Beginners guide to rFactor

conversion from Forza 4

The Basics(simple setup)
(very much beginners guide as to why it is so long because it is so detailed!!)
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 for
this(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 them
from(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:
folder which 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 our
vehicles folder(without .rfm file the car doesnt show up)
sound folder which the .sfx in our (New Conversion) folder points to(you can use other mods for this
J)
.mas files which is like a .rar ,rfactor style, which contains all the .gmt and texture files in one
compressed file to make the overall size smaller(just to reduce mod size and minimize loading
timeJ)

8. We put correct names and set everything up correctly in our car folder which is extremely
important! (one tiny error means no working car in game and you can end up hunting it down for
days even weeks so be careful when you type and 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 to Rfactor

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-forzamotorsport]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 games
are designed for something in that area. Any more and the game runs slowly and not at all for slow
computers. Also zmodeler has a 64000 polygon limit, if you go over it the model becomes mangled
up and ugly.
What i am going to do is use car files from Forza 4 because its relatively new game and therefore it is
good quality. It also has the latest cars. Using car file from Forza 3 is actually very similar if not exactly
the same, just an older game, and for that you need forza studio 3. Im sure you can find that on the
web somewhere.
When you become more experienced and understand the concept of converting models into games
you 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 and
there is even one already in rfactor lol. BUT since we are taking things serious now for starters we
want to convert just cars and cars that are from games, specifically FORZA 4 , so lets get started!

Forza 4 car files

Forza 4 has their car files set up as .carbin for the models and .xds for the textures so the first thing
you 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 file
so create one and and put all the car files in there. Create one zip for the Car and then there is
usually a folder with wheels+wheels textures which you create another zip for them and then you
have in total 2 zip files with 1. Car and 2. Wheels . The only use the wheels.zip has is to get the
wheels 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 the Car.zip file you just created and in Models tab it should look
something like this:

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 the
ones we dont want) all one by one into single folder both the models and textures. The ones we want
i have listed below:
*Note that they all say .obj because from Forza studio you export as .obj(along with an .mtl) and
then 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 back
and 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 and
body LOD0(which is sortof extremely detailed version of the car and is not considered to be used in
game except on computers like NASA uses and other supernatural pcs) and everything else that isnt
part of body LOD1 like for example THE WHEELS WHICH YOU ALSO UNCHECK dont forget that
because in forza models the wheel appears as a single object under the car and it is ugly if you forget
to uncheck that as well.

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 always LOD0 because it just is. Forza people usually add a
racing cage inside the cockpit which looks out of place in some cars and you choose if you want to
uncheck that if you want.
What we check: The cockpit as a whole
What we DONT check: the steeringwheel (which comes later)
You now extract what you have checked into our folder that we created which will hold all the .obj
.mtl and the textures.

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:

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

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 the
LeftFront (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 is
exactly 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
You now extract what you have checked into our folder that we created which will hold all the .obj
.mtl and the textures.
Ok so after you have finished extracting all model parts you then have to move over to the textures
tab and extract EVERY texture that ISNT damage-something because we dont want to use
textures 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 all
the textures.

Firing up Zmodeler and converting to GMT

What we want to do now is import all these .obj files at once into zmodeler using File-import
and export them from zmodeler as a .gmt using Export-MultipleExport utility but before you
do all that you should change the names of the files to the ones you named the .obj
originally because for some reason zmodeler changes these.
Like for example if you import spindle_lf it changes to spindle1 and in some cases it changes
all the objects to the same name default so you have lots of objects that all have the
stupid name default so you have to hide all and figure out by checking one object at a
time 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 are
located. Its all about making life easier!! Lol
These procedures i mentioned earlier you can see here:
File-Import:

Export-Multiple Export

Allright now when you export you export everything (all the .obj files ) into one folder AS
.GMT.
Then after you have done that you go to the old .obj folder where the .obj .mtl and textures
are and copy all the textures AND JUST THE TEXTURES because you want to simply paste
them in the new .gmt folder(where all the newly created .gmt files are).
I recommend to keep the now defunct .obj and .mtl folder but hide it so it doesnt get in
the way because we might mess up and you need to use the .obj and .mtl to import again in
zmodeler and export again...

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 folder
that 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 means
if you would use it in game it would be like 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 that
it is pink and then you can exit and go assign the left out texture.

