Blender Car Model into Trackmania2

Hi guys and gals,
I’m posting this here as the Maniaplanet forums are not proving much use and I’m hoping someone here has had success doing this recently and can offer some advice.
I am trying to get a model out of Blender into Trackmania2 as a custom car model to select for in the game, but so far, I am hitting a major brick wall.
I have managed to get a model basic out of Blender using only dBody and the wheel objects, it is a basic car which I output a DAE and copied to the 3 required files of MainBody.dae, ManBodyHigh.dae and MainBodyVeryHigh.dae The resulting zip was called ‘STest’
I Also tried separating the body as ‘sBody’ for the skin and the glass. This I called STestSplit
I ran both through the NadeoImporter to create a Zip file with the 3 ‘Gbx’ files for use within Trackmania and these were created in the ‘CarCommon’ folder under the Maniaplanet folder for personal data.

If I load up Trackmania2 and go into Canyon / Stadium / Valley, (I have all 3 titles), going into “paint a car” off the menu, I can see the cars, I cannot paint ‘STest’ which I presumed would be right as it is effectively all “details”, but I can paint on ‘STestSplit’ With both models, using ‘h’ to activate helper keys, I can test wheel rotation, shadows and lights and all seem fine.

What I cannot do, no matter what I try, is access these models under my profile to select them for use in any game.
I tried creating a custom ‘pack’ and including the zip under content, it appears to work, but if I go back into the pack, there is nothing shown under content. Now all I have is a ton of useless packs which I can not delete.

I am providing link to the files off my googledrive for people to look at, both the Source folders used to creat ZIP files from the NadeoImporter and my source files, (including the Blender files) if someone can give me a definitive answer for this. I have searched everywhere and nothing seems remotely up to date on how to do, what I had hoped, was a simple action. I’ve read and watched just about everything, but am still drawing a blank

If I download a car from “ManiaPark”, I just drop it in my CarCommon folder it is a simple case of selecting it from the ‘models’ section of my Profile and away I go, but crucially, the models I am trying to import from Blender are not showing up. :frowning: The only thing that seems different is the ZIP that NadeoImporter creates has 3 ‘gbx’ files, (for each of the DAE files), wherease the ones from the ManiaPark area only have a single Model.Pack.gbx model, but it’s not clear if this is at all relevant.

Blender source files inc the UV Mapped Texture for the body/wheels, BlenderTM2Files:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AJLN … sp=sharing

Folder used to create ‘STest’ zip with NadeoImporter:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AJLN … sp=sharing

Folder used for ‘STestSplit’:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AJLN … sp=sharing

When creating the ZIP files with NadeoImporter, there were no errors, I used the following commands:
nadeoimporter CarSkin Skins/Vehicles/CarCommon/STest /MaxSize=4096 /HqDds /LogMeshStats
…and…
nadeoimporter CarSkin Skins/Vehicles/CarCommon/STestSplit /MaxSize=4096 /HqDds /LogMeshStats

Putting all this out there in hope of a positive result.

I know nothing about this but I did google something.
http://gizmokid2005.com/2013/03/how-to-use-custom-car-models-trackmania-2-stadium

Yes, that is for the models which are available from the ‘CarPark’, they are ones which have no trouble being imported into Trackmania2. My problem is when modelling from scratch and trying to get a model into TM2 so it can be made into that type. As I say, I can view it in “paint a car” and make teh wheels turn etc, but nothing shows up in the garage as a selectable car.
Hoping someone out there has done this and encountered the same issue.

I can say the same @bigbad said already… Have you stumbled upon this article?
https://web.archive.org/web/20150216051706/http://en.tm-wiki.org/wiki/Creating_Custom_Cars_with_Freeware

Yup, in fact, I had this printed out ages ago, but TM2 has differing criteria than TMU / TM. Added to that, the way the game imports has shifted slightly over the last couple of years. Getting stuff out of Blender is simple, just a suitable Collada file, I can even generate the ZIP file using the NadeoIMporter now, but getting it to behave in game, sheesh, talk about pulling teeth.

