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Swamper's Garage

Started by Swamper77, January 11, 2007, 10:59:23 PM

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Alex2602

Log trucks! I'm terrified of them but I can't wait to add them to my game! lol  :-[

Swamper77

#361
Quote from: sim-al2 on February 01, 2009, 06:02:03 AM
Those look great!  :thumbsup: Some logging trucks would be appreciated with peg's new Logging Works.
My projects and I not associated in any way to his projects. The Vandy Automata Set on the LEX was the last joint venture between us. I left his site for personal reasons several months ago and will not be returning to it. Sorry.

Quote from: Alex2602 on February 01, 2009, 03:34:58 PM
Log trucks! I'm terrified of them but I can't wait to add them to my game! lol  :-[
I can sympathize with that. I don't much care to be directly alongside them at 60 mph on a multi-lane highway. I do enjoy looking at them, though.

The German railroad cars are going to take some more time to finish. In the meantime, I have wrapped up the logging equipment set that Jestarr sent me the models of. In addition to the two logging trucks and two logging trailers, I have created two log carrier railroad cars:



I did a little artistic licensing on these rail cars. Jestarr's original rail car model had an open frame like the logging trailers. I opted for a flat bed and copied the forks and the logs from the logging trailers. So, they aren't complete replicates of Jestarr's model. I really didn't feel like doing an entire open frame again for an automata. The open frames on the trailers took quite a bit of time to do for such little effect.

I still have some tweaking to do on these rail car models, but they are mostly finished. These will appear in addition to the game's default train cars and Jestarr's Train Set that I released earlier. The logging trucks I showed earlier will appear on your roadways along with the rest of your freight trucks. These automata were created for a future BSC release, but they will work just fine on their own.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

Pat

Jan that is looking real sweet there!!!

Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

Swamper77

@Pat: Thanks.


I've finished tweaking the log carrier railroad cars. Here are the final versions:


The car bodies have been lowered a bit and the couplers redone to match the rest of Jestarr's train cars and the Maxis trains. I've modified the Jestarr Train Set files to adjust the couplers on all of the train cars and engines. All the couplers are now at 0.8 meters above the ground so there shouldn't be any differences in the heights of the couplers.

While I've been working with these two log carriers, I've also been tinkering with the flatcar from the Jestarr Train Set. It carries now cargo at random:


I've figured out how Maxis attached freight to their semi trailers and train cars. While I can't create new cargo sets, I can attach the Maxis ones to my custom vehicles. This breakthrough will go out with the updated files. I'll update the files sometime this weekend.

Cargo/People Models and Automata:
Maxis has defined cargo sets in the EffectsDirectory and they use some special coding in their vehicle models to reference these cargo sets to display cargo on vehicles. This is also how people riding motorcycles, drive open-top vehicles, (like the ice cream truck or the pink convertible), and how pickup trucks carry the random objects that they do.

Now, I have not created any new effects. So, please do not ask me about whether I created new effects. I am simply just copying hex code from Maxis' vehicles to mine to display cargo on what is an otherwise empty flatbed vehicle. Doing this kind of modding involves knowledge in hex editing and a lot of patience. There are no known tutorials on this type of modding. I did this through studying the game's files and a lot of trial an error. I will not be providing a tutorial for how this is done, as this type of modding will cause problems in the game if done improperly. It is a very delicate operation. One wrong byte and it will not work while creating all sorts of issues ingame. I had several crashes and various graphical oddities while trying to get this to work.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

Orange_o_

WoW jan,

I do not imagine the number of hours when you have of pass, to study and understand the EffectDirectory propriety.
&apls

People do not imagine to which it is details can ask a great deal of time


Orange

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Swamper77

#365
The Jestarr Train Set in the LEX has been updated to include the changes I made to the empty flatcar. The empty flatcar now displays random cargo on it. Files have been updated to include this feature. Couplers have been adjusted on all the train cars so they are all at 0.8 meters to match up with Maxis and other custom train cars.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

sithlrd98

Is there anything you can't do?  &apls

Jayson

nerdly_dood

Quote from: sithlrd98 on March 14, 2009, 07:15:28 PM
Is there anything you can't do?

I'd have to say that's highly doubtful. :D

Great job Jan!
My days here are numbered. It's been great and I've had a lot of fun, but I've moved on to bigger and better things.
—   EGO  VOBIS  VADELICO   —
Glory be unto the modder and unto the fun and unto the city game!

Pat

sweet Jan this is incredibale and to answer Jayson and to agree with ND nope I bet there is nothing you cant do  ;) Great Job as always!!!

Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

Swamper77

Oh, there are things I can't do, but I don't explicitly say what they are unless it affects a project I am doing. So, no one really knows what can't do.


As some people may have noticed in the Show Us Your... Car thread, I drive a green 1997 Honda CRV. While trawling the internet one night for models, I came across a .3DS model of my car. It is the exact model, minus the real world dirt and damage. I had brought it into GMAX awhile back and then moved on to other projects.

While working on some personal projects for SC4 tonight, I found a need for the model. So, I updated the materials on it and added the missing license plates. Here is the detailed model that will be rendered into a prop via BAT:


Here is the automata version:

For my personal use, the 97 Honda CRV will replace the gas-guzzling Maxis Mayor's Limo. I will also make a public release of these. The public release will have several standalone vehicles in various colors. They will also be spawned by Mike's Honda dealerships when those Lots grow ingame.

