Oxygen 2 - Manual
Basic setup
External Viewer: C:\program files\bohemia interactive\arma\ArmA.exe -window -buldozer -noland
- -worldCfg= - you can force using specific world config (weather settings)
- -name= - you can force specific user game settings (your ArmA instalation has separate user settings that can for example disable shadows in .../My Documents/ArmA)
- - addons... used to specify a text file which ArmA.exe will use to load project-specific extras (sunlight, clouds, and sky textures)
- -cfg= - used to specify a basic configuration file (graphics, memory, size and position of viewer window)
- -noland - option to not display any ground
- -window - option to run viewer in window instead of fullscreen
DLL Folder - path to O2 installation
Path for textures - path to work disk (usually P:\)
Source Safe Database - login to Microsoft Visual Studio Source Safe database
Terminology
Point – individual point in space
Vertex – point of intersection of two or more edges
Edge - connection between two vertices
Polygon – planar surface with any number of edges
Triangle – polygon with with three edges
Quad – polygon with four edges
Face – in O2 faces can be triangles or quads
Normal - a normal is a line which is perpendicular to the plane of a polygon. In O2 it appears as a blue line at each vertex.
Skeleton - simplified representation of a model that has moving parts
Bone – base component of a skeleton used for animation, each bone represents a moving part
Section - is created everytime when there's need on the graphics card (GPU) to change parameters. This happens when information about each object, texture and material is read from the CPU or when bones limit is exceeded. The overhead for transmitting instructions between CPU and GPU then slows down the performance of scene-drawing, which could normally draw hundrets of polygons or textures.
The time it takes to render a scene depend largely on these factors:
- number of vertices in the scene
- textures - resolution and the number of times it appears in the scene are both factors. If the texture has transparency, even more calculations need to be performed.
- number of sections in the scene
The origin point for coordinates (xyz = 0,0,0) is marked by the intersection of the red grid lines. Gridlines are spaced at 1m and all units in O2 are measured in meters.
TAB – cycle between viewports (or click in any viewport with mouse to set the active viewport)
arrow keys – scroll in viewports
CTRL+arrow keys – faster scrolling in viewports
ALT+RMB – rotate camera (only works in 3D Preview viewport)
ALT+LMB – scroll in viewports
ALT+RMB+LMB - zoom (mousewheel can also be used to zoom)
F9 – reset to 4 viewport mode (3D, front, top, left)
Space – center active viewport to pin
S – switch between selection masking modes that will be displayed Buldozer (unselected=red, selected=shining, none)
pan camera W, E, S, arrows (same as Lmouse+drag)
rotate camera A, D
rotate object NumPad_arrows (same as Rmouse+drag)
CTRL + camera movements - slower movements
Numpad_5 – reset camera and center object.
Numpad +/- - zoom
[ ] - decrease/increase speed of RTM animations
SHIFT [ ] – spomalení animace //unsure of exact function
Enter / Mousewheel cycle through animations defined in model.cfg
Back space cycle backwards through animations defined in model.cfg
change weather RWIN+U / RWIN+I
change time of day RWIN+T / RWIN+Y
toggle display of textures RWIN+X
Buldozer Menu
Start/Restart - launch or restart Buldozer viewer
Other > Attach - Attach O2 to an existing instance of Buldozer
Other > Detach - Detach O2 from Buldozer
Other > Stop - Stop updating to Buldzoer
Other > Run Script - Start a script in Buldozer
Other > Refresh Viewer - Refresh Buldozer
Hide Textures - Toggle display of textures
Hide Materials - Toggle display of materials
Hide Proxies - Toggle display of proxies
Hide Hidden Faces - Toggle display parts set as 'hidden' in O2
Multiple LODs - Toggle display of multiple LODs
Show Shadow – Toggle display of shadows (uses ShadowVolume to cast shadows on Resolution LODs)
Beware Unsupported Textures - Toggle checking for unsupported textures. Buldozer will sometimes crash because of unsupported textures, this will check if the model has links only to PAA and PAC textures. Turning this on may decrease performance.
