go-kart model

[zaphod]

Me and my friends are about as hard core as you can get about mario kart, and I have been fantasizing about making a mario kart clone type game on the pc. I made a little kart model to ease my pangs.

just under 3k tri's one 1024 for the body and a 512 for the wheels. Both could be sized down if needed without much loss visually since they are mostly gradients and flat colors. These are just viewport shots but I'm planning on a heavy dose of specularity or env mapping if it ever sees an engine.

My next goal is to add a rider with a bobblehead-sized helmet and then animate him turning left and right as well as a wipeout anim. If I get that far then I plan to tackle an entire course for this puppy to drive on.

[Spellbinder]

Nice! Needs some decals and stuff though, numbers. Gj!

[Sa74n]

model is nice but you could probably still excaggerate the cartoony shapes. the texture looks a bit too technical/clinical and perfect. i'm not saying you should through a photo overlay in ther but you should dive more into a painted look on the texture.

looking forward to more updates

[Sentura]

wait till tf2 comes out and you can make tf2 on wheels! or at least reuse the models ;p

[Psy]

Awesome low-poly cart.

Definitely makes me think of Mario Kart.

[Rick_D]

low poly?

two maps!

we were just discussing this somewhere else I am sure!

Looks cool zaphod but a little over the top in textures and tris, like in the front, you will very rarely see the kart from the front so why not just normal map in all that detail - not to mention you will have a player sat on the seat so it really doesn't need all that detail.

[Grinwhrl]

Nice job,

Why don't you help work on that Mario Kart Mod for Source. Looks like they have lots done if their not dead, hehe.

[hessi]

looking nice but make the exhausts bigger!

here is an unfinished kart model i made a few years ago:

http://thomashess.net/images/3D/gokart_boxmodel.jpg

[zaphod]

I want to keep it very clean looking, so I'm not sure about adding a ton of stripes and decals. Also I was thinking of keeping everything to just a spec and diffuse map. Scaling some of the stuff up is probably a good idea to get things a little more cartoony, I will also be able to tweak that stuff further once I get a rider in there and see how that looks.

I don't think it's too over the top in texture and polycount, It's going to be running on a very lightweight engine like ogre, and there isn't going to be a whole lot else in the scene. I just was using my textures at source resolution but they could easily be sized down without any issues if needed.

I want to keep a very polished and cartoony appearance, like double dash and mario galaxy, but would still like to add a few details as suggested . . . any ideas? A gas cap perhaps? Some more panel lines perhaps too.

[zaphod]

I started dressing it up a little bit but I keep getting to the point where I think it looks too distracting so I take it back off. I scaled up the exhaust but couldnt really find anywhere else to push the scale without wierding it up. This shot is also with textures quartered down to a 512 for the body and a 256 for the wheels. Thoughts? I'm probably going to move onto to doing a driver soon. I'm not sure I like the skin changes, it looks like an episode of "pimp my kart"

[Erratic]

It needs racing stripes!

[Grinwhrl]

racing strips and number decals or a mario mushroom or star or something in a bright colors.

[hydeph]

yeah and some colour variations, the tires look mad cool!

perhaps some white text on the sidewall of the tire

[Furyo]

"1Upirelli tires" for the win

[zaphod]

ok, I made some cubemaps to add specularity, I'm going to call the kart done at least until I finish a rider. I also made a bunch of different colors, clicky http://marshmonkey.com/colors.html to see them