Vehicle Damage

Adding Damage to your Vehicle Addon - Tutorial

Draft Revision 0 - June 18, 2008

I won't pretended to be a definitive expert on this, but it seems no one else has compiled known bits all together.

What I will address in this tut;

• Adding damage textures over a model once fully damaged
• Animating sections of the model upon damage
• Basic windscreen damage

What I won't address (until further knowledge);

• Level 2 or intermediate damage textures
• Window armour

Scope

• Most if not all ArmA vehicles
• You can edit the P3D file (and have O2 installed)

ADDING DAMAGE TEXTURES

Step 1 - Face selection

• In all your Resolution and XXXX View LODs ensure the WHOLE vehicle is highlighted (ALT-A) in O2 and the whole vehicle is named "zbytek"
• If at any time you add to the model, ensure you Redefine "zbytek" to be the whole model again.

Step 2 - Material definitions

• In every Resolution and XXXX View LOD ensure every texture you plan to make damaged has a MATERIAL definition
• This also typically means each texture will also have a "_NOHQ.paa" and a "_SMDI.paa" version of the textures.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~nrspence/ArmA/DamageTut/DT_1.jpg

1. CTRL-Click on a Texture in the texture list
2. From the menu select FACES -> FACE PROPERTIES
3. Material definition appears in the lower right box

• If the texture does not have this, you probably have no choice except to create a Material definition.

[u]Step 3[/u] - Destruct RVMATs - Once all textures have been checked / fixed you don't need to re-enter O2 - For each texture with a Materials definition you need to know 2 things

     (a) the filename and location of the NOHQ file
     (b) the dimensions of the texture (eg 1024x512 or 256x256 etc)

- Now create a [b][i]FILENAME[/i]_destruct.rvmat[/b] for each texture using a copy of below; [quote] ambient[]={1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0}; diffuse[]={1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0}; forcedDiffuse[]={0.0,0.0,0.0,0.0}; emmisive[]={0.0,0.0,0.0,1.0}; specular[]={1.0,1.0,1.0,0.0}; specularPower=40.0; PixelShaderID="NormalMapMacroASSpecularDIMap"; VertexShaderID="NormalMapAS"; class Stage1 { texture="[b][color=red]SIG_general\effects\bottom_nohq.pac[/color][/b]"; uvSource="tex"; class uvTransform { aside[]={1.0,0.0,0.0}; up[]={0.0,1.0,0.0}; dir[]={0.0,0.0,0.0}; pos[]={0.0,0.0,0.0}; }; }; class Stage2 { texture="ca\data\destruct\vehicle_destr[b][color=red]256_256[/color][/b]_mc.paa"; uvSource="tex"; class uvTransform { aside[]={1.0,0.0,0.0}; up[]={0.0,1.0,0.0}; dir[]={0.2,0.0,0.0}; pos[]={0.2,0.0,0.0}; }; }; class Stage3 { texture="#(argb,8,8,3)color(1,1,1,1)"; uvSource="tex"; class uvTransform { aside[]={1.0,0.0,0.0}; up[]={0.0,1.0,0.0}; dir[]={0.0,0.0,0.0}; pos[]={0.0,0.0,0.0}; }; }; class Stage4 { texture="ca\data\destruct\vehicle_destr[b][color=red]256_256[/color][/b]_smdi.paa"; uvSource="tex"; class uvTransform { aside[]={1.0,0.0,0.0}; up[]={0.0,1.0,0.0}; dir[]={0.0,0.0,0.0}; pos[]={0.0,0.0,0.0}; }; };

[/quote] - These new files will have to be in the same directory location as you other [b] .rvmat[/b] files - An example; If the main texture is [b]bottom.pac[/b] and the rvmat is [b]bottom.rvmat[/b], the new file should be [b]bottom_destruct.rvmat[/b]

There are 3 Red Highlighted section in the above code you need to customize;

 - The FIRST section needs to point to your relevant _NOHQ texture
 - The SECOND and THIRD section should (not need) point to the [u]default BIS texture of the same size as you texture[/u]
     0- i.e. [b]1024_512[/b] or [b]2048_1024[/b]
     0- Most dimensions are covered by BIS from 2048x2048 through 256x256

Once finished you should have 5 files for each texture;

  - 1 main, 1 Normal Map (NOHQ), 1 Spectral Map (SMDI), 1 standard Material RVMAT and 1 Destroyed RVMAT

[img]http://members.iinet.net.au/~nrspence/ArmA/DamageTut/DT_2.jpg[/img]

[u]Step 4[/u] - CONFIG.CPP - Not proven but likely in each [b]CfgSkeletons[/b] you will need to inherit a BIS class, in this example "Car"

[quote] class CfgSkeletons {

  class car; 
  class MyAddonSkeleton: car
  {

isDiscrete=1; skeletonInherit = ""; [/quote]

- Again not proven but likely in each [b]CfgModels[/b] you will need to inherit a BIS class, in this example "Car" again

[quote] class CfgModels { class default{}; class Vehicle: Default { sectionsInherit=""; sections[] = {xxxx, xxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx}; };

class Car: Vehicle { sectionsInherit="Vehicle"; sections[]= {xxxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxx, xxxxxx}; }; class MyAddonP3D: Car { skeletonName = "MyAddonSkeleton"; sectionsInherit="car"; [/quote]

- Under [b]CfgVehicles[/b] you then need to make a [b]class Damage[/b] definition.

 Below is an example

[quote] class CfgVehicles { class Landrover; // extended class class MyAddon: Landrover { ............ ............ class Damage { tex[] = {}; mat[] = { "SIG_general\effects\bottom.rvmat", "SIG_general\effects\bottom.rvmat", "SIG_general\effects\bottom_destruct.rvmat", ............. ............ ............. "SIG_general\effects\LastDamageTexture.rvmat", "SIG_general\effects\LastDamageTexture.rvmat", "SIG_general\effects\LastDamageTexture_destruct.rvmat" }; }; ............ ............ [/quote]

- The definitions are done in groups of 3 definitions;

   0- First definition is NO damage
   0- Second definition is HALF damage
   0- Third definition is FULL damage

- In the example above there is no HALF damage definition, it simply copies the NO damage definition. - For half damage you could experiement with another "half" RVMAT file and reference it in the second line.

• • - With above complete for ever texture, this should now mean that you will see damage on your vehicle.

[b][u]EXCLUSION - GLASS - PENDING being written[/u][/b] - Glass needs extra work, I will describe one way to get "broken glass" effect

[b][u]NEXT - Animation - PENDING being written[/u][/b] - Covers HIDING sections of the vehicle once damaged (i.e. unnessisary model detail) - Also covers animating things like LANDCONTACTs etc

..... if I didn't forget something;

[u][b]Example Finished Product[/b][/u]

[img]http://members.iinet.net.au/~nrspence/ArmA/DamageTut/DT_6.jpg[/img]

[u]Final Note:[/u] No doubt some of above is simply a "Parrot copy" and can in reality be changed and IT WILL STILL WORK, but without spending hours upon hours finding out what bits can be changed or altered slightly I have simple written down what works for me. If you find working variations PLEASE let us all know.