General Discussion on the new tools.

[james2464 176]

Amazing! thank you to all involved! I love all the documentation in the sample folders, very insightful :D

EDIT: no P drive? Awesome!

Edited November 20, 2013 by James2464

[gagagu 21]

Hi,

i'm a little bit confused. Do i already need P:\ or not?

I got the Bulldozer working but some textures are missing (house sample file). Do i have to extract them to p:\ ?

I'm missing a small documentation how to start with your tools.

Edited November 21, 2013 by gagagu

[saltatormortis 12]

1 possible solution (http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?168823-New-o2-Issues)

2 no p needed (http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?164054-ETA-on-new-tools&p=2560777&viewfull=1#post2560777)

3 can anybody use the Addon builder?

-i get the error no CfgConvert in /CfgConvert

4 is the tank right with a nearly empty ccp??

[roberthammer 582]

Wheres the default settings for the buldozer? or it does read my arma3.cfg?

also i liked to see some update of the buldozer too > http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=15918

btw created a ticket about OBJ import > http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=16191

Edited November 21, 2013 by RobertHammer

[james2464 176]

Big thank you to the BIS team for adding FBX support: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=15917

This is greatly appreciated by all modelers i'm sure :D

[theevancat 277]

So since I'm starting with Arma 3 tools, is there some sort if tutorial for it or can I use Arma 2 tool stuffs? Because as of right now I'm kind of lost. I can't even find the PBO unpacking software; I don't know what the name was changed to. Very much noob here.

[progamer 14]

Would it be possible to get .blend support for oxygen 2? http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=16251

[xendance 3]

Would it be possible to get .blend support for oxygen 2? http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=16251

Blender doesn't export FBX?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Yes, got CFGConvert errors for AddonBuilder, until I ran it once from STEAM

FYI to those having trouble

You can also run it without P drive, you just have to tell it your main directory (like what P drive used to point to) in OPTIONS.

[PuFu 4591]

Would it be possible to get .blend support for oxygen 2? http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=16251

I don't see a proper reason for that. DAE yes, but not software specific file formats.

---------- Post added at 13:32 ---------- Previous post was at 13:28 ----------

Big thank you to the BIS team for adding FBX support: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=15917

This is greatly appreciated by all modelers i'm sure :D

Now i wonder if you can export animation via FBX now. guess i'll check on update

[Sealife 22]

Now i wonder if you can export animation via FBX now. guess i'll check on update

Yep its now possible , no more 3ds workaround things > blender .fbx > o2 so great for thoise who uise blender.

of course for Animations on characters i have been using this for blender > , i find it much easier to then tweak in BVHacker

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=25136

[shinkicker 5]

So do the tools use an updated O2 as from what i have seen the GUI looks pretty much the same?

I am on holiday using my mobile over a pretty dire 3g connection, but dam excited to install these when i get back. Are there any good blog review posts with pics around?

[surpher 1]

Can anyone confirm that you need to start Steam in order to use AddonBuilder via command line, or is it just my setup. Only started happening after the update on the 11th.

[egilsandfeld 7]

Can anyone confirm that you need to start Steam in order to use AddonBuilder via command line, or is it just my setup. Only started happening after the update on the 11th.

I need to do that as well. Guess that's just how it is with Steam + Arma 3

[tcl 10]

Hello!

I am new, I am planning to "create something", decided that modding ArmA3 might be a good way to go, and since I can't open my own threads, I'll just put my main questions here - it is related to the tools:

1. As far as I know, the modding-capabilities of the game are not yet fully implemented/opened up to the public. But I would appreciate any information about *how* far modding for this game will eventually be able to go?

2. How difficult would it be to add a custom vehicle? Something that is not already in the game (so not a tank, car etc.) - maybe a bicycle, something that uses treads as well as wheels plus a jet engine, or something like the "robot" that was used in the movie "Aliens"...whatever you might think of. Where are the limits of the engine respectively the tools to mod it?

