March 761B - 1977 F1 carset - Texture Mapping

[rremedio]

Hi guys!

As you maybe know, I'm driving in FGP2, a hotlap league that runs all F1 seasons from 1950 untill now (and even pre-F1 Grand Prix Seasons were runned).

This week we start season 1977 and I'm driving the #9 March. I've downloaded my team's carset and made my lap. All ok. But the car looks really bad becouse of the textures distortions caused by old F1 carshapes. So I've downloaded more season 77 carsets and tried to create a bitmap which would look better. Soon I've given up, cause this coudn't really be done.

Then I opened the Car Editor and I tried to improve the carshape, I couldn't do it also. Then I tried to llok to the "texture data" and have a light. The Car Editor can't change it, but I've found my own rough way. It's still very limited, but I think it will work for my car.

I've became so excited that I've decided to make a complete set with the new "technique" and some more tweekings changeing weird things like Downforce Coef. and Polar Moment of Inercia.

This is how it looks for now, I know it's not beautiful, the shape will be improved a lot yet, but those who have ever tried to edit "distorted" shapes will notice a thing: that Hollywood logo in the middle of the car couldn't be done until now without big distortions.

I think this new "technique" will be very helpful for those who try to make sets for old F1, touring cars, and other sets which use to distort the textures.

[V12-Power]

Sounds very interesting and looks very good (the front)! How did you make that?

[rremedio]

There's no big thing...the front of the car was made at the normal way...I've just was carreful trying to keep the poligonals proportional to the original shape to avoid distortions. I'm sure it (as the whole shape) will look a lot better in the future!!

The most important thing it that hollywood logo near the cockpit. It's impossible to make it on the normal way becouse there's no room in the bitmap in that position. What I did was tell gp2 to use another piece of the bitmap to map that area. It's still very limited, becouse I only can tell it to use "default" pieces to map textures (I don't know how to explain in english, but I can't change the areas used on the bitmap, I can change only the places where they are aplied). In this case, I painted the "normal place" with red and painted the logo in another area (a big one) which just need to be red in my car, the I've told gp2 to switch the mapped areas in the shape for these two "pieces" of textures.

Car Editor don't have the option to make these changes (but it shows the mapping data), so I've use a hex editor directly in gp2, then I imported evrything in Car Editor and saved the shape.

I hope somebody understands it. Further I will make an exemple with screenshots on how to do it. Then anybody who wants to deal with it will just need to look at the shapes and bitmaps and use it's own creativity to get good solutions. Im think it's very promising, especially for non-winged cars.

[V12-Power]

This Hollywood logo also attracted my attention... I understand what you mean, the explanation is good. Do you think it is possible that you will be able to use new parts of the bitmaps?

When you have your tutorial ready I'll surely try it out. The main problem with the sportscars is that some parts disappear from time to time. I would try to kick this out then. Do you think that's possible?

[MaxX]

This problem also appears on some of the "newer" carshapes so this is a very interesting find

[HF]

Hey sounds very promesnig! And the car looks really nice!

[AAS]

Looks great !

It does not have this bug?

[rremedio]

This Hollywood logo also attracted my attention... I understand what you mean, the explanation is good. Do you think it is possible that you will be able to use new parts of the bitmaps?

I'm afraid this will not be possible. The information on which parts of the bitmap are used is there in gp2.exe, but I don't know how to find it. I think it can be done, but I don't have the knowledge to find it out. But if someone find some clue of how it's encoded, then we could make any car we want look good...

When you have your tutorial ready I'll surely try it out. The main problem with the sportscars is that some parts disappear from time to time. I would try to kick this out then. Do you think that's possible?

I don't know. I think this is more a shape problem then a texture problem, but we have to try it out. What I can say, looking at the sportcars bitmap is there a lot of potential of mapping becouse there are good parts of the regular bitmap you don't use. Sou you can use that parts to map other places.

[rremedio]

Looks great !

It does not have this bug?

No, it don't have any desapearing, shifting or flashing bugs, but I think it's due to be based on the original shape whitout changing any vertices or poligons structures.

[V12-Power]

What I can say, looking at the sportcars bitmap is there a lot of potential of mapping becouse there are good parts of the regular bitmap you don't use. Sou you can use that parts to map other places.

Yes, I could imagine mapping some parts of the front (the part from the cockpit down to the part which was the frontwing once). I'll try out what is possible then.

[rremedio]

I don't know. I think this is more a shape problem then a texture problem, but we have to try it out.

Find out something. As I was suspicious when we were talking about the desapearing building in my Croft track, in both cars and objects, when a poligon is supposed to be hidden in determined camera angle (driver's head when loking the car from behind) in the original shape/object, it won't show in the edited object also, even if it's supposed to be not hidden anymore.

I've confirmed that im my experimental March.





If you look at the car you will notice the engine looks far better than in most 60ies and 70ies carsets. You will understand why by looking at the bitmap. It's no drawn where it was supposed to be. Instead, it is behing the car number in the car side.

That part of the bitmap won't show in original GP2 until the camera looks the car from the car side. And that also happens in my car. The engine just show up when looking the car from the side, if you look from a more to the front angle there will be an empty space there.

I think it comproves why some apearing/desapearing textures happens (but maybe not all of them).

I'll focus now on making that tutorial, so you guys can test it by yourselves.

[V12-Power]

That's a pity. But when you paint the engine two times (one on the normal bitmap position), you could solve the problem. From the far sight you still see a black part and if you get the closer view you'll get to see the detailed part.

When I get it under control I guess it would be a nice improvement for the front of the sportscars. I can't wait for the tutorial.

[AD]

Interesting solution, looks like it must have been intricate to start figuring it out.

[rremedio]

That's a pity. But when you paint the engine two times (one on the normal bitmap position), you could solve the problem. From the far sight you still see a black part and if you get the closer view you'll get to see the detailed part.

When I get it under control I guess it would be a nice improvement for the front of the sportscars. I can't wait for the tutorial.

The problem, I think, is that if you use two parts to map one poligon you'll have one poligon without mapping.

[Greyhead]

Wow! This all looks pretty good. I'm actually planning on doing carsets for the 1976 and 1982 seasons with bitmaps painted to suit the car shapes and something like this would come in VERY handy!