All posts by Dave Noonan

3DSimED 3.1s

Enhancement Added Forza Horizon 4 car import.

Enhancement  F1-2018 Import has improved decal shader and all textures are now extracted for a model.

Enhancement  Drag-and-Drop of file types supported by Import Plugins. It should also be possible to use Open With… from the File Explorer context menu but this can have  a problem resulting from file permissions.

Fix: With shaders turned off the sky dome would be displayed as a sphere at the centre of the model.

Fix: Importing an animated rF2 .GMT could crash.

Fix: Rubber-banding of Poly-lines restored.

Download version 3.1s at the download page.

Importing F1-2018 Models

Version 3.1p 3DSimED and later can import models from F1 2018. The plugin for F1-2018 can be found at  3DSimED3 download page.

To import F1 2018 models F1-2018 (*.erp) must be selected as the import file type.

Importing Cars. To import a car you must browse to your F1 2018 game and look for the f1_2018_vehicle_package folder within the asset_groups folder. Inside the f1_2018_vehicle_package folder there is the teams folder with all the cars, select the car, and then the wep folder. The wep folder should have the car’s erp file to select and import.
Note: to import a classic car browse the f1_classic_02_vehicle_package folder.

At present the format for some of the higher resolution bitmaps (mipmap files)  is not understood so the quality will not be the same as in the game.

sauber

Importing Tracks. Within the game’s asset_groups folder find the environment_package folder and then the tracks folder. Select the track and find the wep folder. For each track there are two erp to select from, one named <track_name>_2018.erp and the other named <track_name>_classic.erp, select one of those and the track should be imported.

As for the cars, the mipmaps files are not completely understood so textures will not be the same quality as in the game.

paulricard

3DSimED 3.1q

Enhancement HDR Rendering now has a simple on/off checkbox and that setting is saved for future sessions. FXAA Post processing is included and the Sky Dome is correctly rendered.

Enhancement The NScale of a bump map can now be set in the Material Edit Pane. This may be useful for rF2 models although not all shaders with bump maps use it

Fix: BC7 format DX10 .DDS texture maps were causing assertions due to a problem with the NVidia DDS library code.

Fix: Export FBX Plugin was naming nodes and meshes incorrectly .

Fix: Object Instance Edit->Replace Object with a .3SE could fail. (Existing .3SE should be  corrected by opening and re-saving).

Download version 3.1q at the download page.

 

3DSimED 3.1p

Fix: rF2 .GMT created using the latest 64-bit Max plugin will now import.

Fix: The Material Edit -> Swap texture channel coordinates function could give incorrect results if both channels were not 0 (1->2,1->3,2->3).

Fix: Exported Wavefront .OBJ are now smaller for models which have been edited.

Fix: In some situations, FBX Export was including deleted geometry.

Fix: Open 3SE could fail if saved 3SE contained objects.

Visit the download page for new version.

 

 

 

 

3DSimED 3.1o

Enhancement Import Forza Apex/7 tracks, the “Replace missing texture map” option now replaces all missing texture maps with a ‘blank’ (grey) texture map.

Fix: BC7 format DX10 .DDS texture maps loss of detail, this particularly caused problems when importing Forza 7 or Apex tracks.

 

Working With Forza 7 & Forza Apex Tracks.

12-02-2018 17-55-43

  • Forza 7 and Forza Apex tracks can only be imported with version 3.1n or later.
  • The .zip archives for the tracks need to be unzipped. Note that for the Forza 7 .zip files, the run-time encryption needs removing.
  • The  .zips can be decompressed with quickbms_4gb_files.exe (some files > 2GB) , but to avoid file collision each track needs to be in a separate folder.
  • The -D argument should be used with quickbms_4gb_files.exe to ensure each track has its own folder or use a powershell script as explained in Working with Forza Apex car models.
  • Only the archives in the sub-folders of the tracks folder need to processed.
  • To import a track you need to browse and find the track .pvs files. There seems to be little difference between the low, med,  high, wet, & night versions.
  • When a pvs has been selected the Track Import Options dialog will be presented.

