Need help & advices for ArmA3 modding for beginners

[SasiExpLosioN 4]

Hello everyone

 

straight to the main topic. I played A3 about 1000hrs and I really enjoyed it

but lately I started to get bored a little bit, and I want to try something new. I looked up for ArmA3 mods to find anything interest, and in the middle of searching, I said to myself "what about making a mod by myself?"

I went to google immediately to search "How to be ArmA3 modder".

unfortunately I havn't found anything that could help me (or I am not a good searcher..).

So, I need your help people to How do I become an A3 modder? I'm actually newbie for modding and scripting :(

 

thanks for taking your time by reading this :)

And sorry if you didn't understand something because my English isn't my 1st language :(

[ineptaphid 6413]

I'm going to move this topic to the Addons discussion section.

 

I think you need to be more specific-when you say you want to make a mod or script...that is a very general statement. Do you want to learn texturing,model making,scripting,terrain creation,new animations,changes to game functionality, particle effects,lighting,sound design,new factions,new weapons,vehicle design....there is a lot to choose from.

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

Hi SasiExpLosioN

What your going to want to do is first is to get an idea of what you want to do exactly, like ineptaphid said theres many areas of the game

that you can get into, I suggest you take the base game as a guide and stepping stone to discover what interests you, ask yourself do you want to add

something to the game like a new weapon, car, tank, plane, object, or create a new map or change some type of gameplay function

or add a new scripted feature for gameplay.

 

Maybe you would be interested in creating new missions or campaigns theres something for everyone,

to help you out here is a scripting guide for noobs, it has various links in it with tutorials ect,.

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/183993-scripting-introduction-for-new-scripters/

for missions & campaign building:

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/190820-thegens-guide-to-mission-campaign-making/

[ineptaphid 6413]

After reading  your first post-it sounds like you have not even used many-or any-mods.I would strongly suggest you try out some of the hundreds of amazing mods and see what you like before even attempting to make one yourself.

[SasiExpLosioN 4]

Hi SasiExpLosioN

What your going to want to do is first is to get an idea of what you want to do exactly, like ineptaphid said theres many areas of the game

that you can get into, I suggest you take the base game as a guide and stepping stone to discover what interests you, ask yourself do you want to add

something to the game like a new weapon, car, tank, plane, object, or create a new map or change some type of gameplay function

or add a new scripted feature for gameplay.

 

Maybe you would be interested in creating new missions or campaigns theres something for everyone,

to help you out here is a scripting guide for noobs, it has various links in it with tutorials ect,.

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/183993-scripting-introduction-for-new-scripters/

for missions & campaign building:

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/190820-thegens-guide-to-mission-campaign-making/

thanks for your reply :D

what I want is create a new faction with custom uniforms and vehicles. Let's say a mod of new army (e.g: Candian, U.S, Russian, etc...)

 

After reading  your first post-it sounds like you have not even used many-or any-mods.I would strongly suggest you try out some of the hundreds of amazing mods and see what you like before even attempting to make one yourself.

first, thank you for moving this topic to the correct section :)

second, I already downloaded a lot of mods, that's one of the reason (that I didn't write in the 1st post) why I wanted modding.

texturing,model making,scripting,new factions,new weapons,vehicle design, this is what I really want

I don't care if it's gonna take a lot of time to create this mod :)

[ineptaphid 6413]

Wow..okay-well to make an entire new faction with custom weapons and uniforms is going to be a massive undertaking. I suggest  you start small-learn to retexture the vanilla units with new camo patterns. Then try out some basic modelling for new equipment.

[tasksoldier121 80]

In my opinion I would skip retextures all together, we have seen a lot of them by now, maybe just one uniform as a place holder but that is it. As ineptaphid said, a full faction made from the ground up can take years on the make, look at ASTFOR as example, no asset in game is usefull to us other than the player character and that is at this time. We are making everything new from grenades to uniforms to our own everything and even getting the basics done as taken a lot of time and we are a team of 8 people. Aim for something really small like get a photo of a soldier you like be it SF or regular and try make all he is using. Just there you got at least 1 year worth of work. If you need help shot me a pm I can´t make things for you but I can guide you all you need.

 

On the other side consider look for a Team making a mod and join them if you like their idea, working with people used to the workflows, etc will help you a lot as you will gain friends and people to support you moraly and technicly. It also means that you can for example just model, or texture or code and not have to worry with the rest.

[Gunter Severloh 3949]

How to create your own faction:

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=31238

[SasiExpLosioN 4]

In my opinion I would skip retextures all together, we have seen a lot of them by now, maybe just one uniform as a place holder but that is it. As ineptaphid said, a full faction made from the ground up can take years on the make, look at ASTFOR as example, no asset in game is usefull to us other than the player character and that is at this time. We are making everything new from grenades to uniforms to our own everything and even getting the basics done as taken a lot of time and we are a team of 8 people. Aim for something really small like get a photo of a soldier you like be it SF or regular and try make all he is using. Just there you got at least 1 year worth of work. If you need help shot me a pm I can´t make things for you but I can guide you all you need.

 

On the other side consider look for a Team making a mod and join them if you like their idea, working with people used to the workflows, etc will help you a lot as you will gain friends and people to support you moraly and technicly. It also means that you can for example just model, or texture or code and not have to worry with the rest.

actually I plan to start with re/texturing, so I can be familiar with what i'm gonna do in future.

and sure i'm not gonna jump into the heavy work, I'll start creating a new uniform, and then a new characher and so on. Thanks you for advice :D

 

How to create your own faction:

http://www.armaholic.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=31238

Thanks! that's gonna really help me!^^

[Snake Man 401]

These are written for ArmA (the first one) so while they are bit old, much of it is still valuable information, in fact they were written just for question like you asked.

