"Beginner's guide to ArmA Modding" Project

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

I'd like to propose a community project to help people new to the scene start modding for ArmA2. This is an opportunity to give a little bit of something back to the community that supports us. So please read this and consider helping out.

What are you trying to achieve?

The goal is to provide basic entry level information for new people that want to start modding. This includes: Simple guides to setting up your P drive and projects to explanations of the O2 loding process and more.

Its safe to assume that a lot of people starting to mod in ArmA2 will have some modding knowledge eg Modelling, textures, coding etc. But some don't, they want to try but don't know where to start. What I am proposing is an open project to provide a simple and easy to understand set of tutorials that a new modder can use to learn from. And a series of FAQs that answer some of the questions that everyone wants answers for.

There a loads of tutorials already why bother?

Several reasons:

• A lot of tuts are out of date or refer to the OFP engine.
  
• These tutorials are slowly disappearing due to sites being closed down or data lost
  
• You have to spend hours looking for some things, I think it would be a good idea to collect them all in one place (an index?) making it easier for beginners to get good info.

What do we get if we help?

The thanks of the new modders, a bit of kudos from the community and the satisfaction that you have done something to contribute to it.

Why is this so important?

Well the community has shrunk since OFP days. If you want the community survive to expand and grow we need to help new people into the modding community. It is solid fact there are fewer people around these days with the skills and knowledge required to make content. This is due to natural attrition in some areas but mainly its due to the high technical skill levels required by the ArmA1 and 2 engines. To stop this we need to bring new people in and a lack of basic tutorials and easy to understand documentation makes that pretty hard.

Who is this aimed at?

Noobs, Novices and beginners. They need the most help. If you want a strong and long lived community you need to pass on skills and knowledge to the new guys.

Is this going to be in really technical language?

Some technical language in inevitable. Its a very technical subject, but the main aim is to provide easy to understand materials in clear English (default community language) with easy to understand explanations.

Will you be writing tuts for 3DS Max, Maya and others?

I don't propose to go into huge detail about using any specific tool other than O2. But if people would like to write specific tuts for PS/Gimp/3D Max/MODO or any other tool feel free - we'll add them to the pool of knowledge - but for the moment I think the main focus should be on basic info and the game engine and BIS toolset.

How is this going to work?

What I would like to propose is that anyone wanting to help out pick a topic and write a quick tut. You can send it to me or post it in the relevant ArmA2 Editing Section. I'll pick it up from there and add it to the new pool. After that I am going to collect them all together and post them on a simple website for easy access.

Who is responsible for this project?

Well I'd rather not have to project manage it and chase people, Im hoping people will support this initiative but I dont mind spending time coordinating. If others want to help out im more than happy to share the load.

Who is going to write the tutorials?

Anyone that wants to help out (and knows what they are talking about) is welcome to contribute. So far several people have expressed support and a few have already begun offering tuts.

Where is this going to be hosted?

If there is a high enough demand I may create a new domain for it. Or get one of the big news sites to host it for us. In the short term I will collate it all on a subdomain of RKSLStudios.info site but I hope other community news and mod sites will mirror the info too. I'm not interested in creating a monopoly or dividing the community, just resources for new modders.

At this point I'm intending on writing it all out in HTML within a Joomla CMS framework that allows the topics to be converted to PDF format for ease of hosting elsewhere or use offline.

Why not use the Biki?

Well my first response to that is because the built in search functionality is crap :) But I'm not exactly against using it. However personally I find MediaWiki difficult to use when creating complex content. You never know, if someone with Mediawiki skills turns up with plenty of time to help we may use it.

What about using Dev Heaven?

"DevHeaven is a place for experienced devs to learn, share, discuss and collaborate" In several recent conversations I've had with Sickboy about Dev Heavens aims he has stated that it wasn't intended for beginners. From my other contacts with several 'new to ArmA modding' groups they seem to find DH's setup quite intimidating and not exactly easy to use. After several forum discussions and private chats it was suggested that a simple website format would probably be more appropriate for beginners.

