A challenging model... ?

[Zergling]

Hey,

Most of you have probably at least heard of the newest game in the installment of racers: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2.

Now, as many of you model cars (I'm trying a model at the moment, not doing too well, and also not getting enought time to model) I was wondering haw big a challenge this would be. These cars look terrific. They are shiny (real time reflections, no less) and have a nice poly count. Computers have to handle this count real time, so it's not astronimical, like the good car models we see on these forums are.

All the modelling is in tris (i know, because my computer's video card is wonky, and sometimes it will only display half the ploys on the model, which really looks wierd.

There are a LOT of tris, such that if the artist were modelling tri by tri, it would be impossible to maintain the body structure integrity....

But, dang, cuz this looks REALLY hard. the detail is great, but they didnt use meshsmooth. does anyone know how the good folks at EA Games did this???

(hopefully there's a screenshot attached, and there may be more, who knows)

[Zergling]

guess what car this is...

*gag*

edit: Keep in mind, this is real time, 60 fps rotating here. Also, i really want 10,000 game credits so i can unlock that baby...

[Torlok2002]

viper!!!!

[Zergling]

Yeah, you were right, it's a Viper.

I got it, and boy can it move...

Anyone figured out how they made them cars? The poly count is incredible. I mean, the sides are seamless, and curved at the same time.

I dunno, it's just bugging me.

[Little Nicky]

It is very possible that they didn't use tris. Every polygon has at least two faces (tris, none the less). It is possible that your card is only displaying half the faces, not half the polygons.

I agree it is impressive, the job they have done in the game, and I put it down to experience. EA have been around for a long time, and it shows.

[Zergling]

Yeah, but the way the polys are manipultated, it looks like the artist was working tri by tri. I dunno, actually, come to think of it, that is quite possible just working with quads.

I have a previous version of NFS, and there's lots of tools to convert .3ds stuff to a model format that the game can import, so i'm gonna try to make a Viper for NFS4, because it doesn't have one by default.

Once i do get started, i'll post in the game art section i think. Anyway, hope I can get as good as EA at makin' low-poly cars.

[Little Nicky]

It'll be good to see what you come up with.

At NFSCars (http://www.nfscars.com) they have lots of cars to download there, and as you said, they are mostly created in 3DS Max. You could download some and convert them back to 3DS format to see how they are done. You could also upload yours when you are finished :).

On that site they have tools for converting cars as well.

Good luck.