hey guys!

 

I've just asked myself what programs for modeling you are using? I'd tried starting some times ago only with zmodeler but it's not really that timesaving and imprecise... so I switched to Siemens NX which is currently used in automotive engineering and it's so much fun to work with... but the problem is when exporting parts as .iges or .step and afterwards converted to .obj or .3ds they will be generated with lot's of polygons e.g. for edge fillets. Furthermore if I compare those parts in one car it's only a matter of time of getting rc20 error ingame :-/

 

do you have any good suggestions to avoid this?

Don't use actual CAD software; it's optimized for a fundamentally different purpose than Zmodeler, 3ds max, or the like. CAD software is designed to create a model in order to represent an actual thing being manufactured in the real world. It doesn't care about minimizing polygon counts; what's most important is storing actual measurements of the sort that are used in manufacturing (e.g. it'll store a hole as "hole, here, this deep and this wide" instead of as a bunch of polygons), because its destiny is to be converted to technical drawings or (oftentimes) directly to commands send to CNC manufacturing equipment. That means that no consideration whatsoever is given to things like maximizing detail and minimizing polygons; accuracy is crucial, while demand on systems is generally sort of irrelevant (CAD software is often run on workstations, which are just about the most powerful computers that exist that are designed to be used by a single person sitting at the computer; cost is not a factor). It's not designed to produce a model as an end result for use in a game; it does not optimize for that.

You must use zmodeler at some point in the process. Zmodeler is a must and you can do everything that you need to do with zmodeler. 3DS is a extra option that has better features and is easier to model with. As he said above, you can't use CAD programs. If you ask anyone what they use, they will say either Zmodeler, or Zmodeler and 3DS. Its not like graphic design where you have countless programs to choose from and can easily move across different platforms. Unfortunately thats just the way it is. There are some good tutorials out there to help get you started in zmodeler. 

Edited January 20, 201511 yr by NickieB

well thanks about that! jep you're right CAD software is much more complex and actual made for the manufacturing process but I work with it all day long at work and I'm much more faster modeling with cad because of paramter functions and a bunch of modelling functions like holes and ribs and stuff.. the thing I was wondering about was just if there is a filetype and converter to .obj which actually tries to reduce polygons while converting..

I've learned alot of working with zmodeler but it's very inconvenient if you want to make some more complex parts.. but I guess I'll give 3DS a try ;)

well thanks about that! jep you're right CAD software is much more complex and actual made for the manufacturing process but I work with it all day long at work and I'm much more faster modeling with cad because of paramter functions and a bunch of modelling functions like holes and ribs and stuff.. the thing I was wondering about was just if there is a filetype and converter to .obj which actually tries to reduce polygons while converting..

I've learned alot of working with zmodeler but it's very inconvenient if you want to make some more complex parts.. but I guess I'll give 3DS a try ;)

I use Blender to create models for OMSI 2, it's free and pretty powerful, but it can't export RAGE engine files, and I don't know of a plugin for it that allows it to export .wtd, wft, .wdr etc. files, which means you'll have to use zmodeler or 3ds max as an glorified file converter, so it's probably best to use them and get your moneys worth out of them.

As others said, it's best to model in another program, export it as a  .3DS or .OBJ, and simply convert and texture it in ZModeler. 

yeah that's clear to me that a have to rework files with zmodeler and texture them :) I've also noticed that it works fine, if you don't do too much edgefillets 'cause they'll produce most of the polygons :)

I've figured out that you can easily prevent rc20 error ingame if you don't overwrite the .wft file via export but delete the old version (let's say you had put them on desktop.. so just delete the old .wft before exporting the new one) at least it worked for me pretty nice... hope this will help for some guys of you as well

Edited January 29, 201511 yr by ghost128