Doom 3©, GTA© San Andreas, FSX© modifications, mapper, content creator & scripter (shader)

2004   was   the   year   of   two   interesting   games   (interesting   games   for   me).   In   March   2004,   Crytek© released Far Cry® and in August 2004 id-Software© released Doom3©. Far   Cry©   achieved   the   same   great   „island-   &   holiday-feeling”   as   Crysis©   3   years   later.   But   for whatever   reason   I   never   had   any   interest   in   modding   it.   Maybe   it   was   because   of   its   boring   story   (in my opinion) and/or the partially uninteresting maps. My   Doom3©-modding   work   is   worth   mentioning   though,   because   it   walked   in   the   old   Quake   3 Arena©   footsteps.   When   the   game   was   launched,   I   immediately   “fell   in   love”   with   the   graphics   and

So   the   year   2004   passed   by   and   I   was   looking   forward   to   the year     2005.     The     next     GTA©-title     “San     Andreas”     was announced for June. I   told   you   before   that   I   was   not   satisfied   with   my   Chargers   and Cudas   for   previous   GTA   titles. And   it   was   much   worse   when   I came   back   to   modelling   in   GTA   San   Andreas©   and   took   a look   at   them.   I   remember   very   welld   when   I   loaded   the   cars into   the   ZModeler   and   moved   them   in   the   viewport…   The more    I    compared    them    to    the    photographs,    the    more differences   and   mistakes   I   found.   Because   of   this   realization,   I removed   them   all   and   started   a   completely   new   build   from scratch   for   all   of   them.   With   this   decision,   my   library   grew, because   I   am   firmly   convinced   that   books   are   much   better than   internet   sources.   Although   many   important   cars   were owned   by   our   US-Car-Club   members,   the   books   helped   me   in

many cases. And well, I like reading. GTA© San Andreas   Shortly   after   the   release   of   GTA©   San   Andreas   I   played   the whole   game   and   still   loved   it.   Later   in   the   year   2005   I   started the   creation   of   my   first   GTA©-cars   completely   from   scratch   a second time. Because   of   many   new   modelling   features   in   ZModeler2©,   I purchased    this    program    (the    ZModeler1©    had    been    free, years   ago).   The   newly   created   meshes   looked   much   better than the old ones and I was very motivated to work forward. Additional   I   got   more   motivation   from   our   German   US-Car- Club   „Sundaycruiser“.   We   had   many   new   members   now,   with new   cars   and   so   I   had   access   to   many   more   classical   and modern   US-Cars   as   a   source.   With   this   option   I   was   able   to create   many   new   textures   and   better   blueprints   for   my   3D- models. Now   I   want   to   start   backwards,   in   the   sequence   of   pictures. At first the latest car I created, the 1979 Dodge Coronet©.

Titan Quest© After   the   release   and   a   little   bit   of   playing   of   the   game   „Titan   Quest©“   in   June   2006,   I   got   interested   in its   modding.   Titan   Quest©   is   a   role   playing   game   and   I   liked   the   option   to   create   custom   maps   and items,   and   the   possibility   to   modify   the   enemies   to   really   big   and   strong   hordes.   For   me   it   was modification   for   private   fun,   like   to   run   a   machine   into   1000   enemies,   or   to   create   map   environments how I wanted. So, Titan Quest© is also worth a mention in this period. Well,   after   I   found   out   how   it   worked,   agin   the   modding   drew   my   interest   more   than   the   playing.   So   I spent around 6 months (besides the other projects) to mod Titan Quest©. Later   down   the   road,   many   professional   mods   were   released   (like   the   „Chuck   Norris“   one)   and   I slowly lost interest in modding Titan Quest©. Although   I   spent   more   than   a   half   year   with   its   modding,   I   don’t   have   many   pictures   to   show.   It   was   a purely   personal   project.   Additionally   a   few   pictures   from   a   tutorial   I   have   written   (which   I   will   not publish).

Microsoft© Flight Simulator X (FSX) Yes,   although   many   people   laugh   about   flight   simulations,   I   like   them   a   lot.   My   first   simulator   was   the Microsoft©   Flight   Simulator   2000   (the   edition   with   the   big   „pilot   book“).   I   rarely   fly   but   from   time   to time I still do it today.

What   I   did   I   do?   In   the   beginning   of   FSX,   optimization was   the   most   important   job.   In   our   community   that   we founded       as       www.fs-flightcrew.de       (which       was unfortunately   closed   a   few   years   later),   we   worked   out many   tweaks   and   improved   the   performance   for   the badly running game (bad FPS). After   that   I   wrote   many   tutorials   and   later   navigation workshops,   for   the   „real“   flight   route   programming   in pay-ware   planes   with   the   FMC   (Flight   Management Console), based on officially released flight charts. The    next    interesting    thing    was,    that    many    users released    real    world    terrain    meshes,    with    satellite pictures    as    textures.    The    VFR-flights    (Visual    Flight Rules) were very, very great on those terrains. You   can   download   my   files   in   the   download   area,   if you like. In   the   middle   of   2007,   I   started   to   create   a   custom Boeing©   737   but   stopped   the   work   in   November   with the release of Crysis©.

Before   the   Coronet,   I   wanted   to   create   my   own   Viper   GTS®.   The   one   that   had   been   converted   for GTA3©   and   GTA   Vice   City©   was   very   successful   and   I   still   loved   this   car   but   it   hadn’t   been   created by me. So this was the second last car I built for the GTA© series.

As I have written above, I recreated all Dodge Charger© and Plymouth Cuda©. The   next   3   pictures   show   you   the   1968   Dodge   Charger©,   which   contained   the   headlight   covers   as „extra“ (a new game-option).

