Hillman Avenger WIP

@ Zee! Thanks buddy! Looking forward for this beauty in my GTL garage. Thanks for the informations and sorry to be bothering you. Cheers!

Zee wrote:

Not a lot to update right now as i've been sidetracked re-profiling the Rover P6 body but the Avengers are starting to take shape. The rear looks a lot better with Freeracer's 'coke bottle' rear fender line and i've sorted out the shadow issue on the hood and wing tops.



I also added a grill badge (there will be others) and door locks but there's still lots to do. The rear lights are proving a pain but i'll see what i can do this week

Keep safe...

looks good mate!

just now I discovery a very easy method to handle this shadows issues: in zmodeler2, surface/normals/projection ... just cut the part in 3dsimed, export to gmt, import in zm2 and drag the vector to desired direction with the mentioned tool selected.

freeracer wrote:

just now I discovery a very easy method to handle this shadows issues: in zmodeler2, surface/normals/projection ... just cut the part in 3dsimed, export to gmt, import in zm2 and drag the vector to desired direction with the mentioned tool selected.

Sounds simple to you Cris  I've never got to grips with Zmodeler2 but i really should make the effort sometime

Now can anyone explain this to me? I've only got a tiny little needle

I'm talking about the Avengers of course: the speedo needle is really small and i want to make it bigger. Does anyone know what determines this? Just for comparison on the pic there's both the Cortina MK3 and Firenza ones just below the Avenger.



I should add the Avenger speedo texture is just for testing, it won't stay bright blue and the real car's yellow needle will be painted out but you can see just how small the in-game one is. The cockpit (and rest of the car for that matter) is based around the original GTL Escort if that's any clue?

I've tried adding both the Cortina and Firenza speedo gmt's to the Avenger cockpit in place of the original too but the needle still defaults to the small one

Any ideas welcome

Been reading about the Morris Marina. I used to be a Parts Advisor in British Leyland garages. We sold a lot of parts for Marinas over the years. One place where I worked was the sixth oldest Dealership in the UK (Cordingleys in Haslingden). It was in an old church, and I can remember carrying twenty Marina petrol tanks upstairs after a delivery.

Mel go into the .car file

TachometerRange=(0.0, 8000.0, 205.0, 335.0)
TachometerNeedle=(0.84, 0.84) < --------------------------  here  

  SpeedometerRange=(u, v, x, y)
SpeedometerNeedle=(a, b)
FuelVolumeRange=(u, v, x, y)
FuelVolumeNeedle=(a, b)
TachometerRange=(u, v, x, y)
TachometerNeedle=(a, b)
WaterTempRange=(u, v, x, y)
WaterTempNeedle=(a, b)
OilTempRange=(u, v, x, y)
OilTempNeedle=(a, b)
OilPressureRange=(u, v, x, y)
OilPressureNeedle=(a, b)

u = physical startpoint
v = physical endpoint
x = Startpoint in degree starting from 3 o'clock (0) anticockwise
y = Endpoint in degree


a = needlesize for X-direction
b = needlesize for Y-direction

also check here with a picture for the angles....

http://virtualracingsports.proboards.com/thread/72/working-cockpit-gauges

Cheers Dougie, I'll check that out

If only everything could be enlarged the same way...

I try to keep all target textures in the same size, 256x256 for example, and needle_01.tga with approximately half that size, 128 high, so just use "TachometerNeedle=(1,0, 1,0)", works better, because which means that the height and width will be multiplied by 1..if you want decreased hooks for fuel or watertemp you can use another multiplier like 0.5 (width), 0.6 (height) ..

Andy Clegg wrote:

Been reading about the Morris Marina. I used to be a Parts Advisor in British Leyland garages. We sold a lot of parts for Marinas over the years. One place where I worked was the sixth oldest Dealership in the UK (Cordingleys in Haslingden). It was in an old church, and I can remember carrying twenty Marina petrol tanks upstairs after a delivery.

If you were dealing with Marinas an old church was probably the safest place to be

Especially after driving them!!!

Thanks for the help Dougie and Cris, there's some good info there

Here's a pic of the new clocks just below the old ones;



They look better in game as the pic i uploaded is a bit small and i still have to calibrate the tach needle as it's shifting up at 3000 rpm on the clock.

One more question: I need to make the needles a bit more orange as per real Avengers but the tacho one looks to be red in pics so is there any way to have different coloured needles in the same cockpit?

Zee wrote:

One more question: I need to make the needles a bit more orange as per real Avengers but the tacho one looks to be red in pics so is there any way to have different coloured needles in the same cockpit?