This "Beginner's guide to ArmA Modding" Project isn't really aimed at competing with Dev Heaven. We aren't aiming at supporting established modding teams. We wont be hosting people's projects or creating another community its purely to provide information.

Can I request tutorials?

Yes you can. There is no guarantee it will get written but It will be added to the list and hopefully someone will write it for you. I'm looking into ways to make requesting a tut easier. I'm just trying to work out all the mechanics of the process at the moment.

Where do we start?

Like so many people in the community I have spent a lot of time in the last 4 years helping people via PM and email. And I've often found myself resending or repeating these mini tuts, its time consuming and more than a bit frustrating too. repeating that same things over and over. So given all the information I've got stored in emails and PMs I've started compiling them into a series of FAQs and guides. Topics range from quick 2 minute explanations of rvmats to long rambling essays on modelling standards. I cant see any reason why we shouldn't collect those snippets of info and collect them all together in a simple easy to reach form.

---

Suggested Topics

I'm writing a simple framework for the site at the moment. But so far I've compiled a very quick list of topics. So far I've split them in to FAQ/Mini Tuts, a "Novice Themed" series of Tuts much like Bressb's for OFP, Scripting and more advanced Features:

RED = Unassigned

BLUE = Assigned

BLACK = Complete

FAQ - Quick How to guides.

• 
  
• Setup O2 for ArmA2 (pre official tools) - scubaman3D
  
• Setting up your projects
  
  • namespace
    
  • required files

  [*]Best Practice

  • 
    
• Modding Tags and why you need to use them - Rock
  
• Texture Naming standards (ref wiki but explain in more detail if appropriate)
  
• Respect IP/Community rules explained - Rock
  
• Modelling standards - Rock
  
• Coding conventions

[*]What other tools you need

[*]Model.cfg a simple guide

[*]RVMATs and how to use them -Soul Assassn

[*]How to create diffuse/CO textures -Soul Assassn

[*]How to create Normal Maps -Soul Assassn

[*]How to create Specular Maps -Soul Assassn

[*]How to create Ambient Occlusion Maps -Soul Assassn

[*]Explanation of shaders (in RVMATs) and what they do. -Soul Assassn

[*]Un packing PBOs and binary files

[*]Packing PBOs and Binarisation - eg Using namespaces and BinPBO

[*]Basic guide to config and inheritance

[*]What are Hidden selections and how are they used - Myke

[*]Reskinning ArmA2 addons using hidden selections- Myke

[*]Modelling Limits - poly count, max size, Section count and why its so important - removed and included in modelling standards

[*]UV unwrapping - what is it and how to do it.

[*]UV unwrapping in O2

[*]Event handlers and how to use them

[*]Creating Factions and Vehicle classes (Do we need to establish a "community standard"? eg national classes? US, UK, French, German etc) - Myke

Basic Modelling in O2 tut series

Prefaced by "Best Practice Guide" taken from info above

• Buildings
  
  • Required Lods and what they do
    
  • Animations
    
  • Partial/Animated damage
    
  • Config
    

  [*]Basic Armed Car

  • Required Lods and what they do
    
  • Standard Animations and naming
    
  • Config
    
  • Turrets and weapons
    
  • setting up custom animations (RTM)
    
  • Damage system
    
  • Destroyed Model

  [*]Boats (As above)

  [*]Helicopters

  • Required Lods and what they do
    
  • Flight model setup - RKSL-Rock
    
  • Turrets and weapons
    
  • Using weapon proxies - Myke
    
  • Damage system

  [*]Plane (As above)

  [*]Weapons proxies explained (creating/using)

  • How to make a bomb/missile etc.
    
  • What lods you need
    
  • Community standards for weapons (Myke's IAWS?) - Myke

  [*]Using Object proxies

Basic Island creation guide - (working with Visitor 3?)

