WIP brno

Sneer · Jul 9, 2013

Here's are some screenshots of the brno track I'm working on.

Download beta: Brno B4 (cg version only)
I hope you like it

Alexander Knoll · Jul 9, 2013

eh...wow that looks great!

William Geuze · Jul 10, 2013

Had a test drive yesterday, pretty cool

Mr Whippy · Jul 10, 2013

Yep it seems pretty nice. Brno is one of my favourites as it was in a very old version of Racer many years ago.

I like the low density splines which should make the AI and AI learning work better than normal.

It's generally a really well made track too, FPS seem very reasonable and plenty of details etc... nice work and thanks for releasing

The constructive crits I'd give on what I see so far would be maybe the rubber wear in the corners could be extended onto the braking zone a bit?

If you can maybe swap the grass textures around the course for detail ones, add the grass detail into the detail map then paint in some shading and colour variation into properly UV unwrapped grass areas (like GTR2 did, check their textures for grass areas)... that would really be a nice feature to bring the grass alive too.

The tree shaders feel too bright to me, they look much better with ambient/diffuse = 1 and mipmapping = 1 (or remove the mipmap=0 line)

I'm nit picking really, as a beta this is very very nice and I can't wait to see where you go with it

Dave

Sneer · Jul 10, 2013

Thank you for the feedback.
Some of your critic is on my todo-list:

- add (orange/white) curbs at apex zones
- redo curbstexture
- align skidmarks to racingline (@ S-curve)
- add blending textures to environment (sand + dirt noise)
- cut/detach large grass areas
- add grassy strip (between sand and barrier)
- rework pits + entry/exit
- add trackcameras
- rework optimize env-buildings

I will look into tree shading and think about extending the skidmarks for braking zones, too.
Critical feedback is always welcome.

Mr Whippy · Jul 10, 2013

I already tweaked the treeshaders and some other shaders (simple changes), and threw in my TOD/sky bits from the Exeter Roads track and the course suddenly felt very nice indeed from a lighting and shading perspective.

Racer's sky system is very tough to get looking right. The TOD curves are very tightly linked to the lat/long/date/time so as soon as you change things then the balance is suddenly lost and your eye is fantastically adept at spotting the incorrect feeling and balance of things.

If you have a 'perfect' time of day that you like the look of at BRNO, then I'll happily generate a set of curves and a photometrically correct intensity base sky texture for you. Obviously it only works at a fixed time of the day but it looks really nice too.

If you need clouds in your sky then I'll have to think about those a bit more

Dave

Sneer · Jul 10, 2013

I'm happy to add any shader tweaks (or similar improvements) to the next update(s). I just like to keep things simple, the track should work fine with a clean racer installation.
TBH I haven't got around to fiddeling with TOD much yet. I've setup these coordinates, only:

Code:

; Sun path parameters
    year=2013
    month=8
    day=04
    latitude=49.120
    longitude=16.380
    timezone=1
    ; North angle offset in degrees
    azimuth_offset=-23.7

The whole track is rotated by 23.7 degrees, because it's much easier to work on the pits area with a 90 degrees alignment in 3dsmax. Most often I used this reference video.

Sneer · Jul 11, 2013

I've updated the track with some minor tweaks.
Not really worse a download.. but if your interested, I've updated the download-link (1st post).

- fixed some uvws / shaders / textures
- added 3 missing curbs.
- Grass uses a standard blur shader now and a noisetexture on top of it.
Now that's kind of a shabby chic version

dunno if that's any better?
- the tree-shader has changed slightly aswell
@ Dave diffuse/ambient 1 turned the trees to a very crisp light look, so I kept most settings to darken these textures.)

Alexander Knoll · Jul 11, 2013

öhm..there was a qlog too...with a typo...you use "vf_transparent" (skids and tree or tyre wall...) and in top of the shd file was used "vf_standard_transparent"...fixed too?

The rest is verry good!!