Friday, February 29, 2008

Preview on ZEN 17.1 chassis


Shown above is a monster chassis built 3 days ago. A heavy duty construction that fits bigger wheels and more RC looks. Will be release along with MAXXIMUS batch on 5th March 2008. Can't wait to see it in action soon.

Latest news on models release.

I've already compiled several truck ready for the release but after thinking over and over again i decided to postponed the release date to next week that is on Wednesday 5th March 2008 rather than previous original plan that is on Sunday. This is because the size and amount of models to be release is far the most massive quantity ever release in our history. 6 units from two different group of models will be release on the same date. Site updates and file upload will take long hours and maybe 24 hours. This week most of my work is in the rush so i make sure i planned well for the release, here are the list of models to be release:

-MAXXIMUS CD 16.0 XL-ATX (evo1)
-MAXXIMUS CD 16.2 XL-SE ATX (evo2)
-MAXXIMUS CD 16.4 XL-SE ATX "KC's Vales.com edition" (evo2)
-MAXXIMUS CD 16.4 XL-SE ATX "SupermotoXL Special edition" (evo2)

-ZEN MAXXIMUS CD 17.1 XL-HT "SupermotoXL Engineering" (evo2)
-ZEN MAXXIMUS CD 17.2 XL-HT "No Limit edition" (evo2)

All in 6! Sounds good eh?..yeah.. However there's one off-road that should have come in a group which makes 7 but still on halt because its a controversial theme etched on this truck due to client request. I'm not sure if this one is good enough for public release because the name says it all:

-ZEN MAXXIMUS CD 17.3 XL-HT "Rice Crusher! edition" (evo2)
-ZEN MAXXIMUS CD 17.4 XL-HT "Nuke em! edition" (evo2)

lol!...well seriously but that was not my idea putting such theme on it but i have to built it since its all on the bill. Well see whats up next week so keep your nose sniff for my latest news and release updates.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Overheated? doesn't look good


I got this nosebleed almost every week, doesn't look good at all. Didn't feel much dizzy but felt so hot and tired. Need to take a rest as soon as possible.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Total project size!

Look at that! it almost ate some of my hardisk space just for one project. All my project per-model design cost me lots hardisk space. This is because i have lots of stages/phased models built step by step and backup regularly every stage. This is true for real type developer making stuff from scratch. It can be costly but effective precaution againts unexpected problem. I need to clean up my hardisks.

Test drive MAXXIMUS.



An hour ago i decided to drive out MAXXIMUS out from the garage for a spin on various track and test how it perform on various terrains in 4x4evo2. All i can say it perform well as stock setup and performance. My idea was leave the tunning for user to suit their taste via TRK file setup. The vehicle sprint like Radio Control and stop like it has 12 piston discbrake caliper. I think its ok if i leave it like that since its a stock setup.


Both standard 4x4evo1 pod and 4x4evo2 Silver Dream edition successfull pass all the test inside the game environment and ready to pack and roll out into the cyberspace. Documentation for these models still in progress around 50% completion which include manual, brochure and website publishing. I hope to release it by this Sunday as a perfect time where people spent times hangging out on the internet checking updates at my site. Its also confirm i will be rolling out 4 models of various variants. So watch out for these fantastic four roll into your garage!

Monday, February 25, 2008

40000 rpm motors for my mini-z rc


Well today i didn't work much on my 3d models or any design. Mostly today i spent much of my time at town with my buddy looking for mini-z radio control upgrades. Planned just for windows shopping survey for parts before planing my initial budget next week but there were limited pack of motor for upgrade at "Toys World". At first i was aiming for TAMIYA PLASMA motor which rev around 2900 rpm or decent TAMIYA TORQUE TUNED motor which is the best so far but another motor above the shelf hit 40000 rpm!!! left two packs so i grab the last two boxes, paid in cash and heads home happily! why? because those motors are rare to find especially around this city as we've search up and downs every corner of the shop looking for ultimate parts for r/c upgrades.

