Tips for new users?

[Stadow]

hi all,

i am new to BTB and would like to ask if anybody can give some tips on how to go about to design a track. maybe break it down in phases and give tips on the phases? e.g. use GE to plot (which i have learned to do after many hours of surfing the net) but use as many/ little as possible nodes; first complete the track width then cambers; complete the track in FULL before starting with terrain) ect.; ect.; ect.
i have spent many hours on my first track (for GTR2) but progress is slow and in fact i have started over from scratch many times - as there is no "rule book" on the possible best way to do it:frown:.

a short list of suggestions of how to go about the designing of a track will help so much!

many thanks,
stadow

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

For corners - place a node at the entrance and exit of each corner, then edit the pink control points to get the desired result.

 

[Simon Stager]

It may be a very dumb advice, but I learnt it that way:
Just do stuff, try stuff out and don't ever give up... you will learn how to work with BTB in the best possible way for you.

 

[Raido]

General tip: don't forget to look into the contextual (right-click) and other 'hidden' menus. And to smooth corners, there is a tool for that in such a menu. Also, you can select and plant or delete large numbers of trees in one go (can save lots of work if you're trying to do it piece by piece).

 

[Pangaea]

first tip ide give anyone is first watch all the piddy vids.. watch`em twice if you have to ... although he only scratches the surface of whats possible with btb.. its really good for someone who is just starting out.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Piddy555

there's other tuts out there too, but I think piddy dose a great job.


are you talking specificity about creating your own track, or recreating an already existing real track?

 

[martinez]

First of all - ask questions and you will get answers I found this community as very friendly and helpful - and have never met anybody who would act wiser than others. Try to read threads/posts too - you may find many interesting ideas "how to" and "what for" before you even think of problems
And experiment, try different things - but on small projects - there's nothing worse that tons of object/polygons/vertices etc. to correct because of unconcious mistakes we did before

 

[Stadow]

"...then edit the pink control points to get the desired result." i had these pink controllers on the nodes for one day, but then the next day they were gone (while BTB was still in demo mode - i now have a reg EVO copy). did i switch them off by accident? how do i get them back?
- i am attempting a new track, from scratch.

thanks for helping guys.

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

BTB Evo is missing a lot of things from the Pro version, but I doubt this is one of them.

 

[martinez]

Probably for the first time I can be quicker than R_Soul

"There is a list of BTB controls here:
http://simtrackipedia.wikidot.com/btb:controls"

Many problems can be solved then
R_Soul runs this simtrackipedia, so thank him, not me

 

[Alex Kyriak]

If you're building a track from real life (which it sounds like you are), I guess once you've laid down the track is to try to test it against real life videos, times, etc. If you're doing it as a fantasy track, well then it's a different ball game. No doubt you'll have a certain type of track in mind, tracks / corners / sequences that inspire you, a certain category of racing in mind, even a certain period in history.

I do lots of fantasy tracks, and I lay down the basic layout with whatever ideas I'm trying to explore it in (modern F1 circuit, street, road circuit), then test it over and over with the minimum amount of decoration needed to test the flow of the circuit - ie, rumble strips, maybe a couple of walls (if they're relevent to the experience - street circuit, blind corners, etc), and some generic temporary terrain.

This process will either let you know how you need to tweak and amend the track to meet your original vision and if it works, or, throw up something new that you hadn't forseen. Once you are 90% sure you've got your layout, then embellish it with details, objects, walls, proper terrain, etc. You will find that adding all this stuff will dramatically improve the sense of speed and in some cases affect how "brave" you are with driving. ie - proximity of walls to the racing line will make a track feel tighter and more difficult, require more precision, and have greater consequences for any errors - compare Monaco to Sepang, for example. At this point you will learn about the scale of the track - early on I found it quite tricky to judge how to get it feeling the right size, even with the grid and various measuring tools.

Then i guess you need to try it out on other people!!! So far I haven't done this last part.....!

 

[Stadow]

i am building a track in south africa called killarney - located north of cape town. it looks like a really simple and easy track (top view) to race on, but due to it’s off camber turns; dips in altitude in braking zones; ect, it is a truly challenging track.

needless to say i will be asking for help form the community every so often. so thanks to all for your help.

the pink handles that are missing is my biggest problem, for now lol.

 

[martinez]

Check you opions about colors in btb. Maybe you have changed pink for white and they are still there, but you just don't see them?
Also - start a completely new track and check if they appear.

 

[Stadow]

a node at each corner entrance and exit. perfect advice!

plotting with GE i ended up with over 200 nodes!
it took time but i placed cross sections at/ontop of all the nodes, then deleted all the unwanted nodes (except for the two at each corner - thanks kyle).
now to go and move all the cross sections to the correct position and height.

i hope this is the correct way forward?

again, thanks for all the help. hope to return it one day soon

 

[Paul Minnaar]

welcome.

>watch piddys videos, get a feel.
>place top view image of your track into top view.
>lay out the track, adjust widths and length.
>do elevations, and cambers, then smooth all transitions (cambers & elevations).
>add your terrain, you can alter widths of terrain contour around the track in sections before adding, play with this.
>then its on to objects, curbs, sobjects etc.