BTB Improvements?

[Brendon Pywell]

Believe it or not, I get quite a few emails with suggestions on how BTB could be improved. Rather than me simply “sorting” them in my own Inbox, I’d like to openly ask the BTB community for their suggestions, allowing suggestions to be discussed and workshopped. I have a few ideas (pages of them) myself but it's always refreshing to get other people's ideas.

Aside from the next patch, I pretty much know what I am going to include in the next version. Beyond that I also have some great ideas as I address what I perceive to be BTB’s most common “annoyances”.

So please, feel free to offer your ideas on what you’d like to see in the upcoming releases. I’ll refrain from comment, but I will be taking notes.

 

[Davesta]

If you click the helicopter icon on the top right of your screen it will reset your view above the track. Then just click the green man icon to stop it following the track round.

You can also set your projects folder in the options menu.

 

[jay_p_666]

If you click the helicopter icon on the top right of your screen it will reset your view above the track. Then just click the green man icon to stop it following the track round.

You can also set your projects folder in the options menu.

Sorry, I didn't use btb in a while, so I forgot some of the basic features

 

[UPCPC-IvanThaDriver]

Hello

I was playing with BTB 0.8.0.0 (only with Richard Burns Rally) and here are my ideas for future development and bugs observations.

Firstly grab my "BTB tracks randomizer" I made for fantasy tracks generation (attachment) - OpenOffice 4.0.1 Calc - after randomisation save "Randomize" sheet as .CSV file with default settings, then import in BTB with "sampling - all" and "Open Ended" options activated. It would be cool to have this feature implemented directly inside BTB.

http://speedyshare.com/j7HbE/UPCPC-ITD-BTB-GPS-Track-Randomizer-v-0-9.zip


-- Ideas


- Grid snap, axis symmetry option, axis constraint (x/y/z only) functions for track profile edition (maybe ability to enter xyz manually for each point, so one could get precise 3 meter wide road panels with 75 cm wide sidewalk exactly 12 cm above the ground for instance).

- Using edgeloops doubleclick solution (like 30 second here

) as guide for SObjects, so you can use

: middle of the highway road to put road lamps, barriers
: edges of the road to put power lines/barriers/fences/lamps/cameras without manual placement.
: terrain edgeloops to put buildings, spectators.
: edges of surrounding terrain to plant trees, install invisible walls. It would be also handy to specify driveline along imported 3d object's edgeloops.

- Automatic camera placement (along edgeloops or driveline offset) so cameras have their activation radiuses touching each other.

- Direct mesh importer (per project) without obligation to create xpack just for one mesh. This also concerns texture loading without obligation of using xpacks.

- Other fileformats import supported, as .3DS has 64k polygon limit Trying to import .DAE crashes BTB, no matter from which program I export .DAE. I use modo so .LWO .FBX .OBJ would be nice

- Uniform objects scaling (now you can scale only along one axis).

- Possibility to scatter objects on imported 3d objects (or only on specified material in imported mesh (like lawns in big city etc).

- Road 3d ruts holes bumps randomization? (maybe in track profile window) - I guess some boolean style.

- Boolean of BTB road with terrain around when working with big imported objects like cities.
Something like the method I described here http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=425005

- Axis mesh slice (

) for big "fill" triangles or merged terrain polys, so one can do efficient terrain sculpting or blend operations.

- It would be nice to be able to force BTB plugin to use generic RBR weather system (TrackSettings.ini), although I understand that BTB uses it's own way for this.

- Noise procedural shader mask for texture randomization, blending or road surface alterations (sand patches on tarmac, puddles etc).

- Allowing LOD to be bigger than 10000.

- Possibility to affect inbuilt RBR car shaders ( examples .fx - thinFilm / bumpGloss / BumpReflectHLSL / incidence-based "cameleon" shaders / exhaust-attached http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/effectVideos/fire.fxproj.html ) - maybe "forced replacer" option for default CarPaint or something. Like BTBCarShaders.ini in car directory for optional use? So when BTB sees it in the car dir, it uses it.


- .fx system in BTB brings endless possibilities - this is really awesome With some new shaders we could probably turn RBR into jawdropping modern-looking game. Here are a few of my ideas


First batch is about possibility of replacement of .fx files in already created tracks (all BTB_*.fx files).

I've tried to modify default BTB's BTB_DiffuseBump.fx to implement http://developer.download.nvidia.co...hots/featured_effects/relief_maps.fxproj.html or http://http.download.nvidia.com/dev...s/screenshots/effects/parallaxBumpMap.fx.html ) hijacking normal map (I'm completely new to shaders programming) but got stuck with porting N, T, B, uvNorm, uvSpec TEXCOORD* stuff to this effect. That effect would be awesome for all game surfaces, not only road (think building walls, terrain etc). If this BTB_DiffuseBump.fx replacement (mod?) would be done, it would be very easy to just swap .fx files in all already created BTB RBR tracks made by people. Also it would be ok to be able to choose this effect separately in new BTB.

