cifordayzserver

If you're not already, make sure you're following/keeping an eye on the A3 thread: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?169655-Sahrani-for-A3-by-SMD I finally got the settings worked out to eliminate the "terrain tiling bug", everything looks perfect on the map preview screen, and in game from the air: I will now update the gas stations so they do not have the ability to fuel which is causing an error in Arma 3, and also comb through the config adding what I can from A3 into it w/o delaying an initial release for this weekend.

Wow, that was NOT fun... but it sure felt amazing when it loaded right and worked. I'm going to go ahead and edit the gas station, beef up the config to get as much of the Arma 3 goodness I can w/o creating delays in a release by tomorrow or the weekend. If anyone else has any bugs they've noticed or features they're aware of that they want added feel free to comment.

Yeah, the "tiles" that make up the satellite image are arranged incorrectly in Arma 3, so when you look at the map in terrain view, or are in a heli/plane you see the ground beneath with grids misplaced. Good news! Got the first attempt at a build packed... BAD NEWS lol, it's all screwy, it's likely going to take a LOT of fiddling to get the roads in correctly for A3. The ground textures are also giving me problems, not sure what that's about, http://puu.sh/cSKcf/83d6b21a89.jpg (217 kB) I'm also seeing if I can get some of the A3 fanciness built in. I added in the A3 ambient life (sea creatures), and hopefully the fog as well, the lighting was really complicated at first glance, so I didn't even try that. I also would like to look into getting the seafloor textures in place, since Sahrani already has ocean floor topography, although it might not play nice as there are a lot of shallows near land. I'll have to look into it a bit more in depth (lol), but I'd REALLY like for Sahrani to have a really cool ocean to play in. I'm a scuba diver, so that's been one of the most motivating aspects of A3 for me. The opening/editing/packing process in terrain builder is enough to make you want to jump off a building... and I live on the 9th floor... so that's not a good thing.

If a singer is caught stealing someone elses songs and making money performing them, do they get to just continue using the stolen work until they eventually write some of their own? NO. They w/o exception need to stop using stolen content immediately, they need to make their OWN work, and release that when it's ready... from the hubris displayed by their posts, you'd assume that would take no time at all. Giving them some sort of pass because they have a community of ignorant players who want to play is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. If they were so concerned with keeping a thriving community going they shouldn't have based it on fraud and theft.

So, I began work on getting the terrain into Terrain Builder and get the roads/tiling issues sorted out. It will initially depend on AiA as I haven't finished the work on the buildings for full A3 use as yet. Hopefully I can get a working build together in the next few weeks, Terrain Builder is really slow and painful to work with, and I'm by no means experienced. Thanks to Bushlurker for walking me through the steps and getting me this far! HUGE thanks to Ian Banks for processing the roads into shapefiles!

WOW! Great work! Thanks so much for sharing with the community! Awesome video walkthrough too! You should embed the video so it's more obvious. Really fantastic stuff!

Same developer as the core project I'm hoping/assuming? http://en.spaceengine.org/index/faq/0-29

I've entered the jbad buildings and whatever I can get done with the SMD buildings in the Make Arma Not War Contest, you votes/support would be greatly appreciated! http://makearmanotwar.com/entry/C2mTc8olQm#.VE6vlvnF-rE​​ So far I've gotten 10-15 buildings done, I SHOULD be able to get the majority of them done by the deadline.

I have also had extensive conversations with many folks at BI about licensing rights, and issues, I'm a member of AMAR, and have actually had content under direct license from BI, so I'm fairly sure I have a pretty good idea as well. However I would not be so bold as to assert my word, as being the word of BI as you so boldly do. If you are not allowed to prohibit use of your addons in future iterations of the engine, then kindly explain the DayZ mod License? By what witchcraft are BI able to prevent use of a publicly available addon for A2 in A3? I am not saying that you can prevent personal use, but you can prevent public hosting, and especially promotion of that mod on these forums, if it violates the terms of your license.

