Even though I don't program video games I do design database and UI systems. I would venture to guess that the existing staff at PD is already quite taxed. If I was saddled with a whole new development project t on top of my already massive workload neither of my assignments would have top notch quality.
Sure they could probably crank out some "usable" pile of garbage that works but then everyone would just complain about how much it sucks and that they should have spent more time on it.
An editor like this IS NOT just some simple thing to do. It's almost like creating a whole operating system for each model type. It is possibly only slightly less intensive than making a premium version. I say this only because when modeling a premium you only have one set of variables, that being the particular model you are building. Mapping a surface for hundreds of thousands of possibilities along with reflection and texture is a whole different ball of wax. I can tell you from my experience that building a static function is much easier than a user dynamic variable environment is. And it is quite a stretch to say what I do is anywhere near as difficult as it is to program one of these games.
An editor would be great but if you want what FM or others have so bad why are you still playing this?
I say cut them some slack, they "may" already be deep in development of this feature.
I agree that we should cut them some slack, but the real-time 3D graphics methods required to get this to work are pretty mature. The UI design, or, more specifically, the actual user controls, are the critical part, though. It goes without saying that the work needs to be scheduled properly in order to be done properly (PD aren't afraid to take their time, which is probably what half the "complaints" are in fear of). Then there's the "boring" stuff like handling saved liveries, undo history etc., but fundamentally, it isn't that hard to do (although clearly there is a difference between getting something to work, and getting it to work well and "feel" good). Nobody knows the timescale involved for the development of the livery editor, nor (especially) how long they've already been working on it, so there's no point trying to assume the sequential and parallel personal workloads involved, either.
The fact that each car has a different mesh is irrelevant, because you would use methods that are "mesh agnostic", e.g. projected decals, draw "directly" on the "template" etc. The problems arise when things like the underlying model and texture / UV / normal map have inconsistencies and errors, as has been seen with some cars in the Forza games, among others. If PD were smart and forward thinking, and didn't change their minds along the way, the Premiums would already have provisions in place for this sort of thing - much like they are supposedly modeled as their individual parts, even though the only use for that in the game turned out to be toned-down damage and replaceable bumpers.
Before the game was released, PD demonstrated damage models that clearly showed they have dynamic decals working (and it might be used for the dirt and damage in the final game), so it's a case of finding a way to dynamically create those decals first, then apply them to the car by wrapping the existing system up in some form of usable interface (like the photomode, but less lethargic) and then, once you've finished, merging the layers together into a single texture for the game to load in-race (which is how FM appears to do it). A major issue is that, on the PS3, those textures won't look all that great at the end of it.
