Tracks Pacific Coast 1.0

[Hachiroku_88PL]

Looks great! Gotta PM Stefano about that new DLC needed ASAP

 

[Manfredk2]

... and she (ok, for the older guys like me)

 

[ampeg4003]

Just bought AC and this is the first track mod I've installed, thank you so much for the work here that you have contributed. I am looking forward to driving up and down the coast a lot.

As a rookie, I think I'm "doing it wrong" and could use some help. I see three tracks loaded into the menu, are there really three separate tracks (each with two-way driving?) or are these elements of a single composite track?

I couldn't get "northbound" to load for me, just kept kicking me back to menu. So I switched to Mansion, and I see the prominent warning about which modes are allowed. I switched my drive mode to one of the two allowed modes and Mansion loaded for me. [So is it the case that the same mode limitations apply to the north/southbound maps?]

I descended the hill and headed north. At the end I drove off the cliff into the ocean. Is there some way I can foresee the end of the map/track better? In a video i watched, the driver used a turnaround point. Where's the visual cue for the turnaround point?

Thanks again, gonna drive this in a convertible next.

 

[Phoenix77]

Just bought AC and this is the first track mod I've installed, thank you so much for the work here that you have contributed. I am looking forward to driving up and down the coast a lot.

As a rookie, I think I'm "doing it wrong" and could use some help. I see three tracks loaded into the menu, are there really three separate tracks (each with two-way driving?) or are these elements of a single composite track?

I couldn't get "northbound" to load for me, just kept kicking me back to menu. So I switched to Mansion, and I see the prominent warning about which modes are allowed. I switched my drive mode to one of the two allowed modes and Mansion loaded for me. [So is it the case that the same mode limitations apply to the north/southbound maps?]

I descended the hill and headed north. At the end I drove off the cliff into the ocean. Is there some way I can foresee the end of the map/track better? In a video i watched, the driver used a turnaround point. Where's the visual cue for the turnaround point?

Thanks again, gonna drive this in a convertible next.

Cheers, glad you're trying out my track 1st... good to hear.
They're not 3 different tracks... They're 3 different layouts... with start / finish / pit boxes arranged in different configurations.
I'm not sure why Northbound wouldn't work for you... It should work for Practice / Quick Race / Race Weekend... What mode did you try?

The track is basically just between the 2 gas stations... In the next update all the layouts will have "Road Closed" barriers just to remove any confusion.
The videos you watched might have been using the separately downloadable AI Traffic layouts... It's probably safer at this point for you not to try and install those "layouts" if you're unfamiliar with AC Modding.

Glad you're enjoying driving in California

 

[ampeg4003]

>>Glad you're enjoying driving in California

Yeah I live in SF, but usually I head north, Marin side.

>>why Northbound wouldn't work for you

I was using an unsupported mode I believe. I think it might have been on time attack. Mansion worked great when I switched to Practice.

Cheers

 

[Phoenix77]

If anyone following this thread feels like trying out the new ocean early....
https://drive.google.com/open?id=159q_2WKDMttXFnwqET3G9xbLHo0Opz7b
Try it reasonably soon though, as I'm not sure how long I will leave it available for...
I've also included a backup of the current (0.95) files... in case you want to go back... and I've tried these online and they work fine.
These new ocean textures may not be the most economical...
But to get a reasonable detail level that works at the lowest and highest point of the track meant a higher res detail texture (4k) is required... I'll probably tweak these further later on.

 

[Phoenix77]

>>Glad you're enjoying driving in California

Yeah I live in SF, but usually I head north, Marin side.

>>why Northbound wouldn't work for you

I was using an unsupported mode I believe. I think it might have been on time attack. Mansion worked great when I switched to Practice.

Cheers

Nice to know you're local to this section of PCH, awesome!... even though IRL this section of the PCH is currently undriveable after the massive landslide at Mud Creek.

