Cars for GTA3© and GTA© Vice City
In
2002,
game
editing
(or
let
alone
„modding“)
was
in
its
early
state.
The
only
powerful
tool
of
interest
was 3D-Studio-Max© but it was very expensive and not affordable for any private user.
Another
tool
we
know
today,
that
has
its
origin
in
this
period
is
Maya©
by
Autodesk©.
It
only
became
popular
in
the
gaming
industry
after
about
2008
though,
because
official
SDKs
for
games
rarely
contained official exporters until then.
I
do
not
judge
which
program
is
better
–
Maya©
or
3D-Studio-Max©.
Every
user
should
test
every
program
on
the
market
and
chose
for
himself
which
suits
better.
Today
we
have
much
more
(sometimes
free)
tools
available
and
Maya©
and
3D-Studio-Max©
have
become
more
similar
to
each
other. I guess, ultimately personal preferences are important.
But
back
in
2002
we
had
no
choice.
Fortunately
it
was
not
absolutely
necessary
to
use
expensive
tools,
because
3D-modelling
with
LODs
or
special
modifiers
didn’t
exist
and
neither
did
games
that
supported
their
modding.
And
we
are
not
talking
about
the
quality
and
options
we
know
from
today.
Looking
at
my
bills
archive,
my
PC
in
2002
had
an
NVidia©
GF4600TI,
AMD©
Athlon
XP
2600+,
512
MB RAM DDR333 and a 120GB HDD.
The beginning of my 3D-visualization
I
came
in
contact
with
the
creation
of
3D-models
in
2002,
when
the
game
GTA3©
was
released
and
other
users
from
the
game
„Need
for
Speed©“
began
to
convert
their
cars
for
it.
I
was
fascinated,
but
not
only
by
the
new
GTA3©.
I
was
also
intrigued
by
the
option
to
bring
custom
cars
into
the
game.
„Mapping“
I
had
met
and
learned
with
Quake
3
Arena©
but
not
the
implementation
of
custom
content.
And this subject interested me very much.
One
year
earlier,
in
2001,
I
had
joined
a
group
of
free
US-car-friends
in
Langebrück
(Germany),
a
small
town
next
to
Dresden.
In
the
same
year
we
founded
the
label
„
Sundaycruiser
“
for
the
group.
Indirectly,
the
start
of
my
3D-work
has
relationship
with
this
group.
In
1999
I
had
bought
my
Chevrolet
Camaro Z28© and my first idea was to bring it into GTA3©, just like other cars from our club.
As
I
have
written
above,
big
commercial
tools
for
3D-modelling
were
not
affordable
to
buy.
Fortunately,
mainly
modders
from
the
Need
For
Speed©
community
joined
into
the
upcomming
GTA3©
modding
community
and
suggested
the
tool
„
Zanoza
ZModeler
1©
“,
by
the
programmer
Oleg
Melashenko.
Compared
with
modern
techniques
this
tools
was
simple
but
it
worked
very
well
and
taught
me
to
recreate
reality
in
3D.
Scenarios
for
which
modern
tools
offer
lots
of
help
were
all
handmade in 2002!
But
in
September
2002,
when
I
downloaded
the
free
tool
Zmodeler
1©,
my
first
reaction
was
disillusion.
I
had
greatly
underestimated
the
work
and
effort.
But
I
did
not
give
up.
After
a
few
tests
and
first
simple
objects,
I
chose
to
start
with
a
conversion
of
an
existing
Need
for
Speed©-car,
as
practice.
In
October
2002,
I
started
the
conversion
of
the
first
car
,
not
without
getting
permission
from
its
original
author
(AdR).
And
well,
I
started
a
„repeating
circumstance“:
modding
games,
after
playing
them
for
just
a
few
hours.
I
realized
that
I
had
more
fun
with
creating
or
modifying
things
that
with
playing the games.
Below
you
find
a
few
pictures
of
the
most
important
cars
that
I
worked
on.
If
you
follow
the
links
you
will see that most of the cars are available until today.
On
the
picture
on
the
left
you
can
see
the
1968
Camaro
that
converted
for
GTA3©.
As
I
have
written
in
the
text
above,
the
original
Autor
(AdR)
gave me the permission to do this.
I
released
two
versions
of
the
car.
The
first
one
,
which
had
no
bonnet
and
the
second
one
where
I
added
one
(my
first
own
mesh,
after
a
little
bit
of
modelling practice).
The
term
„conversion“
may
sound
little
derogatory
but
it
is
not!
Cars
created
for
Need
for
Speed©
were
closed
and
not
accessible,
in
contrary
to
the
GTA3©
cars.
For
this
game
it
was
necessary
to
convert
the
cars
to
make
them
usable.
This
means:
separation
of
the
doors,
the
rear
hood,
the
bonnet,
the
windscreen
and
both
wings
at
the
front.
After
that,
all
visible
areas
between
inner
and
outer
meshes
had
to
be
closed
with
new
polygons.
