Bko mods - mainly road vehicles, occasionally other stuff

2 more cars entered my model editor, the lower lods have to be done still, but I like them so far.

road testing the BMW M1 today

Zitat von PeterLustig

Either in red or in white with blue and red stripes.

The red&blue M stripes were on the Pro car racing version, the Streetcar version came in a few colours, white, red, black, orange, grey as well as red and blue metallics. And of course Herpa added some more to the colour gamma.

Oh and yes it will have two logos on the back :), just hadn't done the texture yet

A sad day.

My modding adventures came to an abrupt end yesterday evening. After many years of almost flawless operation my modelling laptop turned itself off yesterday, I don't want to say it died, but I seriously fear that's what happened. Also this morning it gives me no response at all.

This is really bad news for my modding efforts, not only because I haven't made a backup for way too long and all my projects are on that machine only. But much more so because I won't be able to run my 3D modelling software any more because that won't run on newer Windows versions . I learned and got used to working with Autodesk VIZ 4 over the last 25 or so years and although I have learned a few tricks with Blender, I don't see me making models in Blender purely (I just don't like the UI enough).

So what are my options, I may try to find a way to try to install on my Windows 11 machine although I expect the chance of success to be less then 1% and I first need to find an external CD drive.

Then I do have 2 old machines that are capable and should still run, but that would mean I would either need to switch to a literally 25year old computer or a 15year old laptop that has some issues. Neither sound very tempting to be honest.

More realistic is to get a new version of Autodesk 3DStudio Max, but I also want to be reasonable and a yearly subscription fee of over 2000Eur is to me not reasonable for recreational use. If it were a one off price for life-time use I might consider it.

Last option with more chance of success is perhaps be to find a 2nd-hand replacement for my modelling machine, but there aren't many of such available. So if anyone has an old powerful workstation laptop in the category of the HP Zbook 17' laying around: I'm interested. Ebay US has something close to my machine;

https://www.ebay.com/itm/15335…U%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBMuueS98ti

A few models were (kind-a) ready and hopefully don't need mesh changes and can still finish (BMW's 507, 850, Z1 and M1), these I have on my gaming laptop, albeit only with the mdl files, not the 3D models. The other models aren't done yet.

All that while I was on a flow , I just got an E34 in a first stage to my model editor, as well as my personal favourite of the 80's/90's; the Audi V8.

At least most of the Faller Autohaus is saved in Blender files I shared with PeugeotRacer, so I have hope that can be finished, only then with fewer cars than I was hoping to.

To be continued... though I may take a bit of a brake first to consider my options and recover from this mental set-back.

Zitat von pechelle

Why don't go back to windows 10????? unless you need windows 11 for something important, better stay with windows 10 and your usual programs

thanks for thinking along , I was running on Windows 7. Windows 8 may still work but I haven't tried.

Zitat von Katzer

Sounds like a typical Monday!

I wish, doubt though that coming Tuesday that won't change. The chance of winning the lottery, I roughly estimate to be higher.

Zitat von PeterLustig

Damn! I'm very sorry for you!! Too bad that you haven't backed up your data for some time. :\
Please let me know if I/we can help by donating or whatever! 🙌

BTW: The Audi is great and is one of my favorites, too!

The data I expect to be able to recover, the HDD is still here. I meanwhile fried 2 power adaptors, a third (with fail protection) goes down 1 second after I plug it in. Of course I took the battery pack and internal battery both out before that. I think it is a power shortcut... but what and where...

For the moment I hope on your and the communities mental support, will let you know if more is needed, I hope to be able to cover it.

Zitat von VirtualComplication

This is really bad news and I'm sorry to hear this is there no way to get the old program running with a sandbox on new machines? I hope you find a solution and I keep my fingers crossed for you

That does give me an idea, not sure if it will work though. But I'd expect that technically a new machine can run on Windows 7 or 8, but how do you do that?

Zitat von Dunkel

I think what VirtualComplication meant is installing a virtual machine

hmmm I have used VMware (as a dummy) ages ago... I then will still prefer a separate machine though...

But I found a store fairly nearby who offers a refurbished model, they can do Windows 7 and chatted they will let me know their options tomorrow. I hope they can do a good-as-new model given their asking price of 800Eur, they say it's externally sourced. So I'm curious what they will send, as the refurbished models I otherwise found get a 3 of 5 stars or lower rating.

With some luck I was able to recover my files, I haven't completely reviewed it, but it looks like all is there.

And more important I got my 3D software to run on Windows 11, it gave me an install error but is starting up now.

A new workstation is in order, should arrive coming week, with a bit more luck I'll be back in business soon.

So now granted myself some relax time to work on the BMW 507 for a stand-alone mod.