Help with the zmodeler
Posted by rracunis
Thank you Arnaud for everything 
I have renamed and assigned one by one of the textures according to the car you have sent me and according to each part that I got in 3ds, for instance , Textured Material: WCCARBODY : DTM_Mercedes_02.TGA and so on (IMAGE BELOW ) . Exported to .GP4 file ( all the objects arranged in 28 correct parts ) . When left the game and imported again the same file into Zmodeler , the textures in material editor changed the name , now is something like this , dtm_mercedes_02.tGA : dtm_Mercedes_02.TGA (Textured Material was changed to dtm_mercedes_02.tGA , same happened with all the other textures as well ) and a chrome .bmp texture is ticked for all the textures ( I didn't add this texture , even I don't have this texture in any folder in which I have been working ) . Why it has happened ?
About the windows and all transparent objects. When they are ready with textures, select all the objects you want to see transparent in game and uniteselect them. The name of this single object must be z_cockpit_visor. Indeed, this is the z_cockpit_visor parts which look transparent in game (for the F1, this is the cockpit visor which is the z_cockpit_visor object... But this object can use several parts and they will look transparent in game if uniteselected into a single object)
Do I have to assign the transparent textures in glowing mode or it doesn't care ? As you can see in the images below , the windons and windshield are transparent as it should be , however the driver name in the lateral windows and the car number in the windshield also is transparent and this should be visible . About flickering textures, the main problem is inside the car in close view , leaving the camera away ( bringing back ) the textures are visible , excepting the T5_GENERIC texture which has not been well inside the car and in the suspension (i didn't check yet the mapping of the objects ) .
The brakes lights don't work and I don't have idea how to fix it . Any tip ?
The good news is the car is correctly set , thanks a lot for your lessons , never would be able to do that without you . Seem the car is coming up 
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2016 07:11PM by rracunis.
About the windows and all transparent objects. When they are ready with textures, select all the objects you want to see transparent in game and uniteselect them. The name of this single object must be z_cockpit_visor. Indeed, this is the z_cockpit_visor parts which look transparent in game (for the F1, this is the cockpit visor which is the z_cockpit_visor object... But this object can use several parts and they will look transparent in game if uniteselected into a single object)
Do I have to assign the transparent textures in glowing mode or it doesn't care ? As you can see in the images below , the windons and windshield are transparent as it should be , however the driver name in the lateral windows and the car number in the windshield also is transparent and this should be visible . About flickering textures, the main problem is inside the car in close view , leaving the camera away ( bringing back ) the textures are visible , excepting the T5_GENERIC texture which has not been well inside the car and in the suspension (i didn't check yet the mapping of the objects ) .
The brakes lights don't work and I don't have idea how to fix it . Any tip ?
The good news is the car is correctly set , thanks a lot for your lessons , never would be able to do that without you
. Seem the car is coming up Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2016 07:11PM by rracunis.
First of all, nice work! 
The optimization for GP4 is going well and you are improving your skill every day.
Now, to answer you:
1-As I said, textures names into material editor must be the same than the texture: So if your texture name is dtm_mercedes_02.tga, into material editor, the texture name must be dtm_mercedes_02.tga, only. But I guess this is what you did, as it loads correctly in game.
Don't worry about the chrome.bmp light texture. It loads automatically when you open .gp4 file into ZM1. You don't have to care about it...
Advanced work: Better would be to give short names to your textures (no more than 8 caracters) for the lower lods work and to group some textures to reduce their numbers. But this is another step. You will see later, if you wish...
2-You don't have to set glowing mode for the transparent objects: the object z_cockpit_visor do it automatically. What you can do, eventually, is to modify the color of the "glass" texture from your cars.wad to change the opacity. Z_cockpit_visor is related to the glass texture by default in game.
The problem is that the windows are textured with textures names or numbers, so if the windows are transparent, the names and numbers will be also transparent. There are some ways to fix it but it needs some work and time consuming (to create faces behind the windows, to attach them with the cockpit object and to map these faces with the windows texture , only with the part you want to see in game).
But I haven't got the time to explain you, right now.
Better is either to set the rear windows non transparent (I know that the result could be strange), or either to set the color of the glass texture from your cars.wad to grey for more opacity of the windows in game... It is also possible to play with the glowing mode for the opacity but this is an advanced feature a bit difficult to do because of GP4 specific objects.
Just try and test with the glass texture, first... In any case, the names on the windows won't appear completely by modifiying th opacity, unless you create faces mapped with another object than the z_cockpit_visor object.
3- It seems that some textures are not well assigned to the car (Suspensions, body driver, driver seat, exhausts). Check the names into material editor and textures. It looks correct into ZM but my guess that material editor names and textures names are not the same...
4- About the break lights, I have only had to use one until present, for the F1. But the break lights will be only enabled into intermediate or wet weather conditions from what I know. Maybe there is a way to use them all the time but I don't know. BTW, you have to use the rear lights not enabled on the cockpit object and make a copy with the light enabled as the rear_light_on object.
Maybe you could have a look to others mods for GP4 with DTM cars or others cars to see how the rear lights are working... Just an idea...
