Lost Brothers IDF Paratrooper Preview!

[miles teg 1]

Below is a pic of our upcoming IDF infantry model from the Lost Brothers Mod.  The model and textures are courtesy of Hayal<IDF> and .cpp work and conversion work from OFP are courtesy of Soviet and SFC. ITZHAK.  

Tavor is by Hayal if I remember correctly with some work by Soviet and Diversant.

We just need to sort out some texture mapping issues and a shading bug on the helmet.  Oh also the Tavor will be shifted forward and up a bit so that it sits better in the soldier's hands. Other then that everything is working just fine.

This will be the LoBo Mod's first official ArmA release.

*NOTE: THESE ARE NOT RETEXTURED BIS UNITS. THESE ARE ENTIRELY CUSTOM MODELS

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Kerry 0]

Sounds kool..... but looks rather "low quality".

Keep the spirit though!!!

[txalin 2]

Sounds kool..... but looks rather "low quality".

Keep the spirit though!!!

yep, seems to be an ofp model. Anyway, that's the spirit, no more retexturing!

[Shadow NX 1]

Sounds kool..... but looks rather "low quality".

Keep the spirit though!!!

Well it was like that since OFP, you either have to love or hate the mod.

But i like the guy with the mitznefet ( spelling? ) cover on the head

[Zadoff1880 0]

Yeah, it's one of the coolest military "hats" in the entire world

[Dramboi 0]

Love the work but need some retexturing

i really think you should release some units for beta testing

[miles teg 1]

I'm assuming by low quality you mean the messy arm/leg textures.  If its the model, then sorry, it ain't getting better then that unless someone comes and re-does everything for us.  We can't use bis models (aside from the arms and legs) simply because its too difficult to re-do the body armor/ephod load carrying vest system on top of a BIS model.  It just doesn't work well.   That is why we had to use a model that was originally for OFP (but never released).  We may still use it for OFP as well in an IDF update.

At any rate, I'm satisfied with the model. The only BIS part we are using is the arms and legs...hence the reason we're having some problems texturing it properly.  WSo right now we are just trying to fix up the textures on it by first reducing their number and then mapping them properly on the legs and arms.

Likewise the Tavor rifle will be adjusted as well in the shooter's hands so that it sits better in their hands.

After that we'll release a beta.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[privatenoob 0]

I salute you for making new models.

I really dont like plain re-textured bis-units, looks like arma soldiers no matter what color you put on em.

[1in1class 0]

I salute you for making new models.  

I really dont like plain re-textured bis-units, looks like arma soldiers no matter what color you put on em.

So so true people are just retextureing Bis units and a lot of them. They are also not putting the right equipment to the unit  or modeling them in anyway, Lost Brothers Mods iv been playing on OFP and would love to play it on ArmA always looking forward to there release keep up the great work New models are lovely

[shinRaiden 0]

I salute you for making new models.

I really dont like plain re-textured bis-units, looks like arma soldiers no matter what color you put on em.

So so true people are just retextureing Bis units and a lot of them. They are also not putting the right equipment to the unit or modeling them in anyway, Lost Brothers Mods iv been playing on OFP and would love to play it on ArmA always looking forward to there release keep up the great work New models are lovely

I'd also add that attempting to modify an existing model, ie adding and deleting 'kit' in particular, is by most observed samples, very poorly implemented. Improper modeling leads to astronomically high model sections count, with resulting appalling system performance.

[abs 2]

I salute you for making new models.

I really dont like plain re-textured bis-units, looks like arma soldiers no matter what color you put on em.

So so true people are just retextureing Bis units and a lot of them. They are also not putting the right equipment to the unit or modeling them in anyway, Lost Brothers Mods iv been playing on OFP and would love to play it on ArmA always looking forward to there release keep up the great work New models are lovely

I'd also add that attempting to modify an existing model, ie adding and deleting 'kit' in particular, is by most observed samples, very poorly implemented. Improper modeling leads to astronomically high model sections count, with resulting appalling system performance.

I would love it if you gave me a few examples, as I'm doing what you said at the moment, and want to avoid any potential pitfalls.

Abs

[shinRaiden 0]

The 'nip&tuck' problem. If you watch the status bar on O2PE RC3, you'll notice one of the items tracked is the number of sections. That's an indication of how the graphics engine will decide to chunk the model to render it.

Glomp bits here and there onto a model, regardless of whether they're sourced to the same texture, and you ratchet up your section count. Add disconnected blobs, or map to new textures, up goes your section count.

Take a look at sample_models\bisoldier.p3d. You can't really avoid the separate sections on the face and hands unless you map to gloves instead. Webbing is one texture, and equipment two other textures. Total there is 7 sections in LOD1.

In contrast, the recent BWMOD repackage of Afrographx's NH90 comes in at GPU-seppukku-inducing ~430 sections. I don't have a copy of the original model and mappings to determine what went wrong where, but even Scar's MI-24 Hind as released by RHS for Arma was no where near that horrendous, coming in only in the low hundred-something range.

There really is no excuse for having the section count ~40 times what it should be. This incurs a substantial and unnecessary performance and stability penalty, and questions whether stability and performance problems are truely BIS's responsibility, or in large measure artificially created by community negligence.

Additionally, you can use the "Window" menu >> "Resource Library" to rapidly navigate through the list of sections.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

Exactly how far does texture merging go to alleviate this problem?

