Overview of making a car for SA start to finish

[shenglong1]

hello

 

im new to vehicle modding and to using forums before i begin please forgive me for my "n00b" ish questions.

 

ok i decided to have a go at making a car for san andreas which i begun by reading up on stuff and getting a few tutorials !!!

 

1. Read basic zmodeler 2.0.4 tutorial (zmodeler_basics_lessons) - done

 

2. Read Getting Started in ZModeler (GTAuron) and try and model the car - done

 

3. Read Dummy Positioning and Heirarchy (Gangsta Killa) got confused here !!!

 

*. View gtaExamplesPack throughout development as reference and REMEMBER that importing .dff files works only if u buy zmodeler and are registered !!!

 

so you may be asking why i didnt post in that thread that i got stuck on well because the tutorials are nice but theres no freakin overview. i never even knew about dummy and heirachy, i mean if i knew the name then i could have found info but before that i was just aimlessly lost as to what to do next.

 

so what i am asking for is a general overview of every major thing you have to do to model a vehicle and get it running in san andreas and what order to go about it.

 

theres lots of good detailed tutorials but a newbie doenst have much idea how it all fits together (lol proabbly just me)

 

The way i see going about making vehicles so far is like so (all ??? mean i have no idea on these) :-

 

1. model vehicle

2. texture vehicle

3. detach vehicle into parts according to heirachy

4. create dummy nodes

5. collision stuff (???)

6. make a shadow (???)

7. other stuff vehicles.ide, carmods.dat, carcols.dat (???)

 

a general overview away from all the detail, abstraction or whatever it is called and ONLY the stuff that is required definetly NOT things like custom wheels in tutorials for beginners and LIKE using a damn lemans car for a tutorial lol ( i know GTAuron said to use a simpler car but im a noob and need smacking upside the head sometimes)

 

heres my crap attempt so far

 

Edited September 10, 2005 by shenglong1

[fuckindumass]

As far as hierarchy and dummys goes, I find it easier to import a model from the game, and delete all the parts, leaving behind all the dummies. This will give you a correct hierarchy and dummies to attach your stuff to. Model looks good, nice that you didn't get too crazy with the polys. I make high poly stuff for my own vice game, but trying to go lower with SA, as it seems a lot of people including myself are having trouble running the game as it is.

 

oh my bad, I looked at yout picture again and see you are already doing that. lol

[shenglong1]

Yah am keeping things simple fo rmy first go not too bothered with exactomundoness lol i got the heirachy by looking at the intruder. And i finally got it working in game woohoo !!!!

 

only problem i got now is that the car is too low and scrapes on ground and bit of wheels are underground lol