Hello - (TC6)

[zimluura]

truespace 5.2 exports to 3ds, asc, dxf, and x
so no .obj but getting it in through dxf works (iirc blenders truespace import doesn't seem to work with this version of the ts file format)

for dealing with the car companies i like the idea of just having a few official vdrift cars that are fully destructable. and eventually fully rig-able with opening windows, doors, antena, hoods. visual engine swaps, body, exhaust, all of that. that way the car data format will evolve to be very powerful.

then car packs can be distributed by 2 separate servers (neither officially part of vdrift); one server for car files (with the real names) and one for the car models (perhaps in a common blender format). so a company getting litigious can't harm the project overall. and can really only complain about the .car files which, since they are text, will be pretty hard to suppress because 100 cars could still be under 1mb. and people could also just write their own if they really wanted to. this way you could also have real manufacturer names and whatnot.

for getting the body to look better on curvy cars (and curvy women for that matter) i temporarily paint some tiger strips so in the 3d view i get a better view of contours. i'd always thought about the thin edge of polygons thing, but had been unsure if a texture map or something would do a better job of fixing it. i've never built a facemap in my life, saw it done in lightwave once, and it looked scary.