seafire6

I'm considering trying out Modo software. Is it easy to import models/textures into O2 ?

Has anyone out there used the software 'L3DT' to design a new terrain for Arma? I've got the professional version and its a very nice, easy to learn program for creating custom terrains. Its about 134 $us for the profesional software; I think its from Australia.

What is the best 3d terrain generator to use to create new islands/terrain for Arma? L3dt seems to have some promise but I'm sure there are probably others to consider. Any thoughts are appreciatted.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. It seems the most important components to a 3d terrain generator for Arma is the abliity to export the heightfield map in .png format? As far as a sat image it seems that a textured map image would sufffice.

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone have experience with Grome software? It also looks good.

Leveller looks good. It appears user friendly and conducive to large terrains. When you are finished in leveller how do you then get it into Visitor ?

Has anyone used the l3dt pro software to create the terrain for a AA map yet? Any advise on techniques ?

spirit, that great to hear. I'm still just getting familiar with what it will do, but sounds like you've come a long way with the program. Any sample pics to share ?

I went ahead with the pro edition and so far am encouraged with its island size potential and its intuitive interface. There are also some interesting plugins for the pro edition including a road creator. The whole island creation process is still very daunting but at least the terrain can be started. I feel that creation of fictional islands with unique story lines a 'la Tonal is in the end where there is the most bang for the buck. I don't know that Wilbur is Vista capable at this point as well. It also seams that a nice WRP Tool for Armed Assualt either isn't going to happen or is far of in the future.

I've imported a model in 3ds format but its way too small in buldozer. Anyway to upscale the size of the whole model in O2? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks. I'll be sure to give it a go. I hope thats the only hurrdle to overcome.

Scars09 I had a hard time following your instruction for the 'repathing' of textures when importing an already modelled/textured oblect from 3dsmax. I'm begging for you or anyone with the know-how to post a tutorial of some type to clarify this for us. I think there are a number of people who have projects ready to share with the community if we can import them to O2.

I agree completely with you Neph. I've had 3dmax 9 for a few months and have a couple of structures that I can get into O2 /buldozer though without the textures. I've yet to lick the dilemma of getting my textures into O2. Being a complete novice to the 3d modelling world its been fairly tiring working with 3ds max and was interested in Modo if it were indeed more intuitive than 'other 3d modeling programs' as its advertising reports. My professional training is in medicine so this 3d model world is both fascinating and frustrating. Reminds me of why I don't join my brethren and simply golf my spare time away.

No I didn't try that but I will, Thanks. I believe each square represents a meter ? I recall seeing that somewhere but I'm not 100%

hedcrusha, thanks for the help. I've got the program and its definitely nice to use.I was wondering though how to get the map into PS and and what do we do with it there ? Any help is appreciated. Oh and is it possible to build bigger maps than 1024*1024 ?

How do you import from FSX ? I've not been able to find an mdl to 3ds plugin so far.

The anim8tor technique is what I was referring to in my post. Its a shame since the sketchup program is so much easier to use. My main interest is in bringing more buildings into the Arma world. Perhaps the official tools will make it easier to import various files into O2 and maybe O2 will be in english.

I just checked out sketchup 6 and it certainly appears to be far more intuitive to use than other 3d modelling programs out there, particularly for buildings/structures. From looking at the FAQ's available at sketchup , you can export sketchup files to 3ds. format and from there we should be able to bring them into O2. A while [yrs ago] I used a program called Wings 3d and there was a way to convert the wings file to 3ds and then to 02; or perhaps it was the 3ds file directly into O2, I can't remember. Did you try the 3ds format to O2? If we can figure this out I'll use sketchup for all of my projects. Your building looks sharp BTW.

I'm currently in the process of getting familiar with 3d Max 8 with the goal of creating add-on structures for AA. I'm mostly interested in buildings/world enviroment. My question is re; booleans and whether to use them in the construction process. Do boolean models create more difficulty when importing them into O2 ?

Thank you all for the replies. As you can tell I'm really just beginning to learn the ins and outs of modelling for AA. I've invested in several books but none have been specific for buildings, particularly 'low poly' techniques. Does anyone know of a building tutorial for this need, I've googled and found several that had no regard for poly count etc.

If this is a completely foolish question please forgive me as I'm new to modding but is there anyway to convert jpg textures to the ofp/aa friendly paa/pac format ?

Thank you all for the input, particularly the paa plugin for photoshop. Hopefully AA tools will smooth out this process of importing models etc. from 3d studio max or gmax (+/-) the textures. Considering how important addons are to the success of a game these days it would be in BIS interests to make it a fairly smooth and staight forward operation.

Disregard the question I found the the texview program.

Can those of us in the US order from the Amazon german site ?

Glad to see I'm not alone. I'm 40 with 2 boys and a 'bogie' on the way. I've really enjoyed OFP and can;t waite for ArmA.