Modeling in ZMod for the people who want cars

Easy guide for newbie/wannabe modelers

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nikko
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Modeling in ZMod for the people who want cars

Postby nikko » Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:14 pm

Ok, This is to save some time and bandwidth for the people who
want someone to make them a car. Like Gafaddict says: Learn to
do it for yourself.

Start off:
Get Zmodeler. Skip this step if you already have it.
https://www.zmodeler2.com/?mode=dl&ID=3

Tutorials: First one is the best for beginners.
https://www.etspe.ca/zmt/v1/
https://www.zmodeler2.com/docs/program/f ... tents.html-kind of advanced, but good.

For editing the blueprints: https://www.faststone.org/FSViewerDetail.htm
Blueprints:
https://www.suurland.com- go to the nav bar and hit blueprints.
https://www.tutorials3d.com/eng/blu_index.asp
https://cgworld.ru/modules.php?name=Blueprints

For textures,
Qwerty_86 reccomended ebay.
If you want to model your own car, get the digital camera and snap some pics.Google images/ask jeeves images aren't reccommended unless you find a set of pics of the same car.

For tuning:https://forum.mm2c.com/viewtopic.php?t=6 ... ght=tuning
The tuning files should be somewhat easy to do. What I recommend, is borrowing a .vehcarsim file from the core.ar and tweak a few settings. (horsepower, torque, etc.) When you extract the tuning file, edit it in notepad and when you save it, make sure its not saved as a text file. Save it like: [carname].vehcarsim (Credit to neon_SRT from SSH, one of my friends)

For exporting:
First off you need some kind of template to work with, so you don’t have to go making all the files and folders from scratch. Either extract a default car or use a car that the author doesn’t mind you editing.

Step 1) When you find a car to use as a template, first thing you need to do is extract it. Go look at some files in windows and see if you can see their extensions, for example Midtown2.exe not just Midtown2

If you see the .exe bit skip the next step, if not do this:

Go to start/settings/folder options. On the ‘view’ tab are some checkboxes, find one labeled ‘hide file extensions of known types’ and UNCHECK IT. Press ok, and now you will see file extensions such as .exe .txt etc.

Step 2) Go to your cars’ .ar file that you are going to use as a template, right click on it and select ‘rename’ replace the .ar bit with .zip so if your car vpmini.ar you would rename it to vpmini.zip. You will now be able to extract the cars’ files by right clicking and choosing ‘Extract to (file name)’ such as ‘Extract to c:\mm2\vpmini’.

Step 3) Once all the files are extravted, open you z3d file of the car that you want in mm2, and check all the object names, they should be as follows:

BREAK OBJECT NAMES (bits that fall off, these are optional, keep them small or MM2 may run slow):
BREAK0_H:m – object falls(detaches) when left-front corner of the vehicle was hit.
BREAK1_H:m -… right-front…
BREAK2_H:m -… right-rear…
BREAK3_H:m -… left-rear…
BREAK01_H:m - … front of the car was hit.
BREAK12_H:m - … right side of the car was hit.
BREAK23_H:m - …rear of the car was hit.
BREAK03_H:m - …left side of the car was hit
And these are THE ONLY ‘BREAK’ objects supported!

WHEEL OBJECT NAMES (the wheels, duh)
WHL0_H:m - … left-front…
WHL1_H:m - … right-front…
WHL2_H:m - … left-rear…
WHL3_H:m - … right-rear…

Lights (the bits of pretty colors that flash, they only really need 2 polys each)
TLIGHT_L - …Tail lights
BLIGHT_L - … Break lights (if no break light, taillight is used instead)
RLIGHT_L - … Reverse lights
HLIGHT_L - … Headlights
These need texturing, I recommend using FXLTGLOW and FXLTGLOWRED textures from MM2.
HEADLIGHT0_H:m and HEADLIGHT1_H:m are light and right headlights
GLOWING OBJECT position, which means make them larger then the headlights and there’s NO NEED TO TEXTURE THEM

BODY (the main bit of the car)
BODY_H = high detailed body
BODY_M = medium detailed body (showed while even further away from car)
(optional)
BODY_L = Low detailed body (showed while even further away from car)
(optional)
BODY_VL = Very Low detailed body (showed when miles away from car)
(optional, and not really worth bothering with)

SHADOW (the dark area under the car generated by the sun)
SHADOW_H = use the shadow from another car, its easier, needs to be textured too (keep it to 2 polys).

