Bump before Topic becomes too Old
It takes two months for that to happen, but thank you for the consideration.
I have recently had the time to work on a number of improvements to the Crown Victoria. These two screenshots are a before and after. Open them in two new tabs and switch between them to clearly see the differences (ignoring the CVPI equipment)
Other improvements to the Crown Victoria include new wheels. The tires are much flatter in the middle, darker, rounder, and overall smaller, resulting in a car with a much less truck-like stance. I also decided to go with a simpler five spoke design.
Some of you will be very happy to know that I've also worked on its handling. It certainly isn't a sporty, grippy car and you'll need to use the brake every once in a while, but you can actually take bumps without it sinking through the ground in defeat. I am trying to maintain the feeling that this is a large, heavy sedan, but it is no longer a slippery, spongy disaster.
The next version of the Crown Victoria will have at least 2 variants for its civilian version. They resemble a Crown Victoria LX and a retired Police Interceptor.
My intention was to have the parts be changed with Custom Vehicle Support. However, using CVS means that different nodes can be colored in weird ways I do not intend, and CVS does not allow for the changing of wheels.
The next release will probably see these two variants as separate datablocks, but I have considered making my own GUI which would allow you to:
- Choose from a set of factory colors
- Add/remove/change trim (like door handle color, bumper inserts, interior color) and apply presets (such as one of the two in the screenshot above)
- Change wheels (again like above, being able to switch between the alloy or steel wheels) -- but I hear a previous attempt to do this resulted in glitches
Basically this GUI would be a kind of Garage 2, but sadly lacking the generality of CVS; it wouldn't automatically add any car that follows a format, unless I learned significantly more about GUIs. Something to consider.
Given the fact that the Crown Victoria's shape has changed in several places, and in particular that I want to change the way I do emergency lights, the CVPI will have to be partially remade before these changes are released. Hopefully the changes that occur agree with you, but as always, it is not possible to please everyone.
With emergency lights being redone, the Ambulance will be visited again, and hopefully the changes I make can prevent that all-white glitch.
The fire truck has not received as much attention as I thought it would, but some changes have happened. Lights are now making their way on, and the back and front have changed slightly. The back of the truck, especially, has changed from a previous screenshot, as I needed to make more room on the sides for the lights. As you can see, at the top of the back, there will be rotating lights, which forces me once and for all into learning to use looping animations (rather than scripted sequences of hidenode / unhidenode) for the lights. This means that emergency lights will no longer be affected by lag.
Classwork is still bearing down on me but I may be able to get back into making regular progress in the following weeks. (Or all my classes will redouble and become horrible again; we'll have to wait and see! But this thread is active again for the time being.)
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