NASCAR 09

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:11 am

Inuyasha wrote:WOWOWOWOW!

That is awesome!

Teal, is there sharing allowed in this game? I'd love to use your lego car.

My kids love this game. All they've done is play it, wife is pissed since it's a school night but so what. Thinking about making a Lightning McQueen Car, Mater Car, and of course for me, a Sex and the City car. Ok, no sex and the city car, but maybe SPEED RACER!

I'd love to use my lego car, too...can't get the damn thing to 'wrap' correctly. I have no idea what I'm doing in the paint program, just feeling my way around in the dark. I'm using something called paint.NET. It's a good solid tool, but I just don't know what the hell I'm doing yet.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:07 am

Teal wrote:[

Yep. Rodster, if you actually use the paint stuff, you can put whatever number you want to on it. I put '03' because it's in my GT, and it lets me do so.

I have no artistic talent.

Where can I find the EA PC paint program? Do I download it from EA's website?

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:20 am

Ya you can download a photoshop or paint.net template to make your car. Same here, I'm not very artistic, so I hope they have a site up where you can download cars.

If you can, can some create the following cars for me :

LIGHTNING MCQUEEN CAR: car from the movie CARS

SEGA DREAMCAST Car : I would love if someone made this with the Dreamcast logo on the hood

FRYS ELECTRONICS car : I guess like the best buy car, but with the Fry's logo and the Amazon theme?

Maybe Jared can let us post our cars on this site so we can dl ???? Just throwing it out there.

BTW, game is fun to play, but I can see how more fun it would be with a custom car.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 8:53 am

Wow that sounds complicated. I'll just wait to download the cars from EA's server. I checked yesterday when I got the game and there wasn't anything available.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:50 am

What a difference a year makes...

I ran a 30-lap race at Michigan last night and had a blast. A few AI things stood out--one, I could actually race the AI in traffic this year. I screwed up my qualifying attempt and started towards the back along with Harvick and some other good drivers. As we worked our way through the field, I noticed some guys like Kvapil were falling back quickly from solid qualifying efforts, that was cool. Junior and Stewart got around me in traffic and took off on their way to top 10s. I don't remember seeing that much passing/falling back last year. There was one caution and it was caused by the AI.

I'm really looking forward to putting in more time with this game.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:16 am

Rodster wrote:Wow that sounds complicated. I'll just wait to download the cars from EA's server. I checked yesterday when I got the game and there wasn't anything available.

You can view friends' templates in the EA locker room via NASCAR 09, and it has an option to DL them to your locker room. I'd just say 'gentlemen's rules' and ask first...

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:39 pm

What camera angle do you guys use? I actually like all of them but can't seem to decide on one.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:50 pm

Cockpit all the way. Dabbled some more with Paintshop this morning, keeping in theme with the MGD sponsor for my Truck and now CoT. Going to import it at lunch and see how it actually looks on a car.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 12:53 pm

TCrouch wrote:Cockpit all the way. Dabbled some more with Paintshop this morning, keeping in theme with the MGD sponsor for my Truck and now CoT. Going to import it at lunch and see how it actually looks on a car.

Can you tell me how this whole thing works. I am sort of lost.

So go to the EA site, download the file right?

Then use paintnet or photoshop to create your car.

Then upload it to EA.

Then how do you download it to your system?

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 1:03 pm

When you go to your Paint booth in the game, you will see a button legend at the bottom. RB "imports from EA Locker" or something similar. Hit RB, grab your car file, and import. Done.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:17 pm

TCrouch wrote:When you go to your Paint booth in the game, you will see a button legend at the bottom. RB "imports from EA Locker" or something similar. Hit RB, grab your car file, and import. Done.

Are you limited to only grabbing your own car file or can you grab others? Like say I wanted to use the car you created, can I get your file?

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:43 pm

Hey, Terry:

How do you 'reverse' the numbers on the other side of the vehicle, so that they come out right? I got a template downloaded, and it looks pretty good (although you're killin' me with these designs!), except that the numbers are backwards on the other side of the truck.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 2:48 pm

In paintshop, I just copy the number layer, paste it and then use an invert and reverse on it (CTRL+I and CTRL+M). Flips it upside down and turns it around for the other side.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:06 pm

Where are people getting the car numbers? I do everything else in Fireworks (the program I am most used to), but using fonts for car numbers looks crappy.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:15 pm

Personally, I just go to www.1001freefonts.com and look for a font that appears somewhat cool, and looks like it might make a nice number style. The entire thing looks jaggy as hell on that AC3D viewer, but not on the car itself.

