DaSquade

Well to give you an idea why this is needed...take the M32 (the multi grenade launcher with sight). It is useless without an adjustable range. IF BIS could hardcode the ability to animate weapon parts, you could easly animate the sight and its memory points. I'm not sure how soldiers in the field use other sights (that work with horizontal sub aiming bars..like the M79 for example) but afaik they are there for a purpose, to adjust on the fly. Anyway, like said, OA proven that BIS is willing to add wanted stuff, stuff the community tried to workaround since years. But we have to understand BIS doesn't want it to be too complex. I'm sure if they really want they could add anything though...just a mather of time i guess. EDIT: Don't get me wrong, i'm also not really for personalising your weapon..like this topic was about. Therefor you pick your layout out the crate for. Enough variant to do the job. I just want the things on my riffle to behave like they should and i'm not taking about internal parts etc but sights and other combat attachments. I agree malfunctions (dead battery, weather conditions, etc) could be a plus although this might be for some too much and take away the fun (if you can't fix it..replace battery for example when you have the time). Character animations is something else. At least there are ways to adjust those if not mistaken. Weapons remain limited and as we all know, it are the limitations in this engine that makes people cry.

Well personally i think we aren't directly looking for this kind of swappable attachments, but rather 'animated' attachments. Again personally there is still one hot feature on my list i hope BIS will ever hardcode and that is the ability to animate parts of the weapons. If not mistaken, untill today it is still not possible to animate (even a 'static' 0 -> 1 animation) witch makes weapons in ArmA feel lifeless. I'm talking about raising ironsights, grenade launcher sights, sideways flipping open additional zoomsights (eotech/aimpoints), adjusting shoulder stocks and bipods. Zeroing weapons was something, but so far as been mentioned by the devs is limited to certain ammo and again visually the weapon stays the same. Some stuff the community already tried to bypass with succes, but in the end afaik it is all done by swapping main models. Not the best way as it isn't that good performance wise and also has its limites. I'm no expert on how easy this is for BIS but i do know certain people within BIS (no offence) aren't all for making it more complex for players. I'm glad i and some others managed to make BIS look how wanted certain features are and OA showed BIS are taking a new road by adding additional features that add more 'life' and interaction. For that alone i think OA is a succes on itself as it shows BIS truely listens to its customers and still isn't at it end. I can only hope BIS keeps watching our hopes and one day we can finally say we are playing THE best (soldier) combat simulator ;) .

Well lets hope Lukas sticks to his words then ;) Sprocket Combined Operations is downloading as we speak.

Same story in Belgium. Arrowhead was supposed to be released today and availible in the shops (well so far i only found one shop that will have it), but after a phone call they told it wasn't in yet. No new date set yet..... No news about Combined Operations package aswell. I'm temped to buy it online just to f**k the publishers.

I hope i'm right, but looks there is finally some news regarding a publisher for Belgium (i know, there might be a handfull players in Belgium that play ArmA). http://www.gamemania.be/Default.aspx?tabid=87&gmgame=000000000000024118 *Who the heck is Koch Media publisher :s. No news of Free record shop, the other big game shop in Belgium. Personally i find it very sad the PR is again poor. I'm not pointing at anyone, but +-10 days before release and it is very hard to find info. Especially since BIS themself stated that the main reason for this expansion was to raise money to keep up rolling (at least for the gaming industry).

The obvious answer: Realisme :p ! Meaning, if the country (side) uses KTS/Feet as standard, one will need to learn how to handle these readouts. Same way you will need to adopte ("play roll") of that side/country. It might confuse some, but since most of use want this game to become more and more a sim, i guess you will have to make an effort to understand these values. Also, if not mistaken, for example the UK army MAN trucks we ship here in Belgian have dual readouts regarding speed. Not 100% sure (will double check next time i jump in one) but at least all civil cars have these dual readouts. *Didn't vote as the pole didn't include this 'realisme' vote :) .

White model = wrong texture path. In O2 you want to select your model and press E (face properties). A pop-up window will appear with in the box 'texture' your texture (or something else). Just press the folder icon and select the correct texture. *Note: make sure your O2 is setup correct, so you work with a virtual drive and the texture/model are located on that virtual drive. Grey model = no texture set/not unwrapped. *Note that if you press on the DX9 icon in O2 itself, the viewports will display your texture aswell (sadly no materials) or a checkermap of your UV.

