W.I.P. Lime Rock

[Pixelchaser]

well the surface wouldn't be far off, no reason not to, but not before the main stuff.

so many vintage car vids where they start in the parking areas, I really want to make a realistic track day spawn area too.

 

[Pixelchaser]

Considering there is a drifting scene in AC it may be worth it. When I was deciding on the kart track for NJMP I decided against it as there are no good karts for AC anyway so I left it as visual only.

I think making it might inspire someone to try create a proper kart car. no tracks for cars no cars for tracks and vice versa. you could even inadvertently spawn a kart scene and some properly made kart tracks . if rfactor can make karts fun, I'm sure ac can if it not at all realistic.

 

[LilSKi]

Well VIR did a full functioning kart track and nothing ever came of it so that is partly why I didn't bother.

 

[Pixelchaser]

so this object map became so good (in my eyes) I took it to the texture masking stage. so this will actually control nearly all close textures, heres max image. it is equating to 10 pixel per metre ranging. (ascari has 4.5 p/m)

 

[Pixelchaser]

seeing that picture above has made me realise we have an anomaly between the data. the barrier at turn 4 should not be rising up hill so this lidar data is before the latest renovations. the google imagery seems to be recent and after said renovations. and the bing imagery is certainly older.

but not to froth ! this track has so many videos they even film the renovations hahaha.

 

[LilSKi]

Yeah that is something you have to take into account is renovations. I believe they redid stuff in that area in 2015 or 16.

 

[Pixelchaser]

im sure its not track related but not 100% why change a good thing etc. mainly its for some anniversary this year. so I get the idea it was 3 million dollar update on spectator level interests.

definitely going to do the autocross btw. but need to see how the overlaying diffuse operates with multilayer and its resolution around the track and in the centre. if its good enough ill just go for it and have same level of detail everywhere making the job significantly easier.

 

[luchian]

Hey @Pixelchaser ,
I like how this is progressing . So here's a thought: Time wise I am _still_ not in a position to start a big project, but maybe I could give a hand here and there. So if you think it's useful, I could maybe model some assets for your track (unless you wish to do it 100% by own work . If you could use the help, just write what kind of assets might be of interest for you and we'll see where that takes us . Keep up the good work.

 

[Pixelchaser]

yeah id be more than happy with a hand, its definitely a worthy project.. there isn't that much to be honest compared to some track arena`s. personally I'm interested in doing the Armco barriers without just repeating textures. theres patterns in their variation in areas, so I want to capture that explicitly. everything else is pretty basic stuff really.
simple concrete wall painted white for pits.

marshall stands(very basic stuff)
main building.
distance counters to turns.
bridge at turn 1.
bridge structure at last turn.
typical farm fence around spectator areas.
upright speaker poles.
2 types of rumble strip. flat and ribbed.
regional tall fencing close behind the Armco barriers
advertising bill boards.
tyre walls, most covered with black tarpaulin covers.

pits area has 1 long black pedestrian fence along the carpark line.

and then its vegetation, but keep that till last.

race day sees a lot of tents and full parking areas and spectators but I consider that secondary to what the actual track is.

 

[Pixelchaser]

any thoughts then on what one might want to model ?

my only request is if you can make it with lodding in mind. id like everything to have a low est poly model possible in terms of simplicity. and the higher lod model can be as high rez as you want. infact just go for it ! if you want to of course. but I don't expect anyone to contribute, but if there is it would help my planning.

 

[LilSKi]

any thoughts then on what one might want to model ?

my only request is if you can make it with lodding in mind. id like everything to have a low est poly model possible in terms of simplicity. and the higher lod model can be as high rez as you want. infact just go for it ! if you want to of course. but I don't expect anyone to contribute, but if there is it would help my planning.

I don't suggest LODs for everything and neither does Kunos. Stefano himself said it in a stream that LODing is not free. It requires extra CPU to load and unload the models. Also limerock is so small it would be very hard to not have noticeable pop in especially when using low FOV numbers.

 

[Pixelchaser]

ok, well either way I'm not fussed at the end of the day, but if I'm on the autocross track, we need not have high rez barriers which can still be seen from the centre. so not necessarily for lod changing, but for static aspect and use to allow me to get enough 3d grass over this area too, that's without pushing polys up too much,

 

[luchian]

any thoughts then on what one might want to model ?

I'll start with the pedestrian bridge at turn 1. And depending on how "fast" that goes, we'll see for later . Anyways, don't expect too much speed - it's one hour here one hour there I can work on . But you are not really ready either, so I think it's not an issue. YET

 

[Mr Whippy]

solution to my dilemma. spline mapping a surface is fantastic, so easy to setup in max. but it only really works with a centre spline. but I'm trying this spline method with one at each side of track to get the physics layer.

so i must conform 2 meshes, 1 formed from the outlines and 1 formed from the centre line spline. bottom layer is the outer line mesh so I can grab the crazy width changes and general cambers at the same time. but you cant actually uv map that surface very easily. so I combine both. the constraints with 3dsmax splines and their general tools mean I will slowly manually conform my visual layer down to what will be the base of the physics layer. complicated and time consuming but it will be worth it, instead of unravelling a uv map without a centre spline or any form for basis. using snap to edge function with axis constraints I must go around the verticals first then then lateral changes. but great thing is the aleady uv mapped layer stays uv mapped nicely , obviously there will be some stretching , but that would be there anyway. next video will be a nice track, with cambers and bumps. fingers crossed.

I'm confused but I'm sure there was probably a much easier way to do that.

Care to elaborate on the quandary?

 

[Pixelchaser]

no quandary, just not that familiar with some things in max. and when you don't know, you just don't know. what I was going on about was that just filling a mesh between 2 splines is a pita to uv map without its upper level control. so I just had to manually position everything after it was pre mapped.

I'll start with the pedestrian bridge at turn 1. And depending on how "fast" that goes, we'll see for later . Anyways, don't expect too much speed - it's one hour here one hour there I can work on . But you are not really ready either, so I think it's not an issue. YET

cool !.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I agree on the Max stuff.

There are near infinite combinations of things to let you possibly achieve random tasks.


In this case have you ever checked the spline mapping?

Swiftloop or 'connect' along the centreline of the polys. Select that new row of edges, create spline from selection, then add UV mapping, then use a spline to create the UV. Then you can tweak the UVs from there.

For track making jobs, using the spline mapping has been a staple of mine on almost all the tracks I've worked on.


Also using splines, there is shape-merge compound object, and conform compound object that might have been helpful in creating the kind of modifications you wanted.


In the end you've done it all manually, and quite often I've gone with the manual way because you just know it works...

I'm just thinking for others watching your workflow here if there are more optimum ways of doing certain steps!
The faster you can make these tedious parts of the build the better imo

 

[Pixelchaser]

a little big bit of progress.

 

[luchian]

That's a clean looking mesh my good sir. Keep it up !

 

[Pixelchaser]

well up close you could easily say what a mess, it would still work visually though. took 25 hours to make all that. but of course the ocd in me will tidy it up .

i want to make a car park autocross track with cones.

 

[Pixelchaser]

a lot will be re mapped later.