Stunts Forum

a 1988 ford ranger

far from game ready, but its a start. im glad to find stressed for windows!



edit: when i try to load the new .obj, i get an error (3rd picture)

here my .obj and .3ds

Would suits fine for offroad track, of course. :)
Keep up the good work Cody.

Good to see you're still around, cody! Try the latest stressed build (http://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2224.0), I've fixed this issue. You may have to scale up your model a little, and you should use the predefined Stunts materials. To get the materials into your modelling tool just open a stock shape exported from stressed.

i got a question, does stunts support models with open edges?

Stunts polygons are not nested in structures, so all edges are open. This allows you to use two-sided faces or remove unneeded ones.

more problems... when i import my .obj, it imports all the polygons, but some are in the wrong spot. and when i start stunts, i get cannot find shape error. mabey its my model. can someone look at my .obj? i also got a 3ds too(first post)

I didn't have any trouble getting the shape in-game. Did your file include all the needed shape resources (car[0-2], exp[0-3]), and did you name your file correctly? Shape resource files saved from stressed must have the .3SH extension.

• The reason some vertices are in the wrong spot is due to the small scale of your model. The stock car1/car2 shapes are about 100 units long, your shape is 15. This means there are only 15 possible Z values beacuse Stunts uses integer coordinates. To gain precision your model needs to be bigger.
• Move your model along the Z axis so it's centered above (0, 0, 0) to align the model with the fixed collision box and the center of mass.
• Wheels are needed because they are subject to transformation.
• As described in my first post you have to use a fixed set of materials.

Hope this helps! :)

Glad to see you're still following us, Cody - and nice work on the Ranger! :)

good news, got the truck ingame, but i need to do some scaling and rotating... just need to add new dashboard, and add colors

That Ranger looks great! Nice to see you back and working creating Cody.

redoing the model, the original had to many glitchy polygons. as of now, i got the dash and .res file done

here a new dash preview

Was it inspired by 'Walker, the Texas ranger'? :D

I really like your dashboard , it looks very natural - I think I'll use this mix-and-match approach to design one for Skyline.

I like those too buttons. "Kill" and "Fire"

it seems you like my dash so im uploading a beta of it. anything i make can be used freely by others.

the new ranger model is gona look much better than the one i got ingame.
here is a word of advice, neva have overlaying polygons of different colors as they will look glitchy ingame

Quote from: cody on October 30, 2008, 12:35:02 AM
here is a word of advice, neva have overlaying polygons of different colors as they will look glitchy ingame

There's a way around that problem: on Stressed, arrange the order on the polygon list so the one you wish to overlay is immediately after the base one. Then, turn the Z-bias flag on for the polygon which is to stay on top.

almost done, just need wheels and paint jobs, whats the max amout of paint jobs stunts can handle? and why do my wheels glitch out when i turn my car to the left or right

Quote from: cody on October 30, 2008, 03:12:00 AM
whats the max amout of paint jobs stunts can handle?

The limit is 128, so in theory you can use (almost) as many as you wish (I have not tested implementing more than seven, though, so you'd better check if the car selection screen works normally in that case).

Quote from: cody on October 30, 2008, 03:12:00 AM
and why do my wheels glitch out when i turn my car to the left or right

Wheel rendering has a number of specificities that need to be taken care of. If you want to avoid trouble with them, first of all I suggest you to move the wheels to the first four positions on the polygon list and order them like this: front-left, front-right, back-right, back-left. Vertex order within the wheels matters as well, so the safest route is to clone exactly the coordinate values from some other car and then just displace them to the correct position.