• Guide to Project setup
  
• Terrain data
  
• Sat mask creation
  
• Layer mask creation
  
• Adding BIS objects
  
• Adding 3rd party objects
  
• Configs
  
• Packing and Binarisation

Simple scripting tuts

• How to use a script to animate something
  
• Basic Scripting practice
  
• Practical guide to using code in missions and addons with examples
  
• Basic Dos and Donts
  

Advanced Feature tuts:

• Wobbly Antennas to vehicles (RKSL/BW Mod Terp) -RKSL-Rock
  
• RKSL Dynamic Rotor System - RKSL-Rock
  
• Animated 3D HUDS (Working with opacity masks) - RKSL-Rock
  
• Working with Multiple turrets
  
• Setting up addons for multiple skins

So, if you want to help, speak up. Or if you want to request a tut we can add it to the list. Any suggestions or offers of help would be appreciated.

Edited July 21, 2009 by RKSL-Rock
Updated Tasks

[[frl]myke 14]

Excellent idea. I would be happy to contribute as i feel i'm wont fit into Dev Heaven surroundings (although i find it excellent too) but more into "hey, i'm med skilled and i can give some starting help for beginners". You get the point.

I would volunteer for the following topics for the start:

• What are Hidden selections and how are they used
  
• Reskinning ArmA2 addons using hidden selections / Setting up addons for multiple skins (probably almost the same topic both)
  
• Creating Factions and Vehicle classes (Do we need to establish a "community standard"? eg national classes? US, UK, French, German etc)
  
• Community standards for weapons (Myke's IAWS?)
  
• Using weapon proxies (planes) although this would be fairly covered with IAWS. Also Helicopters could be covered to some limit.
  

*EDITH*

You have the chapter "What are you trying to achieve?" twice in your startpost ;)

Edited July 4, 2009 by [FRL]Myke

[Flarmapoint 2 10]

You're an awsome guy :) Thank you very much for starting and providing this information, im a nooby to modding, and i can already see i will benifit from this, if the pro modders are willing to contribute to this.

Time will tell i suppose,

Once again, thank you very much :)

regards

F2

Edit: Can we make this a sticky please? :)

Edited July 4, 2009 by Flarmapoint 2

[.kju 3244]

Respectable initiative - the way go.

Did you consider using a different wiki?

After all it allows multiple people working on texts to improve the overall result.

Especially the text can easily be updated instead of aging fast, as well as new info

added, merged etc.

Contribs (advanced):

Low performance hit addons

EG

scripting-arma2 (basically any link in there)

CMB: SimplifyTesting

CMA: DevelopmentSetup

Addon_Configuration (basically every page).

A few more links from BIF are in the other topic from Myke.

Personally I see the making an entry site for the BIKI another approach.

Yet no need to discuss that. Content still can be merged back into the BIKI

easily.

Edited July 4, 2009 by kju

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Excellent idea. I would be happy to contribute as i feel i'm wont fit into Dev Heaven surroundings (although i find it excellent too) but more into "hey, i'm med skilled and i can give some starting help for beginners". You get the point.

I would volunteer for the following topics for the start:

• What are Hidden selections and how are they used
  
• Reskinning ArmA2 addons using hidden selections / Setting up addons for multiple skins (probably almost the same topic both)
  
• Creating Factions and Vehicle classes (Do we need to establish a "community standard"? eg national classes? US, UK, French, German etc)
  
• Community standards for weapons (Myke's IAWS?)
  
• Using weapon proxies (planes) although this would be fairly covered with IAWS. Also Helicopters could be covered to some limit.
  

*EDITH*

You have the chapter "What are you trying to achieve?" twice in your startpost ;)

Marked you up for those thanks!

RE using weapon proxies they are marked down to be part of a walkthrough tut so can obviously be repeated or referenced etc.

You're an awsome guy :) Thank you very much for starting and providing this information, im a nooby to modding, and i can already see i will benifit from this, if the pro modders are willing to contribute to this.

Its the people like you that really proposed this. I've had some mates trying to learn to mod for quite a time and they keep asking for a simple guide. i get a lot of support requests and increasingly its too much for me to manage properly. A project like this is too big for one person to do alone so its logical to ask others to do help out.

In the long run its going to help the modders that get pestered for help. If they were to write up each request as a quick tut each we could probably answer 80% of questions just by referring them to the website.

Edit: Can we make this a sticky please? :)

Ask a mod nicely and see if they think its worth it.

