Soo, getting btb tracks to assetto corsa?

Ghoults · Jun 12, 2014

I'm sure there are people who have looked into this

. I just did some basic testing but because of my total lack of skill with blender I don't if I achieved anything at all. Anyways btb can export directx (*.x) files and blender can open them. And blender can output kn5 files. And fbx files for the ac editor as well.

But when I open the directx files in blender I get the track shape (not any objects or textures or terrain, just the road). Apparently I would need to add the textures manually? I figured that I'd probably need to edit someting about the materials anyways and blender seems just uber mega confusing.

Have some of you done this and is it possible to do it (export your track from btb in directx format, then open it in blender, do some black magic in blender and then finish it off with the official editor)?

R Soul · Jun 12, 2014

BTB doesn't export the textures when it makes the .x files. Try putting them in the folder manually. Even if you don't have rFactor you might be able to export in rF format and then copy the texture files.

In theory you could make the whole thing from scratch in Blender.
Make a curve representing the centreline of your track. This works similar to BTB because it has nodes and control points.
Make a square plane, say 10x10, with a track texture mapped to it so it fits perfectly. In edit mode offset it by 5 so the origin is at the side rather than the middle (not essential but it can help).
Add the Array modifier. Don't worry about the number.
Add the curve modifier, and select the curve you made.
Go back to the array modifier and adjust the number till it almost fits. A good fit is unlikely.
Scale the plane in the X direction to make it fit better.

Don't apply the modifiers until you are happy with the track. You should keep copies of the un-applied objects because it's an irreversible step.

For terrain you could modify the plane to add grass to the sides, but you may get overlapping problems at the corners. It's good for quick testing though.

Ghoults · Jun 13, 2014

Making a track from start to finish in blender is not an option. Blender is simply way too complex and difficult. Especially when I would have to start from 0. Just no way. I really prefer to get most of the hard lifting done in btb simply because it is so easy to use. And with couple of simple clicks I could test drive the track in rfactor. With blender I'm looking at trying to find a tutorial for every single thing I'm wanting to do.And while I'm sure there are tons of good tutorials out there I don't want to do it. It is simply way too much work upfront

At most the kind of track editing I was going to do in blender was texturing and fixing the track surface on the track where two tracks meet. Plus maybe some other stuff like starting points, s/f lines and pit markers... And even the texturing stuff looks difficult... 3d modelling a whole track in blender? Nope. Nope.

I don't really see any point learning how to make the track profile in blender anyways as exporting the track surface from btb is apparently super easy. Even I managed to do it.

I appreciate the help but I don't think there is anything quick at all about trying to create a whole new track in blender.

Ghoults · Jun 13, 2014

So after messing some more with btb and blender I tried to export one of my older complete tracks to directx (I tried both directx methods in btb) and I get this error. I also tried exporting to rfactor and it worked just fine...

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. (I think that is the correct translation as the error message in in finnish for me)
at object
.
.
(Object )
at object
.
.CreateObjectFromTerrain(String FileNamePath,
TerrainArea,
DirectXVenue)
at object
.
.
(Object , Object , Object , Object )
at object
.
.AddTerrainArea(Int32 TerrainAreaId)
at object
.
.AddTerrain()
at object
.
.CreateAll(
Venue, String ObjectsFolder, XFileFormat XFileFormat)
at object
.
.
(Object , Object , Object , XFileFormat XFileFormat)
at object
.
.ExportForDirectX(String Folder, XFileFormat XFileFormat)
at object
.
.
(Object , Object , XFileFormat )
kohteessa
.
.butDirectXExport_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at object System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at object System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at object System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

I'm using windows 8.1. Is this a directx issue? I have installed the latest 9.0c.

