Noticed the reloading animations?

[Tic-Tac 0]

I bought ArmA about a month ago and I think it is a brilliant change from games like CSS and BF2. But I think that the reloading animations are very bad compared to other games. Most modern FPS games have realistic weapon reloads e.g. you see them put in the magazine in and out then pulling cocking handle. But on ArmA you see the magazine come out then it is just arm and hand movements. Is it possible to create add-ons or mods that make it look more realistic? If so is anyone making one or thinking of making one?

[Deadfast 43]

I'm not really experienced in this (so please don't shoot me, if I'm worng ), but I think, that you can have only one animations for every class of weapons (eg. rifles, pistols, rocket launchers).

-Deadfast

[fireship4 0]

Lucky you didnt play OFP then, apparently the player had magical hands with which he could reload a weapon simply by waving his hands around it.

I dont know about putting in proper reload anims, but i've already seen previews of a weapon pack where you can see the bolt of a weapon cycling as you fire it, very nice.

[ck-claw 1]

although i agree with ya!!

its not the end of the world! while the so called animation is occuring im usually looking about for threats!

[BraTTy 0]

In OFP the animations had to be universal as they would be used for whatever weapon was picked up (seperate main,secondary,at animations)

In OFP and I am sure in Arma... YES you can make a real nice reload animation.You would want to make that soldier only capable of using that weapon.Then It would be nice.

May be hard to make separate anims for individual weapons (may be possible)

But it is definately possible to make a sophisticated anim for reload

From my experiences it also may be possible to make a few random anims to apply to same reload

[Le++ 0]

hehe, I've been waiting a long time for someone to notice this, so here goes:

As I see this, the games that have such wonderful animations (America's Army really blew my mind of with the M16, especially the semi-auto selector) don't support modding. The developers made the weapon specific animations and that's it. No user-created weapons...

The beauty of ArmA (and probably OFP, though I never played it) is that you can mod it very easily. It's pretty simple to create a weapon and add it to the game. But think what would happen if you added a FAMAS and had the pretty loading animation of an M16? It would look even worse. So for the sake of modding, I do believe that such a generic loading animation (rifle, launcher and pistol) are great. Sure, realistic reloading would have been pretty cool, but if that means that I had to create and animation for a Tavor mod, than I probably wouldn't even try. I think this goes for a lot of modders. It's just eye candy, after all, and one that happen quite rarely...

Still, if any modder is up to the task of creating a full reloading animation (even for one weapon only) that would be cool

[max power 21]

The bigger issue here is that game has a more true virtual self than the other games. With the other games, you have an animated picture of a weapon billboarded in front of your face. If you see someone in the 3rd person, the reload animation is not so detailed. I think that the hyper complicated weapon reloads you are describing might create a lot of lag or something if everyone was playing them. At any rate, it keeps the game itself simple and therefor allows for a greater scale.

[DarkGiver 0]

(...)

I dont know about putting in proper reload anims, but i've already seen previews of a weapon pack where you can see the bolt of a weapon cycling as you fire it, very nice.(...)

Really ? Which weapon pack ? because actually i didn't find how to add animation in arma for a weapon.. the only working technic i know is the old ofp one.. with the invisible part that appear with the muzzle flash to simulate mechanic part activity of the weapon.

And same problem with the magazine.. in arma during the reload sequence the magazine become invisible anyone know how to do that ?

[[aps]gnat 28]

Huh ... ?

I have definiately seen recently where during a reload the rifle tilts, the hand goes near the mag, the mag disappears and a new mag comes in and bam .... its attached the rifle again.

Sorry, not sure what weapon I saw that on, I normally don't bother watching such animations.

As Le++ mentioned, THIS is no ordinary FPS

This is ArmA, and it'll be around long after anyone even remembers what CCS and BF2 was.

[Jackal326 1172]

(...)

I dont know about putting in proper reload anims, but i've already seen previews of a weapon pack where you can see the bolt of a weapon cycling as you fire it, very nice.(...)

Really ? Which weapon pack ? because actually i didn't find how to add animation in arma for a weapon.. the only working technic i know is the old ofp one.. with the invisible part that appear with the muzzle flash to simulate mechanic part activity of the weapon.

And same problem with the magazine.. in arma during the reload sequence the magazine become invisible anyone know how to do that ?

