Discordant Harmony

Tag: BeamNG.drive

  • Projects Update: A Mystery Image, Bumper 3D Modeling, New Minecraft Ideas

    Projects Update: A Mystery Image, Bumper 3D Modeling, New Minecraft Ideas

    Quite a bit has been accomplished since my last check-in on this site. I’ve kept going on the Blender 3D modeling project of the Toyota Soluna (see the previous blog post for more details), finished Unit 3000 in the New Andaman Beach Villa project (Minecraft), and planning a new complex of forest-located builds on a smaller scale. Among all of this, Flames of Rebellion has cracked 43,000 words, and I predict it’s about halfway to completion now. On top of this, the AoPS Academic Year classes (Algebra 2 in this case) have now started back up. So as you can imagine, things have been a little bit busier than normal!

    I’ve also begun a completely new and unrelated project, which I’ll introduce with a single photo at the end of this post.

    The 3D Modeling Project

    The front view of the current 3D modeling process, allowing you to see the progress made on the headlight cutout area.

    I’ve taken a brief one-day break from going insane in Blender, but over the course of the past week I’ve made significant progress on the front bumper cutouts for the Soluna. On Tuesday, I finished the headlight cutout (or at least the inner portion), after comparing extensively against the photo and subdividing into hundreds of vertices to get the contour right. The grille cutout is also done, although it seems a little crude and I might have to go back and refine it later. The next step will be the turn signal cutout, which extends to the side and wraps around to the other end of the vehicle in the reference photos. Assuming nothing goes catastrophically wrong (which you never know with this project), it’ll probably be another 2-3 weeks before the bumper is done.

    Given the speed of this project, I’d probably re-calculate my estimate of finishing the 3D model to next spring or next summer. That gives me plenty of time to do the rear bumper, shape the hood and windshield, model the badges, model the openable doors, and actually set a working interior color (unlike some other Mercedes-Benz C250 mods where you can’t change the interior color!). Of course, the JBEAMING, SCREAMING, and UV MAPPING will need to be done after that, so time will need to be factored in for those advanced processes.

    Below is the closer side-view look at the image shown at the beginning of this section, and you can really see all the vertices I’ve added around the headlight cutout to fully shape the area.

    Minecraft Projects and Flames of Rebellion

    Front view of the New Andaman Beach Villa #3000 at sunset

    Flames of Rebellion soared to over 43,000 words this week, with more coming every day. This places the book now at 192 pages, which is at about the halfway point considering that this will be another 380-400 page book. I just finished writing a highly intense scene involving Hikotage, who wound up stranded in World Zero after a serious Common Cause attack, and I’m now proceeding to get into some of the most tense parts of the book. I’m still on track for completing the writing portion around November-December 2026, with the publication date to be around January-February 2027 including cover design and proofreading.

    However, I can’t really get a definitive estimate on this, because the proofreading for the previous book consumed quite a bit of time (over 8 months) and caused quite the delay in getting the book out. I’m not sure what’s going to happen this time, but hopefully it won’t be a full eight months.

    On the subject of the Minecraft projects, I recently finished editing the tour video for New Andaman Beach Villa Unit 3000, and started crafting the floor plans for the next series of forest villas. The tour video is now posted on the official Minecraft Builds website, along with the complete photo gallery. I’m considering remastering the tour video for Unit 1000 as well, but this may not actually occur since I’ll be focusing on building the next few forest villas.

    That next project is set to be codenamed the New Andaman Enclave, and will feature much smaller one-story villas when compared to the lush beachfront ones. These will probably come in four to five configurations, both one-bedroom and two-bedroom, and will be nestled in a small complex with plenty of vegetation, right in the middle of the forest. My plan right now is to build four villas per configuration, making a total of around sixteen villas, but this may change depending on the H situation and how much time I have to create these villas. Along with various competing BeamNG scenario projects and calamitous C250 photo-taking sessions, these Minecraft projects may be temporarily pushed to the back burner.

