[GTA:SA] Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversario

[Masakari987]

Started making this a couple weeks ago to bring into GTA:San Andreas. I've decided to put my Murcielago on hold for a couple months because I'm having trouble rendering it. Instead, I decided to make something that could be done quicker so it can put it in my portfolio.

I'm setting my budget at 80,000, and right now its 15,022 tris. It's modeled in Maya, and will be imported into Max to set it up for San Andreas. The upper parts of the car haven't been worked on much, so they look pretty nasty right now.

I've never brought anything into San Andreas before, so if anyone has any pointers I'll gladly listen.

C&C is welcome.

[younglion]

good start, keeping my eye on this thread.

[Masakari987]

good start, keeping my eye on this thread.

Thanks man.

Did some work on the Shoulder scoops, a taillight piece, and the little antenna part. The downside is the shoulder scoops added more polys than I thought it would, 1856 tris apiece. So now the total is 19,420 triangles. Just noticed a couple things I could do to reduce the poly count for the shoulder scoops, so I'll add those in my next update.

[zylak]

great work men, nice details :) hope i'm gonna ride this beauty on los santos streets soon :) good luck masakari

pozdro

[Masakari987]

great work men, nice details :) hope i'm gonna ride this beauty on los santos streets soon :) good luck masakari

pozdro

Thanks. I'm going to be looking into how to put it into the game over the next few days.


Added the lights to the front and the parts around the exhaust. Also, managed to get the shoulder scoops down to 1779 tris. Total count is now 22,276 tris.

[Masakari987]

Worked on the hood, roof, and the side windows. Total poly count is now 26,498 tris.

[BrokenBone]

Sexy, nice job ^-^)v

-BB-

[bsmmpower]

Nice car! Maybe I also want to model a car for this game. But I cant find any tutorials how to put the car in the game. And also I dont know how many polygons the car can have for the game. Can you tell me this?

[T-Murda]

how do you get your lines so even and alligned?

[petter]

i have a friend who put cars in the game, but he has no ideea about 3D.he just take them from the web

@bsmmpower
i think you have to rig it too...

[Masakari987]

Thanks for comments guys!

i have a friend who put cars in the game, but he has no ideea about 3D.he just take them from the web

@bsmmpower
i think you have to rig it too...

Installing a vehicle mod isn't too hard once you understand what things are needed to get it to work. One program I like to use for importing an already made vehicle is a program called San Andreas Mod Installer. It does most of the work for you, and creates a backup so you can reinstall original models incase you don't like it.

I think you are right about rigging it. There are dummies that are needed to tell the game how to use the car in the game.

Nice car! Maybe I also want to model a car for this game. But I cant find any tutorials how to put the car in the game. And also I dont know how many polygons the car can have for the game. Can you tell me this?

I did a search at google today and looked around at www.gtaforums.com (http://www.gtaforums.com) today to look for some info on importing a model into the game. I found one tutorial (it's how to bring a BMX bike into the game) here: http://www.code03.net/tutorials/bmx_mod/gta_bmx_mod.htm It looks like a good tutorial that can give you an idea of what you need to do to bring a model into the game. And I think the gtaforums is a good place to go to get additional info if you feel like going through the various posts.

As for the poly count, San Andreas is pretty forgiving. At smcars.net, Redstar and mpfive have some models with a budget of 70,000 polygons. Redstar's second car had a limit of 120,000, but I think that project is now dead. César made a Nissan 350z with nearly 350,000 polys (http://xt.serv2.free.fr/nissan.php). I installed it to my copy of SA and it worked fine. I even have all the graphics settings on high and I don't get any slowdown. The problem with GTA:SA, though, is that it is pretty bad at handling higher resolution textures. Mods that have large textures reduce the frame rate to a crawl on my computer.

how do you get your lines so even and alligned?

I usually get things aligned in an ortho view before I start detailing. This is largely to get the basic shape right. Once the details are in, it can be a little tricky to get things looking right in an ortho view, so I then use the viewport. One thing I like to do is move the camera so you are looking almost parallel to the direction of the edges that I am working on (see attachment). Then adjust the vertices so they flow the way I want.

[turbopok]

I also play san andreas quite often, hope that it will be moddable at Wheels Arch Angels :D:D:D How about a bodykit?:love:

[petter]

i finished the game a year ago or more i think, i can't remember. got boread of it.anyway, my computer haven't seen games for more than 5-6 moths:dead:

[Masakari987]

Worked on the tires yesterday and cleaned up a few things. Poly count is now 48,302 tris when the tires are duplicated to the other side. No texture for the tires yet, so think of them as "racing slicks" ;)

@ turbopok - Don't know if it I will make it moddable. I need to look into how that can be done. Although, I am thinking of allowing a spoiler to be added as well as some nos or hydraulics. Maybe a bodykit, but don't count on it. That would require a some planning, and take more time to do. Maybe if I can get the time to do it.

