How to make track gravel

Pangaea · Dec 12, 2010

Hi I am new to BTB and have watched a few vid tuts on it. I am still at the early learning stages, so will no doubt require plenty of help as I go along. There is one thing already that is bugging me. How on earth do I make a track gravel, all i see is one texture for tarmac. Ive no idea what to do.

I make a basic track. I then click the "Edit Materials" button which presents me with options for it. Now all is see in here is two windows, on the right is a thumnail of a texture with the title "Tarmac001", the left window has text in it:
- Default
- Road
- Tarmac
-- Tarmac001

So when i click the thumbnail of the texture in the right window, options come up under it.
Yet i see nowhere to change the road surface.
is it "Racer Surface"?? when i change this to gravel, then export my track to RBR its still a tarmac surface?.

I go back to BTB and do the same, this time I notice in the corner "Hide Unused", when i click off that lots more options come up in the left window, so i click "Road".. but stll i only see option for tarmac. I installed gbrbr xpack (on advice from somone).. but its still the same, no gravel road surface options anywhere to be seen at all.
Can BTB do gravel?.. or can this software only make tarmac tracks, I just cant understand this being the case? ...

Ive no idea how to make a track gravel, no options for it, no textures.. no help... no vid tuts on how to change road surface... can somone please help?

Thanks
Pan

Pangaea · Dec 12, 2010

arrggg

EDIT:

Ok, im getting more and more confused here.
Here is what I am doing step by step

I open BTB
I tick the UK and AU XPacks
I click the "Create Open Track"
I Then create a simple Staight road.
This road by defualt is Tarmac
Now I want to make this road gravel.
I click the "Edit Matiarls" Button
I see a window with 2 windows. On the left window it has the word "Default" with a "+" button to expand it.
In the right window I see a thumnail image of what looks like the tarmac texture that is currently applied to my road.
I then click the "+" beside the the word "Default" in the left window.
When I do this another option appears under the word "Default" witch is "Road", so the left window now looks like
- Default
+ Road

I then click the "+" beside the word "Road" to expand it. Now another word comes up "Tarmac" so the left window now looks like
- Default
- Road
+ Tarmac
As before I click the "+" to expand it out again so I end up with
- Default
- Road
- Tarmac
- Tarmac001

I click the text "Tarmac001" nothing happend, I double click, nothing, I right click, nothing happens

At this point Im totaly lost, so I click the the Thumbnail of the Texture in the right window entitied "Tarmac001"

Now I see more options under that that appear.

There are 2 tabbs "properties" then "textures"
In the properties it has:
XPack: Default - Path: Road\Tarmac\Tarmac001 (The path is ghosted out so i cant edit)
Shader Type: Diffuse, Bump & Specular
Specular (Box with purple color) Power: 2.00 Emissive (Box with black color)
Transparencey : None
rFarctor Marieral Name: roada (with warning text in red "Must match entry in your track TDF file - change at own"
Racer Surface: road
Double-sided (uncheked) - Render Normals Up (unchecked)

------------
What exatcly do I need to change here to make the road surface gravel and NOT tarmac

I try change the "Racer Surface" to gravel, but the texture on the 3d preview window still looks like tarmac, and further more when I export the track to RBR is most certainly still tarmac.

Anyway.. I click the "textures" tab and see other options, with 3 tabbs "diffuse, bump, specular"
then lots of coord options under them. with a large zoomed in image of again what looks like a tarmac road surface.

So bascily in a nutshell, i see absalutly no options to change road surface other then the "Racer Surface" option wich has no effect whatso ever.

I see a tick box in the corner "Hide Unused" wich is ticked, so I untick this option, and now in the left window I see a whole list of other options.

- Default
+ Ground
+ Marks
+ Objects
+ Ripple
- Road
+ Cobble
- Tarmac
- Tarmac001
- Tarmac002
- Tarmac003
- Tarmac004
+ Wall

When I click the Word Tarmac the right window now displayed 4 different texutes all of which are tarmac
I also click the word "Cobble" and this presents me with one texture of what looks like a cobble texture in the right windows
Now im getting deeper and deeper into confusions, Instead of trying to make the road gravel I then decide to use whats there and choose cobble. but how do i apply it?... I try drag the thumbnail onto the track, nothing... I try double clicking on the cobble thumbnail hoping this will apply it to the road, but still nothing... so not only can I not find any options to change the track to gravel, now I cnat ven change to the texuter to what is there.. I also try to apply another tarmac texture onto the road out of thoses 4 thumbnailes, i truy dragging, clicking..etc but nothing I do seems to apply the texture to the surface.