Did you consider using a different wiki?

Yes, i haven't found one that i feel does the job (searching and gfx/media handling) as easily as Id like yet. but Im still looking

Personally I see the making an entry site for the BIKI another approach.

Yet no need to discuss that. Content still can be merged back into the BIKI

easily.

If I am honest the BIKI would have been ideal. Neutral ground etc, but it was discussed and rejected due to MediaWiki's lack of decent search functions, complex formatting and limited media handling. That's not say that it may not get used in future. Its just not a platform we felt comfortable with just yet. And the majority (83 of the 153) of people that took part in our little poll (rather a lot of research has gone into this idea) said they preferred an simple website format with easy to use menus so that the way we're heading for the moment.

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Sounds good Rock.

I'll probably be able to re-write that O2 character .rtm tutorial I did if you're interested.

Been meaning to do it for a while, but it's required a fairly extensive re-work after I discovered a few more features of O2 that made the process a whole lot simpler. Not that it'll be much use for everyone 'til BIS release the new skeleton: Aparently some of the selection names have changed from the old one, and the fact that ArmA 1 models' arms distort, suggests that the new skele's joints are rigged a bit differently too.

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Sounds good Rock.

I'll probably be able to re-write that O2 character .rtm tutorial I did if you're interested.

Been meaning to do it for a while, but it's required a fairly extensive re-work after I discovered a few more features of O2 that made the process a whole lot simpler. Not that it'll be much use for everyone 'til BIS release the new skeleton: Aparently some of the selection names have changed from the old one, and the fact that ArmA 1 models' arms distort, suggests that the new skele's joints are rigged a bit differently too.

Mate that would be great!

[.kju 3244]

btw you need to use google search for mediawikis. Works 100x better and acceptable good:

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=de&cof=&domains=%2Fcommunity.bistudio.com&q=&btnG=Suche&sitesearch=%2Fcommunity.bistudio.com

Way better then the old BIF IE :P

Did you look into http://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki - its is made for professional company use.

Has very wide spread use: http://www.dokuwiki.org/users and way better than mediawiki (without mods).

Snake Man's editing wiki is also based on it:

PMC editing wiki

Edited July 4, 2009 by kju

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

btw you need to use google search for mediawikis. Works 100x better and acceptable good:

http://www.google.com/custom?hl=de&cof=&domains=%2Fcommunity.bistudio.com&q=&btnG=Suche&sitesearch=%2Fcommunity.bistudio.com]

Thats not a solution its a work around. The more I disuss this with the prospective end users the more a CMS option appears favourite. We've been discussing the options and none of the end users like navigation of the wiki systems.

Did you look into...

Yes we've been through all the free wiki options. There is no point discussing it further they dont want it. Apart from handling the contrbutions it has no other advantage over a CMS option and even then a simple mod to Joomla gives us everything we want So its not a problem anyway.

Edited July 4, 2009 by RKSL-Rock

[.kju 3244]

Basic Config File

[[frl]myke 14]

Quote from this Basic Config File page:

Many ways of formatting, matter of taste and standards blah

blah? Can't it be even less inspiring or sound more bored? For a beginner, this page is close from being useless as it lacks of describing clearly almost every aspect of a config file.

And i don't speak about specific parameters, this would go into another topic, clear enough.

From my point of view, this page says "it is complicated, don't even try to understand it, let the pro doin it".

[Serclaes 0]

This page is DEFINATELY a stub and there is also a reason why i did not post it here in public but sent a PM to Rock telling him that I'm working on that and kept it in my user page instead of creating a new page.

The sentences there are thoughts and key points from the short brain storming I did, which will be expanded and elaborated.This is a frame or an outline and the body will be built around that.

Should have known better than posting that "publicly".

What i could use right now, which i haven't got from your very constructive criticism, are additional key points which belong into that article but are not there.

[[frl]myke 14]

I'm sorry Serclaes, you're completely right that my post wasn't helpful at all. I tried to look at it from a beginners point of view (as good as possible). I followed the link as a beginner would do and stranded on this site. I'm used to read "This page is a stub..." if it is the case. But there was nothing saying that so i had to guess this is how the athour intended it to be.

