Quote from Berni25 :

Great mod! Is it possible to change the speedometer pls?! Max of 320 kp/h is a bit to much. 120 kp/h maximum speed would be more realistic.

Yes.
It's been a year since I've published it, at that time it was impossible to set the maximum value of the speedometer. In recent test patches they've added that ability, so I'll try to update it soon. Maybe I will come up with some more improvements.

Vehicle mod: PUSHBACK TUG
Details page: https://www.lfs.net/files/vehmods/6FF19C

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

Quote :

The best vehicle to tow aircrafts away from the racetrack

DESCRIPTION:

Quote :

Schopf F356 body with drivetrain inspired by Schopf F396P. Reused dashboard and steering wheel from the TOWN BUS. Rims modeled by me.

COVER SCREENSHOT:

Inability to move/rotate the camera in the rim editor was a bit annoying, I'm glad that's no more. All the changes look great overall. Cross-section view in the wheel editor is a great addition.

Has the max amount of points in the rim editor been increased? It's currently 11

Ok, I guess it's time to grab the sawzall yet again...

Quote from Scawen :

That's all done and you should find it in the list of changes, there was a major overhaul for the clocks recently.

Oh... I've read all of the changelogs in the first post, but didn't see anything about it so I've assumed this hasn't been addressed. What I didn't think about, is to read the changelogs for the test patches of the game itself as this issue is related to the game rather than the editor My bad! Although, now I've also read the changelogs for the D33 (game) Test Patch and didn't see a mention of that change. Anyway... I've installed the D33 Test Patch and the needle indeed is in the same position for both speed units. Thank you! I will make another attempt at "horizontal speedo" for my next mod, which happens to also use such speedo.

Quote from rane_nbg :

I think he asks if there is any other technical limitation that LFS cannot handle 32-bit integers.

Thank you for the comprehensive answer, although I didn't understand much of it
All I want to know is - why can't we have 65535 triangles in the main object, if that's the triangle limit for the whole mod?

Quote from rane_nbg :

in LFS editor one should be able to play with 32-bit models and at the time of export make it into 16-bit, similar to how people do with car skins when they make them in 4096x4096 and then export to 1024 as a final skin for upload.

Yes

On the subject of gauges...
I was trying to create a "horizontal speedometer" for one of my mods. When I was trying to calibrate it I've noticed that the speedometer needle position is slightly different in MPH mode than it is in KM/H mode.

Here you can see what happens when I switch between KM/H and MPH units in options:


It was impossible to calibrate it to show accurate speed for both the KM/H units users and the MPH users. Because of that, I decided to scrap it and went with a fictional digital gauge cluster.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say - it would be nice if the needle position was identical for both MPH and KM/H setting. This would be helpful when creating custom gauges. Ability to adjust the thickness of the needle would also be useful.



I also have a question regarding the Modeller - why are we able to only have 32768 triangles in the main object if the total triangle limit for the mod is 65535? Is it due to some technical limitation or... ?
It's especially annoying when importing from .obj file. I would like to be able import an .obj with - let's say - 62k triangles and then split some of it into subobjects from within the LFS Editor. Currently you have to use 3rd party 3D software to split it into two .obj files (below 32768 triangles). I would prefer to do this in the LFS Modeller.

It would be even better if we were able to import .obj files bigger than 65535 triangles. So, let's say - I import a 3D model with 75k triangles into the LFS Editor and then I delete some stuff that I won't need in LFS - for example the engine bay - to reduce the polycount to less than 65535.
LFS Editor should not allow to "Export mod for UPLOAD" if it exceeds the 65535 limit.

Quote from Scawen :

Note, from Editor D34: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/102626

Oh thank you, that will be very useful I need to sit down and read all the test patch changelogs.

Quote from Scawen :

EDIT2: Not yet released but I've been working on some wheel rim updates that should allow reproduction of a rim lip with the style of a steel wheel (and other styles) also with higher resolution and not appearing to blend directly into the tyre.

