Dead Link Small Transport Truck

[Jimbob]

UPDATE: The final model can be found here!

 

 

I've started work on a Small Transport Truck model for LEGO Racers, and thought I'd share my progress as it goes along. I aim to finish this and use it as an example of GDB modding, but given the complexity of the model and the fact that we are currently restricted to text editing, don't hold me to it.

 

So far I've spent a while working out accurate stud dimensions so I can use them universally, which I've noted >here, and I've since begun planning out the model.

 

[Shadowblaze]

Awesome, Jimbob! Can't wait for you to finish this. Keep us updated with your progress, please, I'm intrigued.

[Ben24x7]

Interesting, oh and nice progress by the way.

[alan]

Good job 

What program do you use for the creation of the model?

[MaelstromIslander]

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?!?!! WE CAN MAKE MODELS FOR LEGO RACERS NOW??!? why haven't i never known this?!

[alan]

It is a recent find by Jimbob, have a look at his

[Jimbob]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

What program do you use for the creation of the model?

If you mean the program on the right of the screenshot, that's just Adobe Photoshop with grids displayed and parts I drew myself. Otherwise I've had to edit the model using the >Binary File Editor, which is actually not too bad when used in conjunction with my Photoshop document, although still very slow.

[joeytheleo]

WE CAN MAKE MODELS FOR LEGO RACERS NOW??!?

 

Yep, we recently discovered that in the same car file where you change the RGB of the car parts if you change the numbers and the vertices you will actually edit the shape of the car. 

[lol username]

I wouldn't exactly call it a "find" or "discovery"... It's more like "well, we don't have a proper editor or conversion tools yet, so let's just do this by hand".

IMO, the time spent on making custom models manually would be better spent on creating tools to work with the model format... What would take you ten minutes to do by hand could be done in a few seconds in actual 3D modeling software. But hey, if you wanna do it this way...

[alan]

I wouldn't exactly call it a "find" or "discovery"... It's more like "well, we don't have a proper editor or conversion tools yet, so let's just do this by hand".

IMO, the time spent on making custom models manually would be better spent on creating tools to work with the model format... What would take you ten minutes to do by hand could be done in a few seconds in actual 3D modeling software. But hey, if you wanna do it this way...

 

If I'd been good enough in programming (I've just started) I would love to do this...

 

 

If you mean the program on the right of the screenshot, that's just Adobe Photoshop with grids displayed and parts I drew myself.

Got it

[Jimbob]

I wouldn't exactly call it a "find" or "discovery"... It's more like "well, we don't have a proper editor or conversion tools yet, so let's just do this by hand".

IMO, the time spent on making custom models manually would be better spent on creating tools to work with the model format... What would take you ten minutes to do by hand could be done in a few seconds in actual 3D modeling software. But hey, if you wanna do it this way...

Aw, come on, until now it wasn't known how the GDB files could be used to make/modify models. I'd call that a discovery, even if it was Will who worked out the file format in the first place.

 

I agree though, it would be much better if someone could make a tool, but there are few people on RRU with the ability, time and dedication to do it. Until such a time as one exists, I'm quite happy putting a little extra effort in to build custom models that I can share with the community.

 

 

---

 

EDIT: Update!

 

 

It doesn't look like much, but these are the first few plates completed. I might add shadows later, but textures aren't required as they aren't seen (parts will be built on top). Ignore the wheels for now, too.

 

The 2x2 plate that Redbeard sits on was modelled first, and took... Quite a while. The 2x10 plate was a lot easier though, and I was able to make the turquoise 2x4 plate in about 20 minutes (most of which was spent drawing it in Photoshop). So it's not actually as bad as I thought it'd be. I'm just dreading the difficult parts like the tipper, main dark grey base and the bucket seat.

[alan]

Good job! I see it is difficult to arrange the parts to sit right under the driver. Keep this going 

 

Do you actually know where the chassis of the player's cars are saved in? I only found the wheels but no car chassis... but they must be somewhere actually

[Car CrazeXVI]

recently

I never said that. This has been known for quite awhile.

Do you actually know where the chassis of the player's cars are saved in?

All chassis and bricks are in MENUDATAPIECEDB, under the names LPIECEHI.LEB and LPIECELO.LEB. They're different from GDBs, though.

