Jbeam, couple of questions

These lines map the mesh objects in the .dae to certain groups of nodes. So, for the first line, it looks for an object called BeamNG_Nodes in the .dae. It maps that mesh to the nodes that are in the node groups BeamNG_Lowerarm_F and BeamNG_Upperarm_F. These nodes can be placed in the same .jbeam as the above instructions, or in another slot in another .jbeam that the game is instructed to load for the vehicle. So, you can define another .jbeam file to hold the node groups for suspension, but that new .jbeam must be instructed to be opened using slots.

in the main jbeam:

"slots": [
["type", "default", "description"]
["car_suspension_F","car_suspension_x", "Front Suspension"],
],

This tells the game to look through the .jbeam files and load the slot called car_suspension_x that has a slotType car_suspension_F.

The corresponding .jbeam will have this in it:

"car_suspension_x": {
"slotType" : "car_suspension_F",
"nodes":[
{"group":"BeamNG_Lowerarm_F"},
["abc",1,2,3],
{"group":"BeamNG_Upperarm_F"},
["def",1,2,3],
],

}

For a simple vehicle there is no need for slots, and all the nodes and beams and all that jazz can be thrown in right under the flexbodies heading.

Basically, any parts that move separately or detach from another should be separate objects within the .dae, NOT just a different element.

Your nodes and your meshes must have the same origin. That is to say, if your wheel node is placed at x meters, your wheel mesh should be x meters from its origin. Once you have your parts in the right place in 3dsmax, you have to select all the objects, then move their pivots to 0,0,0 using "affect pivot only" in the heirarchy tab. Then alt+right click, select freeze transform, freeze rotation, transform to zero, rotation to zero. **Then go to the utilities tab and choose resetxform, reset selected.

**NOTE: Once you resetxform it cannot be undone, so always save first, and then NEVER SAVE OVER THAT FILE ONCE RESETXFORM HAS BEEN APPLIED. NEEVVVVEERRRR. SAVE AS SOMETHING ELSE OR NOT AT ALL. After you apply resetxform, any time you try to modify your objects they will jump back to wherever they were before you had everything in the right place. Its Xtremely annoying.

 

Yes. Do all the transform stuff, then save the file, then reset xforms, then export as .dae, then reopen the saved file to inspect coordinates of vertices etc. I find the wheel hub centers are the best points to look at for aligning a car mesh and pre made jbeam. If your wheel mesh has its axle at 0.9m, and the wheel hub nodes are at 1.1m, you now know you just have to scoot your model forward 0.2m, then reset the origin 0,0,0 and it will line up. Or, you can leave your model alone and move all the points in all the jbeams back 0.2m (this takes longer lol). Make sense?

 

Give the parts standard materials with unique names. A materials.cs file will be created when you load the car in bmng, and you can change this file to use a null texture. That way you can have color and reflections. It's in the wiki somewhere