Macser

Bloody great to see the engine pushed so far off the beaten track. Excellent work McRuppert.

Is steam required for people to create their own communities? Do you have no other option but to interact with these annoying little game goblins? That's a genuine question. I'm not defending BI. Mostly because they don't need anyone to defend them. They're just a company doing their thing. I don't see the same kind of corporate greed that exists elsewhere though. I think it's a positive thing that they haven't invited a major publisher to the table for example. If they did, I'm sure it would have a negative impact for the player. If they were as greedy as you think, they'd have gone down that road before now. And lost a good deal of control in the process. They are in it to make money. I don't see any reason why they shouldn't. But we're not talking EA levels of world domination, where they want ALL the money. Even the DLCs seem to be handled fairly well in comparison to other games. Given my statements, you might be surprised to know I don't use it. Complaining about it, for me, is like spitting in the wind. steam is the most popular platform out there for digital distribution. It makes economic sense to take advantage of it. Even with the drawbacks for certain people. If those unhappy with steam are in a minority, which they are, who would you listen to as someone trying to maintain a company into the future? You can't please everybody. So you'll always have to make decisions that piss somebody off. But you still have to make them.

I think that's too much information for a few forum posts. Given the fact my experience is mostly with the older titles there's only so much I could help you with anyway. I know it's the default response, but it's going to take some research on your part. Thankfully you're in a better position than people were in the early days of these boards. But still, what you want to do would be the modding equivalent of diving in at the deep end. I don't think there's a massive amount of tutorials for object builder specifically. But from what I understand it's very similar to the previous versions. Enough that you could pick up navigating the interface and it's functions. Here's a few videos by Gnat, in relation to O2 personal edition. There are others more directly suited to A3. But they may not cover all the areas you're interested in. I think a lot of modders these days don't really use Object builder for anything other than finalising a model. Many do their asset creation in something more powerful and import the result. You say you're new to this. Do you mean with the Arma tools? Do you have any previous experience with modeling software?

@Ollie Hillman I wouldn't ever prevent someone from expressing an opinion. Even if I'm diametrically opposed to it. But that's the downside to free speech. Someone will always disagree. And maybe put it in a way we don't like. You just have to deal with it, unless you prefer censorship. But a lot of the responses you're getting are directly related to how you expressed your own opinion. Which in essence is a long list of cool stuff you'd like. I don't believe BI are completely blind to how their own market works. They may not listen to people on every occasion. But if enough of them express a concern, or a desire for something I think they'd try to bring it to the table. It's not in a company's best interests to cater to minority opinion though. In that situation they'd be diverting time and money to something that has little demand. Which isn't a risk for you and me. But it is for them. It's ok for a giant publisher to dabble in creating demand where there isn't one. They potentially have the funds to fail, once, or even twice. A smaller company doesn't get that kind of choice. One major screw-up could sink them. The gaming industry is not a forgiving market place. These games have always offered a high degree of control. This requires a sufficient number of keys. Not to everyone's taste. But not unusual for titles more slanted towards simulation. Which the series has always been. I think it's likely BI have considered simplifying things. But if they go that route they'll be removing something that makes the series stand out from other games. Considering how well it's done this far, I doubt they want to take that kind of risk. And please consider not using terms like "butthurt" or calling people spoilt brats. It's always a poor replacement for a rational argument.

No. I didn't say it wasn't possible. But once you scale up or down, you get distortion in your mesh. The animation files, called RTMs, are explicit when it comes to joint locations. An RTM doesn't make any allowance for the mesh. As far as the engine is concerned, it reads the information in the file and deforms the mesh based on the values in there. Which won't match your custom model. This post might explain it a little better. In short, your animations must suit the model. Or it will turn into a distorted mess. And yes, it can be a lot of work. And does need experience with modeling, animation and configs. If I was to guess, I'd say the stalker content was tweaked and edited to suit the default character. As the stalkers themselves are human. The zone creatures on the other hand would have to have their own custom animations.

Considering how much you want to deviate from the default character proportions, it's not a simple case of creating models. Neither is it possible to do from a config alone. And animations ultimately deform the models in game. It's all linked. Any character that different from default, would require their own set of tailored animations. Either hand made, or retargetted from Bi's own animations. Have a look through Horriblegoat's female character thread. If you want an idea of what's involved.

Steam may give way to another platform at some point. But it's form of distribution is probably going to be around for the foreseeable future. Companies will always find the path of least resistance in terms of cost and development. From their point of view it's too attractive an option. People who use the steam service are quite obviously in the majority. That's what developers and publishers look to. That's who they listen to. Whether some of us like it or not, that's the practicality of it. So there's only two options going forward. Avoid it and do without what it offers. Or grin and bear it. As it's a larger arena it obviously invites more knuckle-draggers and scumbags to the party. But there's plenty of decent folk using the service too. I don't see how that would stop communities from forming around a game though. They don't require a developer or distributor to be involved. It's still driven by people. I suppose a lot of it depends on how you define community. If your only connection is the fact you play the same game, I wouldn't consider that in of itself a community. That's just a circumstance. Community for me is connecting with other people playing the games. Sharing or helping each other. Making friends and acquaintances. Collaborating on modding projects. I still see that happening. Although perhaps not on the same scale as it did with OFP.

Think of them as iterations of the original Rv1 engine(OFP). If you dig a little deeper you'll find lots of commonalities.

If you like we can continue the discussion through Pm. I don't want to hijack the thread.

