TUTORIAL Build your FIRST track - BASIC GUIDE

[QuadCoreMax]

Thanks luchian, I still have some other questions :

-1. How do I set LOD_0 - 3 objects ?
-2. The spl file needed for camera animations, how does that work in the Editor ?
-3. The FBX animation, I guess it's keyframing animations or is blending animation also allowed ? How many bones for character animations are allowed ?
-4. The AI tab in the SDK track editor, how to use it correctly ?
-5. For shaders, is there some link with all the references to the shaders variables ?
-6. The skydome is probably moddable, where do I set it independently for each track ?
-7. Where do I find the shadow intensity variable, it's slightly too black to my taste ?
-8. Is particles emitters allowed to be placed somewhere in the scene ?

 

[luchian]

Hi sorry for the delay, a bit busy with work these days. Anyhoo, here's what I know:

1/ You can assign LODs inside the editor. Just right clic on the object you'd like to use LOD, and at the bottom in Object tab, you will see LodIN and LodOUT. For the highest detailed object you will have lods something like 0 to X meters, for the second one from X to Y, and so on. The LodOUT of previous object will be the LodIN of the next object.
Also the good part is that you can preview this in realtime, inside the SDK Editor

2/ You can load into the editor the AI path that you have recorded (if you've recorded one).
And you can use this path, to visually adjust the IN and OUT point of a specific camera.
In my example below, I've made one camera called TEST_CAMERA - and I've used the IN_point the position where you see the markers, and OUT_point another one, selected farther away. Play a little with it and should become easy.

3/ You are probably speaking about driver animation - you can find almost all the info in the document Kunos provided in \STEAM\steamapps\common\assettocorsa\sdk\dev\car-pipeline-1.03

4/ You don't usually need to use it, unless your recorded AI path needs readjusting. However, a) I am not very accustomed with it and b) it would be a pain to explain without video .

5/ No, not so much - just scattered information. There is a thread that might help you on the main forum. Some of the information might be obsolete, but still, I guess it will answer some questions.

6/ There is no skydome in AC tracks. If you are simply speaking about illumination, you can modify sun pitch and angle in lighting.ini, in your data folder.

7/ If it's a normal object, you cannot modify it (afaik). If you are speaking about objects with alpha (like trees for example), you can modify the fidelity it in the shader settings ksAlphaRef

But I think a shadow being too dark/light is more about the settings of the material the shadow projects to (the ground in my example) than the original object itself (the tree). Play a little with Ambient and Diffuse. The more distance you have between them, the more "dramatic" the shadow.

8/ No (would be cool though).

 

[QuadCoreMax]

It's all perfect right now, I'm happy

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Somehow my 9 AI cars don't work. I have 10 AC_START + 10 AC_PIT. No pit road yet...the AC_PIT were placed just on right / left side of my track, on the grass. AI line was generated.
Any ideas ?

For the audio_sources.ini, where do I have to put my birds wav ? file + how would you set the variable for the audio track file ? In my scene, I have 7 AC_AUDIO placed in the trees forest.

1 st crash on AC, , after colliding at high speed with one of my AC_POBJECT cone...log file doesn't say much...

---------------------------
What I discovered :

- more than 2 Timelines are allowed => I have 4 right now
- from Max, you can export to FBX 200900

 

[Joe Rock]

I'm stuck with my test track. I've already created AC_PIT_00 box with Z pointing forward and Y pointing upward. When I load the track, cars are always missing 2 wheels. Left Rear and Right Front are missing.

 

[luchian]

Somehow my 9 AI cars don't work. I have 10 AC_START + 10 AC_PIT. No pit road yet...the AC_PIT were placed just on right / left side of my track, on the grass. AI line was generated.
Any ideas ?

In what mode are you trying to run ? (Race, Race Weekend, ?)
If you start in race mode, the AI will work with only "fast_lane.ai" in your AI folder, because they will spawn at AC_START_x positions.
If you start in Race Weekend, AI will spawn at AC_PIT_x positions. And in this case, they need the "pit_lane.ai" in order to find their way out of pits .

For the audio_sources.ini, where do I have to put my birds wav ? file + how would you set the variable for the audio track file ? In my scene, I have 7 AC_AUDIO placed in the trees forest.

It should work with the files inside \yourtrack\data\sfx folder. It used to work like this at least, didn't test in the latest updates of AC. Let us know if ok or not please .
To link the audio sources, just create a file called "audio_sources.ini" in the data folder, and inside add something like this:

[AC_AUDIO_1]
VOLUME_SCALE=20
VOLUME=0.9
FILENAME=content/tracks/_YOURTRACK_/sfx/my_sound_file.wav

[AC_AUDIO_2]
VOLUME_SCALE=20
VOLUME=0.9
FILENAME=content/tracks/_YOURTRACK_/sfx/my_next_sound_file.wav

You can customize volume and volume scale of course. Just play with them to fit your needs.

I'm stuck with my test track. I've already created AC_PIT_00 box with Z pointing forward and Y pointing upward. When I load the track, cars are always missing 2 wheels. Left Rear and Right Front are missing.

What software are you using ? (if Blender, you need to add 90 rotation on X axis, but then DON'T make "Apply" or it will be lost. For 3dsmax it's the same, but only rotate the pivot point.

