Disecting AIW files

Which part of an AIW file is what?
In particular, which part is the Center Line, which part is the Fast Line & which part is the corridors?
Ive built a track where the path continually crosses itself (deliberately) & early versions that had minimal 'pins' or 'anchors' & the cars raced quite smoothly if a little inaccurately & the more accuratly I try to pake the path by placing more 'pins' in BTB the more erratically the AI drive....
My next question is; Why is this so?
As I understand BTB AIW Editor, it's the lines in BTB that create the Centerline & Fastline so the number of 'pins' holding it down shouldn't matter, should it?
Lastly, is there some other way of building AIW files MANUALLY (by hand) rather than by driving, such as the rF AIW/CAM tool?
I've got a 'time trial'/destruction derby track that would be ready to MAS pack & release if it wasn't for trying to make a decent AIW.....
 
It is possible to make an Aiw file manually, but it requires a great deal of knowledge of the file structure. And it would take hundreds of hours to construct and debug. It is much easyer to use the ISI Aiw editor to initially make the file and Guitarmean's editor to clean it up afterwords.
 
yes it does, but I still recommend making the file from scratch with the ISI AIW editor first.

I feel that making the centerline and corridors in BTB and the rest in AIW editor is the best solution. If the track is simple looped one, you can create copy the of "track", define it's width with "shape" (not by "Track width") and auto-generate AIW to that track. Corridors gets too wide when autogenerating AIW to road mesh that has berms, shoulders, pits and/or runoff areas. Edits are much easier to do in full 3D enviroment. I find it hard to do smooth centerlines in AIW editor, plus it takes forever.. For tracks that are made from several small pieces of "tracks", the ISI editor is the only way. Haven't had the chance of getting guitarmans editor to work, don't know yet what it actually does..

Remeber to click "BTB terrain" off from the "AIW-track" and to visit AIW menu after that to get the AIW to stick to the correct mesh... Basically, you need to click all those boxes off anyway or delete the temporary track before export. But it's much faster to do than to drive over and over on track with your car to mark centerline and corridors even with the added steps.

That's how i do them., copy of the track, delete all materials except the road itself and i get clean temporary track that the autogenerated AIW follows exactly.
 
I did get a reply/answer from ehrlec explaining most- if not all - of my questions but now seems to have disappeared for the thread just as I was thinking of using it to guide me through 'cutting & pasting' several AIW files to hopefully come up with something Im happy with....
And thanks too to FerrariMan69 for the latest AIW editor listed above- I'll have to see if I can get this version to work for me this time!
Im not sure if ISI's tool will be much good for what Im attempting to do.....(check photo's-if it works!)
Anyway, Ive got some screenies together to try & show whats troubling me, re; AIW's & my 'fractured' Fastline....
1st off;http://www.mediafire.com/i/?2lai1ir1tc777w5
As can be seen, this is how the fastline appears in game & cause the AI to drive rather erratically
2nd;A similar angle in BTB & showing how the fast line was meant to be....
http://www.mediafire.com/i/?xv26i7yx9l11hxj
Another one with more of the 'circuit' in view showing F/L in BTB;
http://www.mediafire.com/i/?k0804j06hplb59t
And now some more (hopefully) showing the centerline with & without the corridors...
http://www.mediafire.com/i/?dhe0tx912klxbhn
I had originally started this as an experiment in AIW building & it worked great so I decided to add terrain & finish it off as a 'time attack'/'destruction derby' but managed to loose the original AIW somewhere along the way & now everyone I subsequently build is flawed in some way like these pictures (this is the worst fast line yet!)
Is there some way I can get it cleaned up & AI driving better so it can be released, I WAS hoping to have it out in time for Christmas!
[Edit1]BLAST! there used to be a way of adding images to RD without these troubles!
Truely frustrating!!!
 
Errr...By the way, I probably should clarify that when I say 'Manually building an AIW' I mean placing the AIW line/control points by hand using the mouse.....
Much like we do in BTB & my preferred method....
(And truth be known, Im hopeless with a wheel- much to my own shame -& prefer to use a PS controller normally in races- which DOES have some low speed accuracy draw-backs....)
 
