Hello folks!

- I'm one of the older guys here in LFS. But still, there are parts of LFS that I have never had a proper look into. Time goes..
One of these areas is how to put your own very personal touch of your vehicle. And by all means, there's a lot of reading to do about the subject. And that is perhaps good. Or bad. Unfortunately it seem that most of information is a little topsy-turvy. If you want to be nice.


But now I'd like to know more about this topic. Without spending endless with hours and even more hours just to find what I was reading didn't answer my question.

Below are a few questions about the topic and I really hope are easily answered;


0. Skin - Basic canvas in various resolutions. Everyone knows what this is.

1. Sometimes I read about "3ds cars models". What are these? What are they used for?

2. "blender"? What can I blend? What does it do, and when to use it?

3. "rendering"? In the real life world I came from (the 3D-CAM world), rendering means to create a 3D-object into a 3Dfile. Like a car. Or a printed rim. Does this mean we make our own car and rims in LFS and use them?

4. "rendering skins"? Rendering a skin? What's that? Skins are plane canvases you put som paint on. How can one render a skin?

5. "3d models"? Yeah, I work a lot with 3D-models. Working with 3D-models in LFS, is that when you want to alter som small part on a rim or perhaps the entire front of a car to make it look more...You? Can we do that too?



Thank you for answerings.
I'm an extremely intelligent dude in some things...
Other days it amazes me how **** stupid I am.




ratata

I think the more common use of "rendering" means to turn 3D-files into 2D images.

The LFS cars can be loaded into 3D modeling software to create scenes and effects that can not be done ingame.
For example put the cars on a reflective floor that it kinda looks like a showroom, or take wheels off or open doors.
The rims/wheel are seperate 3D objects from the body so exchanging rims is relatively easy and popular too.

Or put the cars into completly new enviroments:




The postings where people write "please render this skin" mean they want such images created with their car's skin.

There is no use to the images other than that they are nice to look at
Or maybe sometimes to showcase a new skin or your team or whatever. Or use it for 'posters':


Hm sorry for the large picture spam, but best way to show what it is about. Picures not by me, random ones from forum.


Blender is a free program that can do this: https://www.blender.org
Some tutorials/prepared files are on LFS forum but it is still not so easy to use.
Different ways and programs exists, requires some looking around.

I once followed this tutorial: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/34770-Ready-To-Render-kit-%28free%29
It already includes the car-filse in a format that Blender can load.
Maybe someone else knows if there are better or more up to date ways, but that one worked for me.

Quote from Gutholz :

The LFS cars can be loaded into 3D modeling software to create scenes and effects that can not be done ingame.
For example put the cars on a reflective floor that it kinda looks like a showroom, or take wheels off or open doors.

- But this is only done if you wish to show your car in a cool pose in an otherwise obscure environment?

Quote from Gutholz :

The rims/wheel are seperate 3D objects from the body so exchanging rims is relatively easy and popular too.

I understand that it's a go with customized rims. And also use these custom rims anywhere ingame? But how about the body? Would it be correct to assume the body has to be left intact? Or can minor parts, like spoilers, inlets and more be customized as long as you don't alter the main design?


thanks
ratata

you can alter any textures which are in the lfs/data/dds folder along with any in the lfs/data/pic folder but when it comes to the car models it is forbidden to remodel if they are to be used ingame.

For rendering ect I believe you can download some which are in a format which
can be imported and used in a 3d modelling application but I cannot remember where I had seen them but I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction

EDIT - You can obtain the models which can be used in a 3dsMAX at the following link - https://ds-autos.digiserv.net/scenes/lfs


@Gutholz
damn them renders look amazing

Thanks for your reply.

- I forgot to ask one thing; altered rims, will they be visible to others in multiplayer sessions? If so, automatically or will I have to prepare for that in any certain way?


thanks
ratata

Quote from RipperJax :

Thanks for your reply.

- I forgot to ask one thing; altered rims, will they be visible to others in multiplayer sessions? If so, automatically or will I have to prepare for that in any certain way?


thanks
ratata

anything altered such as rim textures ect are only visible on your screen unless the other players have them installed also
The only thing that is visible are skins if uploaded to lfsworld