RFactor Conversion Tutorial

8/15/2019 RFactor Conversion Tutorial

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by robert92

What we are trying to do here:

1. We get the car files from anywhere and in any form along with textures(so you can see the car)

2. We convert these files (not the textures) into .gmt so rfactor can read them. Zmodeler is best forthis(has to be version with .gmt export feature) (i use 2.2.6)

3. We put all the .gmt files we converted AND the textures into one folder we will call any name at all

4. We open 3dsimed and import these .gmt files and apply textures

5. We save these .gmt with textures applied the way we want it into the folder we imported themfrom(in other words overwrite them)

6. Now we can start setting up our template car „(New Conversion)“ which i attached to this zip

7. Now what a single mod has to have with it are:

folderwhich contains all files (in this case our template „(New Conversion) “)

.rfm file which goes in rfm folder in Rfactor directory which tells the game we have a new mod in ourvehicles folder(without .rfm file the car doesnt show up)

sound folder whichthe .sfxin our (New Conversion) folder points to(you can use other mods for thisJ )

.mas files which is like a .rar ,rfactor style, which contains all the .gmt and texture files in onecompressed file to make the overall size smaller(just to reduce mod sizeand minimize loadingtime J )


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8. We put correct names and set everything up correctly in our car folder which is extremelyimportant! (one tiny error means no working car in game and you can end up hunting it down fordays even weeks so be careful when you typeand know why you are typing what you are typing)

9. We go in and out of game to see what effect the tweak has had until we are satisfied with the car

as it is.

From Forza t o Rfact or

Get the car files from somewhere

Here are links to websites where you can get free forza car models from(note that this is written in january 2013 so it is available then):

LINK=http://slg.serv1.free.fr/forza3_cars.html]free forza 3/4 +shift2 models

LINK=http:/ /vizmod.org.ua/index.php/3d-cars/31-3d-cars/3569-3d-models-cars-forza-motorsport]Free forza3 models 538 cars

LINK=http:/ /racemix.forumfree.it/?t=60337340]RaceMixMod forum

First step is to find a car file which has no more then 60000(recommended) polygons because gamesare designed for something in that area. Any more and the game runs slowly and not at all for slowcomputers. Also zmodeler has a 64000 polygon limit, if you go over it the model becomes mangledup and ugly.

What i am going to do is use car files from Forza 4 because it‘s relatively new game and therefore it isgood quality. It also has the latest cars. Using car file from Forza 3 is actually very similar if not exactlythe same, just an older game, and for that you need forza studio 3. I‘m sure you can find that on theweb somewhere.

When you become more experienced and understand the concept of converting models into gamesyou can convert almost anything into rfactor so long as it has textures and is the appropriate size.

You could convert a model of a toilet and put wheels on it (or no wheels lol) if you wanted to andthere is even one already in rfactor lol. BUT since we are taking things serious now for starters wewant to convert just cars and cars that are from games, specifically FORZA 4 , so lets get started!


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Forza 4 car files

Forza 4 has their car files set up as .carbin for the models and .xdsfor the textures so the first thingyou do is use the only tool i know of that handles these files: Forza studio 4.1

Now in order to be able to import the car files into forza studio 4.1 they have to be all in one .zip fileso create one and and put all the car files in there. Create one zip for the Car and then there isusually a folder with wheels+wheels textures which you create another zip for them and then youhave in total 2 zip files with 1. Car and 2. Wheels . The only use the wheels.zip has is to get thewheels texture from it because otherwise our wheel is black. We dont need the wheels.zip models

just the textures OK J

Open Forza studio 4.1 and import theCar.zip file you just created and in „Models“ tab it should looksomething like this:


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And in the „Textures“ tab it should look something like this:

With the Wheels.zip the procedure is exactly the same

Now what you need to do with these files in Forza studio is check the ones we want(and uncheck theones we dont want) all one by one into single folder both the models and textures. The ones we wanti have listed below:

*Note that they all say .obj because from Forza studio you export as .obj(along with an .mtl) andthen later into zmodeler where you import that .obj and export as .gmt with correct naming

1. body.obj

ok this is the body like you want it to appear in game. Forza people usually add spoiler in the backand diffuser in front which dont belong on the normal car so you decide if you want them or not.

What we check: body(LOD1=level of detail 1) like you want it to appear in game

What we DONT check: body LOD2-5 calipers(brake calipers) and rotors(brake discs) and cockpit andbody LOD0(which is sortof extremely detailed version of the car and is not considered to be used ingame except on computers like NASA uses and other supernatural pc‘s) and everything else that isn‘tpart of body LOD1like for example THE WHEELS WHICH YOU ALSO UNCHECK dont forget thatbecause in forza models the wheel appears as a single object under the car and it is ugly if you forgetto uncheck that as well.


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You now extract what you have checked into our folder that we created which will hold all the .obj.mtl and the textures.

2. cockpit.obj

This is the cockpit which in Forza studio is alwaysLOD0 because it just is. Forza people usually add aracing cage inside the cockpit which looks out of place in some cars and you choose if you want touncheck that if you want.

What we check: The cockpit as a whole

What we DONT check: the steeringwheel (which comes later)


3. steeringwheel.obj

This is the steering wheel only

What we check: steering wheel

What we uncheck: anything that isnt part of the steering wheel

4. wheel and tire

Now what you do here is check only the wheel which is under LOD1 body and nothing else and you

What we check: wheel under body LOD1

What we dont check: under the wheel category there you can see „blur rim“ and „blur lip“

You do this procedure 4 times because last time i saw a car it had 4 wheels under it J and make sure

to name it to these names:


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Now you should have these files in your .obj folder along with all the other .obj and textures:

Wheel_lf.obj

Wheel_lr.obj

Wheel_rf.obj

Wheel_rr.obj


5. Calipers and rotors

What i do now is call one single unit of brakes(1 caliper and 1 rotor) a spindle. So the brakes on theLeftFront (lf) is then spindle_lf.obj

So for the lf brakes you check: (caliper lf lod0+rotor lf lod0) and so on...... with the other brakes it isexactly the same except diffrent names..... lf(leftfront) rf(rightfront) lr(leftrear) rr(rightrear)

spindle_lf.obj

spindle_lr.obj

spindle_rf.obj

spindle_rr.obj


Ok so after you have finished extracting all model parts you then have to move over to the texturestab and extract EVERY texture that ISN‘T „damage“-something because we dont want to usetextures that show us damaged car, we want the clean car J

You then import wheels.zip and like i said we only want the textures from that file so check all wheels

textures and extract them to our folder we have.

Ok so now we should have 1 folder which holds .obj and .mtl and textures for all model parts and allthe textures.


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Firing up Zmodeler and converting to GMTWhat we want to do now is import all these .obj files at once into zmodeler using File-importand export them from zmodeler as a .gmt using Export-MultipleExport utility but before youdo all that you should change the names of the files to the ones you named the .objoriginally because for some reason zmodeler changes these.

Like for example if you import spindle_lf it changes to spindle1 and in some cases it changesall the objects to the same name „default“ so you have lots of objects that all have thestupid name „default“ so you have to „hide all“ and figure out by checking one object at atime to rename them to what appears when you check them.

Btw the naming is important like lf lr rf rr because then you know where you place the

wheels where they are instead of having 1 2 3 4 that doesnt tell you where the wheels arelocated. Its all about making life easier!! Lol

These procedures i mentioned earlier you can see here:

File-Import:


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Export-Multiple Export

Allright now when you export youexport everything (all the .obj files ) into one folderAS.GMT.

Then after you have done that you go to the old .obj folder where the .obj .mtl and texturesare and copy all the texturesAND JUST THE TEXTURESbecause you want to simply pastethem in the new .gmt folder(where all thenewly created .gmt files are).

I recommend to keep the now defunct „.obj and .mtl“ folder but hide it so it doesnt get inthe way because we might mess up and you need to use the .obj and .mtl to import again in

zmodeler and export again...


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Introduction to 3Dsimed

Ok now you should have on your desktop or anywhere a folder that includes this:

- GMT files(body, cockpit, wheels(4 files), spindles(4 files) and a steeringwheel)- Textures(.dds, .tga, .bmp or any other texture format)

Start by Importing just the body.gmt by going into the File-import and selecting in the folderthat includes the body.gmt the „body.gmt“ file

Now you should have something like this:

This is a car with unassigned textures( they havent been mapped onto the car) which meansif you would use it in game it would belike it is showin here, an ugly pink color, and that is

what happens in-game when you forget to assign a texture, the game simply shows you thatit is pink and then you can exit and go assign the left out texture.


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„Import“ / “Import as objects“Now when importing a .gmt into 3Dsimed there are two ways to go about it. You can eitherimport a single object in which case you select File-Import or you can import many at once inwhich case you select File-Import as objects.

