F.A.Q. - OFP Materials feature

Is the Steam version supported?

Yes, it is. You can launch the game with the mod applied by using the shortcut generated by the installer (unless you unchecked the option).

In case you didn't know, you don't need to first open Steam in order to play Arma: Cold War Assault. But if you want to play from within Steam, then follow this steps:

1. In your games list right click on Arma: Cold War Assault and select Properties.
   
2. In the Properties window click on the SET LAUNCH OPTIONS... button.
3. Write this in the text field: -mod=OFPmaterials;
4. Click OK. Click Close. Click Play.

If you want to skip the OFP intro you can add -nosplash before the -mod line, like this:

-nosplash -mod=OFPmaterials;

Does it work with the old OFP?

Yes, it does. The installer should detect OFP automatically and use the correct installation path. The generated shortcut should properly point to the FLASHPOINTRESISTANCE.exe in this case. If for some reason the path to your OFP installation isn't shown correctly you can still browse your hard drive and select the folder where you have OFP installed, and then proceed as normal.

Is this compatible with DxDLL or other ENBs?

Yes, it is. OFP materials only modifies material properties, which is a built-in feature of all the ArmA games. Mods or tools that modify OFP/CWA visuals, including but not limited to DxDLL, won't conflict with this project, unless they already conflict with the vanilla material properties.

What's the difference between the low and high contrast versions?

There's two versions of the ofp_matdef_core.pbo file you can use: high and low contrast. Each one has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it's up to you which one to use. Note that the default one is the high contrast version, but only because it showcases better what this addon is all about.

Use high contrast if...

• You want more dramatic lighting applied to everything
• You are not planning on creating or playing missions that use dynamic spawning
• You are not using user made addons which don't have the new custom material definitions
• You want to create good looking videos or screenshots

Use low contrast if...

• You are planning on creating or playing missions that use dynamic spawning
• You are using user made addons which don't have the new custom material definitions
• You don't mind losing enhanced lighting for units, buildings and other structures (terrain, vegetation, water and glass will still have the enhanced lighting).

Basically, the low contrast version is the most compatible all around, but it loses some lighting effects. The high contrast is the one that provides more eye-candy, but it makes dynamically spawned and unsupported addon units, structures and weapons look flat and out of place.

How do I change the contrast settings?

If you want to use the low contrast version you can launch the installer again, select Repair and then check the "Install low contrast version" option.

If you want to do this manually, simply copy the ofp_matdef_core.pbo file found in the low contrast folder and paste it inside the addons one, overwriting the existing version.

To change it back to high contrast then follow the same steps, but copy the pbo found in the high contrast folder instead.

You can also edit the provided Config.cpp (found in _pbo\ofp_matdef_core) and comment and uncomment the #include line of the contrast file you want, and then compile the pbo.

Some things appear too bright and flat colored compared to the rest, why is this happening?

Either those units or structures have been spawned dynamically or they belong to an unsupported addon.

To add support to a given addon you can create a pbo yourself using the provided template. You can find this template in the _config_template folder. It’s already commented, so refer to it for further instructions. Feel free to share it publicly once you’re done, be it in the release thread of this addon, another thread, or bundled in the addons folder of your own addon or mod.

If you're sure the addon is supported, then more than likey the conflicting units or structures have been spawned dynamically. OFP is unable to apply materials to dynamically spawned units, objects and weapons. Anything that wasn't present at the start of a mission won't use any material at all, and will look flat and way too bright compared to the rest.

Solutions

Let me advance that there’s no real, long term, no-hassle solution that I’m aware of. If you know of any, please, let me know. With that said, there’s ways to work around this, none of them optimal or practical.

• Place in the editor objects, units, etc of the same class you are planning to spawn dynamically
  This might work when you want to spawn one or two classes, but it’s not an optimal solution for missions with lots of different class types that are spawned dynamically, as it would require manually placing dozens of units and structures. You should also not remove them during the mission. For materials to be applied there must always be an unit of the same class already present in the editor. If you remove the units you manually placed, further spawned units will be material-less.
  
  
• Alt+Tab
  Yes, really. Alt+tabbing resets the rendering, so it reapplies materials to all present units, structures and weapons. If you are using Windowed Mode then you can minimize and maximize the OFP/CWA window for the same effect.

If after adding the texture paths to the proper material classes the units still appear too bright and flat, then the models of the affected units or objects haven't been binarized. You would need to binarize them yourself or ask someone else (preferably the author) to do it for you.

Other than that, the installation or the addon folder must have been corrupted somehow. Launch the installer and select Repair to fix this.