Converting rfactor tracks to racer

[Mr Whippy]

Zmodeller can't handle a whole track at once really. Well I had errors/issues.

Best to import one or two GMT's at a time, then export to 3DS, and just work through like that.

Them import into Max one at a time, sort them out, rename them, do the materials, tidy it all up, layer them, whatever.

Then onto the next 3DS and so on, until you have them all in

Slow process but it's easier tidying on the way in than all at once at the end I think!


As for multi-sub, I agree they are generally good. The biggest issue is authoring them in the first place.

I'm certain back in the old days (pre 2000) I used to just have a cube for example. Sub-object, face, select one face, apply material slot 1 to it. Select another face, apply material slot 2 to it. At that stage it would pop up and ask me to generate a multi-sub, to which I'd say 'ok'
Then I could go exit sub-level, and pick the multi-sub material from the selected object. The slot 1 and 2 materials were essentially then instanced inside the multi-sub material.


Does it work like that any more?

I can't seem to have Max automate the process any more. I have to actually apply a multi-sub to my object, and start using matID's per face to select the right material.

I'm certain this behaviour is still in there, but it's turned off by default or I am missing something obvious.

I don't get WHY it's changed, as it made total sense before and made using multi-subs easy and fast and the obvious route to go. Now it just seems fiddly and timely to set them up and use them


3DS Max, changing features that didn't need changing between version updates... gah!

Dave

 

[Some1]

As for multi-sub, I agree they are generally good. The biggest issue is authoring them in the first place.

I'm certain back in the old days (pre 2000) I used to just have a cube for example. Sub-object, face, select one face, apply material slot 1 to it. Select another face, apply material slot 2 to it. At that stage it would pop up and ask me to generate a multi-sub, to which I'd say 'ok'
Then I could go exit sub-level, and pick the multi-sub material from the selected object. The slot 1 and 2 materials were essentially then instanced inside the multi-sub material.


Does it work like that any more?

I can't seem to have Max automate the process any more. I have to actually apply a multi-sub to my object, and start using matID's per face to select the right material.

I'm certain this behaviour is still in there, but it's turned off by default or I am missing something obvious.

I don't get WHY it's changed, as it made total sense before and made using multi-subs easy and fast and the obvious route to go. Now it just seems fiddly and timely to set them up and use them

I don't know.. I find your way of arranging materials in Max a little cumbersome. A material per slot is not my cup of coffee...

I usually start with a multisub from the beginning. I can rearrange the materials and use IDs to assing different materials to different faces etc.

Perhaps it was changed because the majority of the industry works with multi subs? I don't know really...

 

[Mr Whippy]

Problem with multi-sub materials is that they are not always fully supported outside of Max, depending on what you are working from and to etc. I've worked with real-time in GBA stuff, right through to running beta's of unbiased rendering stuff, so I've worked how I need to work.

The author didn't really need to worry about multi-sub setup/layout/matID because Max did it for them, but as said, it now seems MORE cumbersome if you DO want to use multi-sub.
I'll have to have a read about the auto-multi-subbing. It *does* do it if you attach two objects with different materials (it'll ask and then generate the multi-sub for you)
But the other behaviour where you select sub-faces and apply a new material, doesn't any more


I'm sure someone on CG Talk will know the answer


There are as many reason to use multi-sub to not use multi-sub... they are just another means to another end.

I've used them and enjoyed using them, while in other cases I avoid them.

To be honest, if the workflow for multi-sub was better, I might use them more. But they are actually rather slow to work with. As said, if the old behaviour noted above is still evident in 3DS Max, and just needs turning on, then it'll certainly help you if you work with them almost exclusively

Dave

 

[boomer541]

I'm updating a porsche carrera that uses multisubs. Bad idea as I have a wheel with two geobs and 16 materials with up to 5 multisub materials that have nothing to do with the wheel.

That's why I like Blender, if I have an object with fifty faces I can have fifty materials - no multisubs. Easy ans simple. KISS.

 

[camsinny]

Maybe in blender, but as soon as you export it won't be that way.
If you have superfluous materials in a file that's bad importing or authoring, nothing to do with max.

 

[Mr Whippy]

It all depends how you author your materials and build things up.

Multi-sub have their place as much as single materials, it just depends what you are doing.

I can see why you might get other materials being dragged across if you have one multi-sub for a wheel, and include the LOD models/textures in there too possibly, or other combinations of that. You might end up with shaders in an ASE that are not used, but I'm pretty sure a DOF only holds materials/shaders that ARE attached to some of it's geometry, so they have a reason for being there

But that is all down to management and planning really.


No right or wrong, just different ways to suit different needs/preferences

Dave

 

[boomer541]

The particular car wheel I referenced had a multisub material with a submaerial "asdasd" with the texture "none" in the dof according to modller report and the only way to get rid of the Qlog error was to make a shader for that submaterial. There was no texture for the car labeled asdasd.
That's where the problem is. It's the shaders required for the submaterials that have to be made.
How does one made a shader for a "none" texture?

 

[Mr Whippy]

I've had that issue with the Lambo wheels, for some reason I can't now remember.

It's to do with the wheel texture also being used on the tyre or something, but it appears on the brake disc too iirc.

I can't remember exactly but it was due to sub-materials not passing their material name properly maybe, or passing the texture name as the shader name in the legacy Racer graphics engine bit...!?!?

In any case, nothing is a major problem, you just work around little issues. I've never had anything that generally stops me doing work quickly bar TrackEd.

These days with Racer 3DS Max tool, Some1's tool, and Modeller.exe, you can generally get things to work really quickly or find the right tool for the job

Dave

 

[boomer541]

The last tracked that worked very well was with ver 0.0834 and I have had no problems using it. That was the version I used for the Sugo update I did.
I can put the offending .dof's into Blender, texture them properly and then export them irectly to racer, just a rotten way to do it.

Thanks for your comments Mr. Whippy.