The
reason
is
simple:
when
you
disassembled
the
car,
it
left
no
closed
surfaces
between
both.
For
example
at
the
inner
wings
or
doors.
And
no
trunk,
of
course.
Please
imagine
that
I
disassembled
the
complete
car,
set
the
necessary
dummies
for
GTA3©,
set
all
required
parts
back
together
and
created
&
textured
the
missing
parts.
After
finishing
the
car
I
wrote its handling-file and packed the required files together for final use.
One
of
my
next
cars
was
inspired
by
the
last
years’
(2001)
movie
„Training
Day“
by
„Warner
Brothers©“.
Because
of
the
few
cars
available
for
a
conversion
(most
authors
do
this
by
themselves)
I
browsed
the
internet
and
found
the
free
model
of
a
Chevrolet
Monte
Carlo
(1979)
.
After
a
huge
modification
of
the
cars’
mesh,
I
prepared
it
same
way
as
the
Camaro
and
set
it
up for final use.
Another
conversion
was
the
1932-HotRod
by
the
original
Author
„P
R
O“.
As
I
have
written
above,
the
conversion
process
was
almost
always
the
same.
- Disassembling the car
- Adding new polygons to close open areas
- Retexturing, mostly with newly made textures
- Creation of new textures when it was need
- Damaged parts for the damaged state
- Dummies, which the GTA©-engine needs
- Paneling of the inner wings under the hood and
in the cars’ trunk
- Packing and setting up the car with the needed
scripts
After
a
little
bit
more
practice,
I
released
a
Special
Version
of the
1932-HotRod
.
My
next
car,
the
Viper
GTS
V1
,
was
a
bigger
project
and
my
last
one
for
GTA3©.
Due
to
high
demand,
I
overhauled
and
tweaked
the
car
several
times.
There
are
3
versions
of
it.
The
last
one
(
Version
3
)
also
has
an
added
special
wheel-
mod by the Author „Rumba“.
The
original
Author
of
the
car
was
„Martin
Leps“,
another
German
modeller
from
the
„Need
for
Speed©“-modding community.
I
gave
myself
a
lot
of
trouble
to
setup
the
car
perfectly in the engine and added a lot of details.
GTA Vice City©
One
year
later,
in
2003,
the
switch
from
GTA3©
to
GTA
Vice
City©
was
not
hard.
The
exporter
needed
an
update
but
the
process
remained
the
same.
When
the
game
was
released,
I
first
exported my for GTA3© converted cars and adjusted the material files.
After
that
I
thought
about
what
to
do
next.
I
had
the
confidence
to
start
my
first
own
car
made
from
scratch
and
started
its
construction.
Because
of
one
of
our
US-Car-Club
members,
who
owns
a
1968
Dodge
Charger©
and
the
movie
„Bullit“
with
„Steve
McQueen“,
I
chose
this
car
and
not
my
Camaro©.
Why?
The
old
muscle
cars
have
more
defined
edge
flows,
a
detail
I
rated
as
„too
hard
to
model“ on my Camaro© as a first car.
Sure,
I
had
collected
lots
of
knowledge
in
the
last
months,
but
I
wanted
to
work
on
an
easier
car
made
from
scratch,
to
get
more
practice.
The
clear
lines
of
an
old
muscle
car
were
ideal
for
this.
But
nevertheless
it
was
challenge.
It
took
3
attempts
before
the
first
chassis
looked
acceptable.
I
didn’t
archive the cars or pictures, the reason I will tell you below.
After
the
1968
Dodge
Charger©,
I
modified
the
car
to
the
1969
and
1970
version
because
these
versions
shared
the
same
body.
From
today’s
perspective,
my
3
versions
were
ok,
but
not
really
good.
My
motivation
for
a
redo
lacked,
so
I
chose
to
build
my
next
car
made
from
scratch
and
to
gain
more
experience
in
modelling.
This
one
was
another
friends’
car,
a
1972
Plymouth
Cuda©.
I
used
the
same
method
here
and
created
3
versions.
The
1970,
1971
and
1972
version.
It
was
the
same
„easy“
job
because
all
3
again
shared
the
same
chassis,
with
just
a
few
modifications.
The
other
head-
and
taillights
and
a
few
other
details
was
easy
done.
Fortunately
this
method
of
construction
is
not
as
much
effort
as
to
make
3
new
chassis
from
scratch.
When
I
had
finished
these,
I
thought
about the modification of the 1971 version to a convertible and realized this too.
In
the
meantime
we
had
the
year
2004
and
the
games
Far
Cry©
and
Doom©
were
released.
I
took
a
break
from
the
creation
of
cars
for
GTA3©
and
GTA
Vice
City©,
although
I
wanted
to
overhaul
the
Chargers
and
Cudas.
I
decided
to
do
this
with
the
next
GTA©
title
(San
Andreas),
one
year
later.
Actually, the game was released for PC in June 2006.