For the time being I was creating fake lips on my steel rims by adding 2 surfaces in the rim editor - at the spot where the tire meets the rim. It looked better than nothing, but still - not quite right. Looking forward to that improvement

Quote from Gutholz :

The cockpit instruments and fan turn into abstract art when hitting a wall. (sometimes even from slight crashes)
Especially the RPM gauge becomes unreadable easily.
Other mods had this problem too, no idea how they fixed it.

I don't think there is anything I can do about it. As far as I know there is no way to turn off deformation for certain parts of the model. Deformation is exaggerated because of how long the vehicle is and since the dashboard is at the very front of the vehicle, it gets easily deformed.

Anyway, I've recently released big update for the TOWN BUS. Here is the changelog:

- Changed the gearbox from 7 to 6 gears to make it more realistic and to improve compatibility with steering wheels that come with a 6-gear H shifter. Adjusted the default gear ratios to accomodate that change.
- Increased Max Drag value from the default 0.400 N@1m/s to 1.000 (maximum value) to reduce the top speed shown by the speedometer. It went down from 290km/h to 210km/h - which is still higher than desired, but 1.000 N@1m/s drag is the max. This also means that the bus will now be slightly slower to accelerate, especially at higher speeds.
- Changed the geometry of the front suspension. Previously it would gain negative camber if you raised the suspension to the maximum value.
- Made a texture for the undercarriage and wheel wells.
- Rotated the "passenger side" mirror so that it's facing more towards the driver.
- Revamped engine sound. Improved idle sound to have the distinct 2 stroke diesel knock. Increased cockpit muffling to the max - previously it sounded as if the engine was right behind the driver, now it sounds more as if it's at the back of the bus.
- Designed and modeled a simple fictional logo for the emblems on the steering wheel and on the front of the bus.
- Removed some redundant geometry which was not visible anyway.
- Fixed/improved smoothing groups and topology in a few places around the bus.
- Added dark points in a few places to improve shading. For example on the inner side of the vents at the back of the bas and at the bottom of the dashboard.
- Changed the appearance of the dashboard fan - made it look less fancy and shiny. Fan blades now share the color of the bus body.
- Changed dashlights appearance so that they are brighter in the middle, darker towards the edges - since each is lit by a single bulb.
- Some other small fixes and improvements I forgot about...

Quote from Scawen :

a new "hub" object that rotates with the wheel

Looks like I will need to update the front rims soon

Quote from Scawen :

I haven't looked in detail yet but maybe it will be possible for objects set as "hub object" to refer directly to the list of wheel colours instead of the list of body colours.

That would be great! I hope that's possible.

Usually "bad normals" are caused by triangles which are too tiny or too thin. The more annoying the reminder, the more likely modders will fix them before uploading the mod

Quote from Scawen :

This is a reasonable approximation for many vehicles, but I can understand that it doesn't work for some

Yeah, it yields satisfying results most of the time. Vehicles with low spring rate relative to their weight are the ones most affected by this shortcoming - which unfortunately is the type of vehicle I'm trying to recreate.

Quote from Scawen :

you want the spring to be already compressed to some extent when the suspension is at maximum extension. Or looked at another way, you want to set a maximum extension that stops the suspension moving too far, even though the spring is still pushing at that maximum extension.

That's how it is on most real cars, right? It's not like you put the car on a lift and springs fall out That's why coil spring compressor tool is a thing. Usually it's the shock that dictates how far the suspension can extend.

Quote from Scawen :

It can be done but would require an incompatible version of LFS which I can't work on right now as I'm in the middle of the multithreading.

That's unfortunate... I was hoping there would be some "quick fix" for this I'll have to put this mod on hold for now.

Anyway, thank you for your comprehensive answer and I wish you good luck on your multithreading journey

Probably not the right topic to post this, but I have a problem with the editor when it comes to suspension.

