I have been playing GTA games for years, and have always wanted to be an officer in the game, I recently found out about lcpdfr and love all the vehicle mods. My question is what are some good programs to make vehicles I would like to use in the game?

Another question is, will it work on iPads and laptops, or just desktops?

Well basically any 3d modelling program'll do, I suggest Autodesk 3ds Max or Inventor (these can be obtained for free via students.autodesk.com). And then to convert your creations to GTA IV, you'll need ZModeler (which you have to pay for). The programs listed will only work on computers running Windows. For tutorials you can check out the tutorials section on here for very detailed and helpful tutorials!

You should not use Inventor, period. While it is a good program, it is *terrible* for this sort of modeling - it's a CAD program, not a generic 3D modeling program. Essentially, Inventor doesn't concern itself with things like polys, which you absolutely need to worry about for car mods. The reason is that Inventor is not designed for making models where the model is the finished product - it's designed for making models to help with building something in the real world. Instead of dealing with models as a bunch of polys, it deals with things like holes, extrusions, lofts, sweeps, etc., which get stored as those higher-level concepts (enabling you to, say, easily move a hole a bit). Do not use Inventor, AutoCAD, or any other CAD/CAM program for video game modding. It will not work.

As for 3ds max, I'd recommend you not use that to start. ZModeler is the only program that can export to IV vehicles, and so you must learn to use it anyway. Given that, for any simpler modeling jobs, use ZModeler. 3ds max really only finds a use when you are doing scratch modeling, because that's complicated enough it can be worth doing in it, but when you're starting out, ZModeler is better.

tl;dr - Don't use Inventor ever, don't use 3ds max to start out, just use ZModeler.

Also,

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Moved to Content Mods

Ok my next question is, how do I start and get all of it together? I live in sacramento county and want to make am Elk Grove PD (CA) crown vic, and impala, along with a Merced county sheriff (CA) crown vic, and a few other models. Any help is greatly appreciated.

There are many variants of just about every cop car you can imagine already made and ready to use.  Some high-poly, some low-poly...some ELS, some NonELS.  Look for one and install it, unless you just want to try your hand at modelling for shits and grins.

 

DrDetroit