Fixing Errors

Well an old buddy from a SCGT forum, Spike, happend to come across my blog and was able to help me with my "misgudied normals". I am guessing using the extrude function mucks them up in some way, You can't see it in the newer software, but it has an effect in the older ones. The solution, reverse engineer it back to AC3D and detach the seam along the offending polies. Export it back, unite it in zMod and export it. Bingo. I am thinking I should export from AC3D in the multiple parts and unite it in zMod at th start. This might reduce potential for this to happen, but paying particular attention to extruded areas. It is nice to find a solution to this vexing problem and now that I have learned about it, I do believe I saw it in a zMod tutorial once, but never understood how or why this should be done.

GT-R Progress

A bit of progress. Not the best model I've done, but that's okay I'm just gettign up to speed.

Have the car "In Game ", as they say. I have the same shaing issues as I have experienced on some edges. It seems to be where I have done an extrusion. Note the front and the top of the hood where the vents are located. I have hadd the issue before and never understood the fix, although I was able to correct some by flipping and deleting some poly's. Too much work for this one, I'm just going to finish it up and move on to the next. Paint job is underway. Yellow base colour hides nothing, so there you go we will see what the final looks like. This is the part I enjoy the most actually. When complete, this is the only GT-R with two hood scoops. I will have to reverse engineer it back to AC3D clean up the scoops and then export it back through the process. I can't start with the original AC3D because I had to recentre the model in zMod because it was dragging through the ground. Additionally, if you look closely at the headlight buckets, the wheels poke through a bit. I may fix that as well, but only if I feel picky, (it depends on my mood, I am not a natural at "perfect"). There is one poly on the right side that is not right either so I will have a look at that as well. Want to do the two versions, but I don't know how many others I will do.

Next Steps Mapping

Completed the modelling.

I then merge everything into one to make it be easier to work with. At this point I set all the surfaces to the same colour, different colour bases will show shaded hues under the mapping further down stream, in other tools.

Believe it or not, then I begin to break it down again, not by model structure but by surface normals for mapping. What I am looking for here is tow things; as flat of surface as I can find and where I want to add detail by using graphics. For instance if you know an area will have fine lettering you want a larger surface. Rather flat area of basic colour, like a diffuser, you can make it small.

Then I map the surfaces into three 1024 by 1024 files. I use BMP format because that is what is supported in the target game. In each graphic I have a small default colour, generally a flat black. I select everything and stuff it into the little colour square. This insures if I miss anything, it will be mapped to the ingame graphics and not have an extra, AC3D default material in the final package.

Working object by object I begin to map a surface to a location on the graphic. I map some pieces, then export the UV Map, place it in the graphic, use it as a guide for the next mapping and for the final graphic detail. You can see in the sample the surfaces. There not a one to one match with an objects and I have added on layer of detail garphic, the yellow side to show what I mean. This makes it easier to "paint" the details on the car.

I always use three BMP's. I call Primary, Secondary and Gass. I have shown the ones for the GT-R here for reference. This is a function of the restriction in the target game. Must be BMP's, square, no larger than 1024 pixels and if they are to be transparent, like the glass all on a single BMP. Seems restrictive, but thats not the worst. To export it into the format for SCGT, it is a problem for sure. More on that another day, for now I am just going to go step by step. Funny I know I have written about mapping before but each time I do it, because I start and stop, I relearn and learn new things a lot of the time. Maybe one day I will stop re-inventing the wheel.

Last step is, you guessed it merging it back into three objects, coresponding to to the object on a single map. At the end there are three objects, each with a single map.

You see, I just thought, I didn't resize, I will have to keep the porportions the same, or the graphics are skewed, aaaaaaaaahhhhhggggggg.

Exterior Complete

Finished the outside, 1980 polies. Probably another 500 for driver, cockpit and headlight buckets. The new cars are being announced for the ALMS and LeMans ... just want to do them all. At least this has kind of brushed the dust off some skills, (or lack thereof), but I have remembered most of them. Found some new features in the software that may help me with mapping. It is a time consuming activity, I hope it helps.

Main Portion Complete

Have completed the main portion of the GT-R. The rear quarter deck and trunk were the worst parts, I couldn't get them smooth enough. I am hoping with mapping they will be okay. We will see. The blueprint I had were not of the SuperGT version of the car so for the first time I made "studies" of the areas of concern and freelanced the shape from eye. I know there is a technique which will make it easier. I haven't found it yet, and find myself approaching things in different ways. There is probably no right way, but I would like to find a consistent way that I can replicate. Just probably need more practise.

Have to add the rear wing, interior and driver next. I am sitting at about 2000 polies, so it will be a heavy one for the game, no matter.

Progress - GTR

Making some good progress. Rear quarter was a bit difficult. Believe that at the end it will be alright. This is the first non "slab sided" car that I developed. It is a bit more difficult to get the shape smooth, but I am happy with it so far. I have found that it just takes a few more polies, it won't really matter I am not intending to produce a great number of them. The sides are the next area I plan to focus on, I would expect them to go in pretty easy. I didn't find a good blue print so I have one that forms a general framework and I have been working basically from photos, eyeballing in the surfaces. As long as it looks okay, fine with me, it won't be 100% acurate, but no one is measuring. Some of the work I see people are doing have over 500,000 polies. With my self imposed limit of 2000, I don't feel so bad because I know it will limit the detail and accuracy I can achieve.

Nissan GT-R SuperGT

To use the imortal words of Monty Python ... "Not dead yet", yes I haven't been doing much. I haven't updated this Blob and I can't be sure how often I will be doing it. But I have been doing some stuff, most retrofit and cleaning up projects that need to be finished. I will probably be doing more in the coming months ... ya ya and the cheques in the mail and I won't ... well we will leave that there.


New Project, Nissan GT-R from the Japan SuperGT series. Very cool cars and this one struck my eye, mainly the livery which is a long way away.


I am finishing my other projects, (mostly relearning the software), just getting my ducks in a row. I will probably update each of those project as I make some progress.


Just really want to say ... "hey" to anybody who cares.