Slow Times - 908 in progress

Well as I said , ADD kicks in, as well as starting a new contract. I probably won't be doing much for a while, a real job has started. Fun while it lasted. Jaguar is half baked, on the way. The Audi revamp is underway, there are some interesting changes, small but significant and I am currently looking at it. The RS Spyder is further along ... but as I say time is disappearing. And there you go I start a new one, the Peugeot 908. As if there wasn't enough that I want to do, I find another that just "needs" to be done. The game cry's out for it ....

I will wander in the weeds for a while. then refocus ... basically the story of my life. So many cars, so little time. Stay tuned, there probably won't be a lot during the summer but I will be picking away. Oh, BTW, picture is a preview of the 908 under construction ...

LMP Clean-up

Comes to the end of a project and am ADD kicks in ... what's next. Well I started to clean-up some of the work I did last year on the the ALMS 2007 cars, I have started the Porsche Spyder RS and the Audi's. I have learned an awful lot doing the 90's project so I want to apply it to these cars. Probably do the 2008 versions as well. To begin with, I deconstruct them, break them into parts and clean up the polies. I hope to reduce them to about 2200 each. They sit up around 2700. I will remap using standard sized bmp's, the original large ones chokes the game engine. I will also construct the low res VE file. With the 90 Group C mod I am now running 18 cars on the laptop, (a smaller machine than my racing one". The game is built for 16. If I get anything more than that, it is a bonus. I don't know how far I will go, but the new Le Mans coupes look pretty cool for sure....mmmm maybe.

Jaguar XJR-11 Model Done

Was a bit tough without a proper blueprint. There is a lot of eyeballing involved but I think it is going to be okay. Might be a bit "choppy" over the fenders and I think the front radiator duct is a bit high up on the nose. I may look at it, but the poly count is up there now so I am reluctant. I may do an automatic simplify by 90%, then add some to smooth the fenders. I put the wheels and driver in the libary, pretty useful. Will keep this feature in mind for the future.

Jaguar XJR-11 Model Started

Haven't found a proper blueprint, so I am using a pretty generic, (poor) one and going to have to eyeball the differences. This is one one my favourite cars, I have a bit of connection through a friend, with one of the Jaguar drivers and he always loves to see any Jag that I produce. (Don't they say, "Six degrees of separation to anyone on the planet"). The XJR-11 competed in the World Championship races, the XJR-12 was used at Le Mans. There are visual differences in the body but I beleive the engine was the key change.

Completed first Spice

Finished up the first Spice. Pretty good results, a bit blocky in a couple of areas and I may have mapped it a bit different but it looks pretty good in th egame. It is a bit quick, but I am not very good at .veh files so i don't know how to sloe it down. the car isn't really competitive with the big boys but I guess I am allowed to make my own reality. I have to do the low res version, and am still playing with to see what is best.
Next up the sister, 22 car, just a clone basically then the 30 and 40 cars. They do not have the skirts so I will be deleting that aspect of this model. As well they are a bit different, as I said before this is a bit of a comprimise in design. Hey, squint your eyes they look great.

Spice SE90 Mapped

Finished the modelling and the mapping for the Spice SE90. As I say it is a bit of a composite because there was no single definitive configuration i could find for vents and what not. It looks pretty good. I will construct it today, then paint the first one. I am planning about four actual cars. Two with skirts, 2 without. Even if the modelling is a bit dicey for accuracy it will be an interseting edition to the field. When these are done ... back to modelling, (I am looking forward to the break from graphics and colour), and it will be a bit of time before there will be new ones complete.

Nissan's all done.

Finished both the 23 and 24 cars. Spent some time building a low-res model by which I hoped to be able to smooth the transition a bit. It did, somewhat. I noticed that the transition was really noticeable around the windscreen so I started to build the LR from that point. It did actually yeild not a bad rendition of the full model, about 200 polys.

The other thing I did was to use the original maps and graphics for the model. I was concerned that the "double rendering", (by using in game screen shots), was causing a change in the colour of the car, shading it too much and darkening it up. The results were better, but not great. The shape is better, less abrupt, but there is still noticable transition from low to high res.

Colour was more interesting because there were still differences in the colour, although they are the same original value. I am guessing that the rendering game engine has a different process for the low and high-res. Probably a simpler one for the low res. You learn something every day. The extra, hour or two is worth it, but again this is a very old gaming engine, you can't expect too much.

In game there are now 13 cars running, and I am not seeing a perfromance hit yet on at least my test tracks. The game can handle 16, within the original spec's of the cars. It has been modded, so that some tracks can handle as many as 24. It gets a bit flakey after 16 on some tracks so my goal would to have 16 performing, additional is a bonus. I have at least 10 more cars I would like to see in the game, but we will see how it goes.