The colors I will be making for the automata are green, red, blue, silver, white, and yellow. I tend to avoid black vehicles as they don't show the details very well because the panel gaps are usually black. I may make an exception for this set to round it out to 7 colors total.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

nerdly_dood

About the black color version: I recommend using a very dark gray skin for the CRV. As you can see from the black police car skins I've been using (link) dark gray rather than actual black skins, with shading to make the car look shiny, is a visual improvement over solid colors. I also recommend using a more diffuse light setup as you get your skins, concentrated on the top - this way the top of the car looks lighter in color because that's where the light is shining. If the side-view part of the skin and the top-view part of the skin have the same color as they transition from lighter color to dark (which makes the car body look somewhat curved) this is another improvement.

I say this because in your Seattle police Crown Victoria skin, the light appears to be shining directly on the various parts of the skin, rather than one single light used on all parts - this results in the car being a bit too light-colored on the sides, and there are dark strips where the sides join due to each side having its own light.

Just some constructive criticism - I hope you don't mind. ;)
My days here are numbered. It's been great and I've had a lot of fun, but I've moved on to bigger and better things.
—   EGO  VOBIS  VADELICO   —
Glory be unto the modder and unto the fun and unto the city game!

Swamper77

Nerdly,

I don't mind constructive criticism, you know that. ;) For the black CRV, I've set the color to slightly above Pure Black, so it's a really dark gray. The black color you use is too light for my purposes.

As for the lighting, I've been using the default lighting in GMAX. None of the BAT's lighting rigs have been used as they tend to give a yellow cast to everything. I'll see if I can figure out how to make my own lighting rig or at least adjust the default lighting options. According to the default viewport settings, there is just one light source being used.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

Ryan B.

#372
Nice, Jan.  I looked online to see if there were any 3D models of my car (a '96 Ford Contour), but there weren't.

SC4 needs more real-world cars.  :)  The Crown Vic police vehicles are a start.  :P


Swamper77

Quote from: burgsabre87 on March 24, 2009, 11:46:53 AM
Nice, Jan.  I looked online to see if there were any 3D models of my car (a '96 Ford Contour), but there weren't.

SC4 needs more real-world cars.  :)  The Crown Vic police vehicles are a start.  :P

I'll see about making civilian versions of them at some point. No promises as to when I will do it.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

nerdly_dood

A much more common civilian version of the Crown Victoria is the Mercury Grand Marquis, which is pretty much the exact same car as the Crown Victoria except for a few differences:
- The later-model Grand Marquis has no turn signal between the main headlight and the grill so the space between is wider
- They have a corner light behind the front corner reflector so that side of the headlight goes a bit farther down the side
- The black space beneath the trunklid on the Ford Police Interceptor that is body-color on the civilian Crown Victoria is a great big rear red reflector on the Mercury Grand Marquis.

Just some recommendations for when/if you make a civilian version of your Crown Victoria. ;)
My days here are numbered. It's been great and I've had a lot of fun, but I've moved on to bigger and better things.
—   EGO  VOBIS  VADELICO   —
Glory be unto the modder and unto the fun and unto the city game!

Ryan B.

Quote from: Swamper77 on March 24, 2009, 12:14:10 PM
I'll see about making civilian versions of them at some point. No promises as to when I will do it.

-Jan

Just to clarify, I wasn't meaning to get on you about those.  When stuff gets done is when stuff gets done.

Pat

Jan simply wonderful there with your CRV!!!

Don't forget the SC4D Podcast is back and live on Saturdays @ 12 noon CST!! -- The Podcast soon to Return Here Linkie

Jack_wilds

Hello Swamper77, jack wilds here...

Everyone had a comment or two so I'll chime in with a thought...  ::)

Always enjoyed your automata work... its an amazing thing to do all this -the programming, studying, trials and errors... I give you and those who you work with alot of credit  &apls 

As for the logging rail and logging vehicles -were they included in the updates? I have yet to see 'em in action... or am I jumping the tracks in this  &mmm

Jack

Swamper77

Jack,

Good to hear that you like the work that I have done so far. I don't usually get a lot of comments other than "good job" type comments.

As for the logging vehicles, they haven't been released yet. I need to verify one of the parameters before I release them. Things have been busy as of late due to work and real life. I've also been taking a break from modding as I spent far too much time doing that instead of playing the game. I'll see about wrapping some stuff up this week.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!

Swamper77

#379
The logging equipment is going to be delayed a bit. Since this will be the dependency pack to have the logging truck automata spawn from the unreleased BSC lumber mill, I want to add one more vehicle to the set. One of the BSC members sent me an image of a RTL (Road Transferable Locomotive):


Here's my version in progress:

I don't have a model of the truck from the photo so I'm using a Freightliner cab as the base and modifying the vehicle as needed. The truck is still missing a bunch of details, but it is getting there. Instead of having any company specific logos, I will be placing the BSC globe logo on it. I'm still trying to figure what color to paint it as I have seen green, blue, and orange from the reference photos that I am using.

In the game, it will function much like the game's track checker. It will be spawned only by the unreleased BSC lumber mill. It would look odd seeing it pull a bunch of freight cars as a freight engine and there isn't a way to make new trains for the game. That is why I will be making it behave like a track checker in the game.

-Jan
You can call me Jan, if you want to.
Pagan and Proud!