[WIP] 3DS MAX Dodge Charger R/T. Seeking help

AlainP

Hello everyone,

Here is a quick brief of what I am doing, I am making a car model to be put into a video game as an interactive vehicle for FPS. The model is designed for AAA game standards to which detail is a must and at the moment I am making it as a high poly mesh for texture baking methods.

So here is the problem,

I am struggling to understand how the door hinges work as well as how the door looks overall interior wise. I have looked through a lot of references to refer back to whiles but I hit a wall to which references cannot assist me. To give a better understanding I provide the Images.

Figure 1 and 2 are good but figure 3 and 4 are the problems I am having.

Figure.1

Everything on the door looks correct on the exterior.

Figure.2

When the door opens there are no meshes colliding with one another which is good.

Figure.3

This is the problem, to me it seems that the gap is far too big even which I put block in to represent the hinges, this is where image/ video references can't help me in.

Figure.4

The door seems bit too thick even though the Dodge Charger R/T does have thick doors for its time but for looking at it from interior perspective it does not seem correct to the real thing.

Figure.5

My references.

So what I am asking overall is how can I make this door better?

I can't get my head round it to sort this out which has delayed me from moving onwards with the model.

Any help would be really appreciated.

lluc21

First of all you should be aware that AAA racing games, such as Project Cars, Assetto Corsa, Forza, NFS, GTA V and even the latest Asphalt games do not use baked normal maps for the car surface. Instead they use custom vertex normals. Here you can see some examples of some great AAA vehicle artists for reference https://www.artstation.com/a3dr https://sketchfab.com/ollitei
Now, regarding the model it is crucial that you get the exterior shape and proportions right.
One thing I noticed is that the flat surface where the side mirror sits looks too wide on your model, and this might be causing some of those issues. 
This is what I mean. Notice how in the real car the shape of the door doesn't go directly horizontal, but instead it follows the angle of the window a bit and it has a soft transition.

JamesBrisnehan

Perhaps having the geometry intersect is the way to go. On the car's main body door frame area you could model a cavity for the door's outer panel to fit into when it pivots. Or Maybe pull the frame out a little bit and push the bulky part of the door forward a little bit. Or use longer hinges.
It's probably ok to fudge the proportions of an area that the player is never going to really look at. If the game was a mechanic VR sim with a hinge replacement mission you would want everything to be perfect. But it's an FPS. I'd say don't worry about it too much, just make it work.

AlainP

lluc21 said:

First of all you should be aware that AAA racing games, such as Project Cars, Assetto Corsa, Forza, NFS, GTA V and even the latest Asphalt games do not use baked normal maps for the car surface. Instead they use custom vertex normals. Here you can see some examples of some great AAA vehicle artists for reference https://www.artstation.com/a3dr https://sketchfab.com/ollitei
Now, regarding the model it is crucial that you get the exterior shape and proportions right.
One thing I noticed is that the flat surface where the side mirror sits looks too wide on your model, and this might be causing some of those issues. 
This is what I mean. Notice how in the real car the shape of the door doesn't go directly horizontal, but instead it follows the angle of the window a bit and it has a soft transition.

Thank you very much for the insight on how AAA companies produce these models with fluent topology. I was thinking that the outside of the exterior might need to be altered to achieve what I need.  I have done a few testers with thinning out the side of the car as well as the doors, you very correct that the thickness of the door the mirror sits on is too wide, after changing that the door looks correct when opened at 90 degrees and I maintained car side’s creases.  

AlainP

JamesBrisnehan said:

Perhaps having the geometry intersect is the way to go. On the car's main body door frame area you could model a cavity for the door's outer panel to fit into when it pivots. Or Maybe pull the frame out a little bit and push the bulky part of the door forward a little bit. Or use longer hinges.
It's probably ok to fudge the proportions of an area that the player is never going to really look at. If the game was a mechanic VR sim with a hinge replacement mission you would want everything to be perfect. But it's an FPS. I'd say don't worry about it too much, just make it work.

I have been looking at the GTA 5 Dodge Charger to gain insight on how they modelled it and it does resemble of what you have been talking about meshes colliding. I try and adapt this when getting into over complicated designs. Thank you for the help. I have redone the shape of the car and door as I replied to lluc21, everything now is working wonderfully.