Yeah I haven't set it up for Time Attack.... For the Northbound / Southbound layouts... The modes that work are... Practice, Quick Race, Race Weekend, Hotlap and probably Drift (haven't tried it though)

When you get a little more proficient with AC mods... and AC in general...
There are another 6 layouts for you to try out, including 3 AI Traffic layouts.
And then when you fancy something else new... there are a few permanent 24/7 servers online...
Search for PCH in your server browser. Always fun going for a cruise with other real drivers

 

[Terry Rock]

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If anyone following this thread feels like trying out the new ocean early....
https://drive.google.com/open?id=159q_2WKDMttXFnwqET3G9xbLHo0Opz7b
Try it reasonably soon though, as I'm not sure how long I will leave it available for...
I've also included a backup of the current (0.95) files... in case you want to go back... and I've tried these online and they work fine.
These new ocean textures may not be the most economical...
But to get a reasonable detail level that works at the lowest and highest point of the track meant a higher res detail texture (4k) is required... I'll probably tweak these further later on.

Track's lookin' good.
Suggestion....the ocean's surface on that second to last shot looks very realistic and I've viewed it from helicopter quite a few times.
The view below it (last picture)...needs a bit less ripple on the surface..

 

[Leonardo Ratafiá]

If it's an ocean I would expect some sea foam but your getting there man!

 

[Hachiroku_88PL]

After some tests I think it's really better than before. I will stay with the new pack, as I can't find any performance hit so far






Don't know if it's connected with time of day I was testing the pack, but textures look quite too bright. I mean any ocean or sea is dark blue at deep parts and bright blue where it is shallow. There is also a lot of white near the coast, where waves meet land, hit some rocks, etc. and foam is created. Is it possible to recreate somehow?

 

[Phoenix77]

Track's lookin' good.
Suggestion....the ocean's surface on that second to last shot looks very realistic and I've viewed it from helicopter quite a few times.
The view below it (last picture)...needs a bit less ripple on the surface..

Cheers Terry, it's getting there, they're the same texture (tileable over approx 8,350km² of ocean / horizon plane) and as I explain below, it's a balance between getting it right at the lowest... and highest point of the track (a difference of 726ft in altitude)... Bit of a tradeoff.

If it's an ocean I would expect some sea foam but your getting there man!

Cheers mate, at a later date I might put some foam near the coast... but there are limitations (see more explanation below) and also there's not much point putting it in all along the coast... as the only way you'll be seeing it is if you've fallen off I won't be rewarding crashing

After some tests I think it's really better than before. I will stay with the new pack, as I can't find any performance hit so far

Don't know if it's connected with time of day I was testing the pack, but textures look quite too bright. I mean any ocean or sea is dark blue at deep parts and bright blue where it is shallow. There is also a lot of white near the coast, where waves meet land, hit some rocks, etc. and foam is created. Is it possible to recreate somehow?

Glad there's no performance hit, good to know

The brightness tweaking should be easy.. But to get these dark and light blue areas might be tricky... Due to Z-fighting.. which gets worse with altitude... Seeing as my tracks (road) elevation ranges between 23ft - 749ft that means having 2 planes overlayed produces flickering... (worse the higher you get)
Use freecam on pretty much any track... move the cam higher and higher and you'll notice flickering (like with my track edge transitions) between the various layers, overlayed on top of each other.

Anyway, in those photo's... The AC engine can't even have clouds as realistic as those... So I doubt it will ever look like a photo.

I tried to get the ocean plane moving... In my process of attempting that... I made the ocean plane even longer (so it would have more time of sliding under the terrain mesh)... which resulted in flickering in brightness (different to Z-fighting), maybe something to do with HDR with such a big plane.

Basically there will be limitations, along with my knowledge limitation of shaders / textures and blend modes. It is what it is.

