Want to start modeling/Need Help

[DJankovic 401]

Hello guys..so i am playing Arma for about 3 years and i am thankfull for all great guys we have here who are making mods scripts and all those things.. Now i want to do something for comunity started using Blender 3D for about 4 months ago and i am familiar with basic things..made few things myself

http://i.imgur.com/EdVEgiq.png (343 kB)

and this

But this is not even close for game..i still have troubles figuring how to make those LOD`s things and stuf... any tutorial of person willing to explain me basic parts and important things and how to pack model with config etc. to test it in game.

I would aprechiate it a lot for little bit of help..there is a lot of tutorials but somehow i still dont get it XD Mybe Stupid? So let me rephrase

Triangles on model how why?

How to properly model for arma 3?

When model is done what then?

and yea... ive made one big building 5 story building from my town...

50+ Apartments (all entrable) + around 30 stores on bottom of the building I would like to try to get that building in game :D (not important at the moment)

And i am using Arma Toolbox for Blender.

If i am in wrong section of forum i would like that moderator move this thread..

THANK YOU FOR REPLYS...Hope i will get to the end of this...

[peral 267]

PM me and we can set up a time this weekend to meet and i'll help you get started.

[DJankovic 401]

pm sent

[chortles 263]

Are you using the Arma 3 Tools? (Available through Steam.) The download includes includes a sample building (including unencrypted .p3d model) and a sample rifle (also including unencrypted .p3d model) that you can learn from to supplement what you may learn from others such as Peral.

[DJankovic 401]

I dont know how to make triangle faces.

Tryed few times and still have problem with figuring out easy way to make model for arma 3,anyone have video or text tutorial of it how can i do it?

I am using Blender 3d and i figure out almost evry option so i make a cube and how can i get triangle faces widouth like merging 2 verticies and then deleting 4v face and again merging 3v to triangle face

So to try to explain better:

I want to model box

So now i have box but dont have triangle faces..

http://i.imgur.com/neWpiVB.png

Now if i delete a face i can create 2 triangle faces

http://i.imgur.com/Sy7vXvT.png

and this is realy time consuming on big projects and a lot of faces,anyone know how to do it faster?

Hope you understand me,english is not native language...

Thank you for reply`s!

[da12thMonkey 1943]

You can actually use quads as well as triangles for models with this game. As long as your polygons don't have more than 4 vertexes they will import into O2/OB just fine, and subsequently the engine can process the mesh with 4-sided polies by itself. The only LOD where you have to make everything into triangles are the shadow LODs.

However, if you do need to split a polygon in blender, I believe you can use the "Knife" tool [K] to manually split a polygon from any point between two edges (i.e draw the knife from one corner of the quad to the other) or perform the split it automatically with [Ctrl+T] and [Ctrl+Shift+T] to triangulate the quad. The different T key combos determine the direction in which the diagonal split will form.

In O2/OB the [/] and [\] perform the triangulation operations in the same way as [Ctrl+T] and [Ctrl+Shift+T] in blender.

Edited June 29, 2014 by da12thMonkey

[Degman 73]

Why do you want to triangle everything ? It is absolutely no need. (...) As Chortles said, you should go on Steam > Library > Tools and download/install Arma 3 tools. That thingy will install Arma 3 editing / modding tools, including Object Builder - a program specialy designed for Arma modeling and model adapting. Ofc I would STRONGLY reccomend you not to try modeling in it, but to create models in Blender or other software and then import them in OB and adapt to Arma standards. In OB you will be able to create View distance LODs (model is less detailed when u are away - I can learn u how to make OB automaticaly make a copy of detailed model into less detailed model), Geometry LOD (you cant walk throught things, right ?), Physx LOD (obvious), Memory LOD (some axis points - on example: light beginning point to light traveling point), etc.

I suck at explaining stuff xD You better contact Peral so he can learn u some more.

Btw you better get some VHS-D1 model done before I do harm to someone. xD

VHS-D2 and HS XDM will be created by Mimoza, as he will be working on it this or that way for his Lion game lion studio's Payday 2 DLC needs.

[DJankovic 401]

Ok...So first BIG THANK YOU @da12thMonkey, realy helpfoul tip for me, just because of shadows and all stuf that need to be triangulated i was confused, Degman i already have tools instaled and armatool for blender ready i talked with Peral and he explained me all stuf about model and LOD and i was just confused if i have one model all in 4 vertexes do i need to like delete whole face and make traingle etc etc.. and Da12thMonkey helped me a lot with that shortcut.

heheh About VHS-D1 i have pictures ready but first need to learn how to model for arma 3 and still didnt create anything that i can put in arma 3 so i need to learn first...and then i hope it will not take long before i get to it and start modeling it :)

[Degman 73]

I will explain you Arma 3 stuff, while modeling for Arma 3 is like modeling for anything else. As dat12thMonkey said - just keep 3 to 4 vertexes per polygon and everything will be just fine. ;)

[kiory 405]

Why do you want to triangle everything ? It is absolutely no need.

Err, strongly disagree, triangulation is essential if you want to get your normal map bakes to appear correctly inside of the engine. DevilDog probably isn't that far into his overall modelling hobby, but the more you know. ;)

Edited June 30, 2014 by Kiory

[PuFu 4600]

Err, strongly disagree, triangulation is essential if you want to get your normal map bakes to appear correctly inside of the engine. DevilDog probably isn't that far into his overall modelling hobby, but the more you know. ;)

I agree: if you want a correct workflow (and kiory is a perfectionist as we know), it is best to reduce and optimize the mesh for tris instead of quads. I'll add to it: you can get away with quads as well, if and only if you know how the 2 triangles that form the quad are layed.

but this has little to do with RV engine, it is a general workflow that is best to follow if you want to push HQ model out the door, with as little hassle as possible.

[DJankovic 401]

Kiroy when do you livestream :D i want to watch how you model and do stuff :) I understand those LOD`s and only i need have few objects ported to Oxygen and oxigen always F-Up my model.. XD so as Kiroy told i am not far in this but learning :)

[kiory 405]

Well dude, you could always look back to the past broadcasts on my twitch channel, I save most of the ones I think could be useful, A lot of it can be long winded as there's a lot of high poly modelling involved but (I'm not saying you shouldn't try high poly modeling, but personally I feel it would be a lot for you to take on without knowing proper low poly optimization techniques first), there's plenty of low poly modelling as well as unwrapping, texturing, Oxygen work and configging, some of it could be useful to you, I think that the Jetski one might particularly interest you, it's my most recent project and it covers a wide variety of techniques.

Otherwise, I stream most days, however my body clock is a little out of whack at the moment, so I may be out of commission for a few days.

Oh and Oxygen can be a bitch, but she's my bitch and I have tamed her.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Kiory

[DJankovic 401]

Kiroy and all thank you for reply`s i am gonna sit down and watch few videos to check what and how to do it, and if i get in trouble ill ask here again if i may :)