I was painting my skin for the GT500 last week, which prompted the following questions and potential opportunities. Just what parts of a mod car may be paintable? Some car mods don't seem to allow any painting. Most allow painting the body skin. Some car mods have extra pieces like windows, or have divided body structures into separate files that are paintable. Some allow painting driver helmets others add paintable driver suits. Some allow paintable wheel rims. Not sure I have found any that allow paintable driver gloves. A few allow for cockpit creativity like adding sponsor graphics. Some mods include adequate files to allow creation of your own templates. Moving forward I was wondering if there was value to the community for mod developers to: 1) Indicate which parts of their cars are actually paintable? Whether a template is planned? Whether the mod will be limited to the supplied liveries? This could easily be shared in launch notes. 2) include blank skin files(shading and/or dirt, but no graphics) for all paintable files to allow for creation of ones own template if no template is planned? 3) add paintable driver gloves( because if activated you see them all the time) and rims (because they can add a cool factor) as paintable objects in addition to helmets and suits? 4) in skin files with multiple components, indicate which ones are actually used? (Some suit files include gloves or a head/face that aren't actually used.) when multiple head files appear in the included files, which ones apply to the specific mod? 5) Can we settle on just a few layouts for drivers, helmets & gloves so we don't have to repaint a multitude of various layouts for these parts? Just wondering if this might make our sim world more creatively colourful? Cheers
People who make the car decide what can or cannot be painted. There are probably reasons why some things are not paintable. The one most asked about is probably rims, and those aren't paintable because they have a texture animation, which won't work because you can't seem to include the files that you would need. For part one and two of your question, I would assume they would release what they planned at the same time, but if they don't release a template, I would imagine they wouldn't give the other things. Three, four and five, a lot of people are using the ISI driver and helmet, but Enduracers use their own. I think they're the only ones not using the ISI one. Gloves on the ISI driver are just a tiled texture I think, that's probably why they aren't paintable. I suppose that could be changed easily though.
Thanks for the reply. Actually the MAK 962 has paintable wheel covers, including the required texture files for the animation. While not rims, would the technique be reproduceable for rims? It was probably the Enduracers driver where I noticed the helmet diference, but I think there may also be another full face in addition to the ST397. The BT44 appears to have a unique variant of the ST397 helmet. I was able to make my own template for the GT500. Driver suit and Helmet were also paintable. I guess more accurately, anything may be paintable, it is just a matter of knowing what will actually show up in the mod once you have repainted a particular skin file? My message was really about users receiving relevant painting information as a helpful enhancement of a vehicle mod launch instructions, regardless whether there are or will be templates or not. But then again there are lots of nice-to-haves that have been requested over the years. No reason not to suggest another!
For the most part, Coutie is right on what is decided as paintable from the modder but can be changed As for the rims, it's totally doable for the skins (at least for the cars I am currently messing with ), it just has to be named correctly in the gmt files. Here's a list of the wildcard options for things like windshields, rims, etc and as mentioned, they have to be defined in the gmt's of the models for them to be used for like alternate colors/skins. WCCARBODY (Usually the main skin/livery for alternate paint schemes defined such as car_alt.dds) (These listed below for example would be like car_altWINDOW.dds as long as they are defined in the gmts) WCWINDOW WCWING WCDRIVER WCHELMET WCARMS WCRIMS WCEXTRA0 WCEXTRA1 WCEXTRA2 WCEXTRA3 WCEXTRA4 WCEXTRA5 WCEXTRA6 WCEXTRA7 WCEXTRA8 WCEXTRA9 WCSPINNER WCPITBODY WCPITHELMET WCLOLLIPOP I've included a teaser for the rims and yep the animation is just fine.
Interesting list either lots place holders. How is the defining in the GMT's actually done? Is defining complicated beyond the extra skin files needed? The original mod issuer would have to update a mod I assume, or a new mod would need to be generated otherwise?
Yea the original modder would have to update the mod, it's pretty much just changing the name of the object in the gmt (edit: not the name of the gmt but of the name defined for that object within the gmt) to one of the wildcard placeholders and repackaging the mod with the updated gmt. I think this list was also used in the original rfactor.
I mean rim speed animations. Most cars are using those, and I don't think they can be customized, but I've never actually tried. I will try tomorrow.
Ah gotcha, at least for the vehicles I have been messing with, I haven't had trouble with the rim speed animation but when I modified the actual tire rubber skin, I had to modify three parts of the skin to show the animation correctly.
So, just wondering then, is there an easy way to find out what wild cards names are in play and their assignment? It would seem, to simplify things, it might be something a modder might like to share? Particularly if you went to the trouble of designing in, in the first place to make more parts paintable?
You could open the gmt's in gjed, but other than that, no. If there's a WC texture, usually they will say.
