da12thMonkey

They can carry more stuff and go further, more quickly (off-road at least). Also, we can't buy brand-new Wolf-spec Land Rovers any more due to regulations regarding engines and emissions. Ricardo converted the EWMIKs from existing TUM and TUM FFR vehicles in stock (fitting new, WMIK-spec, reinforced-chassis' ) as well as reconditioned WMIKs and some sourced from units no longer using them. We couldn't really continue to do that for the number of vehicles that the UOR envisaged so we went and got somet better. Plan is to get about 100 of them, so they will pretty much take over from Land Rover WMIKs in theatre. Edit:- ooh, two people got there first. Rock: Panther'll 'definitely' be coming into service this year.

Oh cool, people can just use Jonny's US SF and pass them off as SAS. We just have to make some Diemacos. Saves Chris some work.

As mentioned in the news post, they're very new and are only just appearing within units. The MoD ordered around 7,000 of them to replace most of the existing trucks in service including the DAF and Bedford utility trucks and Foden recovery vehicles. There are still loads stored at Aschurch awaiting delivery but you'll probably see them on the roads already, and heading into theatre soon.

So large an update it wont fit on our front page and we had to split it into 2 posts to post all the images here (although, we still had to link to a couple).

The new weapons pack has also taken shape nicely over the last few months, with Chris, leading the way with the SA80 series of individual weapons and Messiah, creating the GPMG and LMG (a reworked BIS model with Chris' SUSAT). The contents of the pack hasn't been finalised yet, but do expect a couple of handguns, a sniper rifle and perhaps some specially equipped SA80's too. Chris has had a tough act to follow with the SA80's. Jonno and Fat Joe's OFP weapons were of a very high standard, and even looked fairly good in ArmA. Chris has surpassed all expectations with the new SA80's, bringing the model and textures up-to-date and in line with our current standards. He has also been working on some nice sounds to go along with them. Hi-Res Messiah has been creating a GPMG for use in the personal role, but also for use as a mounted weapon on a large number of our vehicles. As you can see, the new GPMG has come a long way from the previous OFP incarnation, and fits in very nicely with the rest of the weapons and the vehicles. The LMG is simply an edit of the M249 created by BIS, with specific alterations and additions to the model and textures to convert it into a Minimi Para. Hi-Res Hi-Res Away from the CR2, Jtec has been hard at work on his very own fleet of trucks that have recently started to be deployed in the British Army. The MAN trucks have brought a new era of support vehicles to our planned ArmA content. With a large selection of vehicles, covering a variety of sizes, capacities and roles, Jtec is aiming to bring a definitive collection of British MAN trucks to ArmA. Hi-Res Hi-res And finally we thought we'd show you a little old lady that’s been brought out of near retirement in the British Army, a vehicle we never thought we'd end up making due to its age. After being dragged kicking and screaming from his beloved Land Rovers, Messiah has also been working on an FV432 pack, bringing the FV432 Mk3 into ArmA with a variety of versions including the Up-armoured Bulldog. Hi-Res Hi-Res Hi-res In addition to our news post, we are currently looking to add to our number; that's right, UKF are recruiting! We are looking for people with a good level of commitment, a passion for British Kit, and a high degree of skill in thier area of expertise. Ideally applicants will be multiskilled, but it isn't a requirement. Specific jobs we are looking to recruit people are as follows: Scripter: The position of scripter will require indepth knowledge of the game engine and scripting system. In addition, you will also be expected to tackle the creative side of scripting, taking the initiative on various projects that represent the vehicle and weapon systems in use by British Forces, and adding in scripted features where appropriate. Multiplayer stability and performance is a must for UKF addons (we learnt the hard way in OFP), and applicants are advised to familiarise themselves with this side of scripting. Config Monkey: We're looking for someone competant with the config side of addons, including the ability to write model.cfg's. In this role, you will help to take the load off the rest of the team, leaving us to concentrate on the modelling and texturing side of things. Applicants must know thier way around a config blindfolded, as we're looking for you to be the expert! Animator: We're after a skilled animator to help with various animation tasks, encompassing all types of addons. Ideally, the applicant will be able to take animations all the way from the toolset and into the game independantly - we wouldn't be advertising if we were any good at this ourselves! We are also open to the applications of anyone with modelling or texturing skills, however, applicants will have to meet UKF standards. Please be prewarned that we aren't taking applications for the positions of "Beta Tester", "PR manager", "Screenshot Taker", "Mission Maker", and various other doss jobs that if need doing, are done by other team members who also serve much more useful purposes. We also reserve the right to reject an applicant on any basis, in particular, having a good working relationship with the rest of the team is of high value to us. Applicants are advised to visit our forum, and either post in the appropriate section, or contact a team member via the Private Messaging system. www.pukf.net -The UKF Team.

