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.

Good to see the fleet of buses growing! Nice research, keep it up!

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.

Quote from Amynue :

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

Can we know-how?

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

amazing mod perfect!

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.

Best bus to drive imo. I need default skin to make some skins tho. Enjoying your work

I don't know what's up with that wheel, but I was thinking about this today.

At first thought it seems I should add something which is really quite simple, just like how brake / mudguard / handlebar objects work but even simpler, a new "hub" object that rotates with the wheel. You could set one per wheel and I think that could cover hubs, disk brakes, sprockets etc.

At first glance it seems simple to code but let me know if there is more for me to consider.

Quote from Scawen :

I don't know what's up with that wheel, but I was thinking about this today.

At first thought it seems I should add something which is really quite simple, just like how brake / mudguard / handlebar objects work but even simpler, a new "hub" object that rotates with the wheel. You could set one per wheel and I think that could cover hubs, disk brakes, sprockets etc.

At first glance it seems simple to code but let me know if there is more for me to consider.

I've asked a few of my modder friends and they think it's a good idea. It could simplify many things on more complicated mods (like off-road trucks and buggys)
Since we're talking about subobjects - Is there any chance you could make light textures (l_head,l_find...) work on subobjects? The lights on a big number of bike mods don't work because of them being on the Steering Wheel or Handlebar subobject, which is kind of a bummer.

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 Amynue :

- 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.

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

Quote :

Vehicle editor:

Maximum value for main body drag increased from 1.0 to 6.0

Dashboard editor:

Speedo:
- set maximum value in km/h (steps of 5)
- option to show units (km/h or mph)

EDIT: there are similar options for the tacho now, and you can set it to 5..10..15..20... if you set it to x100 instead of x1000

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.

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

Hi Amynue
This is my favorite bus on LFS.

Quote from Amynue :

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

It may be advisable to avoid using many workarounds right now.

Here is some information about the changes that are coming soon: https://www.lfs.net/forum/thread/104758