Oil Rig for ArmA

[rocket 9]

Oil Rig for Armed Assault

I am developing an Oil Rig for use with Armed Assault.  The final release of the first version is scheduled for sometime in December 2007.  User participation is strongly encouraged, particulary in the areas of testing and feature requests.

- Visit http://tools.assembla.com/usec_oilrig/wiki for latest information

- Use the Request a feature page

- Submit a bug report

Feel free to ask questions, or suggest ideas here.  Many thanks to those who have already provided feedback so far.

Thanks,

Icemotoboy

[[aps]gnat 28]

Wow ... lovely rig !

Look forward to its release.

* Windows ?

2 different rectangular faces close together, but facing away from each other.

Texture both with a 95% transparent glass texture

* Destructable parts ?

hmmm ... doubt you can do that in the main model(s)

Suspect you would have to use scripts at rig spawn time to add any descructable sub-parts to the model.

ie, scripting a container into place on top of a floor.

Probably a LOT more trouble than its worth.

* GEO behave ?

Not sure what you mean.

If you mean how the camera swings in and out as you run around inside a building with close walls etc ..... doubt that is something you can modify. Thats mostly like Engine code ... unchangable.

[HogRoot 0]

Very nice job!! I do have some constructive critisism coming from a helo pilot perspective. Looking at the top most pic, you might want to think about removing the item that is in the corner closest to the camera...looks like a vent of some sort. The pilot coming in to land has a very small window for error and if he drifted left...he will hit the tower...and if he drifted right he would hit the vent with his rotors. If the vent was removed it would give him an escape route. Just my 2 cents worth....but other than that...outstanding job!

[luki 53]

Nice one. Looks very nice, maybe i can use this on my Island.

[[GLT] Legislator 66]

Very good work! I'm eager to see it in action

[rocket 9]

Thanks for input guys! So far I've got the following feedback I'll be actioning:

* Obstacle near helipad should be moved

* 44gal Drums should be added

* Retexturing from tiled texture (baked, touched up)

Continuing my questions above

* Windows ?

Awesome, thanks for the outline of what too do Gnat! Does anyone know if it is possible to assign the windows as destructable?

* Destructable parts ?

You're right it is probably is more work than is necessary, maybe something I will look at for a later release. At this stage I am actually propogating the rig in game using a script. You place one of the game models in the editor, and it places the additional two when you load it up.

* GEO behave ?

What I am finding happens is that in external view while running around, the camera bounces up to the level above, or into the room next door. Basically the camera does not conform to the bounds of nearby Geo like I thought it would. I wondered if thats because I wasn't building the geo right perhaps? Also, I am finding that I can run through walls if I try hard enough, which makes me think that I am not doing the walls right. Might have to play around a bit I think.

Some new questions.

* Has anyone done any work with detail maps in ArmA? I have a handle on the Normal Mapping, which I intend to have working in Alpha assuming I can work out some performance issues. I think I may have to have full LODing in for this to work properly on lower end systems.

* Success with lighting? I want to put a number of fluorescent lights on the rig. I think I have the process worked out, but if anyone has had any success with this (or indeed, any hints on how I should approach the lighting of the rig) I would love to hear it.

* Ladder confusion Well I have the ladders working, but I can't seem to tweak them how I like. Either the "activate" position is too far out from the ladder and therefore confusing, or the animation of climbing the ladder is "inside" it. Am I correct that the ladder points are mapped in game to be "activated" by the nearby section of geo from the geometry mesh? If anyone has some pointers here that would be great. I have the ladders working, just I'm not happy with their quality.

[VXR 9]

might want to get the helipad sticking out of the oil rig more.. often seen at oil rigs

[devgru 0]

Very Awesome! Nice work so far. I can't wait to do some GOPLATS raids on this baby!

[G_H_Play_AKA_BOSS 0]

What can i say but wow,nice work indeed.

[hoz 0]

A more appropriate location for this thread is A&M discussion.

[wika_woo 182]

That's just brilliant looking...

More things to fight over ..

[Average Joe 0]

Holy shit, that looks awesome ice, enterable buildings for spec operations?

[GIJOE94 0]

Ace! Now we can re-enact BF2 modern combat in ArmA!

[Messiah 2]

* Windows ?

Awesome, thanks for the outline of what too do Gnat! Does anyone know if it is possible to assign the windows as destructable?

* GEO behave ?

What I am finding happens is that in external view while running around, the camera bounces up to the level above, or into the room next door. Basically the camera does not conform to the bounds of nearby Geo like I thought it would. I wondered if thats because I wasn't building the geo right perhaps? Also, I am finding that I can run through walls if I try hard enough, which makes me think that I am not doing the walls right. Might have to play around a bit I think.

@Windows - You can define (or at least for vehicles, so It should work fine) textures to be swapped when vehicles/things reach a certain level of damage - this means a glass texture can be swapped for a broken glass texture - unfortunately it's linked into how damaged the whole object is, rather than just the glass.

