mikebart

thanks shezan, some nice new features in this version, will test it out soon.

yep worked a charm, thanks Shezan, i pretty much got good results strait away and it was very easy to use, now ill replace all my vegetation using this tool, thanks again.

Homer this has been a great tool to use, although my islands only small I've managed to throw in a road network very quickly using this tool, thanks alot for the effort, nice too see all you clever tools guys helping each other out aswell.

Thanks alot for the picture shezan, very helpful, ill let you know how i get on, cheers!

this is brilliant shezan, although i have no idea how to import objects to visitor, I've tried importing the .exp file using the import objects script, it processes for a short time but then it rejects all the objects.

Nice job guys, just listened to both shows, thanks for the effort!

looks really nice cctode, I just quoted your post over here.

>>>>>>>Download tree[d]<<<<<<< looks great!, thanks for sharing, the only problem with using the projection baking in max is that alpha channels don't get included in the render, so you end up with lots of planes for leaves, unless you use this method: http://www.bencloward.com/tutorials_normal_maps11.shtml basically you manually setup all the lights for you're normal map and render from a camera. its a bit of a pain but once you have all the lights setup properly then you can just save them as a .max and merge them into your scene when you need them. Just to save you a bit of time, heres my setup: normalmap_lights.max and heres my lighting setup: diffusemap_lights.max its pretty simple really but its enough i think for the render. or you can use modo for you're baking, modo includes alphas in its projection bakes and its very easy to use, maya might work too, not sure though i havent tried. about the random colour variation, im not sure of a quick way to do that in max, you could try adjusting vertex colours on randomly selected leaves, or applying a lightmap on a second UV. you might also find a script out there that does something like that.

@Trezza, Nice pics, im from NZ origionally, I've been in melbourne for 4 years now and ive had a pretty good look around, but I don't know those places :), I haven't really ventured too deep into woods here, we got to make some gum trees!. @cctoide: thats pretty nice of them, sounds good, I still havent used a tree generator for my trees yet, I've been making them by hand which is pretty insane really, but this looks quite good, ill try it out thanks!, nice pics too, try and get some good references of the whole tree as well if you can. The foliage photos are big enough, when you consider how small the leaf will end up in game

nice one randy, have you thought about making a set of road models for the river beds?, road models dont have to be flat, you could have rocks falling away on one side of it, might be a bit figity though and collision/veiw geo could get a bit heavy.

Hey guys, im just having a bit of trouble with getting some clutter working with my island, its using my own grass models, and they're in "p:\mikebart\mb_veg\" and my island is in "p:\mikebart\mb_manaisland\" basically im down to the last of many errors and have been slowly getting though them with help from some nice fellas, but although this one seems like it would be really simple, its got me stumped, just thought maybe someone might see whats going wrong here, thanks in advance. this is the error i get in my pbo.log: Clutter names value count different in H:\BI_Tools\BinMake\Binarize\bin\config.cpp/CfgSurfaceCharacters/MB_soilGrassClutter/ (2!=4) Config: 'names' array does not have 3 entries. Config: 'names' array does not have 4 entries. Clutter names value count different in H:\BI_Tools\BinMake\Binarize\bin\config.cpp/CfgSurfaceCharacters/MB_dryGrassClutter/ (2!=4) Config: 'names' array does not have 3 entries. Config: 'names' array does not have 4 entries. class MB_GrassLong: DefaultClutter { model = mikebart\MB_Veg\MB_clutterGrass01.p3d; affectedByWind = 0.1; scaleMin = 0.6; scaleMax = 1.6; }; class MB_GrassShort: DefaultClutter { model = mikebart\MB_Veg\MB_clutterGrass02.p3d; affectedByWind = 0.1; scaleMin = 0.5; scaleMax = 0.9; }; class CfgSurfaces { class Default {}; class MB_grasssurface: Default { files = "MB_soilGrass_*"; rough = 0.1; dust = 0.1; soundEnviron = "grass"; character = "MB_soilGrassClutter"; }; class MB_drygrasssurface: Default { files = "MB_drygrass_*"; rough = 0.1; dust = 0.1; soundEnviron = "grass"; character = "MB_dryGrassClutter"; }; }; class CfgSurfaceCharacters { class MB_soilGrassClutter { probability[] = {0.79,0.1,0.1,0.01}; names[] ={MB_GrassLong,MB_Grassshort}; }; class MB_dryGrassClutter { probability[] = {0.79,0.1,0.1,0.01}; names[] ={MB_GrassLong,MB_Grassshort}; }; };

I want to use a 1024 x 4096 texture, can anyone see any problems with using textures of this size and ratio in Arma2 as opposed to a 2048 x 2048? (cause technically they're the same size ;))

alright then, thanks for the answers guys, i wont do it.

thanks for the reply Norsu, i can stack up more textures and get them to tile horozontally with a 1024 x 4096 for buildings, just to save a few polys.

