importing pbos (objects) into V3/Bulldozer

[El Mariachi 0]

First of all I'd like to thank just about every thread in this forum for assistance with creating islands in Arma 2. I have had to bookmark about 10 threads in order to get it to work (with textures) in A2, and believe me I've had just about every problem (and still probably do).

Since I have a textured island working, I'd like to place trees/buildings/roads etc. in it now.

I used one of the quick tutorials that explained how to extract the A2 PBO's into the P:\CA folder. I have done that.

However, I have looked at screenshots that show your objects panel in V3 full of roads/objects whatever, but in visitor when I open the dialog boxes they are blank. What do I have to do to get these populated?

I have tried adding them (add... option in the dialog box) and it seems to put it in there but when I load buldozer it gives me an error (can't find the paa).

Also, my f1 menu in buldozer is blank, and I heard you need a script to add functions to buldozer. Where can I get these? I cannot do anything in buldozer except move around the world and select (non existent) objects.

I've tried a few searches in this forum but nothing seems to explain it. Any help will be appreciated.

[.kju 3240]

Please post a screenshot of your P setup. Seems like not fully correct or files missing.

[El Mariachi 0]

could it be missing .cpp files? I ran the depbo a few times and I don't think those ever popped up in the folder.

I'll post a ss when I get home.

[El Mariachi 0]

Ok, here's the pic of dir structure:

I don't know what happened, but as you can see only the buildings.pbo have directories. I checked the extract of the P:\CA above where all the extracted pbo's reside, and only those two pbo folders had config.cpp's in them.

I have tried using the pbo viewer and tried re-extracting, but it seems like there are no cpps in them at all.

Edited September 8, 2009 by El Mariachi

[.kju 3240]

ca\buildings2_ind_cementworks is wrong

read the guide from Ace again please

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=85579

also you are missing all the configs in hay\ca\*

plus ca\misc* (in case you use them)

whats in ca\ca\* `?

[El Mariachi 0]

yes, all configs are missing from every folder (plants, roads, etc) except buildings2. But not even the buildings2 objects are auto populated in my objects list.

Ca/ca is the depbo'd ca.pbo in the addons directory of my arma2 install.

[.kju 3240]

ca/ca is wrong

you need to extract is as ca

[icebreakr 3107]

Kju: I now use /structures too so I guess I have to add all its .cpp's to my P:\ibr\ca too?

[.kju 3240]

It should be needed for binarize to detect the correct object type yes.

[Planck 1]

I don't understand why you need a ca inside your own name-space or indeed why anyone needs more than one ca folder anywhere.

There should only be ONE ca folder inside the P: drive (P:\ca), inside of which you have all relevant PBO's extracted into folders from the ArmA2 Addons folder.

I.E.

P:\

P:\ca

P:\ca\buildings (everything including the config)

P:\ca\data (everything from cs.pbo the config)

P:\ca\misc (everything including the config)

P:\ca\Plants_Bush (everything)

P:\ca\Plants_misc (everything)

P:\ca\Plants_Plant (everything)

P:\ca\Plants_Tree (everything)

P:\ca\Roads (everything)

P:\ca\Roads2 (everything)

etc ...

etc ...

Apart from bin, core and dta folders plus a few other discrete files, the rest of the P: drive contents can consist of folders containing model and/or textures or complete projects that might be getting worked on.

The ca folder contains the relevant content from ArmA2 game files that is needed to work on projects related to ArmA2.

Why you would need another ca folder anywhere is beyond my ken.

Maybe I misunderstood somewhere along the line here. :rolleyes:

Planck

[Waterman 0]

I currently don't use a CA folder inside my project folder on P:\.

But I think if I understand it correctly by copying the ca folder structure with only the config.cpp for each pbo to your project folder, it will auto fill all the artificial/natural objects etc in Visitor for you rather than adding each p3d manually.

My understanding might be wrong though.

[luki 53]

I need this method to get proper animations working within my project space(puting ca/configfiles in my projectfoldier). Planck... if you have any better solution then post it plz.

@Waterman has nothing todo with the obj lists (all objs should refere to original P:\ca\.... pathes)

[Waterman 0]

Ah ok, I get it now thanks. So its for ladders, gates, doors etc.

[.kju 3240]

Binarize does not parse configs outside of your project folder.

So unless you use ca\my, which is not recommended, you need

to make the configs available.

At least thats my experience and not aware of any other solution.

[El Mariachi 0]

So what about the fact that it seems none of my pbo's have .cpps?

[Synide 0]

I don't understand why you need a ca inside your own name-space or indeed why anyone needs more than one ca folder anywhere.

There should only be ONE ca folder inside the P: drive (P:\ca)...

Why you would need another ca folder anywhere is beyond my ken.

Maybe I misunderstood somewhere along the line here. :rolleyes:

Planck

Have you ever bothered to read that ArmABuildEnvironment.pdf I wrote up that time?

Of course, one can setup their build environment anyway they choose, whatever works for them is fine.

And, since writing that I too have made some subtle alterations in my own setup.

For instance, nowadays I just have a 'symbolic link' or 'junction' in a given project folder pointing to P:\ca so I don't have to bother copying the config's. (Thanks to Q & Sickboy for mentioning that one)

The idea behind that document was to try an illustrate how to setup a 'project workspace/namespace' (or whatever you wish to call it) and have it build properly so the resultant output .pbo's have the same 'workspace' structure as the BIS content and things like animations, skeletons, inheritance, referencing BIS content in your own addons all just worked during the build phase.

As I mentioned in there one can/could have several different setups all resulting in a resonably effective result. At the time of writing I was seeing numerous repeated forum posts regarding 'oh, gosh... my addon won't build... blah, blah'. Where I had little to no issue building stuff.

A remarkably large number of people have commented to me that it at least gave them the basic's of setting up a repeatable content build environment that they've then gone on and modified to suit there own needs.

Bare in mind that it may not be the 'correct way', it certainly is a 'way' and it's worked flawlessly for me since.

If you had (or have) trouble deciphering the ramblings in that document then I could perhaps try and rehash it again here.

[icebreakr 3107]

Synide you've been a big help with your tips here and tutorials. Thank you. I'm releasing my A2 conversion today, tommorow - had to repack some of stuff from A1 that BIS had to leave out (beach huts, palms...), of course under my \ibr\ sign so it won't conflict with CAA1 and other projects.