Forums / Off Topic / Something ive been messing with recently - TDU2 Car Mods and Texmod Tutorial

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What would be your priority for the next Testdrive?

Same play area as TDU2 but with better graphics

Same graphics as TDU2 but bigger play area

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Votes: 16 Comments: 2
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Audrey8

28 May : 01:24

@Cakemagic I'm not sure!

Cakemagic

21 May : 16:57

Woah hey, what's all the activity all of a sudden?

Nobby76

14 May : 12:09

think starwars light sabers made into a guitar hero kinda game. You swipe the sabers at the targets in time with the music.

It really is a LOT of fun.

[Clickety Click]

DonnieBrasco

13 May : 16:24

First off LOL you made my day (another time) with this comment.

I have to ask the friend of my sister. He is VR-developer and probably knows it.

Nobby76

09 May : 12:49

So has anyone else played Beat Saber VR yet?
It's awesome, one of the most fun nights ive had without needing to take condoms..

Asg16_4

30 Mar : 02:45

I've heard about it a few months ago... Hopefully this new release is gonna be hit! It's been too long since the tdu scene was super active. we'll just have to wait n' see what they do with the IP now. I'm honestly thinking that they're going to improve vastly from what tdu 1 and tdu 2 were. But who know's... only time will tell.

Nobby76

29 Mar : 12:25

Well a company did buy the rights to TDU and they said they wanted to make a new game.. It may happen one day.

fo0k

01 Mar : 04:06

yeah it lives... trying to keep it alive until tdu3 .. heheh jks.. but maybe serious. who knows.. it might have a big revival one day

Asg16_4

25 Feb : 02:48

Damn, I thought the site was done for. Glad it's back

Nobby76

24 Feb : 05:44

I'm gonna be building a new computer soon, i have been looking at AMD ryzen "Thread Ripper" chips today. considering either the 1900X 3.8ghz 8core/16 threads £370 or the 1920x 4.0ghz 12core/24 threads £570

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TDU2 Car Mods and Texmod Tutorial - Test Drive Unlimited 2 Forum :: Forums :: Off Topic

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Something ive been messing with recently

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Nobby76

Thu May 14 2015, 02:58PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Just another quick post.. another render for the gfx site..
This time it was the new Ford GT.. I came 3rd this time yay!

click to see bigger

Asg16_4

Thu May 14 2015, 07:17PM

Registered Member #856
Joined: Mon Dec 03 2012, 02:25PM

I think you should have kept the original's brightness because the refection of light off the road looks super funky

Anyways great render

I would go back to trying to attempt modding tdu2 but since minime's video tuts are gone I have nothing to help me.

Nobby76

Fri May 15 2015, 07:03AM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

what do you mean "kept the original brightness" i haven't done anything to the brightness. its using a HDRI map, the brightness comes FROM the image.

Asg16_4

Fri May 15 2015, 06:00PM

Registered Member #856
Joined: Mon Dec 03 2012, 02:25PM

It looks like the original background pic came from speedhunters... [Clickety Click]

Nobby76

Tue Jul 14 2015, 06:25PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Had a mess about with rendering a 3d stereoscopic image, but not an anaglyph (red/blue) image... If you notice at the top of both the left and right pictures there is a white dot.. If you go cross eyed until both dots meet to form just one dot the image should suddenly pop into 3d.. Have fun..

Click to see full screen..

Nobby76

Sun Aug 30 2015, 12:42AM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Hey guys.. *waves to anyone/everyone*

Here's something i have been working on recently and thought i would share with the group.
It's a little long, so ive split it up into 3 sections, to avoid TL/DR and to stop the page being a fortnight long.

Prologue:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Apart from the paint job, this looked rather similar to a real RC monster truck i used to own as a kid, called "LunchBox" It was a bright yellow van with some big cartoony stickers on the side. It turns out the LunchBox was actually based on a dodge van, but lets not let that stop us in our endeavors...

I needed to do a few things first, to turn it from the A-Team, into the LunchBox...
Besides the obvious of swapping the paint texture for a new one, what i did was.. Changed the colour of the shocks and wheels to yellow (to match the real RC car) I wanted to keep the wheels (they are actually from the Delorean) but i noticed monster truck wheels (real or RC) are very deep wheel hubs, so i sank the wheel hubs deeper into the hub, to give them that monster truck feel.
THEN came the fun of creating the new texture for the paint skin..

I found some hires, side on photos of the real RC car, online. I thought i could use those to create the whole side texture, but the image was a different scale to the models template so i couldn't get it to resize and fit the texture and had to scrap that idea. So i then thought i could just cut the stickers out of the photos and use them on my texture. So i tried that and it did work, but it didn't look great. Despite the photos being hires they were still slightly blurry around all the edges of the stickers (compression artifacts) so i needed to try and find a better alternative.

