BMW 2002 from the Retro Expansion Pack

Hi Kikoya,
sounds like you're having a lot of "fun" ...
really appreciate your efforts to please all of us

Tschüss,
Brulaap
.

I think there are two steering wheels you can change in the .GMT file. On internal and the other external also try the .car file too.

Good luck Kikoya m8.

The steering wheel problem is resolved. It doesn't depend at all on the car file data as I presumed at first. Actually, after the height has been lowered in 3dsimed, when you save the GMT, a small window pops up in which you can modify the pivot point of the object. That's where the height must be reduced too in order to update the pivot point to the new position of the wheel...

Now remains the problem of the shadow. I still have no clue about it, and I don't remember having ever seen any message about this kind of problem...

Any help about this would be greatly appreciated

The 4 lines below are from Trackaholics BMW Retro (from it's .CAS file):

MeshFile=bmw_2002_SHADOW.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False ShadowObject=(Static, Solid, 256, 256, AmbientShadA.dds) LODIn=(0.0) LODOut=(100.0)
MeshFile=bmw_2002_SHADOW.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False ShadowObject=(Static, Solid, 256, 256, AmbientShadA.dds) LODIn=(0.0) LODOut=(120.0)
MeshFile=bmw_2002_SHADOW.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False ShadowObject=(Static, Solid, 256, 256, AmbientShadA.dds) LODIn=(0.0) LODOut=(140.0)
MeshFile=bmw_2002_SHADOW.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False ShadowObject=(Static, Solid, 256, 256, AmbientShadA.dds) LODIn=(0.0) LODOut=(160.0)

Don't know beans about what you're trying to do regards the too-large shadow...

Not an expert at all, but I remember hearing people raising the expo floor to solve the problem of a floating car (or sinking btw) in the showroom, rather than lowering the car itself... I hope you still have the previous files, that would be worth a try, and would probably solve the shadow issue? Good luck, very nice project!

Ah damn ! After spending all that time lowering the GMTs the answer could be to raise the floor... Too bad I didn't think of that, only one file to modify... Well, I'll give it a try and tell if it worked...

Ok, problem solved. Thanks to MOF for pointing out those lines in the CAS file that I already saw before but didn't pay attention to because they didn't show any position in space. But after reading the said lines on this page, my attention got caught by this AmbiantShadA.dds. After looking for this file, that I found in the STEX.GTL file, I saw that its alpha layer represents the shape of the car shadow we can see on the track. I simply reduced the size of the alpha layer and saved the modified AmbiantShadA.dds in the car folder. To prevent any problem with the other cars shadows, I renamed it 2002AmbiantShadA.dds and modified the corresponding entries in the CAS file...

Now I can go on with the rest...

Great that you solved it! I must admit I was ashamed to post my possible "solution"...

Well, maybe what I did is only one of different possibilities. Maybe yours works too but I'm quite happy I don't have to modify all the GMT files again

nice work mate

I'm very sorry for Geedee, but the car will definitely have reverse lights since I finally found out how to make them work...

The mod is getting better little by little (there are some days I need to go working, phooey...)

I'll post a few pics soon, maybe tomorrow if I have time, to show the recent work I've done on the beast...

Just take your time ... no rush mate!

kikoya wrote:

I'm very sorry for Geedee, but the car will definitely have reverse lights since I finally found out how to make them work...

I'll find a way to disconnect them again so it will be an even bigger surprise when I hit reverse!!! So great work Kikoya m8y, he he

To disconnect them, two possibilities :

1) Disable the "DEBRIS 6" entry in the CAS, using // in front of each line

2) Back up into the opponent directly behind you on the starting grid. If you hit him hard enough, you should get rid of those annoying lights.

A few pics to show how the mod is evolving :



Interior view showing the new place for the LCD timer, near the clock, and a new set of mirrors stolen from the Falcon. The car has wipers now, but I have not integrated them to the cockpit for the moment.



The car has a detailed shadow and the optional parts have (or will have) too, like the mirrors on the pic. There will be a possibility to use a lesser detailed shadow (100k instead of 1mb).



