WIP Bay Route #9

[Mr Whippy]

Quick question guys!

Using an Alpha channel, how would i have the windows reflect on the buildings?

I'd create a unique texture for the reflection (which we can do now, though it's LDR only)

It might be better than having the glass reflect what the car is reflecting from it's point of view

Dave

 

[GizmoY]

I reverted back to the previous shader excluding the Bump. It works works great. i guess your not going to get close to the buildings anyways (Unless you do some off-track exploration).

I think the main fault is with my card! ATI shite

 

[Raphael Buthmann]

Can somebody re-upload the track on another host?
Speedy Share is asking me to pay for it o_O

 

[Ash Webster]

Can somebody re-upload the track on another host?
Speedy Share is asking me to pay for it o_O

+1 Please

 

[Raphael Buthmann]

I found out another link

http://www.tracciontrasera.es/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownloaddetails&lid=919

 

[AMGfan(BPM)]

Will it be possible to add traffic one day?

 

[GizmoY]

As i predicted - I lost interest pretty damn quick!

I Can upload the model pieces if you want so you can expand this track to your hearts content!

 

[Raphael Buthmann]

=/ it's an awesome project.
I'm almost begging you to continue LOL

I miss high quality content on racer.
Could you upload the night version of your track?

 

[KS95]

Racer community project #3(?)

 

[Alexander Knoll]

...hmm...unfinished racer community project #3(?)

 

[KS95]

...hmm...unfinished racer community project #3(?)

Sounds about right

 

[Mr Whippy]

Was it a community project?

There is no reason we can't make a good track together we just need to be organised and plan. Making tracks is a big task and if you want to make one on your own it does take ages, so kudos to Gizmo for giving it a go imo!

But if we really want to see tracks make the light of day we do need to plan and collaborate on them better.

Google SVN is a great place to build stuff. OK it's meant more for code but I started a project on there with gigs of PSD/max files hehe, me and Cam ran it for a bit for a Racer track years ago...


Mood boards, concept layouts, real technical data (for reference and getting stuff right like junction designs, gradients and all that jazz are useful to make it drive nicely), lots of reference imagery of what you like and want to get the feel of.

The actual building then is actually much easier because you have a target. Just making stuff in 3D without an idea of how you want it to look can take a lot of time and if you lose direction it's easy to lose interest in the idea after investing oodles of time modelling etc.

Pencil and paper are the best place for ideas, then nice renderings/paintings/comps of stuff, then finally get building


I've actually got highway layouts here that I've made that are made up from chunks of real highway that I can reference and stick together in loops. They are all fairly near to where I live so I can get loads of data...

I just don't have time to build the damn things

Dave

 

[GizmoY]

The Basic Blocks are there!

Frustration introduced by Zmod is what put me off and slowed down production to begin with. Zmod was so damn stable on Windows XP. But is about as Stable as trying to rest a glass of water on a pin head in windows 7!

Summer is also here. So its Car and Track Day season once again!

 

[GizmoY]

Right hopefully you guys can see this link!

https://mega.co.nz/#!hoMEHIZJ!ad3TDyKGzD3KJevp1ep0EysYGio0PjtKwBdw05w7h_U

Its Hefty. 250mb. But it includes everything, Including a large collection of reference images, backup files and the building blocks!

Inside the "Backup" folder you will see some named files "3 Lane", "Overpass" etc.

Simply Load these models, Move them as you please, And away you go!

Each section is a single model (Not split by Rails, Lights, Road etc). You will need to separate the model via Material selection and export accordingly!

At least i'm giving you the guys the opportunity to take my project folder and expand with the building blocks, Rather than trying to build the blocks before you can complete it.

Enjoy!

 

[KS95]

Thanks for sharing GizmoY

 

[Mr Whippy]

The Basic Blocks are there!

Frustration introduced by Zmod is what put me off and slowed down production to begin with. Zmod was so damn stable on Windows XP. But is about as Stable as trying to rest a glass of water on a pin head in windows 7!

Summer is also here. So its Car and Track Day season once again!

Haha!

Yeah Zmod is great for cars and stuff but I really wouldn't want to embark on a track project with it... it's just not designed for managing all that stuff really I don't think...
I suppose you could work around the limits and stuff but it'd take a lot of dedication to make a track with the scope you had for Bay Route 9!
For example, is Zmod even 64bit for memory addressing? Also without instancing (I think) you'd soon start to need many files just to hold the basic geometry... could get a bit annoying



However, I'd say it'd be good to keep this project alive. It's a great start for this kinda thing already!

I'd be interested in helping out but more than anything it's about the ideas and reference imagery more than the build. I can throw stuff together really quickly and efficiently but it's the ideas and stuff that slow me down.