3. I bought this game without being able to enjoy all of it's graphical capabilities, momentarily at least. How good is the engine at handling dynamic lighting? Putting aside the fact that melee combat is not the topic to disturb ArmA with, would e.g. a "light saber" be illuminating its environment while being moved around? I thought about getting my feet wet with respect to modding this game by including some kind of weapon that dynamically emits light (a laser pistol or something not too difficult). Is that feasible?

4. I would like to use Blender to create models, animations etc. - how much of the content creating would need to be done with the ArmA tools, however? Since I kind of like Blender as much as I don't like Oxygen, it would be good to know where the line has to be drawn.

5. Is there some kind of documentation available (the wiki didn't look like the place to go) concerning the "coding part" of modding the game? I am somewhat spoiled by an extremely well documented framework I normally use to create software, and I am afraid that ArmA3's engine might be the exact opposite of "well documented".

I am really sorry if this post is unfitting for this topic, but I came here specifically to get some much needed information by asking a couple of general questions. And then I found out that I am not allowed to create threads (which is a good thing, in my opinion...for all mankind except me, of course).

I would highly appreciate informative, polite answers. I have never really played ArmA (only a bit of ArmA2), since it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. Don't beat up the new guy, please.

[PuFu 4591]

1. From the modding capability, i'll list what you cannot edit, as well as what is editable:

NOT EDITABLE:

Everything related to engine and backbone structure: the way lighting is handled, the way ballistics engine behaves (not individual projectiles, because those can be set/edited/changed), the physix engine (although some ragdoll parameters are available), the netcode, the shaders (cannot create new types of shaders), the AI overall behavior, the way engine deals with destruction etc

These sort of things will not be editable or open to public further down the road either.

Some can be circumvented via work-arounds, but never by changing the way engine handle stuff directly.

EDITABLE:

Everything related to content (be it missions or meshes). Everything that is handled by configs, everything that has a reference.

2. If it has a base class in BI configs is not all that difficult if you have some experience with the engie(although not simple either). But if we talk about some robotic vehicle (transformer type or similar) things get a bit more hairy, but it is possible (not sure if for the average guy is worth the time/trouble though).

3. There is no real dynamic lighting. The game only supports 2 light sources that can cast shadows. All the rest are shadowless, hence their light goes through objects (walls vehicles etc). A light saber could illuminate the surrounding, but would NOT cast shadows. It is feasible yes. The muzzle flash from any weapon does that already. Melee combat can be achieved yes, but it needs some scripting workarounds (which is a pity), and for a proper looking one, some new animations.

4. Since alwaren blender plugin, most can be done in blender (mesh and LOD related). Configs, some animations needs O2 work. You'll need O2 before getting stuff in the game anyways, there is no other way.

5. There is little proper documentation. Most of it is spread around in bits and pieces on wiki and this forum. Most of which is written after one or another spend time banging their hads and/or trial and error. So yes, Arma is far from being a well documented framework. BI released some samples for A3, and all A2 and A1 content. But there is very few things written down by BI on subjects.

[tcl 10]

A huge "thank you" for your post! :)

1. That sounds like it should be sufficient for nearly any kind of modification or addon one could think of.

2. Well, I would want to add a more "custom" vehicle, I'll take whatever time is necessary to make it happen. *If* the engine is capable of producing the results I want - but that's the whole point of my first post.

3. That saddens me a bit, but of course I know how "expensive" full dynamic lighting would be. Since the engine will be around for a while, maybe we will see it enabled in a couple of years? Or is it just impossible?

What does "will illuminate its surroundings without casting shadows" mean in detail? Sounds like there is a certain type of mesh that is non-transparent (e.g. the floor?) while everything else is transparent. If that's the case, I would be a little bit less sad. Worst case would be, if *nothing* was be lit up and the light was only be visible to other players.

4. I knew that I'd need O2, but since Blender (as well as similar programs) is very capable I would like to create as much as possible in there (meshes, texturing, animation etc.). I have watched a tutorial about animation and it seems to only need some additional work in O2. I guess I can live with that. But I wouldn't want to do the whole animation within O2.

5. Well, that is...not good. Makes the whole modding idea a lot less approachable. But I'll see for myself.

Thanks again. If there is any more information, I would appreciate it.

