Version 2 - Skaven's RACS

[Skaven 0]

from the read me...

Introduction:

As promised, here is my Racs Version 2 addon, inside you will find a new team of Racs with a new cammo (Woodland/Jungle), 7 new weapons (FN-Fal, Fal Sniper, HK-UMP, Walther MPL, M16A4, M16A4-M203 and an HK23e) making now a total of 12 weapons. You will also find my first approach to High Dispersion Weapons/Magazines, new map pictures, new muzzle flashes, new recoils, new shadows, new config values as well as many other tweaks.

This is made for you, thank you for your help and support.

Special thanks to:

- All of the CS addon makers that allowed me to import, modify and release their work for the Arma community. (All specified inside the read me).

- tpM'91 for making 75% of the sounds and for helping me configuring the addons as well as for being always available to help me.

- Suchey&Earl and FDF for the impact sounds.

- Vipersheart for some of his sounds.

- JAM addon makers for the idea of the High Dispersion as well as for some sounds we used as base.

- SLX for their animation tutorials and examples.

- Frandsen for helping me improving some model details.

- Vixer for general help and support.

- Jackal for helping me importing the M16A4-M203.

- BIS forum members that kindly incentivated us for releasing this CS weapons (again this release is for you).

- BIS for making the best game around.

- Beta testers (you are too many but you know who you are).

Quote[/b] ]Version 3 released, for further comments please use this thread instead:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....t=65148

Moderators please lock this topic, ty.

[roberthammer 582]

Very, very nice,THX for new version  

Downloading now . To All have FUN !  

[Drew77 0]

Very nice, I will try them now.

[mr burns 131]

Woot! <span id='ME'><center>Mr Burns does the happydance</center></span>

edit:

http://armed-assault.net/downloads/skavens-mercs-vr2.html

http://armed-assault.de/downloads/skavens-mercs-vr2.html

@Mods: Is it also against the rules to edit mirrors into my posts?

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Nicely.

[Q1184 0]

Wow very well done Skaven, I'm really impressed! The weapons are top quality (especially FN-FAL and M60... well, all of them to be honest ) The sounds are too very nice and match the weapon quality. Two little complaints though:

1. I think FN-FAL should have more recoil in auto mode, since the round is 7.62 NATO. Now its recoil is pretty much like the one of M16.

2. Why do medics carry two pretty similar weapons (UMP and MPL)? Maybe give them a pistol as a secondary weapon?

[topas 1]

you know what the most annoying thing about this addon is?...

I'll have to wait till tommorow with the download  

(Leaving work in 2mins.)

[ebud 18]

Very cool. Can't wait to try these out. Need to add these to a replacement mod.

[l mandrake 9]

Fantastic work - the quality of these units is worthy of any commercial dev team. Thank you!

(I really hope someone makes a RACS campaign for these soon)

[oldbear 390]

It looks like a great job, the kind of "you must have".

Nice to see it's has many roots, even outside our community !

It's now hosted on Armed Assault.info

[raedor 8]

@Mods: Is it also against the rules to edit mirrors into my posts?

Yes. It is generally forbidden to edit posts without a mod's permission.

Just kiddin'

[ebud 18]

Fantastic work - the quality of these units is worthy of any commercial dev team. Thank you!

(I really hope someone makes a RACS campaign for these soon)

I think the screens look nice, but the engine can hid lots of little flaws with the shadow and normal maps.

I think Skaven did a good job reskinning the units and getting them configed, but the actual texturing is not quite there yet.

The weapons are nice, but don't have proper lods for ARMA. They're not actually modeled down and just go from a high poly model to a billboard rather than model down each lod by 50%, and billboards for far lods shouldn't be used anymore.

Since they are imports there isn't much you can do for a quick conversion, and modeling them down would take as much work as making all new models.

Skaven, here are few things I found as far as your texturing on the units that you could work on if you decide to take these to the next level. These are in no particular order, I'm just commenting as I look at them.

The leg straps and pads are very roughly cut of from the old original texture. Lots of the old texture left around the border of them. Same with the patches as well. In pics it's not as noticeable, but looking at the textures it's pretty glaring.

The black in the egyptian camo has a weird white edge to it.

Almost no pattern trimmed out of the camo to match a RL uniform stitching such as the cargo pockets, the arm seams, etc. Lots of detail left out.

In the untucked shirt area there are a couple of bad photoshop seams where you duplicated the camo pattern. I think it's hidden on the model though, but like before, in the texture it's pretty obvious.

In the indian pattern (looks like indian) you got some really messed up duplication and mirroring going on, and you didn't rotate the camo for the arms and just ran it the same as the legs even though the arms are rotated 90 degreess in the uv map (the Egyptian camo pattern did the same thing but it's not so noticable). Also in the camo you have a odd double seam repeated which doesn't really do anything as the camo pattern is intact and not cut and shifted at that seam. Same as the egyptian uniform as far as the details missing for anything resembling a uniform as far as cutting the cloth and stitching it together. It's just a pattern thrown over some wrinkles.

Same with the boonies. No work done to cut the camo where actual seams are.

In the indian style camo helmet you overlayed it over the old 6 color desert which is still showing through rather than just over the wrinkles you could get via the normal map.

This may come off a little "uppity" but I don't mean it to, I'll still use them and the weapons, but if you take a bit more time and thought on your next units it will make a world of difference in quality.

