Multiple car shapes in single carset?

[checkpoint10]

I always assumed this was impossible but I was playing around with cars.3do and the IRL carset and created this:



I just copied the IRL carshape into CARS95 with another filename (irlcar.3do) and then I edited cars.3do to point one of the cars to that file. The wheels don't spin and I am guessing the damage model will either not work or revert to a default car shape. But it's interesting to see that the game can technically load different 3dos to represent each car.

For a funny video I made with racing the pace car - see my Twitter post.

Another idea I have is to edit the individual car's file (for example alu16.3do) which contains the Flavor 14 (color redefinition) and Flavor 4 (which seems to be MATERIAL MIP that applies the texture to indycar.3do or roadcar.3do). What if I added some vertices, a poly and a face to the end of this file? Would it load that 3D piece in addition to calling indycar.3do/roadcar.3do? If so, could I change indycar.3do/roadcar.3do to represent only the wheels and chassis (without bodywork) but use alu16.3do to include all the custom bodywork?

[Wolf_pd]

In a sense by adding the new car.3do you have added an incomplete car. The damage files would need to be added to get stuff like that working. It would need some hexediting to get the references right, but in theory that should work.

[samsepi0l]

Interesting experiment. I know how to paint carsets but I don't understand the 3DOs of them. I do know that on my carsets when one of the opponents gets damaged there is a issue where a wheel may disappear, or sometimes strange things happen like one tire stops moving and it changes brand (goodyear to firestone or whatever).

One afterthought: rememeber when we were testing caesars how people were complaining it was making the game crash, but it just turned out to be related to the carsets? I wonder if having different 3dos would increase the size to the point it would cause problems? Just something to consider.

[checkpoint10]

I did some more experiments and the most successful thing I did was to change the car .3do, for example alu16.3do (which is how I will refer to this type of file), so that it loads in an additional 3do file. Then, I use a LIST function to include the new 3do (which I load using DYNAMIC) and the reference to Flavor 4 and Flavor 14. I couldn't quite get Flavor 4 to work within the list, but I got Flavor 14 to work - that is the function that changes the poly colors in either indycar.3do or roadcar.3do - even when it is called by the list.

The result is that the game still recognizes enough of the indycar.3do/roadcar.3do to apply the spinning wheels to it, but it also draws whatever else I put into the LIST, namely the extra 3do file. 

Here's a video of this: https://twitter.com/iamskchow/status/138...28256?s=20

I currently believe it is not possible to rename indycar.3do and roadcar.3do because the .exe itself has hard coded those. I believe the game will actually look for the reference to indycar.3do in the alu16.3do file and then change it to roadcar.3do if you're at a road course. From there, it has some way to identify the calls to the tires .3do files and make them spin and change textures.

With possibly a large amount of effort, it may be possible to edit indycar.3do and roadcar.3do to include only the wheels, and then utilize an extra 3do for the individualized bodywork that you would call from the LIST in alu16.3do.

@samsepi0l, I am using the same trick as for larger tracks, by getting rid of the .dat file and dumping all the carset files into the CARS\CARS95 folder.

[samsepi0l]

Here's a video of this: https://twitter.com/iamskchow/status/138...28256?s=20

I LOL'ed so loud, somehow a crazy Ice-cream truck made it onto the track!

[CowtownBob]

With possibly a large amount of effort, it may be possible to edit indycar.3do and roadcar.3do to include only the wheels, and then utilize an extra 3do for the individualized bodywork that you would call from the LIST in alu16.3do.

Don't forget that there's more to the car than wheels and bodywork, there's the engine, suspension arms and some other bits that should probably go along with the wheels.