CONVERT FOR ARMA ADDONS FROM OFP

[Romolus 0]

@Messiah:

What you're looking for is normal maps, specular maps, ambient occlusion, or ambient shadow map and detail maps. Those are common terms so you might find something for other game engines and if not, then have a look at general 3D CG. Once you have a clear picture of what those maps are used for and how they're usually created, it'll be easy to apply this to ArmA.

@xnodunitx:

It's hard to judge from pictures whether the ambient occlusion is baked into the color textures or whether it's a separate map that properly gets affected by lights. I had to check it out myself and found that both ways are used in the current ArmA models. So baked or separate map, it's all in there.

@blackjack[VS]:

What you're looking for in the wiki is basically just this page:

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Armed_Assault:_Texture_Naming_Rules

On that page there are the suffixes listed for all possible texture maps. Those suffixes are added to the texture file name, so once you know what you're looking for it's easy to spot the right file.

Basically every addon pbo in ArmA has all those files. For the example of the team leader unit, open up the us_soldier_teamlead.p3d in a hex-editor or even a simple text editor and search for "rvmat" and you'll get the file names of the rvmats used on that model. (You can also search for .paa and you'll get the texture names)

The rvmat I refered to was the ca\characters\data\us_teamlead_equip.rvmat. Have a look in the data subfolder of the characters pbo and you'll find that file.

Rvmat files are raPified files which means you have to unRap them first like config.bin files for example. One tool for that is unRap which you can also find on the Community Tools page in the wiki. After unRaping the rvmat file you should be able to open it in a text editor.

When you open the rvmat file, you'll see that this file basically contains what is sent to the shaders. Matching the suffixes from the Texture Naming Rules page in the wiki should get you the texture file that you're looking for and by looking at the model in game it should be visible how they're applied to the model with the help of the rvmat files.

The way texturing and UV mapping is handled and whether there will be the possibility of several UV sets will have to be seen when the new O2 becomes available. Although the mentioning of an "uvSource" parameter inside the rvmat files suggests that there's support or planed support for more than one UV set.

PS

detail maps can be found in the vehicle pbos (air, wheeled, tracked)

[blackjack-VS- 0]

Ty again romulos for the tips. i just had some time to install kegetys plugin for photoshop and surfed around the paa's inside character.pbo. its just unbelievable the detail/size of the textures, and i guess it will take some time to have comparable addons from the comunity...congratulations to bis artists, they made an outsanding 2d work. i presume that they also made some really high poly models for extraction of such data..

so there goes my expectation of building addons with just some painted bumps on gimp then use normal map filter on it. (jk)

Afterall i'm gona need to spend some time around ultimapper tool on xsi and learn how to extract those nice textures correctly. i never tryed to extract specular maps, but i guess its a simple tick to active on the menu..this tool is really simple to use.

can u tell me what's the correct light position, and type of light u should use , when ur about to extract maps from high poly model?

well..i can predict a very long future to this game, at least relating to pc's requirements...it will take 2 years for me to have a decent machine to run arma but its fine to me, i'm happy with few years more with arma o

[Messiah 2]

Thanks Romolus... wealth of Info there - that was exactly my thinking in getting a better understanding of how the engine works before engaging with it, rather than in OFP where I lept in head first and ended up with my initial addons being 300 textures et al....

[Guest]

Well there is a tool which can turn any lowpoly model into a high poly model for making normal maps. Its not really easy to use and even experienced 3d users will have to relearn a whole new modeling method.

Its called Zbrush

here is an example of how it works

then all you have to do is use the automatic normalmap exporter and then you have it.

I was modding for bf2 in the battlefield apocaylpse mod before I discovered VBS1 and thats where i was using zbrush. but its almost a year now since i didnt have to worry about normal maps... now it comes back to the point where I need to worry again.

[Messiah 2]

lol, i recognise that example picture

[Romolus 0]

@djfrogstar:

Maybe you should also mention that it's a commercial tool for about 500$.

I bet that most people who start out with OFP and ArmA modeling are happy that they can get O2 for free and don't have to shell out some major cash for a legal license of one of the main 3D tools. I also bet that those who really have a legal license for such a tool already know zbrush more than enough.

The trick is to come up with a solution to create normal maps that doesn't cost more than ten times the price of the game. Everything else is more advertising piracy in my eyes.

[Guest]

@Romolus

I guess it depends on how serious you are about your hobby...

500 dollars is not alot of money for a tool that saves you time...atleast imo thats the case. the amount of time people spend modding adds up.. atleast in my case it does. if someone wants to spend 20 hours in o2 to do 20 minutes work in another program than have at it.

I guess your right in the sense if the average joe wants to mod he shouldnt have to invest so much money.. I totally agree... like you said for people starting out. But if you need to get the job done then it comes down to TIME is equal to money, and MONEY is equal to time.

If you take a look a zbrush you will see that it is more powerfull than maya and 3dsmax for modeling. And even low poly. and alot cheaper.

@all new modders

Not everyone is able to buy the big software packages, thats why there are really cheap solutions like MODO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modo_(software)

for other packages, try the demo and if its good....andyou have the cash then buy what you need.. its that simple

[Romolus 0]

@djfrogstar:

I think you missed my point.

