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Car Body Format Changes

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Daffyflyer

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Post Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:35 am

Car Body Format Changes

Body Boxes


There has been a bit of a change in how car bodies are made for Automation. Basically the upper and lower body boxes (which are used to define weight, centre of gravity etc.) are now dynamic, and morph when the body does.

It's pretty simple, all you need to do is skin them the same way you'd skin a cargo box currently, so that they change size in roughly the same way the car does when you move the bone they're skinned to.


There are new materials for these boxes, they are

ECS_BOTTOM_BOX
ECS_TOP_BOX

These are assigned in the LUA file, as usual.


Materials.jpg
Materials.jpg (90.82 KiB) Viewed 22909 times


It's also important that the boxes be the diamond shape that is pictured in this screenshot. This is so that changing the slope of part of the car doesn't increase the overall size of the car massively. The body boxes should only change when the car is made taller overall, or longer overall.

Convertibles

If you want a car to act correctly as a convertible stats wise, add the flag

ConvertSoft = true,

or

ConvertHard = true,
(for folding hardtops)


Quotation marks in Material listings

All materials in the materials list in LUA should now have quotation marks, like

"ECS_BODY",


Multiple Engine Placements

You can now have a body that can have the engine placed in the front OR rear in the same body.

A body that supported all engine placements would have THIS in the LUA file

EngineTypes = {
FRONT = true,
MID = true,
REAR = true,
},



You'll also need a second cargo box in the front (if that's where the cargo space would be on a rear engined version. It'll need the material

ECS_CARGO_REAR

(That's rear meaning rear engined, not cargo in the rear)



Body & Cargo Box Troubleshooting

You can now type ToggleBounds() in the console (bring it up by pressing ~ )

You'll need to enter this command AFTER you've chosen chassis and suspension.

It'll show you the outlines of the body boxes and cargo boxes. This is useful for making sure they change size as expected, and that you've got them assigned to the correct objects.

Boxes.JPG
Boxes.JPG (93.68 KiB) Viewed 22909 times









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TrackpadUser

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Post Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:46 pm

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Is the ECS_CARGO_REAR cargo box used for mid-engined configurations as well?
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maffc

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Post Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:03 pm

Re: Car Body Format Changes

TrackpadUser wrote:Is the ECS_CARGO_REAR cargo box used for mid-engined configurations as well?

And could a rear engine car have two cargo boxes?

Some rear engined Skoda had space between the rear seats and the engine bay, admittedly they did tend to be filled with bags of crumpled newspaper for additional sound proofing.
Also there were a few rear engined wagons such as the vw type 3
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TrackpadUser

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Post Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:39 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

If the game can accept two cargo boxes with the same mat, I think your suggestion should work.
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Daffyflyer

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Post Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:48 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

TrackpadUser wrote:Is the ECS_CARGO_REAR cargo box used for mid-engined configurations as well?



Yes, sure is
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Daffyflyer

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Post Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:49 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

maffc wrote:
TrackpadUser wrote:Is the ECS_CARGO_REAR cargo box used for mid-engined configurations as well?

And could a rear engine car have two cargo boxes?

Some rear engined Skoda had space between the rear seats and the engine bay, admittedly they did tend to be filled with bags of crumpled newspaper for additional sound proofing.
Also there were a few rear engined wagons such as the vw type 3



Because it looks at the furthest extents of verts with that material, I think it'll just see the whole space between the two cargo boxes as one giant cargo box.
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maffc

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Post Tue Oct 06, 2015 9:00 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Daffyflyer wrote:Because it looks at the furthest extents of verts with that material, I think it'll just see the whole space between the two cargo boxes as one giant cargo box.


Might be possible still with one box, it'll need a bit of careful planning with the overall sizing and morphing
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Post Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:20 pm

Re: Car Body Format Changes

...It's very difficult "todo esto" xD.

With the old body mods, works well with the latest Automation update without making this?
Company: Montes Cars
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Visit the brand models http://automationgame.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=3995
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ThomasD1962

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Post Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:57 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Is there a maximum number of materials?
After I added the "ECS_CARGO_REAR" in the materials section, I got an error:
"Material number is 14. There is no material 14"
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Daffyflyer

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Post Wed Oct 07, 2015 10:15 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

ThomasD1962 wrote:Is there a maximum number of materials?
After I added the "ECS_CARGO_REAR" in the materials section, I got an error:
"Material number is 14. There is no material 14"


That means that in 3ds max you only have 13 material IDs on the car, but you've defined 14 materials in the .LUA file. Meaning that it's trying to apply the material to an ID that doesnt' exist.
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ThomasD1962

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Post Wed Oct 07, 2015 7:26 pm

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Ok, so that line has to be included during the design stage and can not be added in the lua file.
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TrackpadUser

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Post Thu Oct 08, 2015 10:23 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Are you making a car or just messing around with pre-existing lua files?

Each 3D file has a certain amount of different materials IDs, set by the person who made the model.

In the lua file, you set which material ID should be rendered as which material ingame, for example, material 1 would be ECS_BODY on most cars I've seen.

If the 3D file has 13 material IDs, trying to add a 14th one in the lua file won't do anything, you have to add that ID first in the 3D model.
As well as probably fix all the materials since 3DS max likes to mess up the IDs for the lulz when you add new ones, but that's an other story.
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Daffyflyer

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Post Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:16 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Yep, exactly that. When the car is exported from Max, it gets as many material slots as you have material IDs applied to that car.

You then specify in the LUA file which materials are applied in which slots. If you list 14 materials, and there are only 13 slots, then it'll complain that it doesn't know where to put material 14.
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ThomasD1962

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Post Fri Oct 09, 2015 11:58 pm

Re: Car Body Format Changes

I was indeed messing around with the lua files.
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Post Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:17 am

Re: Car Body Format Changes

Not sure where to best post this, but is there any chance the Kajira exporter will become available on the new 64-bit versions of 3ds Max?
Car showcase thread: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=8227
Mods thread: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=8552

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