BOUND (the bit of the car that is hard)
Object is simply called BOUND it should be a SIMPLE BOX shape with FEW POLYS, loads of polys can cause MM2 to crash or run VERY SLOW. Does NOT need texturing as it is invisible in game. The bound should just cover the whole car, but NOT the wheels because then it will hit curbs.

Exhaust smoke (optional but gives nice effect on truck stacks and old car exhausts)
exhaust1_H:m = a simple flat surface with 2 polys with the center of it where you want the smoke to come from.
exhaust0_H:m = same as above

There’s also FNDR0_H:m and FNDR1_H:m that are objects which ROTATE when wheels turn (used on Panoz roadster mudguard things, and Moon rover satellite, also some people have used them from brake discs). I’m not sure how these are tuned, so try them if you want but they are not needed.

I think that all the object names have been covered, now you need to export the car!

Step 4) Go to file / export in Zmodeler, browse to where you extracted you base car and in its folder should be a GEOMETRY folder, on the bottom of the export box is a drop down menu with different filters. Go down the list till you see Midtown Madness 2 (*.pkg) and click it, now in the geometry folder you should see something like vp<carname>.pkg click on that then click SAVE it will ask you if you wish to overwrite, click yes/ok.

Step 5) The next box will ask you about multiple colors, for now ignore it, just click OK.

The export is now done, but your car is not in the game yet.

Step 6) In windows explorer find the folder your base far is in (inside the folder is geometry, aud, texture, and other folders) Select this folder, right click, and choose ‘add to <folder>.zip’

Once done a zip file will appear, right click on this and choose ‘rename’ and change the .zip file back to .ar, if done correctly the files’ icon will change.

Copy this file (<carname>.ar) into your MAIN mm2 folder (something like c:\program\files\Microsoft games\midtown madness 2

Run mm2 and (hopefully) your car should appear in the car select screen, however there are many reasons why it might not, including:

1) Files missing from .ar file
2) Files in .ar file incorrectly named or contain incorrect data
If mm2 locks up, possible causes include:
Texture file not being the correct size, the texture file needs to be a multiple of 16, I recommend using texture files that are 256x256 pixels, as any higher and users 3Dfx graphics cards will get texture corruption.
Also objects mission or incorrectly named objects in the pkg will
cause mm2 to crash. (another thanks to neon_SRT)

There you go. help me out and post replies.
"If you forgot to use the clutch, yer dreams are over, kid."

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pesterddad
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Postby pesterddad » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:02 pm

Thanks for notes. Might go and try a uk ambulance for my son (5yo) and stop the nagging to find one.

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arveen_7112
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Postby arveen_7112 » Thu Apr 19, 2007 4:23 pm

whoa too much information!8O

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Anthony
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Postby Anthony » Thu Oct 25, 2007 1:22 pm

on thing i found, when making the zip file first only use winzip or xp compressed zipped folders as 7zip and winrar make the file unreadable, well it does for me anyway
[code:1]<php>[/code:1]
[url=https://madnessred.co.cc/][img]https://madnessred.co.cc/MadnessRedAnthony.png[/img]
[/url]

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shady333
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Postby shady333 » Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:47 pm

Thanks for Information, i'll try it and respond this again.
All about HONDA Civic 4D
<a>civic4d.at.ua</a>

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Franch88
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Postby Franch88 » Thu May 22, 2008 8:56 pm

Just to inform that now it's available a complete very good tutorial about modeling, preparing and putting in-game a car. It contains the following stuff: the PDF version of the tutorial, the .ar file of the car example in the tutorial, an archive with the tutorial pictures and the Z3D file of the model seen in the tutorial. Get it here! :D

More, still by Silent1Unknown, there's a new tutorial that explains how to convert a car model to MM2, with base files included. Get it here. :)

A new improved version of the Silent1Unknown's car modeling tutorial is available, and now with videos! Links to directly watch the videos, to download them and for the text parts are available at his website here.

Check out also the tutorials center of Midtown Madness Archive website here. :wink:
Fiat 500 = Italian motorization. Franch88, MM2 eXtreme forum and website Administrator.
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Eliax
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Postby Eliax » Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:41 am

that is what i wanted!
OMFG i wiil start now!

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Wigann1
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Postby Wigann1 » Sun Nov 02, 2008 2:10 am

Zmodeler is a very COMPLEXITY :cry: