Need help with making my first addon (custom units)

[domcho 20]

Hello everyone. I decided to make my own addon for units. I have been searching forums and reading FAQs about addon making for almost 2 days now. I just want to ask a few things.

So, the addon that I want to make is simply units with custom camouflage uniforms. Nothing else. No vehicles, no weapons. I already saw how to do a basic retexture using a graphic editor program and then use setObjectTexture command but that's just changing the look on existing units.

So here is my first question: when making such addon, do I need to make my own custom unit in oxygen? Can I for example use BIS soldier sample and if I can (which I hope because I have no experience with drawing) how can I customize his looks. Basically what has been bothering me mostly is if I have the soldier (BIS sample) how can I configure the way he looks. I don't want him to have a pouch on his waist for example. My second question is about the PAA files containing the skins. Do I have to draw the greyscale myself? The sample one has too many things such as wraps and belt pockets and I don't want mine to have those. How do I know which part of the PAA file containing the camouflage is applied to what body part.

When I open up a randomskin_co.paa file there are camouflages all over the place and I don't know which goes where. How is it defined that the top right piece goes to the chest for example or the bottom left one goes to the leg(s)? Those paa pictures, rvmat files and their combination with oxygen are really, really confusing me. Also I read a few tutorials on how to apply the skin to existing model in oxygen but I wasn't able to do it.

Please note that I have 0 experience with oxygen and I have no clue on how to draw a human body (I watched Gnat's oxygen tutorials already), this is why I want to use a ready sample of a soldier and only edit minor things (if possible).

I apologize if my questions have been answered in previous threads/FAQs, I am completely new to those things and I feel like I am asking how to solve a complicated equation without me even knowing how to count.

Thank you very much!

[kbbw123 115]

no you dont. You have to get the unit you want to retexture .paa file and retexture it. after that you have to create you own config for it.

to do this you will have to get a basic units class in your addon aswel i.e.

class RU_Soldier_F

dunno if this is a real class of OA or not but something like this

than you have to create your own config and reference the basic unit.

class MY_Soldier_F: RU_Soldier_F

after that use type in the config settings (just copy and paste from a unit you like)

and set the texture one to your own one.

for ore info look for the unit retexturing guides on the forums they will tell you all the programs you need for this aswell

[domcho 20]

Thank you, I will get on learning the config.cpp right away, however I still don't understand the skin_co.paa and skin_nohq.paa files. Here is something I want to do: I want to put a custom insignia on the left shoulder of my unit by editing the myskin_co.paa but how do I tell which part of the myskin_co.paa picture belongs to the left sleeve of the unit because I have opened various texture files and everyone is different. Some have skin for helmets and hats, others don't etc... I just want to know how is the greyscale and co.paa files made so they match the certain unit's body and how to distinguish the body parts in the myskin_co.paa file because my skin contains lots of straight lines and I have to flip the picture sideways for the hand sleeves and some other body parts in order for them to match properly.

[kbbw123 115]

Testing... testing...Ripping out hair...... hitting the desk..... testing

thats how you do it ;)

[domcho 20]

No... no... NOOOOOOO!!!

this exec "suicide.sqf";

I have a few more questions though. How are the paa files such as the skin_co.paa and skin_nohq.paa created for every unit? The BIS sample soldier (which is a normal Russian soldier from ArmA 2) wears a lot of stuff on his body like vest, straps, etc... and he also has some kind of pockets (I don't know how they are called) on his left leg. If I want my soldier to have none of these they will still be present because they exist in the p3d file and also they exist in the skin_nohq.paa and skin_co.paa file. How do I remove them without messing up the normal body? I started studying Oxygen 2 and was able to remove most of the pieces from his chest, but the unique leg pockets are part of the leg and I can't simply delete them, it messes up the whole leg. However, what bothers me most are the paa files which raises the next question: are certain uniform/vest/equipment etc parts of the p3d file bound to certain parts of the paa files so they correspond to them? If I delete the vest will it's texture from the paa file still appear in game on top of his normal clothing that's below the deleted vest?

Thanks a lot!

[domcho 20]

After half a day spent in oxygen 2 I found out what UV Mapping is so the answer to

are certain uniform/vest/equipment etc parts of the p3d file bound to certain parts of the paa files so they correspond to them?

is yes

and

If I delete the vest will it's texture from the paa file still appear in game on top of his normal clothing that's below the deleted vest?

is no.

Now I am stuck on the config.cpp: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?188677-Need-help-with-config-cpp-for-an-addon&p=2877800#post2877800