Ridgerunner

For those that may experience this "situation" in the future, I ended up going with $300 Data Recovery out in Los Angeles, California and they recovered all my files for a flat rate of, you guessed it $300. Which for those shopping around is a good bargain, normal costs run anywhere from $500-$2,500 for data recovery. It's always better to backup your data and save the headache, but who would have thought 2 hdd's would fail at the same time? I plan on backing up 3 or 4 ways from now on instead of backing up hdd to hdd. Now I can get back to my GTA V mods!

I attempted recovery via Ubuntu as directed on hdd recovery sites, no luck. I couldn't even force mount the drives. The seagate has already started to go to making "clicking noises".

Hey guys, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience dealing with any HDD data recovery companies. I just experienced mechanical failure on 3 HDD's in the past 2 weeks (2 laptop HDD's and 1 desktop HDD, 4 years of modding data). I've tested all of the drives, and even had another experienced PC repair friend double check my work, and no luck getting any data off of them using a number of different techniques. I'm specifically wondering if anyone has any dealings with the flat rate companies (low flat rate for your data or you don't pay). I know you have reliability, often times 99% of your data, by going with a well established HDD data recovery company with certified lab, etc., but the prices (generally $500-$2500) aren't exactly something I'm excited about. If I can get a similar end result for going with one of the smaller (and far cheaper) companies that are still in the process of growing, but are experienced in HDD data recovery I would be much happier going in that direction. If anyone has direct experience, or indirect experience (maybe through family or a friend), I'd love to hear about that experience before I make a decision. Worse case scenario I choose a flat rate company and they can't pull any data off the drive (or data that I don't really need) and damage the drive in the process where another company can no longer work their magic on it and thus I can no longer retrieve that important data OR pay way too much for the same service that another competitor can do it for. Thanks guys! -Ridgerunner

