Show your Renders v3.0

Sorry, yes, the Alpha channel.
Yeah, I see what you mean about the sidepod; if you look closely enough, you can follow that 'seam' quite a way along the sidepod towards the front, though your light placement hides it after a while.
I'm not a modelling expert, but I believe that is the 'smoothing group' issue that I spoke about. The side of the pod's group has become separated from the top of the pod's group.
I've always wondered about the possibility of exporting from Zmodeler to 3DS Max in the least-lossy way possible (Grand Theft Auto's .dff format seems to be the best way) and 'reworking' the groups for exporting to a renderer.
But then I've remembered that I can't model for peanuts.

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You might remember from when I was doing the UV Mapping for the '96 Footwork, that the end result had a lot of messed-up normals that you had to fix?
I now know that was caused by the way I got from Zmodeler to 3DS Max; the .3ds file format is a load of garbage basically.
Ideally, I think we need a way of exporting from 'proper' modelling programs (Max, Maya etc.) directly to the .gp4 format, to cut out Zmodeler which also does it's 'own thing' with smoothing groups.
But that requires knowledge of the .gp4 format (Laurent?) and knowledge of the 3DS Max scripting language. (????)
Or, we hope that model builders retain a 'non-zmodelered' copy of their work to make for nicer renders.
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This separation is visible in GP4 Builder, but GP4, as you know, itself is quite good at sorting it out when displaying the model in-game.
As you've discovered, lighting is really the best shot at hiding the imperfections.
Here is one of the first renders I did with one of Maikel's models, and I mostly succeded....but it's a really, really bright light source and clever camera placement.
(That was in 3DS Max I believe.)
Another couple of more recent renders (1, 2), this time in Keyshot.
(Workflow was Zmodeler -> .dff format -> 3DS Max -> Keyshot)

The 'seam' is still visible in the side-on view, but I altered the reflectivity of the material to mask it as best I could.

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F1 Graphics Swapper --- Lensdump - Renders and Screenshots --- GP4 Performance Generator



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/08/2017 12:52AM by AUS_Doug.

Yeah, once you hit smoothing it looks @#$%& up, can easily see the problematic spots without textures [imgur.com]

Oh I remember, took us quite a while until we had that right
The normals seemed to look fine on it though.
Maybe I should just ask Maikel if he has the GPGSL shape in pre-zmodeler format.


In the meantime I tried Greg's settings, with some slight adjustments. Other car this time, but I think it looks quite decent. Maybe even a bit too much reflections now


full size

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2017 01:37PM by kedy89.

Great stuff kedy, looking great. Reflection map (grayscale one) is applied on specular map node if I remember correctly.
Also depth in body lines could be achieved with either bump map (but you must have clean image with body lines only) or with normal maps which can be created in Photoshop I think .

Cheers mate

I'll have play around a bit more this weekend, when I've got some free hours to spare.

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018

I, personally, like this Red-Bull like shape with a lot of reflection, but it really depends on the car scheme and color mix. I've never worked with Blender, so maybe what I'm thinking of is the 'smoothing' you mentioned, but in C4D, when you create the reflection with specular maps, you have an option to blur it. The downside is that blurring massively raises render time, otherwise it works quite well. Getting the hard edges off the reflection causes a massive increase in realistic look.
Secondly, to me it looks like you lost out a bit on the tyres with Greg's settings compared to the second Alpha shot you posted. Maybe you could copy over some of those settings to Greg's base settings.


GPGSL : Team Owner of 'Maverick Track Performance' (MTP)

I was referring to the shape when talking about smoothing. Upon importing the 3ds you have the edgy model, similar to zmodeler with flat shading actived in 3dview. Don't think I've seen a bluring option or likewise, will have to look. Probably wouldn't mind the increased render time if it gives a better result.

Fun thing, I didn't change any settings for the tyre textures. Only differences are light positions, and Bridgestone instead of Dunlop texture. But I think I get what you mean, the sidewall looks too dark now compared to the tread, while in the previous one only the edges were darker.

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018

kedy89 Schreef:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yeah, once you hit smoothing it looks @#$%& up,
> can easily see the problematic spots without
> textures [imgur.com]
>
> Oh I remember, took us quite a while until we had
> that right
> The normals seemed to look fine on it though.
> Maybe I should just ask Maikel if he has the GPGSL
> shape in pre-zmodeler format.
>
>
> In the meantime I tried Greg's settings, with some
> slight adjustments. Other car this time, but I
> think it looks quite decent. Maybe even a bit too
> much reflections now
>
> [i.imgur.com]
> full size



That's a huge improvement, nice one.

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My Grand Prix 4 Files
I'm a total dick. How many people can say that?

Alright, apparently double vertices caused the issues on the shape. Well, at least hitting the button "delete doubles" made the shape look way better. Reflections and lighting on the car looks smooth now, rather than having those borders.

Added a normal map for the bodylines, which imo improves their overall look.


Latest result, really happy with how it looks now


full size

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018

That's looking pretty good.

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Well done Tobi, that's indeed a good progress. I might have to go and search for the 'delete doubles' equivalent in C4D or have a look in Blender


GPGSL : Team Owner of 'Maverick Track Performance' (MTP)

Cheers mate

There's also a downside to that function, some detail gets lost, e.g. on those intakes on top of the sidepod. But that's a price I'm willing to pay to get smooth reflections without an overdose of lights.


Think I can soon start to get uniform renders of all cars for the wiki.

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018

Nice render Tobi

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My GPGSL Career

That's looking pretty good and a nice improvement. Tyre walls are a bit weird for me though.

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New one, changed background and lighting, and used new shaders.


click for full size

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018

Like it, only the wheel nuts looks a bit fuzzy. For me the car will look better with wider tyres.

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My Grand Prix 4 Files
I'm a total dick. How many people can say that?

Had some spare time... perhaps enough to get Vray 3.6 to work on 3ds max 2013



p.s. no texture as the scene has been built from scratch in about 2 days.

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My GPGSL Career



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2018 04:20AM by senna9194.

ooh, nice car shape you got there

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Some F1 CSM mods
1996 | 2000 | 2002 | 2007 | 2011 | 2013 | 2015 | 2018

Very Pretty.

Here is one of my new ZG02LN scenes that I've been getting ready for future renders. Tried my best to make it look like a diecast model so if anyone can help me out with some changes I could make that would be very helpful indeed.

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