[Ben24x7]

Do you plan to recolour the wheels? Because, you know, the Small Transport Truck has Yellow wheels.

 

Other than that, great progress!

[Cyrem]

Admins/Mods, please can a new subforum be created in Racers->Mods for Custom Models?

I wasn't aware it could be done, yes, I think that can be arranged, but I might wait for a couple to be made first.

[Jimbob]

I've been building this model so that the parts are (relatively) easily to reuse and shift to other models, so once released people should be able to make use of it. Hence I plan to make the Hover Scout next - I just have to remove the wheels, possibly replace the engine sound if it's possible, and make the pilot's legs standing rather than seated.

 

Good job! I see it is difficult to arrange the parts to sit right under the driver. Keep this going 

 

Do you actually know where the chassis of the player's cars are saved in? I only found the wheels but no car chassis... but they must be somewhere actually

Actually Redbeard's sitting perfectly on a plate, I've just got the other two further underneath because there's a dark grey plate that goes in between.

 

Not sure about player parts myself, Car CrazeXVI sounds right though.

 

Do you plan to recolour the wheels? Because, you know, the Small Transport Truck has Yellow wheels.

 

Other than that, great progress!

Thanks! Yep, I said to ignore the wheels in that image, I'll retexture them soon. I may possibly remodel them, maybe, as they are flat rather than indented like actual LEGO tires. But that comes after all else as it isn't so necessary.

 

 

Admins/Mods, please can a new subforum be created in Racers->Mods for Custom Models?

I wasn't aware it could be done, yes, I think that can be arranged, but I might wait for a couple to be made first.

Cooleo, that's fair enough. Thanks.

[Jimbob]

http://youtu.be/V1B5njIbtOE

 

 

Alright, alright, it's not finished. But hey, progress!

 

So the wheels still need to be recoloured and shifted back, and the back half of the slope needs its colours fixed, but other than that I think it's coming along well. I've added more parts, including modelling the dark grey modified plate (which wasn't easy), and added shading to all the parts - which tripled the amount of vertices each one required - so the file is now currently 4710 lines long!

[Shadowblaze]

So the wheels still need to be recoloured and shifted back, and the back half of the slope needs its colours fixed, but other than that I think it's coming along well. I've added more parts, including modelling the dark grey modified plate (which wasn't easy), and added shading to all the parts - which tripled the amount of vertices each one required - so the file is now currently 4710 lines long!

 

Awesome! Can't wait to see it finished! Are you going to make Rock Raiders next?

[le717]

How did you get that slope texture, blindly map it to the still unknown UV map, or is that the tutorial section still to be written?

"4710 lines long"

I knew there had to be a reason behind that question you asked me. ;P

[Jimbob]

Awesome! Can't wait to see it finished! Are you going to make Rock Raiders next?

Do you mean the figures, or just more LRR vehicles? I definitely plan on making the Hover Scout, and maybe moving onto some more after that, I don't know. This has taken a while but I'm getting faster and faster - I can now make a new brick/plate in under a minute. It's the modified parts that are tricky.

 

How did you get that slope texture, blindly map it to the still unknown UV map, or is that the tutorial section still to be written?

"4710 lines long"

I knew there had to be a reason behind that question you asked me.

I worked out how the UV map worked, yes, at least somewhat (hence discolouration on the back of the slope). I'll be updating the tutorial when I have it completely figured.

 

Yup, that wasn't why I asked though - I had to shift Redbeard up to fit in the right place, which required manually editing all the messy uncommented dev code. Not nice.

[alan]

I had to shift Redbeard up to fit in the right place, which required manually editing all the messy uncommented dev code. Not nice.

