faces ArmA 3 Faces Mod - Need Help

[CommanderCharms 27]

So as of right now, I'm trying to do a faces mod similarly to what ASCZ Heads did with their custom mods, only, that the faces I'm trying to make wouldn't be able to be selected by the AI, exclusively player-decided. What I'm struggling with right now is the config.bin file and whether or not the base .paa file for the textures is suitable for use in the mod. All assistance is appreciated, but the last thing I want to hear is to just copy the config from another face mod and fill out the spaces as that does not help me in learning how to make a config.bin file from base.

[rpr 37]

Hi CommanderCharms,

 

1)

regarding "that the faces I'm trying to make wouldn't be able to be selected by the AI, exclusively player-decided:"

=> to prevent AI from having your custom face, make sure that identityTypes is empty in your config - like this: identityTypes[] = {""};

(e.g. identityTypes[] = {"Head_NATO"} enables NATO style troops to use this head, if it is empty, nobody will ever randomly use that head)

 

2)

"whether or not base .paa file for the textures is suitable for use in the mod"

=> please elaborate, I don't understand what you mean by base .paa here.

 

nevertheless, sorry for copy-pasting a config example here:

 

class WhiteHead01_newface : WhiteHead_01 {

            displayname = "Whitehead newface01"; => the facename that will be shown in e.g. Virtual Arsenal
            texture = "\yourmod\Heads\newface01\WhiteHead01\m_whitehead_01_newface_co.paa";  => this would be your new face texture - is this the base .paa you mean?

            material = "\yourmod\Heads\newface01\WhiteHead01\m_whitehead_01_newface.rvmat; => Stage3 of the rvmat needs to reference to your "newface.paa", too

            materialWounded1 = "\yourmod\Heads\newface01\WhiteHead01\m_whitehead_01_newface_injury.rvmat; => Stage3 of the rvmat needs to reference to your "newface.paa", too

            materialWounded2 = "\yourmod\Heads\newface01\WhiteHead01\m_whitehead_01_newface_injury.rvmat; => Stage3 of the rvmat needs to reference to your "newface.paa", too
            identityTypes[] = {};  => like I said, this makes sure no soldier will randomly have that head
           disabled = 0; => if disabled = 1, then head is not listed in e.g. Virtual Arsenal

}

(reason for existance of 2 "materialWounded" seems like there are 2 wounded stages for the heads, but they are always both the same, never tried to have different ones)

 

I hope I was able to explain it in an understandable way and I didn't completely misunderstand your questions :-)

 

Cheers

rpr

 

[CommanderCharms 27]

The Base paa file is just the regular texture file you referenced. The problem I'm having is that looking at other config files in notepad, there are weird characters and the format is completely incomprehensible, nothing like the example you provided. Is this part of a conversion process to a bin file from a text file?

[road runner 4344]

16 hours ago, CommanderCharms said:

The Base paa file is just the regular texture file you referenced. The problem I'm having is that looking at other config files in notepad, there are weird characters and the format is completely incomprehensible, nothing like the example you provided. Is this part of a conversion process to a bin file from a text file?

that's code from the binarising.

[CommanderCharms 27]

How do you go about actually doing that? Is there a tool?

[rpr 37]

Hello,

 

There are some tools available. For example https://community.bistudio.com/wiki/CfgConvert

(Never used that)

 

Try searching the Internet for "Arma 3 bin de binarize" or "bin to cpp converter"

For more de binarizer tools.

 

Actually you also need to de - binarize the rvmat files to be able to read them.

 

cheers

rpr

 

[CommanderCharms 27]

I see, so to read the rvmatfiles they need to be de-binarized, and you need to properly binarize the config files. Got it.

[road runner 4344]

If you unpack any pbo that's binarised, there's normally a good chance the rvmat will be fucked, as it will maybe give you an I/O error.

What I do is open the rvmat with Notepad ++ and edit it in there, and save it in there too.

[CommanderCharms 27]

How would I go about fixing it with ++? I've got essentially no experience doing any of this stuff.

[Robb_ 38]

Download and install mikero tools, https://armaservices.maverick-applications.com/Products/MikerosDosTools/. open ArmA3p and say yes or Y to the prompts. this will unpack and debin all the arma 3 files except for the models. you can download Arma 3 samples in steam to get a look at how the arma 3 heads should be done. 

[CommanderCharms 27]

Bumping this thread since I'm getting back to work with this project.

[CommanderCharms 27]

So, for absolutely no reason, the normals for seemingly random faces, even vanilla ones, will stop working. Anyone know about that?