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shinkicker

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Posts posted by shinkicker

  1. Posted

    This was discussed not long back on the skype modellers channel and so I thought I would extend it to here to see if any developers add comment, or to allow others to contribute to the discussion.

    I started off with a question of 'how come I had a shadow, even though I did not have a shadow LOD in my model'. Turns out that, if no shadow LOD is available, it defaults to using one of the existing distance based LODS (but no one was sure which).

    This then opened up the question of optimization, because of course a shadow LOD is typically very low poly, unlike the first distance LOD of 0 or 1.000

    Others in the chat made comment that with modern powerful GPU's, you could leave them to process the shaders using existing LODS and the overhead cost of resource requirements was very minimal.

    Now I admit, I am a bit clueless in this area, so thought I would raise this here so a consensus / correct view can be achieved.

    Is it still very important to have an optimized shadow LOD?

    To save the answer if 'depends on your mesh', lets use the examples of a car @ 20k, character @ 10k and a gun @ 3.5k

  3. Posted

    Are you sure the engine actually switches off ? Or is it just silent ?

    I had a similar problem with my SUV: The engine would play the sound of the start, but then be silent. I could drive, but no sound.

    Sound is computed as a linear interpolation between idleRPM and redRPM. If you use the sample car sound.hpp, you will notice that it has a line "#define MAX_RPM 6900". This is the maximum RPM of the engine according to the sound, but it has to be defined in physx.hpp. The test car doesn't do that, and probably goes with engine defaults, which might be wrong.

    So, just add "redRPM = 6900;" to the physx.hpp and you should hear the engine. You might need to tweak this to the actual settings of the engine you've defined.

    Regarding the hands:

    The hands will stay at the same position relative to the bone you define (drivewheel here). You can not move them apart.

    There are two options: You could make a new static pose for the driver with the hands properly aligned to the wheel. Or, take the easier way, and adjust the position of the driver proxy so that the hands end up correctly aligned to the wheel. Judging from the video, your driver's viewpoint is pretty low, you can't see the street in front of you, so adjustments are necessary, anyway...

    Hope that helps.

    Thanks for the cargo view tip. That is clearly the best easiest way.

    For the vehicle itself, I should have mentioned that it does not drive or move at all.

  5. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    I had this before on a boat and put it aside. The same thing is happening again, but on a car port (Hilux Civil Open)

    I am doing a port of the A2 hilux into A3. I have all of the memory selections in place that I could map between both a2 > a3, Geometry Phys and everything else seems ok, but the engine always stops as soon as I start it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrOFVG8fl4I

    I am using the example config.cpp and models.cfg from the Arma 3 Tools Sample directory for car. In there i only had to change a few values (such as model name) and in the model.cfg i placed the model name towards the bottom (as i have done many times before).

    Anyone had this? Any clues as to what can normally cause this?

    Also as you can see, the hand positions are wrong. I have the following set up:

    driverLeftHandAnimName = "drivewheel"; /// according to what bone in model of car does hand move

    driverRightHandAnimName = "drivewheel"; /// beware, non-existent bones may cause game crashes (even if the bones are hidden during play)

    But how do I widen the arms? Or do I need to make the steering wheel smaller?

  7. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    I was wondering...

    If I understand correctly, you guys are using the post-apo units by Icewindo right now and are creating new ones. Are you going to keep the PAU in the final stages of 2017?

    And if not, has it been considered to release the ported models for Arma3? Because those units do look awesome in A3, I'm sure a lot of people are eager to play with them. ;)

    All Icewindos stuff has been swapped out now and we have are own models (you can see the new models on the far left photo top posts above).

    It would be up to Icewindo as to if they are released, if he is cool with it I am sure the rest of the team would not mind (pending a check ofc).

  12. Posted

    the samples provided by bis in fbx format are already rigged. last a3 includes fbx2rtm via motion builder to o2. also there is short description on the biki.

    but as always, there is no proper doc, neither is s straighforward workflow.

    I should be more descriptive, the problem I currently have is that I am not working with the arma man skeleton, so the rigged models are not so much use to me. I have a mesh with a new skeleton, rigged and animated in max, that I want to get into game.

    And the fbx2rtm is again only useful for arma man bones.

    What I would really love to know how to do would be use the FBX import and have it bring my mesh, weights and animations into game without warping the mesh out.

    I have tried a few different ways now. 3ds renames all the bones as $$$DUMMY. The P3D ('VM') max export script only outputs the skin weights, not the animation.

    There might be a way of doing it, but it just seems wrong that you have to try and second guess and go through everything that does not work first.

    I don't get why BI don't share there workflows with us. Its not like we can use them in another engine and breach a EULA.

  13. Posted

    You can't animate anything with that though. Your best bet is to use some handanim existing in Alpha - pick one:

    handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\LongRangeRifles\EBR\Data\Anim\ebr.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\Khaybar\data\anim\khaybar.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\Khaybar\data\anim\khaybar_gl.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\mx.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_cqc.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_afg.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_gl.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_dmr.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\weapons_f\Rifles\SDAR\data\Anim\SDAR.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\TRG20\Data\Anim\TRG_21.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\TRG20\Data\Anim\TRG_21G.rtm"};

    etc.

