Apps Racetrack Builder, does it still work (google)

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 24, 2020

Hey All,

On the fence to pay 80 bucks for this app, as development appears to be dead, and it has a lot of massively negative reviews on steam, many comments saying the api to google does not work now , even if users successfully setup in googleapis , given the only real sell on this is the direct integration of that elevation data, without it, its just another map editor. Any feedback please?

Is anyone still using it actively (with elevation data) and does it actually work? I want to build the RNP run. (the nasho)

Alternately if i have to longhand this in rhino/3dsmax etc is there a nice standalone elevation extraction tool anyone can recommend?

LilSki · Apr 24, 2020

Don't waste your money IMO. I have a series for track building in blender if you want to do it with proper software.

Even if RTB can connect to Google it will never be accurate if that is something you care about.

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 25, 2020

Ok, Thanks, pretty much what the general consensus seems to be from comments on the thread for it, I am kinda ok with Blender, my weapons of choice are Rhino3d, 3dsmax, solidworks currently (jewellery CAD business and programming plugins for those) and for fun the unity environment for programming for a few things, but Ill dig a bit deeper into blender, presumably its not really an issue how its drawn, can all be imported to blender, but rather using blender for the correct naming conventions to be able to split up what is track, what is not track etc?

I want to take a stab at doing the loop we call "the nasho" in Sydney, a favorite early morning haunt for bikers and drifters alike. lost my ticket to ride twice now, so deal with me missus is next time i sell the bikes and jsut deal with driving a car.. ergo simracing, and ergo why I want nasho

It has a lot of elevation nuance so was hoping the elevation data from google would be useful.

Audley to Otford Rd

www.google.com

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 25, 2020

(the track side is mostly just side to side trees and bush, so not a lot of work to be done with buildings etc, only right near the end is a parking space and a huge lookout over the sea, is foliage expensive when its very dense over a track this long? ) (this is up and down only the last 1/3rd for example)

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 25, 2020

uh. @LilSki I have several arduino/RPi telemetry builds for my bike extracting OBD/Canbus and augmenting with GPS and accelerometer, barometer etc occurs to me, i can fork one of my telemetry builds to output elevation data via gps(a bit lossy in between those trees, sketchy connectivity) and also barometric. If i can stitch that into a high resolution KML, say 50ms writes, and drove it slowly, can the KML be converted to a spline to represent the elevation data?

(edit: NM, found some c# regex that converts kml to a dxf spline)

LilSki · Apr 25, 2020

Getting proper cambers will be the tricky part using just a single spline. That's also the part where RTB fails the worst. Google data is just not high enough res to build an accurate road on.

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 25, 2020

I found a 5M non google lidar maping , nice and for free from the government lidar mapping project. grabbing the point cloud now. its a public road, very little camber to speak of out side of very few corners. im reasonably after i mesh the the point cloud I can overlay the road and interpolate a pretty close facsimile from edge curves either side of it, given its a standard 9m width many points will cross over both edges. wish me luck.. 1.6gb point cloud to process..

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 25, 2020

wow! that data is a LOT closer than 5M...
(sorry bout the music, forgot it was running, sure YT will be whinging soon)

LilSki · Apr 25, 2020

Now if RTB was developed to easily incorporate such data to build on then it would be worth the money IMO.

Stereo · Apr 25, 2020

Haha, Clutch is good music, and yeah that looks like 25-30cm which typically would have more vertical accuracy than that (<5cm error, way better than Google's photo based)

TheRealCeeBee · Apr 25, 2020

YA, I STOPPED IT PROCESSING ON THIS MACHINE AND CHUCKED IT OVER ONTO A SPARE MACHINE TO CHUG AWAY FOR THE WEEKEND, THAT IS ONE OF 89 CHUNKS REQUIRED TO PROCESS... oops caps, not retyping all that ****.. but ya, when its done ill have a rational mesh to start working over, bit concerned that its not a "bare earth" scan, meaning in the nasho many areas the trees overhang right over the road and i may need to get creative.. and yup, CLUTCH, FTW