February Update
So at the end of December I decided to release 0.2.0 on Racedepartment. Just getting it out there was a relief to be perfectly honest, anyone that has made a track from scratch can appreciate this. Every mesh here has been made from scratch and it takes so long to do! I have to admit the sense of achievement is there regardless of the standard of the thing, it’s always pleasing to create something and then share it with others, no matter what it is you are doing. I could have waited until it was more complete for a public outing, however the feedback from 0.2 has helped focus the direction of the project. Some things I have been working on this month…
Texture: Details
My goal has always been to have no Kunos textures, almost there now! Firstly I visited my ‘local road barrier’ resource, took some pictures and have adapted into the game using a suitably profiled mesh. Quite happy with the result, adding a little nodal jiggle in grasshopper avoids things looking too smooth and gives a more natural feel. Details such as the Armco ends and cones are also now done. This is all visual of course, the physical mesh is now hidden away. My advice to anyone making a track from scratch is that setting up a basic Armco/wall to start with can still be useful later down the line to become the physical barrier later, with a more detailed mesh being (visual only) added later. There are improvements to be made still overall, the top cable between the posts is quite characterless, and some of the fence connections need detailing properly but otherwise I think this is getting to a good enough place.
Figure: Armco ends on the Zumthor Straight.
Details such as the white lines on the grid, extra numbers, converting pylons to be trussed, etc. have all been completed during January. Slowly getting there. Unfortunately it looks like I need to keep to 26 pit boxes
@JrC because of the problem of the cross-over track spawn points that couldn’t be resolved (so no more slots going back on the grid at least) and I can’t move the grid any further forward due to the run down to the first corner. Bit of a shame but 26 isn't too bad.
Figure: Grid number detail + white line improvement.
Textures: Trees and Greenery
GrassFX has been modified with new textures and setup to incorporate some longer grasses around the infield. By sliding the landscape mesh out under the Armco slightly in places, long tufts of grass appear sometimes just in front of the Armco which gives a little roughness to the feel of the track. Also no more Kunos trees thankfully thanks to the advice I received on
this thread (thanks everyone). In the end I went for some trees from the Meye collection thanks to
@JrC, spending absolutely ages trying to find a good blend for certain sections of the track. Lots of trial and error, but getting somewhere finally, with relatively low ambient and diffuse levels (0.1 ish) this seems to work quite well in pretty much all conditions.
Figure: Long grass peeping through.
Figure: Wild grasses with bridge and Hyperboloid observation tower in the background.
Textures: People
One of the main things on the todo list has begun, adding people and characters to the track itself. Firstly some relatively low poly 3d marshals were made using the Autodesk character builder. The textures were then modified based on some photographs from the 2017 British GP. They could be better, perhaps with some movement but I think when I get round to modelling the camera men/women they may be updated. There are some good tips on this forum in this area for sure.
In terms of the crowd, after a little experimentation I ended up opting for the camera facing set (I know there are debates around this), also because a) they keep the DIP low, b) the standard standing and seating texture can be easily updated in future, c) they seem to work quite well, and the adaptive crowd size in CSP is good to integrate with. The figure below shows how this is done which is relatively straightforward, just a mesh strip located just above the floor below the seats (remembering to turn the object render to false in KsEditor), then add the camera_facing.ini to the data folder, something similar to this thanks again to
@luchian 's guide for some sensible values (the 'elements' is set proportionate to the surface area of your mesh strip):
[CAMERA_FACING_1]
SURFACE=CamFacing02
ELEMENTS=400
SIZE=0.8,1.5
TEXTURE=content/texture/people_sit.dds
TEXTURE_ROWS=3
TEXTURE_COLUMNS=7
SHADED=1
DIFFUSE=0.022,0.022,0.022
AMBIENT=0.075,0.075,0.075
Figure: Showing people strips in Rhino and image: “Why are you all looking at me and why are your legs in the seats!?!”
Once this is done, adding standing people is relatively straightforward by creating additional non-renderable meshes in areas such as the pits and infield sections and referencing the standard people set in the AC installation. Again, in time this will need to be updated.
AI
Updating the AI line has been on the todo list for a while, however I put it off because of the implications of messing up everything else (cameras, sounds, corner names, etc.). Anyway, I took the plunge and can highly recommend using the Tatuus when recording an AI line, just because it is so stable and smoothness of the spline is everything. That combined with some brand new AI hints, and the cars are lapping nigh on 3-4 seconds quicker and on par with my record times around the track. This is a complete game changer on the track when running in races, as they no longer back off at odd places destroying your front wing! They can also negotiate areas such as the sausage kerb and not fly into the air.
Future modders take note: one of the problems with a cross-over track is that after recording, you have to go around in KsEditor and correct the edge spline at those locations manually (changing the sides0 and sides1 values) which is really time consuming. Just to note, I found it very useful to resample the Spline from around 3600 to 1800 points (sample dm 30) before editing the values as it takes so long to do. The resulting spline is absolutely fine at that resolution for this length of track. Of course with a new Racing line, a new pit line had to be recorded as all the values along the original curve and where it meets with the racing line are wrong. Also remember to split your mesh so that the lower and upper sections are different meshes, otherwise the AI will go crazy.
Figure: The problem with a cross-over track – outer splines go crazy and must be edited manually.
Some Other bits:
Some other minorish things that have happened since the December update:
- A couple of spline cams now integrated, thank you @Sam Dale for your help!
- DRS Zones are now implemented and new PObjects/boards.
- Corners now named, based on my favourite architects!
- A few camera towers.
- Penalties now implemented just with little do not cut strips (see image below).
Finally, there is a new slight dip in the track on the second straight, just giving a little more elevation change as things were too flat. For anyone that uses Rhino, I used the Cageedit command for this just to morph the area which kind of worked after a lot of post-production!
Figure: Implementing a penalty ‘line’ on the inside of the hairpin with a simple non-renderable mesh quad.
Next Steps:
The aim now is to release 0.3 on Racedepartment in a couple of weeks with the above updates implemented. Maybe some of the following things on my todo list will make this release, not entirely sure it depends on how much ‘real work’ I have to in the meantime. If anyone has any questions at all and starting out modding let me know and also if you need any textures.
Todo this month:
- More lights on bridge, grandstands, etc.
- Team crews in the pits.
- Better details on the kerbs, they are too monotonous around the track.
- Railings and detail all over the place.
- More adverts.
- Working clock (maybe)!
