PMC Apache v1.1 for ArmA 2 has been released!

[Snake Man 401]

PMC Apache ArmA 2 v1.1

This is BIS OFP/ArmA ported AH-64 Apache model. Purpose of this addon is to have simple, working and high performance Apache addon for ArmA 2. It comes with three different versions; multi role, close support and ground suppression.

Multi role: 1200 rounds of M230 cannon, 38 FFAR's and 8 AGM-114 Hellfires.

Close support: 1200 rounds of M230 cannon and 16 AGM-114 Hellfires.

Ground suppression: 1200 rounds of M230 cannon and 76 FFAR's.

(note; these screenshots are from ArmA (1), sorry).

This is the first initial ArmA 2 release, I'm looking forward for feedback regarding bugs and other issues. If anyone is willing to help me tweak this further, withing the design goals (working, high performance) I'm willing to do so.

Visit PMC Tactical and PMC Tactical forums as well as PMC Editing Wiki which also contains tutorials how to make OFP ports of your own as well other ArmA editing.

Readme:

PMC Apache

June 5th, 2009. v1.1 initial ArmA 2 release.

This is AH-64 Apache gunship helicopter addon for ArmA 2, ported from BIS OFP model (through Armed Assault). It comes with three variations, multirole, close support and ground suppression. Purpose of this addon is to have a simple, working and high performance Apache addon for ArmA 2.


Required Addons

None.


Armaments

Multi role: 1200 rounds of M230 cannon, 38 FFAR's and 8 AGM-114 Hellfires.
Close support: 1200 rounds of M230 cannon and 16 AGM-114 Hellfires.
Ground suppression: 1200 rounds of M230 cannon and 76 FFARs.


Classnames

Vehicles
PMC_AH64_closesupport
PMC_AH64_groundsuppres
PMC_AH64_multirole
The crew is USMC_Soldier_Pilot class pilot.

Weapon, Magazine, Ammo.
PMC_M230, PMC_1200Rnd_M230_AH64, PMC_M230_ammo.
PMC_FFARLauncher, PMC_38Rnd_FFAR, PMC_76Rnd_FFAR, PMC_FFAR_ammo.
PMC_HellfireLauncher, PMC_8Rnd_Hellfire, PMC_16Rnd_Hellfire, PMC_Hellfire_ammo.

There is also pair of Apaches found on the mission editor groups for easy placement.


Model, textures and sections

This is BIS made OFP model, it was first ported to Armed Assault and now to ArmA 2. It has basically the same model except normal porting process changes have been made.

There is last resolution LOD less than 100 points on all the models (multirole comes to 112 points with proxys, 64 without them, but proxys don't count so no problem). This quarantees high performance in any gaming situations (you can add many apaches and no FPS loss).

Textures have been merged and the models now use only 3 texture in total, one for the airframe, one for cockpit and one for alpha transparent parts. There is normal and specular maps as usual. Last LOD of the model only contains 2 sections (two textures), which maybe in later date we hope to minimize down to just one (1) which would be the ideal setup.

Damage textures are included as well as the model damageHide selections, when your apache is destroyed, weapons, crew and small other non moving parts are removed from the model bringing much more nicer destroyed look to it.


Errors

There is no binarize errors.
There is no arma.RPT errors (we've seen so far in our perhaps limited testing time).
There is no ingame erros.

There is however some bugs, like the rotors have some "artifacts" on the edges and bad texturing on cockpit glass edges. These we will hope to fix in the future versions among with other bugs that will be reported back to us (see contact info below).

Most obvious flaw is that there is no shadow, only the hellfire missiles cast a shadow. If anyone is willing to help me how to close model (I know how to do shadow volumes, but closing an model is causing me headache), I would very much appreciate it.


Performance

This is not high poly model with ultimate scripted features, so this addon is performing superbly without anykind of errors or slowdowns. You can place as many helos in the screen at one time that no practical mission would require that amount. Performance is good, there is no problems running these helos.

Basically when this addon was ported, we had GAMEPLAY in mind, we don't care so much about the gizmos and gadgets and fancy "FX", but we do like 100% working and high performance addon.


Contact

You can contact us in PMC Tactical forums. There is release topic for this addon located here:
[url]http://tactical.nekromantix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=21954[/url]

You can also email us in spam me not

June 5th, 2009.
[url]http://tactical.nekromantix.com/[/url]
Snake Man, PMC.

Download PMC_apache_arma2_v1.1.rar - 6mb.

Mirror 1: PMC Tactical.

Mirror 2: Armaholic.com.

Mirror 3: Armedassault.info.

Mirror 4: arma2base.de.

We thank all our mirrors, more are always welcome.

Edited July 19, 2012 by Snake Man

[imutep 0]

Nice, give him a try tomorrow!

[manzilla 1]

Thanks Snake Man. An ah-64 is a nice add.

[Binkowski 25]

Sweet, thanks Snake Man.

[NKato 0]

I would actually appreciate it if someone made an actual Apache LONGBOW <-- (Read, LONGBOW) version. Non-Longbow Apaches are incredibly rare these days, and that puts me off quite a bit from the idea of having an Apache in a modern warfare simulator like ArmA 2.

[nodunit 397]

I would actually appreciate it if someone made an actual Apache LONGBOW <-- (Read, LONGBOW) version. Non-Longbow Apaches are incredibly rare these days, and that puts me off quite a bit from the idea of having an Apache in a modern warfare simulator like ArmA 2.

