So I’ve been working on Arma 3 weapon mods and they suck. Absolute bitch to work with. This doc will hopefully help me when I (unfortunately but inevitably) end up needing/wanting to tackle them again.

Document Status

• [x] Tools list
• [ ] Misc. Terminology
  • [x] Vertex Groups (incl. how to assign to them in Blender)
  • [x] Named Selections
  • [ ] Proxies
  • [ ] LODs
  • [ ] Textures (PAA format)
  • [ ] Materials (RVMAT format, Super shader phases)
• [ ] Arma Funkiness
  • [ ] “Weapons are created sideways and characters are created backwards” (RV engine uses -Y as forward, credit HorribleGoat)
  • [ ] Proxies are right-angle triangles (why?)
• [x] Barebones LOD list
  • [x] Res LODs
  • [x] View Pilot LOD
  • [x] Geometry LOD
  • [x] Memory LOD
  • [ ] Info about the shadow volume LOD
  • [ ] Blender configuration of LODs
• [ ] Weapon ‘bones’
• [x] Important memory points
• [x] Proxies
  • [x] Orientation issues in Blender
• [ ] CfgWeapons config guide
• [x] Swappable weapon textures & materials
• [ ] Credits

Terminology

Vertex Groups

Vertex groups are a concept in 3D modelling that allow you to bind vertices to a group to be managed or used elsewhere together. Arma makes heavy use of these through Named Selections.

To create a vertex group in Blender, let’s take the following example. Create a new Blender project, select the default cube spawned in the centre of your viewport and hit Tab to go into Edit Mode. Switch to Vertex selection mode in the top left hand corner of the screen.