ForzaApex7TrackOptions

  • The Quick Convert Swatch to DDS will convert .Swatchbin files to .dds on the fly and place them in a temporary folder. This should not slow the import as the Swatchbin format is very similar to DDS.
  • Most of the DDS will be Directx10 format and because they are not native Directx9 format cannot be stored in ram as compressed data, so they are very memory hungry.
  • Most of the swatchbin have associated higher resolution versions which can be converted to DDS but these can require so much memory that the track will not be imported correctly so care should be taken with both the higher and all level options.
  • For some reason every track seems to have a few missing texture maps. A solid color texture map replacement will be created with the Replace missing texture map with color map option ticked.
  • The Import Sky Objects option will ensure sky objects are imported but these seem to have little use and merely make editing more difficult.

 

3DSimED 3.1n Release Notes

12-02-2018 18-05-34

New: Tracks from Forza Apex and Forza 7 can now be imported.

Enhanced: Import of Forza 7/Apex/Horizon cars has a new option to convert Swatchbin to DDS, this option will also ensure all texture maps referenced by all the materials will be available as DDS.

Enhanced: When writing .SCN files for rF2, the REFLECTEDENV and REFMAP0 sections are written and populated with the names of objects tagged as reflected.

Enhanced: When closing a model, the option to never be prompted has been added. The option can also be set at File->Options->User Options.

Enhanced: Wavefront .OBJ. The normal and texture coordinates are exported with the same number of decimal places as the XYZ coordinates.

Enhanced: Collada Export of a single object will try to use the title of the filename for the geometry name.

Fix: Tools->Rename Objects would change the case of the object names to lower case.

Fix: Editing an object name within the Object Instance Edit pane.

Fix: Opening a .3SE would change object names to lower case.

Fix: Exported geometry using the stamp billboard shaders would be incorrectly rotated in rF2.

Visit the download page for new version.

 

 

3DSimED 3.1m

10-01-2018 20-19-31

Enhanced: Added support for the new shaders of rF2 v1109. Some of these are DX11 only shaders, they can be used in models and exported to rF2 but are rendered in 3DSimED with a simple diffuse map.

Enhanced: Fully defined Searchpaths in rF/rF2 .SCN files now supported.

Enhanced: More Swatchbin (Forza textures) formats supported.

Enhanced: Two ‘Decal’ shaders added: one with cube map & specular colour; the other supporting bump, specular & cube maps.

Fix: Importing models. If Object names contain ‘:’  characters they are replaced with ‘_’ (this was a problem with Race Sim Studio models).

Fix: Forza Apex/Horizon 3/7 improved handling of texture coordinate channels.

Fix: In some circumstances an object could be clipped out when visible.

Visit the download page for new version.

 

 

Working With Studio 397 rF2

Studio 397 have made some great improvements to rF2 particularly by adding DX11 rendering. A number of new  & updated shaders to take advantage of DX11 features have been included, and as a result 3DSimED has been extended to support these enhancements.

3DSimED 3.1m includes the new shaders from rF2 v1109 in the Select DirectX Shader window. This allows materials to be assigned these shaders and saved when exported to one of the .GMT format 3DSimED supports. If the game does not include the material shader then it will just use a default shader (which appears to be the simple diffuse texture map).

Shader 11-01-2018 16-34-34

One of the filters for the shaders in the Select window is ‘rF2 DX11’ which are for shaders included in rF2 DX11 but not in the DX9 version. 3DSimED can include these shaders in the models, and can export them in the .GMT materials, but cannot render them correctly because of the DX11 features used, so it just renders them with a simple diffuse texture.

Shader 11-01-2018 16-30-20

3DSiimED now includes 3 ‘Decal’ shaders included to make it easier to work with some models from other games. The Download Page includes a .zip of files required to ensure rF2 can understand and render these shaders, just ensure these are placed in the same folder as the CoreShaders.mas.

Shader 11-01-2018 16-58-55