 

I recently went through several files because I was looking for the files in which the chassis are saved (by now I know it). I also went through CHASSIS.CMB in MENUDATAPIECEDB and found some interesting things (though it wasn't enough so that a documentation would have been necessary). For example you can change the player's and the opponents seat position. Example:

k_27
	"rrchas0"    //Rocket Racer's chassis
	{
		k_28
		{
			k_35
			"rrjmw"
			k_34
			"rrjmw"
			k_36
			"rrjmw"
			k_37
			"rrjmw"
			k_38
			"rrjmw"
		}
		k_2B      //This is the interesting part for you. The seat position
		(float)0.000084    // when increased, the driver will sit more at the front
		(float)0.013271    //when increased, the driver will sit more left
          	(float)0.805    //when increased, the driver sits higher
		k_2C
		(float)2500    
		k_2A
		(float)-1
		(float)0
		(float)-0.5
		k_2F
		(float)0.96
		k_2D
		(float)4
		(float)10.89
		k_2E
		(float)8
		(float)9
		k_30
		{
			(float)1.2
			(float)1.2
			(float)3.482084
			(float)-2.681895
			(float)0
			(float)3.482084
			(float)2.708729
			(float)0
			(float)-3.490916
			(float)-2.681895
			(float)0
			(float)-3.490916
			(float)2.708729
			(float)0
		}
		k_31
		{
			(float)1.5432
			(float)-1.9889
			(float)0
			(float)1.5432
			(float)1.9889
			(float)0
			(float)-1.4383
			(float)-1.9889
			(float)0
			(float)-1.4383
			(float)1.9889
			(float)0
		}
		k_32
		0
		k_33
		0
	}

I hope this will make it easier for you

[Jimbob]

 

I had to shift Redbeard up to fit in the right place, which required manually editing all the messy uncommented dev code. Not nice.

 

I recently went through several files because I was looking for the files in which the chassis are saved (by now I know it). I also went through CHASSIS.CMB in MENUDATAPIECEDB and found some interesting things (though it wasn't enough so that a documentation would have been necessary). For example you can change the player's and the opponents seat position. Example:

k_27
	"rrchas0"    //Rocket Racer's chassis
	{
		k_28
		{
			k_35
			"rrjmw"
			k_34
			"rrjmw"
			k_36
			"rrjmw"
			k_37
			"rrjmw"
			k_38
			"rrjmw"
		}
		k_2B      //This is the interesting part for you. The seat position
		(float)0.000084    // when increased, the driver will sit more at the front
		(float)0.013271    //when increased, the driver will sit more left
          	(float)0.805    //when increased, the driver sits higher
		k_2C
		(float)2500    
		k_2A
		(float)-1
		(float)0
		(float)-0.5
		k_2F
		(float)0.96
		k_2D
		(float)4
		(float)10.89
		k_2E
		(float)8
		(float)9
		k_30
		{
			(float)1.2
			(float)1.2
			(float)3.482084
			(float)-2.681895
			(float)0
			(float)3.482084
			(float)2.708729
			(float)0
			(float)-3.490916
			(float)-2.681895
			(float)0
			(float)-3.490916
			(float)2.708729
			(float)0
		}
		k_31
		{
			(float)1.5432
			(float)-1.9889
			(float)0
			(float)1.5432
			(float)1.9889
			(float)0
			(float)-1.4383
			(float)-1.9889
			(float)0
			(float)-1.4383
			(float)1.9889
			(float)0
		}
		k_32
		0
		k_33
		0
	}

I hope this will make it easier for you

 

Dangit, that would have been so much easier! Thank you very much, alan, that's great (for future reference)!

[Jimbob]

Update time!

 

 

What's new?

• The wheels have been recoloured and correctly positioned. This was much simpler than I thought, the ##JMW.SDB file contains front and rear axle coordinates, so no modifying of the model or animation files were necessary.
• The whole vehicle as been moved up to the correct height (thanks le717 for making >GDBump!), and Redbeard along with it.
• The colours on the slope brick are fixed.
• Textures! Everything has stud textures now. I cannot explain enough how much easier colouring and shading a vehicle is with textures... Wow. I'll be making that clear in the tutorial when I update it.
• I've modelled the hinge brick, which is a lot more difficult then it might seem. It takes up nearly a quarter of the file so far, and that's just the front one, now I need to copy it over to the back. You may notice the shading's a bit smoother on it - that's because gradients are possible in LR too.

There's not much left to do now!

[Ben24x7]

Awesome!

 

I guess all that is left is to make the rear bucket and frame behind the driver.

[mumboking]

! Where's that drooling smiley I asked about!? It's necessary here!

 

Amazing work! Next project: HQ body parts?

May I ask what resolution you're running the game at?

 

I guess all that is left is to make the rear bucket and frame behind the driver.

What about the wheels? He said he might remodel them.

We're closed for remodelling!