TUTORIAL Build your FIRST track - BASIC GUIDE

[QuadCoreMax]

The cones were falling thru mesh because of naming convention, my side grass was named 1GRASS_road_side_X & now 1GRASS_X...

Now, cones collide as expected & stay on surface.
Thanks

 

[Pixelchaser]

its always something silly. hahaha

 

[luchian]

Congratulations, you are now part of Troubleshooting tip #4

 

[Willy Wale]

Hello, I've been lurking and soaking up the advice on this thread for a while. I just wanted to poke my head above the parapet and say thanks for all the effort to make track building as easy as possible. I took the advice in post one and started simple. I'm new to Blender so I knocked out the basic geometry in Onshape (don't). Easy to create solids but makes a terrible mesh.



Anyway after the obligatory scaling issue with some cones,



and a bit of trouble with the timing markers I drove several laps of my very own circuit and even got the AI working.

So now I've started on a bigger project, a fictional street circuit around the town I live in (in Blender this time).



I'll pop back here as and when I get stuck. If I learn anything I think might be useful I'll bring that back too.

Thanks again.

 

[Clifton]

I am working on converting my second rfactor2 track and I have having a problem with the car falling through the map as soon AC starts, then placing it correctly in the grid spot after it falls.

As soon as AC loads up the track the car is already falling. Then it bottoms out and places it back in the correct grid spot and I can use the entire track after that. Annoying.

I have tried everything mentioned in this thread to get it working. It almost seems like it starts the car at 0,0,0 instead of AC_PIT_0. 0,0,0 is well below the entire track.

Using 3DSimed

 

[Clifton]

Fixed it. I moved all objects so that the 0,0,0 was at the same coordinates as AC_PIT_0

 

[Portland12345]

First post here.

So here goes.


I created basic track in 3ds Max just for testing purposes, just so I can get hang of it.


Used Loft technique to create road.
Than made plane for outside of track.

I followed naming convention
1ROAD
1GRASS

Applied textures (Standard/Bitmap one called 1ROAD and 1GRASS)

Adjusted textures so they align up correctly in 3ds Max for road and grass. Everything looks good in 3ds max.

Exported according to first page in here for fbx settings.

KS editor opens up the track.

However I am running into texture problems.

Textures for Road in KS editor are stretched. Looks like this.

do I fix it in ks editor?


So I opened up Road_main.png and saved it as

Road_main.dds using DXT5 setting in photoshop, just selected DXT5 from drop down. Should I have clicked something else?


Problem is still there.

At moment my goal is to get bare minimum track to AC.

Than go from there.


I thought about purchasing race track builder, but I feel like that will teach me nothing, without learning things properly.


Also this site is fantastic so many tips and tutorials.

 

[luchian]

Hi @Portland12345 , welcome to the forums .

I think it's a very good idea to understand basic workflow before going for something like RTB (if ever). It will help you later to both fix errors by yourself and go free to build whatever you imagine .

Regarding the texture problem, it's not linked to the file type. PNG also works, but DDS is recommended. If you are not using multilayer shader, you can also save it as DXT1 with no alpha.

Also, name for textures/materials does not matter, use whatever feels logical to you.

What you seem to have is a UV problem (IIRC). I don't remember the exact buttons in Max, but it's linked to the UV tiling. You have probably tiled the texture on your road. Just map it to a part of the road, and then it will repeat itself anyways.
A second issue might be if you have used modifiers/scale for the road, and did not normalized them/it once the road is finished. This can also mess with the UV mapping. I think it's something like XForm (iirc) that you can use to fix that.

PS: sorry, I'm more of a Blender user : )

 

[Portland12345]

Thanks for help!

I fixed the texture problem.

Noob being I was UV tilting the bitmap (png) in material editor....Instead of adding UV XForm modifier on top of the loft.

Road texture works in ks editor perfect.


I have run into another issue now.

When loading up the track in kseditor.

Plane (just random grass texture) is okay.

But track (loft) is below the track grass texture in ks editor. Somehow I have messed up the orientation in ks editor.


In 3ds max,

I have plane set at 0,0,0 (x y z)

I have road set at 0,0,0.5 (x y z)

Sorry this is really basic concept questions

if I set road at 0 , 0 , 0 and plane 0 , 0 , 0 than they blend together.

So I moved road up a bit in 3ds max so its on top of the plane.

However in ks editor road is below track. .


edit: NVM scratch that.

I fixed it.

Have to flip the element (road) loft to work in kseditor.

So far got to here .

Now need to learn how to add spawn and timing objects.

 

[Portland12345]

Okay so now I am on to creating

spawn points and timing.

In 3ds max created dummies for keeping in mind 90 degree rotation in x axis for dummies.

AC_PIT_0, AC_PIT_1 etc

AC_START_0, AC_START_1 etc

AC_HOTLAP_START_0 ......


However I am stuck at this part.