One of the LCPDFR's core ToS is "Respect" and for good reason. You cannot build a strong, healthy, happy community without having community members displaying mutual respect for one another. Depending on how long you've been in the community you'll hear this hot topic of "modder rights" come up over and over again. At it's core is this idea of "Respect". When we look past the distracting side discussions, (like copyright/trademark issues that none of these game studios pursue), we see a small group of ambitious, energetic, and very generous individuals, that are willing to invest their own time and energy into creating something new for the games we all enjoy (like the GTA series). These individuals will release their content (sometimes in "locked" form, sometimes it's "unlocked" for the public). They will include a credits file (often overlooked by the end user) and those authors who have contributed to the work in the final release are acknowledged by name. All of those authors cited in the credits file have been contacted for proper permissions and have given their consent through direct contact, or have done so in a text file included with the original authors creation. Side note: If a gaming studio ever directly contacted us, and requested us to remove any content using their work, we would gladly comply. We're not profiting from their work. We're not competing with their companies business interests. So I believe it would be a fair assessment to believe that these gaming studio's are well aware that their content is being used for various mods in a lot of different games (not just the GTA series), and do not particularly care enough to warrant some kind of legal action. Maybe if we were making thousands of dollars it would catch someone's attention, but that's simply not the case in our community. So the original authors have given their permission to use their work, and have been properly cited as a contributing author to the final released modification. Anyone not complying with these basic steps are contacted directly and asked to A) contact the original author (in the case of permissions) or B) properly credit who made what for their release. Anyone who refuses to comply with these simple requirements are punished by having the file removed, and possibly having their account suspended or banned. This is exactly how things are suppose to work in a community that shows respect for each other. Why is it so important to get permissions and/or credit properly? It goes back to the original point of having respect for one another. You're acknowledging that someone else has invested time and energy into creating something new. Even in cases where an individual has taken an existing model from another game, their is significant time and energy invested in editing the model to meet the requirements of GTA SA/IV/V. Parts are needed, proper LOD's created, materials assigned, etc. A direct example of this would be vehicle doors. Some video games do not have vehicle doors that open in game and thus save geometry by deleting the edges of the door that are unseen in their game. All of this geometry needs to be added and fixed for the GTA series, as this area is displayed in game. Often times a base vehicle model is older or different from a police model, and thus require all of those edits. The whole time process can vary dramatically (vehicle to vehicle, modder experience, etc.), but regardless their is always a significant amount of time and energy being invested by that individual. When we ask permission from an author to use something that they've worked on, we're recognizing that significant investment of time and energy and we're respecting their time and energy contributions. Anyone who doesn't, is showing a tremendous amount of disrespect for this individual by minimizing the value of that individuals personal contributions. You're basically saying, "I don't care about the amount of hours you've spent working on your mod, and I don't care about the energy you've invested in the project. It's all insignificant.". That's really a terrible thing to say to someone don't you think? They've just spent time that they'll never get back and an enormous amount of energy, not to mention a significant amount of passionate devotion to their project to finish it, and you've minimized those contributions by saying that they're insignificant. That's not exactly the stuff we build a healthy, harmonious community on (something to think about). This is a really important concept that anyone not understanding what all the fuss is about needs to understand. Believe me I understand your confusion. I never understood it myself until I actually started modeling, and editing these models and realized that there is a tremendous amount of time and effort involved, which completely changed my mind on the subject. At that significant point in time, I realized it should completely be up to the individual authors to determine how (and by whom) their work should be used. Modders rights, are basic rights that respect the individual authors time and energy contributions by asking for and getting their permissions to use their work and properly crediting them for that work. The facts are these models aren't hidden away on the internet. The models themselves and the techniques to convert them for the GTA series are available for anyone willing to invest the time and energy into a similar project. Important note: Most modders are more then willing to answer modding related questions and give you constructive feedback on your work to help you improve your work. Everyone in this discussion wants the same thing. A friendly place, where people treat each other fairly and with mutual respect. A place to be able to share your ideas, and freely share your content with others, without a healthy fear people will take advantage of your generosity and use your content without proper permissions. We all want access to play these amazing modifications in our own game. We all want to see the community expand, and we all want to see more people willing to get their hands dirty and contribute themselves (this is exactly how we get more mods for the game). We (modders) are not the enemy here, we're just asking the community to respect our time and energy contributions by asking before using our content, and to properly credit us when we do give permissions. If you're frustrated by this, then do what I did 4 years ago, and start learning everything you can about modding, and start releasing your own content to the public (then you'll understand our perspective better). This is about building a better community and this is exactly how we start to achieve that goal.

I'm working on a CHP Harley Davidson Electra Glide (will be the newer 2014-15 model though)(I have plans to probably release the older style Electra Glide as a fictional model, maybe a LAPD model if it's requested enough), but I just had my desktop and laptop HDD's go down on me and I'm trying to recover my files on one of those HDD's. For those requesting anything (ie; Motorcylcle, Car, Truck, etc.) the most helpful thing for modelers are blueprints for the model (TOP, SIDES, FRONT, REAR are best), and good HQ reference pictures that have 360 coverage, and please show interiors if applicable. The other helpful thing is to have reference pictures of the equipment the agency uses (or at least knowledge of the manufacturer and specific model).

No offense to any moderators on the community team, but until I see an official post by Sam regarding LCPDFR's stance on mods for GTA V, I'm going to refrain from fully addressing this topic.

I also agree this is another example of the racial industrial complex our nation finds itself struggling today. Race had nothing to do with this incident, once again.... Without addressing the police state NY has become, anyone else have an issue with the way EMT/Paramedics handled that incident. I don't have the training, but common sense says that if you respond to an incident and the patient is complaining about not being able to breathe you would put them on O2. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but for the most part I would think that would be a reasonable common sense approach. They just seemed to be very casual about everything, no sense of urgency. I thought I saw her take his pulse but I don't remember her even checking his airway? Any working as a EMT/Paramedic correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel proper life saving measures taken immediately probably would have saved his life. If you're a first responder you can't afford to get complacent in the job. Whether you're a FF, EMT/Paramedic, or Police Officer, complacency kills.

