Having just realized I could do this, I am designing cars.

For those unsure what I'm talking about. In the upcoming game, NASCAR 09 (June 10th) by EA Sports, users will now be able to download car templates from EA's website, edit the templates in any photo editing program, and then upload those designs to EA.com and be able to use your personal designs within NASCAR 09.

Please visit here - http://www.easports.com/nascar09/paint-booth.jsp . There are videos and tutorials there that can help you figure out what you're doing. You can use anything from Adobe Photoshop, to Paint.net, the Gimp, when editing your paint scheme.

I strongly suggest going through the tutorial at NASCAR 09's website and watching a few of these videos that you can also find there. But for practicality I'll post a few of them in Youtube format.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rJ04xBBdQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v1NKpY6KMk


This means, you can make your Sprint Cup COT, Nationwide Car, or CTS Truck, look ANYTHING like you want. Your only limits are your imagination... and your patience and skill with fooling around with picture editing software.

Here is an example (reduced in size for the forums) of what the downloadable template looks like.



Here's what I came up with on my first attempt



There are a few small issues that I need to correct, but I'm happy with how my first try came out.



If you have your paint scheme ready and want to see it rendered in 3D follow these directions. Some of these directions are also explained in the videos linked above.

- Download a program called "AC3D" Just google it and you can find a free 2-week trial.
- Make sure whatever program you're using can save files as a .dds file. I know that Adobe Photoshop requires a free downloadable plugin. Just google "DDS Exporter" takes 2 minutes.
- Make sure to delete or choose not to view the Reference layer of your paint scheme, otherwise your car will be shown with graph lines.
- Once you do that, save your paint scheme as a .dds file.

Here's where it gets a little tricky.

- Go to http://www.easports.com/nascar09/paint-booth.jsp - and click "Design Your Car Now" That will open up a popup window. RIGHT CLICK on the word Tutorial at the bottom to open a sub-menu. Click "Play" that will take you to another screen. You will have to do this roughly three times until you're brought to a screen where there's a box in the bottom right corner that says PREVIEW DESIGNS. There's a link for each Series' car. Click and download the desired .obj file.

- Open AC3D.
- Go to FILE, select OPEN
- Choose the obj file wherever you saved it. You might have to click to view All Files on the Open-file box. If you don't, then you won't initially see the .obj car model you downloaded.
- Once the car is loaded click OBJECT at the top of AC3D.
- Go to TEXTURE, click LOAD TEXTURE, and select the DDS file you initially saved.
- Go to VIEWS at the top of AC3D and select NEW VIEW
- This will open a new box. There are like 4 buttons at the top right. Click the farthest on the right to remove the wire frame. You can expand the box, zoom in and zoom out, and spin your car around.

I still HATE the fact the COTs on this game aren't designed for the different manufacturers!

RcBandit28 - 28 May 2008 07:00 PM

I still HATE the fact the COTs on this game aren't designed for the different manufacturers!

Well pretty much the only notable aesthetic difference is the grill, and you can fix that with this car design stuff.

You can see they have a generic grill on template. I'm going to change it, or find someone else who has and create a grill that is manufacturer specific.

To me personally, it'd be a bigger deal with the old car, since there were more differences between the manufacturer's cars.

Alot of guys in my league are creating cars. I dont know how to do it and im going to run the 96 car anyway but its pretty awesome how you can add the manufacturers and create cars that arent in the game.

You can get most grille/headlight sets from the online catalogues for Dirt Track Late Model body manufactures (Five Star Stock Car Bodies, Performance Bodies, etc.) If you want to make a 99 Monte Carlo , GTO, Gran Prix, Intrepid, or Mustang... they have it. I have 'borrowed' a set here and there for my other projects.

I did my best to make a Charger COT grill



I spent a lot of time Re-Beering Kasey's car. For some reason EA doesn't allow alcohol sponsors in their NASCAR games (yet I believe they're allowed in some other EA games)

In the real game Kasey's primary sponsor is replaced with his KK racing logo. And it says Kasey down the side of his car instead of Budweiser.

Took way too long, but I'm much happier with how this one turned out. But those slanted stripes along the side-skirt took wayyyyy too long and they still don't properly line up with the stripes on the back bumper, but you can't see those in that picture.

Now once I go back and fix some things with the white car I made, I can actually concentrate on other drivers.

I've been designing cars for NR2003 for years. I wasn't aware you could do it in the EA games as I've never played one. Are they any good?

jpalm - 29 May 2008 09:28 AM

I've been designing cars for NR2003 for years. I wasn't aware you could do it in the EA games as I've never played one. Are they any good?

You actually couldn't until this year's NASCAR 09. This is a new feature, for EA at least.

The EA NASCAR games range from pretty good, to solid, to awful.

NASCAR 08 was pretty awful, but it wasn't but a few years ago that they were making some pretty good games for the sport. I have higher hopes for 09.

I never got into NR2003, though I wanted to, but I just really liked the idea of designing cars so that's what got me excited about NASCAR 09.

I thought the PS2 version of NASCAR 08 was pretty decent, but I'm sure that had a lot to do with being based on NASCAR 07 and not being a totally new game like the PS3 and 360 versions were. The previews for 09 are looking good but I'm playing the demo before I decide whether or not to buy it. I'll probably make up a fantasy scheme using the number 63 if I do decide to get it.

great work ...

i'm currently finishing up my first attempt ...

i am looking for the hood pins shown in the 2nd bud car, did you just make them or is there an image i can download somewhere ... also where do most people get the manufacturer logo and font or image for the model name.

thanks for any info

That Budweiser car is awesome. Is there any way to share them online so other Kasey Kahne fans can use that car instead of having to run the EA version? Also the reason EA doesnt allow the alcohol sponsors is because they wouldnt get the E for Everyone rating that they want. It would have to be bumped up to Mature I believe.