 

[QuadCoreMax]

My bad, I missed one AC_PIT_02 for my 10 AI cars. Now works perfectly !
For the AC_AUDIO, it works too, keep in mind, you better place those near the track instead. Tweaking both variables doesn't seem to do much. Probably they are capped to certain max. values.

@Joe Rock

I had that issue too, if you put the AC_PIT a bit higher above your track, the car will have all wheels, hope that helps.

 

[Joe Rock]

Yep, I am using Blender. It's my first ever time making a track so my steps are very slow and small. I am not sure what you mean by the apply button. I couldn't find it in Blender, or any articles about it online. It would be great if you could provide steps.

I made the box for the car, rotate the object such that the box's local axis is Z forward and Y up. Export settings I ensured -z = forward, y= up. it seems it wasn't what AC is seeing when the car loads up, and 2 wheels are missing. I moved the box very high above the ground so the car was in mid-air when track loads up, but still the wheels are missing.

 

[Joe Rock]

I had that issue too, if you put the AC_PIT a bit higher above your track, the car will have all wheels, hope that helps.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the suggestion. I moved it high enough that the car is in mid-air when the track loads up. The wheels were still missing though. And funny that it's only 2 wheels missing instead of 4.

 

[luchian]

Yep, I am using Blender. It's my first ever time making a track so my steps are very slow and small. I am not sure what you mean by the apply button. I couldn't find it in Blender, or any articles about it online. It would be great if you could provide steps.

What I mean is after some modifications on an object (scale, position, etc) you usually "apply" those modifications (pressing CTRL+A >> Apply) in order to make'em default.

For example, let's say you've changes the scale of an object so now it would be something like 2.3, 4, 1 instead of the "true" scale 1,1,1. If you choose Apply scale, the object's scale properties will be back to 1, 1, 1.

In any case, for your rotation to the objects you should NOT apply the modification, so you should be good .
Please see Troubleshooting for more info.

 

[ckbucu]

Hello,
i'm trying to convert track from Race07 to Assetto Corsa. I changed object names (added prefix like 1ROAD, 1WALL, 1GRASS) and i added objects for hotlap, pit, acstart. When i'm trying to launch the track, i've got error (acs.exe crashed). I'm uploading my log. Can you help me, what i did wrong ?

 

[luchian]

Hi there @ckbucu . Had a look at your log file.
Looks like you have some objects named as physical surfaces (by mistake I believe) but they miss the surfaces keys in the surfaces.ini.

Do note, that ANY object that starts with a number other than 0, WILL behave like a physical object. So not only 1ROAD_blah_blah will act as a road; but also 3DDRZEWKO02_SUB1, for example.

What can you do:
1/ rename the objects that you don't want physical properties for to something that will make them graphical only. Example: rename 3DDRZEWKO02_SUB1 to 0DDRZEWKO02_SUB1 or simply delete the number in front DDRZEWKO02_SUB1, or whatever.

2/ if you'd actually like this object to have some physical properties (to act like a surface) add a key for it, in the surfaces.ini file. Key should be something like:

[SURFACE_1]
KEY=DDRZEWKO02
FRICTION=1
DAMPING=0
WAV=
WAV_PITCH=0
FF_EFFECT=NULL
DIRT_ADDITIVE=0
IS_VALID_TRACK=1
BLACK_FLAG_TIME=0
SIN_HEIGHT=0
SIN_LENGTH=0
IS_PITLANE=0
VIBRATION_GAIN=0
VIBRATION_LENGTH=0

Do this for ALL the objects named starting with a number that should act as a surface.

 

[ckbucu]

Thanks @luchian for help. I renamed this object that started from numbers (i deleted number). Also I added "pit" to surface.ini and i renamed object that called like ERROR: 66WALL_BOXPITBUILDINGS01_SUB26 CAN BE: PIT WALL to 66WALL_BOXBUILDINGS01_SUB26.
But still got an error
http://pastebin.com/nreTV6md

 

[luchian]

Can't seem to spot another error in the logs.
Can you post a screenshot of your folder hierarchy ?
A screenshot fo your track in KSEditor ?

In what mode are you starting your track ?

Does your AC work with other tracks ?

 

[ckbucu]

yep all other tracks works. I'm trying to start in Hotlap and Practice. My screens:

 

[luchian]

All seems ok..
Maybe another screen with the hierarchy in the 3d software you are using ?

And, what happens exactly ?
- you start AC
- see your track in the menu, select it
- select practice mode
- hit drive
- ...and ? PC is blocked ?

Maybe try and clear your log folder (delete or move all files in it), do a clean run, and then attach all the files. Maybe the the problem lies somewhere different.

Also, are all you textures dds or png ?

 

[ckbucu]

After hit drive i got acs.exe stoped work (or smth ). I used 3dsimed do rename objects etc. All textures was saved as dds (before convert to kn5). What screen you want to see ? I also can send u kn5 file

 

[luchian]

kn5 file will not really help me (especially since I am not at my main PC) .
But the track in a 3d format (fbx ?) would be ok.

Screen of object naming hierarchy in the 3d program (3dsimed ?).

 

[ckbucu]

Oh, in 3dsimed it's hard to take screen of all objects. Here:
And link to fbx
http://1drv.ms/1KXSPj3

 

[luchian]

I can't seem to manage opening the fbx file. I have only Blender at hand, and it says the fbx format is too "old". (6100 while the minimum accepted is 7100). Is there something you can do when exporting ?

I suspect the problem is something very basic (maybe something overlooked ?), but don't have eyes on it .