Swamper's Garage

[Swamper77]

I'll release the Fire Chief Pack sometime this weekend. It will contain the Jeep Cherokee model and 2 versions of the new Fire Chief Crown Victoria model, 1 additional and 1 replacement. The replacement version will conflict with the one that was released in the American Emergency Vehicles Pack I released awhile back.

-Jan

[Swamper77]

The Fire Support Vehicles pack has been uploaded. A Jeep Cherokee and a Crown Victoria with a functional light bar are the only vehicles in the set. Detailed instructions are in the README file. The Jeep has modified behavior compared to other vehicles when it drives offroad My Automata Essentials File is required for this set of vehicles to work properly.

Sorry I didn't upload it earlier this weekend, but I have been busy as my best friend is visiting from Vegas for 2.5 weeks. I'll be online on an intermittent basis while she is in town. Hanging out with her is more important to me than the internet right now.
For those of you that did not notice, the EMT Ambulances pack has been updated to correct the problem of the lights not showing properly. I screwed up the settings on the graphics for how they behave in the game. The problem has been corrected on the Additionals and the Replacements. Please re-download to get the corrected graphics/models.
I have moved the posts by Nerdly regarding his automata to Joint Project: Nerdly & SW77, as it became a joint project between the two of us. I have also stickied the support thread for my products as well. Yes, I have Moderator powers in this part of the site now.

-Jan

[Swamper77]

I'm in the process of redoing my yet to be released taxi and police car models. I changed the skins a bit so they have white turn signals in the front with orange reflectors, and they look closer to the real world vehicles now. I have also darkened the grills on the taxis and the police car to be a flat black (not pure black) color. The taxi models are now as if they were police cars before becoming the taxis they are now.

I am also tweaking the game a bit more to my liking. There are some things here and there that have always bothered me when I'm playing the game. I have taken an "offense" to the Maxis cement mixer, lately. In the real world, the drum rotates as the truck is driving around. I've decided to apply my animation skills to something more practical than making flashing/rotating lights for emergency vehicles:

This is just a test prop to show what I did to the Maxis cement mixer model.
The trucks don't stay visible long enough ingame for me to take a series of pictures to show the animation.

I'll release this some day, probably after I get the taxis and the police cars done.

-Jan

[allan_kuan1992]

Stunning =O

- Allan Kuan

[nerdly_dood]

Cool, the barrel thing actually spins! I like that! (My amination skills are, roughly, NOTHING, considering that I can't make a 2D animation, let alone a 3D one)

[Swamper77]

I've updated the animated model of the cement mixer. Here's a new animation to compare with:

I'm still using my test lot with the custom cement mixer prop

Compared to the previous image, this animation is much smoother. The original model had 12 frames, each one at 22.5 degrees compared to each other. The new model has 32 frames, each one at 11.25 degrees to each other. The result is a smoother animation in game, but it will eat a little more memory than the previous version and more than Maxis' static model the game comes with. The animation has been slowed down a bit for the game as well, so it will be a little more realistic. The previous model was a little too fast.

I will get pictures of the updates of the taxi and the police car models when I get some more time. I have spent most of my free time lately, just modeling and programming the animation for the animated cement truck model. It is similar to what I do when I make animated lights for the emergency vehicles, but there are more frames and a more complicated model involved. Sometime in the very near future, I will post images of the updated skins on the taxis and police Crown Victoria's. I'll see about making some different varieties other than the black & white "generic" skin that I have made as well.

-Jan

[Swamper77]

I see no one really cares about these vehicles. Oh well, that won't stop me...
I've been working on finishing up the Yellow Cabs that I started. There will be a total of 6 taxis, 3 all-yellow taxis and 3 "Classics" (grey bumpers). Here are pictures of the "Classics":





These "Classics" are based on this image:

I liked the paint scheme enough to replicate it for SC4. It was also the inspiration for the first cab of the set with the triangular sign on the roof. I then applied the paint scheme to the other two versions to make a full 6-pack of taxis.

The Crown Victoria Yellow Cab taxis will all be additionals only. There are plenty of replacement mods for the taxis at ST, so I will not be making replacement mods with my models.

I've got an updated image of the Crown Victoria police car model:

The grill is a flat black as per the real life counterpart. The modeling is finalized, so I will be focusing on making different paint schemes. Most will be generic, such as a Sheriff's police car. A few of them will be specific, but I will not say what they are. I want to keep those ones a surprise


I have also made a complete mod to replace the parked police car props with the Crown Victoria model. I will separate the model and make it an individual prop so you make a lot with various police cars from different agencies for whatever reason. I will make one for each police car skin I make.