For tracks that are made from several small pieces of "tracks", the ISI editor is the only way.

If we want to stay with BTB by principle, there is method where you construct your track from whatever road pieces. And when its completely done, then lay down one constant road section which you make to follow the desired route as close as possible. When exporting the track just export only AIW. I have not yet had time to test that out, but in theory it should work like charm :)

(sorry offtopic...)
 
If we want to stay with BTB by principle, there is method where you construct your track from whatever road pieces. And when its completely done, then lay down one constant road section which you make to follow the desired route as close as possible. When exporting the track just export only AIW. I have not yet had time to test that out, but in theory it should work like charm :)

(sorry offtopic...)

I use that latter a lot, it's viable tactic. Using "M" to copy node information from the original track. But after trying my first AI fastlines with ISI AIW/CAM editor, i'm never going back to fully BTB generated/edited AIW. There are certain things that BTB just can't do.. Try putting garages or better yet, grid to 10 degree angle downhill and see cars jumping. IMHO, using ISI editor frees up so much time, especially with short multiple tracks. Don't need to think AIW into design-phase anymore, much faster.

BTB AIW editor feels like an added feature, not a tool that is meant to produce finished tracks. There is so much missing plus the cardinal curve has it's limitations.. If it was meant to be full-fledged AIW editor, there would be possibility to edit single waypoints, groove editor, separate garage path from pit path etc. But it's centerline and corridor editing/autogeneration is the best one around. A little slow but very precise, simple and visually clear.

EDIT: A tip: i use bat files to replace BTB generated AIW with my more detailed one after export.. I think i'll check if i could make an application that takes target folder and source file from different location and make a bat file to desktop so different projects can be easily "linked" to correct AIW.. For Pro users, Evo version does NOT for some mysterious reason have the tickboxes for different files than DOESN'T need recreating.....
 
I tried to use ISI AIW/CAM Tool to redo just the fastline several times & kept coming up with the exact same troubles.
I even tried starting a whole new AIW file from scratch with ISI's tool but made an even bigger mess of it....
 
Lee, the reason the ai slow down sometimes to a crawl on the type of track you are making is that they get confused by the cross-over and attempt to follow the fast line associated with the nearest centerline node.BTB & AIWeditor produce this effect. You will see whats happening if you do a BTB export with fast line set to maximum darkness if there is a significant curve to the fast lines where they cross over each other.

Solved this way:

Adjust the centre line at and near the cross-over point as if it was the fastline, not forgetting to also adjust the corridor limits back to where you want them. Then using the 3d view(option 3), hover directly above the track and move the fast line nodes to merge with the centre line nodes. Thats it. Export and test!

You can do the fastline 1st, centre line 2nd. I hope this helped.:)

Gordon
 
I have a problem with ai cars not slowing down for the pit entry until they are in the pitlane. I have figured out that I need to add a special slowdown spot just before the pit limit starts. I have found that correct line in the aiw file I need to change but I don't what should I change it to.

Basically to add a special slowdown spot you just change the wp_wpse=(0,0) of the correct point to something like wp_wpse= (1,15157300). But what does the number inside the columns mean? The value seems to be something like 1,15xxx but every track has little different value and some tracks have no wpse=(1,xxx) in the aiw files like the Lienz 24h... For example Manfield has wp_wpse=(1,15157300) while Brianza has wp_wpse=(1,15605004).

Where does that number come from? Is it a distance or coordinate??

Edit: it does look like the number behind the 1,15 does not matter. Using 1,15157300 from manfield made the ai cars to slow down before the pitlane :)

Just in case someone wonders how do you find the correct point to edit from the aiw files this is how I did it:

How to manually make the ai slow down before pitlane:

1) open your track in btb and look up the coordinates of your pit entry line (specifically the point at which the aiw pitlane path goes over the pit entry line = pit in marker in btb). You can see the coordinates on the top right in the three boxes in btb but remember to use the top view for this! You have x, y and z.Y is height so don't use that unless you have a track that goes over itself's pitlane in which case you need to use the y value too to find the correct point to edit.