At home upon inspection it was highly tuned motors using carbon brushing and fully bearings shaft! Online manual for mini-z upgrade won't allowed these hi-rev motor as it could fried my ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) without FETs chip upgrades unless i installed external Turbo device. The only option i should put this motor on is to installed on cheap R/C such as my Auldey monster or that Race-Tin Gen 3 can. I'm not going to put my hundreds dollars of I-WAVER R/C cooked. Hope fully next week mod we could see this motor hit around 80-89KM/H. And fried PCB board. I hope i can post it in youtube.com soon.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Its all passion and hobby.


As bored as always i always walk around looking for inspiration for design and next creation. I always pay a visit at any toy shop looking for any interesting stuff that caught my eye. This month i suppose to look around parts for MINI-Z. I was hard since not much local store sell those radio control parts especially MINI-Z. Tuned up motors, batteries, bearing sleeves, wheelsets and servos..nope no luck. Radio control is my third hobby any i consider it as essential since my old passion is there all along. If you look carefully my mountain biking, 3d design/modelling and R/C cars do links together and bring about vital inspiration to my brain. All three have common technology complexity, advance use of mechanical expertise, speed and most importanly its all about having wheels on the ground. Thank god i was born well balance between tech geek and macho activities. My days are well spenty on these and have no regrets like i was born for these. Ok so i went around on 30% of the town looking for r/c car resources. I expect to search more around by next week see if i can grab some r/c car goodies. I can't wait to modify my MINI-Z to max 80-90KM/H. Let make some public heads turn.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

2x New spicy wheels



Here we go, just finished with UV map and texturing the Stadium wheels, now comes in two flavor: Standard stock and Hot chili race Limited edition....flamin speed paint jobs. These wheels is buil for wide body trucks so you would see MAXXIMUS in new kits.

R/C style stadium truck wheelset


I've start making some wheel set in preparation to create another variant of MAXXIMUS models. I expect to start with two new variant. As shown are new wheels which much bigger and bogger for stability and R/C style for this new variant. This time you'll see how unique it will look at final stage during UV mapping and texturing. I will prepare two unit wheel first.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Hot news on MAXXIMUS!

I've received special order from a person whom i knew 4 years back and he is placing an offer which i couldn't resist. We made a deal which he cash in some so i took his offer. This deal related to making some custom paint jobs and variants on X3-SIXTY and upcoming MAXXIMUS. You will see one of the MAXXIMUS variants will be a STADIUM truck much like wider wheel base and bigger wheels. As for me i have no problem since i will be making a total of 2x X3-Sixty customs and 4x MAXXIMUS customs. He knew these two new models will be spreading wild fire across the internet and time to get his advertising to work. Hey finally i got budget to upgrade my Radio Control MINI-Z......yess!!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Time for MINI-Z Radio Control

Check this out, my old hobby have returned! Originally before i'm into 3d design and modelling 10 years ago i was more on Radio Control car/truck 4wd and miniature scale platic models on car like KYOSHO, TAMIYA and REVELL. Yesterday i put some effort to revive back my remote speed freak in me. In this new age of electronics R/C cars comes in miniature size! I have my own MINI-Z on I-WAVE radio servos kit. All stock in setup and parts. I decided to shift my bike budget to R/C car upgrade next month planning to upgrade rechargeable batteries, suspension tune up and rear electric motors upgrade to pump up speed up to 80KM/H performance. Yes! no kidding 80KM/H! Its was pretty expensive just to buy R/C MINI-Z..cool thing is the i-WAVE controller have digital computer display which store 10 models memory and digital trimming feature just like it big brother SANWA and FUTABA radios. MINI-Z looks uniquely small! Almost the size of my nokia handphone with compact parts and quality driving experience on my palm. The best part is that i could easily mod it using existing smaller scale models and electronic parts from TAMIYA mini 4wd, AULDEY's, KYOSHO's or anything i can find in the market. I hope i could mod it to max head turning performance. Imagine this palm size car hit 80KM/H!!! Believe me you should wiki on this fact...read it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini-Z
Btw for me its a good investment, as a 3d design and modeler for car, trucks, 4wd and etc i should have this as object of inspiration everthing i want to look for ideas. Can believe this car also drift. Go check out some people did it in YouTube!


