Starter.Racing

#1 Sounds like you're in about the same position as me, might aswell compare notes. Are you following the vehicle docs in the TDN? What stage are you getting to and what exactly isn't working?

I've tried knocking out a very basic model in Milkshape as per the TDN docs, exported using DTSplus and replaced the standard buggy.dts with my model but it locks up when loading the mission with my model in place. Haven't done any debugging yet but I'll be doing that tomorrow.

#2 I have just about the same thing, I took out the buggy.dts and put in mercedes.dts and when I load it locks up and i cant do anything, I have tried changing some scripts so it fits in but still no luck, so if anyone can do it please help.

- GoraShrine

#3 Hrm, sounds like the same problem then. I'll get back to you later today or tomorrow hopefully, I've sent the buggy.max and wheel.max to a friend of mine who has 3dsmax, he's going to convert them to .3ds format so I can import them into Milkshape and have a look at how things should be set up.

I'm no modeller, but the docs available seem rather disjointed and in some cases contradict each other.

#4 Hrmkay, well from the console.log it's hanging when attempting to compile starter.racing/server/scripts/car.cs but I'm not quite sure how to debug further to identify the exact cause... Onward with my research. :)

#5 Did you try deleting the .dso file before running torque, it probably isn't recognizing you changes to the .cs files. if you delete the .dso files, torque will create new ones when it recompile the .cs file upon running torque.

just a thought i had?!

#6 Yea, tried that already, cleaned out all the dso's before startinng, it's failing to compile.

It's something I'm not doing right when creating or exporting the model... probably something obvious, but I'm still bumbling through my first steps with Torque. Think I'll try knocking up a total beginners guide to getting a vehicle into starter.racing when I figure this out, the existing docs seem to lack a bit of detail for total newbs.

#7 First thing to do when integrating new models into Torque is to look at them in the Torque ShowTool. If it works there, then you can also look at all the materials, the nodes, names, locations, animations, etc. An essential debugging tool. I believe it comes with the SDK, otherwise you might have to purchase it separately.

#8 The buggy is actually quite a confusing one to look at, it has a bunch of stuff you don't need. If you send me an email I'll send you a doc I wrote for personal use about setting cars up, plus a sample model rigged up in 3dsmax

#9 Is there any chance you could put make it in blender? I can't really buy 3DMAX, Blender is much better for me :D.

#10 @Matthew - Ah, I completely forgot about ShowTool. Yea, it's bundled in with TGE, installed it and forgot all about it. Thanks.

@Sam - Thanks, I'll shoot an email your way now. (Big fan of Darkwind btw, must find the time to check out the new stuff.)

@Gora - Depending on the format you might be able to import Sam's 3dsmax model into Blender.

EDIT: Incidentally, I have managed to get my vehicle into the game now, I think the crash problem was linked to either the collision mesh or bounds but not entirely sure. I changed my col-1 mesh to collision and manually created the bounds box rather than letting the exporter create it. Not entirely sure which was the problem or what the difference is between col-1 and collision, but it worked and I'll figure it out with a little more reading and experimenting. :)

#11 @Sam, is there any chance you could do it fast? Or if not that could you post a link of that tutorial to put my cars into my game? I need this fast.

@Ross, how did you put the models in you game, can you put a tutorial for me please?

#12 @Gora - Email Sam if you haven't already. He sent me his references yesterday and from a quick scan through they're very helpful but I've yet to get round to making use of them.

I've only managed to get the game to run with my own model but there's still quite a few issues I need to resolve so I can't really write a tutorial on it yet, I'm still muddling through. I'll try and knock something together once I have things properly worked out from start to finish.

I'd suggest you rename your model to buggy.dts and make no script changes while experimenting, that way you know any problems are definitely caused by your model and not making changes in the scripts. Follow the tutorials on the TDN, manually create a single box mesh around your model called 'bounds' and hide it and make sure you've set up the collision mesh correctly... doing that at least got me past the failure to compile and into the game.

#13 Hi Sam? Can you send me the "doc you wrote for personal use about setting cars up, plus a sample model rigged up in 3dsmax?"

#14 If Sam doesn't pick up on this, post your email addy and I'll forward the doc.

#15 thanks... my email address is ebonixs@hotmail.com