RELEASED-wip Vancouver City circuit 98

[JrC]

It took awhile... partially because I overwrote my fbx.ini and had to redo all the shaders... sigh


anyways... i got the skytrain moving on the proper track to the one in game and it looks pretty good.
I need to get a few tweaks done on the track and skytrain mesh.
then I can animate the other one and have them going opposite directions with random intervals at each end.

I thought it could look pretty rough when I didnt have the trains set up in the right direction but once I got it lined up it actually looks pretty good and adds a ton of ambiance to the scene.

I did a race and its pretty neat having the moving skytrain going above you as you go under the tracks.

 

[JrC]

 

[Johnr777]

Looks like you have the debug mode on?

 

[JrC]

yup. Using it to troubleshoot some issues with the mesh... makes a nice track to see the route its taking and see where the problems in the mesh are.

 

[JrC]

I got both trains animated with a bit of delay at each end and increased the resolution of the jumbotrons.

With the street lights changing colors and the trains moving in opposite directions plus the jumbo trons it really brings the track to life. I didn't realize how much more alive the track would be with all these things working together.

I still have some work to do on the skytrain track to smooth out a couple of rough turns but its really coming together.

 

[JrC]

in the long run it might be easier to seperate the light stand meshes from the bulb and stand and then use the meshes from the bulbs to generate the light... you can see from this shot the street lamp isnt generating an emissive light. For the white light...
It has the spot lamp but not a point of light generating it

Got the bulb actually being lit up sorted out.
Looks way better now and it has the slightly yellow lights in the pit lane. Now I have to replace all of them for the rest of the track and add a few here and there as when the track was originally built they were just for show and not for actual emitted light so there are some gaps.

 

[JrC]

Got some more track lit. it was like this

now its about half done

Got grassFX working and occluding properly with the variations. Its fairly minor on a city track like this. Those trees need to be replaced though at some point.

And did some work on the water mesh to shape it a bit better then got WaterfX working and that looks so much better. The original texture looked like moss and i was just using a random one of the net as a placeholder.

 

[JoeK]

Looking really good now...

 

[JrC]

Looking really good now...

It's getting there. Im slowly running out of things to implement which means it gets down to the nitty gritty of cleaning it all up.

On the plus side, at this point I feel comfortable to a relative degree so that a Lidar version would be possible with some help and a bunch more learning of Blender and texturing but the AC/CSP side is much clearer

I got the trucks on the upper roadway animated on a loop as well so all the raised roads and skytrain tracks will have animated vehicles once I get the last loop done.

 

[JrC]

Some days it feels like Im throwing poop at a wall and nothing sticks and other days its like I should buy a lotto ticket.

-Got the last loop animated for the trucks. All upper roadways and skytrain tracks are animated.
-Replaced the generic trucks with some other vehicles like a garbage truck and a bus. (animated, not sure what I am doing with those. I bought a pack off the net to update the vehicles.)
-Got Fmod sounds working with CSP.
-Airwrench sounds in the pits, crowd noise and bullhorn by stands, city noise in two locations. skytrain sound and truck sounds relative to trucks and skytrain set up and working.
-Added Canadian flags to the tents and set them up with ksFlags so they blow with the wind.
-Tested replacement vehicles for the very low poly and textured vehicles in game.
-updated the water and grass mesh to have better levels compared to the roads.
-redid the crowds and combined them to reduce DIP and so I can hide them with the spectators command.
-Added some more lights. (still half to go though)

Im divided on whether I do a release of this once its ready or just go straight to a LIDAR version. I picked up the new vehicles but may decide to leave the existing and use the new ones for the LIDAR versions.
We will see...

City Bus

Garbage truck

 

[RJL]

Some days it feels like Im throwing poop at a wall and nothing sticks and other days its like I should buy a lotto ticket.

