Feeling Forgotten

[joaocanada]

Hey guys after seeing three parts of updates filled with arma 2 makes me think? are we "THE PR" players being forgotten or there is nothing to report. I notice how the forum's highlights are being taken over by arma 2 and soon PR:V. also makes me think that after 2 year my desktop is junk already.

if its true I will cry!!!

[Eddiereyes909]

Hey guys after seeing three parts of updates filled with arma 2 makes me think? are we "THE PR" players being forgotten or there is nothing to report. I notice how the forum's highlights are being taken over by arma 2 and soon PR:V. also makes me think that after 2 year my desktop is junk already.

if its true I will cry!!!

No it's not true. You forgot to look at the DEV Highlights. There highlights there are mostly all PR for BF2.

Trust me, you aren't being forgotten.

[motherdear]

wait what, because there is a few arma and pr:v highlights over a period of 2 weeks you feel forgotten ?
somebody hasn't been playing attention to the highlights throughout the time between the last patch. lots and lots of stuff is being added, and might be the biggest patch to date...

[mangeface]

Hey guys after seeing three parts of updates filled with arma 2 makes me think? are we "THE PR" players being forgotten or there is nothing to report. I notice how the forum's highlights are being taken over by arma 2 and soon PR:V. also makes me think that after 2 year my desktop is junk already.

if its true I will cry!!!

Dude, that's the first really BIG news I've heard about ArmA2 in a loooooong time. BF2 had a new release not tooooo long ago. PR:ArmA2 hasn't even had it's v0.1 release (which I'm dying for). Keep your hopes up, there's plenty of Devs that still work on PR:BF2.

And my computer feels like junk too and I bought it a year ago. It had the top of the line graphics card in it, and now there's 4 or 5 higher models out already.

[Rhino]

PR:BF2 is hardly forgotten, right now I would say there is far more work being done on PR:BF2 than PR:ARMA2.

[Nebsif]

How can u feel forgotten when the DEVs are pretty much spamming highlights and blogs with new PR:BF2 stuff?
There were no highlights for ARMA2 for a loooong time, and those released so far arent as impressive as the BF2 ones, the only new-new thingy is the jackal me thinks, and the different types of IEDs.

[Rhino]

Ye and the Jackal etc will go into PR:BF2 as well as hardly anything is just made for only one engine.

[Wicca]

And we get Mortars. Heeey!

I love mortars...

[J.F.Leusch69]

...welcome to the forums

[mat552]

They haven't forgotten BF2 by a longshot. It's just that ArmA has all the new shiny feeling of a different engine and must be brought over to PR standards is all.

Don't they have different DEV teams?

[gazzthompson]

Ye and the Jackal etc will go into PR:BF2 as well as hardly anything is just made for only one engine.

Question Rhino (or any other DEV).

Am i right in thinking, you can model something to an uber level then import/"downgrade"/convert/whatever to any engine you want?

So you model an SA80 say an a very high level, then import/adjust to the various types of quality for the various engines out there ?

Another example, you model something to the highest quality for the "PR model database" then can import to any engine you wish? dunno how much of that makes sense as im very drunk but yeah.

[Spec]

Hah. At first I thought you meant that PR:A2 or PR:V would be forgotten, not PR:BF2. Really, there's been alot of updates for the latter recently. Just look at the german faction thread and all the dev blogs that followed it. And the fact that the forum is officially at "BTW" state now. I'm feeling like I always do some time before a new release might be announced.

[Warno000]

If its any consolation to the Devs....I don't feel left out.

1. Mortars
2. New faction (German)
3. AAV7
+ All sorts of other little goodies. Thats a lot to pack into a single + .01 update. The mortars are sure to change overall gameplay.

[Hitperson]

Question Rhino (or any other DEV).

Am i right in thinking, you can model something to an uber level then import/"downgrade"/convert/whatever to any engine you want?

So you model an SA80 say an a very high level, then import/adjust to the various types of quality for the various engines out there ?

Another example, you model something to the highest quality for the "PR model database" then can import to any engine you wish? dunno how much of that makes sense as im very drunk but yeah.

you can "optimise" within 3ds max but the automatic way makes things look fugly, i'm not sure how the proper modellers do it.

[stealth420]

Dude if your feeling this lonley off a PC game you really need a girlfriend.

[Rhino]

Question Rhino (or any other DEV).

Am i right in thinking, you can model something to an uber level then import/"downgrade"/convert/whatever to any engine you want?

So you model an SA80 say an a very high level, then import/adjust to the various types of quality for the various engines out there ?

Another example, you model something to the highest quality for the "PR model database" then can import to any engine you wish? dunno how much of that makes sense as im very drunk but yeah.

Yes and No, but mostly yes but it really depends on the model itself and how it's been made and what you want to do with it.

There is a modelling technique that most of us devs use now called Subdivision modelling, (aka Next Generation Modelling) where you basically make a very highlight detailed model by using subdivision techniques and you get an incredibly smooth model with lots and lots of polys/tris and you then use this very highly detailed model to make a much lower quality model but the lower quality model still looks like it has many of the details the higher quality model has as the normals maps, AO maps etc are all "baked" off the high quality model.

Here is a quick example of my first subdivision model: My First High Poly Model & Normal Map Bake - Project Reality Forums


But in relation to models going ingame, if you look at the Jackal WIP pics for example, and if you look at the wheels you will see they have all the groves modelled in them where ingame, they will just be round wheels but the normal maps will be baked off that high poly model onto the low poly model, making the low poly model look like it has thous grooves when really, it dosen't


Something we are also looking into which I'm trying to spearhead for a future release is making separate 1st and 3rd person weapon models and textures where the 3rd person model is a much lower poly model and much smaller texture which both have been made off the much higher poly and larger texture, 1st person model.

I used the EOTECH for my example to the rest of the team where here is the high poly 1st person model (and also currently the 3rd person model) which is 2,300 tris.



I then took this model and made a much lower poly model consisting of 382 tris which is a reduction of 83% and then baked the textures from the 1st person model but you probably can't see much of a difference:



but here's the edged faces:


and then any differences you can see up close, you can't see from 5m away which for a 3st person model your hardly going to be within more than 5m of anouther guy's weapon.



and the much smaller texture sheet made off it if you want to see it




This is something we are going to try and do more and more in the future with all new handheld weapons and some of the old ones to try and improve performance although it will most likley take a lot of time and work to implement it so dont expect this to happen for some time but this is a good example for your question

[Tim270]

Very surprised that is not practised already o.0

Seems like the most obvious way to help a lot with performance.

[Farks]

"Arma II? On my Realitymod.com?"

[Rhino]

Very surprised that is not practised already o.0

Seems like the most obvious way to help a lot with performance.

Indeed the problem with it is its quite a bit of extra work and in the past we didn't have any huge performance problems to worry + this newish method of baking normals and textures from high poly models wasn't so known about and very few people had the skill a few years ago. Now its pretty much a required skill for anyone these days

[AquaticPenguin]

Ye and the Jackal etc will go into PR:BF2 as well as hardly anything is just made for only one engine.

I came

As far as i'm aware the devs working on PR2, Vietnam + Arma2 are almost separate teams which share assets + skill sets. It's not people being moved around, but people being gained.