    Just wait, more tools and tutorials are coming, it just takes time. Or suffer the horror of O2 :)

    So almost a year later and still no skeleton is available and little to no documentation on animation support. Any eta known at all? Or should I come back next year :)

  16. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    We do need boats and helicopters too, i don't even mind if they are just made from simple primatives.

    Perhaps they could drop the competition prize money to 400k and then spend a 100k on getting some consultants to document everything and provide examples. I honestly believe that would bring in more content (which is what BI wants?) then everyone working in silos with their own trade secrets hoping to win the big prize and not give the other side the advantage. Its not an enviroment that promotes sharing and knowledge transfer.

  18. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    Thanks g00d69

    Update:

    We are on the look to expand the team.

    We need scripters, modelers, texture artists and mission makers!

    We have a ton of features planned to go in and need some extra hands doing so.

    We are talking a lot of crafting, working with modular systems (attaching items to players and objects, such as player accessories, fortifications). We also need anyone who is nifty at AI and knows the finite state machine app. Also a skilled mission maker, who can develop dynamic events (think every full moon something happens at the church type thing).

    Modeling and art wise, we want to 'mad max all the things!'. We also want creative ways of making Atlis into a abject shithole, rather then a sunny getaway in a thomas cook brochure:)

    Skill requirements? At least some exposure to Arma modding helps ofc. If you already can code, model etc, but have no arma experiences, that's ok, we can get you up to speed, but it definitely is a + to already have some experience with the VR engine. Perhaps more so for modeling as making the stuff is only half the work, getting it in game tends to be a more arduous task, especially for moving objects.

    Perhaps more then anything though, we need people with a fire in their belly and enough juice to choose a task and complete it. Skills can always be developed, staying power and passion not so much. We well understand life stuff happens (uni, work, families etc), but we have a had a lot of people join, and then just fizzle out after two months. This won't help us and won't help you. We don't expect anyone to be gabe newel, but we do want someone who can commit to getting their job done (no matter how big or small).

    What do we offer in return, well you get to be part of an exciting mod and have your name in lights ;-), and you can tap into the whole team for any knowledge you want to gain, and make some good friends in the process. We try to have meet ups when we can and there is a good camaraderie between us (and we are from all over the globe France, UK, Holland, the US).

    Anyone interested please send an email to 2017mod@gmail.com

    More background on the mod can be found at http://2017mod.com

    All we need is a little bit of background on your work, and if you have any previous works you can show, please add them in!

  20. Posted

    Just tried all the things suggested and no gain except the "a3\data_f\halfa.paa" error fixed. Also I noticed when trying to open Oxygen2 from steam, through the "Launch oxygen 2" option and trying to load one of the BI Arma 3 sample models(or any model for that matter) I get this error: "External Viewer: Attach failed. No viewer found." as well as still get a "Arma 3-Other Profiles" folder created in my documents folder where my normal Arma 3 profile folder is.

    @Gnat, I feel you on that bud I wish someone who has got all this done without errors could create a short and simple video tutorial from the beginning to end. Shame your not that one, as your Tutorial's for using O2 back in Arma 2 was great and easy to understand and still watch them regularly these days.

    Dave,

    The thing is they were working, and then someone changed something in the code, could not have tested it and it got pushed out as a steam update (from what I can understand).

    As yep, I am kinda of pretty cheesed off about this too.

  21. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    Needed to do a fresh OS install on my machine, and followed Abs excellent tutorial which got me set up with no problems last time.

    I am sure I follwed the steps to a T again, but alas buldozer is crashing:

    62GyO.png

    Any help much appreciated.

    EDIT: Hmm if I link directory to the game folder (with buldozer.exe in there). It works?!

    ---------- Post added at 22:23 ---------- Previous post was at 20:57 ----------

    ok, this can be deleted now, I am now at the same place as these guys:

    http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?170357-ArmA3-BI-Tools-No-entry-Config-bin-cfgBuldozer

  23. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    Hitting this issue as well with Character exports from 3ds to O2 (Using the sample model).

    I have my units / system both set to meters as suggested above, or as the import suggests...

    File Unit Scale = 1 Millimeter

    System Unit Scale = 1 Meter

    yet when I open the model in O2 it is huge and the viewport gird is a small dot.

    What option did you set in O2 Fennek?

    Also I can't find any refernece to a convert units export option?

    Could you be so good as to give some some details on your set up now?

  24. Posted · Edited by shinkicker

    There's an example of a wheeled vehicle already in the Arma 3 tools directory, with a very nice set of commented configs.

    Boat and air examples would be useful though.

    Model.cfg setup isn't really any different to how it was in Arma 2. You can call most named selections whatever the hell you want so long as you're consistent with using that same name (including case sensitivity) wherever you need it in the model.cfg or config.cpp

    I honestly did not know those were there, but still looks like ship and air are not covered.

    I am struggling with ships a lot at the moment. So a ship example would be really helpful.

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