Details of the headlights, off, on and broken.



Rear lights off, on, with brake lights on, with reverse lights on (no working turn signal though...)



The rear lights can be broken too. I need to modify the damage file to make them harder to break, I remember those lights to be incredibly tough.

So far, the front and rear lights have been completely reworked and almost finished (I'm not satisfied with the color of the broken turn signals). I have added a few mirrors from the Falcon (chrome or black, on the doors or on the hood) with their shadows, some exhaust pipes (rear or side) with their backfires and shadows.

Next step will be the wheels. I'll use some from the Elan, they should fit well, maybe some from other cars, don't know yet.

Thanks for the breaking lights tip Kikoya!

I'm not really a reverse freak but once at the beginning of a long race on the Altbierbude, I think I was 3rd or 4th on the grid and I didn't know that my wheel had inexplicably turned 180 degrees.. when the lights turned to green I shot backwards and caused chaos, he he. I was using the paddles to shift the gears and with them being upside down..........

any news???

As I said recently on a another thread of this forum, the mod is going on but not that fast because I am busy with other things (work being one of them). But the good thing is that it's still going on.

What remains to do : add some missing trim, modify a few things, add some wheel sets, and after all that is done, modify the existing skins to make them compatible with the new version of the car... I'm afraid this last step might take some time.

Actually, I didn't think it would take that much time to modify the car, but I reworked it much more than I intended to at the beginning. I had to make some new parts from scratch and I didn't know how to proceed, so I learned while doing. It takes time, sometimes it can be very frustrating (when the car causes CTD and you spend hours trying to find why... And in the end it appears that you only forgot one comma or one letter), but it's really interesting to understand how things work.

Anyway, I'm still working on it, and after all the time spent on it, be sure that I intend to both finish and publish it.

take your time, just take your time,

Cheers,
Brulaap
.

@ Kikoya

Absolutely in your own time. I've been doing some simple stuff and it's so easy to miss that comma or full-stop and get a ctd as you have mentioned. Frustrating but so rewarding when it comes out right!!

Good luck m8 and no worries.

Gee

Don't really know what kind of race car should be represented by the BMW 2002 from the Retro Extension Pack. The 2002 touring cars from the early to mid 70s had wide bodys like the ones in the Team CC mod. In the late 70s after regulation change there were extrem wide bodys in Group 5 racing and small bodies but with wide wheel arches in touring car racing. The model discussed in this topic represents none of them.

You're too Young to know but at that time the cars were in Groups .The Group 1 was Stock cars and the BMW 2002 of Retro is the one :no wide arches ,stock motor and suspension + brakes,then the Group 2 this is the Team CC car :wide arches,tuned motor and suspension free brakes (disks instead of drums) this existed since 1961 until 1974 and they created a Group 5 cars with tuning possibilities wider than the Group 2.There was a minimum number of existing cars too,the Group 1 was 5.000 ,the group 2 was 500 and the Group 5 was free.There was the same for GTs with Group 3 and Group 4 plus the Group 5 .The Group 5 you're refering is another one created at the end of seventies for the DTM and german teams where we found Porsche,BMW and Ford Koln plus Opel.That's very complicated and the reference is called "Annexe J" of the F.I.A.

And I thought I was confused before!

Just one example :

To make a long story short:
Group1 ,no modifications,5000 produced per year.Touring cars 4 seaters.i.e BMW 2002
Group2 ,modifications allowed,special parts .Touring cars 4 seaters.i.e BMW CSL,Capri 2600
Group3 ,no modifications,1500 produced per year.GT 2 seaters.i.e Porsche 911,Alpine.
Group4 ,modifications allowed,special parts.GT 2 seaters.Porsche 911,Ferrari GTB,Alpine.
Group5 highly modified cars ,in fact prototypes for independant or Factory testing for new cars they were standalone .Many National championship were based on Group5 to give chances to cars that were not competitive in Group1 or Group2.Best example are Ford Escorts BSCC with BDA motors of 250hp and formula chassis ...I hope it can be of any help.