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STALKERGB

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Everything posted by STALKERGB

  1. Hello everyone, so to celebrate ARMA 3's release here's the first version of my British Infantry Addon. Larger Features: -MTP Uniforms representing modern British Infantry -Nine different infantry roles, including Squad leader, AT rifleman and UAV operator. -4 Variants of Mk4 Osprey Body Armour. -3 Variants of the Mk7 Helmet -4 variants of PCS style UBACS and trousers. -HMNVS for night operations. -7 Rucksack variants for different roles. -UK Armed Forces faction with Union Jack icon. -Fully functioning wound textures. -Configged to use Kiory's SA80 addon. -Working icons for each item on the inventory screen. There's still a number of issues with the addon as I haven't had much time to work on it. I've done my best to make sure that everything that is include functions as well as possible (and is as complete as possible). Main issue is that there are no extra view LODs so performance may suffer slightly for the time being. There's a couple smaller things like no clan tags or the grenadier not having a grenade launcher (as I'm using Kiory's SA80s). I will also add that I haven't tested since last night so the release update may have messed with things! CREDITS: -Thanks to Sabre for his MTP pattern and work on the PCS uniform texture. -Da12thMonkey and Tupolov for backpack assets. -Fox '09 for a pouch used on the models (released under the WTFPL) -Johannes for using bits and bobs from his Army SF samples. -Euan Mitchell, "tigg", for the E-mag. -RKSL Rock and others from his forums who helped me with info throughout the process. -BIS for the tools and great examples. -3CB for multiple edits for .3/4/5 Larger Larger Anyway, here is the link to download. Hopefully when I get more time I'll work firstly on sorting out a few of the issues with what I've already made before moving on to adding extra content. I've set up the addon so it's already in a mod folder so you should only need to add -mod=@STKR to steam's launch options or a desktop shortcut an then place the folder in your ARMA 3 directory. Or feel free to do it one of the many other ways, there's an Armaholic install guide link in my readme for reference. STALKERGB's British Infantry v1.5 STKR Bikey Requires Community Upgrade Project (not included in my download). Armaholic DL Thanks, and enjoy! STKR
  2. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    Hello everyone, Bit of Bad news I'm afraid, as of this morning I seen to have had a complete HDD failure on my main computer. That means all my ARMA work has been lost as far as I can tell. I thought I'd backed it up on my laptop (in fact thought I'd copied it over twice, must have deleted each copy thinking the other was still there!) With that in mind for the foreseeable future I'm declaring myself "out" of modding, really just don't have the will to start over at the moment... That doesn't mean that I won't return at some point to modding but it's not at the forefront of my mind these days, sorry to anyone who still was looking forward to any possible updates on my infantry. To anyone who had requested permission for modifying my work, for personal/clan/group use feel free to re-do the config or re-texture the addon, based on what I've written above I can't exactly offer any of the source models anymore (sorry guys!) All the best, Matt
  3. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    v1.5 STALKERG British Infantry Another update from 3cb more than myself, will quote from the changelog: Will also update frontpage of this thread. It's extremely unlikely from me at the moment, for all intents and purposes I've stopped modding. Just no time these days to sit down and do anything, every now and then I have some time to help others with little things (mainly weighting) but nothing big. The last few updates to this pack have been done by 3CB, I've done little more than upload them.
