Alex's Garage

[Doctor Fraggington]

[Razor]

Very nice work and I agree with nobs on the Sled, we needs it!

[AlexTSK]

Thaks Razor, Mike, though my scenes as you might have seen look a lot like the last panel of that comic :P

[starbuck]

Nice memory Doctor Fraggington. I still remember the drawing of the tiny little mustang with the overly sized engine sticking over the hood :)

[AlexTSK]

Monster eagle! The wheels so far are by far the most annoying thing to get right. Back to work!



Thanks very much to Trent and his Minge tool, it's working nicely! Now I can go ahead and get this car in game using CarMODgeddon hooray!

[hazardic]

Wow I guess we'll see it in game fully playable?

[AlexTSK]

Wow I guess we'll see it in game fully playable?

Yes sir!

[starbuck]

So the Minge tool is out ?

[AlexTSK]

So the Minge tool is out ?

Not officially, yet

[AlexTSK]

Having some issues with the tire scroll and positioning, but! The tires are now cusom and have custom deflation :)

[hazardic]

Maybe Fatcat could help you? His custom rims are awesome, and I'm sure while based on vanilla he sorted some problems.

I see, all materials are in place and look proper

[Trent]

So the Minge tool is out ?

I've just given it to a few people to test before I release it publicly. I'll hopefully be releasing it in the next couple of hours once these uploads have finished.

[AlexTSK]

Maybe Fatcat could help you? His custom rims are awesome, and I'm sure while based on vanilla he sorted some problems.

I see, all materials are in place and look proper

There's no material setup on the car yet, I still have to figure it out. It's all just a flat albedo texture right now :)

[AlexTSK]

And here's the materials, still needs some tweaking but its close right off the bat. The textures are only at half resolution on this PC sadly, but it still looks decent

[hazardic]

hope you will release full res version too? cause me for instance plays cr at max texture quality and i can't force myself to remove modified script file, which allows me this

[starbuck]

So the Minge tool is out ?

Not officially, yet

It is now :)

[AlexTSK]

hope you will release full res version too? cause me for instance plays cr at max texture quality and i can't force myself to remove modified script file, which allows me this

It is at full res, im just not forcing my graphics card to load the ful resolution as I only have 2GB or vram

[Doctor Fraggington]

And here's the materials, still needs some tweaking but its close right off the bat. The textures are only at half resolution on this PC sadly, but it still looks decent

Ooh, lookit those normals!

[AlexTSK]

Material testing, less shiny

['80s Time Warp]

Looking good Man. Are you animating the mechanical parts or leaving them static for now? I know setting that up through flummery isn't easy.

Either way, looking forward to a Death Race against the Red Tech Eagle in the Barger, hehe

[AlexTSK]

I was thinking i would set up the mechanical parts in my 3D program instead, see how that works out.

['80s Time Warp]

I was thinking i would set up the mechanical parts in my 3D program instead, see how that works out.

Cool. You've probably been over the default car models & Structures as much as I have, but here's a few tips for setup for when you get to it :)

Live Axle Setup:

• - The Y & Z Axis positions of the Pivot-points/Object Origin/Local Axis for a live Axle & Live Axle Hubs must match that of the wheel nodes


• - If the Trailing Arms are at an angle, then the Pivot-points/Object Origin/Local Axis of those parts must be rotated by the same amount


• - In the structure, Live Axles are always defined as being for the wheels on the right side (Front - 0, Rear - 2)

Double Wishbone & Strut Suspension Setup:

• - If any Wishbones are at an angle, then the Pivot-points/Object Origin/Local Axis of those parts must be rotated by the same amount


• - The Y & Z Axis positions of the Pivot-points/Object Origin/Local Axis for Wishbone Hubs (not tested on Strut Hubs) must match that of the wheel nodes


• - Generally the wheel position (in the structure data) is set to the origin of the Hub, strange suspension animations can result from defining the actual wheel node position in Hub Space


• - On Wishbone suspension, make sure that the upper and lower wishbone mounts are one part, you don't want these to move away from each other as the vehicle damages

Shock Absorber / Damper Setup (Manual Animations):

• - If these are at an angle, then the Pivot-points/Object Origin/Local Axis of those parts must be rotated by the same amount


• - The 2 Halves of each shock usually snap to their origins on their respective parent part


• - Each half then rotates its end point towards the origin of the other half.

