Arma 3 - How to import a blender model - Part 2

Arma 3 - How to import a blender model - Part 2

So, I added a config.cpp and put the .p3d, the .paa and the config.cpp in one folder. Then I run AddOn Builder on that folder, and it worked.

But the object is not showing up anywhere, which may be cause I used a rather patch-worked config.cpp, which cleary is wrong.

Here is the config.cpp so far :

The Model in my addon has now an entry in the Props=>Structures=>Village, since it is inherited from Building, I guess.

But there is a problem to load the .p3d Model file !

I am not sure why this, cause the AddOn Packer had no errors, I checked all logs. So seems I  have to find out where the log file for this error in arma3 is, which rtp most likely, now.

so its in the common log file in the local windows arma3 folder.

and there are the two lines that matter : 

- import_2.p4d.p3d: No geometry and no visual shape
- Trying to create an invalid center EMPTY 

I am a bit confused by this, but will go back to Object Builder and look what is wrong or missing.

Arma 3 - How to import a blender model - Part 1

Arma 3 - How to import a blender model - Part 1

In my today's try to get ahead in Arma3 Editing, I want to import a building into Arma 3 which I modeled in Blender.

So as always I took a quick look at tutorials to refresh my memories. I do not want any YouTube tutorials or so, just text and pictures.

On the first I found :

Arma 3 Basic Modeling Import Tutorial for Noobs - Difficulty EASY

and this entry on the bohemia forums.

This seems quite ok for the start. So now I model a quick easy non-accessible building with some texture blocks I extracted today somewhere.

This is my , very basic, building I want to import :

So I had them installed long time ago, but I was missing the Arma3 Tools, *happy sound*, so I got them over Steam.

As far as I understood, it should be fairly easy to import a (blender) model with O2, a tool provided by Bohemia.

Well. Ehm. In the Arma3 Tools, which actually have a pretty menu now and wow.But I cant find O2, and I remember vaguely it was TexView 2 I used, did I ?

Well. It is the object builder I am after it seems, but the first time I pressed on it, nothing happened and the arma3 tools crashed. :(

After trying a lot I must admit that nothing works with the arma3 tools.

I get a strange .net error in the windows logs and the logs of arma3 tools itself are saying nothing.

I have to read further into this. Stay tuned !!!


Well, it chained my mind to it, so I read on, despite being terrible fatigue. What do you do when you do not know what do to ? Yes. RTFM. So.

Arma_3_Tools_Installation

Maybe, just maybe, I find the reason for the Object Builder crashing here. And I did, it seems.

Buldozer, the 3D Viewer Module (previous Oxygen, I remember that !) of Arma3 has to be installed on a virtual drive. And yes, an actual virtual drive with the letter P: ! Click here to read the full tragedy or what they call documentation :D !

 

Hurrai ! Now lets import my .obj 3D File which I exported from Blender !!

We got our first error message !!! At least the infrastructure seems now to be solidish.

So, I triangulated my model in Blender. And while I was there, I exported the model as 3ds_max .3ds format, but I got this error message :

I never worked with max, well I did hunderts of years ago. Hmm. Then again as obj !

HEUREKA ! I imported my model into the object builder as obj. (Always triangulate !)

Of course the texture is missing and the normals seem to be turned around. Have to read up upon that after a extensive short break.

In Blender, I exported the file again to obj, and before that I revered the normals. But it still looked like that inside-out, so I reveresed it with the Reverse Option under Faces inside the Object Builder. And now it looks correct, still missing the texture, and when I start Buldozer alias Arma3 as viewer, it still crashes.

But I think I just need to add some very basic project respective addon definition files to make it work inside Arma3. *reads up*

Well, now Arma crashed and I know why. I had to change to path of the arma3 buldozer viewer to that of its version inside the game path !!! And I set the resolution to default, also.

And now it works and the model is loaded, yet without the texture, but the UV Map is inside the object builder, I saw that.

Hmm The UV is fine.

 

So what the bush is going. I converted the .png texture to a .tga, cause it seems this is one of the formats the object builder can use, png is not.

I converted the png to 256x256 non-compressed tga. Then I started Buldozer, which converted the "resources", then in the Object Builder I activted DirectX (via the Atomic Icon) and Textures (via another icon, hover !) and voila, the texture work in the work windows of Object Builder ! *dances*

I then used the good old Tex View ... 2 ! to convert the tga to a paa, which is a packed texture format for arma3's engine. I then assigned the paa to the object, which turns the texture off in the object builder BUT it then works in the Buldozer Viewer, which depends on a working addon format on the fly as far as I understand that right now.

So now I need to pack it and before that I think I need to find some templates for placable object definition files somewhere...*close to sleep cause late* .... *mobilizes reserve energy*

I put the p3d and the paa into one directory and tried to run the AddOn Builder on that directory.
As excepted now the last thing is a missing description of some sort, like a hhp file, I remember only vaguely.

So. I am downloading the official steam example arma3 file, but I will google this before I go sleep and I need to seriously get hydrated.

Arma3 Beginner Mission Editing : Non-Fly-Zone Message

Hidiho !

Lets do some Arma3 Mission Editing ! (we <= me !)


I played GTA5 a bit over the last weeks to finally get this monstrosity under the hood. I am quite disappointed by its story and its obvious single reason to condition the player for the GTA5 online money grap experience.