I think fireship4 is referring to the SJB Weapons Pack thread where I recently showed a video of the M4A1s, where the ejection port actually moved. However, it was simply the old "zasleh method" from OFP, combined with the "Alpha Ghosting" 'feature'.

After some discussions with Kyle Sarnik, and close analysis of the Wiki we have both come to the conclusion animations on weapons could be possible, and he's 'persuaded' me to give a pistol slide animation a go at some point. If/when I get it working I'll let you all know, and give further info on how its done.

[DarkGiver 0]

(...)

I dont know about putting in proper reload anims, but i've already seen previews of a weapon pack where you can see the bolt of a weapon cycling as you fire it, very nice.(...)

Really ? Which weapon pack ? because actually i didn't find how to add animation in arma for a weapon.. the only working technic i know is the old ofp one.. with the invisible part that appear with the muzzle flash to simulate mechanic part activity of the weapon.

And same problem with the magazine.. in arma during the reload sequence the magazine become invisible anyone know how to do that ?

I think fireship4 is referring to the SJB Weapons Pack thread where I recently showed a video of the M4A1s, where the ejection port actually moved. However, it was simply the old "zasleh method" from OFP, combined with the "Alpha Ghosting" 'feature'.

After some discussions with Kyle Sarnik, and close analysis of the Wiki we have both come to the conclusion animations on weapons could be possible, and he's 'persuaded' me to give a pistol slide animation a go at some point. If/when I get it working I'll let you all know, and give further info on how its done.

Hmmm very very very interesting... if you have more details about the anim.. tell us as fast as you can please  

And about the "alpha ghosting" feature.. can you explain briefly how to implemant that on the standard zasleh method ?

Thank you in advance

[Jackal326 1172]

Well, its basically one and the same thing. You create a box with a very transparent texture (not 100% else it wont work, it needs to be 99.9% transparent so you can only just see it). Create a box around the bolt/slide/whatever you want to disappear when the weapon is fired, define the box as zasleh, and then play around with the alpha layers to get the slide/bolt/whatever to disappear. This will simulate the bolt/slide/whatever disappearing when the weapon is fired. This is basically what I did for the bolt on the M4A1, which gave the illusion that the ejection port was opening to eject the round's casing when the weapin was fired.

[DarkGiver 0]

Well, its basically one and the same thing. You create a box with a very transparent texture (not 100% else it wont work, it needs to be 99.9% transparent so you can only just see it). Create a box around the bolt/slide/whatever you want to disappear when the weapon is fired, define the box as zasleh, and then play around with the alpha layers to get the slide/bolt/whatever to disappear. This will simulate the bolt/slide/whatever disappearing when the weapon is fired. This is basically what I did for the bolt on the M4A1, which gave the illusion that the ejection port was opening to eject the round's casing when the weapin was fired.

hooo yes very ingenious.. i will try it immediatly thank

[Col. Faulkner 0]

[...]This will simulate the bolt/slide/whatever disappearing when the weapon is fired. This is basically what I did for the bolt on the M4A1, which gave the illusion that the ejection port was opening to eject the round's casing when the weapin was fired.

All rather pointless with side ejection things, since the

ejection slot is invisible to the firer, but the effect does

look nice on things like Garands, M14s, Uzis and Tommy

guns.

As regards the reloading animations, In some ways (failing

the possibility of weapon specific anims)  I'd actually prefer

if  they just dressed their weapon down a bit and held it

there while the reload sound played. The stupid spastic

hand-waving they do now as a "reload animation" is starting

to get annoying.

[Tic-Tac 0]

I understand how ArmA does it's weapons models differently from from other games. But having different reload times would make it more realistic wouldnt it?

[Iron+Cross 0]

One thing i loved about Arma was when i had the Demo a few months back & i was smearing the floor with newbs & "old pro's" alike on the LOL server I noticed i ran out of M249 Belt_box ammo but i had a 30rnd NATO mag & tried a reload, & it worked.. hehe just like the real! FN, (M249) although those 30 rounds go fast,

And the Belt_Box dont get replaced by a top/side loaded NATO Mag, but it was cool all the same.

[max power 21]

I understand how ArmA does it's weapons models differently from from other games. But having different reload times would make it more realistic wouldnt it?

So would having to tie your shoelaces...

Maybe it (more detailed weapon animations) will make it in officially at one point, but getting the thing to run stably seems to be a priority right now.