Chapter 15: Making a Vehicle Model

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Overview

In Chapter 9 we looked at creating skins, and during that process we created a skin for a cool runabout-type vehicle. In this chapter we'll create the model itself.

Of course, there is a whole host of different vehicle types, such as those for the open road or off road, aircraft, hovercraft, ships, and so on. In most cases the methods used to create the vehicles can be used with any type of object. But different vehicle types have different capabilities and therefore may require some specialized accommodation for those capabilities in the models.

For example, if you want your vehicles to be drivable by a player-avatar that gets into the vehicle when you want to drive, then your vehicle will need mount points, which are special nodes or subobjects within the model that indicate where your player-avatar gets attached to the vehicle. Different vehicle types, makes, and models will have different needs in this area.

Then there are those special nodes that indicate where other game functions will happen: Wheeled vehicles need to know where the wheels are located, as well as information about how the springs and steering mechanisms are oriented.

Some vehicles might need nodes in their models to indicate to the engine where to generate engine exhaust smoke using particles. Flying vehicles may require nodes to help the engine generate contrails (condensation trails). The list goes on.