hidden selections line into the config file with that selection named, and is that sufficient?

Richards

[Stiltman 3]

if remember correct , name it in the model, add it to the model.cfg file.. cfgModels and in the sections[]={}; array. and then hidden selection line in the config.

[Richards.D 761]

Right, named all of those, tried applying a custom texture, but unfortunately to no avail. This face is not UV Mapped, it is simply an independent texture file which is applied, could that be the reason this feature does not work?

Richards

[piedebeouf 10]

Hello, good ideas , hope we can test your addon soon

[bad benson 1733]

This face is not UV Mapped

you need UVs no matter how you apply the texture. this will also determine the resolution-detail proportions you can show on it. for screens it's best to stretch out the face of the screen over the whole UV area to get full resolution out of it.

[Richards.D 761]

Right, so as I gather the steps are this:

1. Select the face I want to UV Map

2. Click "Planar Mapping" in the UV Editor. I now have just that face in my empty UV Editor. Now, I loaded a blank white 1024x1024 texture, and then added this face only.

Is this UV Mapped correctly now, or are there other aspects?

[bad benson 1733]

sounds good. just make sure you expand it (proportionally ofc) to the edges of one grid square inside the UV window to use as much UV space as you can. this way you can have much more readable screens if you make some maps on it or something.

[Richards.D 761]

Alright, that is complete. Now, do I need to use the export function, or is it good to go?

[Teddybear1 11]

Hi! Can you try to connect this in a C3I network too? I mean ,if it not to much work,could you get this to work with the SA-2 Sam missle system? And

perhaps Mando System? Phalinx AA System?

It would be cool to be able to force `no-go zones`for players.To be able to survey a large area and force the other players to change their ways on the fly.

Or use it as a Rescue Command Centre for missions when it doesen`t go as planned- maybe you can design a Para Rescue Centre with some sort of Homing Beacon for aircrew with a Controller with a PiP.

Would be much apprichiated.

Thank you .

[Phantom 11]

very cool... :)