[Commando84 0]

they look great but the most important for me will be to play with the new weapons

[Skaven 0]

Thank you all for your nice comments

@Ebud, I know what you mean, it's been a while since I made some addons , I'm catching things back slowly, It's been like 3/4 years since I even opened photoshop so... . You know, my profession is working with numbers and stats (managing stuff) not textures or models. However, in each of my releases I try to improve step by step so, eventually I will get close to Ebud's level

Quote[/b] ]This may come off a little "uppity" but I don't mean it to, I'll still use them and the weapons, but if you take a bit more time and thought on your next units it will make a world of difference in quality.

You did well, no harm done at all, your textures are amazing and you know I admire your work.

As for the weapons I did the best I could, modeling this weapons down to all lods is a job for a modeler which I ain't, but with time... who knows.

I did my best and having people happy because they can play with something new and free is my main target here and I think I got it at least with some quality and withouht compromising the game (bug free), taking my work to the next level as you say, will take more time but you know as they say, practice makes perfection, maybe I'll get there.

Thank you for you nice words and help Ebud

[mr burns 131]

Loving the new weapons, especially the FAL & HK23 are most appreciated. Also thx for not raping the M14 with a scope!

On a sidenote:

^^ Comparing orig. sounds with my video rip´s

@Mods: Is it also against the rules to edit mirrors into my posts?

Yes. It is generally forbidden to edit posts without a mod's permission.

Just make sure to be online as soon as i want to edit my posts

[ebud 18]

The weapons I wouldn't bother with. I'm no modeler either so I feel your pain. I have most of the Graw/Graw2 weapons in ARMA but with no lods and I'm far too lazy to do them, especially since their just for my own use. I think what you did is fine for now, but I hope it doesn't start a trend, haha. I know where your coming from, but once you start just importing things and cutting corners on performance where does it stop? A usable new weapon is better than none I suppose

For the units, I know we both go waaaaaay back and I remember you and I cranking out stuff way back when about 3-4 years ago on OFPEC, then I know you just disappeared I was just pointing out the things I saw. Most of them are not as noticeable in pics or in-game. With all the love you've been getting I thought I'd shake things up a bit

[Skaven 0]

Quote[/b] ]you and I cranking out stuff way back when about 3-4 years ago on OFPEC, then I know you just disappeared ??

I almost got married, she told me it's me or the computer and I just couldn't resist her, I'll send you a pic for you to see why

Quote[/b] ]I was just pointing out the things I saw. Most of them are not as noticeable in pics or in-game. With all the love you've been getting I thought I'd shake things up a bit

I know Ebud I have always admired your work, I think you were the first person I sent a pm once I came back To me you are the best guy making textures for our game, but... I don't like your work it's too painted not real enough ... ahahahaa (I'm joking).

Thank you again for your help and support Ebud

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Very good work, again!

The HK23 is just fantastic.

MfG Lee

[ebud 18]

If you need anything let me know, I have some nice templates I've been updating that you might be able to use. I'll post the latest versions tonight and send you a link. They might help, they might not, but if nothing else it might spark a new method.

I hear you about the wedding. I went down that road 3 years ago so I know where your coming from

And yes, send a pic, haha. Pics or it never happened :P

[Skaven 0]

Quote[/b] ]If you need anything let me know, I have some nice templates I've been updating that you might be able to use. I'll post the latest versions tonight and send you a link. They might help, they might not, but if nothing else it might spark a new method.

Thank you Ebud, all help is welcome, specially from you

Quote[/b] ]Loving the new weapons, especially the FAL & HK23 are most appreciated. Also thx for not raping the M14 with a scope!

On a sidenote:

^^ Comparing orig. sounds with my video rip´s

Burns you convinced me, please send me those sounds

[FilPedro 0]

Thanks for your hard work and dedication to us Skav, great tutorials (4 so far I think?) and imo for the second time you gave us the best overall addon, High-Dispersion, Great looking Soldiers and Amazing Weapons

You rock, god bless

[Commando84 0]

very nice units and especially the weapons! only thing i didnt like was the G3A4 has a bit to weak sounds imo isnt it supposed to sound a little more heavier cause its a bit heavy rifle

but all other weapons sounds great and behavies great.

and also any chance in a next version you can add a few more of the HD men? it would be nice with hd soldiers for the bluefor side and also i like it that its not to much dispersion on them either.

and btw any chance to make Hd static? Like static machineguns that fire in hd? So i could have the chance to dodge mg bullets a little

[Skaven 0]

Quote[/b] ]and imo for the second time you gave us the best overall addon

There no addons better than other addons, they are all the same, the importance is for everybody to give their help so we can make our game better, ty for your nice words

Quote[/b] ]and also any chance in a next version you can add a few more of the HD men? it would be nice with hd soldiers for the bluefor side and also i like it that its not to much dispersion on them either.

and btw any chance to make Hd static? Like static machineguns that fire in hd? So i could have the chance to dodge mg bullets a little

Please read the Read Me file But yes, static weapons, vehicles and more soldiers, all are planned on my High-Dispersion project

[Totala 0]

[lee_h._oswald 0]

Btw, the G3 ingame is a G3A3 and not G3A4.

The G3A3 has a fixed stock, the G3A4 a retractable one.

MFG Lee