Muzzle Flash Sprite Replacements

[machineabuse 11]

Hello gentlemen. I'm loath to put this post here and get in the way of all the legit mods but for lack of a better place to start I may as well begin it here. After perusing the wiki and not finding much on the specifics, I do have a few things to ask.

 

Goals

 

The goal is to do a replacement for the muzzle flash sprite assets currently in the game which in my opinion aren't very convincing. The scope of my replacement scales depending on how much I will be capable of doing within my limited knowledge of how ArmA 3 modding works.

 

So Level 1 Goal is to replace the default muzzle flash for small arms in the game with a generic muzzle flash that looks... more like a muzzle flash ;) Hopefully releasable as some manner of small FX mod.

 

More goals set when it becomes clearer what I will be able to do with this.

 

My questions for the community are thus;

1. Where are the muzzle flash sprites located?
2. Are they embedded in a per-weapon basis or referenced from a repository?
3. What file format do they use and what type of Alpha Channel?
4. What linked code is associated with muzzle flashes that may give me issues.

As it stands, I have the necessary resources to generate the sprites and I have found a small snippet of information on the wiki about how coordinates and rotation for the muzzle flashes are set for weapons.

Whether the end result of the muzzle flash will be more realistic (depends on whether I can create parameters that vary the muzzle flash with the environmental conditions) or just generically in a muzzle flash aesthetic remains to be seen.

Collaboration is very welcome :)

[da12thMonkey 1943]

• Where are the muzzle flash sprites located?
• Are they embedded in a per-weapon basis or referenced from a repository?
• What file format do they use and what type of Alpha Channel?
• What linked code is associated with muzzle flashes that may give me issues.

• \A3\Data_f\proxies\muzzle_flash
• They're modelled in to the weapon as a proxy object, pointing to another model that contains the muzzle flash. Different weapons use different models.
• Binarised ODOL .p3d for the models (we're on something like version 60 of the format now), textures are 32bit .paa with an alpha channel - same as every alpha texture in the game, they also have a .rvmat file to illuminate them.
• The way I see it, you'll have to do a lot of hex-editing of the .p3d files and repacking of BIS's .pbo since the model paths to the proxies are hardcoded in the weapons. Releasing modified versions of the game's core .pbos is usually a recipe for disaster.

[machineabuse 11]

 

• \A3\Data_f\proxies\muzzle_flash
• They're modelled in to the weapon as a proxy object, pointing to another model that contains the muzzle flash. Different weapons use different models.
• Binarised ODOL .p3d for the models (we're on something like version 60 of the format now), textures are 32bit .paa with an alpha channel - same as every alpha texture in the game, they also have a .rvmat file to illuminate them.
• The way I see it, you'll have to do a lot of hex-editing of the .p3d files and repacking of BIS's .pbo since the model paths to the proxies are hardcoded in the weapons. Releasing modified versions of the game's core .pbos is usually a recipe for disaster.

 

I was worried that the muzzleflashes were hardcoded. That said I will experiment and see if it's possible to make some weapon addons that point to their own muzzleflash models. Thanks much for the answer!

[LykosMactire 298]

It should be possible to make your own muzzle flashes, i havnt learned how but it makes complete logical sense as its a proxy to the weapon