Converting The 935s

[marvinwankerstein]

As I mentioned, the ALM team has released BLT's 935s and there are a bunch of them. Around three hundred cars actually. See the thread at F1classic for links. The cars are split into five groups. Here are the groups and the car models in each of them:
77  -  935 77
78  -  Moby Dick, 935 L (6US, 7US)
K2  -  935 K1, 935 K2
K3  -  935 K3, 935 M16, 935 L1-Baby, 935 JLP2
PPG -  935 77A, 935 76, 935 78A, 935 79

This list is of the variations by car group :

77  : 5 chassis, 11 wheel types,  32 skins
78  : 5 chassis,  7 wheel types,  25 skins
K2  : 2 chassis,  7 wheel types,  26 skins
K3  : 6 chassis,  8 wheel types, 100 skins
PPG : 8 chassis, 16 wheel types, 109 skins

They called the K2 group "Kremer" in the mod and I have renamed it. I have started organizing things and compiling lists and I will post those as I come up with them here. I have started working on the K3 group since it has my favorite variant of the car.

In analyzing the materials of the K3, I found they used eight wildcard textures, four each for BODY1 and WINDOWS. I will use the same texture aliasing technique that I have used with many cars before for these (see the tutorial here about it for more details). Here are the texture translations that will be done : WC_TEAM_BODY1_AL       -> WCEXTRA0
WC_TEAM_BODY1_FL       -> WCEXTRA1
WC_TEAM_BODY1_PA       -> WCEXTRA2
WC_TEAM_BODY1_PL       -> WCEXTRA3
WC_TEAM_BODY1_CR       -> WCEXTRA4
WC_TEAM_WINDOWS_FL     -> WCEXTRA5
WC_TEAM_WINDOWS_GL_A8  -> WCEXTRA6
WC_TEAM_WINDOWS_PL     -> WCEXTRA7
WC_TEAM_WINDOWS_PL_A8  -> WCEXTRA8
WC_TEAM_WINDOWS_FL_A8  -> WCEXTRA9This should work nicely since each car has just a body and a windows texture which will be named Car_Livery.dds and Car_Windows.dds.

Here's a list of the cars in the PPG group along with some info about their GenStrings. The list is sorted by chassis which is the second digit of the GenString.
       Porsche 935 PPG GenString Usage

       1 : WHEELS  - 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F,G
       2 : CHASSIS - 1,2,3,4,5,6
       3 : HOOD    - 1,3,4,5,6
       4 : FBUMPER - 1,2,3,4,5
       5 : WINDOWS - 2,3,4
       6 : STWHEEL - 1,2,3
       7 : DRIVER  - unused
       8 : HELMET  - unused
       9 : FENDERS - 0,2,3

       Bodies   Models

           1    77A
           2    76
           3    79
           4    78A
           5    78A
           6    79

       77007DR :    935/77A    511121182
       77002WM :    935/77A    D13121182
       77009DR :    935/77A    A11121180
       77053DM :    935/77A    213121182
       77061US :    935/77A    915131183
       77066DM :    935/77A    B13121182
       77066DR :    935/77A    313121182
       77067DR :    935/77A    313121182
       78004DM :    935/77A    D13121182
       78004DR :    935/77A    211121180
       78004NB :    935/77A    313121182
       78004WM :    935/77A    213121182
       78006DT :    935/77A    C13121182
       78006SB :    935/77A    C13121182
       78006WM :    935/77A    D13121182
       78008WM :    935/77A    313121182
       78009WM :    935/77A    D13121182
       78011WM :    935/77A    713121182
       78012US :    935/77A    813121182
       78016WM :    935/77A    413121182
       78030US :    935/77A    311142183
       78030WM :    935/77A    D13121182
       78044LM :    935/77A    313121182
       78059JM :    935/77A    611133180
       78090LM :    935/77A    913121182
       78091LM :    935/77A    913121182
       79001US :    935/79     D13121182
       79002US :    935/77A    D13121182
       79003WM :    935/78A    D13121182
       79006US :    935/78A    913121182
       79009IM :    935/77A    313121182
       79013US :    935/79     915231180
       79016DR :    935/77A    213121182
       79018US :    935/77A    911141183
       79040LM :    935/77A    113121182
       80005WM :    935/77A    313121182
       80046LM :    935/77A    213121182
       81062LM :    935/77A    613121182

       76001WM :    935/76     A25221180
       76004WM :    935/76     B25221180
       76016US :    935/76     725141180
       77003WM :    935/76     125221180
       77008WM :    935/76     325221180
       77014WM :    935/76     325221180
       77061WM :    935/76     925221180
       78007WM :    935/76     C25221180
       78023WM :    935/76     323221180
       79004WM :    935/77A    925221180
       79066WM :    935/76     825221180
       79074LM :    935/76     B25221180
       80084WM :    935/76     B25221180
       80089WM :    935/76     D25221180
       80095WM :    935/76     725221180
       80097WM :    935/76     D25221180
       80135WM :    935/76     G25221180