By the way... I do know what waves look like lol
Blame ******* Z-fighting!
If Kunos ever get their clouds looking like that... I'll try my best to get the waves looking like that

 

[Hachiroku_88PL]

Shame it's so complicated and limited to create such stuff. I know AC is not perfect, far from it actually. I wish one day it will be possible though, AC2 maybe? Anyway, no point in wasting time here and now for it. Still you have some work to do with the land part of the map

 

[Phoenix77]

I will never completely rule out, that as my knowledge increases, I might find a way to make the ocean how I want it... But for now it's an improvement... the new ocean looks pretty good from in the car in most situations.. which is the main thing
I actually found it good looking enough to distract me when testing

Oh I have plenty of things to do / add to the terrain... Plenty... But hopefully sorting the road / terrain out to it's current state was most of the work. Now it's a lot of detaching faces into separate objects and deforming them into jagged rock faces etc... giving them textures / normal maps...
(the places where the normals are wonky might as well get detached)
The testing I've done online has helped make mental notes of areas I want to make rock etc... there's going to be a lot of rockfaces this will take a lot of planning as I have to do this carefully.

 

[Phoenix77]

Just gone into the 50 slot server and did an 8:37:809 in a LaFerrari...

Instead of practicing / testing offline... I prefer now to do it online... obviously respecting any traffic driving along the road... I wasn't however respecting the speed limits

If you want to use the server to do some fast times... Go in there early... Your time will stay for hours as the servers run for a full 10 hours Search for "PCH"

If you're really going for it... Turn on your track map so you can observe any oncoming traffic. If people don't respect the traffic... The police may need to be notified... and at a future date Police Interceptors may be parked up along the side of the road.

 

[guidofoc]

@Phoenix77 you may also contact the author of Sveg-Sweden who is dealing with water, too:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/sveg-sweden.142223/page-12#post-2623477

 

[Phoenix77]

@Phoenix77 you may also contact the author of Sveg-Sweden who is dealing with water, too:
http://www.racedepartment.com/threads/sveg-sweden.142223/page-12#post-2623477

Cheers for bringing that to my attention mate, think I've seen that track somewhere... Nice looking water & great looking track...
I doubt there's the same altitude/elevation balance issue that Pacific has... as in no 726ft elevation change, between the lowest and highest points.

I'm hearing some very positive feedback about the new ocean... It looks good enough that people online have been disappearing offroad to go and have a look
It will keep getting tweaked... But there will be limitations on what can actually be done with it.

 

[AccAkut]

By the way... I do know what waves look like lol
Blame ******* Z-fighting!
If Kunos ever get their clouds looking like that... I'll try my best to get the waves looking like that

there's also the (in my eyes) weird way AC does transparency priority, as afaik it uses all priority values on a global scale, meaning for example the rear lights of some cars (from those with many alpha layers,like the RX-7) have a lower priority than the inner windscreen of some cars and are rendered ignoring the windscreen (hope what I write makes sense, I'm at work and don't have any screens at hand).

So if someone were to use several layers of alpha clouds they could be rendered in front of the windscreen in some cars.

 

[Phoenix77]

there's also the (in my eyes) weird way AC does transparency priority, as afaik it uses all priority values on a global scale, meaning for example the rear lights of some cars (from those with many alpha layers,like the RX-7) have a lower priority than the inner windscreen of some cars and are rendered ignoring the windscreen (hope what I write makes sense, I'm at work and don't have any screens at hand).

So if someone were to use several layers of alpha clouds they could be rendered in front of the windscreen in some cars.

That's the thing mate, the AC engine does have some limitations... It's probably getting a little old now... And probably why night and rain are never going to be a reality for the current engine.

But overall it does what it needs to do, and even does things it wasn't designed to do... 23km tracks (apart from Nordschleife) with massive ocean / horizon planes for one... AI Traffic for another... It is what it is (I think I might have said that a few times lol)

I was going to (and still might) try one semi-transparent plane, with the wave reflections... and a cyan to blue gradient underneath... But with the Z-fighting going on I thought **** it! another time maybe.

 

[Phoenix77]

I think this video confirms that 0.95's road is much more fluid

Thanks to Sascha Ottenburg for confirming this... A few love taps... But seeing as you're still learning the layout... I'm looking forward to seeing your runs when you nail it

 

[Hachiroku_88PL]

Hell I need to try that Supra next time we roll! What song is this? Fits the video damn good, got this "pacific vibe"