attempt @ Modding racer and help needed

[ammods]

ok guys, after a long discussion with you, in my other thread, i thought i'd show you something what i've began working on,

now here's the problem i've posted screens, one is CG, one is nonCG what am i doing wrong, i could really use some feedback here, i'd like to begin to move to racer, as world racing 2 is old now and i need something else to bring my models to,

and racer is emerging from the mire of car modding, failing this, i may just retire permanently from game modeling and thats not something i'd like to do..so if anyone can help me out then i'd be greatly indebted to you,

i've used the dof exporter for 3dsmax, i guess i've got alot to learn any info please, on what i need to do, once i've got my model to dof format,

 

[KS95]

You insert your "shader_whatever~vf_whatever" part underneath, just like the rest. The "vf_whatever" part defines how your texture will look, so for windows you'd use "vf_reflect_window"

 

[Stereo]

If two of the materials are using the same texture, you can take a shortcut by writing,

shader_material1~vf_standard
{
  layer0
  {
    map=windows.tga
  }
}

shader_material2~shader_material1
{
}

Or if each has its own texture, you'll have to give them all the whole thing in a row, like

shader_material1~vf_standard
{
  layer0
  {
    map=windows.tga
  }
}
shader_material2~vf_standard
{
  layer0
  {
    map=vpreflat.tga
  }
}
...etc.

Once you've written one, you can pretty much just copy/paste and change the material/texture names to suit each material anyway.

 

[ammods]

sorry about the no post, regarding this, but i'm wondering if i should hold off, on anymore conversion work for racer till V0.9 as i've got some really nice tracks to go in, but i'm gonna need alot of help with it, so shold i wait until then..or would someone be willing to teach me what i need to know,

and one other thing, what about cockpit view, is that going to be implemented, thanks for the answers

 

[QuadCoreMax]

...as i've got some really nice tracks to go in, but i'm gonna need a lot of help with it...

I've been learning & experimenting thanks to racer.nl which is really a huge bible if you want to be a serious modder.
Concerning tracks, I've been able to create/implement almost all available features, some requires more time & some are quicker.

Personally, I would put some attention to minimaps (splines), cams (fixed or animated ones), triggers events & sounds...that's all TrackEd related.
For sure, the biggest work comes from your 3D skills in creating/editing a real scenery, texturing it & optimizing it for Racer. It'll take a huge time, if you can't execute a 30-60 functions per minute...

In Maya, when working for Racer, my screen flashes like crazy....:wink:

 

[KS95]

Cockpit view is implimented.. assuming the creater of the car has an interior model and camera.

 

[ammods]

ok thanks for the headsup KS, where do i find information on how the camera is set, as for track making, i've already got a track ready to be loaded into racer, just needs to be converted to racer,

there's still alot of work to be done for it, ie there's alot more track objects and stuff to go on it yet,
what i need to know is this
- is there a poly limit?
- is there a Material limit?
- is there a object limit?
because the track i've got has several hundred objects, and just over 1 million poly's and materials are around 400

 

[Stereo]

There's a fairly small per-gob poly limit (around 32k?) due to the format, but that only comes up if you have a single continuous object inside a dof. Some exporters might not let you export larger single objects due to this though. Materials and objects count aren't a problem, just takes longer to write shaders for more materials + affects ingame performance.

 

[ammods]

Objects Referenced = 1181
Total Materials = 381
Total Points = 1670173
Total Faces = 1314729

here's what i'm up against, my other game that i'm editing for is limited to 1mill in polys, 1000 objects and 256 materials, thats why i am looking to come to racer, because it's not as limited,

 

[KS95]

All the cameras are set in car.ini's - near the bottom you'll see something like:

camera0
{
  offset
  {
    x=0
    y=-0.6
    z=-5.5
  }
  angle
  {
    x=10
    y=180
    z=0
  }
  name=Chase Far
  follow
  {
    pitch=0
    yaw=1
    roll=0
  }
}
camera1
{
  offset
  {
    x=0.42
    y=-0.5
    z=0.42
  }
  angle
  {
    x=5
    y=180
    z=0
  }
  name=DriverLeft
  fov=65
  follow
  {
    pitch=1
    yaw=1
    roll=1
  }
}

And as for track cameras.. I'm not really sure, I believe it can be done in 'Tracked', but I don't think it displays correctly these days.

