Macser

I love reading about these kinds of projects. For combat it might look a little strange for female characters to use male animations. The differences may be small, in motion. But it's something you'd recognise. Maybe not enough to put you off using them though. In the middle of a firefight those subtleties probably wouldn't be much of an issue. Even though you can tweak a mesh to look a certain way, the mesh goes where the bones go. There's no 2 ways about it. Tweaks only have a small margin for correction before you get stretching, twisting and distortion. A good example of that was the original OFP characters. The horrible "t-pose" made people try to correct it in the mesh by widening the shoulders. But the rtms would then add their offset , widening the shoulders excessively, and slightly inflating the arms. If carried too far you got distortion for more extreme poses. So the arms began rotating around the shoulder, instead of at the shoulder. The only way to be sure your character retains it's proportions, is to animate with a rig based on the mesh itself. Rather than trying to make it fit an existing skeleton. Considering the vast quantity of anims the newer games have, that's quite a lot of work. Unless some compromises are made. Obviously if there was some way to import rtms, you could retarget. But as yet that's not available.

There's nothing about the Armarig Blend file that's required. The primary aim was to create a rig for Blender users to animate with. Originally for A2. But I noticed the very strong similarity between the layout of the characters from A2 and A3 and decided to use the A3 samples as reference. In the absence of anything dedicated for that purpose, in Blender, people have been using it for their A3 projects. It's only limited to what the user can do with it. So walk, run and other dynamic sequences are possible. RTMS are universal by the way. So they work with all of the engines. But that's not the only thing you can use it for. Because you have a rig based on the A3 character, you can add things like clothing or accessories, and weight them to the armature. When you do this vertex groups are created corresponding to the individual bones. These vertex groups are the selections you would see listed in Object builder/O2PE. Creating the mesh and binding it to the armature, inside Blender, will allow you to view the deformation in real-time. So you can see potential problems like distortion or clipping before going in-game.

Thanks for the link Foxhound. Much appreciated. :)

Hey Foxhound. Archive seems ok. The file contents look to be original and free of anything harmful. If you could suggest a free service that you think is trustworthy I can upload there. Although I've never had any problems with sendspace, they are sporting more ads than they used to. :) I put up an alternative link at filedropper.com. Try that and see if it causes any problems.

I updated the blend file if that's what you mean. Just check the first post of the thread for Armarig. You'll see the download link is at version 5 instead of version 4. If you meant the Arma toolbox addon ,that's up to Alwarren. As it's his work. I just created the blend file to work with it. :)

I updated the Armarig archive to include a pistol mesh. If you're using that rig it's just business as usual regarding animation.

No problem. If I can do anything to help, let me know. I think I'll add that mesh into Armarig anyway. I'm not sure why I left it out. :)

If you're using Armarig, that simplifies it. :) https://www.sendspace.com/file/jfftbo The model is from the A2 weapon samples. Import that P3d directly into the Blender scene, using the Arma toolbox addon. Parent it to the right hand bone. Just don't alter the position of the mesh. Let the bones do the work. If you're unsure about how to do that, there's a video on the Armarig thread, about changing the weapon mesh to something you prefer. Although it applies to the primary weapon, the process is the same. Nice to see the videos were of some use. Your animations are looking great. If you're using Armarig, you'll find the right hand bone on the last bone layer, in the armature panel.

Ok. If you're having problems I can sort out a reference model for you. I don't think it matters all that much what the model is. As it's simply a reference. As long as the rig you're using has the same location and orientation as the sample character, it should work fine.

With regard to adding a new reference mesh for a pistol. It's pretty easy. I assume your reference model/rig is set up in the standard way. So in Object builder point the pistol proxy, for the sample character, to a model of your choice. Then extract the proxy. The model will be drawn in the correct orientation in the viewport. Copy/paste this new model into a fresh P3d without making any changes. Once that's done import it into your Blender scene and parent it to the appropriate bone. The right hand. This new model, like the others is just a reference. Only ever use bones to animate. Never mess with the position of these meshes directly. The pistol has no dedicated "bone" anyway, as far as I'm aware. Relying on the position of the right hand.

If that's the case, why keep it to yourself? :)

I tried the code you originally posted and it actually works in the unit's init field. Did you type it exactly as you have it posted above? With quotes? If you did that would explain the issues. this setgroupid ["Delta", "GroupColor1"] That works for me. Unlike the later games, there's a set range for the first element of the array, in OFP/CWA. So you can only choose from the listed group IDs. Check them here, and here. As is mentioned on those pages you can set up your own names using a stringtable.csv.