@Geo - Camera is something you'll have to put up with. Being able to walk through parts of the building if you try hard enough would make me believe that you've done everything correctly (i.e. the wall does prevent someone walking through it) but you just haven't made them thick enough - try making them extra thick in the geo lod alone to prevent glitching through.

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]One key thing I have noted is that more than 20k polygons and you must split the objects out.

What about the size of the rigg at the moment? If you exceed something like 50 to 65m for your objects bounding box, you also have split the object.

Quote[/b] ]* Destructable parts ?

You're right it is probably is more work than is necessary, maybe something I will look at for a later release.  At this stage I am actually propogating the rig in game using a script. You place one of the game models in the editor, and it places the additional two when you load it up.

Seen as your already splitting some objects. You could always model other parts of the rigg as seperate objects to. That way you can give them seperate destruction effects via the config?

[rocket 9]

"might want to get the helipad sticking out of the oil rig more"

Good tip, I checked my reference materials and indeed, the pads are sticking out alot more. I have moved it out further - looks great.

"enterable buildings for spec operations?"

Yes, The rig has about seven levels too it, both external and internal. The main building on the rig has 5 levels. I have interior walls creating a number of rooms. As noted above, I have some pretty major work to do on Geo to stop weird things happening. Also - external camera when running around the building does not work well (the camera will often be in the room above). Hmmm... I wonder if I should place the floor in the geo layer as well as the roadway... that might solve the camera issue...

I'll try making the walls extra thick to stop the view "bouncing" and also from being able to run through the walls if u keep trying.

"@Windows"

It sounds like I'm going to be making the alpha release with non-destructable windows. I'm basically putting anything that seems non-essential asside for the alpha release, mainly because I want to test how well this will run on lower-end machines and from an AI perspective before I commit too much work. Thanks for everyones advice on windows so far!

Update... Detail

Based on the feedback I received, I have now added more detail to a number of areas. Most of it is railings, such as netting around the edge of the helipad and more external detail on the building. I have also increased the deck size, added an exterior deck on the top of the building, and several oil tanks.

Possible feature... Operatable Crane

Several people have asked if the crane will be usable (lol). I have a theory about how to do this (basically turreted vehicle with no wheels). I'm not entirely sure what the purpose would be... except I have a large number of Ship models I made for FSX that I could easily port to ArmA, and write some sort of "unload ship" script based on the position of the crane. I think maybe thats something for version 2.0.

Update... Performance

Currently the model sits in four pieces, and is around 40,000 triangles. I am not sure what the performance will be on lower-end PC's which is my aim for testing in (pre)Alpha. My current approach is to break the model down into more and more objects, and then LOD the heck out of any that have a significant number of triangles. This will, however, make placement of the rig virtually impossible via the mission editor and the objects all need to be placed perfectly on top of each other. I'm also concerned that LODing may be based on the CENTER of the object, in which case, all my objects are offset so their position is right on the rig... meaning LODing won't be as effective as if the objects were not offset.

My current triangle budget is 50,000 as I figured being out in the ocean I could get away with that much detail. If anyone has a better LODing or performance recommendations... please feel free to let me know.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback I'll post some more screens soon and aim to get something online for folks to test. Does anyone know of somewhere I can run bugtracker for this?

[Kerry 0]

sexy model!

cant wait to raid that thing!

[pathetic_berserker 4]

Hmmm... I wonder if I should place the floor in the geo layer as well as the roadway... that might solve the camera issue...

Be carefull with this one as you may find characters bounce of the floor or may even get stuck in it! Idealy the road LOD should be about 10cm ontop of Geo LOD to avoid this.

As for the destructable parts it really depends on how you have broken up your model. You may have noticed some of the BIS buildings actualy use an animation step when destroyed to leave behind specific rubble (radio tower, silo, and tin shed?) Sooo if you have say, the rig base, platform, crane and building as seperate objects placed together by script you could then have the builing and the crane use a destroyed animation, then maybe settle on a damage texture for the other bits.

Best of Luck with it. It's one of those objects that people keep asking for, but never arrives. And its looking good!

PS, placement in the editor should be possible via a script in the config. You'll probably find examples in the OFP aircraft carriers. I'm no maths head but I know its possible.

[plasman 0]

Congrats, your platform looks promissing.

I case you don't know it already here is a good source of references for your oil drilling platform:

http://www.oilrig-photos.com/

[bravo 6 0]

really impressive.

Excellent

[HulkingUnicorn 0]

Your rig is looking great!

I'm going to step onto thin ice here and air the idea that the separate pieces of the rig could be placed as proxies - would that be possible/easier?

[imutep 0]

Awesome work

[MEDICUS 0]

Nice stuff, icemotoboy!

Looking forward to this one

MfG Medicus

[abs 2]

I hate to be a stick in the mud, but where did you find that model? It looks a lot like something I'm working on with the Canadian army at the moment.

Please get back to me. Thanks.

Abs

[rocket 9]

I didn't find the model anywhere, I built it, based on google image searches. Thanks for the feedback guys, will be posting new pictures soon.

I'm also grateful to those who provided some assistance with getting the geometry sorted, I wasn't creating the objects right, and it now works like a charm. Most appreciated.