  4. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    Sorry it's been so long, haven't had any time for anything recently, here's an update to swap dependencies to the CUP (community Upgrade Project), all the work has been done by 3CB. Apparently the Trixie's Weapon pack was suffering from a crash of some sort due to one of the scopes. Here's a link to the download: V1.4 STALKERGB British Infantry The pack includes the base addon as well as my (very old) L129A1 that was also used in Trixie's pack as well as the new dependencies. Addon requires Community Upgrade Project Hopefully it all works, I haven't been able to do any testing but 3CB have most likely put it through it's paces prior to sending it over to me. If there's any issues let me know, Thanks. Matt
  5. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    Hello everyone, So there is another small update for this, more a quality of life change than anything. The guys over at 3 Commando Brigade have been working on a much improved config for the addon: FEATURES - replaces Kiory L85 with Trixies British Weapons (L85, L86, L110, L129, L7A2) - adds appropriate scopes to rifles and fixes bug with L7A2 (GPMG) - creates additional infantry classes - adds placeable Editor Groups to match British Army / Royal Marines Sections - adds Zeus compatibility - adds @Alive compatibility Thanks and credits go to the 3CB/Apollo/Nemiuk for cooking this up. The biggest change there for most is the weapon dependency switch to Trixie's Weapons. Hopefully adds a more full selection of British equipment for everyone to use. There's also a couple new infantry classes as well as groups available in the editor. Below is the link to the WHOLE mod (including the unchanged textures and models), beneath that is JUST the new config which can overwrite what you have previously download if you already have the mod: v1.3 British Infantry v1.3 Config ONLY Requirements: Trixie's British Weapons (Kiory's SA80s no longer needed for the mod) Cheers, Matt
  6. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    Hello everyone, just a little update to fix the armour and passthrough values of some of the equipment that had been brought to my attention: V1.2 Config update Nothing but the config has been updated so it can just replace the current "stkr_britmtp_cfg.pbo" and relevant bisign. I have also updated the link on the first page to the WHOLE mod to include the new config: STALKERGB's British Infantry v1.2 I'm also aware of an error: "No entry 'config.bin/CfgWeapons/kio_l85a2_base/Single.StandardSound" but I believe that is to do with Kiory's SA80s and that he's working on sorting it out (correct me if I am wrong). Sorry it's nothing major, haven't had much time recently and have lost much of the spark for sitting down and modding at the moment... @Raz0rLëgend, if it's for personal use then you are more than welcome to fiddle with the config. All the best, Matt
  7. Hello! Firstly, this isn't really a tutorial as much as an overview of weighting, what it is, how to "do" it and ways of checking your work. Unfortunately there isn't really a speedy way to do manual weighting (although I'm sure a clever person has/could come up with some script for O2) and a lot of it can be trial and error but if have a bit of patience you can get the results you want. All the info below is stuff that I have learnt myself so it may well be wrong in places, its just my understanding of the subject. If anyone finds any inaccuracies, post and I'll get round to changing it. Ok well, lets really start with the basics... If you have ever clicked on a selection for an infantry model in O2 then you've probably seen lots of points light up in various red, blue and purple tones. To put it most simply, these colours refer to the "weight" each point has for a certain selection such as "LeftArm" or "Head". As you can probably guess, each of these selections dictates how your model will animate in game. So as an example, what ever you define under the "Head" selection will move when the model's head turns up, down, left and right. Now lets say you create a new ammo pouch model for your infantry, obviously you are going want it to move/animate like the other ammo pouches round it. So, we are going to have to add it to a selection. Now you could select say, "Spine1" and then all of your new pouch and add it to the "Spine1" selection but you will probably find that if you had a quick test of that it would still move differently in game. Thats probably because it is still weighted differently even if it is defined to the same "Spine1" selection. So lets get down to weighting it, while we are at it, lets find a faster way of testing whether the weighting is better. Loading up the game takes too long... Right then, so where do we find the weighting tool? Select "Edit" from the drop down tabs at the top of O2, under that at the bottom there should be an option called "Edit Modes" and under that should be an option called "Paint Vertices". If you click that it will bring up a new little window which we will get to in a second. To get out of the "Paint Vertices" mode, you can enter one of the more common edit modes such as "Select Vertices" (shortcut V) or "Select Object" (Shortcut O). While we are on the topic of shortcuts, it is probably worth your while adding the "Paint Vetices" to a keyboard shortcut if it isn't designated to one already. You can do this by selecting "File" in the top left of O2 and then clicking on "ShortCuts". From there you can add it to whatever you prefer. Mine is added to "1" on the keyboard. Anyway, I think its time for pictures. That little window that appeared when you select "Paint Vertices" has a couple different sliders on it each with a slightly different purpose. I'll go through each below. Weight: I guess the most important one, this changes how much the vertices you paint are affected by the selection you add