Dashviews

[Freak-DS]

The NFS 4 dashviews can be quite complicated when going for a higher detail level with lots of small details. Here is a tutorial on how to name these parts and how to sort these correctly, in order to avoid visibility problems.

The _[X] things like _PM, _L and _W are special parts. _PM and _DM are the mirrors, they have to be shiney so by naming a part e.g. ":F :L_PM PassengerMirror" NFS knows it has to be displayed when looking forward and to the left and that it has to be shiney. The view attributes like :F :B :L :R :S are added in front of the part name with a space between and no underline.
The _PM.. attributes are added directly behind the part name without a space. After _PM, you make a space and type a part name. So basically it's like this:

|:F(space):R|_Attribute|(space)Partname|

Sides:
:F Visible when looking forward
:L Visible when looking to the left
:R Visible when looking to the right
:B Visible when looking backward
:S Function is unclear.

- all view attributes can be combined, they can be sorted any way you wish to.

Attributes:

_PM Passenger mirror (reflective)
_DM Driver mirror (reflective)
_W Steering wheel
_L Lit dash

_____

Include the _PM or _DM attribute to body parts visible in your dash (e.g. front fenders, spoilers, hoods etc., but if you do that you should not use the mirror parts (:OLM, :ORM) on the exterior because when wrecking your car, the mirror parts will disappear in the exterior view and in the dashview - so all _PM and/or _DM parts are gone. So fuse the mirrors with the :HB.

Dashview parts have to be sorted in the opposite visible order. Your steeringwheel is in front of the roof, so put the roof at the top of the list, and the steer somewhere under it. A good hint for the part order are EA dashes, but careful, you gotta detach a LOT of parts in order to get the correct visibility. Just as another hint: Our cars dashviews have up to 40 parts or even more!

Additionally, NFS:HS crashes when you use more than 67 parts.

[noise]

How can I sort the parts? I have a sidemirror at the top of the list, I want to move it down.

I'm trying to get the EA sidemirror effect on addon dashes.I copied a sidemirror (:F :L _DM drivermirror) from BMW Z3 to an addon dash but the mirror doesn't work.

[XJ220]

You can use ZMod to sort the parts. In the parts list, right-click the item you want to move up or down and select the resp. entry from the list.

[noise]

Thnx, just right click, why didn't I think of that.

[noise]

Hmm..the mirror still doesn't give rearview.It's a complete copy of an EA part including the TGA texture.Any thoughts?

[XJ220]

Perhaps you should try and base your dash off of an original one by EA?

[Freak-DS]

Hmm..the mirror still doesn't give rearview.It's a complete copy of an EA part including the TGA texture.Any thoughts?

In case you are referring to the reflections, the original EA mirrors dont give an actual rear-view either. The normals of them are just manipulated so that you could see a larger part of the chrome map.

[AJ_Lethal]

Necessary bump:

Gauge parts: how do the "0 to x/y" numbers work?

[Freak-DS]

0 to x/y tells nfs how much of 360° the needles can be rotated. For example, 0 to 0.5 will allow a turn by 180°.

[pete9516]

ello guys, i want to create dashes with popup lights like from the Diablo SV, is that possible? When i try _L attribute, the part is still visible without having the lights on.

[Butch]

The idea is to use the light (L_DASH) of the cockpit. But the trouble is it makes the part slightly transparent.
So I multiplied the polygones 10 times to make the part opaque.

[pete9516]

The idea is to use the light (L_DASH) of the cockpit. But the trouble is it makes the part slightly transparent.
So I multiplied the polygones 10 times to make the part opaque.

Thanks Butch, i'm now at the point where i got the popup lights to work inside the dash.fce. It would have been nice if Freak-DS would've mentioned that _L can only be used for :F _LDASH LIT and none other part name. I've tried several part names, didn't work. Only the original names do work. Now i need to figure out how to duplicate polygons with Zanoza Modeler

[pete9516]

Thanks Butch and Freak-DS, now my goal has been reached

[pete9516]

I just had to notice that when a car has serial number of 2 (McLaren F1 GTR originally), the backwards view is going to have his own backward dummy. It's being generated by the game. You can't do anything about it. I just wondered why my custom dash.fce only works in forward view, but as soon as i look back, the whole model doesn't get rendered and the view is pretty low above the street. Now i know ^^ Probably the same with serial number 18 (Mercedes CLK-GTR). So don't get confused by that

[pete9516]

Hey guys, i'm having strange problems with some models i use as a dash model. Does somebody know why the dashview is having the rendering issues? The model looks totally fine as an actual :HB part of the car.fce.