plasman

Thanks for this nice tutorial. I hope the wounded texture issue will be solved soon. Would be nice is you could also add some tips about shadow editing.

Amazing. But the pilot's flight suit definitely needs some little reskin to look like the TV-series' one.

Very nice retex, keep up the good work Dr.Rebus

I proudly present my first o2 made addon : US mutant soldier from outerspace! Click to enlarge if you dare... Just kidding. I followed JB's step by step explanation (thanks again for having taken the time JB ). But I guess I might have missed a thing or two. Any clue why it's not working? Thanks in advance for your help.

There is a lot of enthusiasm about the release of o2. But understanding how it works might look a daunting task. That's why I opened this thread where (hopefully) o2 veterans and newbies might exchange useful information. As I'm totally green at o2 (although I used some 3D modelling software before :the user friendly Wings 3D) I already have some questions I tried to put BIS O2 sample soldier model into the game. (creating a .pbo file). I though it would be ready for use. No such luck. I got the following result : a half buried salt statue It's missing its textures, it's not moving, and sinks into the ground. I found why the textures are missing, it's just a matter of editing the right paths with an hex editor like HDX. The only thing is while usually you have to replace the same path 5 to 7 times with BIS sample model you have to do it more than 5300 times!!!? I suppose there must be a way to edit them directly in o2 ? (texture paths of the sample soldier bimodels\bisoldier\data\us_molle_webbings_co.paa bimodels\bisoldier\data\us_soldier_equipacu_co.paa bimodels\bisoldier\data\us_soldieracu_co.paa ) To have the soldier getting out of the sinking sands I found you might use the following menu: Points -> Transform 3D -> Move -> Setting the Y coordinate to 1. So that hopefully he will get his feet firm on the ground . But I suppose we must implement the collisions between the model and its environment. But how to implement the keyframes and shadows remain a big mystery to me, and the wikipedia/o2 manual doesn't help much. I suppose animations can be selected by using Tools -> Normalise animations ? Thanks in advance for your help.

Congrats, your platform looks promissing. I case you don't know it already here is a good source of references for your oil drilling platform: http://www.oilrig-photos.com/

Just as JB said. But as far as I know (well OK I'm not an armor specialist) they are rather called composite armor (or Chobham fm the British armor experiment center located there) in order not to be mistaken for ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor). You'll notice I just slightly improved the overall armor value of the M113 (by 30 pts), it's because the vehicle is not entirely protected by these armor plates.

Screenshots: Download here : http://files.filefront.com/UN+Vehi....fo.html Armaholic mirror (thanks again to Foxhound and Flat! ) http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=2114 Also available at : http://www.armedassault.info/ (thanks Old Bear ) Also available at: Combat Prison Net (Thanks Stav )

No. Actually it's inspirated by the side armor seen on UN Warriors AIFV. However uparmored M113 do exist (but their armor look different, and modelling them would have involved the use of o2) There is an actual project -called Infantry Fighting Vehicle Light (see herebelow pict)- which I also used as a source of inspiration.

.RVMAT files are actually text files, like small configs - you open them with notepad. They tell the model where to look for their a) normal map and b) light map textures for the corresponding colour texture and how to apply them. My advice would be to look at a model with only one colour texture, one normal map and one light map (which ends with _smdi) like a weapon (such as Skaven's, which are very well done) and go from there. However, normal map (_nohq) and light map (_smdi) textures are editable with Photoshop, etc - just don't forget to change the alpha channel as well! Sweet. I was for weeks about these normal map problems now I've the solution. Thanks again for your help

MOLLE stands for Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment See this link for details: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IAV/is_3_90/ai_82009539

Thanks vm for the info Are the .RVMAT files editable like the regular .paa files ?

Yes as CameronMcDonald says, normal map files are the _nohq files. Editing them would allow you to created small "3D" effects without using O2 (like adding or erasing molle strips, pockets, helmet straps, etc...). In mathematics a "normal" is a line perpendicular to a surface. Normal map textures use a color code to create the illusion of 3D. For more information about the theory behind normal mapping check these links: http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Normal_Maps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping There is an nVidia plug in for Photoshop which would allow you to create instant normal map texture: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html Unfortunately there are no plugins for Paint Shop Pro Pls note however that for an unknown reason, custom normal mapping is not working (or partially working) on some BIS models. For example it works perfectly on the Us Sniper model but only "part time" on the US soldier model (sometime the custom normal map appears, but some other times the game engine uses the default normal map textures, which can result in weird looking effects).

OK. Thanks vm for your quick answer

I have another question regarding editing texture paths: What about Normal Map (_nohq) textures? They do not appear in the Tools > Mass Texture & Material renaming menu. Thanks in advance for your help folks

You mean it will create (almost) instant islands, without having to go thru the lengthy Visitor's process ? Sounds amazing.

Awesome work! I see normal mapping is working nicely on these models.

Thanks your answer OK, so I guess the problem comes from some of BIS models and/ or the game engine. I hope it will be fixed in a future patch. Until then some of my UN Soldiers will continue to suffer from the “ghost helmet strap syndrome†(a variant of your “Russian shiny helmet cover diseaseâ€) The M113 models seems to be "immune" to custom normal mapping as well

Maybe I got the whole Normal Mapping process wrong but it seems that on some BIS model (such as the us_soldier_b and res_soldier_b models) it is impossible to edit normal map. The game engine seems to ignore the custom normal mapped textures (nohq file) and applies the default normal map textures instead. I've checked the paths to the custom textures, they are correct (otherwise I would be an error message anyway). Could someone help please ? Do you have any clue ?

@DigitalCenturion Quite promissing I agree with nephilim In case you don't know it already there is a nice walk around of the Havoc here: http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/makarov_aleksey/mi-28/

Shadow, to my opinion your mod is (together with the Swiss Army Mod) simply the best mod released so far for ArmA. Your mastery of texturing and normal mapping is simply awesome, so don’t get discouraged by the “small†(well not so small btw) number of feedbacks/comments you get, I guess people are simply too busy downloading and playing your mod to have time to write on the forum. Keep up the good work guys.

Available here: http://files.filefront.com/UN+Troops+V1zip/;8574916;/fileinfo.html Armaholic mirror (thanks Foxhound ) http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=979 Combat-Prison.net mirror (Thanks Stavanger ) http://prison.tibet225.server4you.de/ww2pn...._id=131 Screenshots (clik on the Image Shack link) : <a href="http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt01wo6.jpg'>http://img256.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt01wo6.jpg" target="_blank">http://img25 6.imageshack.us/img256....N Medic</a> <a href="http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt02tn7.jpg'>http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt02tn7.jpg" target="_blank">http://img51 8.imageshack.us/img518....enadier</a> <a href="http://img252.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt03rx6.jpg" target="_blank">http://img25 2.imageshack.us/img252....ifleman</a> <a href="http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt04ra0.jpg'>http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt04ra0.jpg" target="_blank">http://img29 3.imageshack.us/img293....Officer</a> <a href="http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=unt05gf0.jpg" target="_blank">http://img29 5.imageshack.us/img295....N Group</a>

Thanks. Well actually I just added a few posters, tags, and warning signs (the later taken fm actual photos of M113s available on the web) to the original BIS interior, it’s just a small contribution but I think It’s good for the general atmosphere.