them to. The more red the colour the more heavily affected the points will be. And the more blue the colour, the less affected points will be by the selection they are added to. As a practical example, if I added something to the "LeftArm" selection with all the points being red, then in game they will move much more when the arm goes up or down. If those points were blue, then they would move far less as the arm goes up and down. Solid Area Size: As you will see, your cursor will have changed to a circle, sliding this option to the left makes the circle smaller and sliding to the right makes it bigger. Basically changing the size of the area that you will "paint". When you left click, the area inside the circle will be "painted" and have a weight applied to it. Smooth Area Size: This adds a second circle outside of the first one, using this will add an area that gets weighted less than the area inside the first circle. It creates a gradually decreasing weighted effect. This can be useful for areas like arms and legs where one part is heavily defined by a selection and the area around it is less affected by it. As you can see on the picture, the left side has had the Smooth Area Size slider over to the right which has meant the outer points are less heavily weighted. The picture on the right has not used the Smooth Area Size at all. Strength: This basically determines how strongly your selected colour is applied to the points you paint. It affects blue, lesser weighted points, more subtly . If you selected a very bright red but had a low strength (left is low, right is high) then the colour that will be painted onto your points will probably be a purple colour first time, you will have to click a couple more times to get closer to the red you originally selected. This can be good if you slowly want to increase a weight to see how it affects an area. Well lets look at actually using that shall we? Depending on what you are weighting, there are a few ways of doing things. Lets start by looking at a body part, for example the Left Arm. The first thing I do before I start messing around with weights, is make a backup of my model. So if it all goes wrong, at least you can go back to where you were. The best thing to do is use a BIS sample model as reference, you can use the Arma 1 models or the Arma 2 sample character. Which ever you prefer. What I do is open up my model and copy over a bis sample infantry model (without any extra proxies). I then move it to the right or left of my model so I can see both together. Its probably good to make a selection called something like "All BIS Sample". So with the BIS sample completely selected, right click in the selection window and choose the "new" option. Then name it what you want. Doing this makes it easier to delete the sample model when you no longer need it as reference. Hopefully what you have now is your own model, and the BIS sample you are going to be using as reference next to it like in this picture below, my model is on the left, and the sample is the ARMA 1 US soldier on the right. As you can also see I can compare how the "LeftArm" selection looks on the reference, and on my model. Unfortunately I can't tell you "how" to weight the arm as it is very much a case of painting on a colour similar to the reference and then testing to see what changes are needed. Once you have painted an area and you want to add it to a selection you can either do what was shown above (right click then select "new" and then name it) or if you want to add it to a selection you already have you can right click in the selections window and create a new selection, call it something like "LeftArmAdd". Then while holding "ctrl" on your keyboard, select "LeftArm" so that both selections are highlighted. Now you can right click on "LeftArm" and select "Redefine" from the options: For weighting pouches, you probably don't need a reference model to the side of your own model. Instead what you can do is weight it before you place it in position on your model. So, like in the picture below, I have picked the selection which is closest to where I want my new pouch to go on my model. In this case it is "Spine3", you can go through the selections clicking on each one until you find one that is approximately in the same position as where you pouch will go. Once you have found one, find a colour on the "weight" slider that is closest to the area where your pouch will be. Generally I find that it is a good idea to paint ALL of a pouch one weight, otherwise you can end up with the pouch twisting as different parts of it are being affected more, or less by a selection. That's not to say you can't have a pouch defined to "Spine3" and "Spine2", just its a good idea to make sure the WHOLE pouch is defined to both. Larger Now to add the pouch to the selection (Spine3), you can right click on "Spine3" in the selection window and click "redefine". Make sure that you still have the original points from Spine3 selected or you will lose the weighting originally defined by the selection. If you are in doubt, create a new selection and combine the two as I explained above. Just a quick note, sometimes you may want to weight two parts of one pouch differently so it does twist or bend when the model's body moves, this can be useful for very long pouches. Normally you can work out whether you will need to do this if you imagine the pouch on yourself, if you think it would bend then it might be worth weighting different parts different weights. That's the main areas of actually weighting a model, like I said, it's not really possible to teach you how to weight each point you will need to weight. Its basically using other sample models as reference and a lot of trial and error. Might be worth having a mess around first just to get an idea of how the sliders affect everything and how that transfers when you click on your model and start painting.
