Myke's "How to create a non-box addon from scratch"

[[frl]myke 14]

Since i've been creating new missiles and bombs for ArmA 2, i've stumbled upon several tutorials but none of them were really helpful. Be it that they explained things based on a squared box (what about round surfaces?) or i struggled with the explanations (applying textures by pressing A, then B, delete something...blah) never worked for me. I wont blame it on the tutorial writers, probably i did something horribly wrong.

So i've started to learn O2 and the UV Editor by exploring already finished models. I've tried to figure out how things in the UV Editor affects the appereance of textures on the model, how can i create an accurate model, how can i make a UV template from which i can create my textures.

After a quite long and steep learning curve and a lot of "trial & error" i guess i've mastered the basics on modelling and texturing. And i've decided i want to share my findings with the community.

Just to make it clear: this tutorial isn't meant as "the one and only way it has to be done" but as "here's one of probably several ways, things can be done". It's a start to bring people to a level where they may easier explore whats possible nad find theyr way how they can/will do things.

And most important: i don't show you how to texture a box but something round: a missile.

Please also note that i'm not very good at explainng things and english isn't my native language. So my apologies if things are explained in a rather strange way.

And if you still don't know if this is something for you: it has a lot of colored pictures in it (although no free bacon, sorry).

Download mirror:

ArmAholic

Edited April 3, 2010 by [FRL]Myke

[soldier2390 0]

this will be very helpfull to me as i need this kind of tut. thanks much myke!

[soul_assassin 1750]

nice tut. I would suggest letting people use the rotation (Ctrl+RMB) and scale (Ctrl+Shift+RMB) shortcuts instead of using the dialog boxes all the time.

[[frl]myke 14]

Rotation and scale shortcuts? They exist? There you see on which low level i still operate. I always worked with the dialogues. And for the record...are you talking about O2 or UV Editor? :D

[soul_assassin 1750]

O2, havnt tried them in the uv editor as I dont use them but I thought u get a selection box over the faces u select in the UV with scale and rotation handles.

[Guest]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a tut for the community. I am sure many will welcome the time and effort put in writting such tutorials!

As requested, a mirror and news was provided :)

Release frontpaged on the Armaholic homepage.

How to create a non-box addon from scratch

I also took the liberty to add this tutorial to our ArmA Addon Editing FAQ

[[frl]myke 14]

Thanks for the mirror Foxhound. And i didn't requested, i asked kindly. :p

Much appreciated.

[Sneaker-78- 0]

Tnks myke , really grateful

im also trying to learn how to mod

[slatts 1978]

thats so much helpful

thank you so much :)

[Binkowski 26]

Very nice! Also, creative title ;).

[SigintArmA 10]

Hello! I'm following your guide. And I am stuck on one thing. How I'm supposed to use that chopped down image of the missile so I can well, go to TexView2 to make it a texture. I can't seem to copy it or something like that to use. Do I need to look up that exact image or what do I have to do because I can't seem to get that part done. And if my whole hearted confusion is well... confusing as how I am screwing up (Totaly missing obvious ways of doing it) but I'm using the adobe reader to open your DL and such. Oh and about the confusing my excuse it's 2:51 for me >_> So yeah running on no sleep. If you or someone cna shed light on what I'm supposed to do about this so I can continue to follow the guide :P Thanks <_<;

[[frl]myke 14]

You should be able to load any tga or png into TexView2 as long pic size is always ^2.

So 256x2048 will work, 500x1120 will not. 8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024,2048,4096....you get the point.

After that, just save it as .paa or .pac file by adding extension manually.

If you have still problems or i misunderstood you completely, please report back with some more details like file format, texture size and what software you use.

[SigintArmA 10]

Mmk, XD I had sleep now and can explain easier. What I was trying to say...

I was trying to attempt using your image of the missle. The one you said 'Look what I found here' as a simple/quick way to follow along. You know, the first images you put in the tut about the 'Blueprint'. How you explained to cut it down. I was attempting to see if I could use that one so I don't have to spend too much time looking (And I did look for a good 10 minutes afterward to see if I could find something but only images of it at an angle were whatI found) and I couldn't copy it or anything XD And software... ehg I have like -no- imaging software sadly.

Edit:

Yeah I've just picked up GIMP... eh-heh... didn't read the 'Required' stuff at the top (Since it was 2:30 AM when I did it) but still, trying to cheat and figure out how to use the example image for a blueprint XD

Edited May 8, 2010 by SigintArmA

[[aps]gnat 28]

Project the blueprints onto a couple of "planes"

[wolfbite 8]

How do you make sure the blueprints are alligned properly? I used blocks at the extreme of each to allingn last time I used o2 to make my kamov... but I had feelings I might have missaligned it slightly orgot the scale on each slighly wrong... Just wondering how you guys did it..

[DaSquade 0]

Like Soul Assassin said, you are better (quicker) of by using the RMB etc for scaling. This in combination with the PIN activated on the vertexes you want to modify is very usefull, together with the uniform scale on or off (tool icon).

Nice to see you forced yourself into selflearning O2. Although i love O2 (i still use it), i would advice to teach yourself an other more professional 3D modeling program. Sadly O2 is only handy imho for low poly modeling, setting up your model and there it stops.

UV mapping, highpoly modeling, baking, reducing models are all stuff O2 simply can't do good or quick enough. Plain and simple.

Since we past the days where quality didn't mather that much (OFP days), you can only get nice results with 3th party tools. You can but it ain't designed for it.

Personally i use Luxology Modo. Once you got the basics, it is a very good and usefull program as it can do almost anything one would need for game modeling. Everyone will have its own prefured program, but i find it very userfriendly and 'relaxed' looking (compaired to 3D max for example).

Anyway, didn't want to put you down or something. Just saying it will pay off if you take the time to learn a decent program as you will learn the O2 way isn't userfriendly (refurring to the UV editor) and all the other lacking features (reducing a model/baking maps).

@Wolfbite: Not sure if i understand, but you should use one big blueprint and maybe seperate higher detailed overlays that match the big one. It might also help if you continue working with the vertexes of the previous part (the ones that 'should' be connected). No room for error then...Or are you refurring to the 3D setup of your blueprints (top/left/front etc)? Keep in mind most blueprints and especially of large objects aren't super accurate drawings. Often it is a mather of give and take. Best is to work with techincal drawings plans (not sure what the correct english term is).

Edited August 30, 2010 by DaSquade

[Fox '09 14]

I would def. recommend modo, it is fun and easy to use . It is also quite powerful if you know what to use.

Uvmapping is easy as well... Snake man told me about it and since then I've been in love with it

I do most work in modo, the only thing I do in o2 is assign selections and textures to new bits and bobs.

[ziiip 1]

I am absolutely amazed there's a modeling/textuing tutorial for noobs, thank you for taking your time and creating this.:notworthy:

Edit: I applied the texture i created in GIMP in the UV editor, but when I launch bulldozer, it says "cannot load texture documents\agm88texture.pac"

Edited September 10, 2010 by ziiip

[jr_walker 10]

Thanks Myke,

Very detailed, very clear. You helped me to make rocks. I guess that means You Rock!

Thanks again!

Edited December 11, 2010 by JR_Walker

[Gnome_AS 10]

Just had a look at the tutorial Myke, excellent work. More of these have been needed in the community for a long time. Perfect for getting people into the BIS tools a doing. Need more tutorials like this floating around. :)