Nissan 23 Completed

Well, not completely finished. I have to do the low res version. I was not satisfied with the Porsche LR so I am going to experiment and see if I can improve. But all in all it came out pretty good. The main problem I had was that the location of some of the details made the the mapping stretch over some angles and the got a bit distorted. In game you don't really notice, but when you examine them as a 3d model they jump out at you. Following my standard approach, (squint your eyes they look great), they are good in game. I will finish the LR, and create the 24 car.

Porsches Complete

I ended up doing seven Porsches. You can't do a Group C collection of cars without a batch of 962C's. At this point in the championship Porsche had pulled out as an offical factory entry. However, as was the practice with the 917's, when the factory left, privateers took over as a quasi-factory entry. During the championship season the "short-tailed", as I called it, increasingly replaced the traditional "long-tailed", finned standard 962C. That model was still used at LeMans, probably for the areo characteristics. The model itself is predominatley an exisiting model, as I have noted previously, I merely rebuilt the rear end, then made some minor changes to accomadate some of the variance in the design. At this point various teams began to rebuild the standard 962C, mixing new parts with the standard Porsche parts. From what I understand it was mainly to stiffen what was a too flexiable chassis. I have tried to capture some of the main variations.

Joest Porsche Racing

You could probably consider Joest Racing as the unoffical factory entry for the 962C. They have a long history with Porsche and it continues today with Audi. Figure out that relationship and it would be interesting. There are three cars included in the set I have developed. The numbers 7, 8 and 9 cars in the famous Blaupunkt livery. These cars are all essentially the same with small variation in the colouring of mirrors, sun shades and some decals as was the practise within teams. It should also be noted that even between races there were variations in the livery even on the same car. In fact there are minor variations between practise sessions and the race. The models that I do I attempt to be as accurate as possible, but invariably they turn out to be a bit of a composite of the pictures I can find. In game, there exisits some very nice long tailed versions of these cars, but none of the short-tailed version, (that I know of anyway).

Porsche Kremer Racing

This is another team that has a long history with Porsche which continued well into the 90's. The Kremer porsche was designated as a 962CK6. They developed 11 cars and sold them to other teams. The main trade mark of this variation was the inclusion of skirts over the rear wheels like the Jaguar team of the day. This skirts were only used, from what I can tell is mainly at LeMans, for the areodynamics of the high speed straights. For the championship, from I can tell, they mainly used the open wheel configuration. I have built the skirts for the model and if I do some LeMans variations at the end and may do a skirted version for the game. I used the same basic model, I really didn't see too much difference, visually between the CK6 and the standard, there may be, I just don't see it. There were also vents on the rear of the car which I modelled. But ultimatley when I completed them, in game, they didn't add much value to the model so I simulated them in graphics and dropped the detailed vents.

Konrad Motorsports

Konrad was a customer to Kremer and also ran a CK6 variations. Konrad is another name in racing which has a long association with Porsche. Again there is only a slight visual difference in the number 10 and 32 CK6's. The rear wing gurney flaps have a different shape. I am not sure if was really worth the effort, in game racing, you wouldn't see it but I figure that, to me, researching and finding the difference from photogarphs is some of the enjoyment I have doing of these models. (Where's Waldo). Konrad today is more closely associated with the FIAGT series, another modelling favourite with SCGT fans, so it was interesting for me to find out a bit of the history associated with the team. Konrad usually, even until recently, retained a distinctive baby or sky blue and white based livery, must be his favourite colour or something.

Brun Motorsport

Brun Motorsport was one of the more difficult model to research for this collection. They seem to change sponsorship and livery, even going to a fin-tailed car for some races, so it was difficult to decide which one to include. I settled on the FATurbo livery, it is famous on the racing scene around that time period, so I decieded to use it as the base. When I researched the team itself, it became clearer why, Brun Motorsports was having difficulty in securing sponsership for the 1990 season and they were influx the whole season. The car itself was developed by "John Thompson". There were eight created. In a modelling sense the variations are just around the wing gurney and some little flaps around the top body escape vents. Again, I modelled them but I don't know how much value they add in game.

Richard Lloyd Racing

The final variation, which was a bit of an after thought, was the RLR, 962GTi version of the car. This is notable because there was beyond the internal changes common in the CK6 and Thompson version some real changes in the external apparence. Notably the front brake duct were repositioned to smooth out the front, a single rounded headlight configuration adopted and the rear end changes to accomadate an elonglated rear bodywork and accomadation for skirts like the CK6. Intrestingly this car had a long life moving then the US with Dyson racing and is associated with Dauer racing winning Lemans in 1994. Don't know how much of the original 962 was left by then, but it is impressive success history for a single car. The skirts again where mainly used at LeMans, from what I can see, and the rear end changed slightly between some races. The rear end variation turned out pretty good. The front headlights, not so good. The model was built to accomadate the standard square headlight covers and when I filled them in and used a mask for the new round covers, it proved to be a too abrupt transition and it produced a noticable seam. I will have to watch that in the future.