  8. Hello everyone, Custom Backpacks, what are they? Might as well start at the beginning, if you've just made some shiny new infantry addon and you wanted to have them be able to carry or remove their backpacks then you're going to want to make a custom backpack. Although the actual process of creating one isn't that hard, it's very easy to forget or miss out a single step which will mean they won't work. This tutorial will be aimed at people who have created infantry addons so that they can get their infantry carrying the backpacks but will also explain the whole process of creating a custom backpack. All the bits you'll need are in the template backpack download below: Link to tutorial backpack example Getting your infantry model carrying backpacks This is actually probably the easiest bit, in the template download is a p3d file called "Backpack proxy". All you need to do with this is open it up and copy/paste it onto your own infantry models. Once you've copied it over onto your models it should look something like the image below: And that's all you have to do with your model! So you can save and close that and move on to the last part of getting your infantry to carry backpacks. For this last part you will need to open up your addon's config. Under the entries for your infantry units in the config, you'll need to add a single line of code: Once that is added then you can save the config. You could load the addon up in Arma and be able to carry around the backpacks already present in the game or any made by other modders :) But what if I want to create my own backpack? The easiest way to describe the backpacks in Arma is as though they are portable ammobox's. Most of the components that make up a model for an ammo box are also present on a backpack p3d. The first LODs in my template backpack are 1.000 and View - Pilot. These are where the actual model of the backpack goes. You can add as many of these LODs as you like (such as 2.000 4.000) to include lower poly versions of the model to help keep performance up in game. But basically, these LODs are the same for just about every type of model in Arma. The one thing you should note, is that the model needs to be weighted (just as you would for a infantry model). In fact it even uses the same selection names as an infantry model. You can see these on my template backpack along the side (such as Spine1, LeftShoulder etc). The next two LODs in my template backpack are ShadowVolume 1.000 and ShadowVolume 1000.000, these two are also like in most other models. All they do is create the shadow that is cast from the backpack onto the ground or other objects in game. The reason they are "inside out" is so that they don't cast on the backpack if there are clipping issues (at least I think that is the reason). The next LOD is the Geometry LOD, as with the shadow LODs above, the model used for this is a low poly simple shape (although it's not inside out). To make the geometry LOD work correctly you'll need to select the whole model (Ctrl + A) and navigate to "Structure/Topology/Find Components" from the drop down menus. you'll then see a selection(s) appear called Component01 (and Component02/03 etc if there are more than 1). This step is important if you want to make sure the geometry LOD will actually work for your backpack. The last thing you will need to do is again, select the whole model and in the bottom left corner enter a mass for the object. I set mine to 20.000 but feel free to play around with yours. Larger The next LOD is the Memory LOD. In here all you'll need is a single point defined to the selection "doplnovani". As far as I know, this is to allow the user actions (such as "take backpack") to appear in game when you aim over the backpack. The single point should be placed somewhere behind the rucksack like in the image below: After the Memory LOD comes the LandContact LOD, in this you'll once again only need to add a single point. This will define where the rucksack will sit on the floor once it has been dropped by your character in game. The point doesn't need to be added to a selection: The next LOD is the RoadWay LOD, personally I'm not too sure what this does but it is present on the Ammoboxes that I used for reference when creating my custom backpacks so I assume it is required. Either way, this LOD is simply a 4 points with a face pointing away from the model like in my picture below. Like with the Geometry LOD you'll need to navigate to "Structure/Topology/Find Components" while the face is selected so that it gets defined to the Component01 selection: The final LOD is the ViewGeometry LOD, this is a very important one and if you get it wrong then your units in game won't be able to "see" the model so the option to pick it up or take stuff from it won't appear. Luckily, the process for getting this LOD right is the same as with the Geometry LOD. In my template I've used the same simple, low poly shape for this LOD and the Geometry LOD so you can copy/paste from the Geometry LOD if you