@ petter - Yeah, my computer has played many games recently, either. Just some Sam and Max, Oblivion, Half-Life 2, and San Andreas over the past several months. When ya get to modeling, it just seems to take up all your spare time.

[younglion]

its looking good man

[Masakari987]

Worked on the headlights today and started adding some textures to the car. Poly count is now 49,792 tris.

@ younglion - Thanks man.

[Pan3sar]

that looks really damn nice man

[Masakari987]

Worked on the sideview mirrors, engine, and added another texture. Polycount is now 60,886.

@ Pan3sar - Thanks!

[BrokenBone]

very clean, i like :love:

-BB-

[petter]

you have a triangle near the mirror that gives you an abnormal surface.
i also can see some triangles at the roof near the engine, but there's no problem because the rurface it's almost planar

in some parts, the car it's detailed, in some other parts, it is not, but i think because it's still WIP
good luck

[Cris]

it's low poly... don't worry about triangles

[younglion]

yea triangles doesn't matter for in game models the game engine triangulates the models anyway.

[P2sta]

nice modelling I like it ;)

[slice56]

They still all matter....

For example, on your model you have some non-planar faces (bent/twisted). If you dont triangulate them they might look fine in Maya, but when you put it into a game, the game engine could VERY possibly triangulate the poly the opposite/incorrect way, giving you funky shading. So yea, triangles can be important, whether or not it is a high or low poly model ;)

Its looking good, but watch out for bent polys :)

[Masakari987]

Thanks for the comments.

Spent several hours today trying to get the Countach into San andreas and have it work right. I'm just testing how I can get it into the game and set it up the way I want it. It just has a basic material, so it looks ugly right now. The first few shots are some the problems I had, which looked kinda funny. The weird white spots are from a lack of UV mapping. I tried slapping on a UVW map to the main body of the car, and that seemed to fix the problem (still have to do the other parts, though).

@ peter - About the detail. Are you refering to the engine area, or some other area of the car? If its the engine, then it's because I was just getting things placed. Once everythin is in place I can start chamfering the edges so it looks more consistant with the rest of the model.

@ slice56 - Oh, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't think about that. I'll probably just triangulate all the pieces before I export the final model to Max, then.

[turbopok]

COOL WORK mate ;) Keep on going!

[Masakari987]

Modeled some more of the engine. The cables on the other side of the engine will be added later.

@ turbopok - Thanks man

[andrei]

Nice workk..... :)

the wheels bias seems too inward, if you know what I mean...

the bodykit of the countach from ~80 has been specially made for the new pirelli tires, that was larger than the already put on countach....

So i think that the wheels needs to be more outward...

[Masakari987]

Pretty much finished with the engine. If I'm under my poly limit by the time I finish the interior and spoiler then I'll add some more detail to the engine area.

@ andrei - Thanks. Yeah, they aren't positioned correctly right now. Getting it in-game was pretty much just a "proof of concept" to see if I could get it working in the game. I'm going to try messing with some of the rigging so that it looks more accurate ;)

[andrei]

nice ;)

maybe only 4 radial sides on the wirings at the engine? I dont think you need 6, as it seems now....

:)

[Joe]

This is amazing. All those details, and still low poly!


Great job!

[Masakari987]

Thanks for the comments

Worked on the interior the past several days. The interior portion of the door still needs to be done as well as a couple other pieces, and the few areas need to be closed up so there aren't any gaps. Poly count is now 70,526 tris.

@ andrei - I was originally going to use just 4 side, but I thought it made it look too square (even with smoothing). But if I need the extra polys I'll make them 4 sided.

[Masakari987]

Finished modeling the interior portion of the door. Also added the rearview mirror. Poly count is now 72,450 tris.

[P2sta]

man, your work is really good, keep working, I can wait to see it complete :buttrock:

[norad]

Wow :buttrock:

That's really impressive !

75k poly, and it won't be a problem for gta?

[Masakari987]

Thanks for the comments

Added a spoiler and did some in-game testing. The in-game shot if from an older version of the model, so it is not the model that will be in the final version. It's basically my "test" model to see how to get certain things to work in the game.

75k poly, and it won't be a problem for gta?

