I appreciate the advice. I am very familiar with gimp and most of the other stuff you discussed. I do a lot of first person shooter game development. Actually, this my first time ever working on something that is not related to a first person shooter game, and I have been creating content for almost every most popular fps game that ever existed since Doom 1, lol. But I am more of a mapper and programmer, and I like to work with sounds too. I don't usually like to model and work with textures much because I don't get much fulfillment from it, but I'm starting to become more interested in it now.
I can't seem to get my grass or pavement to look good. I know for an experience track builder this must be an easy task, but it has been quite the struggle for me so far. I installed rFactor to make tracks, but I really just want to convert the tracks over to Game Stock Car when everything is complete. When I load up rFactor and test a track like Essington, I notice how the grass and road pavement look very smooth and retain high detail at a close range - and do not look to overly blurry at far range. I have no idea what settings are used to achieve those results. I have read a lot bout various settings that can be used, but I still can't seem to get my grass and road to look good in the game. I have come close to getting it to look good, but it still looks bad when compared to Essington and other tracks.
There are some many factors involved when it comes to manipulating textures, everything from the dimension (size) of the grass textures, the mipmap level, the mip bias setting, diffuse, multiply and add for grass surfaces, and diffuse, bump and specular for road surfaces, then there are blend settings for blending 2 textures together. I just wish I had a few sample tracks to dissect and learn from. I know how to do most of these things, but I just can't seem to perfect the recipe. For example, if I had the chance to dissect a track like Essington and see how the road and grass is implemented, I could then apply my own grass and road surfaces correctly and get passed this hurdle that I have been stuck on. I've already moved on to other stuff on my list because it has taken up to much time already.
I was hoping that maybe somebody could send me a sample track that uses grass and road textures that look smooth like Essington. It doesn't really matter what track it is. It could just be a tiny little sample track that consists of nothing more than a road and some grass, maybe some smooth trees and bushes so I can learn how to make those things look smooth too.
I have been spending a lot of time in Sketchup making objects. I am about to make my own kerb next, like the one in this image. I have made a few string objects already that came out really nice.
I want to make a track that looks very similar to the Game Stock Car track called "Londrina". I don't want to make the shape of the track like Londrina, but I want to use the same kind of track side objects, billboards and use the same color grass, road, walls, tire walls, kerbs, etc. I have already recreated the pit garage building, grand stand, tire walls, the exact same billboard signs, fencing, etc, and I am using my own textures because I did not want to steal any. I want to recreate the 2 most difficult turns from Londrina the best I can and add them to my track, because those 2 turns are the most fun to me out of any track I have ever played, but I also want to make the rest of the track as fun as the roller coaster feeling that Bathurst offers. I'm very determined, so I will do everything I can to accomplish this.
I have spent a few weeks just designing the pit area, the rest of the track is currently a large circle, and I don't want to waste a minute designing any of the track until my pit area is finished and my long list of track objects are designed and imported correctly, and I need to get my grass and road textures looking smooth too. If anybody can help me out with some legal texture packs and a sample track that has smooth grass and road textures that I could dissect, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
