Hey, The other day, I found myself thinking about what program(s0 they use to create LFS, what modeling program or app do they use?

and If anything, are there any programs out there that can change modify DDS files, or texture files? I've always wanted to try it since people have already created a night mod and a Desert/ and snow mod!

Hopefully I'm not asking too much!

Thanks in Advance!

Nick

As far as I know (I know very little) they make their own 3D applications to make 3D tracks and cars and have their own custom file format for 3D models just so no-one can't edit the tracks/cars.

As for Editing DDS Files, this is allowed and is explained there.

Quote from JasonJ :

[they] have their own custom file format for 3D models just so no-one can't edit the tracks/cars.

hehe, sounds like a conspiracy to me

In reality, they probably use custom formats for their car/track/object models because the models contain information used by physics/collision as well as just graphical data.
Because this extra info is complex and unique, and also crucial to the game, they need to build custom tools to generate/create it.

Nobody knows for sure if the tools are built from scratch(afaik?) - they might be... it's also possible that Scawen has developed custom plugins for one of the many 3d editors available.... maybe for 3D studio Max, or for Blender...

Personally I hope they are either scratch built, or plugins for a free or cheap existing editor - I wouldn't want (or be able) to fork out thousands for a top level 3D app just to dabble with LFS car models ... assuming that the tools are released after S3

From what I've heard Scawen say in the past, it's almost certainly made from scratch. Scawen has stated before he spent some time working on their in game tools to share parts between files (hence the vob files cover multiple cars), to save alterations having to be re-done several times for similar cars. Doing it this way also means you can program the same lighting engine into the 3D creation software, so it will look exactly the same in the editor as it will ingame.

If it was me (one can dream), I would use a library to manage zip files.

Then I would put data in the game as password-protected zip file without the header or something like that. It is not the best protection of course, but it is easy, fast, and it does everything necessary (CRC check to avoid changes, password protection, and compression in one step).

But this is pure speculation. I wanted to check that some time ago in order to add random tiny bumps in tracks...but I did not have enough time to search.

Quote from Juls :

If it was me (one can dream), I would use a library to manage zip files.

Then I would put data in the game as password-protected zip file without the header or something like that. It is not the best protection of course, but it is easy, fast, and it does everything necessary (CRC check to avoid changes, password protection, and compression in one step).

But this is pure speculation. I wanted to check that some time ago in order to add random tiny bumps in tracks...but I did not have enough time to search.

Erm.. zip is very popular and there ARE methods to unlock it, which are even accesible to nonproffesionals.