Two extra tips that might be of help: First, be sure you're using the two-sided flag for any polygons which inner surface is to be exposed (as most likely is the case in the rear part of the truck body). Also, I noticed from your screen shots that your model is all composed by triangles. In case the absence of n-gons means there is a lot more than about 90 polygons on car1, it would be a good idea to double-check if there is no risk of frame rate issues (I had problems when trying to use a downscaled version of Corvette's car0, with 200 polygons). Should you feel the need to test that, the best route would be launching DOSBox with two cars loaded and lower the number of cycles progressively. If the frame rate remains normal up to ~8000 cycles in all likelihood there will be no problems. Else, it could be useful to merge a few triangles into n-gons (a number of .OBJ editors can't do that properly, but Anim8or can - see the first post on page 16 of the "Dissecting" thread should you need it).

i think im having trouble with the z axis, i change one vaule, and it moves the wheel forward or backward, but when ingame, glitches out, plus when i ajust the 4th z value, it moves it forward or backward, but it increases the x axis too.

all i got to do is get wheels done...

and as for lag, the car 1 and car 0 are the same models, wich is 238 triangles permodel(not including wheels) i dont have dos box, so i ran it on a real dos computer using an intel 386 cpu @ 33mhz, not much lag with 2 cars loaded.

anyone here wana take a shot at the wheels?

Quote from: cody on October 31, 2008, 05:02:52 AM
and as for lag, the car 1 and car 0 are the same models, wich is 238 triangles permodel(not including wheels) i dont have dos box, so i ran it on a real dos computer using an intel 386 cpu @ 33mhz, not much lag with 2 cars loaded.

Wow, DOSBox is such a resource hog... ::)

Quote from: cody on October 31, 2008, 05:02:52 AM
anyone here wana take a shot at the wheels?

OK, post it and I'll have a look at them later on...

uh, whats a good number of polygons to have and is better to use quads instead of triangles, will polygons with more sides get better preformance?

Quote from: cody on November 01, 2008, 07:34:17 AM
uh, whats a good number of polygons to have and is better to use quads instead of triangles, will polygons with more sides get better preformance?

It seems that the number of polygons is the limiting factor on performance issues, the number of sides does not matter much. car0 can have pretty much as many polygons as you wish, since it isn't used for racing anyway. Most car0 shapes from original cars have around 150-180. car1 shapes usually have ~70 polygons (if I remember correctly, the Carrera has the most polygons in car1 - 83). I ran your Ranger under DOSBox and there was some visible frame skip at 9000 cycles. It would probably be a good idea to merge most triangles into quads - the process would be somewhat annoying, but from looking at the shape I'd say it should be possible to reduce to ~100 polygons at least without losing detail. Another point is that, should you desire to have a car0 with extra details in relation to car1, you'd most likely need merging the polygons (as the upper limit for number of polygons is 255).

(For the record, there's another factor that may be involved with performance: the culling mechanism. Dstien is currently studying how to implement auto-generation of culling data, so we'll probably be in a better position to evaluate that in the near future)

Oh, and BTW I saw the wheels, and it seem to be a problem of coordinate orientations (which points are ahead/behind/above/below the wheel center). I'll try fixing it in a while and post back the .3SH .

all done, here is version 1.0

top speed 160mph
excellent handling, can do turns at 160 with out a problem.
well, im gona let you guys try it and post back what you guys think, and hopefully some screenshots too

hmm, i think i need to tweak the transmission because gear 2 and 3 are too close and the last gear is too wide, but not a big deal

v1.0 removed, look at next post for v1.1

Nice work, it's exciting to finally have a new car in Stunts! Try using different color shades in the paint-jobs to emulate lighting and thus making car body edges visible.

as requested, added contrast to top portion of vehicle, further shading will be imposible unless i rearange the polygons again. transmission will be fixed soon, 3d bumpers are now 2 sided. anything else anybody wana mention?

v1.1

This is getting nice... :) the shading does help, and it'll be easier to implement it further once/if you merge the triangles into quads which follow the "organic" lines of the car better. One suggestion for the shapes is to turn the 2-sided flags for the bumpers and any other open surface hanging from the main body of the car. I would comment on CarBlaster stuff too, but it's probably better to debate the shapes first 'till they settle (and also you still have to review the gear ratios, so an assessment right now won't really help).

car blaster is still very confusing for me, so tell me what can be improved preformance wise as the model will be a pain to work on.

here is version 1.2
tweaked transmission and 2 sides bumpers

please comment


(for those of us who cannot dl attachments, try this link)

http://www.4shared.com/file/69824538/38c19161/ranger4stunts_v12.html

Quote from: cody on November 05, 2008, 06:21:12 AM
car blaster is still very confusing for me, so tell me what can be improved preformance wise (...)

