Porting ArmA (1) addon
Posted: 2009-06-04 03:41:56
Porting ArmA (1) addon
I read some initial reports that ArmA 2 will not read those ArmA (1) binarized ODOL models, however this is NOT TRUE. I have succesfully ported my PMC Apache addon which is in binarized ODOL format, only changes I had to do is to replace the version number in "requiredVersion" which was "too new" for ArmA 2 and also change the crew classname from old SoldierWPilot to USMC_Soldier_Pilot class.
The apache works great, no porting problems that I can think of.
Problems start to come when you have complex addons which reference a lot of ArmA textures, configs and even models (usually WRP terrains using ArmA objects). With those you get into the muddy waters.
WRP terrains
For example WRP terrain with custom and ArmA (1) objects, well the custom objects work as is naturally, but all of the ArmA (1) objects need to be replaced with something from ArmA 2 or from custom addons. This is major problem, for example I of course wanted to bring in my 51km desert terrain, but it uses solely the ArmA (1) objects and even the close ground textures (only the one satellite texture is "custom" in the WRP pbo). It is... well to my knowledge impossible to port it as ArmA 2 doesn't have many (if any?) same objects as in Sahrani (I'm just guessing here, but there is none of those desert iraq/mog style buildings).
Otherwise the good old WrpTool 4WVR editing and then binarizing works just fine, nothing has been changed on the engine.
Characters
Soldiers models can be difficult too, for example all VTE models refer quite a lot to the ArmA (1) face and wound textures, which all needs to be now included in the pbo itself.
Weapons
Are quite straight forward ports if they use custom textures. The basic M16 muzzle flash proxy still works ok, so thats good.
Conclusion
So in a way, to me at least, it doesn't matter that much if your addon comes from OFP or ArmA (1), there is still quite a lot of work to do if it uses a lot of OFP/ArmA (1) content. It really depends on the addon, how custom was the custom in it heh.
Actually now that I think of it, the PMC Apache port to ArmA (1) was great, as it is so dead easy to port to ArmA 2
Does anyone have any experience on porting stuff yet, any new knowledge, something to add to the above etc?
I read some initial reports that ArmA 2 will not read those ArmA (1) binarized ODOL models, however this is NOT TRUE. I have succesfully ported my PMC Apache addon which is in binarized ODOL format, only changes I had to do is to replace the version number in "requiredVersion" which was "too new" for ArmA 2 and also change the crew classname from old SoldierWPilot to USMC_Soldier_Pilot class.
The apache works great, no porting problems that I can think of.
Problems start to come when you have complex addons which reference a lot of ArmA textures, configs and even models (usually WRP terrains using ArmA objects). With those you get into the muddy waters.
WRP terrains
For example WRP terrain with custom and ArmA (1) objects, well the custom objects work as is naturally, but all of the ArmA (1) objects need to be replaced with something from ArmA 2 or from custom addons. This is major problem, for example I of course wanted to bring in my 51km desert terrain, but it uses solely the ArmA (1) objects and even the close ground textures (only the one satellite texture is "custom" in the WRP pbo). It is... well to my knowledge impossible to port it as ArmA 2 doesn't have many (if any?) same objects as in Sahrani (I'm just guessing here, but there is none of those desert iraq/mog style buildings).
Otherwise the good old WrpTool 4WVR editing and then binarizing works just fine, nothing has been changed on the engine.
Characters
Soldiers models can be difficult too, for example all VTE models refer quite a lot to the ArmA (1) face and wound textures, which all needs to be now included in the pbo itself.
Weapons
Are quite straight forward ports if they use custom textures. The basic M16 muzzle flash proxy still works ok, so thats good.
Conclusion
So in a way, to me at least, it doesn't matter that much if your addon comes from OFP or ArmA (1), there is still quite a lot of work to do if it uses a lot of OFP/ArmA (1) content. It really depends on the addon, how custom was the custom in it heh.
Actually now that I think of it, the PMC Apache port to ArmA (1) was great, as it is so dead easy to port to ArmA 2
Does anyone have any experience on porting stuff yet, any new knowledge, something to add to the above etc?