[shinRaiden 0]

If you look at the soldier model I referenced, you'll notice that texture merging alone does not automagicly make things all better, ie head&hands. It can however get you started doing things the right way, and act as a precursor to a full uv-unwrap/re-wrap.

[miles teg 1]

Good advice my friend.  I will make sure everyone in my mod working on addons reads this as I really want our LoBo ArmA addons to get off on the right foot.  With that said, so far in testing our betas, although our texture count is a bit high, performance is still fairly good and I haven't noticed a hit in frame rates.  However the true test will be when I add like 100 units.  At any rate, I'll definitely check out the section count and see what we can do to streamline our addons.  That however may be after we release our beta.  As with most mods with new games, there is always that initial learning curve and as time goes by things get updated and improved.   At any rate, thanks again ShinRaiden and to everyone else here who has supported the LoBo mod.

We may not be the most graphically pleasing mod, but we try to be one of the more community oriented (working with the addon making community) and more interesting mods.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[milobr 0]

Wicked! Do you have any idea of the release date of those beauties?

[miles teg 1]

No idea how long it will be before a release. But we are working as quickly as possible to do a release. We'd like to be the first mod team to release a majorly customized infantry model. The Lost Brothers has a tradition for break-thru releases. For example it was our founder, Vipersheart who released the first high quality original rifle for Operation Flashpoint (the Famas rifle) and who later released the first high quality HK weapons pack that was used by many different mods.

We also created the first functional anti-mine rollers for tanks.

Granted it wasn't perfect, but still it was highly innovative.

Right now, Calm Terror is taking a break, but our members, Soviet Freak and General Diversant are young guys with alot of energy and who are busy bees working on getting these boys ready for action. So hopefully, within 2-3 weeks they'll be fixed up. But I won't release them until they're ready to be released. So far, the Tavor rifle has been fixed up. But we're still working on the arm/leg textures and the helmet shadow bug.

When those are fixed we'll release.

If anyone wants to help us please feel free to contact me. We can use all the help possible. We really want to release stuff for ArmA and we have TONS AND TONS AND TONS of stuff that need conversion from OFP to ArmA.

We also need someone who is willing to work on a Middle Eastern OPFOR force using custom models. We have a good model by Martin/aka-Vixer that is in need of converting to ArmA. From that we hope to modify it into several versions and also add some terrorists wearing kuffiyahs and other forms of clothing typical of Middle East insurgents.

Probably easier may be converting our Hezbollah. Sadly, none of the BIS models use any body armor anything close to a PASGT kevlar vest, so it will require some conversions and retexturing.

After all that, we will probably need some help converting all our vehicles... a long term project. But again if anyone's interested in helping, let me know.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Well, good luck to this mod, Bashar. I wouldn't mind adding some IDF and what-not to my missions.

[miles teg 1]

Ah a fellow Dune fan.

If only we had a Dune mod.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Are you kidding me? I'm reading Sandworms of Dune right now. God-Emperor ftw.

But yeah, the mod looks cool too.  

*edit*

I considered trying to do something with the Fremen, but I doubt Arma's ability to model melee combat, so it would end up being Fremen with pistols, or possibly the inane sound-weapon thingys.

[miles teg 1]

Cool...well actually Heretics of Dune and Chapter House Dune would be very do-able since alot of the fighting is with lasguns. It just sucks that BIS never put in a hand to hand combat system into the ArmA engine. But as the civil war mod for OFP demonstrated, things can be improvised.

It would kick ass having ninja-like bene gesserit commando hit squads or having a bashar deploy armies of shock troops and hover tanks from massive hammer ships. No-ships would be easy to model as they're cloaked...so invisible. lol! Just the interior would need modelling... and of coarse there would be no space combat...only inner atmosphere combat. Still you could do some cool stuff and have different islands modelled after different worlds.

But anyways... thats all off-topic. Would be good for a different thread about a good idea for a Sci-Fi mod.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[ido_ 0]

only one small thing miles, Para don't have Tavor, only givati use tavor as far as I know. all the other infantry use what is called Flat-top which is a version of short M16 without the carrying handle.

you would also like to dispose all the the Galil and Glilon rifles which are not standart issue in the regular army anymore at all.

[miles teg 1]

Well our mod is still debating on having all of our IDF units with Tavor's because it is supposed to be based on near-future conflicts (although we are doing historical eras as well). We have a wide variety of M4's variants for our OFP IDF weapons pack.

So at any rate, for a beta release we'll probably leave the Tavors on them, however future releases will sort out all the weapons so they are a bit more realistic in their loadouts... and don't worry, the MG will be switched from a M-249 minimi over to a Negev MG. Likewise the AT-4 will become a Shipon AT rocket.

We are a small mod team and are still working on stuff for OFP. So this is just our very first small entry into ArmA.

By the way news update: the IDF paratrooper beta is almost ready...arms have been fixed, Tavor fixed, and helmets are fixed...now just the legs need fixing and they'll be ready.

Chris G.

aka-Miles Teg<GD>

[ido_ 0]

I don't believe Tavor will be a standart issue rifle in the IDF, the M16 is just alot better and they are cheaper (for the IDF) not everything made by the IDI is used by the IDF (Tavor and Shipon for ex.).

Anyways I will be glad to assist you with background. or anything else

Lookin forward for the Magah 7c !

[raedor 8]

Miles Teg, please do not write whole topic titles in capital letters.

Quote[/b] ]§12) Do not type in all capital letters

Typing in all caps equals according to standard net etiquette to yelling. It is also difficult reading such posts.