Some odds and ends ...

[FranknFurter]

Hi folks,
I'm starting this thread for either presenting weird or peculiar stuff you have buried somewhere deep or just other abandoned projects ... got the idea by watching Slawek's video

Very recommended 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfhBW2412JI&t=184s&index=4&list=PL_DN6Ndn3E09FcPAl2A6V1MeSgfVhGsyX

I knew I had Econobrick's Checker Cab somewhere on my harddisk ... found it .. on a backup partition

I am not talking about such outlandish stuff like spacecrafts, helicopters on road, rolling toilet bowls .. or bath tubs -you know what I'm talking about- rather than useable resp. reasonable cars either for traffic or race/pursuit, .. never finished /abandoned or never further updated for some reasons, some of that kind.

Like the checker cab I had in my traffic folder as traffic 'minivan', it appears then e.g. on Empire City but also on France which doesn't really match ... love that 'Bag of Shit' sign

Another example I want to show you was a police version of BLo0m's Citroën SM (NFSCars) I did long ago .. my first trial of multitexturing .. YES, even before our time Nils ..and also my first attempt of that 'opening door' trick using a second, different angled door within the :OND part merged. The disadvantage is that the 'closed door' has to be assigned to the :OD part to make it disappear when the driver 'exits' for ticketing issues, but it will also disappear from on middle view distance like the driver does and, what it is perhaps more important, all :OD parts will be shown non-reflective. I did that on my '68 police bug version (from Econobrick base), too, but I made the whole body non-reflective here since it is simply 'old' and it fists that quite well.

There's so many examples concerning such stuff and maybe you have some old peculiar stuff you once did or have, too and abandoned it for some reasons? Feel free to post here, perhaps there's others who might want to pick that up again?

Greetings
Frank

[FranknFurter]

Ok folks,
since I have found that wonderful stylish baby (Citroën SM - 'Série Maserati') again I reworked it a bit .. anyone for testing? It is not yet perfect, just altered some stuff.
I have attached the Car.viv (Serial #32 for 'France' tracks issues, but with a customizable racer texture) such as the latest .z3d file plus the necessary textures, any comments as well as critizism are welcome.

If you don't like the 'driveable' racer option just alter the neutral Car00.tga to something else and make the 'USA.tga' to your Car00.tga and check police option = 'yes'

Furthermore I made the car 'classless' again; if you don't like that either please choose again class 'B' in the FEDATA files, it is the original class assigned to that car. I have only altered FEDATA.eng and FEDATA.ger for that, so if you wish to add and create an own FEDATA entry for your country please feel free to do that.

Greetings
Frank

P.S. I recently saw that particular car on a trailer coming from the Bremerhaven port - it was being reimported from the States in a plain white livery, rusty of course .. the proud new owner told me that he paid about 10.000$ to get the car (still without customs duties, taxes and so on..) ... phew ..

[FranknFurter]

.. these are the editing files (.z3d file and textures)

[Remko]

I do like this one a lot, I never imagined the SM would look so good as a pursuit car.

Of course, before submitting this reply I googled it, and it actually WAS used as a pursuit car on the French Autoroutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-IBMUgKAOU I honestly didn't know until now. 

It helps that BloOm's SM is one of my favorite cars. 
(unfortunately I have very little time to play the game, so I am not sure I'd be able to test it and give proper feedback soon, sorry).

[FranknFurter]

Thanks Remko,
that was exactly my intention when I made those textures about ten years ago, having it as the auxiliary police vehicle (Ser. #32) on French tracks. Of course it doesn't fit quite well on any other tracks, that's why I only had it then for 'special' issues. All the other textures are of course fictional, but I did a lot of internet research on the French Gendarmerie texture. There was also a different colour scheme in turquoise aside from the dark blue one but I didn't find out which one was more common perhaps.

I decided to choose the dark blue one since it fits French schemes delivered with other multitexture police cars better.

I cannot deny my subliminal affinity for French cars .. I simply love them, always dreamed of a real good rendition of my favourite car, the Citroën IDS / DS 21 - or just 'la déesse'.
Right-click on the pictures and choose 'display picture'

[FranknFurter]

Well folks,
here is an updated version of the Pursuit SM still .. calling it finalized so far .. it has some minor changes in the textures like a realistic 'Gendarmerie' license plate from the above photos for Fran.tga, furthermore it has now a lit interior dashboard as well as an altered Carp.txt for a slightly better acceleration/performance and yellow front flashing lights according to Remko's video link.