The main PBOs go into your campaign folder inside the main game directory. The other ones,voicerh and editor102, are addons. So you can put them into your main addon folder. Or create a mod folder and put them in there. Most people choose the latter method to avoid potential problems. Here's some info on mods and addons. The wiki can be very handy, so if you plan on playing around with the game, bookmark it.

It works with Cold war assault. Which is essentially Operation Flashpoint 1.99. It's completely unofficial and doesn't include the original Red Hammer campaign. That's still something the user has to take care of themselves.

He's going to need a good chiropractor. What you're doing right now is exactly why I created the rig. I'm always happy to see it being used. I think the speed of your progression shows you're doing the research. A large part of modding is reading, observing and then applying that. Tutorials will only get you so far, if you're just following a step by step routine, rather than genuinely understanding the process. I assume you've already figured it out. But I'll mention it anyway. For static anims like yours you don't need to use Object builder once you know the position is good. You can export directly from Blender to your project folder and pack the PBO.

Yes. That's exactly what I'm after. I don't expect you or anyone else to go further than you're interested in doing though. It's not the most exciting of tasks. Example: AmovPercMrunSrasWrflDf in A2 would be the equivalent of CombatrunF. That's running in combat mode, with a rifle in the raised position. There's a bit more info, if you're interested. I don't know if anyone cares, but the reason I'm not just doing a straight conversion is simple. For the Star wars project,the snowtrooper obviously has that "skirting". Weighting it to the legs is not something I like the look of. The clipping is uncontrollable and just looks awful. So I'm adding bones for that specifically, and animating them. I'm doing this instead of creating a separate set of anims. This obviously has to be done for each individual animation. Visually it's worth the effort.

Anything you can do would be appreciated. Even a small block. Like say the prone anims . Just the class names would take a little weight off.

Affirmative sir. Ownership of the game at least. But it wouldn't require any ninja level modding skills though. There's an animation viewer over on armaholic .I'd been using it up until my hardware decided to say goodbye. I haven't completely sorted out the aftermath. So A2 isn't installed yet. I'll get around to it myself, once I have some more assets done. But identifying suitable replacements can be time consuming. I'm not expecting anything. But I decided to take a shot and post about it.

Rapport established...... I didn't realise how far you'd developed it. Really impressive stuff Drongo.

That's a very nice start to your journey I'd say. Great looking model so far.

Thanks foxhound. I'll put that link into the first post.

Looks like that issue is resolved. Newest post is showing up. Thank you.

One of my recent posts is hidden for some reason, and in a thread I created too. Seems a bit strange. Is there some kind of auto-moderation going on?

@Gstavo I don't have access to the files. And I'm not sure if their being binarised would make that possible, or legal. Just in case you think I'm ignoring you. Update: One of the members here, "Love burns", informed me about an issue they were having with the camera position in custom animations. So I added a camera bone into the rig. Apparently this seemed to sort their issue out. So the first thread has been updated to reflect this. A lot of people use the rig for static screenshots and hand anims. Where the player's viewpoint isn't a factor. So that explains why I haven't had reports about the issue. Not that I remember at least.

Most people do. But the main reason we're here is to discuss the games with other people. Or learn something new. There's more people out there still playing and modding OFP than you probably think. As often happens ,they've splintered into smaller communities, which don't always interact. And many of them don't visit this site on a regular basis. Looking at multiplayer servers or the lack of therein, doesn't give a full picture either. That just tells you how many are playing it online actively. At this point that's a very small number. Not everyone favours the multiplayer experience though. And they likely aren't factored into that. I'm one of those people. I'd have no problem playing a session if the opportunity arises. But I'm happy tinkering with the engine for the most part. So. At least with the club you've got a place where you don't have to explain why you're still interested in such an old title. Unless you feel like it. The OFP club could use a few discussions anyway. It's not easy to get a bunch of die-hards chatting.

If you want to chat about the game, then why not start a thread in the club section? It's not exactly a hive of activity. But I'm up for having a conversation. Especially if it's related to modding.

Great idea. I think the AI may well have the same problem their predecessors did though. That being, they don't handle being "indoors" terribly well. Path finding may go haywire or lead to other unpredictable behaviour. But even so, it's nice to see someone else going down a less travelled modding path. And of course that kind of setting wouldn't be an issue for players.

It's obvious the newer titles need a beefier system to operate well. So I think there's nothing wrong, in principle, with having an option like OFP/CWA still on the table. I'm not a dyed in the wool gamer. Not anymore at least. I used to regularly upgrade my hardware so I could keep up with the latest games. But not these days. Most of what I do is modding for my own enjoyment. And OFP/CWA is simply less frustrating to work with. And of course it's also fairly light on system resources. And it's because of OFP that I bought into the series, with the exception of A3. Were it not for that, my money would've went elsewhere. I've experimented with them, but they aren't anywhere near as easy to manage for an enthusiast. It's nice to have the original title to fall back on. And it still keeps me connected to the Arma series, even if it's in a peripheral sense. I'm not taking anything away from people who prefer the new titles. And in some cases I've managed to assist some of them with their own projects. OFP still being around might keep some folks interested enough, that if they do upgrade, they may shell out for the latest game. In fact I've seen that happen. I don't expect the company to devote time to it though. Other than acknowledging it's existence. If they were to add a few extra bits n pieces it would be appreciated. But they want to push people towards buying the newer titles to keep the economic ball rolling. Releasing source code, assuming that's what you mean, might not be a good idea from their point of view. Especially if the series is based off RV1. Perhaps if they move onto a fundamentally different engine, that might be viable. But who knows when that would be?