Look at it this way and you'll have to admit that i'm not that wrong.

Now i know that it is a stub and therefor i will not criticize it any longer but giving some input what i would had expected to find.

- What is a config file? What is it's purpose in general?

- What is a class or classname? Maybe a link to ArmA 2 classname list.

- What means inheritance and how can i use it for my own work? Goin a little deeper than it does actually.

- What's the purpose of comments? The config isn't meant (while playing) to be read by human so why commenting stuff?

- Benefits from using #define and #include. Are there downsizes?

I apologize for the rather unconstructive post before.

[Serclaes 0]

Criticism is expected, but bashing is superfluous. I guess thinking my userpage was kind of more "private" than a normal page was careless and I underestimated kju's zeal.

Those are some good suggestions, thanks. They are going to be added as soon as i have time.

[Guest RKSL-Rock]

Quote from this Basic Config File page:

blah? Can't it be even less inspiring or sound more bored? For a beginner, this page is close from being useless as it lacks of describing clearly almost every aspect of a config file.

And i don't speak about specific parameters, this would go into another topic, clear enough.

From my point of view, this page says "it is complicated, don't even try to understand it, let the pro doin it".

Im with Myke on this. All the info is there but not much explanation,(no offense meant to Seracles). Which to the more experienced of us is no problem but half the newbies im working with wont get it unless explained more clearly.

And before you say "well its is technical". Think back to when you first started learning to do write code or do complex math. Someone explained it to you in simple terms from first principles in a form of language you understood until you learn the proper terms. What we are asking for is "dummies guide" sort of stuff not Degree level explanations. If you want to post advanced stuff do it on DH. Anything 'advanced' we do should build off earlier tuts.

My simple test is to explain it to my girl friend. If she cant understand i rewrite it. Remember guys this is for the beginners. You have to assume they know nothing and using the tuts we can teach them more.

[[frl]myke 14]

First sketch for faction class "how to" nad proposion to create some kind of standard:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=78236

[acadiancrusader 0]

thank you all for the initiative on this project. back when arma1 first came out, i made a post asking the community how i could get started.

i was basically pointed to a few resources, where the majority of the stuff was OFP-centric. the far majority of the stuff was also presented for those that had some previous knowledge.

after blindingly going from tuts to tuts, i gave up. i found that i had spent 75% of my time searching instead of learning.

not newb friendly.

if i may offer some perspective, use the general website rule: the 3 click rule - which basically states that any person should easily find what they are looking for in three or less clicks.

if you guys can take a similar approach to this massive project, i think you will be far more successful.

again, i personally thank you all for attempting this...

[akd42 10]

I haven't modded since OFP, and have also been directed to various wikis, faqs and old threads that have been proved pretty much useless to a newb. Some simple tutorials that build a knowledge base would be of immense value.

[sickboy 13]

I like the initiative! This might just be what is needed to get people started with editing for BI Games.

Glad to see progress being made in that area, since it was a big discussion point past months.

I cannot say anything specific, but I will try to support where possible!

[Prydain 1]

Once again Rock, working towards the greater good.

Excellent news for people like me who just don't know where to start.

[cm 0]

That's a huge project you have there, good luck with it. Wish I knew something about modding to help out :P

[Flarmapoint 2 10]

I used this webite for tutorials, when i was making a few addons for flashpoint;

http://ofp.gamepark.cz/_hosted/brsseb/tutorials.htm

It would be great, if you could create a website like this, for all the Arma 2 tutorials :D

[deltron 10]

If you guys need a web site to host this on I'll do it for you for free. Sounds awesome!

I can make it editable in-browser for the people working on the guide..

drop me a pm if you're interested, I've got some good ideas for it!

[stevevcb 3]

I really hope this project comes to fruition, it was always the lack of a resource like this that stopped me from getting into addon making. I like to know what to expect before plunging in with both feet, I'm boring like that.

[mikebart 1]

This sounds great Rock, I could make a plant tutorial based around the hemp plant, very simple really.