*****GP4 Track editing - The new thread*****

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Lo2k Wrote:
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>
> .col file is not a collision file.
> even if you create a 3d bollard with .col faces,
> car will pass trough with no effect.
>

If that's the case, why do the rails have to have a hard surface over them in the .col? If the physics held the collision data then surely it would have to specify what the banks were?

Hi Lo2k, first, I have been a long long long silent visitor of this thread and am incredibly impressed with what you have done with the track editor,

I am a professional 3dsmax user, and am envolved with the games industry,

I just thought i'd bring something up in regards to exporting data from 3dsmax to a possible gp4 data, I'm assuming that the 3d models have no Flags of data or anything, but you might not be aware of something that is used in the games industry, it is available in the Direct X SDK (free download at microsoft.com), a convertor that converts a .3ds file to a .x file, this might be worth investigating to see if it's a better file type compatibility for importing into the Gp4 editor.

It would be fantastic if we could have the editor setup so all you had to do was create the track in the editor, export to 3dsmax, then do all the modelling and texturing in that, then import the file from max to 3deditor then place track marshalls etc, and do the CC-line I could make fantastic looking tracks in just a matter of a few hours.

hope this is of some use,

Dave Wortley
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
check out www.f1cm.co.uk
fed up of GPM, GPM2, GPW and F1 Manager?
F1cm is coming soon!!!

Using 3DSM would save much headwork imvho.

Well, I'm very glad to meet you Dave.

And I would like to thank you for this advice.
I heard of the .x file in the past as a file format (maybe in 3DExploration or when I was around the 3D scene) but I never went deeper in it until now.
So I will look for more information on it to learn if it could be suitable for this job.
I also look again in Maxscript help file and finaly found the getnormals, setnormals commands that were missing in the past maxscript version I looked into some years ago. So it seems I could also build my own I/O maxscript to load/save 3D meshes into a new custom format.
Anyhow, it's a quite long task and I currently have less time to apply on it than before.

Concerning modelling and texturing, you can already save and load any 3D .gp4 Object into/from .3ds file. So you can model and texture in Max and get everything in a .gp4 object ready for the game.
There are only 3 drawbacks:
- you can only import/export one object (not a full track but anyhow Max is not really friendly with full tracks)
- normals are not respected in the conversion
- texture names have to be re-created due to .3ds 8.3 name format and names have to be picked up from the list back in 3DEditor.

Concerning the cc-line, there should be good news about it because I recently received some great help that could lead to a better display approximation...to be continued.

BTW: I never heard of F1CM so far but I will come back on your site soon to have a deeper look as it seems a really interesting project. Just for fun, 3DEditor is little less than 52'000 lines of code long

woha thats alot of code

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2005 12:35PM by Willb.

Hi Laurent, Dave:

-->Dave: Welcome to this forum, good to see another professional here (the other is Lo2K, he is only not working at some game industry yet because opportunity, I'm sure).

-->Laurent: If you want to build some converter, please, don't make a plugin for 3D Studio. If you make a external conversor is OK, because I can manage 3DS format with no trouble (only some smooth problem), but I'm working with Lightwave. Then, I cannot access 3DSMax plugins.

Auradrummer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Laurent, Dave:
>
> -->Dave: Welcome to this forum, good to see
> another professional here (the other is Lo2K, he
> is only not working at some game industry yet
> because opportunity, I'm sure).
>
> -->Laurent: If you want to build some
> converter, please, don't make a plugin for 3D
> Studio. If you make a external conversor is OK,
> because I can manage 3DS format with no trouble
> (only some smooth problem), but I'm working with
> Lightwave. Then, I cannot access 3DSMax plugins.


Don't forget maverick

who's forgetting me? I'm certainly not a professional :+

Depends on your individual definition of "Professional"

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Too Right : not in name mabey but the quality of your work & knowledge maverick
i'd say on a professional level!!

well thanks for the kind words

@Auradrummer:
Thanks for your kind words Auradrummer, even if I'm not what is called a professionnal .

Making a maxscript doesn't mean I will remove the .3ds import/export from 3DEditor.
IF I create a maxscript, I will add new import/export features in 3DEditor to save/load files to/from a new custom format but I won't remove .3ds filter anyhow.

@Lo2k

with regards to Max not handelling a full track well, take a look at giving objects IDs for layers, then we can switch things like trackside objects on and off,

also might be worth looking into GMax, as it's a free game-editing version of Max, not too sure on the capabilities of it, but seems it shud do the job for anyone who hasn't got a copy of max, and also there might be some DevKit for it somewhere....

also, i have no idea if he's interested but there is a guy who goes by the user name blackf on the www.bhmotorsports.com forum, he's done some import and exporting work on Richard Burns Rally, seems like he knows a fair amount about import game data into 3dsmax using maxscript. might be worth seeing if he's a gp4 fan, (he he, RBR stages in gp4? lol)

anyhow, that's my 2c for now,

Dave
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
www.f1cm.co.uk
officially more lines of code than 3deditor :P

@Dave:
Lol for your signature

Yep, hiding objects could do the trick of course in Max. I didn't know about Layer IDs (which appeared with v6+ Max versions) but it could be usefull for sure in that case.

From what I know, GMax is basically Max modeler without renderer (which is not needed for our purpose anyway).
Asking blackf could be done too. I remind someone else offered his skills for that here but I'm sorry I can't remind his name... I know: use the search button
Anyway, if someone knows Blackf, he could maybe ask him about.

Thanks for your help, Dave, you're welcome

OT : I also wished to tell everyone that I will leave France tomorrow for 8 days in Mexico (late holidays), so don't wait for any answers before the 5th. Hope my plane will work better than the ones we're seeing on TV : /

Hello again! For anyone who wishes to see my Jerez track progress, it's on this page: [geocities.yahoo.com.br].

@Zepellin: sorry but I'm not so sure if I can finish the .dat this week... guess you'll have to wait a little longer (kinda busy with differential and integral calculus... I have an exam tomorrow).

Also, if anyone has any video coverage of any race held in Jerez in recent years and could send it to me, I'd be thankful.

I think I know how to solve your pitcrew problem. Have you put a hard surface down behind the garages? If not, that fixes the pitcrew bug so maybe you can try that

The problem he has with the pitcrew on the wrong side of the pitlane can be solved by changing a checkbox of the intitial sector. it's called "garage side: right/left" change this and your problem should be solved.

@Zeppelin: Hard surface down behind the garages? What do you mean exactly? The inside part of garages, where the car stays on practice sessions?

@Maverick: The problem seems a bit worse than that. In fact, pictrew looks "mirrored" (the lollipop man on the inside and the fueling men on the outside). I've put three screenshots on my page so you can understand easily what's happening.

Thanks for the help anyway.