Fixture coordinates

[Kev2442]

You may have already played a Forza game. You'll notice that when you're putting stickers, there are a bunch of stats like coordinates, rotation and size (like H:50.5 Y:41.0 and W:1.25 H:1.0) and they're reeeaaally useful.
I'm wondering if these could be implemented in-game. That way we wouldn't need copy option and even better, we could get the precise spot so we could copy it on a car with the same body.
I'd love this option for cars with multiple bodykits and for estates/breaks. I think everybody agrees, and it doesn't look difficult to implement, as there must be values already in the code.
What we need is to show them up. How does that sound ?

[Kev2442]

I learned today about the planned break option. That's great news, as it solves the major issue.
But I'm wondering if my thoughts are useless now. What do you guys think ?

[Daffyflyer]

Yeah, probably not needed as you'll be able to choose a different varient but keep the relevant fixtures in the right place

[maffc]

you'll be able to choose a different varient but keep the relevant fixtures in the right place

Does that mean we might have a limited ability to morph bodies after fixtures are attached?
It would be nice if, after you change from say the hatch to the saloon (sedan) or estate (wagon) you can still adjust bits of the new backside.

[Killrob]

Technically it is very difficult to make morphing possible when fixtures are already on, so we want to spend that time on making other aspects of the game instead.

[maffc]

That's a shame, because I would have thought most people would want to amend the uncommon parts of the shell after switching styles.
If they then have to remove all the fixtures to do this then I think it kind of makes the feature a bit redundant
Are you still thinking of having the copy and paste feature for fixtures?

[Killrob]

Why would that make the feature redundant to any degree? I don't really see where you would get that from.
Yes, we're planning on having kind of a copy paste feature for groups of fixtures. This is still very much in discussion how we'll do it.

[maffc]

Ok I'll explain where I'm coming from and how I understand the proposal
As described, the body switching feature sounds like you can load an existing platform and swap the shell for another in the same family, retain the fixtures already place and save as a new variant.
So we have a saloon/sedan, we load it and swap the shell for an estate/wagon, but we don't like the back end, we want to stretch it a bit and change the angle of the rear window. However it seems we won't be able to because the shell has fixtures in place.
So in this case would we have to remove all the fixtures in order to alter the back end, then put them all back again one we're happy?
unless I have completely misunderstood the purpose of the function and how it is intended to be used, it doesn't seem to much more of an advantage to creating the new variant from scratch so raises the question of would be used?
Again this may all be down to my not understanding

[Killrob]

Your concerns are indeed problems we are facing and discussing right now. For now it seems like you'll be able to not change the front of the car, while its back is unlocked and the front retains its fixtures. We'll see later down the line how this is solved exactly.

[maffc]

That actually sounds like the best option, since the different variants are normally all in the back end.

I'm guessing the code currently has a check to see if the shell has fixtures and turns off the morphing functions if it does.
I wonder if you could zone the car into front and back ends and then each fixture applied would be assigned a flag to say which zone it was placed into and you could implement a fixture check for each end.
Just a thought

[Kev2442]

That was where my thoughts about coordinates come in :
For example, the Felicia body can be morphed into an Escort-like one. With coordinates, we could make the same headlights so it's just a berlina version.
And it could be used for anything. Plus, we could use these on other cars like a whole brand having the exactly same side repeaters.