PLEASE HELP ME

1. how do I find the gravel texture
2. how do I apply the gravel texure (in fact how the hell do I apply any texure other then the default one"
please somone help im really starting to loose my patiants with this.

Also ide like to know, is changing texture simply changing the look of the road or dose it make the correct road physics too?
what i mean is by applying a gravel "texture" to a road, will it make the road acctuly feel like its on gravel or is the texture just a texture so to speak.
Basicly I need to know how to make the track gravel, in looks and feel (physics) like the england stages on btb.

Would be great if somone can help so I can get over this brick wall and then continue learning other things in btb, but right now I feel theres no point in continuing to learn anything more with this untill i work out how to do a what I thought would be a simple operation. ie. t to change the road surface

thanks and I really hope somone can help me, ive spent almost 2 days "solid" trying to work out how to change the road to gravel.

regards
pan

Pangaea · Dec 12, 2010

Update

Ok i reinstalled btb hoping it was a bug or something

So i make a simple road,
open up edit matierials
click defualt then road, then i click on the thumnail on the right window
this brings up more options
i change the "racer surface" to graval
then i click "OK"
Only now i see an error
-
Unhandled exceptption has occured in your appllication
If you clck contunie the application will ignore this error and
atempt to continue. If you click Quit the application will close immediatly.
"object reference not sent to an instance of an object
Details:
See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at BobsTrackBuilder.frmMaterials.butOK_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3603 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.50727/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
MC
Assembly Version: 3.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3603 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/mscorlib/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3614 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
““šŽ“‹ˆŽˆ”œš‡‹˜•š
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3603 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/mscorlib/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
License
Assembly Version: 1.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3603 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/mscorlib/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Management
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Management/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Management.dll
----------------------------------------
BobsTrackBuilder
Assembly Version: 0.8.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3603 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/mscorlib/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
BobsBits
Assembly Version: 1.1.1.5
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3603 (GDR.050727-3600)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_32/mscorlib/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.DirectX
Assembly Version: 1.0.2902.0
Win32 Version: 5.04.00.2904
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC/Microsoft.DirectX/1.0.2902.0__31bf3856ad364e35/Microsoft.DirectX.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D
Assembly Version: 1.0.2902.0
Win32 Version: 9.05.132.0000
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC/Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D/1.0.2902.0__31bf3856ad364e35/Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX
Assembly Version: 1.0.2911.0
Win32 Version: 9.12.589.0000
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC/Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX/1.0.2911.0__31bf3856ad364e35/Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX.dll
----------------------------------------
Microsoft.VisualC
Assembly Version: 8.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 8.00.50727.3053
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Microsoft.VisualC/8.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Microsoft.VisualC.dll
----------------------------------------
ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib
Assembly Version: 0.85.5.452
Win32 Version: 0.85.5.452
CodeBase: file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/BobsTrackBuilder/ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.DLL
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3074 (QFE.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.0.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.3053 (netfxsp.050727-3000)
CodeBase: file:///C:/Windows/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.0.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

--- end

ok, so Im assuming at this point the reason i cant change the road to a gravel surface is beacuse there is someting wrong with btb (hence this error)

has anyone else got this error when trying to change road surface to gravel?

R Soul · Dec 12, 2010

Rather than Edit Materials, you need to start with Edit Track Surface Properties. At first it's not entirely obvious what you should do next, so you can look at this page: http://simtrackipedia.wikidot.com/btb:controls#toc4 to see a list of BTB controls.

James Capper · Dec 12, 2010

it's to do with naming conventions, if you assign a material in the editor to your road then you have to go to the drop down box change material name from roada to grvl .....I think changes the behaviour of the material from tarmac to gravel

martinez · Dec 12, 2010

Sorry that I don't have time to read all

This is what you have to do:
Go to Edit Track Surface Properties (the button) and switch the radio button from Shape to Material. Then right click the red line and choose Replace Selected. Now find some gravel road (could be e.g. from Default XPack - Ground-Gravel_Gravel001) and click OK.
Voila

For rFactor - most of xpack's materials have proper surfaces added - if not - you have to go then to Edit Materials (as you did before) and choose the proper surface (not sure what is gravel - maybe anybody can help here to avoid confusing anymore

) I saw somewhere the explanation list for rF surfaces...
After that (or maybe before) you can ctrl+click the road to make new crossection(s) and apply even more materials to the road

See the picture - everything there.
You can even apply couple materials in a row - like grass/gravel/grass and then using Shape modify the road's and roadside's profile at one time! In this case - in that Edit window (still in Material mode) click/hold first or last point and drag it to the center a bit. Then you will have to right click the empty space and "Add Material"

Note - on some systems the feature does not work - I know only one story like that, I hope you will not have this kind of misfortune

martinez · Dec 12, 2010

On "Update" - you better start the new project now and remember to not mess up with textures/materials or objects/xpacks if you are not sure what you are doing. This sounds rough a bit, but believe me - shortly and friendly

Pangaea · Dec 12, 2010

Thanks for your prompt reply R Soul
I read the section on surfaces on the link you gave me. However Im a little confused.

