Finishing touches...

[Davesta]

I've made many tracks over the last couple of years but never really finished them to a standard that I'd be happy to release them (others would, but I'm something of a perfectionist). Finally though, it looks like I'm set to release a track. However, I have a few questions.

Firstly, the folder which I've exported the track to is full of gmt and dds texture files. When I look at other tracks, it appears that all of these files are neatly packed into MAS files and only the loading screens and gdb files etc remain. Can anyone tell me how to do this? Do I need any extra programs for this?

Secondly, the track is a kart track and had a few very tight corners. No matter how tight I make the AIW line in BTB, all of the karts run around the outside of the corners and are 3 or 4 seconds off the pace. Would this be improved if I did the AIW in the rFactor AIW editor? If this is the case, I don't really have any experience with that and I'd like it to be of the same quality as the rest of the track, so maybe someone would be willing to do this for me? Additionally, this might solve the problem with the pit lane being on a hill, so when I pit in it appears that the lollypop man is standing in mid air.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Sabine]

To AIW:
Check the centerline-corridors. If the fastline leads through a red-zone of the corridors, the AI will not drive on the fastline.

 

[Normark1956]

You can put all your gmt files into one MAS file, and all your maps, (dds files ) into
another MAS file.
You need ISI´s MAS program, a smal program that you can get from their development corner.

Of course back op the entire tracks folder before doing this, and try to open some other tracks MASfiles
to see what you get. It´s a very very easy thing to do once you have tried it a cuple of times.

http://rfactor.net/index.php?page=devcorner

Gmotor 2.0 Mas-utility, is the one to get.

When you have installed it, just drag a MAS file onto the icon on your desktop, and it will open and show the content.

good luck

 

[Simon Dove]

Here's a link to the MAS tools
http://rfactor.net/index.php?page=devcorner

On the AIW problem... In BTB make sure the center line is absolutely spot on. It makes a difference in corridor creation. You can toggle the fast line, pit lane and center line on and off to make it easy to edit the correct line

One other suggestion on tight turns is to make sure you change the default scaling from 5 to 3 or 2

 

[Ralf Ääro]

Short question...will the MAS thing decrease the Filesize of the whole thing?

 

[Simon Dove]

Short question...will the MAS thing decrease the Filesize of the whole thing?

Yes, it uses compression

 

[Alex Kyriak]

To second Sabine - I always had loads of probs with the AIW because of the way corridors interacted with fast lines. If doing AIW in BTB, it really pays to get the track layout/configuration sorted through loads of testing first, THEN do the AIW when you're totally happy with the layout. If you finish the AIW, then decide to tweak or change layout, it can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare getting AIW back up to the right level.

 

[Davesta]

Thanks for the info, I didn't realise ISI actually made a MAS utility for modders.

As for the AIW, I've done the corridors and everything but the AI karts still don't drive the fastline...

 

[Davesta]

Oh and I also have the same problem with the pit lane. The karts don't slow down enough on entering the pits and go straight into the barriers.

 

[Simon Dove]

If you want me to take a look, just zip up the project and upload it somewhere. You might have something set wrong on your ripple strips

 

[Davesta]

It's quite a large project so I'll upload it if I have to, but I'd rather not if it's something I can fix myself. The thing is I can't see what there is that I could be doing wrong with the curbs. They're all either flattened walls with ripple textures or sobjects. I've set them to driveable and not collideable. Should I make it so that the AI karts don't use the curbs? Do the green bits of the corridor have to extend all the way over the curbs? Should I make the green bit of the corridor extend over the runoff areas as well or should the green bit just be fore the racing line?

If you think there's something you can do then I'll upload it but I've tried eveything as far as I can see.

 

[Alex Kyriak]

I sometimes let the green go over the kerbs on the tighter corners (in chicanes for example) if I know that in reality it's the fastest line. The AI cars then use the kerbs also, as you do.

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

The green part is for the track. The red part is for grass, runoff, where they wouldn't ideally go, but if they end up there for some reason or other, they can recover. The end of the red part is where any walls would be.