I think this is going to be the first actual ECTO-1 mod for Vice city except for that first ECTO-1 car I made way back

So hows the project goin? And just a few constructive comments, it looks like there are way too many polys for what would actually be needed. A lot of the flatter areas don't need all them tri's and such. Remove some of them carefully and it may help improve FPS (Frames per second) in games. That way the game engine doesn't need to render all them extra triangles and you'd notice little to no loss in quality. And just to throw an idea out there, ever think about making a Ecto 1 for the racing sim rFactor? You'd be able to recreate the physics of the actual car pretty close to the original and you should be able to have working lights and the siren as well. Just food for thought

I have been busy and not been working much lately but the exterior is very close to being finished… although I been saying that for months

True there are a lot of polygons more then what are probably needed but I don’t think it will affect the FPS if it does it will be very little
A lot of other vehicles people make for GTA games have ridicules amounts of polygons and those vehicles only create the FPS to slow when there are a lot of them being displayed in the game at the same time

Though it probably matters most on your type of computer

Since this project of mine is taking so long I feel that most of you by now are starting to think I’m just going to end up like one of those people who just stop and never mention the project again, basically give up and never talk about it again. That’s not going to happen!

This 3D ECTO-1 is going to happen! Even if it takes me another 5 years to finish it, I don’t care if “Grand Theft Auto 18” is being released at the time I finish the ECTO-1 for Vice city. It’s going down in the books, GTA’s greatest ECTO-1 made by Bryan A.K.A. BigMac and well… kind of Phil, Phil is the guy who originally made the 1959 Cadillac for GTA III but he admitted on his website that he really got the actual 3D Cadillac model from a “Need for Speed” game. At first I was going to put Phil’s name down as one of the creators of the ECTO-1 but since he didn’t actually make the 1959 Cadillac model and I’ve done so much to it I’m about to just put my name alone as the creator, I’ll just say in the cars read me file that some guy from Electronic Arts made the 1959 Cadillac then Phil converted it to GTA III and then I turned it into a 1959 Cadillac Miller – Meteor “ECTO-1”… Almost enough stuff to make you want to write out a Car Facts History Report for the 3D Model car

Moving on though, I finished making the window wipers for the car, they look great.

I'm wondering if you realize the impact this project will have on the prop builders who want to make Ecto replicas. Having specific CAD diagrams of the car and the rack, from pretty much any angle, is something I would have killed for a year ago.

This looks astonishing, keep going!

That’s a good point and another reason for me not to be cheap and lazy when designing this model

Since we are on the subject of other uses I want to point out another cool use for this model, making custom ectomobiles. I know it sounds dumb but I always wanted to pimp out an ECTO-1 for fun and to see how it would look

Put on hydraulics, hanging dice, custom interior, gold plated parts, lowrider wheels, cool colored window tints, and whatever else I think of when working on it (*peter)

Definitely going to be a huge help to the fan community, and an astonishing final product, no doubt!

I was just thinking about how much work it is to make this 3D model. I wish there was an easier way then sitting down for 100’s of hours manually drawing out every little thing.

I wish I had a 3D scanning device or something. Imagine that, just go to a toy store and buy a toy ECTO-1 and then scan it to make a 3D model. No manual work needed.

That would be awesome!

Big Mac's Ecto goodness continues