To be fair, with all those modern headlights, I’m wondering if it’s possible to make something modular?
Like, different empty shells made of glass and a hollow, deep inside, and then some LED bits that would fit inside?
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Amazing idea! The definitive headlight!
My initial thought is…no…but…Maybe if I can play tricks on the skinned meshes for headlights like I do with the license plates and wings…perhaps something might work. I’ll throw together a proof-of-concept on Friday and test it out.
Honestly though, I don’t think the devs will go for it because it’ll require an instruction manual to figure out.
IE:
Step one, Choose the shape of the reflector housing/bezel you wish to use and place it. Take note of which glass lens fits over this housing as you’ll need it for the last step.
Step two: Choose your headlamp components and insert them into the housing. (These would be the skinned meshes, you would not be able to use them at all without the housings)
Step three: Once you’ve designed your headlamp, place the lens you set aside in step one over the reflector housing/bezel
Why the lens you ask? Because, if I made you a reflector housing/bezel w/glass, and you place a component inside…and it was behind the glass, you would lose the ability to manipulate it once placed.
So as you can see, for the casual gamer who doesn’t have access to a tutorial, I doubt this idea is going to work. But I like it anyway. 
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That’s been proposed to the devs, it’s hardly a new idea. The issue is how janky the inner parts will look for the most part (being so sunken into a hole in the body unless placed inside a casing) so it’s not something they’re wanting to do at this point.
Hmmm, surely sounds too complex for vanilla stuff, but I think it could work as a mod. In the end game mechanic changing mods are sometimes pretty popular.
To hell with waiting until Friday. It only took me about 15 minutes to just hack apart an existing light of mine and build something that works as a concept. It’s very rough around the edges, and is a little fiddly, especially the lens, but it can be done.
Step One: Place the bezel:
Step Two: Put your junk inside:
Step Three: Put this crappy lens on;
You’ll notice some squareish kinda rings…square halos if you will. Those are faces with the normals reversed. I tried to just use vertices alone but it didn’t work. Apparently UE4 wants you to have faces. Those could be converted into anything, like tiny dots…you’d barely notice them, but they’ll always be there.
They could also be better obscured if the lens was in a better location than it is. It could sit out a tad further, maybe bulge a bit and it would better hide the flipped normals.
So, does it work? Kinda.
Are the devs gonna be interested? I wouldn’t count on it.
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Sorry to hijack your thread HardRooster, but I feel this needs to be said and I’m probably repeating myself on the second part.
- Modders are not your personal slaves. Just because they say they are open for suggestions doesn’t mean you can come here and spam suggestions and get pissy if you don’t get your biscuit. Not saying anyone has done or is doing that, but be considerate. They have lives and are doing this in their spare time.
- Be aware that if modern headlights are made into a dedicated fixture, it will look like the original car you took it from, and it will be challenging to make your car look unique. It helps to play around with unique ways of combining fixtures. A lot of people are suggesting this so I just wanted to share this excellent tutorial with you people:
edited to read more like a normal persons post
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Let’s keep it polite and courteous in here please, kindness never hurt anyone.
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Hi, @HardRooster I have a couple of requests/suggestions although I know you said you wont be creating more spoilers due to game changes I will throw them in my suggestions anyhow. I also just want to add a thank you for creating this post to include the wider community in the creation of the fixtures that you make, I believe that I speak for others when I say that you are awesome and deserve some recognition for what you do. Thank you you’re awesome, and a true example of a great community member and deserve a lot of praise for your contribution to this game and its community.
Some O.Z Wheels off the evo 4
Summary
'80/'90 RS cosworth parts
Nissan GTi-R hood scoop
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2016 Dacia Logan and Sandero stoplights
2016 Dacia Logan headlight
2018 Dacia Duster stoplight
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Minimalist LED light shapes like the Honda Urban EV but also other variations of it.
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Why not just have 2 variants, one with just a contour of the “cover”, then you can easily select fixtures inside, and when you’re done - just change the cover’s variant to have glass and the space behind.
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BTW, https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466760695 for the thing above and https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PXB50DQLgnawrSLfO8l1194Zi7GXbdjY the max file if you just wanna tinker ( forgot the 1st UV)
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That’s a really good idea.
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Update time:
I talked to the Pipe Gods, and the pipe gods are intrigued by the build-a-headlight idea, however it will remain more of an “advanced” feature, so we will press on making lots of off-the-shelf headlights, which make sense for the more casual player who may be more interested in the tycoon aspect of the game than the design element anyway.
So here’s the plan. I’ll be making families of headlights, similar to this. The family is dictated by the shape of the housing, so this family, all in the same shape/sized housing will have something like 14 variants.
Then, I will make another family, with another 14 variants, but similar in style to these. I’ve been sort of combining the headlight ideas posted in photos you all have provided me with in posts above into the first family of headlights here (incomplete);
The shape of the housing will obviously dictate a lot of design elements, so hopefully there will be a good balance of differentiation, but enough similarity that you don’t have to say “I wish I could get those Chiron bulbs in a more triangular housing”
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I have a couple more ideas, mostly AMC related. Sorry if this is a lot of suggestions at once:
1966 AMC Rambler Marlin Style Tail Lights
1967 AMC Rambler Marlin integrated Stacked Concave headLights
1974 AMC Gremlin all in one Tail Lights
1974 AMC Gremlin Round Concave Lights
1964 Plymouth Barracuda body color flush bumper ends
Head lights like the generic early 40s cone ones but are different length cylinders to allow you to make inline round head lights without the taper, the 1964 barracuda has them. Maybe make some with a slight taper and some with just a flat end, since use will depend on the vehicle.
Some light body shaping parts like Low Profile Fins we can add to 1960s bodies to make them look similar to the rambler and barracuda or body shaping grills and headlights
If there was any easy way to handle all the various shapes I would say woodgrain “bumper” trim pieces, but it would be hard to get all the different pieces and angles needed for areas like wheel wells
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Not many supercar style headlights/taillights around, so I’d like to see some modern ones created.
Lamborghini Aventador and Huracan
Modern Koenigsegg (Agera/One:1)
I think that these would be very beneficial for creating more modern-looking supercars without going through the time-consuming process of making custom fixtures out of several lights.
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It didn’t take me very long to make this Huracan-esque light with only one mod (indicator with 45 degree turn), and the best part is that it’s not 100% identical.
I’d prefer to have bits of lights and housings rather than having the lights themselves. For example, the hexagonal lights of the Huracan would be nice to use instead of circles, or the strange shapes I had to use for mine. Just having more shapes to use in general would be nice.
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