ArmA2 Modding Toolbox for 3ds max V1.1

[MehMan 0]

check what it render to the file and path you specified?

[soul_assassin 1750]

a Box UV map is wrong you should UVUnwrap it "Flatten mapping"

1. Give box uvunwrap modifier

2. Press EDIT in the mod

3. press 3 to have face selection

4. select all Ctrl+A

5. Mapping>Flatten Mapping

6. Press ok. generaly default is good

7. collapse to editable poly

[Minoza 11]

a Box UV map is wrong you should UVUnwrap it "Flatten mapping"

1. Give box uvunwrap modifier

2. Press EDIT in the mod

3. press 3 to have face selection

4. select all Ctrl+A

5. Mapping>Flatten Mapping

6. Press ok. generaly default is good

7. collapse to editable poly

Thank you sooooo very much!!! Really thx, I appreciate your efforts to make this awesome tool, I'm experienced with max but I don't have experience with this type of things, I usually do interiors, visualizations etc... I want to make models for Arma 2 and I'm grateful on this tool.

*short edit*

Since I'm new to game modeling, what's the aprox poly limit, how do I know how many polys can I use, I mean in visualizations I try to optimize and reduce polys wherever possible but in the end there's usually a lot of polys cause of meshsmooth modifiers, so what's the limit with low poly modeling?

Edited August 18, 2009 by Minoza

[MehMan 0]

You don't use meshsmooth or any kind of modifiers like that. In ArmA2 the polycount limit is at 32k verts or polies, DX limit IIRC, less is more. So for example, using 12k polies for an abrams is plenty. 13k polies for an su-25 is also plenty. The great thing is you can use LODs. So you're not limited to this one polycount through all the views. The pilot/driver LOD for example, a planes primary view, can make the cockpit extremely high poly, while not modeling anything outside the cockpit that the pilot won't see. And it won't hog preformance, because that LOD is rendered only to the pilot and not some infantry out in the field.

[Minoza 11]

Thank you, that was exactly what I wanted to know. Now I have to figure out tweaking parameters (.cfg I guess...) for vehicles, like how to make tank/car or something controllable in game, not just static object, and also what about materials? Do I just use textures with baked AO or...? What about glass? Sorry but I couldn't find this anywhere and I'm really new to this, any help I can get means so much to me...

I have O2, and can't find some decent tutorial, just manuals which doesn't help much. Also for some reason Buldozer wont work, I get error when starting it trough O2 but I can start it normally by adding ''-buldozer'' to ''arma2.exe'' and then starting arma2.exe brings up buldozer... -noland and -window works also but whenever I try to lunch Buldozer trough O2 I get an error... path is correct, I double checked that...

Edited August 18, 2009 by Minoza

[soul_assassin 1750]

You don't use meshsmooth or any kind of modifiers like that. In ArmA2 the polycount limit is at 32k verts or polies, DX limit IIRC, less is more. So for example, using 12k polies for an abrams is plenty. 13k polies for an su-25 is also plenty. The great thing is you can use LODs. So you're not limited to this one polycount through all the views. The pilot/driver LOD for example, a planes primary view, can make the cockpit extremely high poly, while not modeling anything outside the cockpit that the pilot won't see. And it won't hog preformance, because that LOD is rendered only to the pilot and not some infantry out in the field.

There is a neat trick where you can use meshsmoothing successfully. Ive developed this technique that works very well with curved surfaces (i.e. aircraft fuselages. You develop the circumference very low poly something like 7 polies per half circle. Then apply meshsmooth at 1 or 2 iterations. Voila you have a very smooth circular structure with very good edge flow.

[MehMan 0]

There is a neat trick where you can use meshsmoothing successfully. Ive developed this technique that works very well with curved surfaces (i.e. aircraft fuselages. You develop the circumference very low poly something like 7 polies per half circle. Then apply meshsmooth at 1 or 2 iterations. Voila you have a very smooth circular structure with very good edge flow.

Und zee polycount?

And edgeflow my evil nemsis! Took me a while to figure out what a good edge flow meant. Still am actually. And that when using meshsmooth/turbo smooth, best to keep all your quads evenly sized.

Edited August 18, 2009 by MehMan

[soul_assassin 1750]

within reasons :) basically you meshsmooth only the basic basic mesh very blocky. every iteration u use doubles the previous polycount so its not that bad. The biggest advantage is the control. meshsmooth gives the best smoothing and perfect meshflow. And you can control it by moving the verts in the underlying editable poly. Gonna make a vid tommora to show.

[Minoza 11]

I know exactly what you mean SA. Actually that was my first idea how to make my low poly models, then I would probably start with plane and convert it to editable poly and step by step made model... With like half of polys of what I want it to be and then apply meshsmooth... and collapse in the end...

But what about my other problems lol? Do you have any solution?

Edited August 18, 2009 by Minoza

[soul_assassin 1750]

Your path in O2 should be "C:\pathto\ArmA 2\arma2.exe" -buldozer -noland -window

@MehMan

edgeflows are not so much about the size of polies (even though its important) but really how its orientated especially around bends and sudden changes of shape like at an intersection of a wing and a fuselage:

Remember also that when you are moving vertecies around you can restrict movements to the edges that it lies on or the faces. This is very handy.