    The Mystery Project

    To close off this week’s report, here’s a photo of Day One of my latest Mystery Project. I won’t say what it is yet, but the answer could be revealed in a future blog post. This is another one of my long-term endeavors that are tied to International Offshore 2027 (or so we believe, for now).

    Well, that’s going to be it for this update. Good luck figuring out what the hell is being represented by the above photo!

  • Wednesday Update: New 3D Modeling Project & Flames of Rebellion Progress

    Wednesday Update: New 3D Modeling Project & Flames of Rebellion Progress

    It’s been a little while since the last update on this site, but then again, I’ve been quite preoccupied with various projects ever since the downfall of the Ashryver Models situation. (That’s right: the Ashryver V1 painting classifier and everything related to it has now been destroyed, and no longer works. This is the result of a full-scale pivot to more reliable, worthwile, and engaging projects). I’m now mainly focusing on the final main book in the Flames of Rebellion Series, and a Blender 3D modeling project for a BeamNG.drive mod.

    In this update, it’s time to take a look at what’s been going on lately. I’ll also provide some rough estimates and plans for the Flames of Rebellion series, and when the next couple of books might be coming out.

    Blender 3D Modeling: the Soluna Project

    My current progress in Blender. I’ve increased the width of the vehicle’s body as it seemed much too narrow before, but at the same time, I may have gone too far.

    This is my latest (and primary) undertaking. I started working on this 3D modeling project about three weeks ago, and it was inspired by the lack of any AL50 Toyota Soluna (1998-2002) mods on the BeamNG.drive community. This is because it’s not a very well-known vehicle; with this project, I intend to fill that gap.

    My first step in this project will obviously be to get a basic 3D model. This is proving to be a very challenging and time-consuming process; however, I have completed the body outline, all four wheel arches, and now starting on shaping the hood after three weeks. My current estimate is that it’ll take another few months to get this model done if I continue working at this pace; December or January of next year is a good estimate.

    After that, I’ll need to move into the nodes & beams phase of the modeling process. This involves using the 3D model as a framework and adding the BeamNG core components around it, including the nodes, which are like the vertices in a complex chemical structure, and the beams, which connect the nodes together. There could easily be thousands of nodes and beams for a fully beamed (or JBEAMED) vehicle, so this might take another 4-5 months.

    The final phase will likely involve doing some UV mapping, sorting out the myriad bugs that I’m sure will emerge, and getting all the configurations set up. And this will likely just be for the basic Soluna copy with the standard interior and openable doors. This particular version of the project will be released on third-party sites like Modland only, since BeamNG prohibits the distribution of copyrighted vehicles on their own site.

    However, I have a workaround for that. Once I’m satisfied with the base Soluna mod, my intention is to go back and creatively modify the vehicle so that it fits with BeamNG’s in-game Ibishu brand. This should work well, since Ibishu is BeamNG’s equivalent of Toyota; from there, I can subtly change the taillight design and the gauge cluster, for example, so that I can market a lore-friendly Soluna version on the BeamNG repository. (This whole mod will obviously be free, of course. I don’t believe in charging money for mods of any kind, no matter how many apps are supported by the game’s ‘CarPlay’ screen, or how many ‘hours per day’ I spend on the mod).

    Right now, all of this is sounding rather daunting as I’m only on the 3D modeling stage. Honestly, though, I’ve made a whole lot more progress than I’ve expected in the psat few weeks–and certainly since the first blog post I wrote about this modeling project, when the Soluna was still a shapeless box. I’ve encountered numerous troubles along the way, most notably with the wheel arches. For some reason the geometry got destroyed as I was trying to fill in points surrounding the rear arch; the fan got all tangled up and cluttered. I had to completely reset the rear arch and start over; fortunately, that fixed the problem after a couple days’ of work. I can only hope that I’ll be able to push through similar challenges as this gets more complex, becuase I know these issues will be coming.