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The optimization for GP4 is going well and you are improving your skill every day. Now, to answer you:
1-As I said, textures names into material editor must be the same than the texture: So if your texture name is dtm_mercedes_02.tga, into material editor, the texture name must be dtm_mercedes_02.tga, only. But I guess this is what you did, as it loads correctly in game.
Don't worry about the chrome.bmp light texture. It loads automatically when you open .gp4 file into ZM1. You don't have to care about it...
Advanced work: Better would be to give short names to your textures (no more than 8 caracters) for the lower lods work and to group some textures to reduce their numbers. But this is another step. You will see later, if you wish...
2-You don't have to set glowing mode for the transparent objects: the object z_cockpit_visor do it automatically. What you can do, eventually, is to modify the color of the "glass" texture from your cars.wad to change the opacity. Z_cockpit_visor is related to the glass texture by default in game.
The problem is that the windows are textured with textures names or numbers, so if the windows are transparent, the names and numbers will be also transparent. There are some ways to fix it but it needs some work and time consuming (to create faces behind the windows, to attach them with the cockpit object and to map these faces with the windows texture , only with the part you want to see in game).
But I haven't got the time to explain you, right now.
Better is either to set the rear windows non transparent (I know that the result could be strange), or either to set the color of the glass texture from your cars.wad to grey for more opacity of the windows in game... It is also possible to play with the glowing mode for the opacity but this is an advanced feature a bit difficult to do because of GP4 specific objects.
Just try and test with the glass texture, first... In any case, the names on the windows won't appear completely by modifiying th opacity, unless you create faces mapped with another object than the z_cockpit_visor object.
3- It seems that some textures are not well assigned to the car (Suspensions, body driver, driver seat, exhausts). Check the names into material editor and textures. It looks correct into ZM but my guess that material editor names and textures names are not the same...
4- About the break lights, I have only had to use one until present, for the F1. But the break lights will be only enabled into intermediate or wet weather conditions from what I know. Maybe there is a way to use them all the time but I don't know. BTW, you have to use the rear lights not enabled on the cockpit object and make a copy with the light enabled as the rear_light_on object.
Maybe you could have a look to others mods for GP4 with DTM cars or others cars to see how the rear lights are working... Just an idea...
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I'm glad , the work today has been a bit easier . The brake lights are set , it was less complicated than I imagined , just had to fix the texture and rename the parts as rear light on ( I guess the object did the work automatically ) . And it works in all weather conditions . Now , let me start to try to assign the textures as they should be , I hope be able to do it . The windows will be the last work and I'm expecting problems , let see .
Your support and encouragement have been essential, you are really a master. Thank you for sharing your huge knowledge so humbly with a rookie like me
EDITED :
It was so good to be true . I'm trying to map the objects . In the UV view , I tried many times to have the texture and the mesh togheter in order to move the object into the texture . Just got the texture ( but is not clear how did I get that ) , don't know how to put both at the same time. Can you please let me know the basic steps to assign the texture to the object ? And in those objects with more than one texture , for instance , one for the driver and for the hans , how can I separate the parts to assign them ? Actually , found your explanations in some posts above but still is not clear . I think the procedure is not complicated because this is not a new car , the mesh , objects and textures are ready . Then basically , what I would like to understand is the way to have textures and objects in the UV views , having that just need to move one into another . Sorry for the silly questions and thanks again .
From this step , I don't know how to assign the textures to the objects
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2016 10:04PM by rracunis.
Your support and encouragement have been essential, you are really a master. Thank you for sharing your huge knowledge so humbly with a rookie like me
EDITED :
It was so good to be true . I'm trying to map the objects . In the UV view , I tried many times to have the texture and the mesh togheter in order to move the object into the texture . Just got the texture ( but is not clear how did I get that ) , don't know how to put both at the same time. Can you please let me know the basic steps to assign the texture to the object ? And in those objects with more than one texture , for instance , one for the driver and for the hans , how can I separate the parts to assign them ? Actually , found your explanations in some posts above but still is not clear . I think the procedure is not complicated because this is not a new car , the mesh , objects and textures are ready . Then basically , what I would like to understand is the way to have textures and objects in the UV views , having that just need to move one into another . Sorry for the silly questions and thanks again .
From this step , I don't know how to assign the textures to the objects
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/07/2016 10:04PM by rracunis.
Professeur Arnaud , first car is done . Thank you for all
Congrats! Nice work!
Did you manage to reduce the numbers of textures and to remap the parts on the new textures groups?
What would be great is to show you how to make alpha layers with 3dsMax and ambient occlusion (shadows) but I haven't got the time to make a tutorial right now, until the end of march. I will make a video tutorial soon
And congrats for creating the drivers names behind the transparent windows. This is not the easier part
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Did you manage to reduce the numbers of textures and to remap the parts on the new textures groups?