PMC Editing Wiki: ArmA Howto Be Mod Maker and PMC Editing Wiki: ArmA Howto Mod

[Rayko 112]

Start with learning 3d max - a lot of education videos in internet so after two days you will be able to stamp your models in industrial scale... On my opinion it's better to make as first model some simple vehicle - bicycle, golf cart or T-80... Just don't make retextures!!! :blink:

[SasiExpLosioN 4]

These are written for ArmA (the first one) so while they are bit old, much of it is still valuable information, in fact they were written just for question like you asked.

PMC Editing Wiki: ArmA Howto Be Mod Maker and PMC Editing Wiki: ArmA Howto Mod

Thanks you! :D

old informations like are GOLD!

 

Start with learning 3d max - a lot of education videos in internet so after two days you will be able to stamp your models in industrial scale... On my opinion it's better to make as first model some simple vehicle - bicycle, golf cart or T-80... Just don't make retextures!!! :blink:

3DS MAX is a little bit hard to learn, what do you think about Blender? and why I should not start with retexturing? because I think re/texturing is the easiest thing for newbies like me :)

[Rayko 112]

I also was afraid of 3dmax for some time!))) You won't create some hard scenes, animations and pandakunfu-movies, for making a vehicles for example you will need 2 hours to learn. As i said before - now it's very simple to learn because there a lot of videos so you can just recreate step by step the things you see in this video...

[SasiExpLosioN 4]

I also was afraid of 3dmax for some time!))) You won't create some hard scenes, animations and pandakunfu-movies, for making a vehicles for example you will need 2 hours to learn. As i said before - now it's very simple to learn because there a lot of videos so you can just recreate step by step the things you see in this video...

Alright, so what are you suggesting for a channel that have some good tutorials?

[bars91 956]

I'd actually suggest going with Blender for 3D - it's going to be a PITA to learn modelling anyhow, so it really boils down to personal preference for the platform you use...

 

Edit: useful Youtube stuff for A3+Blender

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqRU_EL4pwOHOJ6L2P5XlpfmNoWqulZqf

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice/videos

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/GlebAlexandrov/videos

[road runner 4344]

You need to know how to create textures before you start making addons, as whatever you're making needs a texture ;)

I don't know why you're being advised against retexturing, personally speaking that's how I started off, learn the basics first,  as it also lets you see how to write basic configs, it teaches you how to make the correct file path's, etc.

Start off by creating a box, blank, just a colour, and get that into the game, then learn to texture it, again, put that in the game, learn how to use the rvmats, which are all part of texturing, without these any model, item you make will be flat, and look bland.

Most important of all.......have a plan and a work flow that you will use all the time.

[Rayko 112]

Alright, so what are you suggesting for a channel that have some good tutorials?

I thought you already made a mod! :D  Joking.  

-------------how to create a car in 3d maxx

Now go son and don't come back without a car! :D

[veles-zv 176]

Thanks you! :D

old informations like are GOLD!

 

3DS MAX is a little bit hard to learn, what do you think about Blender? and why I should not start with retexturing? because I think re/texturing is the easiest thing for newbies like me :)

I learned 3ds max first but wish that ive started using blender from the start... its really the same thing as 3dsmax in terms of modeling (they all are) and has numerous benefits over 3ds max.  for example bender has sculpting tools, 3ds max does not compete with blenders sculpting, baking is very easy with blender cycles render so much so that I dont really need to use other programs such as xnormal to get a good normal map. numerous addons that come with blender where the only thing you need to do is go to user preference and activate it with a simple click and save. 3ds max loves to crash i have a few files that are corrupt which leads to missing elements and strange shading on meshes. 

 

honesty Autodesk is complete garbage, the student licence is free for 3 years but you can not sell your models if you wanted to, and this free licence is what gets people hooked because most people are too lazy to learn something new, the commercial licence is close to 3000 USD a year that more then what I spend on maintenance for my car and pick up in 5 years...

 

there are a number of free alternatives Blender being one,

GIMP (which i like because im not going to give the idiots over at adobe 12 USD or more a month for a stupid subscription I rather learn a completely new  program then pay for a sub).  

FreeCAD

design sparks CAD

audacity 

number of free video editors 

the list goes on. 

[spookygnu 563]

From my experience i tried all kinds of programs to get into modding. I have'nt used 3ds max yet but went through sketchup, modo, blender and finally to maya. I found maya a lot more intuitive to me and more fluid in my creating process. Some would disagree, but they would disagree no matter what program is used to mod with because it does come down to personal preference, how you can transfer various forms of data and how it helps with the end result.

You will probably have to do alot, i mean alot of reseatch on your chosen product so that what you create in the end gives a near accurate representation in the game world. Trolling through thousands of google images and reading up on your mod in question will give you a good reference guide when creating it. Its the subtles that make mods look, feel and sound amzing.

If you are creatively minded and have a passion for wanting to produce something for all to enjoy, you will pick things up quite quick. 6 months ago i knew nothing about modeling and now i'm about to release the RSO buildings pack. Admittdly some of the work was already done. But if you get help and be proactive and disciplined with your learning you could have a decent looking alpha with a few months. That might sound like a long time on paper but in reality it will fly by.

The key to it is passion, discipline, proactiveness and motivation to see it through. Research reasearch and do more research. Its emmensly satisfying when you see something you have created working in game. You fèel all that hard work was worth it in the end.