It's quite simple... Look to the center of all rights disputes, and the influx of "freetards" here... DayZ... DayZ was a mod for A2, made by an employee in his free time using the BI tools. That IP was purchased by BI and they developed a standalone retail game for it. You are expressly forbidden from using any part of the Arma 2 Mod or content in Arma 3. Compatibility config or not, you CAN NOT use DayZ content from the A2 mod in A3 PERIOD. If BI and Dean Hall have those rights to exclude use then SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE. I think the way that everyone has acted here towards CWR2 team is pretty unacceptable, and I very often lean on the side of "you can't stop fair use"... however this is clearly not a case of that. They made their intentions very clear prior to release of A3 they wanted no part of their content being hosted or made usable in A3, going against the public wishes, as well as the express license provided, is NOT acceptable. Too many people nowadays skip passed the permission request aspect of modding, and that's simply not an optional step, even if you're "just" providing a "fix" for another team. The mudslinging on both sides is embarrassingly childish... join date?, mod teams owing their hard work to the community?, refusal to remove w/o satisfactory reply?.. lets try to elevate our conversational skills just a bit here folks. @Cephel A mod author is entitled to protect any/all of his/her work they feel they should. PERIOD. You, nor BI have any right to demand that an author continue to host his addon for public download, so when it comes down to it, any author can remove their work from the approved hosting site and prevent the use of a piggybacking mod. They could also make any number of changes to their package to break compatibility with yours... it's THEIR WORK. PERIOD.

So, I got the barn I previously showed squared away all the open/close doors are working 100pct now. I did a few others as well, basically the same barn, but there are 2 models, sara_stodola and sara_stodola3, 3 was un-enterable version of the main one. I animated the door on the main one, then copied it as the 3 with the door closed by default i/o open by default. I also decorated the Budova2 that I opened, and put the animated trash can in there. It still needs a few texture fixes, as do the doors on the repair center I opened. All of those are shown in this updated video:

^yeah, so both those issues are known, and I've been super lazy about fixing either. I'll try to get those things fixed for the next update. I know how to fix gas station, and am aware of the method of fixing the gridlines, but have not given that a go yet, I know it can be "fishy" but M1lkm8n and Bushlurker will surely sort me out if I can't figure it on my own.

Been working on some buildings again. Nothing major, just tinkering around a bit. Got all the A2 sheds opened and finished, but they're not on Sahrani lol. Still haven't gotten fully setup in an A3 working environment for CUP yet. So just kind of did these as a way to decompress: The sheds/barn have both been fixed up quite a bit since the video, the sheds all have internal support structures so they look a bit more realistic, and the barn I removed the pre-shaded area of the one side of the barn that expected to be locked open.

I started doing a write up on this as I was messing with it, but never finished it. I used these youtube videos to get a basic idea of how the scenes are created: http://www.youtube.com/user/keefygeorge01/videos ARMA2 Camera scripting Tutorial 1 - ARMA2 Camera Scripting tutorial 2 - ARMA2 camera scripting tutorial 3 - ARMA2 camera scriptin tutorial 4 - Atsche's reply in the 3rd link is exactly correct in regards as to how to get the created mission to get launched by default when you launch the game. Feel free to look at SMD Sahrani, W0ll3 updated all the A1 cutscenes for us, and M1lkm8n included them in the main config of the SMD_Sahrani_A2.pbo as below: class CfgMissions { class Cutscenes { class smd_sahrani_a2Intro1 { directory = "smd_sahrani_a2_Scenes\intro.smd_sahrani_a2"; }; }; }; As you can see there, the cutscenes themselves are stored in a separate PBO: smd_sahrani_a2_Scenes.pbo Once you've watched the above videos, you should have a very clear picture of what to do to create the intro scene you want. (although NOTE - in A3, you do NOT need to put the "this exec "camera.sqs"; in the unit. The Camera is available when you hit "esc" once inside the preview now. I'll try to do the final write up for this in the next week or so... but this combined with looking at the smd intro's done by BI/W0ll3 should be a really solid guide. There have been a LOT of cool features added over the years too, for example the credits text system was vastly improved for the PMC DLC in A2, it's much more visually attractive. Take a look at as many example of BI intros and cutscenes as you can, they really do nice ones.