If the program allows (i don't have Sketchup anymore), it is also always better to "save as" then "export'. At least that sometimes fixes missing points ( at least i had encourted such thing in the past).

That is odd, i thought this topic would be on fire with the german cover that is released (if officially): In case you want to see it in bigger format, i screenpasted them in photoshop: http://users.telenet.be/EEChome/OA_germany.jpg *Now there is an alternative if you really don't like the US version :p .

Wow, sounds like you had to undergo a lot in those 2 years. Glad you recovered without problems and you still see life as a possitive thing. I suppose Ms Hopper has something to do with that. Wish you all the best and as you will have noticed, life is more then BIS. So don't forget to enjoy that with those who care about you. Welkom terug en succes met de nieuwe show!

Maybe not directly the correct topic as it doesn't effect sections, but since this is a bit a 'clean-up' topic... It might be worth mentioning that one also needs to look if your model doesn't contain blank UVsets. Although i haven't played around with multiple UVsets, i did encounter some errors where i had imported a modo model with several different UVs and due to editing in modo itself (copy/past) it had imported a blank UV set. During binarizing the pbo i noticed the debug text mentioned LODX contained additional UV sets with errors. I forgot the exact codeline, but in short it turned out the model had indeed a secondairy UV set with no data (=blank) witch left some errors in the debug. To fix: Simply go to the effected LOD and check: Surfaces->UVsets Check if you have more then 1 UVsets. If you have more then one (and only use one), make the unused one 'active' and then 'delete active'.

Maybe it is me, but why the need of inversing certain objects? From my experience, i never had to do that. It might help in some case (so i heard and noticed). But personally i avoid it at all cost and only had to use it once as it had better result (versus higher count 'normal' shadow object). As long as the object is closed and doesn't clip the resolution object i have never encountered problems. Feel free to prove why. We are never too old to learn... :). Also for shadow lod geo i don't think one has to worry about the convexed geometry check. That is only needed in the geometry and fire lod, maybe also on the view geometry lods.

Well if the poll had an option 'i couldn't care less' (instead of neutral) i would of voted that. Why, simply because i don't care about the cover. A 'good' cover (but who decides what is good and not) might be important for new gamers that don't know about ArmA or those who are into fance covers. But i know BIS products since years, so i couldn't care less about its cover. Your other opinion about people who don't care and shouldn't be here is naive imho. Imho, this is a meaning less pole... Instead of wasting BIS webspace, go contact and outpole the publishers. If not mistaken it is up to them to make the cover and BIS don't have much input on that. But i could be mistaken. Just my opinion. (Offtopic: I wish on the upcomming elections in my country there would be also an option to vote: I couldn't care less. But for complete different reasons offcourse...).

In the same boat here...couldn't care less.

Nice to see a brief tutorial showing some of the availible weapons. 2 remarks though: - Afaik the Carl doesn't have any range finder....at least not by default (equiped with something like the STORM unit, then it makes sense but that isn't the case). So please BIS remove the range codes from the Carl. Imho even without range info the Carl should be pretty easy to operate anyway. - The M32 could use the scope zeroing codes. The RL stock sight is user friendly and can by pressing on the two lips changed to adjust the angle of the sight. Without the possibility to adjust range, the scope is useless, knowing the grenades have a pretty long effective flight path (even the low velocity rounds). Not everybody plays with crosshairs on :) . But the video doesn't switch to scope view, but that makes me think they didn't add adjustable sights. Personally i hope all 'scopes' can be adjusted in case their RL version has the option. Would be nice to have in the future a wind adjuster aswell (crosswind, but can also help for hitting long distance moving targets). As we all know, everything done by default is always more userfriendly for MP (no addons needed).

*Easter Egs: Nice if you spot one, boring if you see it the next time. *An oldtimer bug getting fixed: Nice if you spot it for the first time, a big smile if you never spot the old bug again. I know what i would be working on...but BIS call. As a mather of fact, maybe you guys are blind, but the hole OA expansion is a big easter eg mokking with 'that other game'. If you can't see why, you better relook the released footage and pics. Plenty of easter egs (stuff that was in 'zhe other game', but now in most cases better).

