Assistance Required!

**HenryHudson** · 05-20-2006, 04:39 PM

OK!,

After thrashing through several FAQs and loooooong threads, I am still ever so slightly confused over what is involved with bringing a paint scheme (just can't seem to use the word 'skins' ) to fruition in rFactor.

I have Cory's tutorial but would be ever so appreciative if John and Tim and any other painters could post the PROCESS they use to arrive at FINISHED paint scheme ready for inclusion in rFactor by the driver.

Too many years spent doing Papy paints...

Thanks! I'll bring y'all something special back from China, say maybe an avian flue infected chicken or something... < VBG >

Oh, yeah and what's with all the thrashing about what defines a 'Standalone' car and all that jibberish...

Henry

jrowland96 · 05-20-2006, 07:36 PM

OK, non-quickie explanation... a "standalone car" is basically just a skin with a WINDOW.dds file, TXT file, and a .VEH file, so it shows up as a separate car in the game. That is the preferred way to put a car in the game, especially if it's your first car of a mod. If you want an "alternate" paintscheme, you can create a subfolder called "skins", and then put the car DDS only file in there, and select that scheme in the Skins tab within the game. A skin is only good if you want to run different paintjobs, but for your first car, you need those other files.

What kind of car are you painting? For instance, if you wanted a new PCC Porsche, go into GameData/Vehicles/PCC and you will see a list of team folders.

1) Make a new Team folder named Champion if it doesn't already exist.
2) Copy the files for one car from any other team into your Champion folder. You will need a .TXT file, a .VEH file, and DDS files. The Porsche will have 2 DDS files... One for the car body, and one with the same name but with WING in the name. This is actually for the window graphics, not wing. There may be other DDS graphics for driver and helmet, but those aren't necessary.
3) Rename the files you copied to match your naming system for you. i.e... For my car, I have the following files...

-PCC_JR96.DDS (Car body paintjob)
-PCC_JR96WING.DDS (window graphics, name and number on the windows)
-PCC_JR96.TXT (txt file with just two lines... description of car that will show in the select car menu of the game, and the painter)
-PCC_JR96.VEH (VEH file is just a text file, with team/driver info, etc. In Notepad you can change all of those lines and one important change that MUST be made is the name of the car.dds file it should load for the car. Change this line near the top of the VEH file to point to your main car DDS file DefaultLivery="PCC_JR96.DDS")

It's good practice to name your files with the same base name... PCC_JR96, or PCC_HH74 for instance.

After your files are named correctly and the TXT/VEH files are edited in notepad, to load YOUR newly created paintjob, do the following. Make sure you have the photoshop DDS plugins from Nvidia's website, and install them.

1) Assuming Photoshop... Save your Paintjob PSD with layers first.

2) "Flatten layers"
3) "Save as..." select D3D/DDS for the file type. Navigate to the GameData/Vehicles/PCC/Champion folder, and you should see the names of the DDS files you renamed before. Click on the file for the car... PCC_HH74.dds for instance, and overwrite that file.
4) When saving a DDS file you will get an Nvidia pop-up with the settings you want. It will probably default to DXT5, and that's what you want for now. I don't change anything else from default, and just click "Save". It takes a minute to completely save...
5) Do the same for the WING file (windows). I'll have to look back to see if the PCC template includes one for the WING file, otherwise it will be a PITA to alter one from the game without layers already set up for it. Tim did my windows, and my PCC car when I was a noob, so he can help you with the windows (WING file)

Once it's saved, go into rFactor... you select the PCC mod, and then "select vehicle" you should see Champion in the list of teams. click that, and the right side should have your car file (that you named in the TXT or VEH file). Click on that and it will load in the showroom. You should be done...

It seems complicated at first, but after you've done it a couple of times, it's simple.

**davidan** · 05-20-2006, 07:45 PM

stuck

jrowland96 · 05-20-2006, 07:47 PM

Thanks David! Here's my VEH file for reference.... stuff in bold is what you can change. the line GenString=PC96S, the S at the end is for silver wheels, if you want gold, change the S to G. Stuff in red needs to be correct verbiage for the mod, and shouldn't be changed. i.e. PCC05 in this instance.

/
// The first section defines what maps to load for the new vehicle skinning
// technology. The first line defines a "prefix" to be used for all generic maps.
// Currently, generic maps are used for the livery, wing, driver, driver arms,
// driver helmet, and pit crew. The second line will replace the default livery
// with the new specified, for the track specified. The format is as follows:
//
// DefaultLivery="PREFIX" // PREFIX is the base texture map name, assumed to be BMP unless specified
// PitCrewLivery="PREFIX" // This is only needed if it differs from the default livery PREFIX
// TrackLivery="TRACK, PREFIX" // TRACK is the track name as defined in the event GDB
// TrackLivery="TRACK, PREFIX" // For example, "2004_Toban"
// TrackLivery="TRACK, PREFIX" // You can have an infinite # of these lines
//

DefaultLivery="PCC_JR96.DDS"

HDVehicle=PCC.hdv
Graphics=PCC.gen
Spinner=PCC_Spinner.gen
GenString=PC96S
Sounds=PCC.sfx

Cameras=PCC_cam.cam
HeadPhysics=headphysics.ini
Cockpit=PCC_cockpitinfo.ini

//////////////////////////TEAM HISTORY AND INFORMATION///////////////////////////////////////////

Number=96
Team="JR Motorsports"
PitGroup="Group9"
Driver="John Rowland"
Description="John Rowland #96 Porsche"
Engine="Porsche Flat 6 3,6 L"
Manufacturer="Porsche"
Classes="PCC05"

FullTeamName="JR Motorsports"
TeamFounded=2001
TeamHeadquarters="Kenosha, WI"

Category="PCC05"

**HenryHudson** · 05-21-2006, 06:05 PM

Thanks John!!!

Now to get everything setup and see if I can still paint a decent looking car...

Henry

**HenryHudson** · 05-21-2006, 08:22 PM

Ahhhh,

Which PCC Mod are y'all using? Want to make sure I'm using the correct template or are the various flavours using the same template...

Thanks!

Henry