Phlogios

I have been asked to ask rstratton for written permission to use this Ka50 Hokum model in ACEX. They already have a Hokum, and they might already have been given your permission - it's a bit unclear since it happened 4 months ago and was a bit undocumented. 4 months ago, a person requested that ACEX include the Hokum, and one of the developers said he had mailed rstratton for permission. He didn't say what reply he got, but now we have a Hokum in ACEX. Only problem is it isn't rstratton's. It's an uglier model that looks like it came from ArmA 1. So, rstratton, does ACEX have permission to upgrade their Ka50 Hokum to your model?

Hi mates, So I have made a model of a missile, and it is done and textured and all. But I'm having 2 problems with the RVMAT file that I wrote. I followed Linker Split's tutorial on how to make a basic RVMAT file for an M4, and it all seemed to make sense, but my results are very different from his. PROBLEM 1 (NORMALS): My first problem is that the normals are wrong when I am using my normal map. I don't know what else to say about this, so I'll just show you some screenshots and the texture/rvmat files. This is what it looks like rendered in Blender, so you know that the normals are in fact correct. (please only download once, dropbox probably has a bandwidth limit) Blender render Here is what it looks like after an obj import to oxygen, shown in buldozer: Buldozer after import No problems yet! Here is what it looks like with the rvmat applied (file included further down): RVMAT applied As you can see, I have bad normals now. Here is what it looks like with the color texture applied: RVMAT with color I could be wrong, but my guess is that the rvmat file requires a NOHQ map, and what I have is a regular normal map? If that is true, what's the difference between a NO map and a NOHQ map? I read the wiki article about NOHQ but I don't understand how the texture file is different. Do you have a higher bit depth? How do you guys generate NOHQ maps? Sorry if I have misunderstood. :( Here is my normal map. It was painted in gimp, just filled the entire image with [128, 128, 255] purple because I want a completely flat normal map just so I know it works. I'll play around with adding bumps and grooves when it does :): Normal map in PNG format All my textures are converted to .paa using TexView 2. Here is my RVMAT file: RVMAT file PROBLEM 2 (INVISIBILITY): It's funny, as I write this, this problem seems to have fixed itself, but I'll describe it anyway so that if someone googles for this problem, they can find a fix. I had a problem where I could apply the RVMAT file WITHOUT color texture, and the model would show up in Buldozer, but when I gave it a color texture, it disappeared completely. Then I tried adding additional geometry like a cube next to the model, and then I could see the model but it would be transparent and pink-tinted. This doesn't happen anymore, but it seems the problem was the Material Editor program. It saved the wrong settings and didn't overwrite my RVMAT files when I fixed them. The broken file had 0.29 in the alpha channel of the ambient color, and 0 in the diffuse color alpha (I swear I would never use those values myself, it has to be a corruption somewhere). I had to save the material to a new file for it to work. thanks in advance, Phlogios ---------- Post added at 05:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 AM ---------- Problem 1 remains, but here is what I found: This code in the RVMAT file fixed the normals: texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(0.5,0.5,1,1)"; but now it is not using a normal map of course. The fact that it works now makes my belief that my bit depth is wrong stronger. Here's a new screenshot from buldozer showing the correct normals: Correct normals I am playing around with the reflective properties. Another question has popped up: In the Super Shader, I'm to specify a path to an environment map. How does this work? I thought the environment map was environment-specific, not material-specific. Do I have to make an environment map for every model? ---------- Post added at 05:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:25 AM ---------- ...and here's another question: I'm having a hard time finding fresnel constants for paint. This missile has green and blue paint sprayed over a metal surface. What fresnel constants are typically used for regular paint materials?

I already did but sure

I made it work by reinstalling the BIS tools without removing the contents of the P: drive.

Merging points will do the exact same thing, because I'm not using Oxygen 2's smoothing calculations. I talked about this in another thread, here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=123383 This is getting off-topic ;) We are talking about a problem that I don't even have. Edit: Actually, an admin should probably lock this thread, since all problems addressed have been solved, and the solutions are posted.