We can precisely set how far the suspension can compress using the "Max up" slider, but we can't really do that when it comes to how far the suspension can extend. Theoretically we can do it by adjusting the "Lowest wheel height" slider, but the problem is we also use that slider to set the desired ride height once we set the suspension to desired stiffness. So the stiffness, ride height and max suspension extension can't be set to precise values without sacrificing one of them.

The car I'm working on has soft suspension and I find it impossible to make it the way it should be. As I lower the stiffness of the springs the ride hide goes lower and lower, so I have to raise the "Lowest wheel height" to compensate. Because of that I end up with 36cm of suspension travel instead of desired 26cm I can't set the control arms to the desired length because they are too short for this much suspension travel, the suspension isn't supposed to extend as far as it does.

Would it be possible to add a "Max down" slider? Or maybe you have some other idea how to solve this issue?

Vehicle mod: TRICK ROLL
Details page: https://www.lfs.net/files/vehmods/D51FB8

SHORT DESCRIPTION:

Quote :

38% shorter XFG

DESCRIPTION:

Quote :

XFG with the wheelbase shortened from 233cm to 144cm. Inspired by the RollGolf created by MasterMilo (see YouTube). Weight dropped from 942kg to 822kg after shortening the original frame to match the visual model. Front seats removed, backseat is now the driver's seat.

COVER SCREENSHOT:

I've been working on interior, taking inspiration from this gallery:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocbolt/albums/72177720296387107/page2

Here is some before and after screenshots:

Quote from Egor K :

Can we know-how?

pp technique

Quote from Flame CZE :

Good to see the fleet of buses growing!

This is how it looks in terms of dimensions next to the other buses:

Mine is the longest

Anyway... I put it on hold as I worked on some other mods, but now I'm back at it. Exterior is mostly done:






Modeled rims and a new front bumper from scratch. Now I will focus on the interior. I moved the driver position higher (it was too low - see 1st post), added some triangles to the side mirrors and made an internal mirror. Next I will have to make the steering wheel a bit nicer and create an animation for the driver.

Back in 2008 the addition of VW Scirocco to LFS was announced. It was later delayed to early 2009 or 2029, either way - it hasn't been released yet. But it was add to the LFS Skin Viewer aka CMX Viewer. I tried to use that 3D model and turn it into a mod. Unfortunately it got denied with the reason:

Quote :

I am very sorry but as this is the LFS model from the LFS viewer and using LFS textures, that would mean we have to give you permission to use it. But that permission is not ours to give.

On the bright side I now hold the WR for The Fastest Mod Denial - 1:01 hours

Anyway, in the meantime there is the KORAMA R mod which uses the steering wheel and gauge cluster from the very same CMX Viewer Scirocco 3D model along with textures.
It got published almost 2 months ago and later even received the "Approved" status.

So I'm confused - is it ok to use the 3D model and textures of the Scirocco as long as it's not the entire car?

I have a 3D model of a different hatchback, but it's missing the interior. Would it be ok if I slap the Scirocco interior into it?

What % of the Scirocco model are we allowed to use?

Wait, are russian troops supposed to de-nazify Ukraine or try to be worse than nazis?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraine-retakes-towns-where-280-receive-mass-grave-burial-20-left-dead-on-street/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60968546

I want to make a custom bus, but in order to do that I need ANY bus as a base so here we are. I fund this model on sketchfab:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/generic-town-bus-14fe03d792914d51b6c6250b393c44fd
It's a nice low-poly model, easy to work with, only 20k tris so I can keep everything in main model.

It's a fictional bus so I have freedom when it comes to specs, but at the same time I don't know what a clear list of specs I can just type in, which makes it harder.

For the dimensions I went with 12.08m length and 2.57m width (without mirrors).