All in all, I am happy with the models. The transition for the low res model could be better and I may change them. It's not the shape as much as the graphics on the mapping. I have been using screen shots of the car and mapping them on to the low res models, sounds good in theory. However the base graphics, which are rendered through the game engine, are then placed on the model, which is then rendered again through the game engine. Basically if there is shading added on the model, it is doubled and looks too dark in the final analysis. I am going to rethink how best to do that, because the performance increase is worth the effort. I am currently running thirteen cars with no performance issues, that's good. The game can handle up to 21, depending on the track, but does start being flakey at 16. My goal is to have 16 performing well.

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.

C-11 Paint

When the mapping is complete I start to do what I call "Painting". Guess it because your just painting the livery on the car skin. I wish I had a better handle on colour. Each software displays it a bit different as well the game engine also renders it a bit different. The C-11, traditional Mercedes, is of course silver. I have a bit put it with a blue tinge, looks okay, but I will have to test it in game. I start working my way around the model, top then side, then the details. I put this preview out so you can see that the different colours I used in the panels while mapping are used then as a guide for placing the various decals and details.
As well, some things like the little running light on the front fender or the exhaust protector on the side could have been modelled in 3d. They would be interesting details, but more poly's. I have a suspision that these may not be the right details to economize. But practice will tell on that.

Wheels

Wheels, wheels, wheels ... I am not sure how the "object" engine in the game works. I cheat. A SCGT car is made of twenty different .vrl files. If anybody knows of an idiots guide to game engines and how they work, I would sure love to find out a reference. Along with the there one for exhaust, tail and head lights and a couple others. Eight of which are wheels. The cheating is that I use a set from another car and move them around to customize them.
Problem 1, the game engine simulates wheel travel as the car goes up and down hills, brakes and what not. Cute little feature that some geek worked on for months I am sure. Unfortunatley the fender profile on the real cars is such that, (where there is virtually no wheel trave),l is too low to accomadate the wheels. I have to raise the fenders to accomdate it. A pain, and makes th emodel less accurate, ya its tiny and you don't notice, I guess I will have to learn to fudge the fenders earlier in the process. The bmps are a little distorted now and I am not going to go through that process again.
Problem 2, when fixing 1, you can only see results "in game". Makes small adjustments pretty labourious.
Problem 3, choose the wrong wheels and they don't fit the width of the fender.
They are only problems because I haven't taken the time to create a full set and clone them as I need them .... take the time, get prepared, planning helps, (damn it).

Toyota's Done

Done for now, both cars in game. The low res version look spretty good in game, hardly see the transition. Should be interesting to see how many cars can run in game.
Noticed, when i started the model a year ago I modelled the Lemans style gurney flap, which is different that what was used in the championship round. Pretty tired of looking at it so, that's the way she stays.

C11 Mapping

I have discovered how I can use the Hierarchy tool to help map my textures. Man I was a dummy, this makes things much easier. I decompose the model into smaller bits. Hide the ones that I don't need at the moment, and work with a smaller set of polies. Later I will combine the bits and pieces into a couple of large objects for export. The game engine has a limit on bmp's, I beleive 500 bmps are supported. This includes the environment, (track) and all cars. Using a minimum number of bitmaps is an advantage in the more graphically intense tracks.

I am curious to see whether the split will have an impact on exporting from the subsequent tools that I have to work with. I believe I will export from AC3D, in 3ds format. It will be three objects. I will import into zMod, have to combine them into a single object. From there export the single object to a vrl format supported by the game. I have done this a bunch, but my brain always gets mixed up. Dyslexia, (actually its probably more of a brain fart). You don't want to know the hoops I go through next to get a transparent window, I will save that for another day.

I will have one more bmp, for the low res model. In total I have the Primary for main body parts, a secondary one for the other parts, (driver, wing, interior etc.), one for windows, (a requirement for the transparency process, one for tires, (which will be shared with other models) and the final one for the LR VE model. I have seen the tire maps included in the main bmp's, I may consider that as I move along.

I have kind of laid out how I map things, now I don't know if it's clear or not, but if anyone has suggestions about what may be better or easier, let me know. I am still feeling my way around and I am very open to suggestions.

Mercedes-Benz C-11

I believe the was the first year, (1990), Mercedes-Benz contested in the modern era, (since the 50's,?), without the Sauber qualifier along side the name.

The model is complete, I am just mapping the textures. I am using the hierarchy fetaure within AC3D and it has been a revelation. I think I have figured out a way to use multiple BMP's on the model without making into a mess. This will allow me two 1024x1024 .BMPS, to map the model which will keep the graphic cards from the klunge that we have been noticing when there is too many cars. I should still have enough surface area to keep the graphics resonably crisp.

