Help! Converting ArmA 2 custom model to OFP

[chumysl 11]

Hi.

Surfing on the internet i found this. The guy who made the addons said that he cancelled that project, and that those addons could be edited. Since some models in there could really help to advance the progress of my mod, i really want to use, edit and convert them. The thing is, i dont have any idea about how to convert the models, and since i do not own ArmA 2, i cant convert the addon from a newer version of Oxygen. May anybody can help me?

EDIT: Now i realize this should be in modelling discussion. May any mod around here move the post?

Edited February 9, 2014 by ChumySL

[R0adki11 3949]

Thread moved, im not aware of how you back port an addon from arma2 to OFP. As the skeletons are completely different, its likely not possible or very difficult.

[ProfTournesol 956]

There was a permission problem for this (no "down porting" of assets from recent games to older games), i asked the question on the Content Licensing topic but never got a response.

[stgn 39]

Well you could find an Blender import export for Arma2 and then the one for OFP and just use Blender as the converter.

STGN

[vran. 13]

Thread moved, im not aware of how you back port an addon from arma2 to OFP. As the skeletons are completely different, its likely not possible or very difficult.

It's possible, some Russian guys did it. Here are some videos:

Porting islands would probably require to re-model and downsize them though. But don't ask me on the matter. :p

[kenoxite 156]

Apart from the technical aspect, which can always be solved, can Arma 1 or Arma 2 content be ported to CWA? The BIKI page seems to imply it, although it doesn't mention Arma: CWA.

It states:

Bohemia Interactive grants to you a personal, nonexclusive license to open and modify the models for the purpose of designing, developing, testing, and producing non-commercial game content for PC game ArmA.

And also:

Bohemia Interactive doesn't give you permission to exploit the models in any other way than written in this readme, especially not to convert them for use in any other game or engine than ArmA.

Well, last time I checked Arma: Cold War Assault (v1.99) is an Arma game and uses the Arma engine (as always have been, in fact, it's the other way around). The same can be said of OFP: CWC (v1.96), although I guess that version is still under the restrictions applied by Codemasters.

There's also been backports already, although from Arma 3 to Arma 2.

So, can we start legally backporting to CWA now?

[ProfTournesol 956]

Good question, i'd like an answer too (my other question would be : could BIS release all ArmA:CWA models in MLOD form under the same license as any other sample models released).

Edited September 24, 2014 by ProfTournesol

[JdB 151]

The "ArmA" refered to is the game otherwise known as "ArmA1". This was before OFP was renamed to ArmA:CWA and before ArmA2 was released. The most complete set of MLODs was released for that game so most of the documentation will refer to that game since a lot of derivatives exist from that content. BIS has made it clear that content may only be forward-ported (so to newer games in the series), and not back-ported (to earlier releases).

ArmA1 -> ArmA2 - yes

ArmA1 -> ArmA:CWA - no

[Frenzi_ 18]

I may be totally wrong here (in which case ignore all of this), but to me it seems the biki page kenoxite linked is "obsolete" (?)

The re-releases of the sample models can be found here:

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_1_Sample_Models

https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_2_Sample_Models

and their licenses state:

ArmaOnly means primarily intended for or directed towards the use in any of existing and future Arma games, including but not limited to Arma: Cold War Assault, Arma, Arma 2 and Arma 3 and its official sequels and expansion packs.

[kenoxite 156]

Ferenczi seems to be right.

This is the abbreviated version of the license: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Licenses

And this is the complete one he mentions: http://www.bistudio.com/community/licenses/arma-public-license

The important paragraph can be found at Section1c.

I'd say we can indeed go forward and backwards.

[Macser 776]

Looks that way.

According to that,as long as the content stays within those engines,

and adheres to the license it's released under,it's legal to edit/port the samples.

[JdB 151]

The licenses cover the publicly available Arma data and their use by the community for their own works, as it is our best interest to allow the community to build upon our data.

Not sure what to make of this since no files were ever released by BIS for CWA. The first model packs were released for ArmA1. Of course using the game data and a simple unpacker/unlocker of which there are several you can get at most CWA data, but I doubt they would want to open that door (since it might be seen as encouraging reverse engineering on other more recent products). The files in the original demo can be opened without unlocking them, would that count as publicly available since technically they are in an archive (pbo)?

[kenoxite 156]

Not sure what to make of this since no files were ever released by BIS for CWA. The first model packs were released for ArmA1. Of course using the game data and a simple unpacker/unlocker of which there are several you can get at most CWA data, but I doubt they would want to open that door (since it might be seen as encouraging reverse engineering on other more recent products). The files in the original demo can be opened without unlocking them, would that count as publicly available since technically they are in an archive (pbo)?

In any case that would only affect forward ports not backwards.

[Macser 776]

Unless it's accidental,or they didn't think it through,then the APL license is as it states.

I don't think it matters whether they released the CWA material as samples.

Arma or Armaonly refers to all games in the Arma series,according to the stated license.