OK, here are some general suggestions for areas you could look for:

• First of all, a techincal advice on CarBlaster: it is a good idea to, as soon as you open the program, press "h" (lower case) on the keyboard. That way, byte positions (white number at top-left corner) will be quoted in hexadecimal, and thus you can use the information on Wiki articles such as Car Parameters (http://wiki.stunts.hu/index.php/Car_parameters) more directly. Whenever I quote ...h values here I refer to such kind of address.
• Starting with handling: even if that is ultimately a project decision of yours, I think most pipsqueaks would prefer a car with not so good handling, so it would be necessary to lift off or brake in corners, at least a little. Remember you can fine-tune the car grip by modifying byte 0CAh (the value just to the left of the one CarBlaster says is the "Curve-adhesion" one).
• I noticed you used the NSX *.RES file as base for your tuning, the logical thing to do in order to avoid the need to tune or copy data for the meter positions and such. A perhaps unforeseen consequence of that, however, is that your pickup inherited powergear as well - and powergear just like the NSX one, very easy to reach on loops and prone to failed drifting turns... :) In case you wish to get rid of powergear, just modify the car mass (028h, or "Inverse Power Amplification" in CarBlaster dialect) or aero drag (05Eh, the 27-valued byte just before the torque curve) a little bit and it'll probably go away.
• As for straight line performance, the acceleration seems just fine, with maybe only the first gear being a bit too long in relation to the others (a good test for you to check that sort of impression is to put Skid on a LM002 and have a drag race). On the other hand, top speeds might be a little too high. On an infinite oval track, I was able to reach almost 190mph without any kind of bump or jump (after a long while of course). In case you wish to curb top speeds on each gear without improving acceleration too much, one quick option is to multiply all gear ratios by some factor and then multiply the car mass by the same value to compensate for the acceleration. BTW, you can calculate the top speed on each gear rather easily from CarBlaster data. Pick the actual RPM value from the "Maximum Revolutions" parameter (The Car Parameters article on the Wiki explains how to do it, but for your current CARRANG.RES it is 7878rpm) and divide it by the gear ratio value. The result will be the top speed in mph at a certain gear - that value is not limited by aero drag, though, so it is likely you won't ever reach it without a few jumps at the topmost gear.
• Finally, your torque curve has a pretty prominent peak at the high rpm range. For a more American SUV engine-like behaviour, you may prefer a more even torque curve, with a higher low-rpm half, and also a smaller maximum RPM value maybe (although if 8000rpm does not seem so exaggerate for a highly tuned engine).

In the end, it's a question of testing and adopting whatever you see fit... and don't hesitate to ask for assistance in the process  :)

Quote from: cody on November 05, 2008, 06:21:12 AM
(...) as the model will be a pain to work on.

Referring specifically to the task of merging the polygons, I don't really know about 3D Studio Max, but Anim8or (the mesh editor I use) has a function which can join two selected adjacent polygons with just a keystroke - it can ease things quite a bit. (Hopefully I'm not pointing something too obvious for you, you're probably a lot more familiar with 3D edition than me...)

And speaking of the shapes, there's an artifact at car0 which I have no clue about the source: the black triangles you can see over the doors of the car while it's rotating...

Anyway, keep up the good work, we'll be following  ;)

little more tweeking, try this version.