„Importing as objects“ and „import“ a single file is diffrent from one another because when„importing as objects“like for example when you want to see where the wheels and spindlesare in relations to the body you import the wheels, brakes and body all together and placethem until they are correct. You have to maybe flip them and rotate and whatnot becausethe 4 wheels you created all appear in the same location under the car so what you want todo is „import as objects“ all the wheels and the body and place them in the right locationone by one. For example the LF goes in the left front and so on.......

The exact same procedure goes with the spindles(calipers+brakes) like you do with wheels. You import just the spindles(which will appear, like the wheels, all in same place under thecar,) and place them according to their names(lf, rf, lr, rr......)

A good trick which i use is to just place for example the left side of wheels and spindles andthen just mirror them so they are exactly the same on the other side but to do that you needto import each wheel and each spindle and go to Edit-Mirror and then you choose x-axis andclick OK and then the material is in a new place on the other side which you then just exportand REMEMBER TO RENAME to the wheel you wished to create not the one youmirrored inthe first place. Like for example if you imported LF to mirror it as RF you then export thewheel_lf and save it as wheel_rf and VOILA! You have a brand new wheel in exact spot onlocation.

When „import as objects“ you cant save just one object from the group of objects youimported. You have to save all at once. What i mean is that if you have opened multipleobjects with „import as objects“ you cant save just one object from them individually. Youopened them together and you save them together.

Saving and Exporting are two different things in 3Dsimed and it is like alll other programs.Saving is saving as .3dsimed project(which we dont want to do) and exporting is exporting as.gmt(which we want to do)

Now with just single object import „File-Import“ you get one object to work on and you canopen it and save just that object and basically it is more focused on one object.


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When Exporting objects

It is important to know that when saving object after you have been working on it to havethe „lit at night“ checked and all the three number boxes 0.000 0.000 0.000 because it

centers for example the wheels in the place you want them to be spinning. In other words ifyou save as 0 0 and 0 you make the wheels turn on middle of the wheel andnot somewhereelse. Here is a picture to explain this, on the left we have a wheel that is saved with thenumbers 0,0,0 and as you can see it turns with the axis in the middle of the wheel. Now withthe wheel on the right which was saved with changed numbers so they were NOT 0,0,0 theaxis is outside of the wheel so in game it would look ridiculous when it was turning.


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Assigning texturesWhen assigning textures on forza cars there usually is a texture called nodamage orsomething like that which is used for the body and all parts on the body (you will notice if itsthe incorrect one in which case try out the others that came with the car until you find onethat fits)

I‘m not going to go into extreme detail on this because it would take a week to go throughall the different materials you will assign. Luckily assigning just one material is very similar toassigning another. In fact im going to tell you about different groups of materials that i use:

Body material : you name this „wccarbody“ if you want skins to work on it. This materialcovers the area of the car that will be coloured(all of it). Here is a picture of the setup youuse for wccarbody and like i want you to use:


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Interior materials: For these there is usuallya texture called interiorlod0 because as i saidearlier the cockpit and steeringwheel are the only part of this which are LOD0 which meanslevel of detail 0(or extreme detailed) and in the interior there may be any of these elements:leather, plastic, carbon, cloth, wood, mottledand what i like to do know is tell you that the

settings i use for those are exactly the same as for the wccarbody onebut you only changenodamage.bmp to interiordlod0.bmp and cubemap from emap_paint.dds to what suits theelement which you will have to decide from the textures i will attach to this tutorial whichare in a folder called „Shaders and Stuff“. A cubemap is only an overlay to make things moreshiny and more cool :P and for example for plasticin the cockpit i then choose in shader:cube map specular coloradd t1“ andusethe .dds from the „Shaders and stuff“ that iattached in this zip „emap_cockpit_plastic.dds“ and for plastic outside cockpit i use„emap_plastic.dds“ and the other materials follow the same sortof rule except the glasswhich there is a picture if you scroll down how to do that one J ).

Now for the cockpit body(that is what is outside the cockpit in the cockpit.gmt you doexactly the same as in wccarbody for the body material except you change nodamage.bmpto nodamagelod0.bmp because as i say again the cockpit.gmt is lod0 as well as the steeringwheel.


