Garmin SRF builder

Very nice.

Incidentally, where are you finding the 3D models to use in making these vehicles. Some example links might be nice.

Thanks again for your hard work. I expect we'll see an explosion of vehicles now thanks to your program.

Any chance of a non-Windows version?

Thanks,

Paul

Alokasi:
Here's an example of a free model I found:
http://gfx-3d-model.blogspot.com/2008/09/chevrolet-camaro-bu....

Edit: Ummm... except that one costs money.. DOH! Here's a free one:
http://www.3dxtras.com/3dxtras-free-3d-models-details.asp?pr...

I really like using AutoDesk 3DS MAX, but my 30-day trial is gonna run out in about 2 weeks

Paul:
Sorry, I'm pretty well versed in WindowsSpeak, but nothing else. It's ironic, cause I HATE Windows!

Oops... Can't believe I forot to thank Aarrgghh too. His nice tutorial paved the way for me to make vehicles. Thanx Aarrgghh!!!

While trying to install the program I got the following message "Setup cannot continue because some system files are out of date on your system." It asked if I would like to update the files but when I pressed OK nothing appeared to happen. Then I got a message saying I must reboot the computer. But after I rebooted the program is not installed. So I reran setup and got the same "system files out of date" message.

Any ideas how I can get this installed?

I am going to try this. I can create 3d models in UG.

GG... Are you using Vista, or XP? I think my buddy at work had a problem with one of our models installing on Vista.

Mike

raptrflite what angle should I lay the 3d model over at before creating the png images for the 3d vehicle?

I just kinda eyeballed it based on the view in my GPS. If you look at all my vehicles, each one is a little different in that way.

Mike

I'm using XP. And the computer is about two years old with all windows updates/patches installed.

I'm really enjoying the Frankenstein "vehicle", but I was thinking it'd be even better if it was the Staypufft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. Hillarious watching it navigate between the buildings.... someone, make it happen!

Well I have created 36 2d and 36 3d images for a custom vehicle but they are 1190x810 png images. How should I go about shrinking them and then converting them to a srf file?

Raptrflite i tried to install your program but got a vb6st...dll file error.

Thanks

For the 760, the images needed to be 80x80 for the 3D, and 70x70 for 2D. I was stitching them with the SRF builder at 400x400 and 350x350, then it would reduce them to 80x80 and 70x70.

1) Crop the images so they are square.
2) Reduce the size of each square image to 80x80 or 70x70 as necessary. Try doing it all at once and see how that looks, and then try stepping the image size down to the desired size, say 400x400 to 200x200 to 80x80 to 40x40. When you step it down, it tends to preserve more of the detail to the image.
3) if necessary apply a little unsharp mask to reclarify the image following the multiple reductions
4) stich all the 3D images together side by side
5) right below the 3D images, stitch together the 2D images. Since the 2D are smaller, you will have a blank space at the end of the 2D below the 3D
6) save this file as a PNG file.
7) if you don't have my SRF Builder, go to the Nuvi utility page and run his PNGtoSRF converter.

DONE!

OneStep: Are you on Vista?

Runnin' XP.

Thanks I will work on it.

I get an error.

I have the 36 3d images 1.png-36.png in 400x400 format and 36 2d images in the same folder/top 1.png-36.png and get the 3d rotational file not found error when I hit the build image button.

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Mike I am still getting the Error:

Status: Error: 3d Rotation File Not Found...

Can you help with this?

Thanks,

It might be the dash that is throwing it off. Also make sure you have the right number format chosen in the list box. What the program does is take the prefix and add the numder to it in the format selected. for example, "Shelby0001" for a prefix of "shelby" and a number format of "0001-0035"

hope this helps
Mike

Thanks.

I think the issue is my files do not have prefixes.

Doh!

Well by hitting the do all it created a srf file but when I viewed it all I got is a black line.

Here is a link to a zip of all the images I am trying to run.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=dc9bf361ecdc445cd2db6fb9a...

Oh.. the files you have are in PNG, but the SRF builder will only handle BMP. I didn't know a whole lot about PNG when I started the SRFBldr project. I admit it would be far nicer, and skip the Alpha step if it pulled in PNG files directly...

I changed the files to BMP and ran it with a fairly high tolerance. It looks pretty good in GVM at least! Did you do the 3D design on it? Great job!

Here's what mine attempt looked like when I ran it:
http://sites.google.com/site/raptorbase/Home/CompassD.srf
Mike

Ok now I get it. Thanks!

I created that during lunch at work on a Unigraphics Cad workstation.

I can now have some real fun creating all kinds of 3d thing.

I will try the same at home and see if I get the same results.

Thanks again for all of your hard work.

Drake

You're very welcome!

Oh, that's a great design. Can I request a design? Are you free? Coz I want some futuristic design for my future project on game design. how to draw a car
Thanks.

I just wanted to say thanks Mike for your SRF Builder application. I easily created .srf files of two models of the Miata MX-5 with renderings from Lightwave3D. Your app made it simple as could be and I enjoyed the preview .srf feature to make sure the anti-aliasing for the alpha channel looked correct.

In case anyone else is interested, you can download my zip files (which each contain a .png and .srf file) with these links:

http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/MX5_1990.zip
http://amber.rc.arizona.edu/MX5_2006.zip

Marvin

Tony (from http://www.vehiclesforgarminnuvi.com ) recently published another tutorial for creating SRF files. Might make sense to join projects ?

- Spera

He posted 63 new ones - go check them out at http://www.vehiclesforgarminnuvi.com/ !

in case people are interested, ive written some C code to read/write SRF files. this should build on any *nix box.

http://dev.gentoo.org/~vapier/srf2png/

the feature i was really looking for was to create animated png's (apng), so my little util supports that as well as the standard "exploded" png. note that you'll need opera or firefox to view the animation as last i looked, IE doesn't support the format.

http://dev.gentoo.org/~vapier/srf2png/yoshi-ani.png
http://dev.gentoo.org/~vapier/srf2png/yoshi-exp.png

there's also a patch there for netpbm to support converting to/from many many other file formats, but hopefully that should be merged upstream soon.

I forget where did I find it, but I used to have it, and I lose it by an accident to format my sd card, I can't believe I did backup all others like mario kart or something but only not yoshi.srf.

So now I'm trying to look for it because my kids and also me love it so much, but find out that many of the webside maybe have the vehicle icon, it's all gone, I can't find it anyway but only to take a chance to ask here if someone can share your yoshi.srf to me, or the Garmin SRF builder so that I can try to make one myself.

Hi VincentKuo, I know where you got them but the creator has removed all files on his site. I was wondering if you can share the Mario kart collection you have with me, it would be much appreciated since I've been searching everywhere to see if anyone has archive them else where but I haven't had any luck. Thank You

I found but haven't downloaded any files from this site. You may want to check it out:

https://www.garminheaven.com

https://www.garminheaven.com/vehicles/

Hi CraigW,

thank you, but those aren't the same as the ones I'm looking for below. if any one have the collection below it would be awesome if you can share them. Thanks Again

http://blog.ewzzy.com/search/label/garmin