Deanna Troi's Conversion Studios

[Franch88]

Don't make the shadow object by your own, isn't really worth and then you need to map the texture, but download this very good base to make the own MM2 car. Are included shadow object with half shadow texture mapped (the default game one, to use your own you have to make it half, too), the headlights and tail lights objects (you need to fit them for your car) and the BOUND mesh. It's a .3ds file, use the Import function to add it in your work.
Yeah, all the car body parts excluded wheels, at least, have to be united in one object called BODY_H.

[Riva]

Yes, you're right.

Select all of these objects (click over them), then click on "SEL" from the object box, click now on "Select All" button.

The second step is : Create > Objects > UniteSelect. Name the new object as BODY_H.
___

It's not necessary to get all of these polys, just make a simple flat surface with only two polys. From the Top view, Create > Surface > Flat. Type 0 for the horizontal AND the vertical steps.



To assign and mapping a texture, here's the way to do.

When the surface is done (don't forget to name it as SHADOW_H), from the main toolbar, click on "Faces", the third icon (cf pic, shortcut = 3 from your keyboard), now click on SHADOW_H, from the top view. Click on Select > All, do a right click from the top view, the two faces (or more) are selected (appears in red by default). You can select them one by one by using Select > Single FYI.



Now, open the Material Editor (shortcut = E), copy the <default>, select this new material from the list, renamed it as shadow.

Follow this last step to get the shadow map, ON.

Load the shadow map by clicking on Primary texture then "Load Map", "OK". Click now on "Assign to selection" and finally change the type from "Unused" to "Glowing".



All is fine except the very last final step, the UV mapping. You must move and scale the texture to fit perfectly the 3D surface.

To do so, replace the front or left view by selecting the UV mapper view (click over the left upper side icon). Keep the top view for later.

The shadow map isn't viewable.

So, click on Surface > Mapping > Assign UV, then click on the 3D surface from the Top view. Now you see something from the UV mapper and the 3D views right ? But the shadow isn't set correctly. To fix it, from the UV mapper, in Objects mode (shortcut = 4), deselect the SEL button (click again over it), click on Modify > Scale, from the UV mapper view, scale the shadow object to the shadow map. You can scale this object only from the H axis (or X), the V (or Y) axis or D (Z), or both (X, Y / H, V).

Modify > Move can be used too.



Voila, that's all !

PS : when your SHADOW_H object is done, you don't need to remade it for another car, save it (by keeping only this object from the objects box) and later, merge it to your next projects, just change the texture of course

[Deanna_Troi]

Sweet, I thank you both Riva and Franch88 for this, and now the shadow fits like a glove (only I had to edit the shadow pic itself until it fitted, but still...)! By the way, I moved only the shadow down to where it touched the bottom of the wheels, and not moved the whole car up atop the shadow, is this still safe or have side effects?

@Franch88 However though, the basemm2car I downloaded was in .z3d format and not .3ds. So I had to export the basemm2car.z3d as a .3ds file, and if I do that, does it have any side effects like potential game crashes or equivalent?

And also, when I tried to add light textures (mainly "fxltglow" and "fxltglowred"), the lights, including the BOUND mesh, suddenly became transparent, and the car failed to show though the light transparency, am I doing something wrong, or is it my video card (NVIDIA GeForce 9300GE)?

[Riva]

The transparency in ZM1 is badly interpreted but doesn't matter for these objects, in-game, they don't look like that. If you want to fix that, add these objects to BODY_H (uniteselect) then detach and rename them (a bit useless). Happens because you did something behind these objects (by moving or editing a material/texture/poly).

If basenamemm2car is a Z3D, just merge it from your current Z3D (File > Merge). Make a backup before every merge operation to avoid any problem.

PS : it seems that the BOUND object have an incorrect material (seems to be transparent too), check from the Material Editor if you're using the <default> for this object. By the way, don't edit this material (the first one from the list), it can be used for any further material. Keep it white (or gray) with "Unused" as type and without any assigned texture. Anyway you can have a material called "bound" especially for this object but it's useless.

[Franch88]

The entire car model and all the other objects have to be placed above the horizontal axis (X and Z ones); this is also explained in the Silent1Unknwon's tutorial. So, the shadow has to be parallel these axis, having an height (Y axle) of 0 or little more.
To don't have the BOUND object transparent, select it, go to the Materials Editor and assign to it the one called Default Material, that has to be white and opaque. However, the assignment of a texture to this object isn't influent once it's exported.

However though, the basemm2car I downloaded was in .z3d format and not .3ds. So I had to export the basemm2car.z3d as a .3ds file, and if I do that, does it have any side effects like potential game crashes or equivalent?

Yeah, right, that's my version and it's in .z3d, I confused it with the original .3ds version, which I have too. In case you have to add the objects from a .z3d file you have to use the Merge function, as Riva says too.

[Deanna_Troi]

Hooray! I finally got it, all big thanks to Riva, Franch88, and of course Slient1Unknown's Tutorial, I now have some things in place, and lookin' good so far! Here's what I have so far:



I still need to work on the getting the rear lights in place, and it will use RCBandito's Grand National original tuning...

[aaro4130]

i wonder why so many people are trying to convert 10 years after game release, but nice attempts

[Deanna_Troi]

i wonder why so many people are trying to convert 10 years after game release, but nice attempts

Thank man! I even thought it was tough, but after all that learnin' and gettin' used to, I finally have it, now it's just a matter of whether or not it works in-game.... Too bad I did this 10 years late though, but still, being a converter is a good experience...

Oh yeah, and where I can find the driver models, incase I do my next conversion and/or improve this one?

[dageek]

PM Me for a few driver models; you can also go to https://aironeracing.ovh.org/menu.html and download one of the cars, and take the driver from them.

[Deanna_Troi]

PM Me for a few driver models; you can also go to https://aironeracing.ovh.org/menu.html and download one of the cars, and take the driver from them.

You got it.

Oh and one more thing, do the objects WHL0_H:m, WHL_1:m, WHL_2:m and WHL_3:m need to be in correct order, and if so, how possible is it to reshuffle the objects list so it would appear in order? Thanks in advance...

[Franch88]

No need to order the objects, the program PKG filter does that during the .pkg file exporting; after have tried to import the exported .pkg file you'll see this. However, if you need to move up or down and object right click on it in the objects list and do Move up or Move down; this takes some time and ZModeler will use much more system memory.
About the driver models, Riva has some that can give you, wait for him.

[dageek]

They don't need to be in order, when you export they will be placed in order.

EDIT: I see Franch posted first. Speaking of exporting, make sure you use Maxoff's PKG Filter (found here). You might need to put these files in the ZModeler directory.

[Deanna_Troi]

Big thanks guys!

I am using v1.07 which already includes the .PKG filter...

After this project, I have also planned a conversion of 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT-8 and although StanofGB already did this one, this one is from Forza Motorsport 3 and will also have a dash.... also the 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV and 2002 Lotus Esprit, both from FM3just thought I let y'all know in advance....

[aaro4130]

No No, They mean get that one, its from 1.07, its a heavily improved version

[dageek]

This is a different PKG filter that has more features than the default included one; to install it just put it in the Filters folder in the ZMod directory.