[EVO] Dan's Small Objects Mod

[[evo] dan 79]

I've decided to begin doing modelling in Arma as there are things that I think are missing in the game. To this end, i'm making small objects for the game. Hopefully this will lead to moving into a small logistical objects mod with some vehicles included for moving objects around on both land and on the sea.

 

I've made a oil barrel and I have skinned it both as a oil drum and a water barrel. Both of them can be slingloaded via a helicopter and the oil drum can even be used to resupply vehicles fuel levels. I have this working in game and ready to release once I've got a few other models ready to go alongside it.

 

I have also been working on making a Jerry Can. I've made it as a standalone object for now but I might make it so that it can be carried within a soldiers backpack or use up the slot itself.

 

The next model I plan on working on is making a pallet mounted version of the barrels with 4 barrel on the pallet which will then be slingloadable and provide more fuel for a single lift. I'll be using proxies of the barrel on a pallet to achieve this I think and will do one for the water barrels and one for the oil drums too.

 

I plan on releasing the UV layouts when I release the mod so that you can make retextures of the models yourselves.

 

 

Pictures: 

 

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/qD920"><a href="//imgur.com/qD920">Arma Modelling Take 3</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Any input is welcome on this mod.

 

Plans:

 

- Jerry Can as a object to go in backpacks.

- Small Crane prototype.

- Small barge which can be towed by boats via the use of ropes.

- Pallets of barrels.

[[evo] dan 79]

I've been working on the Jerry Can this weekend and have gotten it into the game.

 

http://imgur.com/4XYp308

 

I think it could do with some love on the textures so i'll have to have a look over the next week at making a better one. I was thinking of making it so the Jerry Can's will also have different variants that will only differ in colour so i'll have to add that to the editor selection.

[DieselJC 196]

You should talk to the ACE guys and find out what needs to be done so the jerry cans and such can be integrated into ACE for things like refueling etc. Not sure what else you have ploanned but I'd love to see more logfistics stuff myself..maybe a backpack that acts as a toolkit in the game so you dont have to carry one seperately. Actual jackstands you can put a vehicle on in the editor,or ramps for when you change oil etc etc.

 

 

Diesel

[[evo] dan 79]

42 minutes ago, diesel tech jc said:

You should talk to the ACE guys and find out what needs to be done so the jerry cans and such can be integrated into ACE for things like refueling etc. Not sure what else you have ploanned but I'd love to see more logfistics stuff myself..maybe a backpack that acts as a toolkit in the game so you dont have to carry one seperately. Actual jackstands you can put a vehicle on in the editor,or ramps for when you change oil etc etc.

 

 

Diesel

I've made it so it can refuel anything within 2m of it at the moment (same way as you would from a HEMMIT or the like. The oil drums hold more fuel than the Jerry can, but they are still quite limited in their capacity (I think I set it to 80 fuel). Hence the plan to mount 4 on a pallet to make airdrops even more useful.

 

I still need to work on the textures a bit though as they look terrible. Also, you can see through the handles on the jerry can only on the side your looking at so i'll need to find out what causes it and fix it (I guess its my view geometry?)

[[evo] dan 79]

I've added a render of the jerry can to the imgur album.

 

http://imgur.com/FEpnS0t

 

As you can tell, the texture isn't very good so i'm looking for some advice on how to improve it so it looks nicer in the game. I'm thinking of adding a little bit of rust to it to be honest, but I get the feeling it might need a bit more than that.

 

Here is what the base layer looks like at the moment. As you can see its very plain. I need to add some details to the label at some point.

 

http://imgur.com/7TMbVow

[Igor Nikolaev 511]

10 hours ago, [evo] dan said:

I've added a render of the jerry can to the imgur album.

 

http://imgur.com/FEpnS0t

 

As you can tell, the texture isn't very good so i'm looking for some advice on how to improve it so it looks nicer in the game. I'm thinking of adding a little bit of rust to it to be honest, but I get the feeling it might need a bit more than that.

 

Here is what the base layer looks like at the moment. As you can see its very plain. I need to add some details to the label at some point.