[barakokula31 10]

5. Well, that is...not good. Makes the whole modding idea a lot less approachable. But I'll see for myself.

It's not really that lacking, since people could create something like this or this. Just check the wiki and ask on the forums, the people here are very helpful.

[PuFu 4591]

A huge "thank you" for your post! :)

1. That sounds like it should be sufficient for nearly any kind of modification or addon one could think of.

2. Well, I would want to add a more "custom" vehicle, I'll take whatever time is necessary to make it happen. *If* the engine is capable of producing the results I want - but that's the whole point of my first post.

3. That saddens me a bit, but of course I know how "expensive" full dynamic lighting would be. Since the engine will be around for a while, maybe we will see it enabled in a couple of years? Or is it just impossible?

What does "will illuminate its surroundings without casting shadows" mean in detail? Sounds like there is a certain type of mesh that is non-transparent (e.g. the floor?) while everything else is transparent. If that's the case, I would be a little bit less sad. Worst case would be, if *nothing* was be lit up and the light was only be visible to other players.

4. I knew that I'd need O2, but since Blender (as well as similar programs) is very capable I would like to create as much as possible in there (meshes, texturing, animation etc.). I have watched a tutorial about animation and it seems to only need some additional work in O2. I guess I can live with that. But I wouldn't want to do the whole animation within O2.

5. Well, that is...not good. Makes the whole modding idea a lot less approachable. But I'll see for myself.

Thanks again. If there is any more information, I would appreciate it.

1. Pretty much...;) it depends how far you are willing to push some things (for instance you cannot convert A3 to DCS...you can mimic some aspects yes, but you just can't achieve the same level of depth. Someplace will hit a deadend)

3. there are wishes for defered lighting coming from BI. But given the current state of A3, i think that is down down at the bottom of the list. I wouldn't hold my breath. (There is nothing that is impossible, it is a matter of re-writting parts of code, and yes, testing ;)).

illuminate without casting shadows:

http://hellboundsoldiers.org/regiments/Arma_intel/ArmA/ArmA_III/images/screenshots/large/arma3_screenshot_24.jpg

http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/mIwfS8uJJIk/hqdefault.jpg

would have taken some screen myself, but i am still at my office.

You can test it in the game yourself.

This is what i mean by light with cast shadow vs light with no cast shadow - as you can see it's hardly the same thing (i have not used a HDR or even a simple skylight trying to describe the behaviour. Moreso, with Arma, not even the backface shadow really does work...

4. It depends on the animation. There are 2 types really: vehicle animations (based on simple rotation, translation etc type of anims) that are defined in the model.cfg for the p3d, and character animations, which are defined in a completly external file. The first needs to be done in O2. The second can be done curently in blender (or max or maya or motiobuilder etc if you can figure out a proper workflow between them and O2).

5. It's been like that since the first Arma was released (i mean the original OFP here). Nothing can persuade BI to hire a person to get this sort of information properly written down and sorted. Having some selections in the game files and samples in czech instead of english doesn't help newcomers either. google translator is a proper help here though...

Your best bet is: if you have question post them here in these parts of the forums. Make them punctual, not general (as in: what do i need to do to make my awesome *insert idea* to arma?)...you get where i am going :P

[tcl 10]

3. That's what you mean? Looks like "partial" shadowing, where each object creates a shadow, but it doesn't make it known to the rest of the world. That's not as bad as I thought! Plus, it looks like that is an intended limitation of the engine, to save performance. Maybe there will be ways around it, far off in the future.

Good enough, now I have to conduct tests with some kind of weapon. Since I already modeled a light saber a couple of days ago, it might become my practice run with modding ArmA3. Probably need to figure out a way to use the on/off switch, though. (Plus, I now have to download the 22GB of data the ArmA tools want to be accompanied with, which might take a while, too.)

4. I hope I won't be restricted to O2 only, if I want my tank to casually walk on its treads instead of drive?

5. Asking is nothing I'm afraid of. But since I actually do have an idea, I wouldn't bet on too many people being able to help once I'm *really* stuck.