@Valium The CVPI model I'm using is a DSF CVPI conversion by EVI. I'm trying to be as detailed and accurate as possible with my pack. There are so many variants and minor changes between models within agencies its not possible to have every car match up perfectly. So the idea is to get the most common parts to best represent each state. Some states will have addition models (most likely slicktop variants). CSP is one of those states. My biggest concern with the PDF's is getting the light patterns accurate. Although all the other information is helpful to prevent a very vanilla model. Since we don't know how the vehicle setups in GTA V will be, I'll have to wait and watch to see how parts like push bars can be added. Ideally you'd be able to cycle through parts like that and they would spawn on random models to add variety to the game. If you ever find good HQ videos of State Agencies light patterns, interior equipment, maybe a walk around, you can always send me a pm with a link. I'm always on the hunt for good HQ photo references too (especially interior shots). So don't feel confined to the PDF file, sometimes a few good links are worth their weight in gold with the information I can glean from it. I spend countless hours just on textures, and modeling, so any time I don't have to waste chasing down reference material is a lifesaver!

I think the best state pack for GTA IV are the NYSP ones, since they fit the map the best. I'm actually working on a State Police Pack for every US state and yes the Colorado State Patrol will have a model (right now I have 2 planned). The catch is that it's for GTA V and only for the CVPI model, but every state agency will have at least one cvpi model. For anyone wanting to help I have a fillable pdf file that you can fill out and sent to me. For anyone interested in my project checkout the topic here:

I can certainly understand the problem facing all these cities across the US. There are a host of issues revolving the homeless. I don't think though that these laws are created to help deal with the issue, they're really just pushing the homeless out from the major areas (out of sight out of mind right?). I found the video disturbing when I originally watched it. I find it troubling when government is using the police to confiscate food for the hungry and arresting/citing those that are volunteering their own free time and money/resources to help those that have nothing at all. At the same time what are they doing to help with the problem? Creating more laws? And who has to deal with the immediate feelings of anger and frustration, not to mention the bad PR? The police, not the government officials that enacted the law. If I'm not mistaken the issue was that they didn't have the proper sanitation services and bathroom facilities to comply with the law. So instead of meeting the groups halfway, maybe say provide porta-potty's, so that the groups are complying with the law, instead they choose to prosecute and confiscate food. Taking food as evidence? Really? You can't just video record or take photographs and give out the food to those that need it before it goes bad? This case is going to court I expect the city to lose the decision, as they've already been sued by that pastor before and lost. These people have nothing and our answer to help them is to ignore them and push them out of the city so we don't have to deal with the problem? Maybe I'm too much of a humanitarian, but this just feels terribly wrong on so many levels. Murica.....

Strange, I'm using the latest 2.2.0 with no issues (knock on wood). I've been working on a few vehicles atm and have been in and out of the vehicles folder without issue. I wonder if its one of those issues that can be fixed with a complete uninstall and reinstall of the program? PC's can be extremely frustrating with these kinds of things. If you think its a legitimate bug with the program I know OpenIV has a reporting process on their website.

Your experience in AF Security Forces is going to be very dependent on your duty station and your command there. Some bases have zero mission and are boring as hell, other's you're busy all the time and you can work many diverse roles. Also, it's very dependent on your command whether you can get any of that training. Some units get absolutely no chance of ever going to those schools. On the other hand. I've heard the guys at Moody AFB (820th, etc) that deploy a lot, get a lot of opportunities to go to all those schools. Personally I don't understand AF Security Forces going through ARMY sniper, ranger, airborne school. Ranger school is a tough experience. If I'm going to put in the work and earn the tab I'd want to be assigned to a Ranger unit and walk the walk. I always ask people why not just join the ARMY if you wanted to do those things and actually work in units that use those skills full time. I'm all for cross training and developing your skill set but let's be honest, a lot of that training is overkill for the day to day mission of Air Force Security Forces. Feels more like bragging rights more then anything else, just my .02.