As a contrast if you look at the A3 example readme,it clearly states that no content

derived from it may be used outside of Arma 3,specifically.Personally I think the company

is fully aware of what people would do with the content.I think they're also aware of the

work involved in porting them.While possible,it wouldn't be "simple".I know I wouldn't be

interested in it.But then I already own A2.

It might improve the look of CWA.But not much else.I don't see how it might affect

sales of the flagship title.Which I assume is the point of these kinds of restrictions in

the first place.

Besides all that,if someone intends to reverse engineer something,they don't need

encouragement.They'll likely do it anyway. :)

[kenoxite 156]

More info about licences per game. You'll notice that CWA is included: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_Licensed_Data_Pack

And this is the BIKI portal for all the public stuff: https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Public_Data

Anyway, unlike the previous sample models, these new ones only include the p3ds and a varied bunch of configs. No textures, sounds, fonts, etc are included in any of the two available zip files.

[vran. 13]

I think the "legal way" is ment that you can re-create something from the newer titles in the series by making it yourself. For example I want Altis/Lemnos in CWA/RES, I have to model the island from scratch using the assets of CWA/RES or available addons (for example Berghoff's vegetation) or my own stuff if I want to make a public release on here. I might need some permissions too although BI does not have the copyrights to Lemnos (Greek government would be a better reference ;) ). If BI reached out and said it's legal to do backports now, we would surely already get a Russian version of "Arma 3: Flashpoint Edition" by now... ;)

Besides, Maczer is right on the matter - if someone really wants to backport something, they will do it, permitted or not. :)

[kenoxite 156]

No, no. You're allowed to port any content from Arma to CWA as you please. The licenses are clear. Unless you want to make money from it or use it on another game you're golden.

The fact that they didn't provide the textures in the shared models seems to be simply for convenience. There's lots of ports from A1 to A2, and from A2 to A3 using these licenses, and using both the models provided in the links and BIS textures.

See:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?177666-M1A1-MBT-A2-Port

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?176474-ARMA-2-SU-25-SU-39-Port-WIP

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?173822-ArmA-2-US-Helicopters-Import-to-A3

It's been done all the time in the upper tiers and nobody has raised an eyebrow. We should stop worrying about all this legal stuff and concentrate on the possibility of backporting some stuff. I know I'll do.

[JdB 151]

No, no. You're allowed to port any content from Arma to CWA as you please. The licenses are clear. Unless you want to make money from it or use it on another game you're golden.

The fact that they didn't provide the textures in the shared models seems to be simply for convenience. There's lots of ports from A1 to A2, and from A2 to A3 using these licenses, and using both the models provided in the links and BIS textures.

See:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?177666-M1A1-MBT-A2-Port

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?176474-ARMA-2-SU-25-SU-39-Port-WIP

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?173822-ArmA-2-US-Helicopters-Import-to-A3

It's been done all the time in the upper tiers and nobody has raised an eyebrow. We should stop worrying about all this legal stuff and concentrate on the possibility of backporting some stuff. I know I'll do.

Though you say that "It's been done all the time" all the examples you posted are of forward porting, not backporting. Just to clear everything up I've contacted BIS to give us an answer.

[Macser 776]

I don't see anything ambiguous myself.But an official comment would be interesting. :)

@noob1

The only samples released under the APL so far,are from A1 and A2.

A3 content won't be released any time soon.

[vran. 13]

Some shots of Chernarus island running in OFP/CWA:

http://arma-cwa.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/chernorussia-ofp_02.jpg

http://arma-cwa.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/chernorussia-ofp_03.jpg

http://arma-cwa.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/chernorussia-ofp_01.jpg

Wonder how that will run like. It looks pretty amazing for a OFP island. :)

[rellikki 7]

BIS released a FAQ which addresses some of the questions you've asked, here: http://www.bistudio.com/english/community/licenses/faq

Is it now allowed to use newly released Arma 1 unbinarized content into Arma:CWA?

Yes, it is.

Is it somehow planned to release all Arma:CWA unbinarized content under the same licenses?

No, it's not planned at the moment.

[ProfTournesol 956]

Is it somehow planned to release all Arma:CWA unbinarized content under the same licenses?

No, it's not planned at the moment.

They answered my question and i didn't even notice...thanks Relliki :)

[JdB 151]

So ArmA1 stuff is allowed, but not from ArmA2 and newer ... or so it seems.

[vran. 13]

Slightly off topic, but I've been thinking - since OFP (rebranded CWA) is a so old game now, it would be a nice gesture of the makers to release the souce code of the game. That way, we, the community, could maybe fix some inherent limitations of the engine/game and maybe add better scaling (read: multi threading) for newer systems or implement some new feats by a more 'direct' approach instead of work arounds. Although the engine is similar to the newer Arma games, it could still be improved upon. But of course this is entirely the developer's decision and not releasing the code is fine too. Just a thought. :)

[JdB 151]

Just to clear everything up I've contacted BIS to give us an answer.

I've just had a reply from Dwarden about this and he said:

"Outside Arma 3 and DayZ and DayZmod content those files released with Arma license shall be portable across all Arma games (CWA, A1,A2,OA,A3)

Just for sure re-verify each file license"