Import / Import as objects

Now when importing a .gmt into 3Dsimed there are two ways to go about it. You can either
import a single object in which case you select File-Import or you can import many at once in
which 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 spindles
are in relations to the body you import the wheels, brakes and body all together and place
them until they are correct. You have to maybe flip them and rotate and whatnot because
the 4 wheels you created all appear in the same location under the car so what you want to
do is import as objects all the wheels and the body and place them in the right location
one 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 the
car,) 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 and
then just mirror them so they are exactly the same on the other side but to do that you need
to import each wheel and each spindle and go to Edit-Mirror and then you choose x-axis and
click OK and then the material is in a new place on the other side which you then just export
and REMEMBER TO RENAME to the wheel you wished to create not the one you mirrored in
the first place. Like for example if you imported LF to mirror it as RF you then export the
wheel_lf and save it as wheel_rf and VOILA! You have a brand new wheel in exact spot on
location.
When import as objects you cant save just one object from the group of objects you
imported. You have to save all at once. What i mean is that if you have opened multiple
objects with import as objects you cant save just one object from them individually. You
opened 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 can
open it and save just that object and basically it is more focused on one object.

When Exporting objects

It is important to know that when saving object after you have been working on it to have
the 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 if
you save as 0 0 and 0 you make the wheels turn on middle of the wheel and not somewhere
else. Here is a picture to explain this, on the left we have a wheel that is saved with the
numbers 0,0,0 and as you can see it turns with the axis in the middle of the wheel. Now with
the wheel on the right which was saved with changed numbers so they were NOT 0,0,0 the
axis is outside of the wheel so in game it would look ridiculous when it was turning.

Assigning textures
When assigning textures on forza cars there usually is a texture called nodamage or
something like that which is used for the body and all parts on the body (you will notice if its
the incorrect one in which case try out the others that came with the car until you find one
that fits)
Im not going to go into extreme detail on this because it would take a week to go through
all the different materials you will assign. Luckily assigning just one material is very similar to
assigning 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 material
covers the area of the car that will be coloured(all of it). Here is a picture of the setup you
use for wccarbody and like i want you to use:

Interior materials: For these there is usually a texture called interiorlod0 because as i said
earlier the cockpit and steeringwheel are the only part of this which are LOD0 which means
level of detail 0(or extreme detailed) and in the interior there may be any of these elements:
leather, plastic, carbon, cloth, wood, mottled and what i like to do know is tell you that the
settings i use for those are exactly the same as for the wccarbody one but you only change
nodamage.bmp to interiordlod0.bmp and cubemap from emap_paint.dds to what suits the
element which you will have to decide from the textures i will attach to this tutorial which
are in a folder called Shaders and Stuff. A cubemap is only an overlay to make things more
shiny and more cool :P and for example for plastic in the cockpit i then choose in shader:
cube map specular coloradd t1 and use the .dds from the Shaders and stuff that i
attached 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 glass
which 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 do
exactly the same as in wccarbody for the body material except you change nodamage.bmp
to nodamagelod0.bmp because as i say again the cockpit.gmt is lod0 as well as the steering
wheel.

How to start assigning texture to material (picture):

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

Lights material: to get to the lights of the car it is a good rule to hover the mouse over the
glass which is covering the lights-right click- hide-glass... to reveal and be able to assign
material for what is within the glass because it is in the way arrrg hehe. The hiding function
in 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:

Mirror Materials: mirror is easy to put on and make to work. You have to open cockpit.gmt
because that is where the mirrors are used and select material for the mirror which in
rFactor 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 around
them just the glass J

Compressing our newly converted car to .mas file with

Mas utility
Now that we have finished applying the textures like we want them to appear and exported
all 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 .mas
file.
I will attach the program needed to do this called rFpublictoolsV2 and in that folder there is
MAS.exe which you fire up and in there you locate your car folder with all files and import
them into this neat little program like this :
1. Add files to MAS archive
2. locate your folder and inside it choose all files(textures and .gmt files), choose them
all(ctrl+A) and click OK
3. Save it by clicking the button i point to in the picture and choose where you want to
save it. Before saving it you rename it to the same name that the car folder has. In
this 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.

Time to do .gen files and the

physics files
First things first i have set up for you the gen files which can be found inside the (New
Conversion) folder so 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 files
in 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 exactly
the same except that the spinner file has to only contain the body, wheels and spindles and
nothing else. This is because the spinner gen file displays, if it is left the same as upgrades
file, the car in the spinner like it is displayed in 3Dsimed which means it will jam the cockpit
and 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 and
steering 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 to
have cockpit.gmt along with the steeringwheel.gmt(which turns) and all the 4 wheels which
of 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 brake
discs 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 (New
Conversion) 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 what
effects your changes to the files have made to the car. Is it sticking into the ground with
sparks 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 car
in 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 in
your newly created .mas files so you wont get any errors and again i WARN YOU BE CAREFUL

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

The .hdv file is sortof a parent for all the other files as it holds together general information
and then points to all the other physics files so you also have to be careful that the names of
the physics files in the .hdv are the same as the actual files it is pointing to or else you get
ERRORS.
I am going to take a guess you know alot already about the .veh file as it holds general
information about the car as well as points to the skin your car uses. Dont forget to check in
that 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 can
take forever to figure it out so be as careful as you can possibly be when typing and editing
the files so you dont have to spend hours trying to figure it out or sent to mental institution
because 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 but
since 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!