A few beginner modding questions.

[BogdanM]

I've decided to try my hand at modding EM4 and making a vehicle seems like the a good way to start. I've started working on a CVPI and I'd have a few questions.

 

1) How detailed the car model should be? I've seen somewhere the number 2000. I assume that's 2k polys and not verticles. My model is already 2008 faces (without doing any cleaning) and I still have to make some basic interior, add the wheels and other details (pushbar, lightbar, spotlight). I'll try to stay under 3000 but I hope it's not too much

 

2) Which parts should be separated from the main body of the car? I've cut out the front and rear door and the trunk. The wheels will also be a separate object. 

 

3) Should I make a model for the destroyed version of the car?

 

4) Do I need ZModeler for anything else beside exporting the file as v30 format?

 

5) Any other tips you could give me for the modelling part (I'm using Blender) and whatever comes next?

 

If I manage to get it working ingame I'll make a bunch of other variations (different lightbars, skins) and release the pack for anyone to use.

 

I'll post any further questions I have here. Thank you!

 

 

[itchboy]

2000+ isnt bad. My number for vehicles is around 3k and under. The rule of thumb is that for an entire mod, the average number of polygons is under 5k. My most recent model is around 2.5k.

 

The parts that need to be separated are at least the driver's side front door and the trunk. What you have done as of now is correct.

 

Destroyed version? Not necessary. Only make one if you want to.

 

What you are doing is quite good as of right now, just need to get rid of that gap between the two meshes.

 

Good job in taking initiative to learn how to model. Here's a kitty.

[LBFDEngine11]

thats also something i want to learn i want to put together a seagrave engine like this one

[firetruck]

2000+ isnt bad. My number for vehicles is around 3k and under. The rule of thumb is that for an entire mod, the average number of polygons is under 5k. My most recent model is around 2.5k.

 

The parts that need to be separated are at least the driver's side front door and the trunk. What you have done as of now is correct.

 

Destroyed version? Not necessary. Only make one if you want to.

 

What you are doing is quite good as of right now, just need to get rid of that gap between the two meshes.

 

Good job in taking initiative to learn how to model.

Your download links arn't working by the way.

[itchboy]

Your download links arn't working by the way.

Because they have been removed. I will never put them back up either.

[BogdanM]

2000+ isnt bad. My number for vehicles is around 3k and under. The rule of thumb is that for an entire mod, the average number of polygons is under 5k. My most recent model is around 2.5k.

 

The parts that need to be separated are at least the driver's side front door and the trunk. What you have done as of now is correct.

 

Destroyed version? Not necessary. Only make one if you want to.

 

What you are doing is quite good as of right now, just need to get rid of that gap between the two meshes.

 

Good job in taking initiative to learn how to model. Here's a kitty.

 

 

Thanks for the reply and for the pic, she's a cutie! 

 

I've worked a bit more on the car, now it's at 2300 polys but I'm thinking about removing the rear doors and the back seats. Can I set it so if I put a prisoner in the car, it will open the back doors instead ot the front ones?

 

[itchboy]

Not my kitty, but thanks.

 

Its possible to have the rear doors open. Model looks great so far.You dont need to model a full interior in Em4, just "half" the interior for the vehicle.

An example:

[BogdanM]

Not my kitty, but thanks.

 

Its possible to have the rear doors open. Model looks great so far.You dont need to model a full interior in Em4, just "half" the interior for the vehicle.

An example:

 

Great idea, thanks! I've more or less finished the model, cleaned it up a bit and managed to get it to ~2k polys with all the extras. Next on the list is learning how to uv map the model.

 

[itchboy]

Good work. I hope to see the finished product.

[BogdanM]

Good work. I hope to see the finished product.

 

Work continues at a slow but steady pace. I have every intention to see it through to the end but I chose not the best time to start this little project right in the middle of the exams period. So I only get to work on it for a couple hours every evening. I've mapped most of the car and started working on the textures. Everything is wip, it should look much better in the end. Wish I would have modeled the front end of the car a bit more before merging the mirror mesh, now I'm afraid it's too difficult to make both sides have the exact same shape. Oh well.  

 

[itchboy]

Looks great. LAPD Unit?

[BogdanM]

Looks great. LAPD Unit?

 

Indeed, the black and white is simple but so elegant, I had to start with that one. I'll make some LASD and CHP skins also and a couple other lightbars. I'll also include a template so everyone can easily make other textures.

[BogdanM]

Anyone knows why the wheels are so small in the EM4 editor? Even if I resize it in Blender, they will be the exact same size every time I export it as v3o. Also is it possible to use bump/normal maps on the vehicle in EM4?

 

 

And a modelling (in Blender; I'm too short for the other one) related question. How can I improve the look of the model where the face edges are visible? Do I have to manually move every verticle and check the render or there is a better, faster way? I've looked at many editor screenshots on this forum and I haven't noticed anybody else having this issue, even if the model shown wasn't really high poly.

 

EDIT: I've noticed that my car is gigantic compared to the EM models. I went back to the blender file and resized everything to the correct scale but every time I export the objects in v3o format, it ignores the new scale and changes everything back to the original scale from when I modeled the vehicle. I don't understand how is that possible since the blender file I'm using shows the objects in the new scale. Bummer...