I put /n/n in the actual text of the string table for all the entries I want displayed lower than normal. I used it to move ALL the hint texts so they can be read with the gear menu open in A2. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CiFor/DayZ_Sahrani/1.1.0/SQF/dayz_code/stringtable.xml

Great News! Amazing work by all!

I began moving the optimized SMD Buildings last night. I got all of the SMD Buildings into the CUP namespace, and got started on the Jbad structures as well. Still have to update the SMD buildings to A3 which I will likely do today.

I will be taking some time in the next few weeks to start adding all of M1lkm8n's Jbad buildings he released HERE into CUP. Check out some of the AMAZING work he's already completed: Fire Station FULLY OPENED!: I will go ahead and retexture it with the standard A2 textures as well, so both versions will be done (the red doors instead of blue for OA) M1lkm8n also provided a sneak peak at his fully opened ATC Tower: Subscribe to his Channel! and check out the other vids he has in there. LOTS of buildings finished already, not to mention the vast library of SMD buildings he did for Sahrani! If anyone out there is a graphic designer/artist and would be willing to do some logo and channel art for CUP it would be GREATLY appreciated.

Figured I'd put out a quick video and text tutorial for how to install the RC candidates since it strays a bit from the Dev Branch switching outlined in Dwarden's Sticky: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?149411-How-to-change-Arma-3-branches-between-STABLE-amp-DEVELOPMENT-versions-STEAM-client For anyone not familiar with the process, dwarden blasts out details for a Release Candidate build and test server details. He does this on the skype channels and on his Twitter In order to switch to the RC Branch, follow these steps: Step 1. Right click on Arma 3 in your steam library Step 2. Select Properties Step 3. Go to Betas tab Step 4. Enter the password provided by Dwarden in the "Enter beta access code to unlock private betas" text entry area Step 5. Click "Check Code" button Step 6. Select the relevant RC from the drop down list Step 7. Wait for update files to DL and patch Step 8. Launch Arma 3 and select "Play" and then "Multiplayer" Step 9. In the Multiplayer server browser select "Remote" Step 10. Enter the IP address provided then enter the port number provided Step 11. Return to the server browser and you will see the test server double click on it or select it and click "connect" Full Size: http://i.imgur.com/5f4eRcd.jpg Current Reddit Thread (updated 07 OCt 2014): http://www.reddit.com/r/arma/comments/2il1ab/132_release_candidate_servers_are_up_for_testing/