Splendid! If you download the latest Stressed build you can now fix the cull data. Select the first polygon, then select the last one while holding down the shift key. Right click on the last polygon and click "Compute cull data" on the context menu. This animation illustrates the effect (before/after updating cull data):
(http://surr.no/pub/2008-11-26-Stunts_cull_ranger.gif)

http://www.4shared.com/file/73308486/f444c51/ranger4stuntsv13.html

fixed cull data! here is v1.3!

That Ranger looks great! Nice work Cody!

Dear Cody,

in case you'd like to see the Ranger included in the ZakStunts 2008 season, I have made a "to be modified" list available here (http://forum.stunts.hu/index.php?topic=2219.msg39134#msg39134).
If it'd change the car too much apart from your imagined one, don't bother, I don't want to force it on you.
If you'd like to go for it, I suggest teaming up with someone experienced in .res tweaking.

Zak

ok, i will make a special version for competiotion

try this version, has been modified for zak's competition.

ok, we are getting closer, good work!

the dashboard is great!
top speed also fine, well set.
Grip: still  too much. This is a heavy and bulky car, should be hard to take corners above 80km/h
Acceleration: better, but still too much. Should be near the LM-002's amount.
And check the car specs, you wrote about 180BHP, while the lot less powerful LM002 has more than 400.

According to my imagination, a pick-up truck like the ranger can only achieve such big top speeds, if it's equipped with some bad-ass supercharged American-style engine.
Like this: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Rangerforums-40-ford_11714.htm
Or this: http://www.rangerpowersports.com/forum/showthread.php?t=221222

But that still doesn't allow the car to turn fast. I'd say the current acceleration could stay in 1-3 gears, then it should be less. And also a lot slower turning as I said before. 

For an original ranger I have found this:
http://www.need4speed.ws/top-speed/AlexPB_FordRAngerV6_162hp_193/Ford-Ranger-V6-162-hp-193-kmh.html
that's 120MPH only.
Sadly found no specs for a supercharged ranger.

ford rangers are light truck and weigh as much as an average like like the corvett. this ranger is lower to the ground and it wieghs less than the lm002. i'll have to make the specs with 240hp and a top speed of 145. it will be a tuned ranger.

OK, sounds fine!

just wow!

You Ranger keeps improving steadily Cody  ;) Just a few extra suggestions for making the tuning closer to your specs:

• Version 1.4 has maximum revs (set by bytes 033h and 032h) at 6598rpm, which is most likely about the value you want it to be. However, the torque curve of the car is 71 bytes long, thus extending to 71*128 = 9088rpm (each byte in the curve covers 128rpm). That means the tail of the torque curve is not being used, and the car hits peak torque right at the readline. For a more natural acceleration feel, I suggest you to compress the torque curve further, so it fits on 52 bytes (that correspond to 6656rpm).
• Remember you can reduce acceleration at high speeds selectively by raising the aerodynamic drag parameter (byte 05Eh, two positions before the start of the torque curve). Note that raising aero drag will also reduce your top speed on a flat track; although since your max revs/gear ratio combo can't make the car possibly faster than 152mph that won't concern you too much.
• If you're going to adjust the grip, you will find the "fine-tuning" adjustment at byte 0CAh useful. By reducing it from its current value to something closer to zero you can have a car with better handling than most other Stunts cars, yet not way too much better (your current specs, with 1 at 0CBh and 211 at 0CAh are quite close to IMSA car handling, actually).

