From China Virtual Military Engineers: VME PLA mod for ArmA3

[hcpookie 3770]

I'll look forward to what Kickass can come up with!  I could probably do the 3D model myself, but I am no good at textures so it wouldn't look that good.

[Reptilienski 33]

12 hours ago, hcpookie said:

I'll look forward to what Kickass can come up with!  I could probably do the 3D model myself, but I am no good at textures so it wouldn't look that good.

I have pm you the link of the QBZ191 3d model

[Mogambo 7]

Someone has made it already https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002628302&searchtext=

[Reptilienski 33]

7 hours ago, Mogambo said:

Someone has made it already https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2002628302&searchtext=

I have checked the model of this one has a massed up UV map, which suggest the aurthor of this mod may not be an animator and lack the skill to render the correct model. Some poly and texture is also missing or wrong which make the rifle looks like a palistic one. and the config is messed up, the weapons magazinewell compatibility have some issue, the mag proxy in the OB maybe wrong and make the mags from compatiable mods do not load into the correct place in the rifle model, for anyone want a reliable weapon mod this one is far from finished and leave with no room to improve the 3d model since the UV map in it is already messed up when loading into OB.

[hcpookie 3770]

Well we have the model now so we'll just have to see what we can develop "in-house" 🙂

[Mogambo 7]

6 hours ago, Reptilienski said:

I have checked the model of this one has a massed up UV map, which suggest the aurthor of this mod may not be an animator and lack the skill to render the correct model. Some poly and texture is also missing or wrong which make the rifle looks like a palistic one. and the config is messed up, the weapons magazinewell compatibility have some issue, the mag proxy in the OB maybe wrong and make the mags from compatiable mods do not load into the correct place in the rifle model, for anyone want a reliable weapon mod this one is far from finished and leave with no room to improve the 3d model since the UV map in it is already messed up when loading into OB.

I've just found it on SWS, haven't tried it yet.

@hcpookie: nice to hear that. BTW thx for all the content you have shared with us. I use them all.

[hcpookie 3770]

Good news - I was able to successfully import the model and validate it is "good".

 

 

Bad news - no UV maps were mapped in the MTL file, so I have to manually map textures.  And no idea how long that is going to take - will probably be some time due to RL.  Maybe Kickass will beat me to the finish line!

[Reptilienski 33]

23 minutes ago, hcpookie said:

Good news - I was able to successfully import the model and validate it is "good".

 

 

Bad news - no UV maps were mapped in the MTL file, so I have to manually map textures.  And no idea how long that is going to take - will probably be some time due to RL.  Maybe Kickass will beat me to the finish line!

at least we have some progress. However I dont think KA would be back to modding soon, since he seems is running his own airsoft business... and havent showed up in months...

 

Edit: About the UV maps issue, i have informed the aurthor of the 3d model, he said he may check it later, but not promiss he would found the reason, since this model is been made months ago he forgot the details when making it.

[Reptilienski 33]

26 minutes ago, hcpookie said:

Good news - I was able to successfully import the model and validate it is "good".

 

 

Bad news - no UV maps were mapped in the MTL file, so I have to manually map textures.  And no idea how long that is going to take - will probably be some time due to RL.  Maybe Kickass will beat me to the finish line!

update from the model aurthor, he said that there should beUV mpas in MTL file, have you try to tweak the polys in 3DSMAX or other tools? He think that maybe the original UV maps could not be use after you tweaked the polys, in this case a new UV map may need to be mapped.

[DaWeiShen 3]

 

 

 

21 hours ago, hcpookie said:

Good news - I was able to successfully import the model and validate it is "good".

 

 

Bad news - no UV maps were mapped in the MTL file, so I have to manually map textures.  And no idea how long that is going to take - will probably be some time due to RL.  Maybe Kickass will beat me to the finish line!

 

I have some bad news though, the magazine is Inaccurate, and same goes for the barrel itself

 

here's the accurate representation 

 

 

[hcpookie 3770]

Hey look another model! 🙂

 

 

Here's one of the better side view references I've found so far... when I do get around to working on the model I'll be using this pic quite a bit:

 

Yes I'm aware of the magazine tweaks that are necessary.  Fortunately we already have magazine models since all the standard PLA rifles use the same caliber 🙂

 

And I do see the textures in the model; the problem is that the MTL doesn't reference those.  I've followed some online tutorials and the MTL is just a text file... it doesn't reference any of the actual textures.  However in Blender 2.8 it looks like I can map that and save out the results.  So I should be able to get the textures working OK if I can figure all this out.

