Community Upgrade Project

[.kju 3245]

This is a community initiative meant to help coordinate and improve the process of converting the recently released A2+OA+DLCs data to A3 standards.

The basic idea:

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• A central place for anyone to get the latest version of the source data from
  
• Submit your own improvements for others to make use of it
  
• Help each other with porting and upgrading the content
  
• Establish guidelines and standards for the data and configs
  

This is to avoid duplicate/double effort and speed up the progress - as a result everyone benefits from one other. :)

Clarifications:

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• If you submit your work, it won't become exclusive to CUP. You still retain your rights and you can do anything you want within the limits of the license set by BI.
  
• You can submit the raw data to the project and let an active member integrate it into the data repositories.
  
• Or you can get access to the git data repositories and do it yourself.
  
• You can still make standalone releases, preview/alpha releases or combine it with other addons or mods.
  
• You are recommended to share your progress and release promotional images or videos as you see fit.
  
• CUP itself does not create or release addons - it is a sharing platform for the source data.
  
• Once the author(s) feel confident with their work, it will be integrated into AiA standalone.
  

Participation:

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• This initiative is not limited to modders - We also need people
  
• able to creating media and help with promotion (reddit, forums, social networks)
  
• willing to approach other modders to win them over to participate
  
• help newcomers along the way
  
• web designers happy to build a web page
  
• help with the project and backend administration
  

Note:

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The Community Upgrade Project nor AllInArma will participate in the MANW competition by BI. I repeat: Both will not participate.

Both projects rely heavily on community efforts and these would conflict with various aspects of that competition.

Resources:

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• 
  

Wiki at dev heaven
Join the Skype group
Get the latest data
Submit your work

Current state: (outdated)

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There are still various aspects not final, have yet to be discussed, decided and improved.

One is the development/workfolder setup. An adjusted version of Arma2P of mikero might be needed if textures from A2/OA/DLC are needed during the modification work and binarization.

Another is the idea to move (certain) modified data to a new namespace to make it clear what has been modified and to open up to a better design how to separate the data.

Yet another key topic is the potential possibility of a free CO+ for A3 - a standalone upgraded CO not required to own/have A2/OA/DLCs installed, which would have various important implications to be discussed. Currently waiting on the confirmation from BI that this is possible with the given licenses.

Please share your thoughts, comments and insights on these or other topics in this thread. :)

Edited April 19, 2014 by .kju [PvPscene]

[enex 11]

Great move!Will you contact authors directly to encourage them to participate?

[james2464 177]

Great initiative Kju! I'll definitely contribute where I can.

Edited December 11, 2013 by James2464

[Sniperwolf572 758]

;2575875']

...

Yet another key topic is the potential possibility of a free CO+ for A3 - a standalone upgraded CO not required to own/have A2/OA/DLCs installed' date=' which would have various important implications to be discussed. Currently waiting on the confirmation from BI that this is possible with the given licenses.

...

Please share your thoughts, comments and insights on these or other topics in this thread. :)[/quote']

Glad to see you are coordinating this.

I'll be honest and say that I never felt comfortable using any project that required "non-standalone" approaches. CAA1 and AiA never tickled my fancy due to those approaches, so I hope that standalone, proper, CO+ is the option which will be used without the need to fight old configs and issues present in the old data.

I'm wondering about two things:

Since Arma 3 is big on weapon/unit modularity, do you plan on separating gear pieces which can reasonably be separated (since things like vests would probably require too much effort), so they can me mixed and matched with Arma 3 content or will it stay the same as in Arma 2? Example would be separating helmets from units, aimpoints from rifles and such.

What would be your stance on alternative data for certain assets as Arma 2 data might appear outdated when surrounded by Arma 3 content and certain community creations. Like for example, someone donating better AK/M4 models which could be used instead of the Arma 2 variants.

[hannibal2210 1]

This is outstanding, this is exactly what is needed for high quality, standardised ports in the community.

Thanks .Kju once again!

[PuFu 4600]

As expect .kju, nice going mate

Great move!Will you contact authors directly to encourage them to participate?

what authors

[Gudsawn 93]

Fantastic. I'm glad someone has taken the step up and decided to coordinate this - will greatly benefit the entire Arma community for sure ;)

[RozekPoland 591]

Keep up the good work kju! :)

[Ezcoo 47]

As a narrow-minded bastard who loves Chernarus and A2 scenario/content in general, I'm more than happy to see this happening! Thank you :)

Hats off to .kju guys! :cc:

[bakerman 247]

Excellent, I've been waiting for this. :)

... and my axe!

Edited December 11, 2013 by Bakerman

[Varanon 892]

Seconded what was said here. WE need to have all of the previous content in a concentrated effort, otherwise, it will be chaos. I'm ready to help as much as I can.

[-Coulum- 35]

Great to hear. Is this the next step for All in Arma or is this a separate project?

Much respect .kju for all thee hard work you are putting in.

[luki 53]

;2575875']

This is to avoid duplicate/double effort and speed up the progress with everyone benefiting from each other. :)

Amazing initiative! Count me in.

[.kju 3245]

@ enex

People interested to contribute will join up on their own account. :)

@ Sniperwolf572

In the end this mainly depends on people willing to do that.

I can assist on the config side, yet the main work is on the model and realism side there.

As for better textures/sounds:

My feeling its the more realistic approach to use replacement configs/addons to "patch" those HQ standalone releases in.