Gnat, this is totally doable using the multi material, you need to have a second UV channel for the mask and you can do it with up to 4 textures, have a look at the A2 building .rvmats and texture maps, i cant see why it couldnt work with a vehicle too.

nice one trezza, I find it can be really hard to find good reference photos of vegetation online, especially for modelling reference, here are some pics i took in the Uruwera National Park NZ, sorry about some of them being a bit dark. Heres a some information: http://doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/national-parks/te-urewera/features/ http://img80.imageshack.us/i/dsc08240.jpg/ http://img339.imageshack.us/i/dsc08241i.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08248h.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08247v.jpg/ http://img406.imageshack.us/i/dsc08247r.jpg/ http://img15.imageshack.us/i/dsc08246v.jpg/ http://img406.imageshack.us/i/dsc08245x.jpg/ http://img532.imageshack.us/i/dsc08244o.jpg/ http://img80.imageshack.us/i/dsc08243.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08249e.jpg/ http://img217.imageshack.us/i/dsc08250.jpg/ http://img256.imageshack.us/i/dsc08251q.jpg/ http://img256.imageshack.us/i/dsc08252e.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08253y.jpg/ http://img406.imageshack.us/i/dsc08256.jpg/ http://img339.imageshack.us/i/dsc08257b.jpg/ http://img256.imageshack.us/i/dsc08264l.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08263u.jpg/ http://img532.imageshack.us/i/dsc08262k.jpg/ http://img217.imageshack.us/i/dsc08261.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08260.jpg/ http://img339.imageshack.us/i/dsc08259.jpg/ http://img217.imageshack.us/i/dsc08258m.jpg/ http://img80.imageshack.us/i/dsc08265v.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08266.jpg/ http://img80.imageshack.us/i/dsc08268j.jpg/ http://img339.imageshack.us/i/dsc08271.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08272.jpg/ http://img217.imageshack.us/i/dsc08274j.jpg/ http://img15.imageshack.us/i/dsc08275x.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08287m.jpg/ http://img15.imageshack.us/i/dsc08286b.jpg/ http://img256.imageshack.us/i/dsc08284y.jpg/ http://img80.imageshack.us/i/dsc08283f.jpg/ http://img217.imageshack.us/i/dsc08282y.jpg/ http://img15.imageshack.us/i/dsc08279s.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08277.jpg/ http://img339.imageshack.us/i/dsc08288.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08289d.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08290.jpg/ http://img339.imageshack.us/i/dsc08293z.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08295p.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08296k.jpg/ http://img710.imageshack.us/i/dsc08297b.jpg/ http://img256.imageshack.us/i/dsc08304y.jpg/ http://img530.imageshack.us/i/dsc08303k.jpg/ http://img685.imageshack.us/i/dsc08302q.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08301i.jpg/ http://img687.imageshack.us/i/dsc08299n.jpg/ http://img687.imageshack.us/i/dsc08300w.jpg/ http://img293.imageshack.us/i/dsc08298.jpg/ http://img530.imageshack.us/i/dsc08307f.jpg/ http://img406.imageshack.us/i/dsc08308.jpg/ http://img718.imageshack.us/i/dsc08309e.jpg/ http://img685.imageshack.us/i/dsc08311c.jpg/ http://img406.imageshack.us/i/dsc08312i.jpg/ http://img213.imageshack.us/i/dsc08313l.jpg/ http://img718.imageshack.us/i/dsc08316e.jpg/ http://img213.imageshack.us/i/dsc08325z.jpg/ http://img685.imageshack.us/i/dsc08324a.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08323k.jpg/ http://img530.imageshack.us/i/dsc08322r.jpg/ http://img219.imageshack.us/i/dsc08321l.jpg/ http://img687.imageshack.us/i/dsc08320x.jpg/ http://img293.imageshack.us/i/dsc08318.jpg/

Im pretty sure this is possible using the multi material, you'd need to have 2 UV channels, 1 for the layout of your tilable textures, and another for the _MCO (multiplied colour/AO) and mask texture (different colours for different materials), you'd have absolutly no overlapping of UV's on the second channel. or you can have all your textures on one big sheet like this: Download Sample (.max) and tile your materials with polygons

Sounds good trezza, I think it would be a good idea to make a new thread for this sort of thing and post up some photos, ill post up some of mine as well, call it the 'vegetation reference thread' or something :). I loosely explained what I look for personally when taking photos of trees for modeling/textureing in this tutorial. But i'd recommend going through the BIS tree textures found in Arma1 and 2, just to get an idea of the sort of leaf density and shapes you should be looking for in photos. The thing with Gum trees though is that the leaves are always drooping downwards, so i think that should be an important thing to keep in mind while modeling them (something covered in that tutorial), and thats why it should be made from scratch i think, as none of the BIS trees would be suitable as a template. Gum trees have been on my 'to do' list for quite a while now, just havent quite gotten around to it, but the projected vertex normals (explained a few pages back) would be ideal for this type of tree. So i'd be happy to help out with this.

Leopotam, please continue work on these tools, Im really very interested in using them for my island project, but right now im just not at that stage where i require them, but i will use them eventually and im sure there are quite a few other island makers in the same boat, please keep up the great work!

ah ok, thanks guys.

when you do that, you have to always rename the texture paths before you binarize right?, is there a way around that?

start by looking in "ca\data\penetration\" for the .rvmats that are applied to the respective fire collision, the .rvmat refers to a .bisurf file, in that you'll see all the values. Im not sure where, how or if these files reference the actual .p3ds that are used for the effects, but I know the can be found in "CA\Data\ParticleEffects\". hope that helps, and hope someone can tell me how it references the .p3d's

Hey AxF, just had a look at the files you provided, you need to actually make a geometry lod out of convex hulls, sometimes you can use the 'component convex hulls' function in O2 to create a geo lod for simple objects but in your case you'll actually have to make them yourself in either O2 or 3dsmax, and dont forget to apply weights, always gets me :) http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Oxygen_2_-_Manual#Geometry_LODs

hey terp, theres an existing thread about this issue here, just incase you dont know