Secondly polies. Ya they are trivial for real modelling .... but they just clobber the my targeted game engine. It is a circa 1999 game engine ... hey may be old but it is reliable. (sort of, kind of like me, old, and somethines reliable).

What I am doing is ensuring that I build a xxxxVE, for each model. The way the game seems to work, is it will load objects, "Just In Time", JIT, for rendering. A SCGT model has actually six different objects, A, thru E and a W.

Forget W it is a wet reflection. A thru E are displayed at different distances. When the car is far away, just a spec of colour really, it uses the E model. Now when you are in game, there may be three cars around you, all high res, 2200 polies each. But there may be anywhere from six to ten in the distance ... do the the math. The game engine chokes. Now by using a low poly model for the E version, approx 200 polies I hope to avoid this. The cost a bit of a flicker when it moves form one shape to the next. The better your low poly model the smoother your transition.

The original cars and the real "proffessionals" still do make 5 distinct models, (plus the W is 6). I am however too lazy and am trying to cut corners.

taka-Q Toyota 90C-V

Completed the taka-Q liveried Toyota 90C-V. There was just one seam issue in the transition along the side deck near the middle of the car. Has this was an older model and I was just finishing it, probably out of stubbourness more than anything I tried to fix it but ended of just leaving it. The newer models I am working on are better, its being careful not to get the "fan" configuration of polies.

I will be working on a second "DENSO" liveried car for the game. No model changes just the "painting" of the bmp.

1990 WSPC

Something I have been thinking about for a while. I love the Group C cars and 1990 in many ways had to be the best year for these beauties. There was a large contingent of "Factory" cars and some of the slickest cars yet. I am planning to include many of the key cars in the set and have modelling well underway.

The Toyota's, (warts and all), are well underway, as can be seen in preview. I plan to do the 36 and 37 cars prior to release ... somewhere.

Planned
In the "paint shed".
2 Toyota's,

Modelling complete, mapping to be completed
2 Mercedes C11's, new model, model complete started mapping.
4/6 Porsche, short tails. A variant on "Weeds" car, (with blessings). Detached tail variantion was used commonly everywhere but LeMans. The modifications are complete, just, (just...yikes), have to remap model.
2 Spice SE90C's, modelling done.

Model layout started.
2 Nissan 90CK's, just starting, going to use it as a model for a process segment of this blog.

No work as of yet.
2 Jaguar XJR-11's, again, the non-LeMans cars.
4/6 standard, fin tailed Porsches
2 Spice SE89's, much different from the 90's
2 Mazda's, they only raced LeMans but I can rewrite history in my own little world.

May do some of the le Mans variants, we will see when I get bored.

Toyota 90C-V 1990

I have had this model sitting for over a year and decieded to complete it as a break from the other stuff i was doing. I can sure tell, it really has some stinky issues, seam and the like. I have, quite possibly, tried it fix it 2 dozen times with no luck. I just don't get it. No matter everytime I try to fix it now, I screw up something else. I say to my self, self, screw it ... let er go, git it done.

Maybe I will try to fix it later, or build a new one would have taken less time. I hope that at some point I can figure out these things. Mostly it has got to do, I beleive with normal, projection and smoothing. These are commands in zMod that I use to finish up the model. Now it seems to me AC3D porbably has the same, i just haven't found it yet.

Mclaren Complete

Maclaren M1B, (1966), #4 Bruce Mclaren, #5 Chris Amon

Not the best, modern race cars are slab sided wedges, much easier to model. On a request, for a break, I deceided to take this one on. It's a 1966, Mclaren M1B. Now the problem with cars ofthis era is they were constantly evolving race to race in little details. very tough to establish a definitive model.

In game you will notice some inconsistent shading between the front and rear wheels. I don't know why this is, the BMP mapping matches so I really am unsure of reasons.

The model had a few issues, as I said, I will have to become a better modeller, smooth out the edges a bit more. Still have the ploy count way too high for the target game, have to try to understand better the way to get the,"feeling" of detail in game without actually adding them.

Must admit I did it a bit quick, just for a change from the projects where I am currently focused. The older cars were sleek and smooth with the new closed LMP rules we will see more and more of the 80's style. I love it, but canI model it ?

Tools

I am using a product called AC3D for all the base 3D modelling. It is a reasonable price, very intuitive and, at this point very well supported by an active user fourm. Nothing is free, I tried all the free ones, too much hassle. Seventy bucks, best investment I ever made, ( well for this stuff anyway).

Forum
http://www.inivis.com/forum/index.php

Product
http://www.inivis.com/

Start-up

Just thought this may be a way of controlling my projects. If I feel a reponsibility to someone out in the wide world, even if they are just in my imagination, I will finish the project. If I announce it, I will finish it. It also combines the process and the resultsm there are two different audiences for both.