The Pipeline

The first step in creating a custom vehicle for use in Midtown Madness is to construct a model of the car body.

Both the car body model and the dashboard model for the Red Rocket, the sample custom vehicle included in the VCK, were created using 3D Studio MAX v2.5. As you are working with the car body model files in 3D Studio MAX, pay careful attention to the various LOD (levels of detail) and group label assignments. The modtypes.ini file specifies required groups and LODs that the Asset Manager requires in order to correctly process the vehicle. Generally, there are individual groups for the body, wheels, shadows, and headlights at each LOD. If any of the groups are missing, the Asset Manager will display an error message and Midtown Madness will not run.

Strictly speaking, 3D Studio MAX is not required to produce a valid working model. A GEO file (found in c:\vck\shop\geo) is an ASCII file describing the geometry of an object. While the plug-in supplied in the VCK, artsexp.dle (Angel RealTime Software Exporter), outputs the model into GEO format, any modeling software capable of producing a valid GEO file is adequate since the Asset Manager uses the GEO file as input, not the MAX file.

After the exporter produces a GEO file, the Asset Manager (c:\vck\angel\am.exe) is called to translate the geometry into two forms: dlp and bms. DLP is essentially a binary version of the GEO file and is used to render vehicles in the game's user interface. The BMS (binary mesh set) format is currently used to render vehicles in the driving environment.

In addition to outputting the geometry formats, the Asset Manager calls the texture editor to check the global texture worksheet (c:\vck\shop\mtl\global.tsh) for the model's specified textures. If the textures are present, they are copied from the source directory and converted to DirectDraw surfaces (dds) and entered into a texture worksheet.

The textures are converted in two formats: 16-bit opaque (c:\vck\shop\tex16o), and 16-bit alpha (c:\vck\shop\tex16a). Currently, the texture editor does not create palettized textures for the software rendering engine. To create these textures (c:\vck\shop\texp), run makepal.bat (located in c:\vck\angel\).

Notes on the Pipeline: