The "What Are You Working On?" Thread

[Fat-Alfie]

I think Kunos allow modders to use their sound files, but it's expected that everything else should be scratch-made by the modder.

I think it would be acceptable to use someone else's model as a basis to work from when you make your own model (i.e. copy their engine model), but it's not okay to simply use Kunos' (or anyone else's) model just because it's the same item.

Plus, it's a good way to learn and improve your own skills.

 

[Alguecool]

I think Kunos allow modders to use their sound files, but it's expected that everything else should be scratch-made by the modder.

I think it would be acceptable to use someone else's model as a basis to work from when you make your own model (i.e. copy their engine model), but it's not okay to simply use Kunos' (or anyone else's) model just because it's the same item.

Plus, it's a good way to learn and improve your own skills.

So you can use this part of the content but not this one ? That's called double standard.

Also, think about it : why wouldn't it be acceptable to use something that is in the software to be used in the exact same software ? If I use a font available in the basic install of photoshop to make an image on photoshop with that font : why wouldn't it be acceptable ? We can argue all we want that a font and a 3D model is not the same thing, that Photoshop and a videogame is not the same thing, but from the computer's point of view, it actually is. If I install a font myself, this one wasn't part of the software in the beginning. We can also argue that just because I bought the game doesn't mean I can do whatever I want with what's inside. Except I do not : I have to use the game content in the game. Not anywhere else, but in the same game. And how would it be un-acceptable ?

And last but not least, that's what I said. I used it as reference. The same way you use a meter to know at which distance you plant a pilar for a fence : the meter is your way of making measurement, it's your reference. Sometimes the base object in the 3D model has the same name than the reference because I builted it in the same mesh, with my modification/adaptation, and deleted the vertices of the original afterwards. I'm all about transparency in the production process, but this is getting absolutely ridiculous. If Kunos wouldn't want us to use their content as references and tools, they wouldn't have made them accessible in the game folders. Not even talking about the developpers tools and guidelines, or the fbx of elements as examples, or a whole Formula K used as tutorial.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

Ok. Have fun at gtplanet.

 

[Alguecool]

Ok. Have fun at gtplanet.

Oh I will don't worry.

With all the respect I have to you who I still consider to be the greatest modder this game ever saw, you didn't answered my question : "why is it unacceptable ?". You just told me to go away. Fine, you don't want to answer, that's fair. But I will just ask you to think about it. There isn't a single other videogame in the world where the definition of modding is anything other than "modifying the content of the game to be used in the game". That's what CSP is, that's what your tracks are (either you want it or not, you just have to, to make it work), and that's what absolutely everything made for AC is. That's the reason why AC is so popular and is selling so well, that's the reason why this website has a lot of his visitors (and money) but somehow, it would not be acceptable here. Not even talking about it, apparently.

Something seems very, very wrong in this "community". I wasn't expecting this level of hypocrisy before having to face it. And I just can't, for my own honesty.

Anyway, I hope you all the best and awaits patiently for the release of your next project.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

You just told me to go away.

I never told you to do anything. You'd already said that you wouldn't be posting here on RD again, but on GTPlanet - I was just wishing you luck on that website.

If someone is looking for my work, it will be on GTPlanet, because I probably wont post anything here anymore.

 

[Johnr777]

Something seems very, very wrong in this "community". I wasn't expecting this level of hypocrisy before having to face it. And I just can't, for my own honesty.

Then don’t.

“Bye Alguecool, thanks for the f…. cars”

 

[Ryno917]

@Alguecool The rules of this site are in place to protect the site from copyright holders' claims, and are based on the wishes of Kunos. Whether or not the rules are justified, logical, or consistent isn't really relevant, unfortunately. Kunos owns the content of their game, and are free to dictate how that content is used. RaceDepartment's staff has decided to enforce the rules laid out by Kunos for their own protection.

As for some 'illegal' content being hosted here; admins aren't going to trawl through every single thing to find a breach. They'll only investigate something if there's cause, like a report, so many things wind up staying in place because they haven't been reported or the staff is too busy to investigate at a particular time. RD's policy is that any game rip is not allowed here, so your comment about rips being allowed is unfounded. What goes on in other communities isn't relevant to RD's rules.

You don't have to like, or understand, it, but that is what the situation is. If you do not wish to abide by the rules in place, there are plenty of other places that choose not to abide by those rules.

FWIW I'd tend to agree that reusing game assets for mods of that game should be fair territory, but that is not the stance of the party that actually owns the content. There is a large misconception amongst most people when it comes to games/software: you didn't buy the game or the content, you buy a license to use the game and its content. That is how nearly all games and software work, that's why they nearly all contain some form of EULA. This isn't a digital delivery issue, either, it was true for physical media based software, too. Again, we don't have to like that, but it is how it is.

 

[Davide Nativo]

@Alguecool The rules of this site are in place to protect the site from copyright holders' claims, and are based on the wishes of Kunos. Whether or not the rules are justified, logical, or consistent isn't really relevant, unfortunately. Kunos owns the content of their game, and are free to dictate how that content is used. RaceDepartment's staff has decided to enforce the rules laid out by Kunos for their own protection.

As for some 'illegal' content being hosted here; admins aren't going to trawl through every single thing to find a breach. They'll only investigate something if there's cause, like a report, so many things wind up staying in place because they haven't been reported or the staff is too busy to investigate at a particular time. RD's policy is that any game rip is not allowed here, so your comment about rips being allowed is unfounded. What goes on in other communities isn't relevant to RD's rules.

You don't have to like, or understand, it, but that is what the situation is. If you do not wish to abide by the rules in place, there are plenty of other places that choose not to abide by those rules.

FWIW I'd tend to agree that reusing game assets for mods of that game should be fair territory, but that is not the stance of the party that actually owns the content. There is a large misconception amongst most people when it comes to games/software: you didn't buy the game or the content, you buy a license to use the game and its content. That is how nearly all games and software work, that's why they nearly all contain some form of EULA. This isn't a digital delivery issue, either, it was true for physical media based software, too. Again, we don't have to like that, but it is how it is.

I'm not involved in this situation, and I obviously have my own thoughts about it and how it was handled.

I'd like to thank Ryno for his answer. Educated, polite, concise. A textbook example of how to handle a hot situation, de-escalating it. Creating a bridge between parties. It's all too easy to put a distance between yourself and someone else that may very well have good intentions but have made a mistake due to ignoring how some things work. It's a destructive path that only leads to loss.

Do we all need to remember what happened with Pessio? The guy published ripped content in the beginning, 'cause he didn't know better. Steered in the right direction, he became one of the best modellers in the scene (the only one I've seen being as fast and as good as him was Alberto aka A3DR).

@Alguecool I understand your frustration. I'll put it in words as many may have not got it. You put a lot of effort for months on end, creating something you are justifiably proud about. Problem is, it got flushed without too much thought. This angered you. Now please, cool it off a bit first put it in perspective. Then, read calmly what Ryno said. Then come back and have a talk with the moderator that put your resource down explaining that things could have been handled differently (again, not nice to throw in the bin someone's hard work, even if there's reason to put it offline, manners manners). Finally, ask for help and work on that stuff you re-used, it'll only make you even better

 

[Stereo]

Certain tools make the distinction a lot less obvious, but the "acd" format AC uses to store car data are not designed to be edited or really used in any way - the modding tools by Kunos provides unencrypted data that you are 'allowed' to use (formula K and tire files for most cars).

Practically speaking it is not hard to find tools that can open an acd, but that is the specific part that's not allowed, and there is a legal fiction that they can't be opened, so data shared by the car companies that Kunos has licensed will be safe in there. Anything that proves otherwise is going to get removed, since otherwise Kunos loses partnerships with brands and can't have licensed content next time.

 

[Trava]

This looks absolutely insane! Been waiting for a proper RX8 mod for a while, so I'm really excited. I hope it will work on vanilla AC though as well. What specs are you planning on making?

No plans for vanilla. Specs don't know yet, have a couple of ideas in mind but haven't decided yet.

Finished the tail lights, just need to draw emissive maps and set up multichannel emissives.

 

[Stereo]

I realized in January that I've been making 3d cars for racing games for 20 years. So to celebrate that, I'm making a mod.

Touring cars.

ATCC 1987.

No more than 1987 triangles each.

Not precisely how it was done 20 years ago... I would not have used transparent glass back then, opaque windows & interiors were just a texture drawn directly on the screen. But I released a few mods in the 500-5000 poly range and this amount offers plenty of detail, esp. with the higher resolution texture - I'm using a whole 1k square for the body, vs. mostly you'd see 256 and 512 back then.

The VK and VL Commodores are done modeling, just need skins. The R30 Skyline (foreground) is WIP. Todo list after that is Alfa 75, then make the E30 and Sierra from scratch to match. That covers the teams that were really competitive, making all 9 rounds. After that are 10 other cars that only made it to a handful of races each, some of them are pretty easy to find evidence of (635CSi and AE86) others pretty obscure. If I get bored of the project I'll just draw the line and be done.

Altogether I'm spending about 3 days per car, on weekends, so you kinda get what you get, it's a spare time project. Hopefully in the end they'll all look similar and make a more complete season than you'd usually see from mods that take 1-2 years per car to finish.

 

[Tunari]

As for some 'illegal' content being hosted here; admins aren't going to trawl through every single thing to find a breach. They'll only investigate something if there's cause, like a report, so many things wind up staying in place because they haven't been reported or the staff is too busy to investigate at a particular time. RD's policy is that any game rip is not allowed here, so your comment about rips being allowed is unfounded. What goes on in other communities isn't relevant to RD's rules.

this is completely unrelated to the thread but since this conversation is taking place here...
it doesnt take goggles to see that the quality of moderation has completely PLUEMMETED since the OT.GG acquisition. it was only a few years ago, someone would upload a rip/poor quality mod, it would get pruned in less than 2 days by staff. if you go through the content catalog of the AC section before 2023, you will notice there arent many, if at all rips (by quick browse i found 1 or 2). your message implies that someone at slightlymad/kunos/codemasters/ea sit and f5 the mods page in case their models show up as converts for RACEDEPRATMENT DOT COM. or did you REALLY rely on user reports (and i find it hard to believe that at least someone hasnt reported the several poor quality rips in the catalog)
more and more it appears now that moderators only look at a mod they may have personal interest in, and then delete it if it turns out to not be up to their standard. and what standard? obviosly none is being enforced!!!!!!!!!!!!! lets look at the current "ac cars" catalog
>scratch mod
>rip with broken images
>scratch, scratch
>deleted reupload of someone elses mod (still there as "deleted" after 2 days) <-where are the janitors? CLEAN UP AT AISLE 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>scratch x3
>convert of a gtr2 mod
>a LITERAL FLAT PNG CONVERTED INTO A KN5 AS A MOD THAT HAS 200 DOWNLOADS WHY IS THIS THERE
>to top it off, bunch of reuploads of complete kunos models except now you know what the cars would look like if they were black or chinese (that is a joke i know u guys dont see many of em around here)
i have not had to deal with the moderation of this site before as i dont use it outside of downloading memes, but i have heard from other modders about how completely unprofessional the staff behaves in support. not to mention the nonsensical moderation decisions that appear to happen all the time (see: the STANDARD)
only thing keeping this site afloat is the fact that the average gtplanet user behaves like their local water supply has been laced with lead so there is less incentive to move there.

 

[Fuzo]

IMO nobody is verifying the origin of the models or assets used in mods uploaded to this site, you just can't mention Kunos in the credits Talking from my own experience

 

[AccAkut]

this is completely unrelated to the thread but since this conversation is taking place here...
it doesnt take goggles to see that the quality of moderation has completely PLUEMMETED since the OT.GG acquisition. it was only a few years ago, someone would upload a rip/poor quality mod, it would get pruned in less than 2 days by staff. if you go through the content catalog of the AC section before 2023, you will notice there arent many, if at all rips (by quick browse i found 1 or 2). your message implies that someone at slightlymad/kunos/codemasters/ea sit and f5 the mods page in case their models show up as converts for RACEDEPRATMENT DOT COM. or did you REALLY rely on user reports (and i find it hard to believe that at least someone hasnt reported the several poor quality rips in the catalog)
more and more it appears now that moderators only look at a mod they may have personal interest in, and then delete it if it turns out to not be up to their standard. and what standard? obviosly none is being enforced!!!!!!!!!!!!! lets look at the current "ac cars" catalog
>scratch mod
>rip with broken images
>scratch, scratch
>deleted reupload of someone elses mod (still there as "deleted" after 2 days) <-where are the janitors? CLEAN UP AT AISLE 4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>scratch x3
>convert of a gtr2 mod
>a LITERAL FLAT PNG CONVERTED INTO A KN5 AS A MOD THAT HAS 200 DOWNLOADS WHY IS THIS THERE
>to top it off, bunch of reuploads of complete kunos models except now you know what the cars would look like if they were black or chinese (that is a joke i know u guys dont see many of em around here)
i have not had to deal with the moderation of this site before as i dont use it outside of downloading memes, but i have heard from other modders about how completely unprofessional the staff behaves in support. not to mention the nonsensical moderation decisions that appear to happen all the time (see: the STANDARD)
only thing keeping this site afloat is the fact that the average gtplanet user behaves like their local water supply has been laced with lead so there is less incentive to move there.

The moderators here never checked the uploads out of their own accord, they relied on users like us to download and check - and most of those that did this, totally for free, are simply no longer active. There was a time when I was still actively modding for AC where I like checked any upload I found dubious. Downloaded, threw it into CM to check the physics for Kunos copy&paste and UV map of the main livery (as professional models, like from Forza, are easy to spot), reported when I was convinced. Like 5 minutes per car. If there was a dozen others doing this it was enough moderation to keep the uploads clean.

But that's years ago now, I mostly left and only lurk on my phone a little, most others probably do the same. So if there's no one left to sacrifice their time, the current uploads go unchecked.

 

[Kenny Paton]

it doesnt take goggles to see that the quality of moderation has completely PLUEMMETED since the OT.GG acquisition

So you have the time to write a screed about your perception of our download section but not time to hit the report button.

The moderators here never checked the uploads out of their own accord, they relied on users like us to download and check

Correct explanation, I used to contact some trusted modders since my knowledge of modding is next to nothing.
Tunari, can I also point out that the number of mods in so many games has grown exponentially over the last few years.
Furthermore you'd be surprised at the amount of spurious reports we get and have to be checked.
Our moderators and race club managers are all unpaid volunteers so 24/7 is not possible.
Finally let's get this thread back on topic.

 

[Sergio Loro]

back on topic, some nice houses

 

[Tunari]

The moderators here never checked the uploads out of their own accord

then why are they moderators? (dont answer that) i am certain, at least by now, that the biggest drive of traffic is the downloads section of the site. especially with the popularity of forums dying in general. therefore the downloads section is objectively more important than monitoring the rate of f-words per message. why were there no moderators that did this checking to begin with? (dont answer that) i guess you were the moderator, by proxy then. (broken telephone management)

So you have the time to write a screed about your perception of our download section but not time to hit the report button.

dont say this and then proceed to explain how the moderation queue is crammed full.
for example; are you telling me that not one of the 200 downloaders reported the prangler png mod? to be fair it did get a hoot n a holler out of me,..so i let it live.

Correct explanation, I used to contact some trusted modders since my knowledge of modding is next to nothing.

it is fine to not know how to mod video games, but then also why are you in charge of moderating a website where you upload mod content- better yet- why is no-one in staff someone knowledgeable in that area? obviosly there must be qualified volunteers just for this (or not, what do i know i dont work here)

i will disregard the rest of your message as you have done so with mine.

 

[Kenny Paton]

are you telling me that not one of the 200 downloaders reported the prangler png mod

Correct not one report, not even from you.
You can bang on all you want despite not doing the one thing that would actually help the situation.
Now we have a website feedback forum so I suggest you put your complaints there and leave this one for it's topic.

 

[SaXXXon]

I realized in January that I've been making 3d cars for racing games for 20 years. So to celebrate that, I'm making a mod.

Touring cars.

ATCC 1987.

No more than 1987 triangles each.

Not precisely how it was done 20 years ago... I would not have used transparent glass back then, opaque windows & interiors were just a texture drawn directly on the screen. But I released a few mods in the 500-5000 poly range and this amount offers plenty of detail, esp. with the higher resolution texture - I'm using a whole 1k square for the body, vs. mostly you'd see 256 and 512 back then.

The VK and VL Commodores are done modeling, just need skins. The R30 Skyline (foreground) is WIP. Todo list after that is Alfa 75, then make the E30 and Sierra from scratch to match. That covers the teams that were really competitive, making all 9 rounds. After that are 10 other cars that only made it to a handful of races each, some of them are pretty easy to find evidence of (635CSi and AE86) others pretty obscure. If I get bored of the project I'll just draw the line and be done.

Altogether I'm spending about 3 days per car, on weekends, so you kinda get what you get, it's a spare time project. Hopefully in the end they'll all look similar and make a more complete season than you'd usually see from mods that take 1-2 years per car to finish.

Love to see it! These with some competitive physics would easily be my next cup to drive with friends

 

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Currently working on this. Again. But this time finishing and releasing it probably in Q1.

I started the model when I knew next to nothing about 3d modeling and CSP/AC Tools for car modeling were less accessible/capable so it won't be perfect mainly due to my lack of experience early on but it should still be some good fun.

When I'm bored I load the existing JDM and Forza models into the showroom to marvel at their inaccuracies.

@Stereo no idea where you find those speed hacks that do a model in 2 years. Anything under 5 is next level IMO

If anyone here is good with sounds please get in touch. I have tons of source material but just haven't gotten around to it yet.