-Got the last loop animated for the trucks. All upper roadways and skytrain tracks are animated.
-Replaced the generic trucks with some other vehicles like a garbage truck and a bus. (animated, not sure what I am doing with those. I bought a pack off the net to update the vehicles.)
-Got Fmod sounds working with CSP.
-Airwrench sounds in the pits, crowd noise and bullhorn by stands, city noise in two locations. skytrain sound and truck sounds relative to trucks and skytrain set up and working.
-Added Canadian flags to the tents and set them up with ksFlags so they blow with the wind.
-Tested replacement vehicles for the very low poly and textured vehicles in game.
-updated the water and grass mesh to have better levels compared to the roads.
-redid the crowds and combined them to reduce DIP and so I can hide them with the spectators command.
-Added some more lights. (still half to go though)

Im divided on whether I do a release of this once its ready or just go straight to a LIDAR version. I picked up the new vehicles but may decide to leave the existing and use the new ones for the LIDAR versions.
We will see...

City Bus

Garbage truck

Looks incredible.
Will differences between this and Lidar be dramatic?
Or are we simply talking accuracy?

 

[JrC]

Looks incredible.
Will differences between this and Lidar be dramatic?
Or are we simply talking accuracy?

Scratch built is always better. This is almost 11 years old now so some of the assets are really low poly like the trackside vehicles.

There will still be accuracy issues with a LIDAR version because some of the roads were purpose built for the track from what I can tell and the LIDAR data is from 2018 but from a pure cosmetic and driving standpoint it would likely be better.

When you look at Marutos 3Rpg track and what he is doing then it would likely mirror that better with his help. The wall variation he is doing is similar to Van and things like the dip into turn 1 would be easier to model.

You can see in that image that there was a bit of a drop into turn 1 through turn 2

and I came across this quote so trying to get this stuff in game would be important

Turn 1 - pit exit and after start/finish actually dipped 'downwards' throughout the corner/curve after you came off the straightaway.
The turns around Science World are also curved slightly and there was a nasty 'bump' coming out of it entering the last short straight before the pit lane.
Wasn't the back section under cover due to the platform around GM Place (now Rogers' Arena?)... it looked almost like a tunnel that was open on one side. He is thinking of the pre 97 track here
Vancouver is by no means a flat city. Some scenery would be nice. Distant mountains to the North, three tall condos opposite the track around Science World (to date I think there is about six condos - they are the buggers who complained about the noise while the Molson Indy ran).

Really happy to play on this track.... thanks so much guys.



I still have some things to do but at the point a LIDAR version was possible, the textures and general look of the track would no doubt be better simply from a present time aspect.

Zero G did an awesome job but it was built for a less powerful engine.

 

[JrC]

After getting all that working I realize that in a lot of respects its pretty secondary since when you are driving you cant really hear the sounds or see a lot of the extras. Its nice to have the moving stuff and lights for ambiance but really the driving experience is the most important.

I think I will tidy up this one, release it just on here for feedback and then take all that to the Lidar version rather then worrying about this one a ton.

 

[maruto]

After getting all that working I realize that in a lot of respects its pretty secondary since when you are driving you cant really hear the sounds or see a lot of the extras. Its nice to have the moving stuff and lights for ambiance but really the driving experience is the most important.

I think I will tidy up this one, release it just on here for feedback and then take all that to the Lidar version rather then worrying about this one a ton.

I think all of your effort to convert and upgrade this track show's the will to learn and i'm pertty sure you did well. and even if some details might be unnoticed at the end, you learned how to do it and that's great. sometimes it works, sometimes not.

now using lidar data will truly make a difference.

I'm pretty busy right now working on my new appartement, removing the top layer of a concrete slab, using a bosch mini hammer tool, (and driving my new neighboors mad) but as soon as it's done i might get me some of my dear free time again, and get back to modding and GP3R. If you are not in a hurry, i'll help you with the track. and you can help me with some stuff you learned

but i'm not done yet.

 

[JrC]

I think all of your effort to convert and upgrade this track show's the will to learn and i'm pertty sure you did well. and even if some details might be unnoticed at the end, you learned how to do it and that's great. sometimes it works, sometimes not.

now using lidar data will truly make a difference.

I'm pretty busy right now working on my new appartement, removing the top layer of a concrete slab, using a bosch mini hammer tool, (and driving my new neighboors mad) but as soon as it's done i might get me some of my dear free time again, and get back to modding and GP3R. If you are not in a hurry, i'll help you with the track. and you can help me with some stuff you learned

but i'm not done yet.

