Tracks Pacific Coast 1.0

[Hachiroku_88PL]

Rear left looks very sad.

#stance
Gee, I want to try this new version so bad

 

[Phoenix77]

Rear left looks very sad.

It was really really happy.... right up until I used the rear of the Testarossa to rail slide along the barrier... Maybe I got confused and thought I was playing a Tony Hawks game lol I appologise for breaking your axle mate... But it was in a good cause (Practicing for a faster Northbound AI line)

#stance
Gee, I want to try this new version so bad

Really glad you're looking forward to the new version... I'm Really looking forward to getting this out there... But also I'm not going to rush it
The road flow, makes the road around 30 - 60 seconds quicker...
and it's not like I've made it less accurate...

In the X and Y the road is Really, Really accurate.... Thanks to a 1 billion pixel satellite image. The Southern end in particular has been adjusted quite a lot... and has become quite a technical section. (like a ribbon of asphalt)

It's been a lot of work to get this back to where I was before overhauling...
But it's now entering the final straight...

It's mainly re-recording AI lines, maybe another wave of optimising... and then a tree, bush and grass planting mission... and then finally some re-worked cameras. And it would be rude not to give it some HeliCams
Because of the aerial view... I'm planning not to use the usual X or Y trees for the majority of the trees...

I'm planning to try and select the faces on the terrain mesh where large groups of distant trees are IRL... and extrude those faces up by 12m or so... using the sides of that extrusion to be a "Tree Wall".
Detach the top... apply a subdivide, add a "bumpy" tree canopy displace to it... pro-optimising back...
(excluding the edges, so it keeps lined up to the surrounding tree wall)...
and apply a repeating tree canopy texture to it... matching the tree wall texture.

This will eliminate the need for 100's of thousands of distant trees needing to be rendered... Should'nt use much more resources than the terrain mesh is already using... And should look good from the air
This plan.. if it works... will give me more resources to focus a few hundred metres from the road edge... Sh** loads of trees and 3D grass

My 3DS skills might be a bit limited... But my "thinking outside the box" skills will hopefully make up for that

EDIT: I've had this plan for a while now... Which is why I haven't bothered too much with the details

 

[Hachiroku_88PL]

No need to rush things, 0.824 is a blast anyway. Now when we have 512TR and that astonishing Diablo, I can play all those old NFS soundtracks and multiply the fun by, well, 20? All is going the right way! I really like the fact that you challange yourself and keep on searching for "bigger&better" solutions, always keen to give us some progress info too. Right man for the job

 

[Phoenix77]

Thanks mate The TR and the VT are both astonishing work, and both are very well suited for this challenging stretch of road.
Glad you're finding it a blast in it's current form... I'd guess that the new flow makes the road at least 10x better.... So hopefully you'll soonish be multiplying that fun by 200x
Driving along here with the music, well that's the way it should be done
The whole project has been a challenge... a case of finding better solutions... or sometimes just finding A solution

Glad you're also liking the progress info... I might have to do a video soon showing it in motion... even without any objects (apart from road signs and barriers)
the sense of speed is much increased... The road edge transitions help a lot towards this... plus the normal map over the terrain helps even more. The gentle bumps of the FFB mesh also help... These bumps are a little more in something low and firm like the NFS cars... Something like the Mustang soaks them up much more.

 

[Phoenix77]

You'll never usually see this (apart from when in a helicopter)
A view from the mansions infinity pool

 

[Hachiroku_88PL]

Challange accepted

 

[Phoenix77]

You'll be too busy driving the main highway... doing something like this

 

[Phoenix77]

The bridge is back in... I might make it more accurate later.

 

[millen]

The detail and accuracy of the cliff faces is what gets me going!

Bravo sir.

 

[Phoenix77]

The detail and accuracy of the cliff faces is what gets me going!

Bravo sir.

Thanks mate.. just keep your eyes on the road when you're driving along here at 100mph+
The terrain is pretty accurate even after pro-optimizing it down to around 600k polys, mainly because I originally started with a terrain mesh that was over 5 million. It might have been more, as when I did the original mesh I didn't know how to display the statistics in 3DS

 

[rd.king]

We did a bucket list road trip out to California this past May.
We drove up PCH 1 from Pismo beach to San Francisco with some detouring for land slides.
I can tell you it's hard to keep your eyes on the road and off the scenery at any speed.
Especially if it's sliding off into the ocean.
looking forward to your release of the updated route.

 

[millen]

Thanks mate.. just keep your eyes on the road when you're driving along here at 100mph+

Will do my best, but it will be a struggle.

Just an observation, and is probably just the screenshot and or phot, but does the real road look to have more camber?

 

[Phoenix77]

Will do my best, but it will be a struggle.

Just an observation, and is probably just the screenshot and or phot, but does the real road look to have more camber?

It will be when I get everything else in
It possibly does have more camber... it almost looks like an unrealistic amount in the google street view... Some of it could be the FOV's are different though. Either way I'm not moving the road again

 

[Phoenix77]

Using @Ben O'Bro 's superb Caterham to test out the FFB mesh

Excuse the bitrate, OBS updated and altered my settings.

 

[Phoenix77]

And just because I felt like it...

 

[guidofoc]

haha super fun! Watching your video I wonder: How to do the car siren sound?

 

[Joseph Maxx]

And just because I felt like it...

Lol. Just as I started the video a police cruiser went past my place with sirens blaring - immersion x 100!

 

[Phoenix77]

haha super fun! Watching your video I wonder: How to do the car siren sound?

It will be.. especially as I'll be doing an online mansion free roam layout with 118 pit boxes... The first person into the server will be parked at the mansion steps, the next 7 in are parked around the mansion driveway... The next 4 in are parked at the gas station pumps... Then after that it alternates between the North & South parking lots.. So they fill up equally
I just used a 12 hour police siren video on Youtube as I was capturing (at a crap bitrate)
Why there's a 12 hour police siren video on Youtube... Who knows!

Lol. Just as I started the video a police cruiser went past my place with sirens blaring - immersion x 100!

Great timing lol... I've obviously got the immersion working well....
Now if only I could work out how to put some stingers along here...

 

[Phoenix77]

Sorted out the first tree billboard textures... 5 different trees in one texture... which means my UV skills are getting slightly better

One day I'll do a billboard for all of the road signs... one for the gas station areas etc...
But only when I'm not re-doing absolutely everything and it'll be after the next update...
Then I'll spend some time concentrating on detailing areas... right now it's all starting to come together nicely

That isn't actually where the trees are going... Just a quick test...

 

[scoobywrxfan555]

awesome work