Hopefully early month of March i'll put up some daily report about MINI-Z modification and how it was moded step by step to achive max speed output and show some public what this little speedster can do.

Limited edition Pink PSP!

Here i am fixing my friend PSP, its in pink..not ordinary until you open up the menu and you can see there an extra feature: "1 SEG TV!" A digital TV option where you can add add-on hardware on top to enable 1SEG TV option. To bad only few country like Japan and Europe have those Digital broadcasting channel available. Anyways here i am fixing up this semi 'bricked' PSP. I ended up slept at 2.00pm without any success reviving it even with PANDORA BATTERY pre-installed. The original user flashed firmware up to fw 3.99 M33 without install the base firmware first. Since i don't have enought resources to fix it so i recommend them to send to authorised game shop to get it fix. I had enough headache for today.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Dinner at mountain biking buddies place


Ahh..today is relaxing day, i've receive invitation from a friend to join in their open house dinner for mountain biker group. Got lots of nice stuff to eat, fried noodles, beef jerky, some can of booze, meat balls, chickens and lots of stuff. I manage to try his new luxury over the budget mountain bike: INTENSE! ... that was my dream bike! ...the price tag would let my hands on it..to bad. I would drool if it was grey silver coated in color. I spent whole evening chatting with buddies about rides and also most of the time we talk about radio control car stuff. Its was a great topic since i'm getting into it. At 10pm i head back home early to fix my friend's Limited Edition pink PSP.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

MAXXIMUS: a day drooling...



Today i had rest enough, continue working on my pc drooling all day looking at my own truck design....."man! i've come that far for THIS!" Something in my brain tell me that's not enough! what?! ...nothing is enough. I felt like i can go something better than this. Maybe i'm too greedy bulding too much to full fill satisfaction. A design per-month was way too much in comparison to previous built. ...hmmm.. maybe that's cool idea making a new model design per-month. Well actually i do have plan to built another one..an urban SUV smooth slick LEXUS style cabin SUV. But first i must release a lowrider: "SIXTY-7" this coming end of march. Its also confirm "MAXXIMUS" will be released on end of this February while SDK package comes two days later.
Mean while today i have to pack up some optional parts like wheels in zip file ready for distribution. Monday will start compile "MAXXIMUS" into 4x4evo1/2 POD format.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

FINAL: Done! MAXXIMUS completed!



Hooraaayyy!!! finally its all over! The new 4x4 model have already reached its end completion milestone! Short weeks of design and construction ends here, i manage to get it render in the modeler with natural rendering and all pure texture complexion helps make the models looks realistic! The new name for this model : MAXXIMUS CD 16.0 XL-ATX born today and will be available for public downloading end of february after compiling the models in 4x4 EVOLUTION 1/2 game format for in game vehicle add-ons and also available in High resolution quality in SDK package. My plan to release 4 version of MAXXIMUS for 4x4evo1/2 format: 2 variant with rear roll cage and the other 2 with rear canopy cabin.
Ahhhh... after weeks of hard work and brain killing design finally i can lay back rest and enjoy my days until the release date. I've updated my website at:

http://www.geocities.com/SupermotoXL
http://4x4evo.net/smxl
http://www.chimpusmaximus.com/SupermotoXL

with news and updates about the truck preview and estimated release date. Time for me to get my PSP and play whole day! Uhhh..i think i should ride my bike back.

PART 34: models official name - MAXXIMUS CD 16.0 XL-ATX


I've decided to give this new truck a name, due to its size, rugged looks and mid-monster height i gave a name: "MAXXIMUS" ....CD 16 (Concept Design Version 16.0) ....XL-AT (SupermotoXL's All Terrain eXtended). = MAXXIMUS CD 16.0 XL-ATX. How did i come up with?..uh.. its just pop-up in my head..calling in from somewhere telling it should be that name. Plus it got double "XX" for Xtra-XL power in the middle too. lol. Anways i've made an official model logo for this models. Yeah, got that SupermotoXL feeling in there. Feel the power! Btw the 4x4 turck almost finished...almost!!!