2) Take the x value of that coordinate and remove the stuff after the comma. If the coordinate is 50,3954 or -120,5464565 for example just use 50 or -120. Then search the aiw file using a string: "wp_pos=(50" or "wp_pos=(-120". Then check the next value of that wp_pos line to see if the third (z) number matches with the btb coordinate. (you want to find the point of which x and z components match as closely as possible).

If yes then you have found your pit entry coordinate point in aiw. If that coordinate is in totally different place then you just found the other end of your track. Search for the next value (using F3 in notepad for example) to find the next coordinate and check again. Sooner than later you will find the correct point. If you find nothing then you likely have the wrong coordinates from btb. You can also try to add or substract 1 from the number and search that.

3) check that the coordinate you found is actually before the pitlane xpitin and not after it. And that the point you found is the last point before the pitlane starts. Just look at the full numbers of the coordinates after the comma and then in btb place your mouse cursor on that exact location. If the point is before the xpitin then check the next wp_pos coordinate in the aiw file if that is before the xpitin as well. If it isn't then the previous point was the correct one to edit. If not you will need to look at the previous waypoint.

4) change the next line that reads wp_wpse=(0,0) in the aiw to something like wp_wpse=(1,15605004). Now ai cars should brake early enough for pitlane limit :)
 
I have a problem with ai cars not slowing down for the pit entry until they are in the pitlane. I have figured out that I need to add a special slowdown spot just before the pit limit starts. I have found that correct line in the aiw file I need to change but I don't what should I change it to.

It seems a complicated way to do it! Using the ISI AIW editor, highlight the waypoint on the pit path immediately before your Pit-In Flag and click on 'Special Slowdown'.
 
Has anyone here had any experience at editing Fast Lines/Paths in either Guitarmean's editor or any other way?
Corridors & Center line are set, it's just the fast Path that needs cleaning up....
Could someone please help me out here so I can finish this track off & release it, please?
Ive tried the rF Tool & it made it worse & I can't work out how to use Guitarmean's editor.

Im at a loss as to how to fix this....:(
 
Hi Lee.
Have you read through this.Curves pdf. Once you get SWP, DWP etc sorted (I hate abbreviations, turns my brain to mush) Its "quite easy"!!!! and it works like a charm when the prog doesn't freeze.
 

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Gday ebrich,
Ive read through the document several times today (& a couple of times before) but I don't understand it at all.
Ive been able to workout how to import the AIW file & how to move & zoom in/out the track on the little screen but the rest might as well be in runes! (lol)
I did manage to move a Main Path WP but don't know how & it wasn't one I'd intended to move either....
Im finding it a very baffling program:confused:
 
Zoom in pretty close. Left Click on on the green line to select a way point (start WP is a white cross).
Press "S" key (short yellow line appears after the white cross with a yellow cross at the end - Spline mode)
Shift "C" extends the yellow cross along the track and a yellow dotted line appears where the new AIW
will be set.(Unless of course you've got it spot on in BTB!)
Shift "X" re-tracks the yellow cross back towards the white cross.
To set the new line click button "Create Curve" (Red button 1/2 way down far left)

See how you get on with that while I work on the rest.
 
Try to click everything in the parameters, most of them hide/show certain type of info, like clicking on the "Groove" will show/hide alpha values, Unfotunately, there's nothing to show what is a button and what is simply a static tect.. It first looks very daunting and my version doesn't have any help (except one screen what shows a lot of info that you don't need and are actually outdated...)

A Guitarman AIW editor needs tutorial very badly, maybe we can make one? I can't record video but i can do PDF.. Video is much much more helpful in this case since describing anything inside that program is not easy. Showing is a lot better option.

Show every button that's clickable and what they do, giving all the keyboard commands and shortcuts and describing the overall philosophy will do. The keyboard command are so wildly different from windows standard
 

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