LOD wheels and tyres missing in in-game

[GRLap]

I created a mod from an existing car; turned a coupe into a roadster and various other bodywork changes. I didn't do anything with the wheels or tyres.
I created an lod_b, lod_c and lod_d ("lods") by making the same changes to the pre-existing lods files as I made to the primary kn5 file.

My new mod loads into AC no problem and everything works in the game, except that the wheels and tyres disappear when the distance shifts to lod_b (or lod_c and lod_d). The wheels and tyres are visible at close distance, i.e. the primary model.

Upon further investigation the wheels and tyres are in-game, but they are at 0.01 scale, i.e. extremely small and therefore not visible. So when the view shifts to lod_b the wheels and tyres "disappear".

I'm importing the lods .fbx into blender using 0.01 scale, as I'd done with the primary. With further investigation, the lods' wheels and tyres are showing a scale of 1.0 after importing while all other objects are at scale 0.01. Scale of everything should be 0.01 if imported with scale of 0.01, no? After I apply scale to all objects, all objects show a scale of 1.0, including the wheels and tyres. The wheels and tyres are correct size by measurement and visually, and yet when I import the .fbx into kseditor the wheels and tyres are the wrong size. I can see they are the wrong size because within kseditor Object/Radius they are 1/100th the radius they should be, i.e. versus the radius in the primary asset, and yet in the viewport they appear correct size!

Someone, anyone please help. This is ruining my day.

 

[Johnr777]

I created a new mod from an existing mod, turning coupe into a roadster and various other bodywork changes. I didn't do anything to the wheels or tyres.

I created an lod_b, lod_c and lod_d ("lods") by making the same changes to the existing lods files as I made to the existing primary kn5 file, in all cases exporting to fbx and blender.

I don't understand texturing that well, particularly for lods. Based on the file size of the existing lods, it seemed that they were saved, e.g., from kseditor, as "car" i.e. w/o textures, so that is how I saved my modified lods with kseditor.

The new mod loads into AC and everything seems to work, except that the wheels and tyres disappear when the distance shifts to lod_b (or lod_c and lod_d). The wheels and tyres are visible at close distance, i.e. on the primary model. The lod car bodies display the correct skin colours. The thing missing in-game on the lods are the wheels and tyres. The materials and textures of the LODS, as seen in kseditor, are consistent with those in the primary kn5 model.


I went back and tried the original car and it doesn't have this issue, so it's not a game settings issue.

Anybody have any ideas here?

You should read the pipeline document, it specifies what's required in each LOD. You need export your LODs with wheels in them as well

 

[GRLap]

I saved/exported the lods with their wheels and tyres!
As I said, I exported the original lods (i.e., from the original asset) as kn5 into fbx using AC CM. I made changes to the car body with blender. I did not touch the wheels or tyres in fbx. I used kseditor to export the fbx back to kn5.
I don’t understand what I did that causes the wheels & tyres to not appear on the lods. All of the material textures in the lods are consistent with the primary asset.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Johnr777]

Post a few pictures of your workflow, like a shot of the LODB/C model and object tree in blender, as well as a shot of the car in kseditor.

 

[fughettaboutit]

when exporting lod, use this, not the menu-item above

after that use lod material assignmentor (drag n drop lod file onto the program, while it in correct place in car-folder)

 

[GRLap]

So, I got lod_b to work, i.e. the wheels and tyres are now visible in-game. I think it had to do with properly applying scale in blender. Fresh from that success I converted the existing lod_c to fbx, made my changes and converted to kn5. Unfortunately my lod_c is not showing the wheel rims and tyres, or more precisely I suspect they are too small to see in-game. The dimensions of wheels and tyres in lod_b and lod_c are identical in blender. They are also the same "radius" in ks editor and they are proportional to the car body in both cases. The one difference I see is that, while scale is set to 1.0 on all of the objects in both lods, I notice that in lod_b the scale is 0.01 when I highlight "WHEEL_LF, WHEEL_RF, etc., while in lod_c those scales are 1.0 when highlighted (see picture). I don't know the meaning of that "yellow Y" symbol in blender, some sort of grouping? I don't know how to change the scale in lod_c to 0.01, i.e. to match lod_b, as I can't change the scale while holding dimensions constant.

 

[fughettaboutit]

Yes, yellow y thing is symbol for an "empty" or "node" or group, can have its own pivot, used to do hierarchy without it being an actually mesh.
Idk how the scaling issue came, but you can also scale things in edit mode, TAB in Blender

 

[GRLap]

I scaled the lod_c tyres and rims in blender by 100 and created a kn5 from the result. they work in-game, i.e. a driver animation driving four wheels and tyres with no car body. Great! The problem is I don't know how to marry the car body with the tyres and rims as they are now different sizes. I imported both into ks editor but that isn't working. This is really maddening and I am about to give up.