want. Bare in mind that if you do. You'll need to DELETE the "Component01" selection that should appear in the ViewGeometry after you paste. Once you have you'll need to select the whole model in the ViewGeometry LOD and head to "Structure/Topology/Find Components". Although it seems like you have just recreated what you deleted, I've had problems with just copying and pasting before. If you didn't copy and paste, you'll also need to head to "Find Components". Once you have finished that, the model work should be all done! So how do I get it working in game then? Just like everything, you'll need to create a config for your custom backpack. If you want to combine it with your infantry's config that is fine too, I do this and would suggest it's a good Idea to place them above the infantry in the config. Below is the example config I have included with the template download, my configs aren't the best so this could be much more tidy: The only thing left to do after adding the backpack to the config is adding it to a model.cfg, if the model for your backpack is in the same place as any infantry models you have you can add it to the model.cfg for them. All it takes is a single line of code: The "Template_Backpack" part of that code needs to be EXACTLY the same as the name of your backpack's p3d file. If it''s not it won't work at all (or normally crashes Arma!) If you aren't adding the backpack to a model.cfg you are already using, you'll be able to see that in the template download is the ARMA2 example model.cfg with my backpack added down near the bottom in the class cfgmodels section (just underneath ArmaMan which it inherits from.) With a bit of luck, you should now be able to use your custom backpacks in game without a problem :) Hope that helps some folks out there, if anyone has any questions feel free to ask in this thread. All the best, Matt
  9. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    Hmm, sounds like you need to update the SA80 mod you are using, I've configged my units to use default magazines with the SA80s and AFAIK it wasn't until the second update of Kiory's SA80 that he included the ability for them to use default magazine. TBH been out of the loop for a while so he may have since update again. @ProGamer/anyone else, I can't actually follow the link you provided so would it be possible to either send me an image of the page or a different link?
  10. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    @Frogtop and Imperator_Pete, not sure what would cause that but I'd suggest making sure you are using the newest version of Kiory's new SA80, haven't followed it closely but I think he merged his original release with the SUSAT addon. The download currently linked in his release thread here is the one I tested with. @Corporal_lib, i intentionally left the BIS stanag mags on my units so they can pick up other weapons and still have ammunition to use them, Kiory's latest SA80 version works with default stanag 5.56 anyway doesn't it?
  11. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    UPDATE: I've had very little time to sit down and do any much of anything recently but I have managed to update my config a little: -Makes use of Kiory's new SA80s (specifically the SUSAT and Standard Iron Sight variants) -Have changed the classnames for backpacks, have replaced ALL "Brit_" prefixes with "STKR_", annoyed that slipped through into the first release. Anyway, below is a link to the new config which is all you will need if you already have the addon, just overwrite the previous files: New Config for Infantry (4kb) I've also update the whole addon pack to use the new config so that's here if anyone wants to download it, it also contains my .bikey in case anyone couldnt find it on OFPEC: Whole Addon with new config and .bikey (97mb)
  12. STALKERGB

    Star Wars: Episode 7

    So, now that Disney own LucasArts and announced episode 7 (and 8 and 9 and more after) what are peoples thoughts? Could lead to some interesting plots if they put their minds to it. Yuuzhan Vong maybe if the continue after where the final film left off? http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd http://news.sky.com/story/1004857/disney-buys-lucasfilm-and-plans-new-star-wars
  13. modo is a modelling program like 3ds MAX although both have their areas of speciality, AFAIK it's not *as* expensive as MAX but isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination (unless you are using an educational license). I'm not sure to be honest, I've never really ported a model from O2 into it so I can't say how well it carries over, I' assume if there is a community p3d pugin for blender it may well work but otherwise I'm not sure. Sorry I can;t be more help with that. Speaking of not being much help, I'm afraid my knowledge of vehicle modelling for ARMA is very very basic so probably wouldn't be any good at finding any flaws with your work, have only briefly looked at modding vehicles in personally but I'm sure others would be able to help.
