Side decal/markings on the BIS Apache

[TerranceofAraby 1]

Alright, before I start, I'm really quite bad at this.

A friend of mine from Steam (shadow-something?) wanted to have a huge project on OFP, of compiling all of the best British addons together in an easily-accessible mod. Well, that's quite a good project, really, but he didn't have any experience changing .pbos so I decided to help him out; I know that the idea was a bit big and you would need plenty of permissions, I imagine...

Anyway, that was a year or two ago, but I've been interested in it since and I've been adding and rescripting/reclassifying various .pbos from the Malvinas, Falklands, UKF and FFUR, for my own amusement without really thinking of releasing it (but you're welcome to it in an unfinished state if you want, PM me).

The infantry is UKF, the aircraft are Falklands, Malvinas and a few independent ones, there's some UKF and Malvinas armour, the weapons are UKF and the pilots are Falklands. I have the Apache from FFUR, which I wanted to add as well for a few missions I'd like to do, and I've been trying to implement it seperately which has thus far worked.

However, when I get the FFUR RAF Apache in-game, it has the correct RAF markings and structure over the BIS one, but the side-markings, the ones that say 'UNITED STATES ARMY', are still there. Which .pac or .paa file is it that contains this, and I assume removing this .pac or .paa would simply remove it in-game? :confused:

Also if I'm committing some grave, heinous sin by going in there and mangling other people's .pbos, please have mercy :D:confused:

Yours gratefully

Terrance

Edited August 10, 2014 by TerranceofAraby

[-rageQuit- 10]

I can't remember which Apache is used in FFUR, but there is a Westland-Agusta (ie. UK version) by Franze & NodUnit here at GamePark (needs both parts to be downloded).

IF the "US Army" markings were a decal (ie. one texture overlying another) removing it from the pbo wouldn't work - you'd end up with an entirely white patch indicating the missing texture. The way round it would be to edit the model (possibly by hacking with a hexadecimal text editor) and replacing the texture with a clear one.

[R0adki11 3945]

Also if I'm committing some grave, heinous sin by going in there and mangling other people's .pbos, please have mercy :D:confused:

Yours gratefully

Terrance

Hi Terrance,

First off do you have any permission to edit of those addons at all? As without permission you are breaking one of the traditional rules of addon making. I would like to point you to the following rule:

§19) Posting addon/mod other content without permission

For many years this community has been known as the premium addon/mod creating community, people work tirelessly and in great detail to create fantastic addons/mods/missions/campaigns to release for free so that everyone benefits, including Bohemia Interactive. There are a few simple rules in place to provide the respect to these creative people/groups that they deserve:

The first and most fundamental rule is that you must seek permission to alter someone's work, to mirror it or use it in any way other than for personal use. No permission, no editing, no mirroring, no adding to your mod pack, no editing and sharing around your private squad, none of that is acceptable.

Obviously we cannot unfortunately control what people do outside of these forums, however on these forums you must follow this rule, if a person/team post a thread to share an addon/mod using content from someone else without permission and we receive a complaint then the mod thread will be closed until the issue is resolved and the forum member(s) risks being permanently banned from these forums for taking someone's work without permission.

This isn't just limited to re-using content in addons/mods/missions however, it's not acceptable to edit someone's work without permission and then to post screenshots of it on the forums (even if the edited addon/mod is purely for personal use), it's also not acceptable to edit someone's work, or use someone's work in any way that you don't have permission for and then to create videos which you post on these forums, doing any of the above without the permission of the original creators risks a permanent ban, for individuals, for whole mod teams or squads.

Also further to this please cast your eyes over the Addon Makers for Authors Rights website (http://amar.arma3.fr/), which will also help to clarify any other issues surrounding addon making and why asking for permission is important.

Thanks

RK

[TerranceofAraby 1]

Thanks R0adki11,

The idea for this 'project' was broached to me by a mate whom I played co-op with occasionally, I helped him out with it and was not really thinking of finishing it, but the idea just occured to me now that I have a few more .pbos available.

Except in the case of the Apache, I was not editing the models themselves; I was editing the configs in order to place them in easily-accessible categories, changing the pilots/crews for consistency, and in the case of some 'Malvinas' tanks/helicopters translating various parts into English from Spanish (i.e. 'abrir la puerta' to 'open door'). This was A: In order to make them easy, accurate and consistent for use in mission making and scripting within missions, and B: For ease-of-compatibility with a few squad-mates of mine (you have mentioned this in the permissions; I made it abundantly clear to them that I was not the creator of the addons themselves, and made sure to leave a readme within the folder and each .pbo detailing the original maker, and in each config file. I was not aware of the permissions issue previous to this and I will once again stress to those I gave the folder to that they were not my addons and my own work was minimal.). I shall attempt to contact the addon makers if that's the best course of action but as I circulated it amongst a very small number of casual players I doubt it will go anywhere.

A number of excellent British addons for the 1970s-2000s exist around the web, but to include all of them in-game would involve several different mods, with different crews, scripts, languages, ammunition, quality and historical accuracy. To compile the best of these mods in one folder which was consistent seems like a good idea to me for mission-makers like myself who like things consistent, but as you say I would probably find it hard to get all of the necessary permissions to release it on the forums.

Cheers RageQuit I'll give those a look.

Yours

Terrance.