Mapping and Objects

I started mapping the Nissan. My first step is to break it into smaller, more bite sized chunks. Well interesting development, AC3D seems to becomes a CPU hog when more objects are being used. I select everything, then map it to a small default patch. This is to ensure I get all polies and have no odd BMP's left over when I construct the final model. It was a pig, select, enter the command and go get your email ... not good, really fubars your work flow. Now, I may not need do the whole thing, but I will have to think about it.

As well, interestingly, with a lot of random piddling around found a transparent feature built in to AC3D. Couldn't find it in the documentation, (RTFM), and the forum just talked about using transparent gifs ... ikes. Well I found the option in the texture properties. I successfully exported to zMod but now am stuck at what advantage this give me in the process. Remember I am building for an old, cult game. This may be great for rendering, I will find out whether it is I suppose if I ever go there. I export in multiple files, but zMod dosen't export transparent properly, I have to go to an earlier version for the transparent parts anyway. So it is nice to have it integarted inot the overall process, but I don't know if it will save me anything.

Motorheads will notice, in the graphic, I have built optional skirts for the 90CK to turn it into, in my mind anyway, the 89C. It will give me options for variations.

Spice 90SE

This is a tough one to research, many variations and mislabelled photos have confused me. This should be a Spice 90SE, or not, I have seen photos that say its an 89, I have seen photos that are labelled 90SE that don't seem to look the same. Evane in same race two, cars called the same thing look different. Well I am not being marked, so I call this a 90SE. I will be doing a version with the full skirts over the back wheel. Little man and some details to be worked on to finish it completely.

Nissan Model Complete

Guess I am getting quicker, building the model was pretty painless. I have also seemed to have found a way to fix the seams that seem to show up from time to time, . It is a fix without knowledge, but its a routine I follow and it does the job, going to continue and try to figure it out properly. After all the whining about polies, I am not sure I that serious about it. I am enjoying the creating process, mayeb I should trade up to a new more powerful game model. Anway it was a break, back to finishing the Porsches.

Nissan 90CK, A start

I like to have many things on the go at one time. (Actually it just provides a cover explanation hiding my ADD). Well, no matter, the Porsches are underway and I wanted a bit of change from just working in the graphics cycle, The Spice is built, but needs construction, I don't feel like that either, so I just jumped in to a new model, a Nissan 90CK. Interesting car, especially if you look at the areo charactoristics around the nose and side pod intakes, very similar to todays LMP cars.

First thing I do is serach out all the pictures I can find on the web, sometimes you can find a blueprint, somethimes you have to make it up from pictures. In this case I found the decal instructions from a Tamyia model of an 89C Nissan. There isn't much external change, most of the changes were suspension and engine, and the back end. So I can use the plans from the 89C and just eyeball the changes for the 90CK from photographs. What I do then is with Fireworks create a template of 1200 by 1200 to be used as a background for each view in AC3D. It is basic process of lasso, delete the background, create a top, right, left, front and back image. Sometimes you have to watch and scale the images, espically it seems the front and back. I just use the top and guides then porportionally scale the offending images. With photos it is crude, a lot of eyeballing and guesswork. I have tried creating lines, my own blueprint. Too much work. I have seen the creation of a 3d box where you map the approriate image on the sides and use it as a guide. It looks interesting, but I haven't figured out the logistics yet. I think it is a 3D Studio technique. Once this is done I export a .pgn for each of the views that I want. These are mapped as backgrounds to the approriate views within AC3D. It can be saved as a set-up with the model. At that point you align the images, zoom in and out and make sure they match. I do this by just building a small area, which may be deleted after to make sure it all matchs up. Aligning is important, but they never seem to match anyway. I just decide which one is best and use it as the master and fiddle with the rest. Usually it a side view beacuase I end up using that the most. You just then start. I have leared that it is the most satisfing to start with the side first. You get a lot done in a short period of time and you can visualize the end product. Great. But, it gets in the way when you work your way through the rest. I now start in the center and work outwards, usually at the front because it has the most fiddly bits. You can see the beginning of the Nissan in the last image. There is not a lot to see yet but it does illustrate the concept of starting from centre to front. Really it the fiddly bits in the centre that is the key rather than front. Its just that usually, in these cars, the front has the fiddly bits.

