Melange XGT-88

[Overdrijf]

This would be the dashboard, I don't know if is possible to emulate the security pipes that obstruct a part of the vision.

If it's possible it's done using dasm and dast. The only real problem I sea is that I don't know if their height is unlimited. For some reason I expect trouble...

[alanrotoi]

I'm doing a preview of the dashboard in photoshop, how I convert it to the correct file?

[Duplode]

I'm doing a preview of the dashboard in photoshop, how I convert it to the correct file?

Saving it as a PNG and importing with Stressed (to the STDA* file for the car) should be enough. 320x70 is a typical size for the base dashboard (the dash resource in Stressed), though the height may vary. The palette is a 256 colours one, though  if I remember correctly Stressed can adjust the colours of an RGB bitmap automatically (as well as alpha, which is necessary for some of the finer details).

One thing you will find out is that you will need a few extra bitmaps so that the steering wheel, the gearbox and other details work correctly. To get you started, there is a brief summary of what they do in the Wiki.

[Overdrijf]

I'm doing a preview of the dashboard in photoshop, how I convert it to the correct file?

Saving it as a PNG and importing with Stressed (to the STDA* file for the car) should be enough. 320x70 is a typical size for the base dashboard (the dash resource in Stressed), though the height may vary. The palette is a 256 colours one, though  if I remember correctly Stressed can adjust the colours of an RGB bitmap automatically (as well as alpha, which is necessary for some of the finer details).

One thing you will find out is that you will need a few extra bitmaps so that the steering wheel, the gearbox and other details work correctly. To get you started, there is a brief summary of what they do in the Wiki.

RGB is indeed automatically converted. Stressed does not use dithering for this, every pixel gets changed into the closest available color. Alpha is only used in the mask pictures like dasm. There's a bit of a trick I haven't quite figured out yet to getting pictures with alpha excepted as such, but it usually works in a few tries.

[CTG]

Rotoi: WORK ON IT!!!

[alanrotoi]

it's damn stallin hard, i'll need help!

[CTG]

it's damn stallin hard, i'll need help!

Don't give up!

[Duplode]

it's damn stallin hard, i'll need help!

Don't give up!

Yes, please don't! Share your doubts and difficulties here so that we can try to help...

[CTG]

Hmmm, it wasn't that easy to find. It seems my Melange project was far from complete. Use it if you want to.

stcdor.3sh: car menu view is without custom paintjob & lamps (could be more detailed) and it has to be enlarged to ~200%, game view has only minor (?) display problems, far view (car2) is still the Corvette shape (used the 'Wire car's = Corvette's model at the beginning)

stdbcdor.vsh: probably it's working without problem

stdacdor.vsh: "cheap" solution: dash, wh11, wh12 and wh13 still contain the original Melange dashboard parts, it has to be replaced with the new elements used in the other modules of the dashboard. I'll try to fix it at the weekend. And another mistake: changing the gear coordinates for the better dashboard design - car behaviour changed a bit compared to the original Melange.

vwcar0.obj: the only file I could find about JTK's microbus, sorry

[Duplode]

I have just played a bit with the files, and prepared a .3sh (attached) which may serve as illustration of some of the fixes. The problems appear simple to solve:

• car0 size: I exported car1 and scaled it to 20x (the standard factor across all cars) using Anim8or 0.97d (damn, I forgot nearly everything about how to use that!  ).
• Lamps (right front lamp of car1 disappears from some angles): Ensure all overlays (lamps, grills, etc.) for which you are using z-bias are placed in the polygon list immediately after the polygon they are laid over (so if the rear panel is #20, the rear lamps should be #21 and #22). If you right-click the polygon list you will find a "Move to..." option which makes the process painless.
• Rear wing: recompute the cull data (polygon list, right click menu) for the wing panels, as two-sidedness changes what the correct cull values should be. The same goes for the wheels in car0. (Tip: you can select multiple rows in the polygon list by Shitt + left click; and if you keep Shift pressed you can right-click multiple rows and recompute cull data for all of them at once.)
• There is a very minor bug in that the door panels can disappear from certain near-vertical F3 angles. It might be possible to fix that by replacing the door pentagons by to polygons two triangles, though you might prefer to leave it as is (Audi suffers from the same bug and nobody seems to mind...  ).
• whlX and other bitmaps in stdacor: Funnily enough the dashboard doesn't seem buggy. Maybe you were lucky with the positions of the meters so that the effects are not visible. In any case, I think the original Melange (i.e., LM002) steering wheel fits in nicely with the rest of the dashboard (that depends on how much you and Rotoi want to push the race car styling, though).
  
• carcdor.res gear coordinates: we would have to run a test to be 100% sure, but I believe you can adjust the coordinates without changing the performance as long as the distance between the points of each gear do not change. The variations in performance depends on the time spent in the animation of the gear change, which in turn depends on the distance travelled by the gear knob.

[CTG]

Thank you for the hints, I'll try to fix it as soon as possible (weekend, it seems my next two days will be rather a horror show).

[alanrotoi]

Great! I'm doing the easy part, the dashboard

[CTG]

Great! I'm doing the easy part, the dashboard

Is it that easy for you? I enjoyed creating the 3D shape a lot more...

[CTG]

I should work on this instead of airplanes / buses, but I have no mood (since it's almost ready).

[Duplode]

Bump!

(I feel your pain over the "almost ready" syndrome(*)... but another season without Melange will be painful, too )

(*) In fact, I am currently suffering from it with respect to a wholly unrelated little Stunts project...