What would be great is to show you how to make alpha layers with 3dsMax and ambient occlusion (shadows) but I haven't got the time to make a tutorial right now, until the end of march. I will make a video tutorial soon
And congrats for creating the drivers names behind the transparent windows. This is not the easier part
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You did the right thing with Tony DTM mod. This is the best thing to understand how it works. Then, I am sure you will do it yourself. When I think that you were close to give up a few weeks ago.... You have really improved your skill in terms of modding in a short time and want to learn. This is very appreciable for the GP4 community because the community need modders who want to keep the game alive. and little by little, I am sure you will make great things from scratch. Modeling, texturing and modding are always made of trials and fails and we learn every day. This is why it is exciting when you manage to get the result you want!
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2016 01:32PM by Excalibur.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2016 01:32PM by Excalibur.
Hi Arnaud , I have managed to make the 3 cars , the most difficult task has been the windows , windshields , banners etc . Despite of the difficulties , the work is in progress but i had to stop in the past 3 days because of the door's frame . As you can see in the images below , the originals Audi and BMW cars didn't have the frames on the doors or , they have but as the windows must be transparent when optimized for GP4 , also the frames are transparent excepting in the Mercedes.
The solution I used to try to fix this problem was delete and subdivide faces in the original door's windows using the GP4builder as I couldn't move faces and edges using the zmodeler in order to make the "fake" frame well done and smooth ( which I will attach in the cockipt ) . But the result is weird and I don't like it , many unnecessary faces and a unprecise work .
I have noticed that only few people are interested in this MOD , so I might forget this detail and go ahead with the other 19 cars but I always try to do the things as better as possible in my life . Please can you help me in some way .
Thanks a lot in advance .
Ricardo
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2016 12:18PM by rracunis.
The solution I used to try to fix this problem was delete and subdivide faces in the original door's windows using the GP4builder as I couldn't move faces and edges using the zmodeler in order to make the "fake" frame well done and smooth ( which I will attach in the cockipt ) . But the result is weird and I don't like it , many unnecessary faces and a unprecise work .
I have noticed that only few people are interested in this MOD , so I might forget this detail and go ahead with the other 19 cars but I always try to do the things as better as possible in my life . Please can you help me in some way .
Thanks a lot in advance .
Ricardo
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2016 12:18PM by rracunis.
Hi Ricardo!
Ok, I understand.
I was just wondering: on the original files, when you select by texture the side windows, aren't they correctly detached from the doors frames? I thought it was ok but maybe I am wrong...
If yes, it means that the doors frames are originally well designed and that you can detach them from the doors with smooth outlines.
Otherwise, what I would suggest you:
1:Select your door frame and into vertices mode, create new faces over your model (Create/Faces/single), using the existing vertices as a base but by leaving aside the small edges, in order to get approximatively homogeneous faces.
2: Once done, you have your old model and your new one uniteselected in one object. No problem, into faces mode, just Select by texture (default material) to get only your new faces selected and Create/Object/Detach .... to extract only your new faces created in one object which will replace the old one.
3: Now that you have a better model, you can also play with the vertices to make a better inner outline from your door frame: Select your model and into vertices mode, select the inner vertices and move them to make a larger frame where it is necessary.
4: Then, you will have to remap this new object on the door frame texture...
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2016 05:07PM by Excalibur.
Ok, I understand.
I was just wondering: on the original files, when you select by texture the side windows, aren't they correctly detached from the doors frames? I thought it was ok but maybe I am wrong...
If yes, it means that the doors frames are originally well designed and that you can detach them from the doors with smooth outlines.
Otherwise, what I would suggest you:
1:Select your door frame and into vertices mode, create new faces over your model (Create/Faces/single), using the existing vertices as a base but by leaving aside the small edges, in order to get approximatively homogeneous faces.
2: Once done, you have your old model and your new one uniteselected in one object. No problem, into faces mode, just Select by texture (default material) to get only your new faces selected and Create/Object/Detach .... to extract only your new faces created in one object which will replace the old one.
3: Now that you have a better model, you can also play with the vertices to make a better inner outline from your door frame: Select your model and into vertices mode, select the inner vertices and move them to make a larger frame where it is necessary.
4: Then, you will have to remap this new object on the door frame texture...
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2016 05:07PM by Excalibur.
Voilà Arnaud , we have the door's frame
Hi Arnaud , please can you let me know why this bug has happened and how to fix it ( doesn't happen with close views ) ?
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2016 08:23PM by rracunis.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2016 08:23PM by rracunis.
I believe you have to redo the alpha layers now, rracunis. There's a good tutorial in the FAQ...
Buddies I am back . I need a help with zmodeler and your help would be much appreciated . I want to learn from the masters how to unlink nodes in the zmodeler but , mainly , how to detach parts or faces . I already learned to detach going to select/quadr , then modify/submesh/detach using the zmodeler 2 . However , some parts are not plain like the left and right fin from the front wing and I don't know how to select the faces which I need , like Bernard did in his amazing Tororosso recently released by him . He got to separate the faces from the right and left front fin and right and left front wing . If I understood how to make it properly , the secret is to select correctly the faces you need to detach , using all tools available in the select , not only the quadr . But how to do that ?
Please see in the picture below what I mean . Thanks in advance for your cooperation
Please see in the picture below what I mean . Thanks in advance for your cooperation
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