       78002DR :    935/79     131122183
       78029DR :    935/77A    335121183
       78057US :    935/79     834131180
       78059US :    935/79     D31131180
       80088US :    935/79     631133180

       77537WM :    935/78A    341143180
       78000US :    935/78A    445141180
       78010US :    935/78A    445141180
       78001US :    935/78A    341143180
       78013US :    935/78A    341143180
       79003US :    935/77A    341143180
       79009US :    935/77A    341143180
       79055US :    935/78A    D41142180
       79070US :    935/78A    444243180
       79071US :    935/78A    C44143180
       79072US :    935/78A    C44143180
       79092US :    935/78A    341143180
       80004US :    935/78A    341143180
       80055US :    935/78A    341143180
       80099US :    935/78A    341143180

       77017DR :    935/78A    A51122183
       77590WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78002KR :    935/78A    351122183
       78003DM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78003DR :    935/78A    D51121183
       78005DR :    935/78A    A51122183
       78009US :    935/78A    A51122183
       78010WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78015WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78016DM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78016WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78018DR :    935/78A    A51122183
       78018WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78021WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       78045DR :    935/78A    A51122183
       78095US :    935/78A    A51122183
       78512WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       79005US :    935/76     D54122183
       79033WM :    935/78A    A51122183
       81011US :    935/78A    A51122183
       82003US :    935/78A    A51122183

       78003DT :    935/78     361132183
       78093US :    935/79     361132183
       79094US :    935/79     F61132183
       79010US :    935/78A    961132183
       79020US :    935 JLP-1  E61331182
       79030WM :    935/79     D61132183
       79068US :    935/79     D61132183
       79094WM :    935/79     D61132183
       80007US :    935/79     D65341182
       80028WM :    935/79     A61132183
       80029WM :    935/79     B61132183
As you can see, there are appear to be some errors in the model designations. That is, if the chassis specified for the cars are all correct.

[marcozera]

i will put skins from my convertion

[marvinwankerstein]

I noticed the K4s were not part of this release. The ALM team released those previously and I think there were a few more skins for it. I can't remember now. I'll check on that.

Progress update : all wheels have been converted. All meshes with generic materials have been converted. I am now adapting the other materials and shaders.

[marcozera]

ok very
my first test conv

[marcozera]

[marvinwankerstein]

Those look very good Marco. Are you working on a specific group of cars?

Also - I noticed you have not adjusted the height of the cars. Does this work OK for the cars in the game? In my experience it did not so I had to raise them all. I am very curious about this.

If you want to convert the body meshes and set up the materials with shaders like Boern uses, I can take care of everything else, including the texture aliasing. I wrote tools to help me do most of that stuff quickly and I can always use help with the other stuff. That would make things really fast for me. That is where I am right now - I have not set up the materials yet and I have not worked on lights either.

The one thing I am the least certain of is how headlights work. So far, I didn't set them up on the GTX cars because nearly all IMSA races are in daylight. Sebring and Le Mans are the exceptions. Anyway, if you or anyone else knows how get those to work and can explain it to me I will make them work with 935s too. I have a good understanding of brake lights and backfires.

-edit- I found an interesting tutorial on lights. I might have to give it a try.

[marcozera]

I give you the links of my test in pm

[marvinwankerstein]

Progress Update : I got your conversions Marco. I have the first one, the K3 M-16 (style 6), loading into the spinner but the game crashes when I try to race. I am trying to sort that problem out now.

By the way, there are a few missing parts for the K3 : the left headlight parts for style 6 (lense and light) and style 1 right rear wheel C. It's not a big deal because I can comment them out in the .gen file.

[marcozera]

ok marvin i will try to test a car or two on my side

[marvinwankerstein]

Finally, I have found a combination of files that are working well. I was able to get a base set of meshes to load into the game and I am slowly adding a few at a time so I know everything works right. It is a slow process but it's going. I should have some screenshots very soon.

[marvinwankerstein]

I have the M16s basically in the game now. That means they still have some issues that I will be fixing but I can race with them now. I used a lot of from what you gave me Marco and added quite a bit too. This is a great start !

[marvinwankerstein]

Work continues. Marco - one thing I have noticed is 3DSE v3.1 has a problem converting steering wheels - their center of rotation gets messed up. I keep an older version of the program just to use with steering wheels. They always work correctly when converted by the old one.

My goal for this evening is to get the headlight lenses and brake lights done.

[marvinwankerstein]

Well, I almost achieved that goal. I added the driver, added the backfire from the DRM 935, and corrected the glass materials. In other words, I did almost everything except the brake lights. I am not sure what's up with those. The car is looking really good now.

[marcozera]

i'm very happy for you marvin you do a very good job

[marvinwankerstein]

Thanks Marco. Hopefully I can sort out the brake light problem tonight and then I will adjust the painted material properties. I should have a few cars to test drive very soon.