I do have an idea in mind to make a mall security car with yellow lights, but I have not found any Occupant Groups (OGs) in the game or in custom content to use to indicate a lot is a mall. The mall security may be on hold for awhile, but I think I could do a medical security car with the same idea as there are OGs for the larger medical buildings. Here in Everett, the large medical facilities have their own security service of Crown Victoria patrol cars with yellow light bars.

[nerdly_dood]

Good work with the taxis and police cars!

In Roanoke, the Carilion health system has its own police department with blue lights.  I guess that is in addition to Virginia Western Comm. Coll. which has a 6-man police force, and of course Roanoke City police, roanoke city sheriff, roanoke county police, roanoke county sheriff, virginia state police, the FBI... and I think that's about it.

I'd like to see a V-light style like the NYPD has, but it's not a big deal - it would be a pain to arrange the flashing light models with how they're set up.  Just using the same light effect as the standard-light police cars like you're working on now might work just fine...

[allan_kuan1992]

looking good =)

You have any designs for "ghost" unmarked police cars?

- Allan Kuan

[Une_ame]

Super CV Swamper (as usual!!) .

Is it me, my computer or the chrome grill of the SC4 cars that appears flat grey when it should be shiny ?

[nerdly_dood]

Nearly all CV police cars have a flat black grille - so it's not you, your computer or SW77's mistake - they're just like that in RL.  The 'consumer version' if you might call it that does have a chrome grille, though, but not the police version. (Fire departments use the same version as police departments.)

[Swamper77]

Since I use GMAX/BAT for my modeling and texturing, I don't have access to the nice lighting effects that users of 3DSMAX get to use. So the graphics look "flat" and don't have shiny surfaces. The game is also several years old so there is no advanced lighting features such as shiny surfaces and reflections. The skins on the vehicles are just bitmaps wrapped around the vehicle shapes.

-Jan

[Une_ame]

Thanks Swamper for this precision. I knew it wasn't your fault (of course) but I was wondering were it come from.

As far as I remember, Antoine has the same problem with his "Obélisque de la Concorde" which was supposed to have a a golden pyramid at the top. It was barely visible once ploped in the game.

[Swamper77]

The Crown Victoria Yellow Cabs are now available on the LEX!
They are based on cabs run by the Yellow Cab company, but carry a generic "TAXI" label on the sides. Be sure to take a close look at them during nighttime in your cities.

@Allan: Sorry I didn't answer your question earlier. I don't have plans for unmarked police cars at this time. I will consider the idea for another batch of police cars, though. I will have to make a new custom model for the flashing lights, and those take time to model and animate. I usually do a bunch of vehicles that require minor modifications, then I do ones that require lots of work every now and then. So, it won't be right away. Maybe sometime in the future....

-Jan

[SC4BOY]

The rotation is too fast.. otherwise it's the "normal stunning" we expect from you..

[allan_kuan1992]

It appears that Ripptide created a smaller pumper as I see one in his prop packs.

Now, I find that in many cases the large pumper is too long and always sideswipes cars on curves. Also, I have seen some recently-delivered short purpose-built pumpers running throughout Vancouver city streets.

Therefore I'm wondering if you are able to do a shortened version. I have a raw PNG texture ready for your use (no alphas though due to problems while converting the original long pumper texture from FSH to PNG).

- Allan Kuan

[Swamper77]

Allan,

If you could provide a picture of the short pumper prop from LE or the game, I will see if I have a corresponding model for it in my files.

I'll check in within the next few days, either at work or after noon on Saturday. No internet at home, posting from work

-Swamper

[allan_kuan1992]

Here you go. It's attached.

The short pumper is circled along with two other airport fire trucks (those I don't think can be modded properly though to appear only at airports).

EDIT: I realize that the pumper is only a few metres shorter than the other one.

- Allan Kuan

[Swamper77]

Allan,

I'll see about making a shorter version of the pumper. It shouldn't be too hard as I have Ripptide's source models and my automata skin files. When Ripptide sent me the models, I was given a "Pumper 1" and a "Pumper 3". This shorter one is probably "Pumper 2", which I never received from him.

As for making the airport fire trucks appear at airports, it is possible to do that. It involves some scripting, which I know how to do for automata generators.

-Swamper

[nerdly_dood]

Pumper 3 I only ever saw 1 and 2 in the Mega Props RT vol whatever!  I would like to see both 1 and 2 in game now that I hear of them.