automationgame.com

Posted: **Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:01 pm**

Daffyflyer wrote:Did you install Outliner so that you can turn the appropriate layers on and off in the max file?

I just installed it, but I don't understand how to use it other than to select an oject.
I also get this dialog box in 3ds Max about missing external files when I open SampleCars:

I take it there's a file I'm missing somewhere?

Could somebody possibly help me get the materials needed (paint, chrome, windows, etc) into my model?

Posted: **Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:17 pm**

Yeah, those missing textures shouldn't matter.

Press H to use outliner, and then you can press the lightbulb icon next to a layer to hide or unhide it, and the plus button to pop out the list of layers within that layer.

Posted: **Tue Nov 24, 2015 3:27 pm**

Daffyflyer wrote:Yeah, those missing textures shouldn't matter.

Press H to use outliner, and then you can press the lightbulb icon next to a layer to hide or unhide it, and the plus button to pop out the list of layers within that layer.

I think something's wrong, because there's no lightbulb or plus button on it. All I can do from there is select objects.

Edit: Disregard this, I haven't needed to use it, so it's not an issue at this point.

Posted: **Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:20 am**

Until I can figure things out with the texturing, I've been working on smoothing:

Posted: **Wed Nov 25, 2015 11:43 am**

Finally got my eureka! moment with the materials

Now I'm getting somewhere!

Edit: Trying to export it in game, and I'm wondering what program I need to use to edit the .lua files?

Posted: **Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:33 pm**

You can edit them with notepad.

Although I would recommend using notepad++

Posted: **Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:21 pm**

Thanks!

For some reason it won't appear in game after editing the .lua file based on the car body format changes. I've modified a .lua file from before those changes and I think I might have done something wrong. Would anyone be willing to share a .lua file with the recent specifications for me to use?

Also, I really appreciate all of you who have been helping me along with this. Once I know what I'm doing I'll repay you guys with more content!

Posted: **Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:09 pm**

You can copy one of the existing LUA files from the install. I would recommend HighRoof.lua for the 90s Van found in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Automation\GameData\Camso\cars\Front\large\90Van (for steam installs)
C:\Program Files (x86)\Automation\GameData\Camso\cars\Front\large\90Van (for non steam)

In addition to the LUA file you need to make sure you folder structure is correct, especially for uploading to steam. You must not place your mods into the CAMSO folder.
Create a new folder in the GameData folder with a name that clearly identifies it as your mod, e.g. 70sCarloverBoxyVan (please do not use trademarks or other registered names).
Within your new folder you will need to recreate the folder structure as used in the CAMSO folder, not the whole thing, just the path that reaches down to your files. In the example above you would have
\GameData\70sCarloverBoxyVan\cars\Front\large\70sCarloverBoxyVan

you should place all your mods files in there

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:38 am**

I'll try that. I made the folder structure in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Automation\assets\meshes so that might be the issue I'm having.

Edit: It works! Thank you so much

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:08 am**

Good Stuff - you're welcome

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 8:59 am**

A few new issues now...

The bone boxes appear in the model, and the model appears in its edited form (after adding the bones) instead of the basic mesh before adding bones
The scale is way off, the wheelbase should be around 3.4 m, not much bigger than the 90s van I took the .lua files from, but it seems to be at least 4 m
The half seam in the middle of the door on the back (to split it into two doors) doesn't appear, but the edge of the door is offset from X = 0 in the model
I get "Invalid material" popups saying it only has 10 materials, so there's no material 10, 11, 12

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:36 am**

thecarlover wrote:A few new issues now...

The bone boxes appear in the model, and the model appears in its edited form (after adding the bones) instead of the basic mesh before adding bones
The scale is way off, the wheelbase should be around 3.4 m, not much bigger than the 90s van I took the .lua files from, but it seems to be at least 4 m
The half seam in the middle of the door on the back (to split it into two doors) doesn't appear, but the edge of the door is offset from X = 0 in the model
I get "Invalid material" popups saying it only has 10 materials, so there's no material 10, 11, 12

You don't actually export the bone boxes, just the car body itself with the skin modifier on it. It will always export however it looks in 3ds max though, so if you move the bones in Max it'll change how the export looks.

How big is the wheelbase of your model when you measure it in 3ds max?

Seams in the middle of the car need to be pretty wide, or they'll get automatically welded together, so that might be the issue.

Check how many materials are defined in the LUA file, it sounds like there are 13 of them defined, but the model only has 10 of them in 3ds max, so it has no idea what you're trying to tell it with the last 3 materials

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:40 am**

If you hide the boxes in Max before exporting the .kjc files, they should not appear in the game.

For the invalid material error, make sure that in your LUA file you have the same number of materials as the materials the body uses in the max file (including the invisible ones, such as the CARGO_BOX, BOTTOM_BOX and LOWER_BOX)

For the scaling, you probably need to scale the whole thing a bit down in Max. The units in the game should correlate to the units in 3ds Max*, so you can determine the length of the wheelbase in Max and resize the mesh accordingly. For example: I'm making a kei car with a wheelbase of 2.335 m, the same value is set in the LUA file. After finishing the mesh in Max, I make a reference object (a plane will do) with the same length in Max and resize the mesh to match it.

edit: Daffy beat me to it

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 9:50 am**

Daffyflyer wrote:
thecarlover wrote:A few new issues now...

The bone boxes appear in the model, and the model appears in its edited form (after adding the bones) instead of the basic mesh before adding bones
The scale is way off, the wheelbase should be around 3.4 m, not much bigger than the 90s van I took the .lua files from, but it seems to be at least 4 m
The half seam in the middle of the door on the back (to split it into two doors) doesn't appear, but the edge of the door is offset from X = 0 in the model
I get "Invalid material" popups saying it only has 10 materials, so there's no material 10, 11, 12

You don't actually export the bone boxes, just the car body itself with the skin modifier on it. It will always export however it looks in 3ds max though, so if you move the bones in Max it'll change how the export looks.

How big is the wheelbase of your model when you measure it in 3ds max?

Seams in the middle of the car need to be pretty wide, or they'll get automatically welded together, so that might be the issue.

Check how many materials are defined in the LUA file, it sounds like there are 13 of them defined, but the model only has 10 of them in 3ds max, so it has no idea what you're trying to tell it with the last 3 materials

How can I export the model without exporting the boxes along with it? Also, the bones have moved to where I had moved the boxes when skinning the model, is there a way to get the skinning back to default, or do I just have to move them and try to get as close as possible?

The wheelbase in max is ~350 cm (I made sure to scale things properly), so I don't know why the model looks giant, even dwarfing the 70s pickup/SUV in-game

For the materials, I assigned the ECS_BOTTOM_BOX and ECS_TOP_BOX the same material as the cargo box, so could that be the issue?
The "BodyBoxes" section of the .lua, with their position and size is also something I don't understand. Is that just manually scaling and placing the ECS_BOTTOM_BOX and ECS_TOP_BOX in the .lua instead of whatever values are in 3ds Max?

Posted: **Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:03 am**

thecarlover wrote:The wheelbase in max is ~350 cm (I made sure to scale things properly), so I don't know why the model looks giant, even dwarfing the 70s pickup/SUV in-game

Could be that it's the SWB version? According to Wikipedia, the 1975–1991 Econoline short version had a wheelbase of 124 in (3,149.6 mm). You might try scaling it to match that instead.

automationgame.com

thecarlover's mods - Suburban/Avalanche now available!

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