Bring to top after update – If this option is active, buldozer will be moved on top of other windows after each update
Selection Masking > Mask Texture - Unselected faces will be masked by a texture
Selection Masking > Mask Material - Unselected faces will be masked by a material
Selection Masking > Highligt - Selected faces will be fully lit
Selection Masking > Crop - Unselected faces will be hidden
Selection Masking > Disable - No selection masking
Selection Masking > Change Masking Texture - Set path to a texture to use for masking
Selection Masking > Change Masking Material - Set path to a material to use for masking
Ground object... – Setup an object to use as a default ground surface (can be useful for viewing shadows cast by objects)
Markers... – Setup an object to be shown in place of isolated vertices (can be useful for viewing memory points)
Autocenter - Automatically center view on object
Center to Pin - Center view on pin location
Center to Selection - Center view on selection
Freeze Animation - Freeze RTM animation
Environment Editor - Opens a dialog window to adjust settings for time of day, weather, fog and lens apperture. Also allows saving current settings as presets.
Pin Tool
The pin tool has many uses but basically is a moveable reference point, which can be activated and deactivated.
R – Sets cursor to 'move pin' mode. Click to place pin.
C – Centers pin to selection, or when no selection exists, centers pin to whole scene.
Space – Center active viewport to pin
Shift+C – Activate/deactivate pin. When active many functions will use the pin - such as rotate, scale, insert point.
You can use PIN mode also for simple snap.
Select LMB part of the mesh you want to snap to another. Keep the LMB pressed and move with pointer to desired snap location.
Creating and selecting objects
At the bottom of the O2 window there is a status bar which displays total vertices and faces and selected vertices and faces.
Insert creates a new point at the cursors location. If the pin is activated, the point will be created at the pins location.
LMB selects objects (drag to select an area)
Ctrl+LMB adds to selection
Ctrl+Shift+LMB substracts from selection
Delete - deletes selection
F6 - create new face from selected vertices (you must have only 3 or 4 vertices selected)
D - removes faces, but vertices remain
CTRL+Delete – removes vertices and merges adjacent faces; preserves UV coords in most situations.
ALT+Backspace – Undo
CTRL+L - Lock selection
CTRL+Shift+L - Unlock selection
CTRL+A - Select all
Editing
The most important selection modes are available via toolbar icons
Editing modes:
F2; O – select whole objects
F4; V – select vertices
T – select polygons
Z – zoom mode
RMB drag to move selection
Shift+RMB drag to create a copy of the selection
Ctrl+RMB drag to rotate selection, activate pin to rotate around pin location
Ctrl+Shift+RMB drag to scale selection, activate pin to scale from pin location
All the functions listed above can be done with numeric values Menu: Points > Transform 3D > Move / Rotate / Scale.
It also allows the function to be performed on the whole scene in each LOD by using the 'apply to all LODs' checkbox.
Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V copy and paste. Can be useful between LODs and also between instances of O2
X / Y / Z keys are used to constrain viewport movements to specified axis. Each viewport will display the axis it is currently constrained to beside the viewport name.
P - opens a dialog box to flatten selected points in the selected axis, and it can optionally flatten to pin's plane.
To merge all selected points into one, use Menu: Points > Merge or to merge using proximity threshold use Menu: Points > Merge near
IMPORTANT! Points can only be merged if they have the same vertex properties. While these are no longer necessary in the ArmA engine, they may be present in older models. Use Shift+E to view and edit properties of selected vertices.
For boolean operations, use Menu: Structure > Carve. It will use selected objects to create breakes in the unselected objects. It's not suitable for very complex shapes, and even with basic shapes it might generate some unnecessary geometry that should be manually cleaned.
Local Axes
For manipulation with charcter model selection (bones) a feature for local axis was introduced.
You can define local axis for each selection by a triangle that is named in work selection together with the mesh (work selections start with minus letter)
- hlava
Than after you enable local axis mode in menu, you can manipulate with the mesh in work selection using standard editing tools.
How to define sceleton with local axes and hierarchy:
- select proxy defining axis - menu from proxy will setup PIN - select all faces in hierarchy that will be afected by this axis - menu Selection from local axis will make a work selection (marked by "-" ) - make a named selection with the proxy and a bone
Hiding and Locking Selections
CTRL+H hide selection
CTRL+I invert selection
CTRL+Shft+H unhide selection
CTRL+L lock selection (note: a locked selection cannot be moved, but can be deleted)
CTRL+Shift+L unlock selection
Measuring
Measurements can be made using Shift+F11 to measure between the pin and the cursor.