UKF NEWS 14th June 2008 Better late than never It seems as though every time we promise to keep our news updated regularly we fail, quite miserably. Instead of giving you more excuses, (other than that we’ve simply been forgetful) we're going to try and make things up to you instead. Not quite as good as an addon release unfortunately, but at least it’s a nice selection of new screen shots and information about our projects for you to get your teeth into. As indicated in the last news release, we're still making very good progress with ArmA addons and so far, have outdone ourselves with the number of models completed, compared to our OFP days. As always, these are beta screen shots, so expect things to be a little cleaner, naked and unfinished than what you will eventually see in the finished product. Similarly, they'll only be released when they're ready, and not a moment before… but perhaps a moment after, to keep the tension (Yes, we're horrible like that). So, onto the new kit then. The guys have been working hard on a large variety of vehicles and weapons over the past few months, and finally we're getting a large proportion of them in game. Our enthusiasm for configs isn't quite at the same level as it is for models and textures. It's a slow process, and a lot of head scratching and bug fixing, but bit by bit we're getting somewhere! And due to the constantly changing nature of British kit, we're constantly having to amend our addons to match the latest UOR's - Urgent Operational Requirements - that the Army has with the real versions. Please also bear in mind that some of the addons have not, as yet, had their normal or specular maps applied. First on the pile is the Challenger 2, modelled by Jtec, and textured by Chris. Currently we have the basic CR2 model made, with the usual additional armour attached. We are also planning on adding the latest UOR equipment, which includes an Enforcer remote weapons station, various pieces of ECM equipment and new variations of armour. I think you'll agree that the guys have done a stunning job thus far, and with the planned attachments, this CR2 should be an impressive looking addon. Hi-Res Hi-Res Next is a update on the Land Rover pack, modelled and textured by Messiah. You may remember, in the last news post we showed an early version of the WMIK. These have yet again undergone some cosmetic changes, to bring them to the current EWMIK standard seen in Afghanistan. Besides the WMIK, Messiah has been finishing off the additional vehicles in the pack and making some alterations where applicable, such as BOWMAN radio systems and run flat tyres. The Land Rovers are really beginning to take shape, and at this stage are only lacking a few final details (such as dirt and scratches) before they're fit for a release. Hi-Res Hi-Res Hi-Res Hi-Res Continued in the next post...

Indeed, it's just the old OFP weapon pack that was made by UKF. Seems to cause a lot of confusion that they're distributed with the BSF stuff. You can download the converted weapons on their own, from here if you don't want to download the rest of the BSF addons in that pack: http://www.rkslstudios.info/index.php/ArmA-UKF-Addons/ http://www.armedassault.info/index.php?cat=news&id=12 http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=2030 Anyhow, not a bad effort by StalkerGB and he should be commended for making somet that fills a temporary void in British addons. I certainly don't mind using them until Chris lets me have a go at his.

Maybe so, but they didn't deserve to win either. Turkey played well in the second half and I reckon they would have been better in the first if the pitch wasn't waterlogged. Given the conditions I reckon a draw would have been about right.