You guys at BIS, I like your games and you seem like nice guys, but after having spent some 7 hours trying to get your virtually undocumented mod tools to work, I get the feeling that you hate me personally. I have made a model of a missile in Blender. I plan to make a mod with this missile and release it to the ArmA 2 community so they can do what they want with it. I paid for the game to thank BIS for my hours of fun in the game, and in a similar gesture, I make a mod because I want to give something back to the community. I'm not done with the missile, but halfway into the unwrapping procedure I got bored and wanted to check it out in the ArmA 2 engine. So I sailed to OFPEC to get instructions on how to do that, and I found a link to download the BI Tools. The installer kept telling me that I didn't have enough space to install the programs, so I uninstalled 20 GB's worth of games, and still got the message. I chose to ignore it and installed. After some hours of cryptic error messages and crashes, I found information about a version, 2.5.1, that supposedly doesn't crash. Well what version did I have? Couldn't find what version it was. :confused: After some digging I found a download link to the 2.5.1 version, and it worked. I could start Buldozer/Bulldozer/Bulldoze (I have seriously found 3 spellings of the same name inside Oxygen 2 PE). Here comes the tricky part: In blender, I applied my edge split modifier, made sure the model was clean, and exported to OBJ. I imported it in Oxygen, and found that: 1. The model was inside out (not a big problem, but took me a while to find the solution: invert Z axis because Oxygen uses the DirectX coordinate system, where positive Z is forward) 2. My model was completely smooth shaded, even though I had made sure my sharp edges were split. So when I import the model, Oxygen automatically removes doubles to rejoin my split edges :eek: The biggest problem is the Detect Edges "feature", which forces me to use Oxygen's automatic edge detection. :( I set it to 180 degrees, thinking that would leave my edges intact, but instead it just joined them all. I am yet to find a solution to this problem. Leave my geometry alone and let me define my own sharp edges, thank you. To make sure it wasn't just the OBJ import feature that was broken, I tried importing the same model in 3DS format, and I got an error message about missing KFDATA. You only have 1 parameter when you export to 3DS in blender, and it has nothing to do with KFDATA, so that leaves Oxygen with 0 support for Blender. To add insult to injury, this happened: Please Bohemia Interactive, I respect what you have done for us. The game is extremely ambitious and complex. It is awesome. But your modding tools are extremely buggy and have insufficient documentation for even the simplest use. I'm sure it works great if you are a company insider and you have insight into the content pipeline, but I am just a humble blender modeler with a small missile model. I'd like this to work but in the current situation I am not able to. Some instructions on how to disable the edge detection and edge joining would be greatly appreciated. Thank you :) Best regards, An amateur game programmer. ---------- Post added at 02:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:43 AM ---------- This is what happened to my edges: This is the same view in Blender:

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but ArmA2P broke my Buldozer. I thought it was just a freak accident, so I did this: I deleted everything in the P: drive. I reinstalled BI Tools 2.5.1, and ran Oxygen 2 and started Buldozer. It worked. Then I ran ArmA2P, let it churn for a couple of minutes, then it gave me an error message while extracting ui.pbo. Apparently the SHA is mismatched, and ArmA2P stopped running. I figured it would be fine anyway, so I started Oxygen 2 and now I can't run Buldozer. I have repeated this procedure 3 times, and it always works with a clean install of BI Tools, but stops working after ArmA2P has run. And it always fails at the same file, ui.pbo. All I want is to have the ArmA 2 files extracted on the P drive so I can use the env maps in buldozer.

I did press F5, and it wasn't the solution because the normals of the model weren't the problem. Pressing F5 actually made it worse because Oxygen 2 joins split edges on recalculation. You explained why it was pink and now I understand why it was pink. :) Ah, good point! And I seem to have found instructions on how to get the ArmA 2 env map files, so case closed.

Yes, I am using a super shader now, but the problem remains. ---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:22 PM ---------- I think I have solved it! The normal map wasn't following the texture naming convention, so it was converted wrong in TexView. Changed the input file's name and the output file's name and it seems to work. ---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:42 PM ---------- A solution to this problem remains missing:

Ah, thanks. Fixed!

Sorry, but you have misunderstood the problem. Look at the pictures. There is nothing wrong with my normals and the model renders 100% like it should in Buldozer. It's only when I use my normal map that I painted in GIMP that it breaks. Every pixel in the normal map is [128, 128, 255, 255]. :( For that you can just use the procedural maps like you say you discovered below. The point of my post is that normal map TEXTURES (as in actually saved in .png on the disk) aren't working. I know that procedural maps work (as you can see if you look at the pictures) but I want a normal map. In the end, I'll want to bake a normal map from a higher quality model in Blender. I already told you what fixed the problem ;) I just had to save to a new RVMAT file. Well that explains that. ;) But the code you posted doesn't have a path to a normal map. :( And I'm not even sure my texture IS a HQ normal map, because I don't know what they are. All I know is that it should theoretically work as a tangent space normal map. I'm still inclined to believe that my bit depth is wrong, or that the shader converts the colors to vectors different than Blender. So, if you have an environment map that looks like chernarus with trees and grass, your model will look bad on takistan. Defeats the purpose of the environment map IMO, but there's probably a technical limitation somewhere. Is there a way of pointing to it so that it grabs the file from the actual ArmA 2 directory, so that I don't have to store a duplicate for each model? Ah, that's very helpful :)

