Addons: Getting Started

[BroK3n 0]

Hi!

I'm starting this thread so that the veteran addon makers could guide budding addons makers to the tools of the trade.

I know, BIS would be releasing their own tools soon but it isnt clear when. Instead of waiting around and finally losing enthusiasm in addon making, why not teach us the gist of it. Then when the real tools are released, everyone wins!

My first question would be what tools do you guys use to texture? Similarly, what tools do you use for model building?

My second question would be is it possible to use other 3d making software like Maya or Softimage XSI to create models for Arma? What format do you then save the models as?

I await to see the community helping the community in this thread.

Shoot!

[nephilim 0]

initially you can model in any tool you want

i personally model in modo

then you export your model into 3ds format into oxygen and save it as a p3d

right now we only have the older oxygen so support for ArmA is limited.

for textures the are some pretty good conversion tools

paatool1.1 (i use that), paNtool, kegetys ps plugin (kinda slow conversion for me :/ )

[xnodunitx 0]

For texturing you can use things such as photoshop, paint shop pro, gimp, virtually any pain program.

Yes it is possible to use third party model creating utilities as long as the format is supported, usually .max or .obj. I believe that several community makers used Maya to create models or modify them to an extent.

However the primary model program will be oxygen light aka O2, you'll need it to define selections to make your addon work.

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/breathe/

You should also acquire the viewer so that you can see the model in solid 3D as well as the textures unless you plan to texture it through another program.

Currently I use max to UV map parts onto the model, once brought back into O2 the coordinates still stay so there should be no worries of issues with that.

You can review some of the tutorials here to get an idea of how things are set up.

http://www.ofpec.com/ed_depot/tutes.php

The tutorials show not only modelling but also named selections, however if you are going to attempt to incorporate an addon into Armed Assault then you may want to look here for the named selections.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/ArmA:_Selection_Translations

LOD information to help with the drawdistance amongst other various things.

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/LOD

If you have flashpoint I would recommend you first try to work with that before going into Armed Assault addon editing, since there are more tutorials soley for OFP and the current O2 is also soley for OFP, you would have an easier time getting the hang of things.

And yes you will need paatool, pantool or textview. You can get them here.

http://www.mapfact.net/include....tid=115

[plasman 0]

For retexturing you can also use:

- MakePbo and Unpbo available at

http://www.mapfact.net/include....tid=115

To pack and unpack .pbo files

- Textview available at

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/docs/textview.html

In order to turn .paa files into .tga ones and viceversa

- HxD available at http://mh-nexus.de/hxd/

To change the paths to textures in the 3DS files

and of course

- Notepad : For writing configs.

[Skaven 0]

For wrighting your config I advise you to use Notepad++, it's a lot more powerful than the normal Notepad and it as an HexEditor included which you may find useful.

Freeware in the download link below:

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

[Sennacherib 0]

you need also the photoshop plugin to read dds file for the normal mapping:

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html

a tut about the normal mapping:

http://www.bencloward.com/resources_tutorials.shtml

to create your 3d model, you can use any 3d programs; there are a lot of free program on the internet.

- moray

- blender

-anim8tor

etc.

[nephilim 0]

there are also alot of free normal map tools to derrive 3d geometry data

like nvidias melody

or the one from ati which is called normal mapper i think

these programs create normal maps with the help of high resoultion 3d models having billions of polygons

[Baker GX 0]

I would will begin designing aircraft addons for ArmA very shortly, but my question is: can i not import models from other games such as Microsoft flight sim, to give me a head start and fast track this modelling process?

[Sennacherib 0]

you should learn by yourself, and the addons from other games are protected by a copyright.

if you need examples, you can dl for free some models at turbosquid.

[TiGGa 0]

@Neph: You said you are using Modo for modelling. How do you export to the 3ds file format. I haven't found the format after pressing on export.

[nephilim 0]

from modo i export as obj

then use anim8tor to get the 3ds

from p3d to 3ds i use p2ms and lith unwrap

[Sennacherib 0]

you can find p2ms here