BTB the right tool for me?

James Andrew · Jun 2, 2013

Hi there. For many years I've had an OpenOffice Draw file on my PC with a concept of a track I'd one day like to drive in a sim. It includes three crossovers a la Suzuka, and a couple of alternative layouts.

I have no time to learn how to use 3DMax or anything but I wondered whether BTB - which looks fairly easy to pick up and achieve something basic in - might be worth my effort. I mean, assuming I could realise a 3D model of the basic layout and topology, would that be usable by someone with experience in full track building to make a working circuit in Grand Prix Legends and/or rFactor2? Usable in the sense of being something they can take, edit, tidy up and flesh out, rather than usable in the sense of merely being able to visualise what I intend but having to start from scratch in, for example, 3DMax?

Thanks.

Kennett Ylitalo · Jun 3, 2013

Use BTB, it's perfect for this. You can use your original image as reference and draw your track on top of it in minutes. But prepare to learn about the basics first, it'll take about a month to learn it (you should be doing first tests driving on your track in hours but the rest of it is long hard work. Fortunately we have tons of people who'd made all the mistakes to give pointers...

It's usual that all builders have their own projects and it's very hard to convince someone to make majority of the work for a vision that's not theirs.. So you have to do it yourself but you will get help, you're not alone.. The more complete it is, the easier it is to get help, people notice when something is worthy of release and the last part of the job is a bliss, as it is also one of the longest and definitely hardest steps, optimizing, detailing and compiling everything to a single package that works and has all the game features utilized (lighting in the night, rain reflections, AIW routes, corridors... and testing.. hundreds of miles of driving alone.)

Experienced builder can make what you want in hours.. But finding one that'll do it for free, not at all easy task, wouldn't count on it. Learning BTB is a street one has to think twice before travelling: it'll take all of your freetime, it's really really REALLY fun and your brain is gonna explode with all the awesomeness, it's addictive, almost a game.. And then you spend 6 hours bughunting something, pulling your hair and planning to detonate your PC...Or the dreaded corrupt project...or the crashes...there's a lot of frustrating aspects too, you'll need patience.

Driving for the first time on a track that's been in your dreams is an experience you can not get from anywhere else, i do recommend it. You'll notice that 2 laps in the first test, your cheeks start to hurt as you will have the widest grin in the world. It feels good. to drive on a track that you made.

Lee Knight · Jun 3, 2013

^^^ What Kennett said^^^

James Andrew · Jun 3, 2013

Kennett Ylitalo said:
Use BTB, it's perfect for this.

Learning BTB is a street one has to think twice before travelling: it'll take all of your freetime, it's really really REALLY fun and your brain is gonna explode with all the awesomeness, it's addictive, almost a game.. And then you spend 6 hours bughunting something, pulling your hair and planning to detonate your PC...Or the dreaded corrupt project...or the crashes...there's a lot of frustrating aspects too, you'll need patience.

Driving for the first time on a track that's been in your dreams is an experience you can not get from anywhere else, i do recommend it. You'll notice that 2 laps in the first test, your cheeks start to hurt as you will have the widest grin in the world. It feels good. to drive on a track that you made.

Thanks Kennett. You've really sold me with your excitement and positivity! However, before I commit to getting into it (and paying the licence fee) you haven't answered whether BTB can specifically create circuits compatible with rFactor 2 or Grand Prix Legends. The last because I still play that quite a lot, and the first because that's the future. I see that BTB will create files for rFactor 1 but no definite word on v2. Would I have to create an rF1 track and then "upgrade" it to work in rF2?

What you said about track building with BTB becoming addictive, I totally believe. I've always liked sketching track layouts on paper and I'm sure I'd get plenty of use from BTB once I got going.

Finally, I have Win7 64-bit and I see that it can sometimes be awkward with BTB. That puts another question mark in my head. Thoughts?

Erwin Greven · Jun 4, 2013

BTB is not suited to build tracks for GPL and RF2.

FerrariMan96 · Jun 4, 2013

You *could* potentially create the track in BTB and convert it to GPL and/or rFactor 2, using 3DSimED (see here: http://www.sim-garage.co.uk/). However, that is extra money spent on 3DSimED plus more work/time required as well. Both BTB and 3DsimED have demos so I would suggest downloading the BTB demo and building a quick track (literally quick - a few mins. Just a quick squiggle and some auto-generated terrain) for rFactor, and then importing that into the 3DsimED demo and converting it to GPL/rFactor 2. Bear in mind that for rF2 conversions you will need the new version of 3DSimED (v3, currently in Beta), but v2 will be fine for GPL.

I haven't tried this myself, but it should be possible. Just not 'directly' from BTB