In   memory   of   the   really   great   movie   „Bullit“   with   Steve   McQueen,   I   created   a   special   version   of   this car too.

The    1969    and    1970    Dodge    Charger©    shared    the    same    body    and    so    it    wasn’t    much    effort    to implement the needed modifications to the 1968 version.

In   the   same   way   as   the   Dodge   Chargers©,   I   started   the   new   build   of   the   Plymouth   Cudas©   from scratch and created the 1970, 1971 convertible and 1972 version.

Last   but   not   least,   I   created   a   very   special   version   of   the   „Viper©“.   When   I   finished   the   car,   I   called   it „Viper   X²“.   The   reason   behind   this   is:   if   I   was   a   real   car   designer,   I   would   have   designed   the   Viper   in an   extreme   race   version.   I   gave   my   best   to   create   it   in   3D   and   hopefully   got   a   very   race-looking result. The   car   is   based   on   a   mix   of   the   Viper   GTS©,   a   few   Viper©-   prototypes,   the   Viper   Competition Coupé© and the new Viper SRT 10©. People   liked   it   but   the   more   time   went   on,   the   more   dissatisfied   I   was   with   this   car.   But   I   never   had the heart to delete it in the same way as the old GTA Vice City© cars before.

environment.   The   dark   horror   atmosphere   „invited”   me   to   tweak the   weapon-   and   projectile-scripts   at   first,   although   I   played   just the   first   levels.   Similar   to   Quake   3 Arena©,   the   Doom3-engine© stored   the   game   data   in   packed   files   and   as   a   result   it   was possible   to   unpack   them,   which   allowed   their   modification.   I changed   the   scripts   of   most   of   the   weapons   (*.def   -   files)   to emit   projectile-lights   when   these   were   fired.   Ingame   it   looks really   great,   because   when   you   fire   for   example   the   plasma gun,   the   projectile   lights   create   their   own   atmosphere   in   the small   corridors.   Very   great   experience!   With   Doom3©   I   got   back a   game-feeling   like   I   had   in   the   old   Resident   Evil©   games. Later,   in   a   few   mapping   projects,   I   combined   the   experience   of emitting light through projectiles and the „zombie-feeling”.   Otherwise   in   the   years   after   my   GTA©-modding,   I   didn’t   work much   on   modifications   and   I   wasn´t   involved   in   many   projects. Just   in   a   few   small   ones.   Mostly   the   projects   broke   up   shortly after   their   founding.   The   biggest   one   was   the   first   „Resident Evil©”-mod.   For   this   I   created   a   car   (Crown   Victoria   Police   car) but just before I finished it, the project was given up. 

The   first   book   I   bought   is   a   very   huge collection       of       historical       cars,       in „blueprint“-ready   photographs.   You   can confidently   ignore   the   German   language of    the    book    if    you    need    primary    the pictures.   In   my   opinion   a   „must   have“   for car modellers.   Hardcover: 576 pages Publisher: Coventgarden (2002) Language: German Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany) Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk (UK) Buy this book at Amazon.com (USA)

For   the   Dodge   Viper©,   I   bought   a   very great     book     of     Dodge´s©     history.     It contains   much   information   from   the   early time    in    the    20th    century,    up    until    the Dodge Viper. The   book   were   released   in   English   and German. Hardcover: 152 pages Publisher: Delius Klasing (Jan 2006) Language English Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany) Language: German! Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany) Buy this book at Amazon.com (USA)

„The   roaring   60´s“   means   nothing   more than   cubic   capacity   and   8   cylinders.   The era    of    muscle    cars    is    unique    and    the birth   time   of   many   great   cars.   The   book below      contains      a      lot      of      helpful background information and pictures.  Hardcover: 350 pages (German) Publisher: Heel  (DE) (16. Sept 2005) Hardcover: 352 pages (UK & USA) Publisher: Motorbooks Int (2004 & 2006) The   description   on   Amazon.de   describe the    language    as    „Dutch“    but    it    is    the German   edition.   In   doubt   please   contact the seller for the right language. Language: English Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk (UK) Buy this book at Amazon.com (USA) Language: German! Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany)

My    next    book    is    about    one    decade before   the   muscle   cars   and   contains   all the   earlier   beautiful   American   cars   that never ever were built again. Hardcover: 631 pages Publisher: Heel (2005) Language: German! Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany) Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk (UK) Buy this book at Amazon.com (USA)

To   round   out   my   collection   of   books,   I bought    the    next    one    because    of    its mainly   technical   information   of American cars of the 50´s. Paperback: 130 pages Verlag: Heel Language: German! Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany)

Last   but   not   least,   I   recommend   a   very great   book   about   the   history   of   cars.   It contains   a   lot   of   information   &   interesting materials about the „automobile“. Hardcover: 380 pages Publisher: Campus (16. Sept 2002) Language: German! Buy this book at Amazon.de (Germany) Buy this book at Amazon.co.uk (UK) Buy this book at Amazon.com (USA)

Please    note    that    I    spent    a    long    time    on    the recreation     of     the     „High-Impact-Colors©“,     like „Hemi-Orange“,     „Sassy     Grass     Green“,     „Plum Crazy“,   „Lemon   Twist“   and   so   on   and   so   forth.   To implement    the    best    result    ingame,    I    evaluated more   than   20   old   color   shards   and   original   cars from meetings and club members.

It   doesn´t   matter   how   old   you   are   and   what   you love.   I   promise   you   will   like   the   10   minutes   car chase in San Francisco, if you watch the movie.