Epic stuff

I remember a similar guy baiting Washington State Patrol into stopping him so he could receive a traffic citation and make the argument in court because he had made numerous complaints and nothing was done. The law was then updated and the Washington State Patrol exemption was added thereafter. This constitutionist makes a ridiculous argument. Sure the unit was unmarked, it was awaiting decals and the Sheriff wasn't willing to jeopardize public safety by not having it out on the street. There is a thing called "The spirit of the law and The letter of the law". I think this guy needs to keep that in mind when reading any laws. You have a fully uniformed officer in a vehicle that screams police vehicle, fully equipped, the only thing it didn't possess was agency markings. I really don't see the issue of them using the vehicle during day time hours and the deputy is in full uniform. On top of that his complaint shouldn't have been with the deputy, but this is something he should address with the specific agency, maybe even state. The guy wastes 15 minutes of the deputy's time addressing this minor issue. It wasn't like the agency wasn't going to comply with the law, it's a matter of having limited budgets and resources and taking care of public safety while juggling these complications. You have to ask yourself is public safety jeopardized more by having an unmarked police vehicle with a fully uniformed officer patrolling the area in day time hours or by not having that deputy out there and having one less patrol on the road?

It's an incredibly ambitious project, especially considering all of my other projects that I have, but I think it's very do able. It's one of the reasons I made it only for the 2006-11 CVPI (EVI's DSF conversion). Most agencies are very straight forward, consider how many for example run Whelen Liberty's. If I can get the proper amount of information from the community for each state (spread the word to your friends!) then I should be fine. I lose tons and tons of hours researching my projects (multiply that for every state), sometimes with little to show for the time wasted and with those same hours I could be using to model parts, making skins, assembling the model, etc. I've already modeled a huge collection of lighting and equipment, there's nothing that I can't scratch make without proper reference photos. So I think a large part of my success will be dependent on how helpful the community is. If I only get a few people helping with say a dozen states then it'll make it very difficult to complete the project for every state, but if I get a lot of response from the community over the next few months then my chance on pulling this off goes way up. So spread the word, the more information I have to go on, the easier it is to complete the project!

"TRIM" refers to the CVPI's side door panel trim. I'm no CVPI expert and it seems like models go back and forth with what trim they use. Depending on a agency's graphics they may have full trim (Front & Rear Doors) or they may just have trim on the rear door, some pictures even show no door trim at all. Generally I see only two "styles" of door panel trim, those being "squared" & "rounded". I tried but couldn't find the proper names for the different styles, so I kept it simple, lol. Hopefully that answers that for you.

First off to any mods reading this, if there is a better place to put this topic I apologize, its an odd topic for the forum as it currently stands. JAM-Justin35 said I could throw him under the bus on this one telling me to put this topic in this specific category. Moving along... I need a bunch of help with gathering information on every State Police/ State Patrol/ Highway Patrol/ Department of Public Safety for every US state. For a full list you can view my profile. This upcoming WIP is only for the 2006-2011 CVPI model and only for those state agencies. My goal is to have at least 1 accurate CVPI for each state agency for GTA V. This is where you guys come in. I have created a PDF form that is completely fillable that will help me put together these models and be as accurate as possible. You can download and use 3rd party freeware such as PDF-XChange Viewer by Tracker Software to save the information in the PDF (without purchasing Adobe Reader). Guys please take your time with this and gather as much information as possible (keep in mind its only for the 2006+ CVPI's). It doesn't help me to have 3/4 of the form empty and I'm left with more questions then answers. Also please keep in mind that I need good HQ reference images, to see the equipment used, to make an accurate skin, etc. I can't stress this enough. If I need to make a specific logo and all I have is a fuzzy photo it's going to be awfully hard to duplicate for the model. The more information I receive the more accurate the model will be. If you want your state represented properly here's your chance. Again this is open to anyone wishing to donate their time to gather the information Please download the PDF below: http://www.mediafire.com/view/frg2du22vyk9huu/STATE_POLICE_REQUEST_FORM.pdf You can send completed forms to my email: mht2021@gmail.com I've completed an example PDF using the Maine State Police as a reference. Keep in mind every agency is different. Maine has a very basic setup (hence a lot of N/A being used). For those interested/confused download the example to get a better idea of what I'm looking for. https://www.mediafire.com/?991xemoy0z198q8 A big thanks for everyone contributing to this project!