  14. Glad it helped, I've only got very brief experience with it but I would imagine blender has the ability to do something similar to what I suggested, I mainly use modo and in that you could easily add edges through things like loop slice/edge slice so it might be work looking for features with similar names in blender. As for if it retains the UV information, I know that if I edge slice in modo it will add that new edge to the correct position on my UV map, unfortunately I've never done anything involving UVs in blender but it wouldn't surprise me if it did something similar. With regards to UV mapping itself, O2 is very slow for anything other than small/simple areas (at least for me it is!), 3rd party programs tend to be faster and I imagine that goes for blender too :) With limited experience in modelling and no budget to spend blender is probably the best bet for someone looking to do some 3d work, it has a bit of an odd layout if you've used something else and aren't used to it but for a beginner that shouldn't be as big of a problem. :)
  15. Hmm I guess thats "rounding" the wheel as opposed to sharpening the edges. I don't think it would be possible to do what you want in O2, not without having to re-UV certain areas of the wheel itself, just to clarify I assume you want to do something like in the image below? So to make the wheel more round, add edges in the middle of each face and then "pull" them out so the wheel appears more round? You can certainly achieve this in other modelling programs as most allow for edges to be added without much effort, afaik in O2 you'd have to do it another way. You could delete the faces between the points and the copy/paste those points, then rotate the new points so that they sit between the old ones, you'd then have to create new faces between the points (which would mean UV mapping it all too). Hopefully that along with the image make some sense: It's not really the fastest method but for O2 it's the only one I could think of I'm afraid. Hope that helps slightly (or that I;ve even answered the question you asked lol!)
  16. Sounds like you had the same issue I did, the selections on your model for injuries have changed in ARMA3, it's now: "injury_body" for you units torso, "injury_hands" for both arms, "injury_legs" for both of the legs, As for stuff like "l_leg_injury" being in the model.cfg, I assume they are either used on models other than the main soldiers or that it's just a legacy thing and they've been left there. Hope that helps :)
  17. Metacritic weights certain reviews more heavily too, so if two major publications had negative reviews and say, 4 smaller reviews were positive, the overall result would possibly be more so-so than expected. I never liked their star-to-score conversion either. I mean, in terms of movies, when I see "4 stars" I don't expect a movie to be perfect and yet metacritic scores that at 100.
  18. STALKERGB

    Arma Mods on moddb.com

    Added my mod to moddb, been meaning to do it for a while anyways :) STALKERGB's British Infantry for ARMA 3
  19. Not the right to monetary compensation, all addon/mission makers really have is the right to being credited for work they have done/help they provide that others then use.
  20. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    @InstaGoat/AMS Agent 000, Thanks for the explanation, like I say, the proportions are the way they are largely because my models were made initially when there was only A1/2 stuff for reference, I'll look at trying to change it up a bit. @Lost_Samurai, The use of Kiory's SA80 was because it's currently the primary firearm used by British Infantry and seeing as my models represent contemporary troops it was fitting to include them. As and when other SA80's, specifically more complete sets of them are finished I'll look at changing to something that doesn't mean every soldier has the same gun! I'm far from an expert on the matter but there always seems to be talk of replacing the SA80, I can't see it actually happening any time soon though, it doesn't seem like there's anything on the market that offers a big enough improvement that can justify the expense of switching. I'd have guessed until there is a large jump forward in some form of rifle technology, you won't seethe Brits change.
  21. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    Well, the shoulders are largely the same shape as the ones on BIS samples from A1/2 but I assume you are referring to them being too square?
  22. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    "STKR_UBACS", "STKR_UBACS_KNEE", "STKR_UBACS_GLV", "STKR_UBACS_ROLL", "STKR_Osprey_R", "STKR_Osprey_G", "STKR_Osprey_SL", "STKR_MK7", "STKR_MK7_Scrim" "STKR_MK7_ScrimB", "STKR_HMNVS", "Brit_PackCom", "Brit_Predator", "Brit_Predator_AT", "Brit_PredatorBow", "Brit_MLode", "Brit_MLode_Med" Fair warning, the backpacks will have changed classnames next release, will swap "Brit" for "STKR", was something that slipped through before release.
  23. I assume that having the uniform sit on top of the underwear model leads to too many issues with weighting/polycount/section count (or at least, makes the model inefficient). @Raptor 6 Actual, The closest you could get would be to model a bandage onto the A3 sample model (which AFAIK is the underwear model), not exactly ideal (or even much different from how things are atm)
  24. Hey, it might be worth looking at this is you haven't seen it already: Weighting Overview
  25. STALKERGB

    STALKERGB's British Infantry

    If using that DL works fine just drop a quick post in here and I'll edit first page accordingly.
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