When modifying the Bohemia Sample models, you may find the base model, or your modified model end up with very high section counts. This affects performance adversely for every instance of the object. So for even a small object like a wall or a tree or a bush that is repeated many times througout a terrain; it is VERY important to optimize models. For highly modified models you can end up with needlessly high section counts, which are tedious but simple enough to rectify. I want to give a special thanks to RKSL-Rock for advising M1lkm8n on how to accomplish this, as well as Snakeman of PMC Tactical for also providing relevant info and advice! and OBVIOUSLY to M1lkm8n for passing it on to me! http://www.rkslstudios.info/ & http://tactical.nekromantix.com/ Models can and should be optimized in MANY ways when being created from scratch, however this tutorial only focuses on correcting problems that can happen when forward porting, or editing, an existing BI model. I am making this tutorial mainly due to the lack of readily referenceable material regarding section counts in modelling for arma or in general. I am by no means an expert in the field, nor do I have a solid fundamental background in 3d modelling or texturing. I. A quick primer +++++++++++++++++ Models in O2 and all modelling software are made up of 3 components: 1. Points - Fairly clear, it's a dot somewhere in the 3d space of modelling software. In design based 3d software like AutoCad this can literally be a list of xyz coordinates entered in sequence. 2. Faces - Faces are a planes that connect any 3 to 4 points to create a solid surface, on which textures, materials, or shaders may be applied 3. Sections - a section is an collection of connected faces that all use a common texture, or material In the normal resolution lods, the model is UV unwrapped and textures are mapped to that "section" of the UVmap. The section count is a direct result of the number of unique textures + the number of different RVMats for any texture. Also worthy of note, is that the SAME texture can exist in multiple namespaces, so it's VERY important to ensure textures are being pathed to the same namespace when applying them initially, or during the modelling process. II. Why are sections bad? ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1. Because smarter people than me say so. 2. Everyone I know that went to school for modelling be it for commercial or entertainment purpose, say the same thing... section count is THE PARAMOUNT consideration. If you can (and you should) make ALL models 1 section. I have no idea if this is currently accurate, or applicable directly to Arma, but I have been told by MANY Arma specific modders, and one of the BI DevZ that it was the most important consideration for models in Arma as well... DRASTICALLY more important than poly or face count. HOWEVER, it must be stated, that some of the SMD buildings were in circulation for a LONG time with INSANELY high section counts, and no noticeable effect on performance, upto and including having them in an MP game state where loot was spawned in every room. Moron's Summary: I did not go to school for modelling, and I have not really found many resources outlining the intimate details, or even identifying the proper verbiage BUT... essentially, graphics cards are forced to start an entirely new draw cycle when they encounter a new section... so if you have high section counts the GPU is forced to spend more time assembling processable packages, and lining them up for processing, instead of screaming through huge chunks of assembled data. So, the section counts drastically increasing was quite a mystery to M1lkm8n and I for a while, and many people gave us guidance, and pointers in the right direction. III. What goes wrong? +++++++++++++++++++ 1. When moving a model's namespace OR when port forwarding model content (see glossary below) the pathing to the textures are re-pathed to the new namespace or texture type, this can often be done less than optimally. 2. When copy/pasting faces from a model back in and manipulating them can often cause Oxygen or Object Builder to not associate the new face/texture with the section it was copied from. +++++ RULES +++++ 1. BACKUP YOUR FILES before you begin work. OFF the P drive. 2. Monitor the changes you are making in Bulldozer after EVERY change and BEFORE saving progress 3. Check, Double Check, Re-Check, Check again, and when you're done with that CHECK AGAIN! 