[Terrow]

 Yeah... was going to say the vehicle looks enormous haha. Import a car off of a mod and scale it from that maybe. Car looks awesome though!! Excellent yob 

[THVFD]

Anyone knows why the wheels are so small in the EM4 editor? Even if I resize it in Blender, they will be the exact same size every time I export it as v3o. Also is it possible to use bump/normal maps on the vehicle in EM4?

And a modelling (in Blender; I'm too short for the other one) related question. How can I improve the look of the model where the face edges are visible? Do I have to manually move every verticle and check the render or there is a better, faster way? I've looked at many editor screenshots on this forum and I haven't noticed anybody else having this issue, even if the model shown wasn't really high poly.

EDIT: I've noticed that my car is gigantic compared to the EM models. I went back to the blender file and resized everything to the correct scale but every time I export the objects in v3o format, it ignores the new scale and changes everything back to the original scale from when I modeled the vehicle. I don't understand how is that possible since the blender file I'm using shows the objects in the new scale. Bummer...

After you scale it press control+A and click on all the options then export it as .v30

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[BogdanM]

 Yeah... was going to say the vehicle looks enormous haha. Import a car off of a mod and scale it from that maybe. Car looks awesome though!! Excellent yob 

 

Thanks, I've improved the model a bit more since that screenshot and I'll work on the texture some more. I scaled it exactly the way you suggested it, using another custom vehicle as reference. The game doesn't use the real world scale as I assumed previously, more like 1/2 or 1/3 of the real size.

 

After you scale it press control+A and click on all the options then export it as .v30

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Many many thanks for this! It fixed all the problems I had with the scale. Pfeeew, I thought my attempt at modding was be very short lived.

[BogdanM]

I've managed to put a few more hours polishing the model and this is the end result. Next on the list are the lights. 

[BogdanM]

I'm trying to get the car into the game following Hoppah's tutorial but the model doesn't appear when I deploy it in Freeplay. I double checked for any spelling errors and everything appears to be correct. The UI text also doesn't seem to work, it's most likely related to step 40 which I don't really understand what it tells me to do...

 

It also seems to be missing the child objects I've attached (lightbar, pushbar, spotlights)

 

It works fine in the editor

 

I've attached all the files from the mod, except the v3o files. (it's not quite ready for public release)

My mod.rar

[BogdanM]

So I've somehow managed to get the car to appear in the game, not exactly sure what fixed it but I think it had something with the gigantic physics box that was created before I rescaled the model. I got the wheels and doors to work properly, it gave me a headache before I figured out the wheel mode had a misplaced origin point. I still have no idea why the superstructures don't appear in the game, do I have to set them up differently than the wheels and the doors? Is there a box I need to check that's been eluding this far? 

 

Also I still can't decide on the scale. Until now I never noticed how disproportionate are the human models compared to the cars. The size the car is now matches the size of the pedestrians and it's the same size as the cars in LA mod 2.0 upgrade pack but the car is extremely large compared to some of the original cars in the game. Should I scale it down to match the rest of the cars in game and in the LA mod or keep it proportionally to the human models? 

 

[Newfoundking]

That's really up to you. You'll notice a lot of mods will have scaled vehicles added, but continue using regular game vehicles as well. It's one of those things that it's up to you if you really want to put in the work for it. If you replace all the civilian vehicles with scaled ones, the problem is solved. If you don't really care that much, again, problem is not a problem. 

 

Personally, I don't care if the civie cars are smaller, as I barely notice them in game anyways. It's all on personal preference and time 

[BogdanM]

Yeah, I've spent many hours playing different mods and never noticed the scale difference until I started comparing models in the editor a few days ago. It doesn't really bother me personally, but I want to hear other opinions on the subject as changing the size of the model messes up the lights setup. 

 

I've also decided to simply replace the LA mod model files with my own instead of trying to figure how to properly set up a car. I still hope to figure it out along the way but right now I felt like I lost a lot of time for very little to show for. Renaming my files like the ones in the mod and moving around the child objects a bit in the editor and I had a fully working patrol car in under 15 minutes. Definitely the way to go for the time being. I'll replace all the other Crown Vics in the LA mod then I'll start modeling a new car, 

 

I hope it will be alright if I release a car pack that overwrites some of the LA mod files but it will still require having the base mod installed in the first place.

 

Here is how the new CVPI looks like. I've decided to go with ~110% of the scale that's in the LA mod. (the lights are not place correctly as my car is slightly bigger than the original one)

[losangelesi]

My few cents is try turning off alpha reflections, makes it look quite a bit better in game

[BogdanM]

My few cents is try turning off alpha reflections, makes it look quite a bit better in game

 

Definitely keep throwing them cents at me! If something doesn't look right to you, I most likely share the sentiment but I have no idea how to fix it.

 

If you were talking about the AlphaReflections button in the prototype menu, it is already unchecked. You are talking about light reflecting from the car and showing the model polys right? I also checked the texture and I didn't make an Alpha channel by mistake and I couldn't find any really obvious Alpha reflections button in Blender. Could you point me in the right direction?

[BogdanM]

I've replaced a few more CVPI variants. The cars unfortunately cause quite a big performance drop, those 5 cars with lights on dropped the fps from 55+ to ~30. I'm not sure yet if it's the model or the textures or both, I'll scale down the textures by 50% and see if the performance improves. The 3d models could also use some polishing, the Fedsig Vision lightbar is almost 600 polys! )

 

[Newfoundking]

What's the total poly count and the skin dimensions?