clay_more

hi, lately i finished a model and wanted to do a quickport to see if the proportions fit in first person. i used an old p3d managed to get working correctly as a base and changed only the pilot lod and the 1. lod to the new model. however trying to import the unchanged old p3d doesnt work anymore for some reason and in the modified p3d i mentioned o2 doesnt even show the applied texture despite it being a 24 bit tga in 512x512 pixel (i tried jpg as well as paa formats saved from texview 2). Mikeros pboproject logs give me an "unrecognized texture type" error and a "disabled shadow lod" (which is literally a triangulated box with sharp edged, i applied them both for pilot lod and 1. lod, geo and fire geo lods are present as well). Ingame the gun kind of works, it can shoot, change mags but has no sound or bullet impact and is invisible. I wanted to put off asking for help as long as possible so i can learn to solve issues by myself wherever possible but im really stuck on this one as i have no idea why on earth the tool doesnt work properly. Heres the whole project file: https://www.file-upload.net/download-13033704/spec_melta_imp.7z.html Please help me, i cant do nothing if even the most essential tools dont work...

Hi, ive had this issue multiple times already where the model is incorrectly placed in the soldiers hands or the holster despite me making sure its origin is pretty much in center. obj builder: and ingame it was suggested that it might be caused by the geo lod, but that one also has the pivot in the same spot. any idea what else that might be caused by ?

i did some testing, and the lighting issues seem to be with the model. i use blender for modeling, exporting it as obj or fbx still gives me the same lighting issues, even when using triangulate and recalculate normals ( recalculate makes things even worse). the textures themselves shouldnt be affected as the show up correctly in other programs ( no artefacts, no funny lighting). edit: i got the lighting sorted, all i needed to do is mark the edges i wanted as sharp to mark them sharp and export it. only have to improve the specular and gloss details now and its done.

did exactly what you suggested, and its spot on. the guns a bit chubby so it clips with the thumbs. will this still look right if i made something like, say a custom anim where he dual wields them ? or shoots it single handedly ? im also having an issue with normals and especially the specular map showing artifacts or no t picking up detail. i heard its the mipmapping when the tga is imported do you know how to make it look as great as the guns you guys make and prevent detail loss ? thanks for your help again.

i buddy of mine suggested this might be a dangerous thing to do if you want to use the weapon for other proxies. is there another way to do this ?

Im trying to import a weapon obi using object builder and im stuck at the memory lod. according to tutorials, i should be able to see yellow outlines when editing the memory lod, but all i get is an empty viewport. i took a look at the sample models but i have the same issue with those too, namely an invisible memory lod. i cant place various attachment points if i have no clue what im working with. does anybody know what might resolve this ?

Hello, id like to create a visible laser beam particle effect in arma 3. im trying currently to find out what the particle system in arma 3 is capable of. ive seen som really neat particle effects and have been wondering if the system supports beams which extend from muzzle to wherever the beam is hit (if hit detection can determine the beams distance). does it use a billboard? are trails supported ? it would be very useful for means of game optimization if i could use trails for rockets instead of the oldschool method of using single smoke particles spawning in a high density behind a missile for example. id be glad if someone could point me to where i can find out about this.

is there such a function witht he possibility to assign a texture to it ?

if that is the case then only the billboard problem needs to be solved, and voila, perfectly fina laser weapons. the lifetime can be set i believe ? fennek claims lifetime is determined in whole numbers, seconds, which would be problematic for something that travels at the speed of light. ive also seen flamethrowers done in arma, albeit it didnt look that good.

impact is one thing, however, if you shoot into the sky where there no actual colision, you will end up with that infinite distance... it would be more appropriate if the beam would lose power as in damage, and eventually vanish at some point, whcih would be set as maximum range for it independent whether something was hit or not. you will end up with the same problem with things like plasma projectiles which should dissipate after a certain travel time, or weapons which have a limited amount of propellant and rapidly fall to ground once there is no thrust, or melta weapons which are reliant on distance-damage mechanics.

mac, what you described in your illustration would be a good way to make trails (even if non deformable), those would be perfect for bolt weapons or anything using a trail of some sort. i think that is the perfect solution. sadly as you explained, the place does not act like a proper billboard, so it might end up looking a bit primitive especially since its a plane, at soem point you might notice it vanishes if loked from te wrong direction. another problem would be, that the bullet would need very high velocities to achieve a flat enough trajectory, and im not sure how accurate the behaviour is when penetrating materials. you would also end up with an infinite range, which would not be accurate considering that the lights intensity diminishes with distance. but still. that solution is still better than nothing. does anyone know if accessing hitscan is somehow possible ?

thanks for the reply fennek, as trail i mean something akin to what you see in udk... lemme find something the first one is the kind of particle effect im searching for, things like that beam here which determines his size of his own, from muzzle to impact point (im sure arma supporst hitscan, every engine supports it.). http://i.imgur.com/9eWeQ.jpg the second one is a trail effect: http://benoitj.com/onewebmedia/3DFX/FX_SwordTrail.jpg notice its actually a beamlike particle broke up in sections to produce a curvature. can you clarify on the beam ? it is no problem i the whole beam is showm from muzzle to impact, as thats what im aiming for. as for the rocket trail, i want to use something like ive shown on the pics, but thats not a necessity. it would be merely better for optimization, unless i misunderstood how particles work.

thank you for the tutorial. its very helpful.

hello dear arma community. in teh past few days ive been adamantly working on trying to get some custom content into this beatiful new installment of the arma series. ive got myself an example map, the steam tools, mikeros tools too which are needed. and here already start the problems: ive got the best hardware (laptop) money can buy. i7 core, 32 gb ram, intel hd 4600 graphics, nvidia gtx 880 m as the main powerhouse, 1 terrabyte HDD and 256gb SSD. everything recently updated. it runs arma 3 just fine. but in the terrain editor i get random freezes to the point where i have to restart the computer. its slow to respond and makes my gpu roar like and animal... this shouldnt happen, even when i set the main gpu for this program to be run by the gtx 880. second point: no matter where i import my heightmaps from, be it world machine, or mudbox, arma always manages to screw up the maps while importing (it seems to turn my heightmap into something like an ambient occlusion mop as i get grey and white nyances all over the place) resulting in enormous spikes everywhere when you enter the map ingame, reaching as far a over 65km into the sky. while world machine has just initial troubbles with the terrain i can adjust in the height and width settings, in arma there seems to be no such thing, or at least im ignrorant of this.... does anybody know how to at least fix the heightmap issues im facing ? it doesnt matter if its a deposition, displacement or heightmap, the result is the same as far as the issues go. formats ive tried were tiff 16 bit, png, raw 16, all the same result. i have used a tutorial map found on the wiki, which worked splendidly.... no spikes nothing, just smooth terrain. ive reused config files and whatnot for my terrain too for testing purpuoses. i would really appreciate it if some of the terrainmaker veterans could give me a hand as i dont know what to do anymore to fix this...

ever tried direct fire ? that might be fun when suddenly a tank commander gets whacked by a 155mm.

this issue is persisting as long as arma is around. i think they really should not miss out things like these.

good stuff, keep going!