So far we've been modifying existing .BIN models. Now we're going to make a simple one from scratch. Let's give our van some air scoops on its flanks to let that engine breathe!
This quick'n'dirty diagram shows what I have in mind. Our scoops are going have six vertices and three faces.
Start BINedit, but don't load a model. We're going to build this ourselves.
We'll add vertices at the following coordinates:
Vertex 0 at 150, 0, 120
Vertex 1 at 150, 0, -120
Vertex 2 at -150, 0, -120
Vertex 3 at -150, 0, 120
We also need two more to form the mouth of the scoop. So we'll have
Vertex 4 at 120, 50, 100
Vertex 5 at -120, 50, 100
The coordinates aren't terribly important just now, as we can resize the model later.
Before we can add faces, we need a texture. I select Textures -> Load... and choose VANdal1.raw.
Now we can add faces. The first face will be attached to vertices 5, 4, 1 and 2. The second will be attached to 4, 0, 1 and the third to 3, 5, 2.
Now we need to add some faces to define the inside. I'll add two more vertices:
Vertex 6 at 120, 0, -100
Vertex 7 at -120, 0, -100
This diagram is showing a top-down view, so the vertices of our faces have to be defined going counter-clockwise. That is, 4, 5, 7, 6; 5, 3, 7; and 0, 4, 6.
Now we need to map those faces. I'll tag the three faces that make up the outside of the scoop, save the face group as "scoop outside", and map them to the little white rectangle we used for the top of the bumper. Then I'll tag the faces on the inside of the scoop, save them as "scoop inside", and map them to a black area like I did for the faces we added to the bumper.
Our model is 1.171875 feet wide, 0.9375 feet long, and 0.1953125 feet high. Let's adjust the size of it a little - we'll make it about 1.6 feet long and a bit taller. I select Model -> Resize... and the following window appears:
We've now got a nice little scoop. To finish it off, I'll convert the face types to MTM2. Select Face -> Select All Faces or hit Ctrl+A - the whole model turns tinted green. Now we'll select Groups -> Set Group Face Type... And change them to shiny MTM2 faces.
There! Now I'll tag all the vertices and save the vertex group as "scoop", and then save the model as vandal_scoop.bin.
Now, to insert it onto the sides of our van, we want to rotate the model sideways.
Because the sides of the van are curved, I'll need to rotate it a little further than 90 degrees about the Z axis. First I tried 95 degrees, then inserted VANdal.bin to compare the angle. I found that I needed more rotation, so I opened vandal_scoop.bin again without saving VANdal.bin (you can insert models for comparison, but don't save it or you'll be stuck deleting the faces of the inserted model!).
After a couple of tries I found that 105 degrees was how far I needed to rotate it.
Now we can insert VANdal.bin and use the "scoop" vertex group to translate this model to the correct position on the side of the van.
I saved this model as VANdal.bin. Then I simply repeated it for the other side, rotating the scoop -105 degrees about the Z axis, inserting VANdal.bin, and finally translating it to where I wanted it.
It looks a treat doesn't it?
The only problem is that the scoops are white where the van body has the Ford logo painted on it. To fix it, I'd have to remap the scoops, but getting it to line up with the paint already on the side of the van would be a hassle. It'd be much easier to remap the scoops and the van sides in one go - that way everything will line up nicely.
I already had face groups for the two scoops saved, so all I needed to do was tag all the faces on side and save it as a group, and then tag all the faces on the other side and save them.
I saved the model at this point, just in case. Now with one of the sides selected, I went into Groups -> Restore Face Group... and choose to restore the face group for the scoop on that side, making sure that I had the box "Add to current selection" checked.
Now I had all the faces on one side selected.
Now I simply remapped the group to the texture.
Then I used Face -> Deselect All faces, then restored the face groups for the other side of the van and remapped that.
Viola! Now the scoops have the same patterning as the panels that they're set against. This makes them a little difficult to see in BINedit, but they'll look better on the game (or so I hope!). To make it a little easier to see the insides of the scoops, I moved what were initially vertices 6 and 7 when I added them to the scoop model, on each scoop forward so that the black inside could be more easily seen by looking in the mouth of them.