How to make a Drivable Vehicle

[Natalya]

This is just a basic overview of the general process involved in creating a vehicle. If you ever want to do this, talk to me and I can help you with the specifics.


Requirements:
- Photoshop with the .vtf plugin or something else that edits .vtf's
- Modeling software. All can be done in Milkshape 3D which only costs $30 or u can hack it for free
- Source SDK installed
- Cannonfodder's Studio Compiler
- Notepad lol


Basic Steps:
A - Get//Make your own 3D model of a car or something. It can have only 4 wheels. Well, you could have more but they won't be simulated for physics purposes.
B - Rig the model with either a custom vehicle skeleton or one you ripped from another car
C - Compile the model with a custom .qc file
D - Put it on a server that supports them and check it out
E - Write a vehicle script. (Usually just copy another one then change it to suit your car.)


A:
Okay so you don't want to make your own car, you just want to rig something and be done with it. Making your own car is too hard. Fair enough. The best thing you can do is either decompile a vehicle from some other game (Ex: Garry's Mod) and get the reference .smd file. This can be from a static prop vehicle. For example, you could do this to my static Volvo 244GL model. Point is to get it into Milkshape (or maybe XSI) or whatever you're going to use. You can also try Google's 3D warehouse, then take files from there and get them into XSI. You can edit it directly in XSI or export it as a .smd and use Milkshape. That's what I did for the Police Car.

B:
Rigging is easiest with a skeleton from another vehicle. However, your car might not fit it. (Look at the Jeep on Rally Race for example -- I had to scale it huge because I didn't know