    Below is another view of the current state of the Soluna project; I’ve just diagnosed an issue with the main soluna_body being far too narrow. Hopefully I haven’t inadvertently broken anything else.

    Flames of Rebellion Book 4

    As you may recall, the previous book in the Flames of Rebellion series (book 3.5) was published just back in April. That was Reckoning of the Past, a medium-length in-between novel detailing a side plot in the series. Now, I’m moving hard on Book 4 in the Flames of Rebellion series, currently called The Conquest of Peace. This will likely be a longer book, in the 410-420 page range, as this is the series finale and needs to tie up all the loose plot ends. Right now, I’m sitting at about 30,000 words and 135 pages, putting me at about 35% through the book. I can’t release a target month right now, as it’s still a bit too early for that, but I’m hoping it can be published around winter 2026 (December 2026 to maybe January 2027).

    After that, only one book will be left: the prequel. This will be book 0.5, examining what came before the First World and the Thirteen Worlds and everything taking place in the main series. Book 0.5 will be set in around GY 23, which is the World Zero equivalent of about seven hundred years prior to the main novels. It will focus on the ancient Cymantian Empire, explaining the political conflicts and conquests that split apart the empire and led to the turbulent formation of the First World. While Jonathan, Lily, Phoenix, Ember, and Grace will not be a part of the prequel (at least, not right now), there will be many other new and intriguing characters, plus old villains like Aaron Fisker and the Cymantus itself. I’m still figuring out the best way to introduce this ancient world without making readers feel too confused.

    My current end-of-series target is summer 2027, or about a year from now. If possible, I’d like to get the Flames of Rebellion universe closed out before the next International-Offshore Excursion, which is still tentatively set for summer 2027 as well. This will provide clean break for the next project, which might be something completely different, and much more grounded in reality. Stay tuned for that.

    Well, with that, I think that’s everything for this site update. I’ll be updating the Flames of Rebellion page soon with some more details about Book 4, and expect more updates as the Blender 3D modeling project progresses. Hopefully I won’t destroy any more geometry!

  • New BeamNG Modding Project: Toyota Soluna AL50/Ibishu SLN-10

    New BeamNG Modding Project: Toyota Soluna AL50/Ibishu SLN-10

    Having gotten tired of broken AI models, destroyed repositories, lagging GitHub environments, and broken fast.ai courses, I pivoted to an entirely new project this week: BeamNG modding. The vehicle mod I’m intending to build is based on the 1998-2002 Toyota Soluna AL50; the first step is to create an exact replica of that mod for third-party free distribution. Then, a more refined lore-friendly Ibishu version will be released.

    For quite a long time, I’ve been intending to get into the BeamNG vehicle modding universe. However, the issue has been the 3D modeling segment of the project, which is where I’ve always gotten stuck. Up until this week, the most I’d been able to achieve was getting the reference images positioned into the environment with none of the actual vehicle whatsoever; now, though, it seems I’ve made some progress. Read on for some details on my current undertakings, some screenshots, and plans for what I’m going to do next.

    The Project

    This is the vehicle I’m trying to model right now. Read more on Wikipedia for a brief overview.

    Not wanting to spend ten months designing an elaborate electronic gauge cluster and setting up emergency braking with automatic headlights and drink dispensers, I decided to choose a relatively basic, bare-bones vehicle to model. I ended up going with the Asia-exclusive Toyota Soluna, which is only sold in a right-hand drive configuration. It’s slightly smaller than the early-2000s Toyota Corolla, and has much less in the way of features. However, it’s a functional, reliable vehicle, and seems to be pretty easy to model.