@Remko: Thanks for the video link btw, that helped such! I didn't really know about a possible lighting scheme until then
That's what I call 'true' community assistance

Last pic: both Racer and Pursuit SM (Ser. #32 each) on Cliffside Rally in one pic

Greetings
Frank

P.S. as for a possible 'official release' of it, does anyone have a valid email adress of BLo0m?
This one 'blo0m@nfscars.com' (the only one I have so far) seems to be outdated .. is he still at NFSCars at all?

[FranknFurter]

.. according to the thread's topic 'odd' stuff .. here's what I also tried to do those days ... the 'adapting' or 'steering' headlights on some cars that french engineers developed for e.g. the SM or DS/CX .. 'revolutionary' in those days

When trying to allow the SM in Germany those days you had to lock the adaptive lights, nowadays some (German!) car manufacturers like e.g. Opel are proud to present their 'adaptive headlights' on their cars .. that is what I really call 'odd'

-Nevermind-

Frank

P.S. the pic shows an experimental state that is NOT implemented in the recent downloadable car ...

[WiLL]

Nice Cars an Mods, Frank thanks, I wished I knew how do these type of mods,I mean I know how do the files,in NfsWizard, but I'll get it again some day,neat old car it is 

[FranknFurter]

Thanks Will,
it is not as hard as it may look like, all it takes is some observation and understanding facts. As for me I do much more admire the guys who currently work at the HEX stuff on the Ghost files project, this takes real intelligence and let alone a certain tenacy even if sometimes you get stuck on things to do that.

Let's see what all this will still lead to .. in an ideal case a fully customizable NFS together with VEG's great patch something we all had dreamed of through the years.

Greetings
Frank

[FranknFurter]

Some updates for the Citroën SM - 'Série Maserati' project:

I reworked the rims (they didn't really look good when turning) so I retextured them.

Made some darker windows by the alpha channel trick - and made the very rare convertible (SM Mylord, only a few were build) of it as a 'chimera' car option again. The car in that version didn't exist, I made the different trunk from scratch (see prototype pictures) from the base model.
As a compromise you don't have the folded convertible roof visible on the trunk, but I'll see what I can do still ...



Here are a few preview pictures:
(The 'Gendarmerie' SM in the background is the same car with 'top up' as well as sirens, police parts and uses the same serial number, HS always displays the convertible top in 'pursuit usage', so good for us ..)

[FranknFurter]

Optimizing the car's overall look with some refined details such as tail lights chrome edges and some normals adjusted still ..
... modified the wheels' rear (inner) side, looks better but that raised also polycount ..

Before (1st pic)

After (2nd pic)

ingame pic (3rd pic)

real car pic rear end view (last pic)

the attached zip file contains all necessary files to update the CiSM if you already downloaded it from previous posts above ..

[noise]

I very much like what I see.

[FranknFurter]

Thanks noise ...
just preparing the files for an upload (pics and stuff ..), this is taking me longer than doing the car itself, not very good at that

First car to come as a 'Pursuit and Racer' combined car as well as it being a 'chimera' car (hardtop and convertible) again .. phew

Found something still, the outer areas on the tail lights are too bright (they are not lit but just reflective with the real car ), just darkening the spots and making new textures ..

Is that better? btw, anyone for testing before I upload it? Just to reassure myself

[Rider66]

For my personal taste, latest shoots looks way better and realistic. However, I'd better try both texture sets side by side with different angles and weather.

[FranknFurter]

hehe, I meant if the :ODL looks better now, but thanks anyway ..

Changed some details still and made the exhausts smaller, it was way too large compared to prototype pictures .. So these recent shots will become the upload pictures ...

Since the whole file is too large to append it here please contact me if you want to test it previously, I will also place it in the uploading queue as soon as I wrote the whole readme stuff and so on.
Nevertheless I attached the latest mesh and textures if you want to replace it with the existing ones from PCSM/CiSM

Cheers
Frank