4. Save your progress often and BACK IT UP OFF the P drive. IV. How to fix it +++++++++++++++++ The process is tedious but very simple, it's very likely that someone could script something to automate this in O2, but I do not know how to do that. 1. Open your model 2. Select the 1st Resolution LOD (normally 1.000, in the example shown it is 0.000) 3. In "Resource Library" Window (If this window is not shown you can activate it as shown: Window->Resource Library) 4. Open the dropdown for "Current LOD" and then open the "Textures" folder As you see in the example picture, there are 8 textures used for the model. This means that there will be a final MINIMUM section count of 6, however, if any of those textures are using different RVMats, then the section count will be higher. In SOME cases, you can normalize the rvmats to reduce section count with little to no visual effect in the final model... In other cases, you will ruin the appearance of your model, and it will be difficult to revert the changes if you have saved your progress. Back to the example, and you can see an ASTOUNDING section count of 164 WHY!?!?! No idea, but lets get to work on fixing it. 5. Right click in the empty space in the "Lods" Window (If this window is not shown you can activate it as shown: Window->Lods) 6. Selct "new" from the dropdown menu 7. You will see a new resolution lod created 8. Re-Select the 1st resolution lod (in the example 0.000), in the "Lods" Window by double clicking on it with the LMB 9. Select the 1st texture listed in the "Resource Library" window (in the example "drevo_prkna_stara_co.paa") by clicking on it once with the LMB 10. Now, click on the selected texture with the RMB to activate the properties menu and click "select in object" 11. Copy the selected faces (ctrl+c) 12. Select the LAST resolution lod that you created in step 6/7 by double clicking on it with the LMB 13. Paste the copied faces (ctrl+v) into the new resolution lod 14. Check the section count in the new resolution lod - IF there is only 1 then skip BACK to step 9 and repeat for the next texture listed in the "Resource Library" window until all the listed textures have been pasted into the new lod - If there is more than one section or MANY sections then: 15. Press "E" (or from the file menu select Faces->Face Properties) 16. You will see two Text Entry areas in the "Texture and materials" portion of the window. The "Texture" will show the name of the texture you selected with it's full namespace path. The "Material" will show "..."; this indicates that there are more than one RvMats referenced by the same texture. In some cases this is required or intentional. If it's a matter of saving 1-2 sections, then carry on for now, although I do check to see if the changes are noticeable and use the same RvMat if it will look fine. 17. Select one or more faces listed with the RvMat that you wish to use, Copy that full path in the text entry area marked "Material" 18. Select ALL the faces that you want to change the RvMat for and paste the full path of the rvmat into the text entry area marked "Material" 19. Watch the section count drop. 20. Once you have completed steps 9-19 for ALL the listed textures in the 1st resolution lod. Continue to step 21 21. Select the last resolution lod you created in step 6/7 by double clicking on it with the LMB 22. Select all (ctrl+a) and Copy (ctrl+c) to copy ALL the points/faces/sections 21. Select the 1st resolution lod by double clicking on it with the LMB. 22. Select All (ctrl+a) and delete by hitting the "delete" button on your keyboard, or by selecting "delete" from the Edit drop down file menu 23. Pasted all the points/faces/sections from the final resolution lod that are still stored in memory by hitting "ctrl+v" Your model should now have the lowest possible section count without altering the UV unwrapping or textures.... in the 1st lod ONLY... 24. Repeats steps 8-23 for EVERY resolution lod the model has. In example model this is 0.000, 1.000, 3.000, 5.000, and 20.000 It is a tedious and time consuming process, but it is an absolute necessity to optimize your models as much as possible. This is only ONE means of optimizing the models. I wanted to take the time to document this process specifically because I had not seen any information publicly detailing the process. I am by NO MEANS an expert in modelling or model optimization, so if I have mis-stated or poorly summarized ANY aspect of this tutorial PLEASE feel free to provide additions or corrections. Thanks for Reading! *Reference / Glossary Namespace - Refers to the location in which a model expects to exist. The default namespace in arma 2 is CA, all models exist in either the common or the addons folder, hence the namesapce CA. Modified Addons must exist in a unique namespace, otherwise they will overwrite the defailt models as the modified models are loaded after the core game files. Ex: The 2 story Brick Apartment building is called "panelak.p3d" inside the PBO "buildings". It's namespace is "\ca\buildings\panelak.p3d" Our modified version of the 2 story brick apartment is called "smd_panelak.p3d" and it's inside a folder called "buildings" inside the PBO "smd_sahrani_artif_obj". It's namespace is: "\smd_sahrani_artif_obj\buildings\smd_panelak.p3d" Port Forwarding - Refers to the process of taking an asset from a previous release of a game, and making it fully compatible and featured as possible in the next iteration of the engine. ---------- Post added at 04:26 ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 ---------- Putting this up before doing the video again that way there is some peer review going on before I do the video. Some example figures from buildings I've done already.... smd_budova3: old count: 100 sections! Fixed Count: 11. Oi!