Coil Spring Setup (Manual Animations):

• - The Pivot-points/Object Origin/Local Axis needs to be rotated, such that if you were to draw a line in the Local Y axis, it would take you to the centre of the springs end point (typically rotated 180 degrees in the Z axis from the angle that the dampers pivots are rotated by)


• - Springs Snap their origin to the same point (defined locally) on the upper damper


• - Springs Rotate their end point with scaling to the same point (defined locally) on the lower damper

Minimum parts required for animated setup (everything else is done manually):

• Live Axle - 2x Live Axle Hubs, Live Axle, 2 x Trailing Arms, 2 x Trailing Arm Mounts


• Wishbone - 2x Wishbone Mounts (united as 1 part), 2 x Wishbones, 1 x Hub


• Strut - 1 x Wishbone Mount, 1 x Wishbone, 1 x Hub

Other Notes:

• - Shock Absorbers, Coil Springs, Tie/Track Rods, Drive shafts all have to be animated manually,


• - Trailing Arms have to be animated manually


• - Parts will inevitably inherit any animation from their parent, so don't make driveshafts, UJs, steering shafts or Tie Rods child parts of one another


• -Z axis is through vehicle length


• -Y axis is through vehicle height


• -X axis is through vehicle width

Hope this is helpful :)

EDIT: corrected error in Wishbone suspension minimum parts

[AlexTSK]

Nice one Mike, thanks a lot, I've noted these down!

Also , my whisbones mount directly to the body? yet in your minimum set up you say it needs 2x whishbone mounts? how is that going to work? I will need to fake the mounts then?

['80s Time Warp]

Nice one Mike, thanks a lot, I've noted these down!

Also , my whisbones mount directly to the body? yet in your minimum set up you say it needs 2x whishbone mounts? how is that going to work? I will need to fake the mounts then?

No worries :) It's best I pass this on since I've been through most of the suspension setups.

With the wishbones, you can mount them direct to the car body and then define the body as being the wishbone mount/s, but that I don't recommend that as the wishbone mounts need to be non-crushable parts. You could fake them with null nodes, but it is best to have a small mounting bracket for them.

Here's what mine are like (highlighted in red) on the Monty Carnage


Typically the wishbone mount represents the entire anchoring point for all the suspension parts on a wheel, everything else is a child part of the mount so you don't have to worry about the risk of parts moving away from each other when the car takes damage, which would screw up all the animations.

[AlexTSK]

I see, well I couldnt have know all this when I built the car so it might be a bit late to start adding shit in...

I suppose I could just detach the mounts that are on the car and use that...sigh

['80s Time Warp]

I suppose I could just detach the mounts that are on the car and use that...sigh

Yep, It's either that or use a null node.

[starbuck]

Consider me totally lost now :)

I think it looks a lot more realistic with the matte textures.

Thats one thing I liked about Star Wars (original) everything looked old and used.

[AlexTSK]

Well here's some more of the matte texture ;) and inner fender detail 90% of people probably don't care about!

[starbuck]

I think that inner texture just adds more to the game. Its like in GTA for example, those little things just make the game better.

Good work.

[AlexTSK]

Here's a bit of a size comparison. Red Tech made sure to build the baddest Eagle out there ;)

[hazardic]

nice i like tez eagle size - massive and reinforced look. redtech sure looks more solid and heavy, i guess toughness will be between 2.5-3?

[AlexTSK]

out of 5? yeah probably 2.5 or so. I want try and give the car to have that c2 feel where the parts don't fly off so easily and it doesn't get insta-wrecked.

['80s Time Warp]

Well here's some more of the matte texture ;) and inner fender detail 90% of people probably don't care about!

Beautiful work there :) 3d back-facing as opposed to just loading back-facing the body material, same thing I do, except you're using much better textures for the back-facing than I am, hehe

[AlexTSK]

Much appreciated mike! yeah back facing is a pain the butt but it makes the cars look a lot more beefy if done properly :)

[hazardic]

out of 5? yeah probably 2.5 or so. I want try and give the car to have that c2 feel where the parts don't fly off so easily and it doesn't get insta-wrecked.

yeah this feel gives only ~3 and above - i did it with tez eagle (it uses eagle r toughness which is almost fragile, it was very annoying been wasted by one touch)