couple of updates.
Ive gone a little nuts on the AC crew objects. I just really like it because it customizes the track to the cars racing assuming they have an AC crew dds.
Ive added some extra crowd barriers and signs that use the AC crew function.
Ive done some optimisation on the textures as I really understand now how bad the conversions are for the materials. For example, one building is 8 materials.
Im going to work on this a bit because I do need the performance back with the pits the way they are now. There is no way I could run the full 37 cars. Im on 27 now and getting about 70 fps with everything maxed out but that would dip considerably in a field where the cars where different I suspect.
For example, I built a billboard dds and have mapped all the billboards to a single dds rather then having a single one for each billboard although I haven't done this with the walls yet.
There is lots of opportunity to combine objects and materials to reduce the DIP of the game.
The block transform on the trees will help but that's the last big job I need to do. Finish off replacing all the old trees and optimizing the new ones not only in mapping but in placement while doing a bit of creative hiding of some barren looking spots in the background.
The groove is good but is 31 pieces right now to make sure it looks right before I join it into a single mesh. I've added some pass grooves off the main groove to simulate the AI occasionally coming off the line to pass into some of the main corners for passing.
The camera facing INI is massive right now too as I try to tweak the mesh locations and count on spectators.
Overall that looks much better so I want to combine those into a smaller number of objects once I've got it.
I have another animation in the form of a working flight path to YVR (Vancouver Intl Airport) with some 737s flying overhead with a random delay when they land. Its pretty cool having the shadow pass over the track as you are driving. I tried to add lights but apparently you cant add sounds and blinking lights to meshes that are wrapped as animations. I tried separating a part of the plane to have it be a blinking light for nighttime but what happens is once its two materials it seems to break the Mesh wrap with CSP animation. In any case, I couldn't attach a plane sound or create a blinking light so they are slightly emissive at night.
I added a bunch of light pollution as there should be so that helps make it seem like its not floating in space.
At this point I'm obsessing over minor details so I think its time to wrap this one up and move on to a scratch build because I'm getting to the point where its how the meshes were built that's limiting me so I'm better off taking that forward and building the track up with this stuff in mind and with CSP stuff considered.
The LIDAR version will take awhile anyways so I think getting this finished off and optimized will allow me to move on to the slow boil on a LIDAR version.
I'll see if I can get permission to convert the Edmonton city airport track and do the same updates in the background while trying to scratch build the LIDAR Vancouver version with all 3 layouts.
Maybe
@maruto and I can work on scratch built Canadian tracks long term.
I want to say a version might be ready for some testing in a couple weeks but likely 4-6.