AC_TIME_0_L and AC_TIME_0_R

It says

"The trigger will be a line drawn from the center of the object to the other side (not visible obviously)"

How do I accomplish this?

I have two dummy objects on left and right of track I get that.

What do need to do create line top view going from one dummy box to the other? And just make line invisible?





EDIT:

Okay so invisible line going from AC_TIME_0_L and AC_TIME_0_R seems to have worked??

So I load up the track in AC and this happens




My scaling is off by huge margin lmao

should have used meters in 3ds max for units.

Gonna start tomorrow again from scratch with proper scaling.

Agh not giving up.

I am gonna get something that is driveble by next week.

 

[luchian]

Yes, you need to use meters. Always .

Do remember that in max there are 2 scaling options. One in system units, one in utilities/tools panel. Don't remember the details now, but do a search on the forums, it has been discussed before.

Yes, it's an imaginary line between the 2 points. I'll update 1st post to avoid confusion.

 

[Portland12345]

Few more extreme basic questions before I begin the process of creating my first track.


When modeling I find spline/loft technique the best for track itself.

However I am confused about modeling the surrounding terrain of track and how to approach it.

For 3ds max to ks editor to AC testing purposes I used plane for surrounding and race track (loft) on top of the plane.

I had the plane just bit below track. And it worked great but obviously just fantasy track.

However now that I am trying to replicate real track and using sas planet for background image reference.

Do I build bunch of terrain surrounding it say with spline - editable spline - extrude method?

Or I build a bunch of individual planes and modify them to fit the sections of terrain I want to texture?


I have searched youtube videos but nothing sticks out that explains it.

Most of it is just how to create track itself.

 

[Pixelchaser]

it depends on what you are doing for terrain, and what sources your terrain data is derived from. effectively when working with zero data or any specific data you might make the road separately from your terrain. the issue is combing them. there are cheat methods behind hiding scenery when you "don't" combine road with terrain meshes etc. its not very professional at the end of the day, so the question later becomes what is best way to join meshes,

main reason I use rtb is because it cuts and joins terrain automaticly. and in my projects that would be many several kilometres of poly welding which would take weeks and be the most boring job possible.

but then without rtb its good old manual labour I'm afraid. and yes splining and extruding is perfectly acceptable.

 

[Portland12345]

okay.


I seriously don't know why this is happening.


Every time I load track into game the scale is too small.

Same like picture above.

In 3ds my units are meters.

I am exporting fbx in meters.

Driving me insane.

The track length in 3ds max is 2100 meters.


Its always small like that first picture above AGHHHH

 

[Pixelchaser]

your exporter ? whilst you have units in the 3d program the exporter for fbx has a its own units option. exported units. I know when I started out I faced this problem from time to time.

edit:
3dsimed exports In centimetres, race track builder also in centimetres. so when I import fbx I'm on cm`s when I export FBX I'm on metres.

from experience also whilst that's a factor of 100 issue. you seem to have a factor of 1000 issue. you can scale up 1000 percent and export at metres and I bet it works. obviously that might not be a precise way to deal with your problem or understand it though. but try export with it scaled up 100 or 1000 and later you might work it out.

 

[Portland12345]

OMG FINALLY!

Its scaling correctly.

I was launching 3ds max with administrator rights because it wouldn't let me launch scripts without it.

Now without scripts I set system units and units to meters.

When I export the scale in fbx says automatic 1.0 and in meters. What was strange even with automatic tick unchecked and convert to meters it wouldn't scale.

But now it does.


Finally got test of import to game to work.

 

[Portland12345]

I was so ticked off almost said screw this and gave up.

Now need to learn proper shading and uvw unwraps to get rid of repeat texturing.


Than.

Gonna start creating proper track next week.

 

[Pixelchaser]

<needs sunglasses for the last picture > wow that's some fluorescent green there hahaha. it looks positively toxic

good stuff, glad you got it in the end. most of all of this is being patient. the more patience you have the further you will go. especially without formal training. the non patient make a quick track and never look back at what could be better or aspire to do things properly.

ive taken 2 years to simply understand how I am going to make my first track , proper track. mainly through constantly making tracks that were never good enough to go anywhere as tracks but just to learn the programs I want to use. don't let failing 50 times get you down.

btw repeat textures are a part of it (not necessarily) but The skill is hiding it.

 

[Portland12345]

don't worry that thing will never see light of day.

its already deleted.

next step is slowly learning proper techniques and tips in this forum.


I am gonna start small, try and replicate autocross track from real life first.

 

[luchian]

[..]
good stuff, glad you got it in the end. most of all of this is being patient. the more patience you have the further you will go. especially without formal training. the non patient make a quick track and never look back at what could be better or aspire to do things properly.

ive taken 2 years to simply understand how I am going to make my first track , proper track. mainly through constantly making tracks that were never good enough to go anywhere as tracks but just to learn the programs I want to use. don't let failing 50 times get you down.[..]

One of the best posts on the forums ! Cheers mate !