Hello!

[themikeberg]

I guess I should say hello here! I've done a lot of lurking to get answers and this site just seems to be full of helpful and knowledgeable people so I'm glad to setup an account.

I'm fairly new to modding in general, this all started with me making skins for other modded cars.

I have a certain affinity for drifting, racing is fun but drifing is my main past time when it comes to auto sport of any sort.

I started out with a wheel setup for Assetto Corsa on xbox and it was all downhill from there, switched to PC, built a simrig, and now I'm hosting my own server for my friends and I.

But now I want to start diving deeper into building my own car(s) for drifting. It seems that the community is very protective of their modded cars. Going so far as to encrypt the files within data.acd and the rest. Which is understandable, but annoying for me as there is no way I'll ever be able to model the bodies of the cars I want to make.

So I'm here to learn more, see what I can and cannot do. And hopefully get where I want to go!

Thanks, I'm sure I'll see you around.

 

[luchian]

Hi, welcome .

Yes, car modelling is something I also strughle with, but it can be done, I hear.. . There are so many tutorial videos nowdays, only time&will are the only barriers. In the same time, there are a ton of free models also, so depending on what you might like, maybe model is already available. It will still require some cleaning, so not really a 3-click job.

The data.acd contains only the physics of the car. And it's not only for copy protection, but it is a way of controlling online cheating. Servers use that as a reference to detect if users have altered a specific car in any way. So it is a needed "harm" .

Good luck with the journey, don't forget to enjoy it.

 

[Pixelchaser]

hello, modelling is hard. well its not hard but it is dependant on method and an understanding of the fundamentals of modelling. sadly whilst there are 1001 tutorials on it, nobody explains the fundamentals via car or track modelling. best advice is to treat it as general modelling and the car part being secondary. and depending on your general IQ, it might be best to give yourself a 2-3 year window in which to produce your first car just don't be expecting something "quality" next week. or you might be a genius with high architectural IQ and you just know it all because its logical

the choice of tools to do these jobs individually require a modicum of learning where their use of the fundamentals are concerned. blender is stupid but 3ds max is very intelligent or is it the other way around. anyway learning blender is probably the best choice for this locale and member set.


I must be on year 4 of my learning and well ive abandoned nearly everything ive started because its not good enough and I am not good enough at it even though I rock quite a high IQ with geometry. its just not for me when its at its most challenging. soo..... maybe start smaller than a car and build up to it.

 

[themikeberg]

Hi, welcome .

Yes, car modelling is something I also strughle with, but it can be done, I hear.. . There are so many tutorial videos nowdays, only time&will are the only barriers. In the same time, there are a ton of free models also, so depending on what you might like, maybe model is already available. It will still require some cleaning, so not really a 3-click job.

The data.acd contains only the physics of the car. And it's not only for copy protection, but it is a way of controlling online cheating. Servers use that as a reference to detect if users have altered a specific car in any way. So it is a needed "harm" .

Good luck with the journey, don't forget to enjoy it.

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. I ended up finding the "Car Tuner" program which seems to extract the data.acd file in a readable format. So that was a bit funny however you cannot take those files and make a standalone car with it.

I copied a car, extracted the data.acd file the proper way (quickbms), renamed it in car.ini and ui.json, and it fails to load. AC crashes every time, it doesn't seem to give any errors in the error log.

hello, modelling is hard. well its not hard but it is dependant on method and an understanding of the fundamentals of modelling. sadly whilst there are 1001 tutorials on it, nobody explains the fundamentals via car or track modelling. best advice is to treat it as general modelling and the car part being secondary. and depending on your general IQ, it might be best to give yourself a 2-3 year window in which to produce your first car just don't be expecting something "quality" next week. or you might be a genius with high architectural IQ and you just know it all because its logical

the choice of tools to do these jobs individually require a modicum of learning where their use of the fundamentals are concerned. blender is stupid but 3ds max is very intelligent or is it the other way around. anyway learning blender is probably the best choice for this locale and member set.


I must be on year 4 of my learning and well ive abandoned nearly everything ive started because its not good enough and I am not good enough at it even though I rock quite a high IQ with geometry. its just not for me when its at its most challenging. soo..... maybe start smaller than a car and build up to it.

I'm more likely to spend money on a high quality model suited for games then to put in the time to learn modeling. I know enough to get around in blender and 3ds Maya but have no interest to go any further. Textures and programming are more of my shtick. Games I make tend to be 2D in nature.

 

[Pixelchaser]

I'm more likely to spend money on a high quality model suited for games then to put in the time to learn modeling. I know enough to get around in blender and 3ds Maya but have no interest to go any further. Textures and programming are more of my shtick. Games I make tend to be 2D in nature.

well this is "EXACTLY" the problem I face. and I am that person too. the 2d guy texture artist. 3d is just not my thing. 2d games and especially pixel art games take the majority of my games list. but I want to work with it, the only reason I don't release, is because the architecture isn't finished. I was offered help here but sadly that disappeared. so im sitting with my limerock park and simply no buildings. they are drawn in 2d by myself but cant be assed doing it. not because i cant be arsed, my brain doesn't work that way quite yet and no time to train it too now.
just needs modelling . and for those that see it as a waste. I agree, but im just not there yet.

regards programming. as a game enthusiast and 2d guy and camera guy interested in all art and associated forms of it the only thing I wish in the last 20 years is that I had known a programmer and could come up with idea . so pleasure to meet you, where the hell have you been all this time ? few and far between are you guys !

the 3d thing for me is weird tbh, I can do the scenery terrain and every aspect of environmentals but when it comes to complicated man made objects I just freeze a bit and don't see the road to continue. environmental modelling i`m really into but the rest is just don't want to do at all. I just want to do what im good at which is contrary to learning but at 45 I just got other stuff to do now which is the stuff im good at .