Are you positive dae is the proper format to zip? Initially this was 3ds as i read. Did they switch?

Yep, the older version needed a 3DSoutput with a certain script from Blender 2.49 but the latest NadeoImporter can handle DAE now, providing you roate everything -90 on x and apply rotation. As I say, I can see the car in painter, but for some reason, cannot select it from the ‘Models/cars’ in game. It is certainly something to do with title packs / painter and creating a ‘Model.Pack.Gbx’ to use in place of the 3 Gbx files the importer creates. (The Model.pack is those 3 files as 1 “model” from everything I’ve read and all ‘working’ zips have this file in with textures as opposed to the 3 separate files for each detail level).

I am an ex-coder, so am trying to tackle this as a “debug” action, just wish you could clear out old title packs so as to not overly confuse matters. Indeed, I’m not even sure you can’t use 1 title pack for ALL models, very little info on specifics is out there. Then again, that seems to be a complaint levelled against Nadeo for many aspects of the game.

I can’t think of any game being able using Cycles materials directly; afaik blender’s exporters do not make material conversions but i might be wrong. I did take a look into SimpleTest2.blend - it’s cycles. If i try rendered view in BI there is nothing rendered. Have you tried to export BI ‘materialized’ model?

Ahh, no, as I say, it does come into Trackmania2 for painting, but even though I can see the car there with the UV Map correctly applied, I simply cannot see it or select it to race with it. So there is obviously something fundemental needs to happen to “activate it” in game. At present, I can paint and change it in the “Paint a Car” editor to my hearts content, but cannot use it to race. :frowning:

I think I may have cracked it. It seems you have to do something which feels counter intuitive to get it to work. Going to give it another shot tomorrow with a couple of different meshes. If I get consistent results, I shall post a full run down both here and at the ManiaPlanet forums, including a link to my Blender file. If my frustration can help someone else, it would be remiss of me not to share.
I’m am, as they say, cautiously optimisitic.

Yes! I have successfully got another car into the game, just going to try a ‘non-car’ model for kicks, then I shall write everything down for other folks to enjoy.

Okey doke, I have finished my tutorial PDF, just going to go through it step by step as a “user” to make sure I’ve covered everything. Once I’m happy I got it right, I will post it here.

Have no means to check results but will read through it, promise ;).
Great to hear you managed to get it to work, anyways.

As promised, here is my guide in PDF format.
Included within the PDF are links to files on my google drive for you to use, along with links to the relevant software you need.

Hope someone finds this useful, if there any any questions do let me know. :slight_smile:

Blender -2- Trackmania2 PDF:

Attachments

Blender-2-Trackmania2.pdf (1.1 MB)

Here are a couple of screenshots of my models making their way into the game. :slight_smile: (Xwing was a downloaded file but I modified it for the game critiera and uvmaps)

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Hi folks,
Decided to try something different. The geometry is basic, to be honest, I spent more time on it and the textures than I ever intended to, but it was more a “proof of concept” thing.
I created a hovercraft thing, where the wheels became rotors, in the “01” version, the front wheels are, shock, at the front, but are rotated to behave more like a rotor should. The back wheels are simply rotated to act as fans.
The “01B” version is slightly different, the front wheels, (turning), are at the back and the rear wheels, (stationary), are at the front. The only thing I did notice is the rotors, (wheels), seem to move up and down according to suspension, not sure if there is a way of limiting this. May give you some ideas though.

Have included my base textures in the zip file along with the Blend files. Enjoy.

Googledrive Link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AJLNQrsW-NRnRSdHNWUm5ROUk/view?usp=sharing
Scrrenshot:

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Wow, a thousand views, I presume this has been of help to folks then. :slight_smile:

Hi folks, I am doing some video tutorials on this whole process. You can find them on my YouTube channel.

For those that are familiar with Blender, doing exture painting and UVMaps, I have done a “quick N dirty” version of the Blender to TM2 process into a single 25 minute tutorial.

Have added a tutorial which shows how to add dirt and damage to your model, it’s pretty straight forward.