This is an overview about rF2 Beta cars and an attempt to answer some basic questions car modders would like to ask.
About current Beta Cars. As you may have noticied, rF2 new features come with a performance cost. My main concern was to give maximum room for all the new stuff, and create vehicles that won't penalize the mid-range and lowest-end customer rigs. I still don't have a clear idea about how much car details are harming performances, as a lot of tech is in beta stage and some is still WIP. Various parts of the models have a direct link with physics too, as tire mesh for example. For all these reasons I had to place the crosshair somewhere between performance and good looking. I am a sim racer too (a bad one), and what I want the most is door banging with a 30 cars field in a smooth rendition.
For the future add ons, the quality and details bar will be significantly raised, but for the starting line up, I wanted to keep things as light as possible. Running 30 + cars field is the target.
If you know how to build a car for rF1, you won't have any problem building one for rF2. The general process is more or less similar. It means that converting cars will be easy with a bit of work, as there is new or updated shaders and materials.
Now if we have a quick look at car gen file in details, there is familiar things, and there is new things.
- Carbody
> New carbody material with additional damage paint layer. There is still a cube map for reflections, but environement reflections replace it when set to on in graphic settings.
- Cockpit
> No more half carbody mesh for this view, highest carbody LOD is automatically shown from cockpit view.
> Animated wiper and wet fx take place under cockpit instance, currently WIP.
- Tires
> New tire material to support damages and deformation.
Damages are a map blend (new to worn), deformation is automatic as long as you're using correct material settings and a TIRE instance.
- Lights
> head lights and tail lights are real spotlights, you can adjust them to just about any configuration you can think of.
- Heat haze + backfire
> There is a new shader that can be used for all heat effects.
- Driver
> Driver can be animated now. Using Max biped is an easy way to build it.
This is a very short introduction, for further details I will provide pdf tutorials, covering rF2 car modding from A to Z. Currently those tutorials are in beta stage too, as soon as I can get some free time I'll finish them. There is also features that are still WIP at the moment and those chapters can't be closed now.
There will be Max samples available quickly, in order to provide a better understanding of new things.
PSD templates for rF2 Beta cars are coming soon too.
Thanks everyone for being here !
You can download PDF tutorials here:
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/1573
About current Beta Cars. As you may have noticied, rF2 new features come with a performance cost. My main concern was to give maximum room for all the new stuff, and create vehicles that won't penalize the mid-range and lowest-end customer rigs. I still don't have a clear idea about how much car details are harming performances, as a lot of tech is in beta stage and some is still WIP. Various parts of the models have a direct link with physics too, as tire mesh for example. For all these reasons I had to place the crosshair somewhere between performance and good looking. I am a sim racer too (a bad one), and what I want the most is door banging with a 30 cars field in a smooth rendition.
For the future add ons, the quality and details bar will be significantly raised, but for the starting line up, I wanted to keep things as light as possible. Running 30 + cars field is the target.
If you know how to build a car for rF1, you won't have any problem building one for rF2. The general process is more or less similar. It means that converting cars will be easy with a bit of work, as there is new or updated shaders and materials.
Now if we have a quick look at car gen file in details, there is familiar things, and there is new things.
- Carbody
> New carbody material with additional damage paint layer. There is still a cube map for reflections, but environement reflections replace it when set to on in graphic settings.
- Cockpit
> No more half carbody mesh for this view, highest carbody LOD is automatically shown from cockpit view.
> Animated wiper and wet fx take place under cockpit instance, currently WIP.
- Tires
> New tire material to support damages and deformation.
Damages are a map blend (new to worn), deformation is automatic as long as you're using correct material settings and a TIRE instance.
- Lights
> head lights and tail lights are real spotlights, you can adjust them to just about any configuration you can think of.
- Heat haze + backfire
> There is a new shader that can be used for all heat effects.
- Driver
> Driver can be animated now. Using Max biped is an easy way to build it.
This is a very short introduction, for further details I will provide pdf tutorials, covering rF2 car modding from A to Z. Currently those tutorials are in beta stage too, as soon as I can get some free time I'll finish them. There is also features that are still WIP at the moment and those chapters can't be closed now.
There will be Max samples available quickly, in order to provide a better understanding of new things.
PSD templates for rF2 Beta cars are coming soon too.
Thanks everyone for being here !
You can download PDF tutorials here:
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/1573
).
). I wrote it for people totally new to this, and people already up to speed. It's really a step by step guide, and example files will be provided at the same time.