Is it me, but still no footage of the working lasers/flashlights on personal weapons? Although some pictures clearly show the an-peq16a unit i find it strange (->worrying) the testers didn't used it yet. Lets hope the testers didn't know that option yet (normally i assume the light/laser keys should be defined or they should of noticed the line in the key setup screen. Was really interested in the laser feature. I was wondering how far the laser is visible (afaik it involves limites like it did in VBS2). Lets hope the testers aren't aware...

Well best is to have LOD1 LOD2 LOD3 LOD4 LODX (or more depending how much you reduced the model). I think a model of max. 400 tris should be made for latest lod in case of cars/planes. Again depends a bit on your model. Some say it is best to have not too many models. Each lod = more mb in total for your p3d. The golden rule is to have each next lower lod (so higher lod number) half tris (imho it should be verts) of the previous lod or less. Personally, i keep the visual 'deformation' of my model in mind, so lod switching doesn't visually change with huge differences. So often simply removing stuff isn't that good. Merging point isn't always the best thing aswell: Often you need to merg the same point on your UV map aswell. Often you encounter ST error while doing that, something you best fix (especially in the more detailed lods). Ideally is to make your lods in programs that give you better controle over your model and UV map. I use modo, because i like it's remove edge feature. If the edge isn't part of an UV unwrap piece, the uv gets adjusted without problems. Very handy and quick way to reduce cilinders that are based on 4-8-16-32-64 segments. But also for other parts.

@Myke: Don't take it personally. He actually makes a point, especially from a MP point of view. Meaning, we would need a way to install addons during gameplay. Atm new addons only get loaded after a reboot of the game. If BIS could add a 'quick reboot of addons' feature and some sort of MP UI feature that allows the community to add info or even direct links/install paths/mod commands....we would make addons way more easier to use. In the end it is lazyness i guess, but still.

Hope you don't mind if i ask, but is the canapy final model or placeholder? Imho the low poly shape (curve) on the canapy sticks too much out versus the quality of the instrument panels and other stuff in the cockpit. I know we all need to balance (personally i still make stuff too high poly), but it is something that really eats my vision. Just asking, super stuff otherwise.

I guess you mean 'normal map' right? If so, i think NXZshadow or NZX (damn i always get confused who is who :d ) posted a nice tutorial on the forums. Could be it is under the ArmA 1 section. Anyway, texture based normal maps are made out a height/bump texture where shades of white/grey/black form the needed 3D info. Often a bit tricky and limited, but most of the time you can get away with it. The plugin then converts these grey values into a normal map. There is a nice alternative to the plugin. Crazybump (standalone software). Sadly only the trail version is free for 30 days if not mistaken, but the full version is worth its money imho. It allows to view the maps on the flow on .obj files and imho you can controle the result better (several stages of detail). Beside that it allows you to make spec maps and occlusion maps (haven't really tried out the spec maps and result). Ambient Occlusion maps are foten better rendered in a decent 3D program. *Sorry to topic poster for getting offtopic.

I think what MGLO means he used several 'tiles' (seamless maps) for his building. Like one seamless texture for the roof, one for walls, one for the windows/framework/doors etc.... You will indeed need for each texture an individual rvmat with its own normal and spec map. The downside of big objects if you want a certain level of quality. I don't think there is a way around it as that is why you add normal and spec maps -> to give something detail. Can't add something like a general texture/rvmat if the detail isn't there in the _co/ca maps. You just need to keep an eye on your sections count (-> +- the amount of texture and materials you use in a model, often alpha order also adds sections). Section count can be found in the on the lower bar in O2. Points: X Faces: X Sections: X There is a topic about sections counts and how to reduce them to the limite, as sometimes you end up with more sections then what it shoudl be due to several mistaken and workflows.

Right clicking on the UV editor taskbar and maximize it. At least that is how i sometimes have to do it.

It isn't a must afaik in case you add "autocenter = 0" (property name value). I would say it is best you define your named selections in both files. So select your proxy in the heli model and give it the needed named selection. But also in your proxy model itself, apply the same named selection.