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How to start assigning texture to material (picture):


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Glass Material: dont have to name it anything just leave it like it is but you do have to putthese settings on if you want a proper seethrough glass as I USE:


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Lights material: to get to the lights of the car it is a good rule to hover the mouse over theglass which is covering the lights-right click- hide-glass... to reveal and be able to assignmaterial for what is within the glass because it is in the way arrrg hehe. The hiding functionin 3Dsimed is only to be better able to see or assign textures to materials that are hidden

behind materials we are not working on. Here is a picture to show what to do:


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Mirror Materials: mirror is easy to put on and make to work. You have to open cockpit.gmtbecause that is where the mirrors are used and select material for the mirror which inrFactor 1 is always the „mirror.bmp“ no matter what. You use these settings as i show here:

*Note that when i say mirror i only mean mirror glass not the plastic or the body aroundthem just the glass J


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Compressing our newly converted car to .mas file withMas utility

Now that we have finished applying the textures like we want them to appear and exportedall the .gmt and the textures we used to the same folder.

Now it is time to take all the content in that very folder and compress them into one .masfile.

I will attach the program needed to do this called rFpublictoolsV2 and in that folder there isMAS.exe which you fire up and in there you locate your car folder with all files and importthem into this neat little program like this :

1. Add files to MAS archive2. locate your folder and inside it choose all files(textures and .gmt files), choose themall(ctrl+A) and click OK

3. Save it by clicking the button i point to in the picture and choose where you want tosave it. Before saving it you rename it to the same name that the car folder has. Inthis case it is (New Conversion) because we are just practising J

4. Ok now we have a ready mas file with all necessary parts so we can move on.


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Time to do .gen files and the

physics filesFirst things first i have set up for you the gen files which can be found inside the „(NewConversion)“ folderso it makes it easier for you to get the car on the track.

NOTE: i have only set the gen files up accordingly to the names that we named the .gmt filesin the zmodeler export process so if you get any errors go check to see if the names on the.gmt files are indeed the same as in the .gen files

Now first off the spinner gen file and the upgrades gen file(graphics gen file) can be exactlythe same except that the spinner file has to only contain the body, wheels and spindles andnothing else. This is because the spinner gen file displays, if it is left the same as upgradesfile, the car in the spinner like it is displayed in 3Dsimedwhich means it will jam the cockpitand body together and it will look all crumbled up into one ugly...... you get what i mean.

The upgrades gen file on the other hand has to contain body, wheels, spindles, cockpit andsteering wheel. It has to contain all these because of all the different views the player

demands. For example in chase view it has to have body.gmt and in cockpit view it has tohave cockpit.gmt along with the steeringwheel.gmt(which turns) and all the 4 wheels whichof course are turning. The spindles as well although in my conversions they arent turning,they are just there to make it look cool :P. You can learn later on how to make the brakediscs turn with the wheel which is fairly easy.

The upgrades gen file displays the car ON THE TRACK like the physics files in the car folder.pm .hdv .engine and other tell it to be displayed and the template files i attached in (NewConversion) are supposed to be assigned to a 770 kg racing BMW which may not be entirely

the same as for example a 1900 kg aston martin. So you got to perhaps borrow physics files(with permission!) from other mods and go back and forth in and out of game to see whateffects your changes to the files have made to the car. Is it sticking into the ground withsparks or is mile high in the sky because the suspension is set up all wrong or anything else.Usually when borrowing physics you should choose a borrow car which resembles your carin many ways like Weight, type of car, engine, gears and so on.

All the names in the gen files have to match the actual names of the .gmt files you have inyour newly created .mas files so you wont get any errors and again i WARN YOU BE CAREFUL


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WHAT YOU TYPE because you can become so frustrated searching for small error that thegame doesnt give any clue as to what it might be and you end up commiting suicide and wewouldn‘t want that. but you get my point.

The .hdv file is sortof a parent for all the other files as it holds together general informationand then points to all the other physics files so you also have to be careful that the names ofthe physics files in the .hdv are the same as the actual files it is pointing to or else you getERRORS.

I am going to take a guess you know alot already about the .veh file as it holds generalinformation about the car as well as points to the skin your car uses. Don‘t forget to check inthat folder and look at other mods to see if you are doing anything wrong.

I say again SMALL ERRORS ARE BIG ERRORS which means that if you make a small error it cantake forever to figure it out so be as careful as you can possibly be when typing and editingthe files so you dont have to spend hours trying to figure it out or sent to mental institutionbecause you will have gone insane.

Now this is my way of convering a car to rfactor and there are many other ways to do it butsince mine works and it works like i want it to work(most of the time) i do that and only that

until someone tells me how i can improve so i listen to that and so should you.

Happy converting to you all!

RFactor Conversion Tutorial

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Transcript of RFactor Conversion Tutorial