1. "Add new surface: In the 3D view, Ctrl and click, or Ctrl and click and drag to move the surface."

not sure what im ment to do here? ... I make a new track, open up edit matierials window, and hold down ctrl, i then attempt to drag a thumbnail onto the track in the 3d view, but nothing seems to happen. Also im still unsure as to where I bring up the options to choose gravel, all im still seeing is one tarmac texture, there dose not seem to be any other road surface choises, just that one thumbnail of the defualt tarmac texture.

I also tryed ctr/ clicking on the 3d view when the matieral edit window was closed, but it still dosent seem to do anything.. what dose it mean by "Ctrl and click, or Ctrl and click and drag" ... what am i ment to be clicking on? the road in the 3d view? the thumnail in the matierial editor window? the text beside the thumbnail (left window).. not sure. ive tryed everything.
I opened up the "Edit track surface propertied", but am unsure as to what to do here.. I understand that in here can edit the polygons etc to make the road more bumpy..etc but surely your not telling me that i have to physicly moddle every particle of gravel, from the tiny dust particles right up to small stones..etc? .. is there not a way to make a track and somhow "apply" a texture/material to it so when i drive on it I can slide just like on a gravel track.

Im not sure if your familier with rbr, but In rbr2009/2010 mod there was an option to change a tarmac track to gravel..etc etc... I assumed it is taking a tarmac track and simply applying a gravel texture and gravel type road physics to the track... how is it able to do that so easy? surely its not taking a tarmac track then creating billions of dust and stone particle polygons just to make it feel like gravel?

If its a case that I have to littlerly moddle every sub atomic dust particle right up to small stones ..etc I dont think ill bother, it would take years just to make a 1 meter stretch of road with billions of polygons to make it feel like gravel. I assumed rbr/btb had something that could make a road surface feel like gravel without having to modle every tiny dust particle.

So, alternitivly is there a way that I can run my btb created (tarmac) track and use it via RBR2010 mod so i can apply a gravel mod via the rscenter?

so ill take it, to make a road have a gravel feel using btb requires creating dust and stones..etc? .. im really confused.. surely there is an easier way of doing this

Pangaea · Dec 12, 2010

hi martinez
hi Well ignore my last post, I replyed to R-soul before i got a chance to read your reply. I followed your instructions to the tee and had great success. so I thank you so much for the advice. and also to the others who helped out

tbh I didnt think btb was going to be so complicated, but im going to dedicate myself to learning it inside and out. its just a pitty documented help and vid tutorials are a little thin on the ground. As soon as im competent enough I shall make a series of vid tuts for the benefit of other just starting out with btb.

I thank you all again for the valued help, and sorry about my frustrated posting attitude. I often get flustered when I cant get simple things to work.

Anyway, Im sure ill have plenty more questions for ya`all as I make my way along the btb learning curve

Till then, thanks alot
much regards
pan

ps. please forgive my dire spelling, because nobody else will

martinez · Dec 12, 2010

For RBR, surfaces properties are saved in external files. I mean for RX tracks... In xpacks you can create them using couple ready-to-use templates. You probably don't know much about it now. Take your time and read on forum on these.
The files have ".rbr" extension, but you can also make new with Material Editor (BTB_root/Support/RBR/MaterialEditor. With the program, you can also make your personal templates and use them with xpacker.
When you export the RX track, surfaces are in a file "mat.ini"
What you found in rbr2009/2010 - they had some way to change surfaces into something else directly in the game. This is probably about original format, so forget of this now

martinez · Dec 12, 2010

No problem, R Soul is always the fastest

I can tell you - I did exactly the same in the beginning - trying to find the way how to change for gravel

BTB is not that hard, it just have some more advanced functions and they seem to be not very intuitive.
An advice from much more experienced users (before and now) - start with some simply and short track (maybe 3-4 km)and try to make something that you like, experiment on that, read the forum and don't be shy to ask questions. Much more fun and you will probably not scroll the 25 km track to find errors etc.