 

[luthobu]

Objects Referenced = 1181

You can save all as a single object, then use tracked's split to break it up into
blocks. I have done that with a couple of tracks. It makes loading faster, and
is easier to handle. Of course, single objects then get merged with the "block",
so moving things around after that can be a small pain. But for larger tracks I
actually recommend this.

 

[ammods]

right then, there's some conjecture on whether or not i can actually port this track across, but i'll wait and see about it...but thanks for the info on the incar camera, i'll defintiely take a look at that,

 

[luthobu]

right then, there's some conjecture on whether or not i can actually port this track across

Can take a look at it for you if you wish.. but I need either a 3ds file (not max) or another "standard" format. If you want I can make the splits and a geometry ini for you. Won't take long

 

[ammods]

Can take a look at it for you if you wish.. but I need either a 3ds file (not max) or another "standard" format. If you want I can make the splits and a geometry ini for you. Won't take long

yep well, i need to talk to the tracks creator first, as there seems to be some conflict on what "conversion rights" actually cover, as to whether or not he'll let me have free reign on what i convert, their mods to, if i get a green light, i'll certainly think about your offer, the other thing is, that .3ds messes up file names, texture names and such, so im reluctant to send to anyone in that format,

 

[luthobu]

yep well, i need to talk to the tracks creator first

Oh, a conversion.. that changes things a bit.. I thought you had made a track yourself.
Not against conversions, mind you, but loading an already made track is something anyone
can do.. it is the rest that takes time. And I don't see any point in doing that for you

 

[ammods]

i wouldnt expect you to, i prefer to do my own work

 

[QuadCoreMax]

...i've already got a track ready to be loaded into racer, just needs to be converted to racer...because the track i've got has several hundred objects, and just over 1 million poly's and materials are around 400

Hm, converting a track should be quite difficult, since you don't know exactly how it was created & you're dealing with "already" splitted objects...TrackEd makes it for you, so you should normally reverse-engineer & re-combine 3D objects so afterward you decide your split number in TrackEd.

Remember to verify vertices are all merged/welded, the ones we drive on, if not, Racer will generate "unpredictable" events when both 3D objects are overlapping...=> Car will fly & maybe leave the Newton scenery...or you could "fall" tru it...

...the other thing is, that .3ds messes up file names, texture names and such, so im reluctant to send to anyone in that format...

Wavefront (.obj) file format seems the one, keeping everything in place, same as for the cross-platform format Collada (.dae) which I both using a lot.

Check my LiL Lake track if you want to learn in Tracked, how cams, splines etc...were nicely created. Believe me, sometimes is quicker to just create from scratch a track than trying to port it to Racer since you don't own "the original" scene of the creators => ISI, SMS, etc...

The other advices written before are also useful, since dealing with thousands of mats would take you years to set in track.shd, for sure it's all manual...hm another reason !

Optimizing a scene for Racer is also quite important for the FPS...that requires knowledge with UVs/texturing & reusing the same textures is one good way of doing it.

 

[luthobu]

i wouldnt expect you to, i prefer to do my own work

Yeah, sorry.. I misunderstood the whole matter.

 

[Ruud]

380+ materials, hm, why so many? I don't think my real-life car has that many materials...

 

[ammods]

it's not designed for racer, but rfactor, thats pretty lean, i've seen tracks that have 500+ materials, crazy i know

 

[Ruud]

Indeed, now that you mention it, I noticed that on a certain conversion I did some time ago. We had to up the number of submaterials for imports, around 640 materials or such. It sounds a bit like bad design really, hm.