Yeah. The crowd noise and bullhorn in turn one should likely be in the pits and even though I got the proper skytrain noise and a truck sound... you cant hear it over the whine of the Champ cars.

Worth it to figure it all out which is part of the fun but I found I wasnt paying much attention to that stuff when I was lapping last night.

Ive got a bit of time off in early April, so if I can get a beta out of this conversion one then I will work on the LIDAR export for a scratch built.
Some feedback on this track would be helpful anyways.
I figured you would want to finish 3R first so I can pick away at a few things and maybe get a driveable road surface done in the meantime.

No rush though... Im not in a hurry... Still lots to learn and especially if its going to have the 98 track layout and the pre 97 layout that ran alongside BC place.

 

[RJL]

Scratch built is always better. This is almost 11 years old now so some of the assets are really low poly like the trackside vehicles.

There will still be accuracy issues with a LIDAR version because some of the roads were purpose built for the track from what I can tell and the LIDAR data is from 2018 but from a pure cosmetic and driving standpoint it would likely be better.

When you look at Marutos 3Rpg track and what he is doing then it would likely mirror that better with his help. The wall variation he is doing is similar to Van and things like the dip into turn 1 would be easier to model.

You can see in that image that there was a bit of a drop into turn 1 through turn 2

and I came across this quote so trying to get this stuff in game would be important

Turn 1 - pit exit and after start/finish actually dipped 'downwards' throughout the corner/curve after you came off the straightaway.
The turns around Science World are also curved slightly and there was a nasty 'bump' coming out of it entering the last short straight before the pit lane.
Wasn't the back section under cover due to the platform around GM Place (now Rogers' Arena?)... it looked almost like a tunnel that was open on one side. He is thinking of the pre 97 track here
Vancouver is by no means a flat city. Some scenery would be nice. Distant mountains to the North, three tall condos opposite the track around Science World (to date I think there is about six condos - they are the buggers who complained about the noise while the Molson Indy ran).

Really happy to play on this track.... thanks so much guys.



I still have some things to do but at the point a LIDAR version was possible, the textures and general look of the track would no doubt be better simply from a present time aspect.

Zero G did an awesome job but it was built for a less powerful engine.

Omg - thanks for such a detailed response!
The more realistic and detailed / the more immersive / the more enjoyable and fun.
I'm sure that many, many drivers will enjoy the fruits of your efforts.
Looking forward to both.

 

[JrC]

@maruto I looked at the photo again... you aren't going small there

Is it a full reno or just flooring?

 

[maruto]

full house.
floors, walls, ceilings, electricity...
by chance parisian appartements are small

 

[Leonardo Ratafia]

do you need any cameras for this track?

 

[JrC]

do you need any cameras for this track?

It would likely be good to have someone have a look at them. I did 2 sets, one where the track cameras are in game and a roadside type one but they arent that great. Its the same system for the Jumbotrons so some camera work there would likely make those a lot better too.

The AI could likely use some work too. Just have to be careful of the location of the pit one vs the one coming out of T5 because if those are too close it gives the wrong way message.

Current list of to dos before this version is ready as an initial version

-Move tracksounds
-Redo remainder of trees, retexture and replace
-Finish track lights and add a few city lights and vehicle lights. Im not going to spend a ton of time on the city lights.
-adjust some textures, Pit road texture, start box texture. May just remove those.
-Start lights on main straight working.
-Final touches to adjusted pit wall.
-Fix some tents and things that are misaligned or not touching the ground
-Fix the skytrain mesh and redo UVwrap. Its hollow from the bottom as it was never designed to be moved.
-Put the original vehicles back in place for this version.
-make a second surfaces ini with less bumps. Im not sure people will like it as bumpy as I do.
-fix balloon and blimp location in ini and files as i have it in a master but would like to include.
-double check ext config and clean it up. its a mess right now.
-make a readme with credits.
-Likely a couple of other things. The textures dont look so blown out now so hopefully people could test them in a variety of conditions.

Possible
-redo a few textures so that they are combined into one instead of having 8 for one mesh.