PART 33: Today final UV mapping and texturing task.

Well today suppose to finish up texture UV mapping task which i think i should have enough of it and brush it off my back today. UV mapping all the detailed parts is a heavy task i i just don't want to hang around for another day or two. Today ia a must. Some left over parts include door slabs/sidewall, engine and fender bolts. Later after that i could work on final texture improvement using Corel Photopaint to fix some broken pixel lines and rematching the color and shading. Texture improvement should take about a day till tomorrow morning. My expectation to have fully built truck complete physical appearance on stock configuration should be available for preview this Sunday...but that is only my expectation and estimation.. so no accurate prediction when it will be in a complete form..i'm rushing now.

Friday, February 15, 2008

PART 32: Textured wheelsets

Here a finished textured models for wheels. Its a quick work. Before that i just remove to first outer ring meshes on top of the rivet perimeter to save up the polycount. Then i continue with UV mapping...after that texture work. Most texture work just texturing the rendered center flange, UV mapped then photopaint it..while other parts just used back the previous texture that was attached along. This time i'm not using some high complex nuts, bolts and outer rims bolt rivet for detailing works because these meshes are high poly and would exceed over 6k poly per wheel which could lag on certain PC machine and the game itself.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Night out

Another super night away from my design work, my friends call up for a treat dinner at local restaurant. MMmmmm.... salad fish. yummy! We're having dinner in the open space at night, was cool breezy because the weather was cloudy. I feel at ease now after confined hours in my work room. I feel relaxed thank to my buddy dinner treat. 3 hours later i back home lay my full stomach on my bed and quickly feel asleep....zzz..zz

Mini Radio Control 4x4!

After 3 months!...Found it! Thanks to my buddy who manage to inform me about the last available stocks of mini 4x4 at Toys World i manage to rush to the shop after office hours and bought this cool Hummer like 4x4 mini R/C truck at only USD $13 dollars. With 2 servo action and cool suspension setup....cheap eh? Check out this clip with similar models attached on this video. For you info this mini radio control came from Hong Kong under AULDEY brand http://www.auldey.com . Actually this toys were out sold for almost 3 months but return back with less than four stocks only at our local toy shop. So me any buddy quickly grab it quick last evening. He got pimped up HILUX replica. The stocks comes with crappy controller and sticker but i stripped it off leaving it beautifully plain. Next month i'm gonna place a few cash for upgrades and performance upgrades just enough to blast some dirt on the track and do some rock crawling. With my hands holding this cool piece of hardware i forgot about 3d models work for today. Time to take a break and enjoy..

Lunch! ...simple

I'm going to put my diet this week. Trust me i haven't been biking out so keep the food low this week on lunchtime. On the menu today is sweet and our fish rice. In the office.

Morning! LAKSA!

Its early in the morning, today breakfast is a noodle called LAKSA, sweet curry gravy style souped noodles with seafood prawn, egg, and spicy nooddles. When you eat you really sweat it out. Nice for morning starter.

PART 31: New wheelset

I've just made a new set of wheels for the new truck, its looks great! I've used back both meshes from old from my 2 year old wheelset tyre and outer ring and also the 6 flanged web configuration arms to hub meshes from X3-SIXTY and make it more bulk for 4x4 truck integrity. Was pretty simple work as i just recycled back the meshes did i built....a rebuilt work. Later i should settle some UV and texturing work.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

PART 30: Ready made under carriage kit

Here's a 2 years old readily made under carriage kit for the new 4x4 models i'm working on. It should attached prefectly just below the chassis with high lift kit. Its looks familiar because this kits already existed two year ago and have been used by previous models such as the old XENO CD 8.0 XL-R. Its has well balanced amount of polycount both complexity and optimised polycount on necessary corner of the meshes. So recycling it again for the use on new models is a wise decision and also save development time which helps to speed up the delivery time.