Porsche - Construction

Remember, 90 percent of this model is someone else's. I have just rebuilt the back-end and remapped it for the 1990, WSPC version of the cars. Now maybe I went a bit much with the hierarchy tool, but it work out fairly well. I also successfully incorporated the wheels into the scenario, (see previous posts about wheel challenges). The other support files did not work out as well. I still haven't found the trick to doing it properly. But all and all, this was a much easier construction phase, (as I call it), to the project. Now comes the busy part, painting the models. I am hoping I properly selected the "seams" for the textures, I am interested in the results, I was careful as I designed the texture areas. The first car, (three in all), is the famous Blaupunkt livery for the Joest Porsches. There is currently a LeMans version of the car in game which is a conversion from another game and is very nice. However as I say, squint your eyes, looks great.

Porsche 962 - Short Tail

The 962 is a staple of this racing era. One of the reasons I chose this year to model is the "Short Tailed Porsche", used for Championship races, but not at Le Mans. I suppose the longer tail provides stability down the Mulsanne Straight. Now this model is 90 percent someone else's and I want be sure he gets credit. I only know his handle at the forum we both frequent. Weed's. Weeds has made a huge comtribution to the SCGT community with his Group C models through the 80's time period. Prior to newer conversions from other, newer games I figure, in my opinion he set the standard for modelling along with a couple of others. With his permission, I modified his model to create the short tail variant of the 962. At this point in time I beleive there was no direct, offical factory support and the Porsche banner was carried by a number of indepenant, semi factory teams. These names are familar still today. Joest and Kremer and to a lesser extent Konrad and Brun. They all began to evolve the basic 962 into independently along slightly different lines.

Looking at the 1990 Porsches, they have multiple interpretations of the gurney flap, (I think that is what it is called, sounds better than thingy on the side). This is the most obvious difference for the short tailed porsches. What I did, because figured out the Hierachy Tool is create object for each variation that I want to release. I will map them to a common area in the texture, large enough to accomadate the largest surface area. Then, at export time, AC3D, in a 3ds format, allow the intergrity of the objects and textures to be maintained and imported into zMod 1.7. What I found out about zMod is there is a multiple file export. Select it and it will export all objects in to its own unique SCGT .vrl which can be used in game. The final step is to import the individual files, mixed and matched appropriatly, into another tool called Modeller Garage. This is the oldest tool used in SCGT. I think it was somebodies grad project in 1999 or something. Anyway it is a tempermental old thing, but it does have a great import and consolidation capability. I should be able to pick and chose which vrls I want and create the variations I need.

I have six short tailed versions currently planned. Joest had 3 cars, (just because it's easy to clone), and the Konrad, Brun and Kremer. The Kremer is a bit confusing to me. Somethimes it is referenced as a 962CK6. Now they used a skirted version a couple of times, is that the CK6 and the 962C is the open wheel well version. Not sure. I am going to have a bit of research to do. If I don't get too bored I may do a skirted variation, "ala" le Mans and a couple of the traditional fin tailed porsches. But that would be a paint job on an exisiting car model, not a modelling exercise.

C11's Complete

Finished off the C11's, numbred 1 & 2. Not happy with the sound and the colour. I will poke around the sound library, maybe see what others have done. Colour, that's a different matter. It's trail and error, a bit tedious, (actually very tedious), when I am in the right mood I will experiement a bit. Final product, to me has a passing grade, (squint your eyes, it looks just like the real one), the transition for the low res turned out to be a bit more harsh that I would have liked. It seems also to depend on the track that I am currently watching. Racing however, in car, no problem.