Editing vanilla Arma 3 vehicle models.

[Bubbus 0]

Hi all, I've spent a couple years writing SQF and mission-making and now I'd like to dabble in making custom assets.  I love the NATO 2035 faction so I thought I'd start by making some Ghosthawk variants.

 

I started by finding the Ghosthawk model in A3/Addons/air_f_beta.pbo, setting up my P: drive, installing Buldozer and attempting to open the model in Object Editor. 

This didn't work, so I learned the difference between MLOD P3D and ODOL P3D files and tried to find a way to convert my ODOL file to an MLOD file.  I found a website that claims to do so - it does, but the results were... not stellar.  I installed ArmaToolbox for Blender 2.8 and found that this was the result:

 

 

The Ghosthawk is very cool and I'd love to create some special-purpose variants of it.  Ideally going forward, I'd like to learn a process that allows me to create some interesting additions to the NATO 2035 faction's equipment. 

 

Where can I go from here?  Thanks all.

[EO 11277]

What your attempting to do is off limits, Arma 3 models are binarized for a reason, meaning your forbidden from reverse-engineering them.

[Bubbus 0]

I see, thanks.  That's unfortunate, given that I've seen similarly modified vehicles in mods like RHS and 3CB I assumed that there's a path for legitimately interested folks to remix the Arma 3 assets for use within Arma 3 only.

 

While I'm disappointed, it certainly explains why I haven't found many mods expanding the 2035 setting in this fashion.  I hope this stance changes in future, or that there is some way for modders to do this sort of work legitimately.  The intent here is precisely the opposite than to cause harm to BI or its IPs - it's from a place of genuine love of what they've done with the game.

[andy1 71]

What you specifically mentioned about taking the A3 vanilla models is strictly prohibited. RHS and 3CB use a mixture of Arma 2 ports, and their own custom models. That is how mods are made for this game.  If you want to make futuristic stuff go ahead you just need to either base it off an arma 2 model or start from scratch.

[R0adki11 3949]

1 hour ago, Bubbus said:

 

Where can I go from here?  Thanks all.

 

What your trying to do is breaking the EULA of Arma3. Which is forbidden. It also is breaking our forum rules:

 

Quote

3) Discussions about copy protection or copying, backing-up, hacking, cracking or reverse engineering of any of BI's products or the products of any other developer will not be tolerated and such discussions will be deleted immediately. Any breach of this rule may result in the poster no longer having access to the forum.

 

[Bubbus 0]

Fair enough, I'll accept that to be the case while also reiterating how disappointing it is.  I've come in from modding scenes for other games where the in-ecosystem remix culture is a lot more open, so I didn't anticipate this situation.

 

Thank you all for your help, sincerely.  I will refrain from doing this and go onto other things.

[PuFu 4600]

19 hours ago, Bubbus said:

That's unfortunate, given that I've seen similarly modified vehicles in mods like RHS

no you actually haven't....we indeed have some ports from A2 that have been improved and upgraded in various ways, but these can be freely be accessed here - https://www.bohemia.net/community/licenses/licensed-data-packages

 

19 hours ago, Bubbus said:

 I hope this stance changes in future, or that there is some way for modders to do this sort of work legitimately.  The intent here is precisely the opposite than to cause harm to BI or its IPs - it's from a place of genuine love of what they've done with the game.

I wouldn't hold my hopes high, but i would love to have ways to add to existing assets without actually having to touch the existing assets, similar to how weapon proxies work for instance.

 

13 hours ago, Bubbus said:

I've come in from modding scenes for other games where the in-ecosystem remix culture is a lot more open, so I didn't anticipate this situation.

i know of no such modding scenes where this happens legitimately, the ones i know of are a plagued with IP breaching, ripped stuff and thefts (to some degree, so is A3 modding scene, but to a much lesser extent).

[Bubbus 0]

You have my apologies then, I observed vehicles like the great variety of Wildcats in 3CB and the lovely T-14 in RHS and assumed they were derived from the vanilla assets, in that case you have my deep respect for putting out work rivalling the quality of the excellent BI counterparts.

 

The point I'd like to make is that by restricting access to people adding upon or remixing vanilla assets, significant amounts of interesting user generated content beyond the amazing collection we already have may have been effectively legislated away.  If a layman desires to remix an existing asset but is not permitted to, they are effectively required to replicate the work of an accomplished, paid studio professional at BI first if they still desire to go forward to modify the result.

 

A more laissez-faire approach to base assets with the requirement that they stay within the ecosystem has done wonders for the longevity and health of Valve's games for example, where I used to muck around.  Half Life 2 still receives mods to this day and TF2 somehow still has a machinima community 13 years after launch.  You'll sadly always have rulebreakers, but the added freedom afforded to legitimately interested people have done wonders for those titles.

 

Obviously Arma 3 has no issue of fading away any time soon - which I'm grateful for as it's my favourite way to pass time.  If BI ever decides to make the vanilla assets editable I would love to be the first to come back, slap some pylons onto a Ghosthawk and make a UH-80 DAP.  As it stands I don't currently have the resources or time to recreate the Ghosthawk itself so I will simply enjoy the wealth of content that we already have.  Thanks to all for your patience and civility, and thanks for the work you folks do for Arma.

[PuFu 4600]

53 minutes ago, Bubbus said:

You have my apologies then, I observed vehicles like the great variety of Wildcats in 3CB and the lovely T-14 in RHS and assumed they were derived from the vanilla assets, in that case you have my deep respect for putting out work rivalling the quality of the excellent BI counterparts.

afaik 3CB wildcats are ported and improved, these can be found in the same link i posted above.
T-14 in RHS in completely custom.

 

53 minutes ago, Bubbus said:

 The point I'd like to make is that by restricting access to people adding upon or remixing vanilla assets, significant amounts of interesting user generated content beyond the amazing collection we already have may have been effectively legislated away.  If a layman desires to remix an existing asset but is not permitted to, they are effectively required to replicate the work of an accomplished, paid studio professional at BI first if they still desire to go forward to modify the result.

while i understand the point you are making, BI is in the business of selling a game, and its DLC. Since said 3d game assets, in the current modding environment, can be distributed via various platforms without needing base content, it's a bit weird for that to happen. 

 

53 minutes ago, Bubbus said:

A more laissez-faire approach to base assets with the requirement that they stay within the ecosystem has done wonders for the longevity and health of Valve's games for example, where I used to muck around.  Half Life 2 still receives mods to this day and TF2 somehow still has a machinima community 13 years after launch.  You'll sadly always have rulebreakers, but the added freedom afforded to legitimately interested people have done wonders for those titles.

TF2 is a free to play game to begin with, and selling modded hats has been, for some, a pretty profitable side business, including Valve. HL2 game assets were released much much later than the game itself, similar to how BI did that.

 

53 minutes ago, Bubbus said:

Obviously Arma 3 has no issue of fading away any time soon - which I'm grateful for as it's my favourite way to pass time.  If BI ever decides to make the vanilla assets editable I would love to be the first to come back, slap some pylons onto a Ghosthawk and make a UH-80 DAP.  As it stands I don't currently have the resources or time to recreate the Ghosthawk itself so I will simply enjoy the wealth of content that we already have.  Thanks to all for your patience and civility, and thanks for the work you folks do for Arma.

Pretty sure that is sort of planned, but in some foreseeable future, possibly after or just before the next installment release.

[dreadpirate 173]

There is a mod that adds pylons to the Ghosthawk:

 

https://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=30363

 

But I don't think it modifies the vanilla model, maybe it uses attachTo?