And finally, when you're done with the tuning I can provide a reasonable estimate based on CarBlaster values for the HP that will be quoted on the info page  :)

did a little more tweaking acceleration close to an lm002

Just checked the 1.5, Cody, and the tests allow for some more precise comments:

• First on the torque curve shape. I could not find clear way to explain what I meant with "compressing" the curve to 52 bytes, so I provided a pic instead. The blue curve stands for your original torque curve, ending at 71 bytes, while the purple one stands for what it is currently - it stops at 52 bytes but has the same shape, so the car behaviour will be essentially the same. What I meant was something like the green curve: the length is shortened but the general shape remains the same (and thus the torque peak gets shifted to lower rpm, being reached a while before redline). Doing so will get your car a more natural feeling acceleration curve.
• Remember to account for manual gearing when evaluating the performance data. The acceleration of your car is close to LM002 only as long as you use auto gears, for in that case the shifting point comes well before the torque peak. If you test shifting at redline instead you'll find the Ranger can give a tight race over a quarter mile even to a car like Countach. So you'll probably want to reduce acceleration further, and significantly. Raising the car mass is one direct way to do so (23 is still a relatively low value for a car); raising aero drag can help at the higher gears and will also smoothen the acceleration profile a bit. Compressing the torque curve so as to have the torque peak earlier on (as explained above) may also help.
• Finally, grip might still be worsened a bit IMO, although I'd say the current setup is getting close to reaching a "sweet spot", with easier than normal handling yet with a distinctive feel - probably what you aim for.

Overall it's getting close to completion - keep up the good work  :)

whats an easy way to edit the .res file with out having to rename files for stressed, preferably a windows program.

I guess you refer to the fact that when you try to edit a .res of a stressed-modded car (with the unpacked .3sh, .vsh) CarBlaster complains about the lack of the packed files (.p3s, .pvs). The workaround to that is opening an original car and then using F9/F10 to cycle through the .res files to reach the modded car (thankfully Mark Nailwood didn't include that rather pointless sanity check elsewhere in the program). As for other .res editors, the few that exist are much inferior to CarBlaster, so we'll have to deal with it until dstien includes .res support on stressed.

who would like to do some fine tuning on this car for me? I will give you credit. I dont have much time to fine tune cars as I use to.  :(

I attempted to fine-tune the Ranger yesterday... will post the results for evaluation of Cody and Zak later today  ;)

great , thank you!

So here you have the proposed revision 1.6. While there were some rather large changes in some parts of the .RES during the adjustments, generally I tried to preserve the overall feel/concept of the car as laid out on the previous implementations. Performance-wise, acceleration was given a check - below 110mph, it can provide NSX a good challenge on a drag race; beyond that, it is closer to Audi or Lancia. Flat-track top speed is 144mph, and there is little margin for extra gains by jumping: overall top speed is a mere 162mph. As for handling, both grip and braking efficiency were strongly reduced from their IMSA-like values for competition balance concerns; yet they are still are a lot above the levels of other slow cars, thus preserving cody's design decision to some extent (the car can take dirt and ice corners with nice confidence, but not overly easily). Now I will send a personal message to cody explaining the changes in detail so he can evaluate properly the results and confirm any decision taken by Zak...

Edit: Removed deprecated buggy version; get the correct car either from ZakStunts page or from a few posts below.

I did some testing. If cody is also OK with it, the 1.6 ranger is accepted to zakstunts 2009 and I'll begin its performance evaluation in order to find the correct bonus value

I'm curious to see which will be the first bonus for Speedgate XSD and Nissan Skyline...  :)

Quote from: Mark L. Rivers on December 20, 2008, 01:30:42 PM

I'm curious to see which will be the first bonus for Speedgate XSD and Nissan Skyline...  :)

I guess Speedgate's will be lower than IMSA and higher than Indy. Skyline will be between IMSA and the rest.

i am very happy with what you have done. it can accel pretty good. i like it.

ok then, 3 extra cars confirmed for the 2009 season. Congratulations and thanks to Cody & Duplode!

I removed the old link to the 1.6 Ranger, so that anyone wandering by these threads won't risk downloading the version with bugged scoreboard entries (I suppose we can safely assume the three people that downloaded the older file have already updated to the new .RES via ZakStunts or the "new cars in 2009 thread). For the sake of completeness, here is a replacement .zip, equivalent to the one already available at ZakStunts.