Tips on Making a Finnish Mod

[SupahSulli 1]

Hey I have played a decent amount of Arma 3 with my friends (mostly fucking around) and I recently gained interest in making a comprehensive Finnish Defense Forces Mod because I couldn't find anything that included weapons, uniforms, vehicles, names, voices, etc. I was wondering what would be the best way to go about this. Tools, resources, assets, tutorials you would recommend would be gladly accepted.

[Pan Samogon 197]

Depends how much time you wanna spend for this and how accurate you will do so.

Create faction is hard work.And make this exceptional are even harder.

Reskins of vanilla uniform are done by somebody.Rk62/75 are also done by Bnae.Literally - you may create Finnish look like forces by existing addons,but it's will be lack of quality.

Probably you may ask for permission to use that in your addon.

 

If we talk about quality - then... first off,you have to attach to huge mod,like RHS or CUP as dependency addon.At least for some weapons,at least untill you create your own(Like PKM,BTR-60,BMP-2 or Mi-8... I know it's outdated for Finnish army,but it's better than nothing).And then - start making your own content.

How to make it:

-Create Highpoly using 3ds Max(Get Student version) or Blender(Free).If nessesary - sculpt details in Mudbox(Again - student version) or Zbrush.

-Create Lowpoly model.

-Create UV map

-Bake HP to LP

-Create textures and maps(using Photoshop or so)

-Create lods

-Import this ingame using ArmA3 tools

-Create config for it.

-Create addon PBO.

-Repeat for every new item you will made.

Afaik I didn't missed something.

 

Creating a faction is a proud work,but you really shouldn't do this alone,because it's gonna be really too much time.Im work over some project since end of the last autumn and it's still not done in my opinion.Think twise about it.There is a whole graveyard of undone/dead addons in Disscussion and even in Complete branch.What sence to start another one?

[SupahSulli 1]

Hey I was wondering if it was possible to re texture models from mods. I couldn't find where they would be located after scouring through Arma 3's files attempting to teach myself to texture. I am attempting to make a FDF mod for Arma 3 as my first project.

[Ltf 381]

If you want to retexture other modders stuff, ask to them first. And you are on the wrong place to ask this, so let me google that for you

[howells 37]

Nothing wrong with re-texturing modders stuff as long as you don't publicly release it. If you were to publicly release it you would need to ask the modders permission. 

tools required: 

- pbo manager

- arma 3 tools

You'll need to find your model first so grab the pbo you reckon its in, un-pbo it via pbo manager, then try find it, majority of time its in the data folder.

Re-texturing stuff is pretty easy, just grab the paa file linked to the model, convert to png via texview (arma tools tool) and go at it. 

In order to preview that change you must reverse what you did to get it, convert your new on to a paa, repbo that folder and there you go. 

 

Again I must stress that keep this at a personal level. Public release of other peoples work can land you in serious trouble.  

 

good luck

[BohemiaBeck 305]

Thread has been moved and other threads/posts have been merged.

[x3kj 1247]

If you use content from other people, ask before you act. I have seen people act like "hey i retextured your things and released it, i hope you are ok with it" - this is NOT OK.

Also, if the creators are supportive they might even tell you how their models are set up texture wise, what to consider etc.

Only models that are specifically set up to be retexturable are really retexturable without overwriting the original (overwriting someone elses work is for most creators unacceptable. Adding is often ok). Also, usually your work must not replace the original mod, it should depend on it. So if you collect stuff from say 10 mods, someone wanting to play/use your mod would have to install all 10 addons that you depend on. Less is more. 

 

Creating custom models is time consuming labor and requires much patience and will to self-educate (somewhat comparable in "required comittment" to learning a foreign language or a musical instrument by yourself).