    I’ve started off by obtaining reference photos of various angles of the vehicle, including a side view, front view, and rear view. I’ve then placed these inside the Blender environment so I can better structure the blocking boxes (which will be discussed in the next section). The plan is to only offer the vehicle in an RHD configuration when distributing it through Modland; after all, this initial stage of replicating the exact vehicle is partly for my benefit and for the enjoyment of actually experiencing an in-game Toyota Soluna. (There is currently NO Soluna mod widely available for BeamNG – not even close).

    After that’s done, I intend to go back and refine the mod for distribution on the internal, strict BeamNG Repository. Here, you are prohibited from uploading mods of real life vehicles, so I’ll need to modify the vehicle so it fits in with the fictional in-game car company Ibishu. This actually works perfectly, since Ibishu has always been represented as BeamNG’s version of Toyota. The Soluna’s lines fit well with Ibishu vehicles in that era (Covet, Pessima Mk1, etc.) and should be a good lore-friendly project.

    The Process

    As of right now (Friday, July 17, 2026), I currently have a complete blockout of the Soluna, and I’ve added some loop cuts to signify some basic panel divisions. A “blockout” essentially represents the skeleton of the vehicle; you have the full envelope, the roof, all four doors, the trunk lid, and the hood. This makes for a total of ten boxes, including the front and rear bumpers as well, which you might be able to see in the above image. This blockout will provide me with a starting point for pulling vertices and shaping the curvature of the vehicle; that’s the next step I’ll be moving onto shortly.

    To start off with this mod, I’ve decided to make use of Blender Python, or .bpy scripts, to generate some of the geometry. Doing some of that stuff by hand would be very tedious, so I have used scripts to add mirror modifiers (so that changes I make on the driver’s side will be mirrored to the passenger side, for example) and find the exact specifications of the vehicle. This measurement-finding has actually been the most time-consuming part of the process so far: I’ve had to line up all the boxes exactly to the reference images, making sure the front overhang is the correct length and checking all values in the script against official measurements.

    Hopefully I haven’t made any serious mistakes in aligning the vehicle against the images, but from what I can tell, everything seems to be working out. In the image above, I’m looking at the environment in the 3D perspective; if you were to switch to right orthographic or front orthographic view, you’d see the vehicle lined up closely to the reference image. An example of the side perspective is shown below:

    The right orthographic view of the blocking boxes. You can see the three loop cuts I’ve added on the soluna_body box, which represent the front fender arch, the B-pillar (midpoint of the two doors), and the rear-fender arch. There’s also a loop cut on the hood box representing the windshield-to-hood divider, but that’s not visible as the hood box is not currently selected.

    I spent the most time yesterday on getting those insane loop cuts to actually go in. At first, I was just spamming Ctrl+R, clicking helplessly, and nothing was happening. Then, after some searching and usage of AI agents, I discovered the proper sequence of clicks and presses to make those loop cuts appear. I had to re-generate the entire blockout in the process, though, because somewhere along the way the environment had gotten muddled and unable to process any new loop cuts. Now that I have four cuts, though, I’m going to start extruding and pulling vertices to shape the vehicle, which might involve some more frustration and Blender Python scripts.

    Next Steps

    Here it is: the trademark “Next Steps” section that I always manage to include in these project update posts. Well, when it comes to this Toyota Soluna mod, the primary next step is going to be to continue working on shaping out the vehicle and creating a real structure. Right now, I just have some vague boxes for where the various panels and portions are; over the next few weeks I’d like to refine the shape of the vehicle and maybe have a hood/trunk curvature laid out. This is probably the most time-consuming portion of the modding process, although the whole JBEAMING situation might be difficult as well.

    With the fabled BeamNG v0.39 update in a confused state, I’m not sure how it’s going to affect this process. It could be released this Sunday, or this September–or even next year. When it does come out, though, I really hope the devs won’t break the jbeaming interface or drastically change anything related to the modding process, because it means I’ll have to relearn everything to do with Lua and possibly contend with out-of-date and broken models. If that happens, it’s time to return to the Ashryver models!

    Stay tuned for further updates. Time to continue working on the modeling.