 

http://imgur.com/7TMbVow

Use photoshop and google images to add textures. Basically, the best and the easiest way to add textures. 

[Ltf 381]

I am not a texture master but I think gimp would be enough and simple for small objects. Search for the material's texture on google and choose a white one. Make it transparent and put it on your texture and normal map. You can make it shine like metal by making the metal areas yellowish on smdi. Check the vanilla textures, examples might help

[[evo] dan 79]

12 hours ago, Ltf said:

I am not a texture master but I think gimp would be enough and simple for small objects. Search for the material's texture on google and choose a white one. Make it transparent and put it on your texture and normal map. You can make it shine like metal by making the metal areas yellowish on smdi. Check the vanilla textures, examples might help

I've been using gimp but I'm a bit of a noob at using it so ill have a look later.

 

wouldn't making it transparent hide the image though or should I just change the transparancy a bit to suit?

[Ltf 381]

2 hours ago, [evo] dan said:

I've been using gimp but I'm a bit of a noob at using it so ill have a look later.

 

wouldn't making it transparent hide the image though or should I just change the transparancy a bit to suit?

There are different ways to do it and you are doing it the wrongest way. I know 2 good other ways to do it:

1.Choose the material layer and go to layer>transparency>color to alpha and make it half transparent

2.Lower the brightness of material layer so the details stand out more and make the texture half transparent by doing 1st

 

PS:To change the transparency level, change color between white and black on color to alpha

Watch till 13:15

 

[Igor Nikolaev 511]

6 hours ago, [evo] dan said:

I've been using gimp but I'm a bit of a noob at using it so ill have a look later.

 

wouldn't making it transparent hide the image though or should I just change the transparancy a bit to suit?

I can try and help you with this texture

[[evo] dan 79]

This is what it looks like so far updated:

 

http://imgur.com/gokHSJy

[[evo] dan 79]

I've added some more images of the Jerry Can to the album. Tell me what you think of it. (I think it might need a more detailed LOD adding to the model, but maybe not)

 

http://imgur.com/w8LCLLh

 

I've also added the thumb nails/editor preview pictures to both the barrel and the Jerry Can.

 

The next thing to do is to make the Jerry Can an inventory item so i'm off to go and read about how to do this.

[[evo] dan 79]

I've added a few more images to the album. Anyone know how to link it directly here to view?

 

http://imgur.com/a/qD920

 

I'm up to 5 skins now within the editor, with them each being treated as a separate object rather than giving them a random colour. The thumbnails seem to be a bit weird in their colouring though for some reason. The black ones show up fine, but the other ones come up as yellow instead of the blue they actually are for some reason.

 

I plan on working a bit on the blue barrel skin and maybe adding some logo's/images to the barrels of companies. Anyone fancy chipping in some names and/or logos to put on them? Then I'll probably create more skins to use.

 

<blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/qD920"><a href="//imgur.com/qD920">Arma Modelling Take 3</a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[[evo] dan 79]

Hi all, just a small update on this. My HDD died a few weeks ago and I lost everything. However I have been able to make the barrel again and I have made it better this time around and have released it in the other thread.

 

I'm currently working on a little prototype model for a light dockside crane just to see if I can get one to work. I plan on using a "turret" setup and then having a memory point that is used to locate the objects below it. PhysX ropes would then be used to lift the object, although this would limit what can be lifted by the crane. I am having a few problems with getting the basics to work (I can't get in the object although I can spawn inside it) so if anyone wants to give me a hand they would be most welcome.

[[evo] dan 79]

I've managed to get back to where I was with creating some smaller naval craft that can be used within the game. Here is an early render of a model that is still in WIP:

 

Any guesses as to what it is?

 

[[evo] dan 79]

I've been making some progress on the model and have managed to get it in game and with ViV. I think the model would make a good LOD3 with its current detail level.

 

https://imgur.com/a/rqNuX

 

I think I've managed to get the scaling right although its taken me a few hours to get the handling close to what I think is right.

 

I've got more memory points to add as I currently don't have that many of them and some are shared with multiple things.