[WIP] Dutch DAF YA-4442 Logistic and Transport truck [help needed!]

[Mr.VdHeide]

Well I used the mirror tool, not the modifier.

Now what should I do? Keep it like this and hope for the best, or should I model the mirrored one from scratch? (Which will cost a lot of work for me, especially to get them look similiar.)




Dj.

[Rhino]

I would model it all again from scratch as to fix it later will most likley be 3x the amount of work.

[Amok@ndy]

ah okay then i mixed sth up

[Mr.VdHeide]

I would model it all again from scratch as to fix it later will most likley be 3x the amount of work.

Hm okay, but I can keep the bumper side I modeled from scratch, right? (The one I have created from scratch and mirrored in order to get a second bumper rack side.)

I will post some progress soon.




Dj.

[Mr.VdHeide]

The rack is pretty much done, at least for the modeling part:










About the smoothing groups, does every single face need a smoothing group, even those which are part of a rectangular shape, like a beam? Or are they just meant to make something which should be smooth actually look smooth instead of angular?






Dj.

[AfterDune]

I don't know much about modeling, but I wanted to give you a big thumbs up anyway .

[Glimmerman]

It has my:

[Adriaan]

About the smoothing groups, does every single face need a smoothing group, even those which are part of a rectangular shape, like a beam? Or are they just meant to make something which should be smooth actually look smooth instead of angular?

Nope, you only need to assign smoothing groups where you want things to be smooth, so a beam like you said doesn't have to have any smoothing groups assigned (though it doesn't matter if it does either).

Keep it up, looking good so far!

[MikeDude]

That is actually starting to shape up pretty well!

[Mr.VdHeide]

Thank you all, it is nice to know you guys like it!

Adriaan, thanks for explaining this to me.



Dj.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Hi everyone,

In the last couple of days I have made some good progress on this model. The interior is done I believe and I changed quite a lot of things in the trucks geometry to make it look better. I also created some new details and rebuild others which I made before but could be done a whole lot better.






























Some questions I have:



- How do I add the wheels? I know how to create them, but should they be separate objects, or do I have to attach them to the model I have now? Anything else I have to take into account with?


- Checks!? I started on this a while ago and basically had no clue about the whole thing. yet I am slowly starting to get familiar with 3DS MAX, but I basically still don't know anything about creating models for games (PR BF 2), except for the fact that they should be as simple while good looking as possible. So are there any checks I should do on a regular base or maybe other specific things I have to avoid / to / try to make sure the model will be useful?




Kind regards,






Dj.

[Mineral]

Given you are a starting modeler, don't worry too much about the wheels. An exporter will take care of that for you It's already great you got this far but you aren't there yet. So should focus on whats ahead of ya Just make sure the wheels are separate objects and aren't welded up to the rest of it. Same for the steering wheel. Simply everything that moves in game (as you can remember from other trucks) needs to be separate.

Can you provide us with some references to compare the interior and exterior to the real thing?

I think you should look into making a high-poly interior to bake normals and AO maps from. That will really help with making it look convincing. Ideally the exterior needs a high-poly too but perhaps that's too much to ask and perhaps also not needed. Same for wheels, high poly baked wheels are the best way to go and there are tons of tutorials on it as well.

Also, game models shouldn't be as simple as they can get. They need to be balanced between looks and performance. Go for the highest possible looks with the most decent performance Some good checks it to make sure you keep up on smoothing groups I suppose and making sure things aren't z-fighting too much. And keep comparing your model to references

I think you are good on triangles so far. Although I think the interior could use some more details with some knobs etc. And I think the front bars are taking up a bit too much detail. They are really round right now and I don't think they need to be.

Don't forget glass as well btw

But it's looking really nice.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Thanks Mineral,



Roger that, separate object for the wheels and stearin wheel.



Yes I have quite a lot of photo material, unfortunately not a lot which show the truck's interior, just these three. I found them on the website of a truck dealer, this is a civil version though, with an extra bench which mine doesn't have.









The seats in this truck are not original. The ones I made for the model are just based on my own imagination, what I think they should be looking like.

Some exterior photo's, I have tons of them but just a few should be enough I guess.


Logistics:






Transport:






Not going to add the steel frame, just the benches and I am not even sure if I should make those the way they are in real life because in game a vehicle can only carry 8 players, and this one 17...

I think I will just make some very simplified ones.


About the interior. Yes it could use some more details. But how? Should I just finish the whole truck the way I am doing right now and when it is done, create a copy of it and improve the interior so one of you guys can use it? Is that what you are saying? Or do you just want me to improve the interior in this model?

I am already comparing the truck to references all the time and I am working on getting all of the SG's looking right to, so that all right. But about the z-fighting thing. I know what it is, but are there may be like ''z-fighting check tools'' in MAX? I have had some obvious cases in which a whole plane was z-fighting but I usually just solved that by moving / removing some vertexes.

Maybe I will re-do the front tube frame later on. Right now I am happy that I managed to create this one so I think I will keep it like this for the time being.

I will add the glass at the end. Because I guess it will probably block my view on the interior, or doesn't it?? Could someone maybe give me a small how-to on that, or send a link to a tutorial that shows a way of creating them for BF2? I heard it is just a single sided plane? Can I just select 2 lines and bridge them?








Dj.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Hello guys, the truck is starting to get really close to the point of completion, as for the modeling part at least... But before I can finish it I have to make a decision about the following thing:

The Dutch use a modular unit with seats to convert a standard transport truck into a troop-transport truck, this is what it looks like:





And when installed onto a truck:





Should I make this for the in game truck? It would be realistic but it would also cost quite a lot of triangles. Another downside is that only 6 of the 14 seats would be used anyway. And what about the frame???

Should I try to make this, or just make some simple benches and maybe a frame?





Dj.

[Amok@ndy]

i would model it. looks much better like that

[Glimmerman]

if it wont cause any issues then go for it, would look very nice on it

[Mr.VdHeide]

I personally do not think it will cause any problems, so I guess I will, only thing is that the model's file will just be a bit larger. But I am not the most experienced modeler out here so if anyone thinks I really shouldn?t, please let me know. For now I will just focus on getting the truck done so I can make the logistic and trans variant from it.

To do:

- Wheels
- Glass
- Improve interior
- (Missing details??)
- Optimizing the truck's shape


This is what I have right now:



















Dj.

[Glimmerman]

wow looking seriously awesome

ok i found a few things that are missing highlighter in red circles:



1. the metal plate to which the license plate is fixed to

2. the tow mounts on the bumper

3. the smaller mounts on the loading bay, although they could be textured.

for the rest i think you got it all

the bars on top of the cabin in this picture are to mount a FN MAG 7.62 GPMG but i dont think we can arm our supply trucks so there is no need for that

*edit

forgot to mention you need the D A F letters and the grill on the front of the vehicle

[Mr.VdHeide]

Thanks Glimmerman,


I will add number 1 and 2 to the model a.s.a.p. The smal mounts should be textured and the D A F letters on the front of the truck as well I believe. Ofcourse it would look nice to have them 3D, but it isn't really neccesary because I am sure a texture artist could get it looking quite as good as well. But if you guys think I should, I can still always add them.

About the MAG platform, it would have been nice though, LOL.





Dj.

[Mr.VdHeide]

Small update...

I have been working on the wheels, added some missing details and changed the trucks geometry a bit to make it look better. I still need to add the two rear wheels which are in the middle and the spare one.

I have optimized the wheels quite a bit already but if you guys see something that could be done better, please let me know.











The real thing:






Front wheels:








Rear wheels:







The 'front views' of the wheels are all the same, only the rims are different.









Dj.