marcobost · Jun 18, 2014

I experienced the following procedure at the moment:
1. create the track into BTB paying attention to avoid double side textures (that are not supported into AC)... thinking to fences, etc... you need to create the object, add the texture, then duplicate it, move it a little from the original position, reapply the texture paying attention to the normal
2. export the track for rFactor
3. open the SCN into 3DSimEd 3, delete the sky and export the track:
- create a "texture" folder, export/save the textures into that folder
- export the track in DAE (using the export plugin of 3DSimEd 3) into the parent folder of "texture" (pay attention to use only conventional names for files and folders - no spaces!)
4. import it in Blender
5. assign the right names (right names for AC rules...) into Blender to objects, like 1ROAD, etc... 1SAND, etc..., because of you find everything named as "node..." - this is annoying, but I wasn't able to find another way, because DAE imported into Blender misses the objects' names
6. add the mandatory "objects" to identify start, pit, grid, hotlap, etc... that AC needs

Now you have two options:
A. to have the track working as it is in AC and you can create the KN5 file using the export procedure and exporter made by Hagn: http://site.hagn.cx/assettocorsa/blender-kn5-exporter
B1. add better shaders and properties using the first very limited beta of AC Editor exporting the track as FBX file
B2. paying attention to any action you perform into the AC Editor (it doesn't allow the UNDO, lol) you can enhance the quality of the track for AC (in the future the AC Editor will allow many more features!) and finally save/export into KN5

This is only a quick info about your question. You can find here and there on the web (here, AC forum, etc...) detailed info for each step. BTW, I wasn't able to use with success the directx export too.

marcobost · Jun 19, 2014

I receive a couple of PMs about this argument, so I post here some more explanations I recalled: don't think I'm expert in AC... this first at all, lol

The true problem I discovered is that Kunos is not interested into a manual that gives the mandatory basic info, so everyone must spend (or waste) time in finding posts and options. Said that, I found the most info into the AC forum, sections related to track modding and AC Editor...
- in General Modding Discussion: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?forums/general-modding-discussion.26/ (relevant arguments are "AC Editor" and "AC Editor issue")
- in Track Modding there is a basic tutorial written few days ago: http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/build-your-first-track-basic-guide.11239/ (here you find useful basic info about my point 6 of the previous post)

- another site where the author of the "basic guide" is writing and that could be useful to follow is: http://assettocorsamods.net/

One point that I forgot to write before (idiot requirement of AC - ops, this is only my personal opinion): never forget to never write the initial of each name for folders and files in capitals!! i.e. "Mytrack.kn5" into the folder "Mytrack" of AC will never work in MP! so the track folder must be "mytrack" and one of the related files "mytrack.kn5": I spent several days to understand it, because the track worked in local, but not online, grrrrr...

Hope these info will be useful and remember to register via Steam account to the AC forum, otherwise you will be always warned by a Kunos' guy if you post for info.

VladTheMeatMan_ · Jul 6, 2022

R Soul said:
BTB doesn't export the textures when it makes the .x files. Try putting them in the folder manually. Even if you don't have rFactor you might be able to export in rF format and then copy the texture files.

In theory you could make the whole thing from scratch in Blender.
Make a curve representing the centreline of your track. This works similar to BTB because it has nodes and control points.
Make a square plane, say 10x10, with a track texture mapped to it so it fits perfectly. In edit mode offset it by 5 so the origin is at the side rather than the middle (not essential but it can help).
Add the Array modifier. Don't worry about the number.
Add the curve modifier, and select the curve you made.
Go back to the array modifier and adjust the number till it almost fits. A good fit is unlikely.
Scale the plane in the X direction to make it fit better.

Don't apply the modifiers until you are happy with the track. You should keep copies of the un-applied objects because it's an irreversible step.

For terrain you could modify the plane to add grass to the sides, but you may get overlapping problems at the corners. It's good for quick testing though.

What do you mean manually? place what folders where?

R Soul · Jul 6, 2022

The meaning of my suggestion was that the the textures that your track uses must be extracted from the relevant XPacks (zip files) to wherever the .x files were exported to.

However, I think it would be a complicated process, and prone to error, so it's best to ignore my advice and take macrobost's advice instead/make use of the AC modding forum.