OAC:Project

by the OAC Project Team

Project info

Welcome to the OAC project - OFP ArmA Conversion.

Our earnest thanks

to our hosts:

• Page hosted by armaholic: OAC project page made by Raptor
  
• Forum hosted by dev-heaven.net: [1]
  
• Soure repository hosted by dev-heaven.net
• Issuetracker Redmine hosted by dev-heaven.net: OAC bugtracker
• YomaTools hosted by quest-link.net

to individuals

• armaholic team for hosting our page and projects!
• Sickboy for hosting OAC @ dev-heaven.net!
• MadDogX for hosting the OAC YomaTools server!
• Yoma for ongoing development and support of YomaTools!
• Raptor for designing the excellent OAC project page, OAC banner and setting up the OAC forum!
• stun for play testing the CWC campaign and many fixing issues in the process!

Purpose of the OAC project

• Playable content. Now. Much. Enjoyable. Good quality.
• In the form of: Get any OFP missions or campaigns playable in ArmA with little or no
  modification of the mission file.
• Possibility to use community made addons alongside to improve the visual aspects,
  sounds or gameplay.
• Easy access to the content.
• Automated update and delivery system.
• Open system, focus on compatibility with community addons and MODs.
• Open source project - every can contribute very easily.

NOT the purpose

• Make custom models, textures, sounds.
• Convert (OFP) models to ArmA.
• Change the gameplay itself.

Cooperation

CWR MOD

The goal from CWR is to recreate the whole OFP CWC experience.

The OAC project will be compatible to CWR and if it makes it possible to run any OFP mission with CWR.
So OAC can act as an supplement to CWR.
Project OAC uses plain ArmA as a base for models, sounds and graphics.

CWR and OAC will share their development progress of the CWC single player campaign.
In addition to that both will work closely together on the config part to ensure full compatibility.

Up until today the major difference between both is that OAC is aiming for open development, easy
contribution and iterative development with as many releases as possible whereas CWR relies on few
releases to ensure top quality from the start.

How does it work

You cannot run OFP missions or campaigns in ArmA for a few technical reasons.
Actually it is quite simple to solve these.

Foremost it is about the missing units (classes).
The other problem is that the script syntax change a bit from OFP to ArmA
(strict string-code requirement).

The solution.

For the first problem only a simple compatibility addon is needed the maps the missing classes
to existing ArmA classes.
With a few simple config tricks it also auto embeds models missing in plain ArmA like the
Bradley if the community addon is loaded alongside.

For the CWC and Res campaign and mission a few additional content addons come
along that contain the music, speech files and similar content.

Now this approach is not limited to BI content, yet the starting version also
allows to load WGL5 missions or campaign conversions and it is easily expandable
to virtually any other OFP addon or MOD.

Most missions that do not involve much scripting can already be loaded with only the
compatibility addon.

For missions that do not work out of the box there is an almost completely
automated process to convert any mission to ArmA scripting standards in a few seconds.
The process already works very well, yet it is easily expandable if necessary.

Last very rare and 'complicated' problems can easily be fixed by hand by any fair scripter.

More technical details below.

Open source project

The basic idea is that everything is easily accessible for anyone.

In extension to that anyone interested can contribute in different ways to the project.

For example by

• improving this wiki page
• reporting bugs on the missions or the addons
• try new missions and see if they mission file needs to be updated
• convert missions themselves and add them to the public hub
• improve the compatibility addon yourself by adding new class mappings of yet missing
  OFP addons or MODs.
  

To support this process the project heavily relies on tools that support collaboration.

The wiki, SVN, automated build scripts and YomaTools for project and mission delivery.

Only a very loose organization will keep the project on track and ensure the
quality and success of the project.

So overall it will be an easy access and easy to contribute focus to deliver
content as easily and as much as possible!

The seven roads to OAC

# I. Consumer

Not meant in a negative way. Simply plays the missions and campaigns provided.
Silent epicure.

Details: Download and play.

# II. Promoter

Tells his mates or other people about the project. Given he likes it of course. :)

Details: Tells us about promotions.

# III. Feedback

Shares his opinion about the project.
Makes suggestions how to improve any aspect of the project.
Suggests missions or campaigns for conversion.
Suggests OFP addons or MODs to be included in the compatibility addon.

Details: Where to post feedback.

# IV. Bugreporting

Reports bugs in converted missions or campaigns or bugs in the compatibility
addon itself at the bugtracker in a decent way (steps to reproduce, arma.rpt
error, screenshots/videos of the problem).

Details: Where to post bugs.

# V. Contributer

Helps to improve the wiki page.
Makes screenshots or videos to promote the project.
Helps maintaining the infrastructure of the project (source repository, build process, YAS server, issuetracker).
Supports the project with infrastructure.

Details: How to contribute.

# VI. Missions converter

Either you help to improve already converted missions or campaigns by fixing bugs
or improving the gameplay by altering the mission file itself to a limited degree.
Or you convert new missions or campaigns yourself and add them to the public sharing system.

Details: How to convert missions and share.

# VII. Core developer

You are already into config editing or want to learn something about it.
If so, this one is for you.
You can either improve the existing compatibility addon by improving the class
mapping in different ways or add new mappings for yet missing OFP addons or MODs.

Details: How to improve the compatibility addon.

The seven roads to OAC - subpage link overview

• I. Download and play

• # II. Tells us about promotions

# III. Where to post feedback

The OAC BI forum thread is the the best place to share your thoughts and suggestions about the project itself.

For bug reporting or suggesting new content to be made compatible the OAC bug tracker it the best place.

# IV. Where to post bugs

Please post bugs related to OAC project only at the OAC bugtracker.

The problems can be:

• Non working missions or campaigns
• Problems with the installation
• Problems with the updating

Please keep your bug reports as specific and as precise as possible.
Adding screenshots, videos or the errors from the arma.RPT help to visualize the problem.

A rough description of the steps to reproduce or the mission and its savegame
are another good addition to track the problem down.

Recommended tools for recording:

• GameCam
• Fraps
• Howie's Quick Screen Capture Tool

# VII. How to improve the compatibility addon

Project OAC uses Git as source control (SC) system for the development.

You can:

• download the complete source with Git
• improve the existing code
• add new class mappings

and upload your changes again for everyone to use and improve.

Find out how to get access to the source and contribute here.

Support OAC

OAC is an open project that invites you and anybody to contribute. Here is a brief overview of possible ways:

• Promotion screenshots.
• Promotion trailers.
• Campaign testing.
• Mission makers polishing conversions.
• Improve the compatibility addon.
• Convert campaign and missions.

See the next area contact, if you need advice.

Project team

Add yourself if you want to contribute.

• Members:
  • kju (project manager)
  • luemmel (campaign testing)
  • Mopar (campaign testing, campaign & mission conversion)
  • Raptor (page designer)
  • Snake Man (campaign & mission conversion)
  • stun (campaign testing and polishing)
  • The-F (island conversion)
  • Yoma (YomaTools developers)

• Contact:
  • Mail: [mailto:kju@dev-heaven.net kju@dev-heaven.net]
  • Account @ dev-heaven.net: kju
  • projec page

Project links

• Project page
• Forum
• Bugtracker
• Activity view
• Project roadmap
• News
• BI forum thread