It's not a problem. SA can handle polygons very well, it's textures that it seems to have a hard time with. In fact, cesar made a 350z with almost 350,000 polys and it plays just fine http://xt.serv2.free.fr/nissan.php

[DaBo]

well done!

imho the polycount is to high for a game like gta. Yeah, the game can handle it, but does it look better than a car with less polys?

That Nissan from Cesar is great, but the polycount could be lower.

[Masakari987]

Worked on improving the car material in the game, made the doors swing upwards, and added the trunk and windshield wipers.

NOTE - I know the door isn't attached to the door. I'm just too lazy to fix it right now lol

@ DaBo - yeah, it could be lower, but I'm just used to making high poly models. So this is like a transition model, and a learning experience. My next car models for SA wil be lower, like around 50,000 (depending on the car) instead of 80,000 for this Countach.

[TAURUS_X]

Awesome:buttrock:!!! But it'd be better with using lightmap, bumpmap and specularmap. Do the GTA engine support these types of maps? Even if it doesn't you can use ambient occlusion lighting with completemap.This way I think your model'll be look more beatiful and "volumetric". So you can release GTA MOD! ;) Bravissimo!!!

[slice56]

I understand you are in a transition process, but you can still drop that car DRASTICALLY. I could get that car modeled with the saem detail you have with 40k. Its not hard, just takes practice. That car is REALLY slab-sided so polys dont need to be wasted on the body panels as much as they need to be used on the curvature of bevels/curves/etc

Hope this helps...

Dave

[Masakari987]

Finished the underside of the car.

@ TAURUS_X - Thanks. There are maps for color, alpha, reflection, and specular, but that's about it.

@ slice56 - Yeah, I agree. When I was making many of the pieces, I wasn't aware of how it would look in the game so I went with more details than I really needed. Now that I have a copy of the model in the game, I can tell some of the minor details can't really be seen. I'm going to get rid of some of the unnecessary details before the final model is imported into Max.

[younglion]

i wanna see you driving it around in the game.

[slice56]

Yea, a good rule of thumb when modeling cars for games is once you get to a piece that is rather small and you wonder whether or not you will even notice the detail, you should zoom out in the 3d program you use, so you are looking at the car from say, the driving camera that would be used in the game. If you cant see the details/polys you used, then remove them (or lower the polys on them).

Hope this helps...

Dave

[Masakari987]

Ok, I added a license plate, and did some tweaking. I also spent some time reducing unnecessary polys. Poly count is now 65,839. I just noticed a few polys that could be removed, so I'll try do that before my next update.

@ younglion - I'll try to making a video once I get the final model into the game. Hopefully that will be sometime early next week.

@ slice56 - Thanks for the tip, I'll have to keep that in mind.

[snakebrazil]

Can't wait to see more !! :D

[revelli]

this try finally looks like middle poly:p
nice job on polygon placement:buttrock:
you can remove many trys from sidemirrors

[Masakari987]

Did the seal around the door area and some more poly reduction. I think I'm going to call the model finished. So now I'm just combining and naming objects for when I import it into Max. Then I'll do some texturing and rigging. Hopefully that will be done sometime tonight or tomorrow.

@ snakebrazil - then here's some more ;)

@ revelli - Thanks. I removed some more detail around the side mirrors this time.

[LG.]

Amazing man. Hard to find such 'style' of lowpoly (or is midpoly?) around there. Personally i deslike those models that use lots of smoothing groups and textures to the seams.

[Masakari987]

Oops, forgot to mention the polycount. It's now 64,100 tris.

@ LG. - Thanks. I think it's more of a mid-poly model.

[slice56]

can you take a screenshot of the wires on the interior door panels? :o:

[Masakari987]

Ok, I got the final model into Max and then exported into San Andreas. I've started to get things scaled, rigged, and UV mapped, but I still have a long way yet to go.

@ slice56 - Sure, here ya go.

[Masakari987]

Made some more progress. Fixed most of the normal problems (well, at least the ones I noticed), added some more textures, worked on the handling and ride height, and fixed some issues with some of the transparent objects.

A few things still need to be fixed - the front tires need to be placed outwards a bit more, some interior pieces need to be UV mapped, the material for the headlights (the non-popup ones) needs to be a little darker, and a couple little things here and there.

I'm trying to get it ready for a video preview, so maybe I'll have that done in the next 24-48 hours (hopefully).

[ericmattison81]

fricking amazing, im loving it

[younglion]

fricking amazing, im loving it
i second that.