Eventually i found someone had scanned in the actual decals supplied with the real RC car kit. I started by cutting out the stickers i would need (there was only 3, they are just duplicated on the other side) and saving each one out to its own image. I then loaded each one into a vector program, i needed to make it a vector for several reasons. It smooths out all the lines, it cleans up all the compression artifacts giving you nice solid colours and it also means i can resize the image to almost any size i want (i opted for double the size) I then resaved those new cleaner higher res images and used those as my stickers for the new skin. Once that was done, i could reload the scene and just swap the things i had changed for the new versions. Then i was ready to render the images.. Again..

Anyway here are the results of said render..
As usual "click to see bigger" Best viewed fullsized (not the same as fullscreen) to appreciate the DOF (depth of field) more.

The reflections in the side of the van didn't show as much as id liked, despite it having the exact same settings as before, just a different colour map. I guess certain colours just don't show certain things very well.

For those interested in the details..

Render specs: Polygon count = 1,044,447.
Room pass = 3840x2160 (2xHD) 8 passes of AA, light dome to simulate the sun + a small light to cast some slightly sharper shadows, full radiosity lighting and caustics.. Render time = 1h41m (57m to calculate radiosity, 44m to actually render it)
Van pass = Same as above, but the van got 12 passes of Anti Aliasing instead of 8. Render time = 33m (no radiosity calculated, it was cached from previous render)
Total render time for both images (4 renders, background then foreground, for image 1 and 2) = approx 4h30m

Again i rendered the room and the van as separate layers, brought them into photo shop, tweaked the white balance levels slightly. Then i applied different amounts of bokeh (iris blur) to the room and the van to fake the Dof again, combined the two layers into one, then resized the image to 2880x1620 and saved!

Despite the reflections not coming out quite as good as i would have liked, overall i think the renders came out great, i was really pleased with the new texture and the way the Dof worked.

Hope you like it too..

Nobby76

Wed May 04 2016, 05:44PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

This is what i've been playing about with recently.
click to see the images bigger..

So does this look familiar to anyone? NO???

How about now...

OK you have to know now....

For those of you that still don't recognise the location. It is Diamond Head monument (volcano crater) in the south east of Oahu. In TDU2 there is a ferrari dealership and the Casino very close by..

To answer some questions.
WTF am i looking at??
Pic 1 is a 3d point cloud, the results of scanning something with a laser scanner (in this case done from a plane)
Pic 2 is a 3d mesh which is the result of converting said point cloud into actual 3d geometry.
Pic 3 is just a closeup of the previously mentioned 3d mesh.. You can actually see parked cars around buildings and even the ripples in the ocean to the south of the volcano.

Did this come from/ going to be put in the game?? Ill answer the second one first..
No.. lol .. This is far too much data for the tdu engine to deal with (or any game engine for that matter)
No this didn't come from Tdu either, this stuff is way more hires than the terrain used in TDU. I DO have access to the Tdu2 terrain meshes so i know what its "mesh density" is like and it is quite hires, but this is Super hires.
This actually came from the USGS site (united states geological survey) they have data on all sorts of things to do with the land and water around America.

So how hires is this stuff anyway?
If you don't understand about 3d models and stuff like that, this might be a bit confusing.. All 3d models are made from points (dots) and polygons (little flat sheets) if you join 4 points together you get a square polygon (or rectangular). 3d models are measured in complexity by their polygon count (how many polygons are used to make the model)

A simple cube is made from 6 polygons..
A tdu car is a bit more complex, and will probably come in at around 100,000-150,000 polygons (which is nothing really)
A standard Forza 4 car comes in at around 150,000-300,000 polygons. And a forza 4 Autovista model comes in at around 450,000- 700,000 polygons.
TDU2.. For the area shown in pic 2 you are probably talking about 5 million polygons. These USGS meshes come in at around 50 million polygons (ten times more polygons than TDU)

So what are you doing with this stuff? why do you have it?
Im a freelance digital artist, i also play about with 3d meshes and animation for fun. I wanted to use this in conjunction with some fighter jet meshes i have to make a cool little jet fight animation..

Asg16_4

Wed May 04 2016, 08:10PM

Registered Member #856
Joined: Mon Dec 03 2012, 02:25PM

Holy shit!

Nobby76

Wed May 04 2016, 09:45PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Asg16_4 wrote ...

Holy shit!

That's what she said !

Nobby76

Thu Nov 03 2016, 09:45PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

OK it's been a while since i posted in this thread (back in may to be precise)
Just thought i would show off a few pics i did for a render contest, i came 4th out of about 300 people. For coming 4th i got a bunch of software(worth about $3,000) plus some other little bits and pieces..

Anyway, here's the renders i did of the fantastic Porsche 918..
As always click to see bigger...

For those that care and are interested...

It's the 918 spyder model from the racing sim Assetto corsa.. The model consists of 260,000 polygons..

Each image was rendered twice..
First a low res render just to calculate the lighting and occlusions (960x540 half HD) with just 2 passes of anti aliasing. Each of those lores renders took approx 12 mins each..

Then once it has calculated the lighting and can cache it, i did the proper quality render.. which was 3840x2160 (double HD) with 24 passes of Anti aliasing (TDU only does 8 passes of AA in the game) and a very slight blur effect (done inside the renderer, not in photoshop) each of those 3 renders took approx 35 mins each.