Depends on what you consider a "longbow apache". Longbow directly means it has the Longbow FCR which is infact not as common as you may think.

Now now non AH-64D's are rare minus in some places, UAE, Greece, US Army, and Israel still use the AH-64A. (That's not to say they obviously don't have AH-64D's.)

[granQ 293]

good to see you around Snakeman :)

[VictorTroska 0]

Thanks, looks good.

[wingtip 11]

tested this and its fun having 16 hellfires ...but since he asked for feedback the first thing i noticed is the swept tip rotors face the wrong way with the direction of rotation when starting...

[MehMan 0]

still looks like poo. A plus for effort, but eh.

[Roler 10]

You really think that this model is good? :)

I would like to see a new Apache, but this...

[BETEP_OFP 10]

What is of interest to convert the model of the OFP in Arma 2?

I think this is a bad idea, apparently the model of the OFP in Arma 2 are awful.

[MehMan 0]

Oh crap russians!

Also, to make myself clear, I don't mean that your work is crap Snake, but that the model is really really outdated now and it's showing it's age quite painfully. It's the BIS model indeed, but ugh, it makes me shudder seeing it survive this long.

[eble 3]

once a new apache for arma2 is ported/created then this one can be retired.

I for one would rather have a usable addon than none at all, I know the gripe with quality etc, but this game is all about choice, if i want to add an apache to a mission or the editor now I can a few days ago I couldn't.

We all have a choice to either download it or not.

Lets not forget someone has spent probably hours of there own time for no personal gain on this addon, and some of us say thanks by picking it apart.

Southy

[Roler 10]

Eble

Have I got the right to express my opinion?

What will you say if I make the pink sumbarine with legs and radar? :)

It's silly to use this Apache in missions. It's too old.

Edited June 6, 2009 by Roler

[schaefsky 0]

What will you say if I make the pink sumbarine with legs and radar? :)

Actually, I think I would use that to make a mission.

For me, like Eble said,

this game is all about choice

[Alex72 1]

You really think that this model is good? :)

I would like to see a new Apache, but this...

If you dont like an addon just please stay the hell out will you. You dont slam people that create free addons - your mother should have taught you that.

If you have skills and interest in an addon that doesnt look up to your standards then HELP that person out to make it better. Just sit on your fat ass and say it's bad is just...

This apache was made as a simple addon for ArmA1 to use very little performance if my mind isnt boned. Use it if you want - if you dont like it - keep it to yourself unless you are constructive. Nice more detailed vehicles will come later.

[Extremeus Decimus 0]

I personally love this addon, why? several reasons really

1. its free, like all addons for the communtiy, I've made several addons for personal use and it takes a LONG time and lots of testing and tweaking to finally get it things working as you want them to 100% of the time

2. It's got a tiny performance impact, I LOVE massive missions, many of my own rarely have less then company sized conflicts, so high performance addons are a must, this is one of them, sure it may not be the prettiest thing ever to grace our monitors but it works, it's fuctional and from a gameplay perspective just fine, having a nice model doesnt make the addon good.

Many thanks

Extremeus

Edited June 6, 2009 by Extremeus Decimus

[Binary 0]

I really like it actually.. It's a good placeholder - I mean, it took ages for a proper AH-64 to be released for ArmA 1 - might as well have something meanwhile.

[eble 3]

Eble

Have I got the right to express my opinion?

What will you say if I make the pink sumbarine with legs and radar? :)

It's silly to use this Apache in missions. It's too old.

No worries mate we all can really say what we like.

My comments weren't directed at anyone person, I could just see the start of a feeding frenzy of complaints and I just wanted to put the thread back on course.

Hey for all I know your the best 3d artist in the world and you were about to offer 50-100 hours of your free time to make a new model.

One thing you might not know is that when an addon is well developed, error free and very usable it finds it way into a lot of missions, in mass coop having a jet/helicopter thats effective is far more important that it looking shiny and new. (tho we all want shiny and new)

My concern was that behind every addon is a decision to release it to the wider community, if we come down hard on people for the samll things we will see the community release for closed groups only as seen in Arma.

Arma started to see a move away from community release to clan/group release which is a shame for us all.

Southy

[BETEP_OFP 10]

Such things are called - trash.

Start learning 3d editors, photoshop and other things needed to create addons.

We should not say that he did want the helicopter, it can be replaced with Apache

P.S. so that you both talk up low-quality addons which you can praise the bad modeler to produce low-quality addons;)

P.S.S. Sorry for my bad English, I hope you understand what I wanted to make.

[Roler 10]

I can't understand you all. I just said my opinion, nothing else. I didn't say that author is idiot, no, I didn't say that I can make better.

And I didn't outrage anyone.

[Bratishka 10]

Lol... Why Many people like this ugly old model. Can be we convert all models from ofp and say - Oh... Its realy nice... Oh... sweet... Great bla bla bla...

[abs 2]

I can't understand you all. I just said my opinion, nothing else. I didn't say that author is idiot, no, I didn't say that I can make better.

And I didn't outrage anyone.

It's like that old saying...

"My mother taught me that if I have nothing nice to say, then I shouldn't say anything at all."

Abs

[Roler 10]

If you don't like criticism it is only your problem.

"My mother taught me that if I have nothing nice to say, then I shouldn't say anything at all."

Strange, my mother taught me to say truth.

Edited June 7, 2009 by Roler