[Masakari987]

Ok, the video is now up. View it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V3t5iztTBQ or grab it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?45s5plzabyv
I added some reflection and specular maps that FlashG (from smcars) gave me to the car, and I tweaked the handling. Also, I had a little gathering of Countachs in the game :)

@ ericmattison81 and younglion - thanks guys

[TAURUS_X]

Wow!!! I'm impressed:love:. Your model is very proper to SA. Good stuff.

[Masakari987]

@ TAURUS_X - thanks

I forgot to include the screenshot lol

[andybgood]

wow looks great mate!

[rodderworld]

sweet, a car worth going to jail for grand theft auto;)

regards,
rodder

[dan]

hey, nice work!
Can you give some hints on how to set it up for GTA:SA?

cya dan

P.S. aah i just found the car im/exporter :D

[Masakari987]

Thanks for the comments guys

@ dan - Here (http://cg-cars.com/forum/showpost.php?p=57308&postcount=11) is where I mentioned two links that were helpful in learning how to get it in SA. There is a vehicle doc (http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=158088) for importing cars into SA. One tip I have is to use a car spawner. It makes things a lot faster without having to hunt down the car. I think I use this one (http://www.thegtaplace.com/downloads/file.php?id=649). You can also assign a hot key for the various vehicles, so once you start up the spawner, it eliminates several clicks just to spawn the vehicle.

[younglion]

great work masa, and good to see you its been a while, where you been?

[dan]

thanks for the tips masa!

I recently saw a lot of add-ons to gta, I did not know that the community is so strength around this game, its awesome.

[Masakari987]

Yay, an update, FINALLY!

Just added the tire texture

@ younglion - thanks. I've busy with a freelance job. Plus I've been playing too many games. I hate how they release all the big titles around the same time. It would be nice if they would spread it out a bit.

@ dan - you're welcome. Yeah, there is strong community around gta. There is a lot of great stuff that people have made for it. Hopefully GTA4 will be for released for the PC so people can add some really nice stuff for it.

[Masakari987]

Alright, here's an update on my taillights. I tried a copy/transparent trick on the headlights to make the texture light up when it's night or when braking, while still keeping my taillight texture.

SA has a global car light texture that allows them to "light up" (one regular texture is replaced with a brighter texture) under certain conditions. FlashG (from smcars) informed me of a trick that allows you to have your own texture light up. Basically, have the one light with your texture and a copy of it with the global texture. Then make one semi-transparent, and then you have working lights.

Sure, you could just replace the global textures, but then it also changes the textures for all the cars, and that could make the textures on the other cars look weird.

[Masakari987]

I've been working on texturing the interior, working on the handling file, and fixing some the issues that have popped up. Silent][Moebius from Smcars pointed out that I forgot to add the hinges for the doors, so I have added those now. I plan on creating a quick gameplay video soon to show the handling.

[petter]

it looks better in max's viewport than in the game so you might consider making some cool renders...:)

[Masakari987]

@ petter - Yeah, my plan is to make a final render once I'm done bringing it into San Andreas. I think that I'll make a final video and put a render or two at the beginning.

The gameplay video is now uploaded. It can be viewed on Youtube HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfFsLso5nYs).
It's 4 minutes 51 seconds long and I'm just driving around in the game.

[petter]

it is great... but your driving skill sucks, ha ha :P

[Masakari987]

Ok, worked on texturing the rims today and I think they look much better now. I think I will improve the tire textures next, and do some more texturing of the interior.


@ petter - thanks. Well, I wasn't trying to drive like I normally would. I was just trying to show how the car handles, especially at higher speeds, when airborne, and under braking. Also, I was showing the how the texture based taillights light up when braking (mainly at the end of the video).

[rodderworld]

looks really nice but i'm with petter on this one, you drive like a madman:clown: doesn't matter what excuses you give.

regards,
rodder

[petter]

the rims look far more better...especially because of that shadow map, isn't it ?

and about the driving... i was kidding...
you still need to learn boy, i might teach you something:deal::chinese::o:

[Masakari987]

@ rodderworld - yeah, I guess I do drive like a madman. You could just ask the speedbumps, err, pedestrians in the GTA series :clown:

@ petter - nope, no shadow map there. GTA doesn't support shadowmaps (maybe GTA4 will, though), at least not on cars. The shadowing is all done by textures. The first is the Rim texture and the other is the brakepad (the in-game textures are smaller - 512 for the Rim and 128 for the brakepad).
lol I thought you were kidding, but I wasn't sure.

[petter]

i was talking about the shadow map...the map on the model...the texture map, not actually how you see it in max as a "shadow map" at light propeieties;)