I see that sky.fx and clouds.fx don't change anything - even deleting them doesn't make any difference. I was able to modify scattering.h so distant objects (like imported 3d mountain) don't get so extremely blue right from the start.

I wanted to put my own textured sky into BTB RBR, the only way I found possible for me was to import 3d spherical-projection uv'ed sphere into BTB, anyway if it's too big it isn't visible in RBR afterwards - I think it's due to max 10000 LOD and "always render" flag not working. This sphere appears only when coming close to it. So it would be awesome to be able to control such textured sky via .fx files by assigning environment lighting/texture in special field in BTB without having to create any geometry for this (.fx solution), spherical or light probe projection?. This brings HDR lighting to mind (it's effect is visible in BTB on such sphere and track mesh, but doesn't work in RBR of course for the moment). Also light emitting polygons would be great (street lamps, lighting inside closed tunnels, underground parkings etc).

Another thing is that in reality only reflection phenomena exists, with different roughness to it (roughness 0 = mirror, roughness 100 = matte (diffuse). Widely used in 3d "specular" is reflection which reflects _only_ sun, which is plain wrong - either something reflects everything or nothing. So a reflection shader ( http://http.download.nvidia.com/dev...ples/screenshots/effects/raytrace.fxproj.html or http://developer.download.nvidia.co...eenshots/vidImgEffects/scene_raytrace.fx.html ?) with controlled roughness parameter would be the best (you could make building windows, water puddles, semirough grounds, wet tarmac etc etc - check Maxwell Render material system for better reference). I think this + http://developer.download.nvidia.co...hots/featured_effects/relief_maps.fxproj.html + HDR/textured sky lighting are the most important for first next step and practical, with possiblity to update older tracks by just replacing their BTB .fx files.


Other fx ideas :


- Improved shadows

http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/effectVideos/PCSS.fxcomposer.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.co...ts/featured_effects/shadow_fp_pcf.fxproj.html


- Surface effects

http://developer.download.nvidia.co...nshots/effectVideos/displace_maps.fxproj.html - this one would be also nice when applied to BTB terrain, lifting it into mountains on textured or procedural-driven basis
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/effects/ToksvigAA.fxproj.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.co...hots/featured_effects/relief_maps.fxproj.html
http://http.download.nvidia.com/dev...s/screenshots/effects/parallaxBumpMap.fx.html
http://http.download.nvidia.com/dev...mples/screenshots/effects/BumpGlossed.fx.html
http://http.download.nvidia.com/dev...les/screenshots/effects/bumpGloss.fxproj.html


- Blur/Motion blur shaders for real feeling, spinning wheels motion blur

http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/vidImgEffects/post_bloom.fx.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/effects/Scene_radialBlur.fx.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.co...enshots/effectVideos/post_glowTrailFP.fx.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/effectVideos/spinFX.fxproj.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/vidImgEffects/post_trail.fx.html


- Lens/Light sources effects

http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/vidImgEffects/post_bloom.fx.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/vidImgEffects/post_star.fx.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/9.5/Samples/screenshots/effectVideos/spinFX.fxproj.html
http://developer.download.nvidia.co...enshots/effectVideos/post_glowTrailFP.fx.html


- 3D Glasses

http://http.download.nvidia.com/dev...enshots/effects/anaglyphic_stereo.fxproj.html


- Grass

http://http.download.nvidia.com/developer/SDK/Individual_Samples/screenshots/effects/fur.fx.html


- Animated water http://http.download.nvidia.com/developer/SDK/Individual_Samples/screenshots/effects/Ocean.fx.html


-- Bugs


- BTB RBR plugin menu doesn't scroll, which allows to consciously choose only about 20 tracks, depending on resolution.

- "Always render" flag ignoring LOD doesn't work, also the checker field when ticked on turns off after closing the window.

- What is the shadowvolume.fx loading error? I've found one in the net and put into COMMON\FX still it doesn't change anything. There are no shadows in RBR anyway.

- sky.fx and clouds.fx don't seem to work at all, you can even delete them.

- there is an error with xpacks - when I use certain xpack in BTB, and then alter something in xpacker (save, zip etc), these changes aren't reflected in BTB project. This leads to idea of importing 3d objects directly again (or some "update according to xpack" button or something).

- Cameras don't work at all in RBR

- Why colsplit loading takes so much time sometimes? 30 km track can load faster than 2 km track in certain cases for example.

- For some reason objects visible in BTB randomly disappear in RBR after exporting. It can happen to many different objects in the same scene in different stages of development.