Just to add to Pufu's advice. The toolbox doesn't recalculate the normals. So that's still a required step in O2PE/Object builder. Run through all your res and view lods lods and hit F5. Anything that would be visible to the player needs the normals corrected. This doesn't include geometry, memory, land contact etc.

A crouch anim to go hull down would be a nice feature. Walk into a ruined building and lie in wait. Or on the far side of an incline. Perhaps even an extended leg pose, for peeking over cover for some sniping.

You can't do much without reference. That's just the way it is. Observation is the only way to create something accurately. No decent artist can work without it. Unless it's completely abstract. Even then, reference is still employed. It's not something that would bother me personally. But some artists do have a problem with others using their work even as reference, if they aren't credited. Especially if it matches it quite closely in construction. It could be likened to people's views on copyright versus plagarism in written works. Plagarism isn't in of itself illegal. But it's definitely not thought of as something positive by some individuals. In the end it's more a personal issue than anything else. If you feel uncomfortable that you're following something too closely, then perhaps change your approach slightly. The original artist still had to use reference themselves and may even have taken inspiration from others too. Whether for the overall look or it's basic construction.

I know. :) My post wasn't an accusation. Just making a point.

There's quite a bit of difference between using something as reference and literally taking a copy of the mesh and calling it your own. I suppose it depends on how closely it resembles the reference. If it's a carbon copy, down to the way it's constructed, it might be cutting it a bit close. Especially if it's something unique and identifiable.

I'm lovin what I'm seeing in those videos Lenyoga. Really great looking stuff. :)

This may be 1.99 specific.As it seems 1.96 doesn't have this issue. I'm assuming it's to do with the extra classes that were added to the resource.cpp I'm trying to get rid of the black bars from the top and bottom of the screen. So far I haven't had any luck.Removing entries out of the controlsbackground array within the RscDisplaymain dialog has no effect. Although it's possible to change the colour of the bars,the alpha value being set to zero won't render them invisible.And that's within the RscBackgroundStripeTop and RscBackgroundStripeBottom classes. Anyone had any success with this?

No need for apologies. Even in it's current form I'm sure it's responsible for more animations and models than you're aware of. :)

Nice play on words there . :D Good to see your interest revitalised. Do you use tiling textures for the walls by the way? If not, baking some lighting into the textures might enhance the mood and reduce the need for "live" light sources. Blender can bake the effect of lights/shadow into a composite diffuse texture. Basically the intensity, colour and shadow from the lights get overlayed onto the raw diffuse. After that you'd set all the geometry to "shining" (shadeless). Which would stop any shading artifacts ruining the illusion. It's an old trick. But could suit this type of scenario. Essentially you get what you see in the viewport, when shading is set to material.

I'm a bit pushed for time right now, so I'm just glancing through. Are you sure that's the model.cfg you posted? Either there's a mix-up or you've incorrectly set it up. That's where you define the "bones" (selections) in the model. Without those it's just a mesh with some useractions attached. Define your animatable parts in the CfgModels section, like: class HatchDriver { type="rotation"; source="hatchDriver"; selection="poklop_driver"; axis="osa_poklop_driver"; animPeriod=0; angle0=0; angle1="rad -100"; }; For example. Then in the CfgSkeletons section you set out the bone (selection) hierarchy. Without these set up correctly they shouldn't function in Object builder. Someone else might provide a more detailed response. But do some searching, or have a look at some examples in the meantime. :)

Arguments for and against Steam are irrelevant to me. You use it or you don't. If I'm required to use a service I have issues with, or love, I'm not inclined to explain myself. Nobody is being "left behind" by not using it. And neither are they somehow more savvy just because they do. No matter how enjoyable, they're games. And Steam is just a service. I'm sure it has contributed to a bigger user base. But I doubt it changes the ratio of idiot to decent folk. There's just more of both as far as I can see.

Sample packs are being used to port assets for the reasons Jackal just explained. I may have been a little vague in the other thread, where you asked the same question, but there was enough information to motivate some research. :mellow: Mlod is a P3d format readable by O2PE/Object builder or third party plugins/addons. Odols are binarised (optimised binary format) P3ds. Unreadable by the same tools. A3 game assets would be in this form. It's illegal to unbinarise these and distribute the resulting files.

If you're talking about the tanks from the Arma 1 or 2 samples that were released a while back, then all you really need to get them into Blender is Alwarren's arma toolbox. As long as a model is in mlod format it can be imported. If you're talking about A3 models I'm assuming there aren't any editable samples for tanks yet.