6. (new number!) I never created mods for ArmA before (if you haven't guessed by now :P), so are there any "Hello World!"-like things I should do to gain some proficiency? My plan currently is as follows: Weapon -> Some kind of simple character animation -> Simple, standard vehicle -> Whatever crazy plans I have -> ... -> Profit!

Another "thanks" to you two! I may or may not want to add some kind of robot to the game, so the linked videos at least show that I wouldn't be crazy if I tried.

[chortles 263]

@ tcl re: #6: The first mod I ever released was porting the Arma 2 F-35B to Arma 3, which in its initial/current release state is a mostly straight port except for the use of Arma 3 weapons and magazines (i.e. ASRAAMs instead of Sidewinders); I did so because it seemed (and currently does seem to be) simpler than trying to get any other vehicle or a weapon going while also being educational, and because all necessary files (most importantly, the model) were available online for free thanks to the devs releasing them. :D

[x3kj 1247]

I may or may not want to add some kind of robot to the game, so the linked videos at least show that I wouldn't be crazy if I tried.

My plan currently is as follows: Weapon -> Some kind of simple character animation -> Simple, standard vehicle -> Whatever crazy plans I have -> ... -> Profit!

I also started with a weapon a couple of weeks ago, the basics are comparatively easy to learn (the arma specific process, not talking about the modelling) once you actually find some usefull guides. I can recommend Zachs Weapon Tutorial. It's a good starting point, although it does not cover the reason of everything. Additionally Kiory was kind enough to release an unbinarised (non-"encrypted") version of his L85A2 rifle. Coupled with Zachs Files, and the Sample Weapon you can learn from the models by comparing how their configuration files and the model file work together/ what they do and so on.

If you are new to modelling i would recommend going for a very simple basic model and put that into the game, just so you can see how the process works. The Model Quality can be improved later when you have a better idea what is actually required for ingame use. I find that less frustrating then spending a ton of time on something i don't know for certain will work/look the way i want ingame.

For O2, check out

Should give you a basic understanding how Arma 3's model files (.P3D) are structured in O2.

The configuration files are basically C++ esque, so it helps to have some basic understanding of the class system of the language - or a similar one. Inheritance is pretty important to understand.

A vehicle is a big step up from a weapon tbh, especially PhysX is a stubborn biatch for new guys, as i had to find out myself in the last weeks. It also requires alot more to be configured and set up in the model.

I would go Weapon, then Vehicle and when you are used to the process start with custom character animations (e.g. make soldiers dance). Then maybe you can figure out how to create custom skeletons, because that is what you need if you want to create a non-human-sized/shaped robots. Kiory released a custom animation tutorial and said someone worked on a custom skeleton tutorial, but nothing was released as of yet. This is some pretty complicated stuff, just be aware of that.

I'm also looking forward to any new guide on this as i'm interested in getting mecha walkers into the game aswell.

cheers, gutes gelingen und starke Nerven

Edited February 13, 2014 by Fennek

[tcl 10]

Thanks a lot, the tutorials will probably be useful. It took me a while to set up Oxygen yesterday, and afterwards I had trouble getting my textures to work.

I am somewhat new to modeling, but not at all to C++ - I first want my vehicle to work and then look out for help regarding the things I am only mediocre at. 'Help' as in 'find somebody else to do it' - but the more I know about the workflow, the better.

Since there is this big contest going on right now, is anybody else working on trying to include "walking vehicles" in the game? I took a look around yesterday, but it didn't seem like it.

[x3kj 1247]

Since there is this big contest going on right now, is anybody else working on trying to include "walking vehicles" in the game? I took a look around yesterday, but it didn't seem like it.

I wouldnt be surprised if people just keep the knowledge they collect to themself right until the deadline... because money and competition. The last thing you need for a good flow of creativity and community work >.<

The contest should have been postponed until there are actually all tools and more tutorials around. But there's another thread for that...

So the answer is - maybe, but you will not know until maybe in Q3 of this year.

[suddenlymoose 15]

With regards to performance, is there any practical difference at

runtime between dynamically adding objects/buildings etc. to a map

as part of mission initialization, and modifying the map to have

the same objects permanently added? In other words, do the two

alternatives result in different behavior once everything is up

and running?