It's necessary to make the eotech and aimpoint parallax effects work. I don't think it's possible to manipulate the alpha-texture bug in a way that'll only hide the red-dot of the sight, without obscuring other game objects. You either have to put up with this alpha-texture bug in vehicle cargos, modify the game so weapons are hidden when in sat cargo view (IIRC this is what Switzerland Mod did), or create aimpoints and eotechs that are just flat texture panels and don't behave realistically (like the standard BIS aimpoint). Personally I prefer having the sights work properly; but it is a shame that we have to create that bug in order to do it. Anyhow, great work aimpoint; should go really well with Jonny's SF models when they're released. These are easily the coolest weapons made for ArmA, and I'm pleased you went for sights with the parallax effect. I too would appreciate some non-desert ones (not woodland, just unpainted) but I respect the fact that you don't plan to make them.

I tried it over the weekend; the mod still needs a fair amount of work, but RO itself wasn't flawless when it first came out for UT and it's refreshing to have a new, yet familiar theatre to play a great game in. Shame so many of the American maps crash, as most servers have cut them out of their rotation, leaving only 4 or 5 maps to play on. DH seems to have more new content than the other released RO mods: Carpathian Crosses and Mare Nostrum, but the problems with it seem more critical to me. So far I think CC is the most playable mod for RO, but it's often quite difficult to get on a decent server.

Great games today; the last one especially. I was expecting a few more goals against Poland but I got the goal-difference right, so I'm now heading up the prediction league: http://www.kicktipp.de/arma2008/tippuebersicht Don't reckon I'll be there tomorrow though: some tough games to predict the score for. Looking forward to the Holland-Italy game. If you ask me, one of those two facing Germany in the final would make for a fantastic match.

I'll see your Apache and raise you 3 Chinooks, a Merlin HC3, a Police EC135 and about 150 airliners since 9am today. Its amazing what crap flies over Central London. in a few hours. i see your 3 Chinooks, a Merlin HC3, a Police EC135 and about 150 airliners and raise you by 3 blackhaws 2 cobras 2 apahes 4 f-15c 4 f-16c and 2 ch-53d. Israel s a small place indeed. I see all that and raise you (from yesterday) 2 Typhoons, 11 Hawks (2 black and 9 red ones ), a Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, de Havilland Vampire or Venon (couldn't tell), an Apache, 2 Harriers, 2 Tornado F.3, a Chinook, 2 Hercules, 3 Lynx (1 AH.7 and 1 HAS.3, 1 HMA.8), a Foland Gnat, 3 Squirrels and 2 Griffons. Helps that I live under the exit loop from Cosford Airshow. Most days I'll see about 12 Squirrels and half a dozen Griffons out of Shawbury and the Police and Air ambulance EC-135s, then every few weeks we'll get Apaches, Lynxes, Merlins, Pumas and Chinooks from there, or Tern Hill when the Royal Irish Regiment are doing exercises. Then I get the occasional rarities from Cosford, and aircraft visiting DHFS like Hueys, Panthers/Dauphins, CH-53s (German IIRC) and Cougars.

Even though there are no British teams qualified to play this summer, I can't wait for for Euro 2008. Problem is, I don't really know who to support this time; I've got a tremendous amount of respect for most of the teams in the competition.

Looking forward to it Rock & Eric. Hope it continues to go well.

It's manually guided, you have to keep the centre of the crosshair fixed on the vehicle until the missile reaches it. IIRC one missile tends to do the trick if you hit it properly on not just strike the ground in front of it. The crew certainly bails out after one hit. Like I said before, the missiles are manually guided so you'll have to move the sight with the vehicle you're targeting. You'll have to target a little ahead of where the vehicle is to account for it changing position. With a bit of luck/skill/practise you should be able to hit moving targets at a fairly decent range.

I've noticed one or two more bugs: The front set of road-wheels on the M2A2 Bradley don't rotate, they're fine on the older M2 though. The mount for the M1 commander's MG is wrongly modelled, admittedly it's BIS who modelled it incorrectly for the M1A1 to begin with. BIS made the newer manually operated one from the M1A2 that can't be fired while turned in. AFAIK I've only ever seen it modelled properly on NoWonderDog's edited M1A1 from the tank FCS addon. The correct mount looks like this (from an M1A1): http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks...._71.jpg http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks...._71.jpg http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks...._71.jpg http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks...._71.jpg Just to show that it is indeed the same mount on the original M1: http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/8493/usftxreforger1988005gk2.jpg http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/1928/m12me5.jpg Hope that's helpful. I'm still having a great deal of fun with the units and weapons.

