When Performa Cars is released, unfortunately no "real" cars can be included due to legal complications and copyrights etc. It will however be possible to create custom cars to be raced in Performa Cars. Since additional cars will not be sold or economically gained from, I believe people have the right to build their own cars to race, based on fantasy figures and images - or real ones. Custom cars can also quite easily be converted from "GTA" by importing and resizing the images according to step 1 below.
Even though the game hasn't been released yet, here are a few guide lines if you want to prepare.
A more professional guide will be included once the game is released!
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Step 1 - Cars are drawn using the folowing forumla to determine the car size in Performa Cars
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- CAR_LENGTH_IN_CM / 11.45 (e.g. A car is 4.58 meters long, 458 divided by 11.45 = 40 pixels in length)
- or CAR_LENGTH_IN_INCHES / 4.5275 (e.g. A car is 181.1 inches long, 181.1 divided by 4.5285 = 40 pixels in length.)
- The width of the car is proportional to the length.
- Round the length and width of the cars to the nearest even number, e.g. lengths like: 38, 40, 42, 44 pixels etc. Same goes for the width.
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Step 2 - Cars are drawn in 4 damage levels, use the background color #FF00FF (255,0,255)
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- It is important that no part of the car itself has the same color values as the background.
- The levels of damage should range from none in the first picture, to totally wrecked in the fourth =)
- Remember that once you determined the car size in pixels (step 1), each car frame must be exactly the same amount of pixels long, even if the car itself gets shorter when the front is pushed in by damage etc.
- The bitmap also needs to contain a mask where white areas are parts of the body that should change color if the car is painted, black areas are where color is not changed (i.e. windows, lights, etc).
- Cars graphics are always saved in the lossless .PNG format.
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Step 3 - Car preview picture
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- The dimensions of a single car preview is 320 x 160 pixels.
- Always paint the color of the car gery!
- The mask should be included on the same bitmap image (making the entire image 640 x 160 pixels).
- The white areas of the mask is where color is changed when a player repains his car, back areas remain unchanged (grey shades also work for partial change of color).
- Car preview pictures are always saved in the lossless .PNG format.
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Step 4 - Car sounds
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Step 5 - Car Data
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The following data is required when implementing a car in Performa Cars:
- Year
- Model
- Make
- Engine (just general info, e.g. V8, 4172cc, 32v)
- Price$ (market price in dollars)
- Acceleration, time in seconds how fast the car does 0-100kmh
- Top Speed in kmh
- Mass (weight) in kg.
- Drive Type: FWD, RWD, 4WD
- Number of gears
- Original BHP (horsepower)
- Whether it is a turbocharged car or not (Yes/No)
- Drag (how aerodynamic the car is, this is an estimated value and the car editor will later make suggestions)
- Grip (a grip constant, this is an estimated value and the car editor will later make suggestions)
- Damage Level (car damage value, this is an estimated value and the car editor will later make suggestions)
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Step 6 - Tuning Parts
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In addition to the general car data, parts can be customised for each car. Parts can be created that will affect Performance (such as turbo upgrades, ECU chips, exhaust systems, intercoolers etc), Grip (such as tires, suspension kits etc.), Weight (such as weight reduction kits etc.), Drag (such as lowering kits, custom bodywork etc) and Damage Level (such as chassis reinforcement etc.) All these items are added through the car editor, but it is always good to have the data handy once the editor is released.
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Step 7 - Racing your car in Performa Cars
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The game and car editor will have to be released first, but once the above steps have been completed, it will be a doddle.
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