When it comes to the engine I'll take inspiration from GMC T8H buses (similar to the TDH-5303 bus which you may know from movie Speed) which used Detroit Diesel 8V71 engines. It's a 9.3 liter two stroke diesel V8 engine. I'll use the most powerful version of it which is a turbocharged and aftercooled 8V71TA engine which makes 1443Nm@1200rpm and 360hp@2100rpm. I've managed to get the engine curve very close to those values:


As for the weight - I found this:
https://www.irm.org/player/cta9799/
It has the same dimensions and engine - 21182 lbs is 9.6T so I will go with that.

Weight distribution is a hard one since it's hard to find such data for buses. Most buses we have in LFS so far have somewhere between 50-60% of the weight to the back, the only exception is KAROBUS by FlameCZE at 64% - this one is the closest to reality, I think. I managed to find some data:

This bus has very similar layout and dimensions to my bus. 2,6T to the front and 5,8T translates to 69% to the back.
I've also found this:

It's a couch bus but dimensions are similar. 201 pixels out of 304 pixels is 66%

That's all I could find so far, so I'm going with 68% for now.


Tires those buses used are 12R-22.5 which is 305/80 R22.5 in metric. Sadly rim size can be only changed by 1in so I had to go with 22in. For the rear I doubled the thread width and rim width while maintaining the same wheel outer radius and ended up with 475/51 R22. Can't find what the rim width is so I eyeballed it to 9in. If someone know the actual value please tell.

I have an idea how to make different rims for the front and the back, but not sure if it will work.

So far I've only added 1 texture for the windows so there isn't much to show yet in terms of visuals but here it is:






I think I will have to rise the driver seat because it's too low. Driver should be seating at least high enough so that the center of the steering wheel doesn't cover the gauge cluster.

Unfortunately the 3D model is from Need for Speed: Shift 2

Quote from Scawen :

That won't be added any time soon as I'm kind of finished *for now* with the mods system.

Oh ok, thanks for the reply.

Would it be hard to add a virtual mirror as a mapping? You know - a mirror which doesn't reflect the car model and only shows what's behind. Many modern vehicles have LCD screens as rearview mirrors, similar to backup cameras.
I'm working on that "other vehicle" with trailing arm suspension in the front and it could really use that kind of mirror.

Quote from Scawen :

So (without having any knowledge of which vehicle you are trying so simulate) it might be best to to with linear suspension or some other suspension.

Citroen 2CV, which has trailing arms at the front and the back.
http://blogs.youwheel.com/2014/06/12/automobile-suspension-design-101-part-ii/

There is one more fictional vehicle with trailing arms in the front similar to that Citroen (but much longer) which I would like to do.

Since "Trailing Arm" suspension shows up in the front suspension type selection list, I assumed it should work.

Is there any hope that it will be added anytime soon?

Is there a way to go past this? I do have a Trailing Arm subobject, so I'm not sure what does the editor want me to do.

The steering wheel does not line up with driver's hands. Other than that very nice mod.

Is there a way to make the clutch more durable? Because when playing on mouse, just moving from a standstill on a mouse warms the clutch to almost red. I've heard that "Interia Mul" slider in the engine setup has effect on that, but haven't tested it so can't confirm.

I also wish it would be possible to swap the dash/steering to the left. I KNOW that this would be unrealistic since they only came with steering on the right but still.

Quote from Drifteris :

It depends how you select points. Clockwise will build trangle facing away and selecting points anticlockwise will build them facing you (or other way around i forgot). It is a weird feature that slows down modeling rather than speeds it up but i dont really use LFS editor to model so cant say much.

Oh, so I was missing something... but how could I know. I still feel like it would be more convenient and faster if the triangles would be created facing the direction of the camera.
Anyway, thanks for the tip.

One more thing I have problem with: Is it possible to make headlights work on a subobject? I want to mount headlights on "Mudguards" subobject, but they seem to only work on the "Main" object. When I create a new mapping on a subobject, the editor even shows the list of the "l_xxx" names, as if they were supposted to work there, but they don't. I see a few of the bike mods don't have working lights in the front because of that since they are either on the Steering Wheel or Mudguard subobject.