BUT I finally am good in computer helicopter flying. For some reason I now like the Arma3 helicopter fly model. So now I am playing around and do a flying training course for civilian helicopters on Stratis and then Malden.

Level: Beginner

So, first I wanted areas where players can fly over like cities or military areas, at least not without an official reason.

My arma scripting is still on arma2 level and still quite rusty. So, assuming yours is too, I do this bit by bit. Remember, this is mainly for me to log the process here :D

1. The voice

First, you want to have a radio message like "Ey, don't fly here or we shoot" or something.
Eventually I used :  "Unidentified aircraft. You are entering a restricted air zone. Turn around or be fired upon."

So where to get a voice ? I am not a native english speaker, and I like temporary voice acting more than some half solid work, so I used naturalreaders.com  but any text-to-speech should do.

I used Audacity to convert it into the .ogg Soundfile format.

To make the sound available ingame, you have to edit the description.ext in the scenario folder, create the file if it does not exist.

Then this works for me :

class CfgSounds
{
     sounds[] = {};
   
     class RestrictedAirzone  {
         name = "RestrictedAirzone";
         sound[] = {"\sound\arma_voice_syn_restrictedAirspace.ogg", db+5, 1.0};
         titles[] = {1,"Unindentified aircraft. You are entering a restricted air zone. Turn around or be fired upon."};
     };

};

2. Play it

Then you put a trigger according to your needs and for the sake of convenience I most of the time put player say2D "RestrictedAirzone"; in the activation field of the trigger to start the sound playing and the title showing up.

Still kicking.

Well, well, well.

So now its about "games" becoming something that transforms the player into the golden duck.

I am working on my own games, since doing games is some kind of game too. I guess.

But I will take the effort and study games. Classic games, blockbusters and indie small pieces.

And since I like to share, I will hopefully write some of my thoughts and observations down here.

My main problem with indie games from pages like itch.io is that I don't want to run compiled source from other people I don't know or trust.

I am still not managed to get a second computer for that purpose, but I installed my old Win XP as virtual machine. Maybe I can test some of the games there.

I tried Heartbound, but Win XP says the 50 MB executable is not a valid Win32 application.

Evolution by Kaiwan is actually quite cool, even, or maybe because of it, it has no real concept.
You have a 2D Area and you put some joints, bones and muscle. Then the simulation lets this construct act and twitch, always taking the one with the behaviour that let it move the most on the X-Axis.


Stay tuned.

Just perfect

Hi there ? Still alive ? My congrats !

I was looking for a good top down tactical police game here and then, but now I found the perfect version.

"Door Kickers" made everything and I mean EVERYTHING right. Perfect visuals, perfect UI, perfect everything.

I will write a long post here about this soon. Until then, get it, if you are into this kind of game, you will be delighted.

Time for some not played games

1. First of is Bientôt l’été. I read about the idea of the studio behind this product, Tale of Tales, that went down in 2015 I think. They were trying to make art-games.

This game is a walking simulator, where you walk around a beach and enter a house. In this house you can play chess and drink wine and smoke cigarettes.

Actually, that's all I can say, cause I see no real sense in this product. It is made with Unity. That is kinda cool, but they did not even bother to customize the default unity game setting dialog.

2. Blades of Time", unplayed in my library, made in 2012 by Gaijin Entertainment. First, it's some kind of 3D battle sword game. You play a impressively underdressed female blade worrier. You interrupt some kind of ceremony, then use some sphere and enter some kind of "Dragon Land".



I was bored already.

I "fought" some stone creatures with wild clicking and then my character started to speak and, this is a new one, lisps !

The graphics look like 2012.

The sound in the story pre-rendered animation was three times louder than the sound in the actual game.

I don't kow. I know the publisher Gaijin Entertainment and I had, for some reason, a good impression of other games made by it, only to discover that there are no other games.

Then, I found out they made Warthunder, a very impressive, yet Free2PayALot second world war mixture of flight and land fights

3. BRAINPIPE.  No idea. Just a weired tunnel with a strange trashy design where you fly through. There are fires, and symbols. You collect the symobols. They are added on your screen. You bumb agains the fire things, a red circle shows less red than before. I am not sure what to say about this. I like the music when you quit.
Ok.

Whats up, Doc ?

Whats happening ?

1.Firewatch



Amazing artwork, amazing voiceplay, great scenario and atmosphere.

Wanna be a fire watcher in the 80ies ? Here's your chance !

This alone is worth 1/4 of the money they want for it. The problem about this game is, when
I say just one sentence about the game itself, I spoil it. So.


If you buy it, you support games of this kind and the company behind it, so do that if you like the style.




2. Men of War - Assault Squad 2

I'm still into this amazing RTS, even when
the company just has no clue how to make
their community happy.

The latest DLC adds some features that actually should be part of the game itself from the start,
but hey, if they need money, its kinda wort it if you're a fan.






3. Darkest Dungeon

I finally got to it, after it is out of Early Access, and it is a very good game.

Well, actually, the ideas are awesome, but the longtime motivation is not working for me.

For me this game is more a study and a cultural merge of Game Of Throne dramatics into
a dark world for round turned fighting areas with innovative micro management of your heroes.

A game / proof of concept well done if you are into analysing game concepts, for sure.