If I can't paint- I'll import

[LaValle]

I might not be able to paint as well as some of you other guys, but I can at least import some cars right?

Wrong. After 2 days of studying the NFS series I have put together 1 car.
1 car that does not work in the game, yet I can't figure out for the life of me why.

Here is my model making process:
unpack car.viv with vivMagic
import car.fce with zModeler
export car.fce as car.3ds
in TMN launch menu, Help/custom data/car geometry/car.3ds
rename the new car.solid.gbx file to Vehicle1,2,3.solid.gbx (3 files)
place Vehicle1,2,3.solid.gbx in car.zip
open car00.tga(TM's Diffuse=car00 in NFS) with paint.net
save car00.tga as Diffuse.dds+DXT5+generate mipmaps
place Diffuse.dds in car.zip
make icon and save it in car.zip as Icon.dds

Now, can you figure out why it didn't work?

You can download the final .zip of my car here:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/2/14/1759115/B911.zip

[Gording]

Nope, you're not thinking about this logically. Painting is relatively easy (missing one painter icon makes NO difference), but 3D modelling is rediculously hard and tedious. You don't churlishly build a new house, simply because you've lost one paint brush!

Cars between TMO/TMS/TMN/TMU are different enough for example. Why do Sunrise cars appear without wheel or tyres? Why do cars with lights not work in TMN? Why do TMU cars crash older games completely? And why do the children keep calling coloured shadows : neons? AND MOST IMPORTANTLY : Why wold anyone be spending any time on this, when Trackmania Forever will probably add to the confusion later? These are all the same game series, and even their cars are not compatible with each other! Even the tiniest difference will create a simple and basic error, which the tool (that's the computer) cannot think it's way beyond. To expect a couple of clicks here and there in various applications to convert one game's cars to a whole other game, is bordering on Jeff Goldblum, making a computer virus for an alien spaceship. Did he know their computer language? Did he know their power type? Did he know if they had Norton anti-virus and firewalls sucking the guts out of their alien computer technology? Did he know if his little puny Mac would interface with an alien PC the size of New York? 8¬)

Out here your PC does not think. To it, the difference between "s" and "s" is the difference between the Earth and Mars!

For 3D models to work all their part names must be correct, their placements in 3D space must be exact, their sizing must be within limits, and their polygon complexity must be within allowed counts, and those are just the main issues. Get any of those wrong, and the converted model won't work. This is where you're going wrong in ALL aspects. NFS's cars will be the wrong 3D size, their part names are certainly all wrong for TM, and their axis aren't placed for TM to rotate them. Understanding and fixing all this takes many MANY hours, even if you know what you're doing. (lots of hints in there)

Even if you did convert a car successfully now, it still has to be painter friendly later! Anyone seriously thinking about wasting their time with this should read (and understand what they show!) the tutorials @ :

http://www.trackmania-carpark.com/tutorial.php
http://www.zmodeler2.com/?mode=docs

Here come some more hints.....

At the very least you need a TM "maxbox" (everything must fit inside this maximum sized 3D object), a complete list of all the part names that make up the TM models (read the tutorials), and the abiltiy to desconstruct the NFS cars into parts that TMN can actually use, and requires. This needs a serious amount of brain power and time (it took 3 weeks for us to figure out DaMadMan had one zmodeler export option deslected, and he's a bloody genius! ), and all this because of one missing and quite useless painter icon!

For those wanting to learn 3D in a correct and logical manner, download Milkshape, CarCAD, Zmodeler, or Blender (all free...but Blender's nearly as complex and difficult as a full priced application, so be warned!), start placing rectangles into your 3D space. Those will become the vehicle bodies, shove some Torus' on the corners for wheels, place some inward facing cones for headlights. Maybe a sphere for a driver head and some cylinders for a body. Move them all around a bit, adjust the vertices, extrude some edges, add more polygons, and you've got a car. Do that getting steadily more complex and complicated, until you're completely familiar with using your application. You'll either be bored of the whole rigmarole by then, or you'll find it's something that your OCD loves. If you're the latter, you're now ready to ask for some guidance if you're stuck.

---or try this---

Download a couple of utilities, convert from one format to another, end up with a billion polygon lines that a thousand mad spiders would avoid touching, then hope....that the deep end you just jumped into with bricks in your pockets, isn't filled with sharks!

[-slowth-]

He talks funny.Can we keep him? can we?

[Gording]

Boy oh boy, are you one lucky so and so!

As you'd decided to include your Zip in your edited thread LaValle I gave it a little look (I'd just stubbed my toe, and needed cheering up!) to see if my post was even close to the mark!

Woohoo!!!! I was right on the money. Wrong size, wrong placement, wrong axis, wrong names....the list of wrong is long (poerty), but what's this? Noooooo! Please NOOOOO! It's the very Porsche 911 I used to race in Need For Speed Road Challenge.....dammit.....

With a couple of hours to spare waiting on my throbbing toe to un-swell, I had to fix it! Now let anyone who tries model conversions after this understand why it takes a lot of time to convert cars from various games fully and properly. If that seems a bit mysterious try painting the 911!
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[DaCheese]

I hear that the .gbx format used for TMU is a bit different to that used for TMO/S/N. Apparently it doesn't worry so much about the wheels being in the right place. Does that make things any easier?

I quite fancied having a go at doing some conversions but from what I've read and seen it's like trying to fit double glazing with toothpaste; nigh on impossible.
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[LaValle]

You is my best friend EVAR Gordo....

[mad]

he he gords good, I would love to spend hours on this stuff but time is too limited, one thing I do know is that fitting double glazing with toothpaste is easier than it sounds and drawing even a cube in zmodler so that it can drive round a tm track is harder than pulling teeth. I managed a very basic tank that drove backwards and was only painted random green cus I didn't know how to sort the paint out.... as for the genius Gord, could you do a mad laps flymo lawnmower.... the raiders could do with another skin and raiding germany in tanks is too much like a red rag to a bull, they couldn't even see the funny side of the poles.

[Gording]

[mad]

awesome thanx gord

[Pepper]

LOL and LOL !
If there is a Raid tonight, i'll use it .
great idea Gord' and good job !

[DaCheese]

Is there no end to the brilliant stuff Gord comes up with?
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[Pepper]

How can we download the other cars ?

The hole evil, the UFO and some others could be great for this circus thing we call "raids"

[DanTheMan]

there 325 cars on this site

http://knutselmaasterforum.free.fr/topic/index-en.html

spaceships and all sorts of MAD stuff
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Never underestimate the power of stupidity.