Otherwise people would have to donate their work as you say and with share-alike license for both CUP and AiA people would have to give up their sole posession of the source data as I understand - past arma history makes me very doubtful to see this happening.

In play withSIX with collections and dependencies we can still offer the HQ variant as an one-click-download.

@ -Coulum-

This project is independant to AllInArma - it's sharing platform and cooperation effort for the BI data.

AiA will make us of updated data to bring a better experience with less issues as a complete package.

Next to it this project is also meant to strengthen standalone addons and or packs (ie A2+OA+DLC terrain only pack, or single weapon/vehicle addons, etc).

[Sniperwolf572 758]

;2576353']

@ Sniperwolf572

...

My feeling its the more realistic approach to use replacement configs/addons to "patch" those HQ standalone releases in.

Otherwise people would have to donate their work as you say and with share-alike license for both CUP and AiA people would have to give up their sole posession of the source data as I understand - past arma history makes me very doubtful to see this happening.

In play withSIX with collections and dependencies we can still offer the HQ variant as an one-click-download.

Yes, you are right, I forgot about the BI licenses given with this data. Standalone HQ replacement packs certainly make more sense in that regard than forcing the BI license.

[zach72 1]

Glad to see you step up to the plate on this one Kyu. I was just thinking about the horde of mods we can expect as everyone does their own take on importing A2 and A1 content.

its an exciting time, but I do hope most people working on this content collaborates. A single mod with all the A2 vehicles, with standard skins and various community skins would be awesome. Dozens of mods with different performing models with a mis match of skins would be a headache.

i can't mod, but if you need any help collating or gathering info, or testing stuff just let me know.

[Redphoenix 1540]

When the vehicles are in a reasonable state I would contribute my knowledge to the implemention of PhysX and it's details in the configs.

[zach72 1]

Good to see you onboard too RedPhoenix. Love the handling you have given the A3 vehicles.

[enex 11]

;2576353']@ enex

People interested to contribute will join up on their own account. :)

So this is the thing, let's say I'm making addon/reskin and keep for myself on my

own thread.What incentive is for me to upload my work on here?I understand and

love concept of having all under one roof and is great, but if we approach every

single author ie: talented individual and offer him few kind words and acknowledgment

I think this would succeed alot more.

[PuFu 4600]

So this is the thing, let's say I'm making addon/reskin and keep for myself on my

own thread.What incentive is for me to upload my work on here?

none, except credits

but if we approach every single author ie: talented individual and offer him few kind words and acknowledgment

I think this would succeed alot more.

who is we? so you are proposing sending PMs to random (not so random i agree) people on those forums asking them to contribute to this community project, even though they might not want to in the first place?

[antoineflemming 14]

Something not dependent on previous titles (your CO+ idea) would be ideal, the islands especially. Upgraded to A3 standards would mean the previous titles' units being separated into vests, helmets, eyewear, uniforms. Helmets and eyewear are relatively simple (I'm done with finals after tomorrow so I may try to contribute in that regard). Vests and uniforms require a bit more work (separating the vests from the uniforms, and recreating the uniforms).

@enex I think the point would be for you not to keep it to yourself. For the Community Upgrade Project to be a community effort, there's got to be some collective sharing effort. At least some identification with this project.

@kju This is an admirable idea. Look forward to seeing this progress.

[cifordayzserver 119]

I know that M1lkm8n and I would be happy to help, and I'll be sure to put the word out on the project in general. I think this will be a GREAT addon once it starts coming together.

There has been some discussion already, and between all the talented folks wanting to help, and kju organizing it, I'd say A3 is going to get a lot more robust soon enough!

I think one really important part will be to get interested parties with the knowledge to contribute some How To's and workflows for the project's hub whatever that ends up being.

I for one think Dev-Heaven would provide a good place for those used to using it, and it gives those who've wanted to get to know it better more of a chance to poke around.

Maybe a basic guide to navigating and developing on Dev-Heaven might be a good starting point? Then we can get some of the how to's that you've linked in your other thread centralized on the project page as well.

I know M1lkm8n and I have been desperately trying to find the time to document his process for opening up the A1 buildings from the old MLODs. We're probably a few weeks away from that though still.

[.kju 3245]

@ zach72

It seems the idea is not yet clear enough. This is "just" to avoid duplicate work and to encourage sharing the upgraded data.

People can still and are welcome to release each their own M4 variant.

From what I understand the APL licenses everyone using the BI data has to share the source of the modified data anyway.

@ enex

As its about modified BI data, they have to share the modified source data anyway as I understand it.

Any additional/new content people create is a different story.

The "ask people to share" takes a lot of time and quite a lot are actually unwilling as for my experience.

Not worth the effort if someone doesn't want to.

The incentive is the collaborative and sharing spirit - for those not interested in that, there is none.

@ CiforDayZServer

You seem to have misunderstood the idea somewhat. Seems to happen to quite some people for some reason.

While I think the initial post should explain it fairly easily and well, I am happy to clarify and improve it.

The CO+ would an extension of AllInArma and not directly related to this project.

This is really just about upgrading the A1/A2/OA/DLC content together to A3 standards and make it available to everyone.

Also check the project wiki - it already lays out a proposed workflow and such (which is still up for debate and improvement):

https://dev-heaven.net/projects/cup/wiki

To further document the upgrading process to allow more to participate and help is certainly very desirable. :)

[alduric 10]

New licenses say " you may " not " you have to " share source.

[KeyCat 131]

I'm not a modder but

Great initative kju!

/KC