davidMC1982 Wrote:I'm modelling a Viper GTS-R
Cool!
Quote:1) Vehicle size. Other than the car in the modelling pack, are there any other sizing quidelines?
Units are in meters.
Quote:2) Model position. I've modelled the car around the origin. I think the JOE script uses the object centre as its reference point, but when the car is in the game it appears to be about foot in the air. Where should the model/object centre be positioned?
It shouldn't matter where you model the car, as long as the positions in the .car file match up.
However, the wheel models must be positioned on the origin.
Quote:3) The collision box. Does this have to be a cube? Also, should it cover the bottom of the body or the bottom of the wheels?
The collision box has to be a cube. I suppose you could make it something else, but VDrift will simplify it to a cube anyway. It should cover only down to the bottom of the body. In fact, you could probably put it a little up from the bottom of the body.
Quote:4) Wheels. They appear to be postioned in the car.ini file. Looking at other car files they all appear to have a negative z coordinate. I tried altering this to match the car (see number 2 above), but ended up with a car stuck on the startline in a constant skid or collision. How does the position of the wheels, body and collision box interact?
The collision box and the body should be in the same coordinate system in blender. Unfortunately the coordinate system in the .car file is different than the coordinate system in blender. If you look at another car for an example you can get a feeling for which axes in blender match up with which axes in the car file. For some parameters the .car file isn't even internally consistent. Doh. Here's an explanation:
http://vdrift.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=...c&start=15
In the future the plan is to move to an optional, unified coordinate system where everything in the .car file matches up with Blender.
Quote:5) Presumably, the suspension position in the car file should correspond with the wheels (roughly). What happens if they don't?
The suspension position is used as the point at which forces from the wheels are applied to the car's chassis. So, if the suspension position is set oddly it could result in all kinds of handling problems.
One other thing to note... the modeling package on sourceforge is a tad out of date. Make sure you get the latest from SVN:
http://svn.vdrift.net/viewvc.py/trunk/to...vdrift-art
Also, if you haven't seen it already, here's the wiki:
http://wiki.vdrift.net/Creating_cars
I'll update the wiki to contain answers to the questions you just asked. Feel free to ask more questions or ask for clarification.