So, just to put some final numbers out there, I did an excel spreadsheet and tracked the number of Sections for the 1st LOD of Each model in our package. I repeated the steps for every LOD and got equally drastic reductions in section count displayed in the lower left of O2. Grand total of our package prior to the reduction was 2,217 sections for ALL the models (near 100)... After going through the outlined process the total package as 816 sections in the 1st lods... That's 1,401 sections removed from the package. I really wish there was some sort of test or something to quantify the effect or if there is one. I'd love to hear from anyone at BI if then know if these numbers are artificially inflated in O2, or if they represent actual figures after binarization. I still need to re-read pufu's post a few more times, and do some fresh research based on those lessons. But I feel like a reduction like that HAS to be a significant enough saving to justify the effort... but I honestly don't know.... It was NOT a fun thing to do.

VERY good info! Thanks so much for the clarifications! WOW! Pufu! AWESOME, and SUPER informative points. I had some basic understanding of much of what you said, but certainly not enough to properly summarize it, so I avoided the technical details all together as much as possible. THANK YOU for the detailed reply! I will modify incorporate your comments into the narrated video version, and edit out the inaccuracies in my original post! Thanks so much for the insight! I will certainly do more research based on your comments. Part of my mis-understanding (I believe) is due to how the textures are applied to faces in O2. In several cases there were syntax variations such as "CA\data\default.rvmat" i/o "ca\data\default.rvmat" which at least in O2, results in an increased section count for that resolution lod in the bottom left. Once you normalize the names the section count drops drastically. There is no doubt my approach is HORRIBLE... the original name for the modelling tutorials was going to be "A copy and paster's guide to modelling buildings in o2" But, I did say "people I know who went to school FOR modelling" not went to modelling school ;-P I actually did take a course in AutoCad in College in the 90's... but that was a Loooooong time ago... and was not geared towards anything other than industrial design schematics.

Interesting, I have been playing with proxying parts of buildings a LOT, and plan on making a system that allows for the dynamic creation of any height building from a library of available models... although I haven't really began the project in earnest yet. I took the panelak buildings and made 3 chopped up models that I use to proxy together in 2 different version (4 story and 8 story).. although I want to re-do how they're cut up. I only published the 2 and 8 story ones, but as you can see, you can slap as many of the "Middle Floor" sections in between the "Ground Floor" and "Top Floor" models: The FPS is terrible mainly due to how it was recorded, although obviously you wouldn't want to have 264 floor apartment buildings all over the place lol ;) In the case of the BI models, often the sections are textures that are just used for LOTS of buildings, so it's not very logical divisions like wheels/interior etc.... I think the way they did it was to optimize package size not performance in game. I have a feeling that the models/game would perform better if someone took the time to export the models and give them proper dedicated textures per/building. I hope to actually do that at some point, but have a fairly long list of things that are more important to finish first. Also, I have been mainly working with the A1 buildings so far, but the A2 buildings (and some A1) are broken up into modular parts similar to the way you describe, although I don't really understand the purpose of it for non-reused parts... IE I get a wheel, but why the interior? Is it so the interior model/texture don't need to get loaded for players who are only viewing the exterior? The complicated functions like LOD switching, occlusion culling, and sections are total mysteries to me. I plan on trying to learn more, but am always pulled in too many directions!

I'm pleased to say that I think I've come up with a plan for how to best move forward personally. I will essentially continue all the SMD work forward under the CUP prefix. There is no point in doing 80 percent of the same work 1st for the sole interest of Sahrani, when doing the same work for CUP benefits more people, and can be more easily applied to more terrains. I have begun writing some tutorials on the work that I am doing (both the process of forwarding A1/A2 buildings and misc objects to A3, and building interiors for previously unenterable buildings) and have gotten confirmation from some other members they will document their processes and I will then create additional tutorials for the various focus'. I have worked with all the various assets to one degree or another in Arma 2, but am not fluent in A3 modding yet in any area other than the buildings/objects. IF we get more people working on buildings, then I can focus on making customized versions of all the A1/A2 terrains as M1lkm8n did for SMD Sahrani. With the number of buildings that should swap directly into other terrains, I think it would be better to focus on the buildings if we do not get any assistance making more, but I'm hoping that with the tutorials and a little more promotion... more folks will want to join the effort. Big, community projects like these are VERY difficult to keep together and see through to the end, and I'm ready for the long haul personally. But the more the community does to help it along and encourage it, the better... The more folks who take the dive into modding THE BETTER! This is a very unique opportunity to learn from some of the most knowledgeable and experienced modders in Arma. I've always found folks willing to help and share, but in this case, there is additional motivation for the guys "in the know" to help new guys along so that they can help bear the burden... this is a COLOSSAL undertaking. It has every opportunity to bring forth features, content, functions, and landscapes that no other mod, or even Bohemia themselves could produce in an equal timespan. THIS, truly is one of those "I'm going to do everything" mods that everyone immediately dismisses and derides... only this one is happening, for real, for fun, for the love of the game and franchise, and it's being done by, and contributed to by, some of the best, most talented folks around... GET ON THE HYPE TRAIN PEOPLE!!!

264 floors at 2.701m/floor = 713.064