Thanks for the preview of P85 content; the units and weapons are absolutely fantastic especially the sheer number and variety of weapons. Great work by you and the rest of the team; I'm looking forward to that mod a great deal. I've come across a couple of bugs here and there though, firstly I get an error popup when I use the Sako TRG: <table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Code Sample </td></tr><tr><td id="CODE">Cannot load texture vilas_pwp\data\ckov_nohq.paa And there's this strange shadow bug with the FAL rifles (it effects all of them except the marksman rifle). Some vehicles don't have a fully working shadow volume in low and medium settings. The shadows don't cast on other objects or the vehicles themselves in anything but 'high'. But that's probably just something you haven't got around to updating/adding yet. There are also one or two errors in the naming of weapons in the gear menu: The Greasegun is labelled MP5A3 rather than M3A3, the M16A1 with the M203 is called M16A2 and the AK-103 is AKM. Can I also suggest removing the tracers from the L42, and giving the LAW a modelspecial or an animation so that it folds out when loaded and compresses again when fired just to improve the realism of these two weapons a bit. You might also like to consider improving the dexterity of units when they use the LAW since it's a very light and compact weapon compared to other AT weapons. All the best with your projects mate.

Oh noes, the tracks are all wrong! Heh, you know I think it's awesome mate.

They are in MARPAT, desert MARPAT. AFAIK they're the same units as those from VBS2. The RACS T-72 and HESCO blocks are a welcome addition. Shame work means I can't hop online to get on and try out this new Warfare game mode for a good few days.

That's a stupid argument. You reckon it's easy to provide structurally sound buildings for a population of 1.3 billion people? Japan has a GDP per capita of around $38,000, China's on the other hand is only around $3,000. The two nations can't be compared in their ability to provide their people with first-world living standards since only one of them is in and advanced economic state. Additionally, Japan is situated in the vicinity of several tectonic boundaries making earthquakes a very common occurance throughout the country. As a nation they have an advanced system of disaster response, and construction takes place in all areas with earthquake survivability in mind due to the fact that the whole country is at a high risk of quakes and volcanic activity. It's unreasonable to expect China to implement extensive measures such as Japan's, when earthquakes are considerably rarer there.

I'd try whatever formats you can get Maya export plugins for, that O2 will import and see what gets you the best results. I have tried exporting as .3ds from programs other than 3DS Max without success, so I'm not 100% on how well Maya will handle .3ds exports, (assuming a plugin is available) having never used it myself. I personally always export as .3ds now, since .obj has on some occasions completely buggered up my smoothing groups from Max. Apart from all the faces being reversed and occasionally creating a few additional faces, I've had no real trouble with .3ds. Glad you've made at least some progress in sorting out your problem though.

unitname MoveInTurret [vehiclename,[0]] or unitname MoveInTurret [vehiclename,[1]] I haven't tested to see whether turret 1 or 0 is the commander's pintle or the ring-mount though. Explanation of the moveinturret command is here: http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/moveInTurret

Jonny's SF units look pretty unbelievable. The pattern on the BDU/DCU shirt under the armour looks to be scaled a little large but everywhere else it looks great (ACU versions look fine all over). namreg, the Defender's looking pretty awesome too. Good to have a RACS AT-chopper in progress. I'm sorry I can't help you with the normals problem. The reversal of normals happens to me with my Challenger as well, but I'm going to be unwrapping that in O2, so I probably wont experience the same texture problems. Are you exporting to O2 as .3ds or .obj?

Yay, Land Rovers! These look great mate. I've been looking forward to trying them for a while.

The UK sold all of its Mambas to Estonia, who wanted them for Iraq and Afghanistan. It sparked off a lot of debate in the press when they found out, following the criticism of Snatch Land Rovers. As a result, UKF won't be interested in adding it to our team projects. However, I personally am doing some Estonian ISAF troops (derived from BIS models) as a little side project, so I might be interested in working on it when I'm done with other things, work and ArmA related (we're probably talking months here). PM me if you want to discuss it.