[DaWeiShen 3]

On 2/29/2020 at 5:27 PM, hcpookie said:

Hey look another model! 🙂

 

 

Here's one of the better side view references I've found so far... when I do get around to working on the model I'll be using this pic quite a bit:

 

 

Yes I'm aware of the magazine tweaks that are necessary.  Fortunately we already have magazine models since all the standard PLA rifles use the same caliber 🙂

 

And I do see the textures in the model; the problem is that the MTL doesn't reference those.  I've followed some online tutorials and the MTL is just a text file... it doesn't reference any of the actual textures.  However in Blender 2.8 it looks like I can map that and save out the results.  So I should be able to get the textures working OK if I can figure all this out.

 

 

I believe thats an prototype

Edited March 3, 2020 by Dedmen
Removed images. Rule 14

[Reptilienski 33]

On 2/29/2020 at 5:27 PM, hcpookie said:

Hey look another model! 🙂

 

 

Here's one of the better side view references I've found so far... when I do get around to working on the model I'll be using this pic quite a bit:

 

 

Yes I'm aware of the magazine tweaks that are necessary.  Fortunately we already have magazine models since all the standard PLA rifles use the same caliber 🙂

 

And I do see the textures in the model; the problem is that the MTL doesn't reference those.  I've followed some online tutorials and the MTL is just a text file... it doesn't reference any of the actual textures.  However in Blender 2.8 it looks like I can map that and save out the results.  So I should be able to get the textures working OK if I can figure all this out.

TBH i jsvrnt understand anything about the MTL file because i have no experience on working a 3d model XD, but what you said sounds really promissing, so good luck on it, looking forward to your final work!

Edited March 3, 2020 by Dedmen
Removed images. Rule 14

[hcpookie 3770]

Good news!  After a few months' hiatus due to Real Life I am slowly - SLOWLY - getting some of the outstanding mod issues addressed.  I managed to track down the root cause of the Z20 3D model issues - bad textures (go figure!) so now the 3D model compiles correctly.  We still have a way to go to make it as robust as it needs to be, but as of now, the Z20 is "back on the menu"!  🙂

 

[Reptilienski 33]

5 hours ago, hcpookie said:

Good news!  After a few months' hiatus due to Real Life I am slowly - SLOWLY - getting some of the outstanding mod issues addressed.  I managed to track down the root cause of the Z20 3D model issues - bad textures (go figure!) so now the 3D model compiles correctly.  We still have a way to go to make it as robust as it needs to be, but as of now, the Z20 is "back on the menu"!  🙂

 

That's just a BlackHawk LOL!

I'm kidding, XD. looks good, and glad to see you still working on this mod!

[hcpookie 3770]

Real Life.  Its been a busy Winter around here!

 

Indeed, the Chinese were going to purchase the S-70's before the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, after which of course the arms embargoes were placed upon them, so all they had were a few prototypes. It took them this long to reverse-engineer them, and you may notice the rotors are different.  From an online reference:  "The Z-20 has some minor differences comparing with the Black Hawk.  Notably it has a five-blade rotor, comparing with the Black Hawk's four-blade. It seems that the Z-20 uses rotor, engines and some other components of the Z-10 attack helicopter."

 

and from here:   http://www.military-today.com/helicopters/z20.htm

 

Quote

"The Z-20 is a copy of the Sikorsky S-70 which is a basic military utility helicopter of the US Army where it is known as the UH-60 Black Hawk. The original helicopter is also in widespread use worldwide. It appeared that Sikorsky licensed production of this helicopter in China for non-military use. It seems that China is violating this agreement. Civilian Sikorsky S-70C-2 helicopters are used by the PLAAF since 1984. A total of 24 Sikorsky helicopters were obtained. Deliveries ceased in 1989 due to imposed sanctions against China. The Z-20 made its first flight almost 30 years since China acquired the original Sikorsky S-70 helicopters."

 

 

So.  Yeah.  The S-70 is a UH-60 Blackhawk, but we are so used to seeing the UH-60 that it is easy to forget that is a military version of the S-70.  The Z-20 is the S-70 with a new engine and rotor, reverse-engineered (copied) from the on-hand examples they had back in '89.  I'm sure that Sikorsky could make copyright claims but it isn't like a Steam DCMA claim - would be a huge ordeal for them.  Regardless of its origin, it is reasonable to assume that the Chinese reverse-engineering resulted in an inferior performance profile, and I am going to look into tweaking the engine slightly to reduce its performance vs. UH-60.  Maybe just a slight tweak.

[Reptilienski 33]

10 hours ago, hcpookie said:

Real Life.  Its been a busy Winter around here!