- When you have surrounding terrain made of a few panel lines you cannot select anchors of just the border one - all get selected, so you cannot pull the edges without mesh errors caused by the inner panels. I think this edgeloop thing could be handy here as well.

- It's impossible to place objects in 3d view using coordinates. It is very hard to manipulate 3d environment, like big mountain (which is an object in xpack) after "click applying it to the road" - it's almost impossible to catch it's red-dot center to move it. Also it's impossible to match it to other 3d pieces (click object placement again), as to import big 3d environment one needs to cut it to pieces as there is 64k .3ds polygon limit. It's also impossible to scale it uniformly, not only in one axis.


This editor is awesome, big thanks and keep up the good work Brendon!

 

[R Soul]

I'm currently making a fence SObject, and would find it very useful if we could use negative values for 'Space before' and 'Space after'. This would allow the horizontal beams to overlap the vertical posts.

edit: XPacker suggestion:
I often make an XPack, use it in a project and then decide to add more things. The current 'Zip to BTB' feature is fine for using it with new projects, but I think a useful addition would be 'Zip to BTB Project', with the user selecting one of the project folders, thus saving the effort of copying the zip manually.
edit 2: Or lend me the XPacker source code and I'll do it myself. Seriously. I'm not at your level Brendon but I can use C#.

 

[R Soul]

Since it's been a few days I'll make a double post for this one.

For objects, the Plantable depth setting has no effect.

 

[martinez]

Maybe LOD could be more accurate? For roads/walls it was as default: road length + 1000 meters. Worked maybe cool for short road parts, but many builders used very long roads and then performance suffered when games had to render many kilometers of objects...
The solution could be maybe to let the builder to specify that values?

 

[R Soul]

That's a good suggestion. It would also be nice if BTB could draw LOD spheres so we can see where things will pop into view. So for the selected 'material' cross section, or object, wall etc, we had a wireframe spehere, similar to what we have for cameras and their activation zones.

 

[banger]

I'm working with max, erm or is that almost working. on some 3d curbs from MMtools script I using. this could be some time, thou.

 

[R Soul]

When placing a group of objects, Min Separation should scale up or down along with the object scale when Randomness is used. If the X and Y scales are different, I think BTB should use the larger of the two.

 

[Barbje_Keller]

And another one - is support new Collada file format or kmz - which comes from new Sketchup. Because now, we must, used latest version of sketchup for modeling, and then all open again in Sketchup 6 for export to BTB.
Yes I know we can used others programs but I mean situation when users with low modeling skill, or dont want used illegal programs, can except others profesionals programs...

 

[UPCPC-IvanThaDriver]

yet another thing concerning "choose track" menu in RBR - beside no possibility of scrolling you cannot enter subdirectiories, which would be good for keeping order with tracks

 

[banger]

@Barbje_Keller : I use skup 2014 and 3dsimed to converted to 3ds. doesn't seem to be a problem at the moment.with it. they are both licensed and under student licenced .

 

[SmashingPants67]

A good idea for BTB is a "texture converter", which converts textures to DDS DXT1 and let you select a "cropped area" and preset sizes (all equal in power of 2, 256x256 512x512, 1024x1024)
Also, support for rF2 and @Reiza Studios Game series (GSC/2012/2013/upcoming, GFT)

 

[banger]

freeze unselected terrain, has it sometimes grabs nodes that are not selected and cause rfactor to freeze. if the terrain is moved/alter to another track selection

edited:

 

[SmashingPants67]

What about this on the road mesh?
www.mootools.com/plugins/us/polygoncruncher/‎
Reduces poly-count without altering (much) on the model (road). Useful for improving performance.

 

[banger]

404 - Fichier ou répertoire introuvable.???

ok found it.
http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/polygoncruncher/

Source SDK Here:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=05878792799230089786

 

[soramame]

I do it now centering on node and am inclined to attach the camber of the road.
It is convenient when I can do it so that I do it centering on the outside and the inside of the road, and the camber of the road is changed.

 

[R Soul]

I've had another idea. Randomized SObject parts. Say you add 3 objects to the Pattern and select a 'Randomize pattern' checkbox. Instead of always creating object 1, object 2 and object 3 in that order, it places them in any order.

I'm currently placing some of the default grass objects along my fences and hedges, but I can only get true randomness using the line draw tool. I'd prefer to make an SObject without having to add a large number of grass1 and grass2 objects in a pseudo random order.

 

[liquido]

I do it now centering on node and am inclined to attach the camber of the road.
It is convenient when I can do it so that I do it centering on the outside and the inside of the road, and the camber of the road is changed.

yes, I also like to see these 3 methods in BTB.

 

[R Soul]

Limited Export: Only export the plain text files (AIW, CAM etc, using the existing checkboxes to choose which ones). If the user has only changed the racing line, or added a set of cameras, there's no need to export all the objects, tracks, terrain etc. It would be a nice time saving feature.