Trying to make a mission with a custom face

[Rumplstiltz 1]

After recently publishing my first Arma mission "Stop the Train": http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1308779634 I wanted to try my hand at simple character design for my next mission, and make a custom target you have to kill, with a custom face...

 

I thought it would be super simple, just download or extract one of the faces, modify it in photoshop and than make a small addon that replaces my texture with one of the default faces in the game... 

 

Basically I got as far as getting the face .paa converting it to a usable format, modifying it in Photoshop, and than converting back to .paa. 

 

Now I have hit a wall... I downloaded a few "face mods" to look through their code (I even tried just copy/pasting my texture into their code to see if I could just get it working... but no luck) 

 

I read a bunch of tutorials online  Than I just copied the default head .rvmap (or whatever that is lol) and tossed it all willy nilly into the folder with my texture, renamed them both.... (lol I know this is probably where I went wrong) -  I even packed all the junk above into some sort of sloppy/frankensteined .pbo (I actually registered a tag and signed it I think lol) and it loaded up in arma!  but no head was there.... no head. Every time I read a tutorial on this, everyone loses me in the code, or I follow it and it doesn't work,  I'm looking everywhere for my custom head, help me out... lol

 

I was really hoping it was gonna be as easy as making a custom sign texture in the game.  I'm open to reach.... I mean workarounds too if its possible lol The character doesn't have to move, he just needs to get shot in the face and die.

 

any help would be appreciated!,

Rumple

[GEORGE FLOROS GR 4208]

Hello there Rumplstiltz!

 

Have you check this?

 

[Rumplstiltz 1]

That helped me understand a bit better... but I still can't get it working.  Here is a paste of my config.cpp for the addon face texture:

 

Quote

class CfgFaces // Defines the config directory
{
    class Default
    {
        class Custom;
    };
    class Man_A3: Default // Defines the config sub-directory
    {
        class WhiteHead_01; // Defines the actual face we wish to edit. In this case, think of it as the base class, from which you want to work. Each of the different faces in Arma 3 has a unique classname. If you want to inherit certain properties from an existing face, you will need to enter the relevant classname here.        class Steinacher_Killed: WhiteHead_01
                
                class Drakeface_A3 : WhiteHead_01 // 'New_Face_01' is the classname we wish to give our face - feel free to change it, by all means. Avoid spaces. Don't forget, you'll need to add the classname it's inheriting from afterwards (New_Face_01 : Whitehead_01), which needs to be defined (like above ^^). 
                {
                        displayname="Drake Face"; // Between the quotation marks, add the name of your face. This is how it will appear in the Virtual Arsenal etc. This can also begin with the prefix '$STR' (e.g. "$STR_New_Face_01"); but that's for localization purposes, I won't get bogged down in those details here. I only mention it, in case you see it elsewhere and wonder what it's all about.
                        
                        texture="\BWC1_Drakefaceaddon\heads\Data\Drakeface_co.paa"; // This is a very important line! Be sure to check it for typos. An example path to the texture file could look something like this: "\Resist\Heads\Data\Steinacher_co.paa". This would mean, we have a PBO entitled 'Resist', with a folder in it entitled 'Heads', and a folder in that entitled 'Data', and, finally, in that, a .paa file entitled 'Steinacher_co.paa'. I would recommend adding the '_co' suffix for the main colour texture you've created. 
                        head="DefaultHead_A3"; // The actual model for your custom face. For instance, if you used Stavrou's head, with the pony tail, the physical shape of the head would be different and therefore, would have a different entry here. Most just use the default head defined here.
                        identityTypes[]={}; // This is used to identify which units will have your custom face by default; you can leave it alone, it's not really important for what you're trying to achieve.
                        author="Rumplestiltz"; // Your name goes here :) 
                        textureHL="\A3\Characters_F\Heads\Data\hl_white_bald_co.paa"; // Path to texture for hands and legs (HL). You shouldn't need to change this.
                        materialHL="\A3\Characters_F\Heads\Data\hl_white_bald_muscular.rvmat"; // Path to material (RVMAT) for hands and legs (HL). You shouldn't need to change this.
                        textureHL2="\A3\Characters_F\Heads\Data\hl_white_bald_co.paa"; // Second path (anyone know why there's an HL2?) to texture for hands and legs (HL). You shouldn't need to change this.
                        materialHL2="\A3\Characters_F\Heads\Data\hl_white_bald_muscular.rvmat"; // Second path (anyone know why there's an HL2?) to material for hands and legs (HL). You shouldn't need to change this.
                        materialWounded1="Path_to_Face_Material_when_Wounded.rvmat"; // Path to a wounded face texture. I'd recommend using the same path as the 'material=' path for your face, if you want an easy ride. Add a wounded texture if you fancy getting a bit more creative.
                        materialWounded2="\BWC1_Drakefaceaddon\heads\Data\Drakeface.rvmat"; // Second path to a wounded face texture (again, not too sure why we have two; though I'm sure some bright spark will let me know! :D)
        };
    };
};

 

I have that in a folder on my: desktop\BWC1_Drakefaceaddon\addons\

than I have a heads\data\ folder with my .paa and just a generic .rvmat I grabbed from characters_F

I made a .pbo with addon builder and tossed it in desktop\BWC1_Drakefaceaddon\addons\

Arma recognizes it as a mod on the launcher

 

but this is where I am stuck.  In top right there is no Drakeface under profile faces, and in the editor it isn't under identities, also if I put the code in that you linked to above - it just sets the face to the default...

 

My question is - do I have to put something in my description file for the mission for the face to show up?  Right now that is empty... I tried some weak attempts at cfgfaces but #fail....

Stiltz