[MehMan 0]

Yes yes, I know that, but I always screwed up my edgeflow with my higher poly stuff, getting wonky results with meshsmooth. Lower poly is easier, at least for me. While for many it's the other way around. But we all learn! Guess that's what 6 years of low poly modeling does, heh.

What plane is that?

[soul_assassin 1750]

With polycounts and where you waste them it all virtually comes down to how you persannoly feel about it. I was low poly and then i went and worked a while for high-poly production industry for a while and then came back now to low poly. If you ask me low poly is more elegant because everything has to be so much cleaner and it take so much love to turn a low poly object into a work of art.

The plane is a P51B5 (Old Crow) that i made a few weeks ago. Still dont know if its going to be an addon or just store it for the collection :)

[Minoza 11]

One question. Those fuel things on the wing... Are those separate objects (cylinders I guess...) attached to the wing or did you model them out from the wing? I ask cause I can't see any vertices attached in between... They seem like separate objects attached to each other.

[soul_assassin 1750]

If you are4 talking about the mg barrels then yes they are seperate objects.

[Minoza 11]

Oh of course (stupid me XD), that's what I meant... OK, thx. Nice model btw, I can see it's done by someone with a lot of experience. I have only 2 years of 3d modeling experience. I plan to attend some 3d modeling school in a year or so, maybe in Canada or somewhere I dunno yet. I'm from Europe.

[Minoza 11]

Ah here I am again.... I'm really sorry to bother you guys with something which is basics for you, but whenever I solve one problem I quickly get to another one. See I created test object in max (simple box), with textures, I managed to import it in Oxygen, even to get it in Buldozer to show up with textures... great - half way there... Now I created geometry LOD, land touch LOD, and shadow LOD for box and nicely exported all these things and made PBO... Great, now what my problem is that whenever I try to place that object in editor it doesn't show up... Oh and one time it said it can't load object... other times it doesn't say anything but I can't get my object to appear, I thought maybe it's below ground and I'm sure I placed it above in Oxygen plus I added ground contact LOD so it couldn't sink but I can only see circle gizmo and can't move it or anything really... What am I doing wrong?

Also I used config file from some tutorial (maybe that file is causing trouble?) which is written for ''box'', the only difference is that the box from that tutorial has been modeled and textured in Oxygen and mine in 3ds max...

Edited August 22, 2009 by Minoza

[soul_assassin 1750]

First place you would check is arma2.rpt it could give you an indication. Secondly go through the Biki and see if your NON-resolution LODs comply with the rules (ie, convexity, triangulation, edge sharp etc) hope that helps.

[Minoza 11]

First place you would check is arma2.rpt it could give you an indication. Secondly go through the Biki and see if your NON-resolution LODs comply with the rules (ie, convexity, triangulation, edge sharp etc) hope that helps.

Unfortunetly, I don't have arma2.rpt file, I tried windows search and it could only locate ''flashpoint.rpt'' file which doesn't tell me anything useful... And I don't even have Flashpoint game... Biki are scripting commnads? oO

I'm not really getting this, convexity, triangulation...? I tried google for biki but can't find anything useful, it only got me to scripting commands... This is so hard, I mean when I was learning 3ds there were plenty of tuts but for this man... that's why I'm bothering you, and I'm really grateful on your willing to help me... Because I really want to learn this and become game modeler, that's my dream...

*EDIT*

SOLVED! The name of model in tutorial was ''crate.p3d'' so in the config file it was also ''crate'' since config file was from tutorial and my model was named ''kont'' so game couldn't find model...

But I'll have to go over naming selections cause I had multiple LODs and I think I named selections in wrong way because in order I had Geometry -> Land Contact -> Shadows... and in game I had model with shadows but without collision geometry...

Edited August 22, 2009 by Minoza

[Minoza 11]

Do you know by any chance some good thread about creating cfg files? I tried to use cfg file from other cars like Nissan GT addon for mine and it didn't go well... Game crashes and similar... So I need to write whole file for my car but I dunno where to start... I'm not sure which entries to use for wheels animation etc... I'm using your 3ds max plugin SA... And also do I have to use particular names (like in Czech) in Oxygen when creating resolution name sections and land contact etc... or can I use like l_f_wheel, r_f_wheel_dump... Does it even matter since I'm gonna animate my skeleton in cfg anyways and not inherit from existing one if you understand what I'm trying to say... Also am I looking for answers in wrong place? Is there some other thread which is better for this questions?

Thx in advance!

[soul_assassin 1750]

You can use whatever names you want. Biki btw is the bis wiki -> http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Main_Page Use the search function there to find articles on model.cfg.

[.kju 3244]

Use the google search for the BIKI.

The media wiki search is too good in not finding stuff. :D

[metsapeikkoo 10]

Edit: Disregard that. It does work with 3dsmax 10.

Edited August 23, 2009 by metsapeikkoo

[soul_assassin 1750]

Weather you are talking about v2008 (technically version 10) or 2010 then in either cases it should work ok :).

[Minoza 11]

Hi again!

Today (hopefully) I'm finishing my first addon model, it is a car, Lamborghini Murcielago. Now what I'm not sure of... Do I have to link separate objects like steering wheel, control panel, gearbox etc to the body of the car?

[sig 10]

Can you use Maya to mod for this game, or is it too powerful?