If some people are happy to work on accurate detailed layouts and source good reference images for textures and stuff we can start to split the job up and work on this more


Hmmm

Dave

 

[aadilf1]

Productive post:

I like.

 

[Stereo]

However, I'd say it'd be good to keep this project alive. It's a great start for this kinda thing already!

I'd be interested in helping out but more than anything it's about the ideas and reference imagery more than the build. I can throw stuff together really quickly and efficiently but it's the ideas and stuff that slow me down.

Heh, just ran across

- video of a lap around Manhattan. Wouldn't mind plotting a similar course for Tokyo's Bay Route, although I don't know the scales involved (don't want to overreach; but at the same time, if it's made slightly generic, it's just a matter of laying out more of the same). Also good visual reference for a night-time urban drive; lots of good minor sets that could be incorporated.

Have also thought about how on a fixed route, driven fast, it would be fairly easy to use scripts to multiply traffic vehicles by repeatedly warping them ahead of the player and then retrieving them once they go off the main route or fall behind. On a branching route you probably wouldn't manage quite the same density of vehicles but you could do a similar thing. You only really need maybe 3-4 at once to create interesting situations anyway.

I probably work too slowly to help much with the model/texture aspect but I don't mind working on the other parts of tweaking a track, and planning.

Something like this route is just over 100km; (Google maps location link; can't link the route) obviously the 20km tunnel under the bay isn't the most interesting feature. You could add a minor bend near the Mihama Ward and fold that tunnel down to a more reasonable length, though. Could cut the length of interchanges in general if we wanted a more reasonable scale to work at.

Bay Route 9 is the top middle of this; around Koto, though it's not labelled that well by Google Maps.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I like real routes but the problem is they always include too many real details... that means time

I'm sure you could make a route that had the spirit of the real one, but avoided the costly elements that you'd have to build.

Ie, the NFS Porsche course, Autobahn, is actually just a road that splits off and forks around but all the routes lead to the same end... but it can feel as if you are not doing so.

Obviously we can go way beyond the scope of that, maybe 10x longer, loops that stay off the main route for longer, loop it around on itself...


You can make it generally quite repetitive with regards to buildings/props and just iteratively upgrade bits. Stage 1 might be the roads only, with all the same signs/lamps etc. Stage 2 might add custom signs, more custom tarmac textures, more correct signage.
Stage 3 might be adding buildings outside the course we can see. Stage 4 maybe a distant panorama of a big city scape.

I dunno... just thinking of elegant ways to work at this.

A 100km track would be nice but I'm figuring it'd need to be loaded on the fly or have really well considered LOD's and stuff?!
This is where things like imposters would be good, if things in the distance could just get rendered out once and billboarded until you got close it'd cover off a lot of the problems with doing tracks this big I think!


Hmmmm

Still interesting though...

I might have a quick play sketch of a layout, just see what happy accidents occur hehe...

Dave

 

[Stereo]

Ie, the NFS Porsche course, Autobahn, is actually just a road that splits off and forks around but all the routes lead to the same end... but it can feel as if you are not doing so.

Obviously we can go way beyond the scope of that, maybe 10x longer, loops that stay off the main route for longer, loop it around on itself...


You can make it generally quite repetitive with regards to buildings/props and just iteratively upgrade bits. Stage 1 might be the roads only, with all the same signs/lamps etc. Stage 2 might add custom signs, more custom tarmac textures, more correct signage.
Stage 3 might be adding buildings outside the course we can see. Stage 4 maybe a distant panorama of a big city scape.

Yeah... I mostly like the real layouts for the immersion of driving somewhere real. It's probably ok to take some liberties on the sections that are less interesting to drive, and to fold together side roads to keep it 'in the loop'. Don't really want to get to the level of Midtown Madness, just lay out a network with enough options to cruise around for a while without looping every 2 minutes.

As for stages, I'd probably start with stage 1 being the main highway loop (expressway as the WIP's already got done), intended exits marked but blocked off, and stage 2 be to build up the secondary highway materials and figure out some roads linking them.

The main interesting things I'm seeing are Haneda Airport, the Rainbow Bridge, and the various man-made islands that the Bay Route crosses via bridge & tunnel. Maybe a more achievable loop would hit the high points of this path (the north end doesn't actually connect at Shibaurafuto, only farther north, so I'm already taking liberties to get this down to 34km.) The northeast corner is basically an intersection very much like what's already been modeled. Making it essentially two parallel highways makes the crossroads work out alright, since on one side there's the bay anyway. I'm not sure how much is enough; it'd be nice to take the Lamborghini up to 300km/h without going round in minutes, like I said. I'm sticking to real geography because it simplifies road signs, too - for the most part you can use the real markers with distances adjusted.