Progress report - April 2022

So, once again I've been a little lax on the updates, But it's been a pretty hectic year. SOG Prairie Fire came out, An Update for it came out, and I'm still doing stuff for Prairie Fire, and the XM8s and the big update happened, And my computer finally got to the point where it needed replacement.. but to me mostly it's been holdups that filled my 2021. Had been suffering pretty badly from fatigue and low-key stress throughout 2021, and it was all capped off with being diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes... which has been a thing. It's meant I've had to make lifestyle adjustments, (which and in and of itself is a point of stress and distress,) including my work hours, but at least as of this week I'm on insulin. I'm managing. Whee. Anyway - let's get into what's been going on.

FAL Improvements/C2A1

So to cut to the chase here - The C2A1 Portion of the FAL upgrade is done. It's textured, in game, looking good and waiting a pass on improved animations. There's a couple of bits I still also need to complete C1A1, and thus the Canuck set, but other than that, yeah. it's looking good. Going  over the technical side, by an large the C2's didn't have any high-poly-baking : most of the detail in the guns is carried by the in-game geometry and handcrafted detailing. The exceptions are the foregrip panels, the pistol grip and stock, for the reasons that they're all made of wood and my wood technique can't work without it -especially not in the stock.

For a more involved answer- immediately after the Big NIArms update, I dived into finishing these off, because I wanted these off my plate ASAP. Finished up modelling in mid-October,  November I was on other commitments( and getting the SCARs prepped for baking), but work started back hard in December.  By the end of February, after several full-week interruptions - all the texture work was done. Honestly, proud of the texture work. took a lot of care to replicate the milling and machining marks, because a lot of the metal surfaces of the weapon consisted on these. The net result worked, and it showed off by and large you can get away without doing hi-poly baking in Arma, in my Opinion. 

As for when these are coming out-At latest in time with the SCARs, but I'd like to get these out earlier if I can, so, I guess watch for a supplemental soon. 

FN SCARs

So, we're WELL into the texture work for the SCARs- which is a huge leap from where we were. Late October I finished off the final missing piece of hi-poly mesh work needed, everything baked and composited in early November, Texture work started in March. When I say well into I mean well into -  as of today, the majority of the parts for the two main configurations, the Heavy and Light (as well as subvariants thereof), are done. I'm going to be real, I'm really quite happy with these and now looking at other SCARs in other games I feel like they're all step downs on it.. which is odd for me, because I rarely get this  content with my own work. 

There's still plenty to do - the Subcompact and SSR uppers, some accessories and the EGLM off the top of my head - but we're at a point where for the most part these are looking closer to done than not across the board, which is nice. 

For larger versions of any of the above , and more, please check out this imgur album 

That's kind of it for active development- the XM29 has been sitting, baked, ready to go- and as soon as I'm done with the SCAR textures I'll be wrapping that up too. L4 Bren is likewise no progress and that'll be in line after the OICW. I know that written out here as I have this doesn't look like it, but all that has been a considerable chunk of work time.

That's kind of it for the moment, I guess. As NIArms creeps over the 3/4s of a decade in age, I want to thank you all for keeping the wheels on this train moving for this long, especially through a global pandemic.

Until next time,

Toadie out