My point was that those who are serious enough to put down 500$ for zbrush, (which is a sculpting tool not a general modeling tool,) already know about it because they own one of the big 3D packages. At least I guess that if you're that serious about your hobby to be willing to spend 500$ on a sculpture tool, then you probably would have done some research in that area even if you're just starting out.

For those who don't know it, I think it's only fair to tell them what the tools cost that you're waving in front of their faces unless you're suggesting that they should just go and grab it "somewhere" which I don't think you intended to.

Also I'm sure that there are people who would like to be able to buy all those tools but just can't afford them or can't justify such expenses because they have kids, a wife and maybe a house to pay. That doesn't mean they are less serious about their hobby just because of that.

Also when coming from OFP, people are used to be able to create quality addons with the free tools that were provided by BIS and some rather cheap or even free tools for textures.

In a thread like this where people are obviously not that deep into the topic, I think it would be more adequate to try to come up with a possible solution that doesn't involve having to put down hundreds of $ for the latest tools.

Especially people like you who have a much better knowledge about those things, could help there a great deal.

And if there isn't any alternative then people should at least be told what those things cost in my opinion.

I don't agree with your suggestion about Modo, but I'd rather turn this thread not into a discussion about 3D tools and instead stay on topic. Maybe we could even come up with a wider range of suggestions about how those new map types can be created.

And when it comes to hobbies, I don't really think time equals money

I don't want to get things done as fast as possible, I want to enjoy doing them. No one is paying me for the time I spend on a hobby and I don't intend to do more paid work, just because I can get my hobby done faster

If I count together the time I've spend working with (and against) the OFP engine, in that time I could have coded my own small engine even as a one man team. But I enjoyed working on OFP, so that's what I did

[xnodunitx 0]

Its true,I wouldn't have gotten a modelling interest in OFP if O2 wasn't free,after looking at 3Dmax prices I began to wonder how much this modelling program was for flashpoint,when I heard it was free I was completely blown away. Not only that but its also a hell of alot easier to work with,sure you don't get the fancy things such as bevelling and whatnot but its easier to create and obejct,simply two clicks and your done,delete D and create F6,can't get much easier then that. On the other side,it gives you a stronger sense of accomplishment once you have done the harder things. The only thing that I wish O2 had that 3D max had would be an option to make cylinders more round and have more sections without having to make an entirerly new one,but hey,it works.

Problem about having to buy the O2 "2" would be for the fact that it only works for Armed Assault,if it had more diversities and better rendering then maybe.

As for how to apply the normal maps,your guess is as good as mine but if I had to take another guess I would have to say it would be a similar process as to what texturing is now. In O2 you load up the model,load up the texture,apply the texture to said faces or model parts. I would tend to think this would be the same thing,only with normal and speculiar maps. How else would you do it? I can't say if this is true or not but I rather doubt BIS would use "some" of their tools and then another completely different tool that may cost 500 a pop rather then upgrading what they have. I cannot say for certain what the newer O2 has but I did notice the "fill" view no longer uses only sharp edges but also smooth for ones that are defined that way,not only that but it also has wireframe view.

[Guest]

Thing is with normal maps you have a few ways of doing it. The easiest way to do it is to get the free nvidia plugin for photoshop.

ok sorry again but photoshop costs alot of money and if you have linux installed you can use a program called THEGIMP which is free. But not sure if it supports the nvidia plugin.

and this nvidia plugin can convert a black and white bumpmap texture into a normal map. Alot of the times the texture itself has enough information to make this normal map.. Take for example metal rivets on metal. A photo of this would show the shadows and highlights where the rivet is. The bumpmap would then more or less have the highlight to push it outward and the shadows to push it down. so if you manually made black rings around the rivet it would make the normal map seem like it is really a seperate object. After converting a bumpmap to normal map you will see how the image has a funky spectrum of color representing it.

The true normal map is by actually having that rivet built in 3d so when it is later smashed down into the normal map it will properly react with light as apposed to the faked version from a bump map. It all depends on what you are trying to make at the end of the day.

3dsmax and maya*expensive programs* have a special method of what they call a 3D CAGE. This is comparing two different models*low poly and high poly* and the UVW information and their vectors. When it is porperly setup its just a matter of pressing a button and it exports the normal map based on you uvw unwrap.

I will be really suprized if the new O2 can do this. BIS is a company that uses more than the default modding tools... at least thats what i believe or is my opinion. To make an entire game with just o2 and the default windows paint program just does not seem realistic. So the game functions without normal maps which the modding community can still make their favorite weapon or vehicles. I know a few people who do all their modeling in o2 and can say its over the top amazing, better than what i see coming out of the expensive professional packages.

@Romolus What i mean by time is equal to money, is that I work full time, and also have a family which i want to spend time with.

Id rather drive than walk so i dont have to spend every waking hour doing complex things for modding which i am doing as a hobby. In some cases the workflow is simply more logical with the professional packages. digging a mine out with a spoon or using a pick axe or dynamite. They all get the job done, but at different speeds.

Once the tools are released and we see what kind of functionality exists we then have to test all this out. Im willing to help anyone that needs help regarding normal mapping.

here is an example of a bumpmap converted to a normal map.....

no fancy 3d programs needed to make it..

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e215/djfrogstar/AnthraxCan1600.jpg

[Messiah 2]

as far as I've been told and heard alot of the BIS work is done with 3dsmax as well... UV mapping for one... and obviously those textures were never made in paint....