Which is still crazy fast render times, most renderers would take about 2 hours or more to render the same thing..

Enjoy!

Asg16_4

Fri Nov 04 2016, 03:53PM

Registered Member #856
Joined: Mon Dec 03 2012, 02:25PM

PNS licence plate! Nice render mate, did they specify that you cant use a background?

Nobby76

Sat Nov 05 2016, 12:19AM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Lol yeah, nobody on the contest spotted that, it was a mate yesterday realised what the plate said and asked about it. My reply was "Any Porsche is just a guys pns extention

"

Nope, just had to be a render of a sports car.
But in fairness i am using a background, just it's a studio background.. If there was no background it would just be black (or some other solid colour)
Studio shots are easier to light than using a backplate or HDRI environment and you get a much more even lighting with them

Nobby76

Wed Dec 14 2016, 01:09PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Something i worked on last week for this months render contest on our gfx site.. I actually won last month so i got to pick the cars for this month.

I went with a 1965 ford transit mk1 and a 1957 Fiat 1200 Granluce.
Here are the renders i did.. As always click to see bigger

For those interested.. Each render took 2 goes like normal.. first go was to calculate the Global illuminations (lighting) second render was to actually render the images.
These were surprisingly quick to render.. First pass took about 7 minutes for each image. Second pass took about 9 minutes each.
Rendered at 3840x2160 (double hd) with 12 passes of Anti aliasing with full global illumination..

Then loaded into photoshop to have the Pop art (transit) and particle (Fiat) effects applied to them. Yes the image effects are photoshop actions, not something the 3d application was doing

Enjoy: Nobby

Nobby76

Sun Nov 19 2017, 06:54AM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Heres something new i did recently.. My most complex scratch built model to date.

I built a model of the Alesis Strike Pro electronic drumkit, their new flagship kit, which came out in april 2017 (it also happens to be the drumkit i own)

(click to see bigger...) and then click again to see FULLSIZED

A nice full shot of the kit..

A nice close up of the toms, i used a metallic red for the drums (as is used on the real kit)

A close up of the bass kick.. I tried to model as much as i could, so things like the chain on the kick and hihat pedals are not low polygon boxes with a chain texture on them. I actually modeled each individual chain link. As you don't get foot pedals with drumkits (sold separately) i could make any pedal i wanted, so i did a custom one, based on my MAPEX drum pedal

A nice shot across the top of the kick showing off the dimple pattern in the cymbals (Note* the dimple pattern is not done with a bump map, each dimple is modeled into the cymbal)

A nice shot of the front of the drum brain.. All of the text and the icons on the case and the buttons is all modeled (not textures) so they can all have their own materials (and therefor be controlled independently) The only textures used on the drum brain were the LCD display (i took a photo of my drumbrain's screen) the bump map on the plastic under the sliders, to give it a brushed metal effect (which the real kit has) and a specular texture on the dials to break up the pattern in the metal.

The rear of the drum brain.. Every thing is modeled, even if it isnt seen.. I went online to a UK electronics site, because i know they have 3d models of all of their components they stock, i was able to find models of an accurate 1/4" jack socket, 1/8" jack socket, USB socket, Midi ports, SD card slot, and a 9V power socket.

The entire kit comes in at 553,000 polygons (to give you an idea most forza cars come in at around 350,000 polygons) it took about 8 evenings of work to get it all modeled accurately to scale.
Each image took about 20 mins to render.. about 13 mins to pre cache the lighting, then about 7 mins to actually render the images.
Lightwave's camera settings were.. 3840x2160 (2xHD) 12x Antialiasing, Radiosity lighting, Caustics and all lit using a custom HDR image i created (means it uses real world lighting rather than simulated computer lighting)

Hope you like..

Nobby76

Wed May 09 2018, 01:21PM

Joined: Mon Oct 24 2011, 09:06AM

Im up to a few different things of late..

Firstly, as we now have the ability to add custom songs to the game Beat Saber VR (starwars light sabers rhythm game) i have started working with a small crew of people to start releasing custom songs for the game.

Secondly, i am currently working with a group of guys on a new rhythm game, well i say new, its basically gonna be all the features of Rockband 3 but in a pc game. It will have guitars, drums, keyboards and singing.

For obvious reasons, im the gfx guy

My first task was to make a set of cheap plastic guitar controller models, fully uv mapped and textured. Then i had to make them so all the parts from one guitar could be used on a different guitar, so we can have a basic "build your own guitar" kinda thing.. Oh yeah they also had to have a second UV layer added of just the main guitar body so users could skin the guitar however they see fit after building it.

Followed 6 basic guitar controller designs.
Guitar hero 1: Gibson SG
Guitar Hero 2: Xplorer
Guitar Hero 3: Gibson Les Paul
Guitar hero 5 / GH WT: Fender Stratocaster
Third Party : Flying V
Third Party: BC Rich WarBeast

Here are a few pics of the guitars. Yes they look like toy guitars, that's the point. (click to see bigger)

Also been busy doing other little 3d jobs for various people. And playing my drums every so often

So thats what ive been doing lately..

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