I first created a floating "26" with a 10-point outline in gold for that car...then I dropped the outline to 3 points and changed the color to black and just positioned it right on top of the other one. You end up layering the number itself. Then I resized it to be about 80% as wide as it used to be, but 120% taller, and then started fiddling with the positioning.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:22 pm

Okay, Terry:

I'm just using the font tool in the paint program, and slapping the numbers directly onto the car-how do I create those numbers as a layer? If I could do that, I might could figure out how to reverse the numbers, if I could place them, rather than doing what I'm doing.

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:22 pm

Woah! You can design your car in Photoshop? That is friggin' awesome. It's about damn time a developer did this. It sure beats the hell out of using in-game tools that you have to mix and match preset layers. I somehow just missed this from Gamefly so I'll probably be picking it up on Monday with some gift cards I get over the weekend. Nice job Terry.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:32 pm

Teal wrote:Okay, Terry:

I'm just using the font tool in the paint program, and slapping the numbers directly onto the car-how do I create those numbers as a layer? If I could do that, I might could figure out how to reverse the numbers, if I could place them, rather than doing what I'm doing.

I'm not sure you can create a layer of just text in paint.net. You may have to create a small box that includes the number and some background color, then make that a separate layer which you can then transform with image editor.

TCrouch · Post by **TCrouch** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 4:13 pm

You know, this game has the potential to be my favorite online console racer of all time...seriously. The races I've had so far with randoms have been staggeringly good. You can run multiple grooves, which hasn't been accomplished on ANY NASCAR game to date...PC or otherwise. Some mods have done it for specific tracks, but passing around the outside at Atlanta, or pinching a car down at Texas and carrying the speed off the outside is amazing. I watched two guys run 7 laps side by side last night, neither one giving an inch.

As for the graphics stuff, Teal...I dunno, man, sorry

. I use Paintshop Pro 7 and then save it in PNG, then only use Paint.net to convert it to a DDS so I can view it with that AC3D and then upload. I've never actually painted anything in Paint.net, only PSP.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:08 pm

TCrouch wrote:You know, this game has the potential to be my favorite online console racer of all time...seriously. The races I've had so far with randoms have been staggeringly good. You can run multiple grooves, which hasn't been accomplished on ANY NASCAR game to date...PC or otherwise. Some mods have done it for specific tracks, but passing around the outside at Atlanta, or pinching a car down at Texas and carrying the speed off the outside is amazing. I watched two guys run 7 laps side by side last night, neither one giving an inch.

As for the graphics stuff, Teal...I dunno, man, sorry . I use Paintshop Pro 7 and then save it in PNG, then only use Paint.net to convert it to a DDS so I can view it with that AC3D and then upload. I've never actually painted anything in Paint.net, only PSP.

Not to worry...I figured it out. It's a little convoluted, but not that hard. What's with the 3D model of the miller lite car? How'd you do that? I'd like to show off my new 'Lego Indiana Jones' truck in here, but outside of taking a picture and uploading it to photobucket, I don't know how.

Inuyasha · Post by **Inuyasha** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:17 pm

thanks for the online impressions. I'll probably go online tonight and check it out.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:33 pm

Well, Terry, my first creation pales in comparison to the mighty Miller Machine, but I'm just happy I got it figured out! So, here's the number 03 Lego Indy Craftsman Truck...

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:53 pm

Nice work guys.

There's no way I could figure out how to do that.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 5:56 pm

Rodster wrote:Nice work guys.

There's no way I could figure out how to do that.

It's a helluva lot easier than Forza 2!

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Fri Jun 13, 2008 6:05 pm

I have to echo Terry in the overall impressions department-this game is such a leap from previous EA efforts, it's unreal. Everything, from the driving models, to the slick interfaces, to the create a car...this is one quality title. I'm still waiting on my wheel, but I cannot wait to play this with it. The controller, however, is very, very good, and keeping a line is much easier thanks to the fluid controls.

Windshields accumulate grime, turn 4 at Daytona will absolutely BLIND you in the late afternoon sun, the spotter is much more effective. This thing plays like a dream!

Now I've grown to love GRID, and this is in no way a replacement for that-GRID's gameplay is so vastly different-but it is, to me, a wonderful complement to GRID.

In fact, I just told Mix something I'd never imagine being said about an EA sports game...I play GRID for my road and street course racing fix (with a dash of demolition derby mayhem!), and NASCAR 09 scratches the more 'sim' itch. It's not total sim, mind you...but it's the perfect blend.

And I haven't even raced online yet...