 

Indeed, the Chinese were going to purchase the S-70's before the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, after which of course the arms embargoes were placed upon them, so all they had were a few prototypes. It took them this long to reverse-engineer them, and you may notice the rotors are different.  From an online reference:  "The Z-20 has some minor differences comparing with the Black Hawk.  Notably it has a five-blade rotor, comparing with the Black Hawk's four-blade. It seems that the Z-20 uses rotor, engines and some other components of the Z-10 attack helicopter."

 

and from here:   http://www.military-today.com/helicopters/z20.htm

 

 

 

So.  Yeah.  The S-70 is a UH-60 Blackhawk, but we are so used to seeing the UH-60 that it is easy to forget that is a military version of the S-70.  The Z-20 is the S-70 with a new engine and rotor, reverse-engineered (copied) from the on-hand examples they had back in '89.  I'm sure that Sikorsky could make copyright claims but it isn't like a Steam DCMA claim - would be a huge ordeal for them.  Regardless of its origin, it is reasonable to assume that the Chinese reverse-engineering resulted in an inferior performance profile, and I am going to look into tweaking the engine slightly to reduce its performance vs. UH-60.  Maybe just a slight tweak.

Right now the only noticable issue from the appearance is the small glasses' shapes on the side face, should be a little bit smaller and the shape is more like a square than the original S-70.

[hcpookie 3770]

Moving Z20 into the next phase before release.  Resized nose, animated doors and FFV seats on both sides.  The first model will be unarmed or lightly armed as I don't want to push too far ahead on these before we see "real life" variants that have pylons, etc.  So these should be considered heavy transport models.  PLAN sea grey, default grey, PLA green and desert.

 

Now to do some more work on the ZTQ-15 🙂

[akira_dc 16]

Awesome work! Been using this mod for a while and I think it's great that it adds PLA units to the game. Just a little cosmetic error I wanted to point out on the Z-20 helicopter, since I saw the model in the pictures above has the front windshield divided in three parts like the Blackhawk, but the Z-20 has it divided in 2 parts only, and it also has a little conic thing on its nose.
Here is a ref picture I got from the internet



other than that it looks great. Keep up the good work!

[hcpookie 3770]

Update: Apr 21:

 

FIX: AT-10 ATGM magazines missing from 105mm cannon
FIX: WZ-551 family APC's missing from some factions
FIX: BJ-2022, CS/VP4 8x8 missing from some factions
FIX: WZ-551 family APC's with wrong faction crew
FIX: EQ-2050, BJ-2022 with wrong faction crew
FIX: Difficulty when picking up Radio Hats from ground
FIX: Radio hats camo selections were not switching
FIX: Mi171 shadow bug
FIX: Editor popup error
FIX: ZBD-05 turret error
IMPROVED: ZBD-04 family camo selections
IMPROVED: Expanded vehicle selections for PLAAF faction
IMPROVED: EQ2050 crew now have radio headgear
IMPROVED: EQ2050 Recon vehicles have correct SF crew
IMPROVED: EQ2050 camo selections
IMPROVED: SM-4 mortar units for all factions
IMPROVED: Adjusted QN-506 armor values
IMPROVED: Stringtables
IMPROVED: DF-15 reload function (uses SRBM reload vehicle)
IMPROVED: SRBM reload vehicle animations
IMPROVED: Combined some config files to reduce install size
NEW: ZTQ-15 light tank >>>> POSTPONED!!!
NEW: Z-20 helicopter
NEW: PLAAF grey digital vehicle camo

[Mogambo 7]

Nice Work on the Z-20 but i think i found a Bug. You can fire 80mm Rockets with it even it doesn't has a Rocket Pod or Pylons.

[hcpookie 3770]

Thanks for pointing that out.  Just published a fix to Steam.

[hcpookie 3770]

Additional update:

• FIX: ZSL-92B missing from config
• FIX: Load order causing camo faces errors
• FIX: ZBL-08 and ZTL-11 driver turnout height
• NEW: ZBL-08 HQ version

[Reptilienski 33]

On 4/23/2020 at 9:50 PM, hcpookie said:

Thanks for pointing that out.  Just published a fix to Steam.

Find a issue that should be related to Z-20, the chopper can not land itself when given the landing command via Zues, tested with all other chopper from this mod, Z-9, Z-18 Z-10 etc all worked fine and landed normally when give the landing command by Zeus, only the Z-20 can not land , it would hanging near the landing waypoint in middle air.

[harp_seal122 10]

hey guys, I'm trying to run a zeus mission with this but it seems that the helicopters and planes seem to be missing from zeus. Is there a fix for this?