Here is a video of the missile rendered in Blender Wish me luck! :D

What's P3D? Edit: nevermind, googled it. Right, they are different structs in the model file format, and that makes sense for editing purposes, but it doesn't make sense when you render your vertex buffer, unless there is something I missed. You'll have to pass a normal for each vertex to the GPU at draw time anyway. Face normals do not generally exist in a vertex shader (again, unless Bohemia Interactive have made advances in the field) so each vertex must have a normal. The equivalent of a face normal on the GPU is 3 normals pointing the same direction. Now, I'm sure the content creation pipeline with 3DSmax has awesome modifiers and functions and whatnot to calculate vertex normals from smoothing groups and whatever, but I'm using Blender and what I have is the edge split modifier. :) Almost done with the texturing btw :D

Yes. That is what it does. I doubt the ArmA 2 engine has multiple normals per vertex in a vertex buffer. In order to have multiple normals for a vertex, you must split it into multiple vertices. In a typical 3D game, a vertex can look like this in a vertex buffer: struct vertex { vec4 position; vec3 normal; vec2 texCoord; }; So for each vertex, you only get 1 normal. In 3D editors, you can have face normals, but normally these are split into vertex normals on export to the game's geometry format.

...and the result of such a split is multiple vertex normals for one vertex.

I managed to import the model with correct normals now. I think it might actually be blender's fault, but I'm not convinced. I've had very varied results after playing around with functions in Oxygen 2, and I'm sure I've seen it join edges. The reverse function was especially dodgy. What ultimately solved it was disabling high-quality normal export in Blender. Oh my. What do you think edge splitting is for? And about the interface freezing, it seems to have something to do with my model. If I just create a - what Bohemia Interactive calls a "spehere" - it doesn't freeze, but if I import my model, disable/enable normals and enable/disable Direct3D, it freezes. However, if I enable filled faces first, it doesn't freeze.

I will give it a try. When I have thousands of edges to be split, I'd rather do that in the streamlined blender interface that has edge loop selection, edge ring selection, similar data edge selection etc. Oxygen 2 doesn't even have single selection. It will take hours to split the edges in Oxygen 2, and the only reason it's feasible at all is that the model only has a couple of thousand edges. If it was a chopper with some hundred thousand edges, it would certainly require a different solution. It is 100% repeatable. I start the program, disable normals, enable normals, switch to direct3d and switch back. Voila! Frozen interface ;)

Yes, I find that automatic edge detection doesn't work, and I want full control over which edge is rendered sharp. For example, I might have a model that has one 30° edge that is smooth, and another edge in a different part of the same model that is 30° but is sharp. I cannot do this with automatic edge detection. Blender lets you disable automatic edge detection and lets you mark edges as sharp. They will then be split once the edge split modifier is applied. If I rely on the automatic edge detection, I will have artifacts :(

Yep, I checked. It's called SU-39 JDAM and it was added in GLT Missilebox. Mind you, the other SU-25 versions work fine, with locking capability and all, just not the SU-39 JDAM.

First of all, thank you Mandoble for the - I'm guessing - thousands of hours this has taken you. It's a great mod that makes air combat so much more exciting. Secondly, I have a question about a specific aircraft. I downloaded the GLT mods at the same time I downloaded Mando, and I got a new aircraft called SU-39. I'm guessing it's GLT, but I read that it has Mando support. I can't figure out how to guide the JDAMs, there's no Mando hud, only a GPS/INS system that doesn't let you drop the bombs. Dropping the bombs manually after designating a target with GPS/INS drops them like rocks. Is it a missing feature? I had no idea what SU-39 was so I looked it up, and what I got out of the wikipedia article was that it had improved optics/guidance over the SU-25, yet the SU-25 can fire laser guided missiles in the game ;) Also, some aircraft only have 1 configuration in the MMA rearm window, which doesn't really make sense since there are multiple versions of the aircraft with different loadouts already in the game. I'm sorry if there is something I missed. Thank you once again! Cheers ---------- Post added at 02:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:55 PM ---------- And yeah sorry if this is something the GLT guys have missed.