Melange XGT-88

[Chulk]

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

I was going to risk a girl there, but you would have used 'almost done' instead of almost ready...

[CTG]

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...

I have to reconsider the shape. When the 3D model was created (2009), I ignored some really important principals, therefore the in-game view of the car seems to be quite... hmmm... lame.

Zak: if we want to use it in ZSC 2013, what's the latest deadline for the final version of Melange?

[zaqrack]

Since its only the 3D chassis, and the engine data/car charasteristics are already well-known, I am fine with December 28.

[CTG]

Since its only the 3D chassis

Unfortunately not, because the two PVS (dashboard) and the RES file were also modified (gearbox and speedometer positions). Since the gearbox was moved and resized a bit, it also has a minor (really minor!) effect on the car's behaviour.

[Duplode]

Unfortunately not, because the two PVS (dashboard) and the RES file were also modified (gearbox and speedometer positions). Since the gearbox was moved and resized a bit, it also has a minor (really minor!) effect on the car's behaviour.

Please do make sure the distances within the gearbox remain the same as before; otherwise all past Melange replays will be broken... (the minor effects accumulate over the course of a lap.)

[CTG]

Unfortunately not, because the two PVS (dashboard) and the RES file were also modified (gearbox and speedometer positions). Since the gearbox was moved and resized a bit, it also has a minor (really minor!) effect on the car's behaviour.

Please do make sure the distances within the gearbox remain the same as before; otherwise all past Melange replays will be broken... (the minor effects accumulate over the course of a lap.)

The only replay it screwed up from the tested 5 was my Rozsnyó lap. Original replay: almost hitting the wall, new one: 'almost' disappeared. I wasn't aware of this 3 years ago.

[Duplode]

Unfortunately not, because the two PVS (dashboard) and the RES file were also modified (gearbox and speedometer positions). Since the gearbox was moved and resized a bit, it also has a minor (really minor!) effect on the car's behaviour.

Please do make sure the distances within the gearbox remain the same as before; otherwise all past Melange replays will be broken... (the minor effects accumulate over the course of a lap.)

The only replay it screwed up from the tested 5 was my Rozsnyó lap. Original replay: almost hitting the wall, new one: 'almost' disappeared. I wasn't aware of this 3 years ago.

Well, at least there is still time to fix it  (The GT3 gearbox coordinates have a rather evident bug; I noticed it around the same time I realized it couldn't be fixed without breaking compatibility...)

[CTG]

I think the easiest solution is to bring back the original RES file and make a new bitmap image for the gearbox.

[Duplode]

Or you prepare the new bitmap and use the CarBlaster compare-and-copy feature to bring back the gearbox parameters from the original car (and check for any unexpected differences). That way you will save a few hundreds of keystrokes by not having to redo the speedometer and rev needle.     

[CTG]

Or you prepare the new bitmap and use the CarBlaster compare-and-copy feature to bring back the gearbox parameters from the original car (and check for any unexpected differences). That way you will save a few hundreds of keystrokes by not having to redo the speedometer and rev needle.     

As far as I remember the rev needle wasn't changed at all - no clue about the digital speedometer position. However, the whole car will be revised.

[CTG]

I'm confused. The modified bodywork shows even more problems.

[CTG]

Next version, car0 has only one color set (it's useless to make more as long as the shape is not finished).

Main problems: front wheels (bodywork transparency), disappearing Viper pattern

[CTG]

The Viper stripes are useless, removed.

Doggy, creator of this car: could you take a look at the 3D shape, please? I wonder about your opinion.

[Duplode]

Main problems: front wheels (bodywork transparency), disappearing Viper pattern

It is likely that the front wheels are as good as it's going to get - even some of the original cars have the same problem with bodywork transparency from certain angles. As for the Viper stripes, if you change your mind and decide to keep them there are a few options:

• One easy solution seems to be adding the two-sided flag to the stripes. As far as I can see there were no extra bugs introduced by the change. I attached a .3sh with that change performed for you to check.
• Even with the two-sided flag the stripes will flicker a bit, due, I believe, to z-bias artifacts. There may be some gains in avoiding z-bias for the stripes by splitting the body panels below and integrating them to the rest of the body, as I did for the GT3.

Should you take the second option, one thing you might want to keep an eye on is the total number of polygons in car1. Making it much higher than 100 can make Stunts run a bit slower when there is an opponent, specially under DOSBox on slower machines and when using the outside cameras. If that would bother you, just test it against Skid, maybe lowering the DOSBox cycles to 14000 or 12000 if you feel the need to simulate a slower computer. With 107 polygons, your bodywork  seems mostly unaffected; and raising it a bit further might still be fine with respect to that. (BTW, if you want to merge the stripes into the body panels, switching from two stripes to one stripe would keep the total number of polygons unchanged...)

Next version, car0 has only one color set (it's useless to make more as long as the shape is not finished).

P.S: Overzealous observation: I assume that you know about the "Replace all" command you can find by right-clicking the materials list?

P.P.S.: Overzealous observation #2: don't forget about the paint jobs of car2 and exp0..3 - I just mention them because it is something that is easy to miss 

[CTG]

Thank you, Duplode! Well-detailed advice as always. I'll try to correct it as soon as I have some time (probably Thursday).

About color sets: I use the 'replace all' option, but if the shape has to be modified, you lose it by importing into car0. However, sometimes it's really better to warn about the basic issues - unless you are Kimi Raikkönen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8X1O811pWA).