As far as I know, no, there's only one texture file for the needle, all gauges use the same, you can only vary the size.

kikoya wrote:

As far as I know, no, there's only one texture file for the needle, all gauges use the same, you can only vary the size.

I thought that might be the case. There's not a huge difference in the colours anyway so the orange will be fine

Zee wrote:

kikoya wrote:

As far as I know, no, there's only one texture file for the needle, all gauges use the same, you can only vary the size.

I thought that might be the case. There's not a huge difference in the colours anyway so the orange will be fine

My dear Mel, you can vary the size and thickness of the needle by changing these 2 numbers. One is the size and the other is the thickness of the needle. I don't know whick one do this and that, you must try, but for sure, each one changes one and other thing. Cheers!

The dash is starting to take shape now. I've got the gauges looking like the Avenger ones except that i've changed the pointless (in GTL) ammeter for an oil temp gauge. I might still need to sort the calibrations out a little more though.



One thing i was wondering: what controls engine cranking and startup in the engine file? The Avengers are using BYL Escort Mexico physics at the moment and when you go to drive the engine is already running. If i swap the Mexico lump for a Lotus Cortina engine and then go for a drive it cranks over before firing up. I looked in the engine file and figured it would be the line;

StarterTiming=(1.40, 0.4000, 1.5000)   // average and variable cranking time, then time to blend with starting sound

But the Lotus engine has the same numbers so what am i missing?

could be here how much throttle at idle ?

IdleThrottle=1.0
IdleRPMLogic=(1200.0, 1300.0)

fatguts wrote:

could be here how much throttle at idle ?

IdleThrottle=1.0
IdleRPMLogic=(1200.0, 1300.0)

Cheers Dougie, I'll have a look later and see if that does the trick.

Found it!

It turns out it's the first 2 settings at the beginning of the engine file (in red);

RPMTorque=( 0.0, -35.0, -40.0)
RPMTorque=( 250.0, -20.0, -84.8)
RPMTorque=( 500.0, -9.6, 113.0)
RPMTorque=( 750.0, -15.4, 147.7)
RPMTorque=( 1000.0, -16.0, 135.1)
RPMTorque=( 1250.0, -17.0, 126.5)

I noticed in the Lotus Cortina's engine file the equivalent numbers had a negative value so i changed the Mexico ones to match and now it cranks over before starting

Useful bit of info

Good morning people, hope you're all well

I've made a bit of progress recently: Here's a couple of shots of the external interior with new dash, clocks, steering column and rollcage;





There's also the Chrysler (and Dodge Polara) Avenger grill that'll be an option too;



Am I right in thinking the Dodge versions had black grills? I'm gonna try the Chrysler grill with silver paint anyway as the chrome looks a bit garish from some angles.

It'll need 3 different sets of rear lights, different bumpers and dash and lord knows what else to cover the various models so for now work continues...

Looking good

As you can see here, take a look at grill and double lights:


That's the model who win the Brasilian championship 1976
Black grill and 4 round lights

Zee wrote:

Am I right in thinking the Dodge versions had black grills? I'm gonna try the Chrysler grill with silver paint anyway as the chrome looks a bit garish from some angles.

Just hope there isn't a Bear Grylls version, if there is I'll wager it's a 4 wheel drive

ney.dias wrote:

As you can see here, take a look at grill and double lights:


That's the model who win the Brasilian championship 1976
Black grill and 4 round lights  

That grill is very like the Avenger GLS one which I was planning to make. There's pix online of the Brazilian ones with the big square lights too so they should both be covered.
I've got some Chrysler spec rear lights made now, i just have to adjust the texture slightly. I'm hoping Freeracer can make the earlier 'Hockey stick' rear lights though as my attempts were shocking

GeeDee wrote:

Zee wrote:

Am I right in thinking the Dodge versions had black grills? I'm gonna try the Chrysler grill with silver paint anyway as the chrome looks a bit garish from some angles.

Just hope there isn't a Bear Grylls version, if there is I'll wager it's a 4 wheel drive

There's actually a 4 wheel drive Avenger out there with a 4.5ltr V8 in it...

Zee wrote:

GeeDee wrote:

Zee wrote:

Am I right in thinking the Dodge versions had black grills? I'm gonna try the Chrysler grill with silver paint anyway as the chrome looks a bit garish from some angles.

Just hope there isn't a Bear Grylls version, if there is I'll wager it's a 4 wheel drive

There's actually a 4 wheel drive Avenger out there with a 4.5ltr V8 in it...

Well there you go Mel, I bet it belongs to that Grylls fella