Wall issues for track once exported to rFactor

Butters69 · Sep 14, 2010

I am new to creating my own tracks and I have hit my first hurdle. I am using Bob's Track Builder which thus far I have found unbelievably easy to use.

When I use just a normal cement wall it exports to the game just fine. When I export the same track with a cross section (which is want I need) on the cement wall when in game it only shows the cross section. If I drive under the cross section then the wall appears.

Hoping this is an easy fix as it is very important as I am creating dirt ovals which require the cross section.

Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

mianiak · Sep 14, 2010

You have the normals around the wrong way.
The quick fix, go into the material editor and make the concrete 2 sided. But that will double the poly count on your walls.
The proper way to do it is to edit all the wall's cross sections and reverse the face. Kind of like rotating them, make the top the bottom and the bottom the top, but you will have to move all the points manually, you will also have to change the materials if you have a fence. Once you have done one wal, you can copy the cross section and materials and paste them into the other walls.
or
Move the walls around in the 3d view so the right face is facing where you want to see it.

Basically what you need to do is flip the normals, programs like 3dsimed can do that for you without moving any objects. Other 3d software like Blender and 3dmax also do this, but BTB doesn't. With BTB you have to manually move things. It's kind of a guess situation in the beginning, until you start to understand how it all works. When you create the walls and start editing the cross section, you need to remember which side is facing where.

Kyle Puttifer · Sep 14, 2010

This is why I always do this sort of thing manually in BTB, rather than using the pre-made cross sections.

Butters69 · Sep 14, 2010

Kyle Puttifer said:
This is why I always do this sort of thing manually in BTB, rather than using the pre-made cross sections.

Could you explain how this is done please.

I ried altering the points of the fence to create the desired effect but it is still missing the panel facing he track. Can you add more points when adjusting the wall?

For now I have just created 2 walls one without a cross section and then blended the two into eachother. Not an ideal fix so please keep the suggestions coming.

A couple of other queries is what is the LOD that has the 2 boxes one at 1 and the other at 1000? Also can you adjust how much damage a wall will create if hit? These walls are for contact racing so they are going to get hit quite often.

Thanks for the replies, appreciated.

R Soul · Sep 14, 2010

Butters69 said:
Can you add more points when adjusting the wall?

Check the videos on the BTB site:
http://www.bobstrackbuilder.net/videos.aspx
That should be covered in one of them.
Brendon doesn't always say what keys he's pressing, but I added a list to this page:
http://simtrackipedia.wikidot.com/btb:controls

A couple of other queries is what is the LOD that has the 2 boxes one at 1 and the other at 1000?

Level Of Detail - min and max distances at which the object can be shown. The minimum should usually be 0, and the maximum should be as small as you can get away with (i.e. just large enough that people don't see the object pop into view).

Also can you adjust how much damage a wall will create if hit? These walls are for contact racing so they are going to get hit quite often.

No idea. In rFactor you can reduce the damage multiplier, which might be better.

R Soul · Sep 14, 2010

eidt: double posted but can't delete post. Grrr

Kyle Puttifer · Sep 15, 2010

Butters69 said:
Could you explain how this is done please.

Just manually creating cross sections. CTRL+click to add new points.

mianiak · Sep 22, 2010

From, http://www.racedepartment.com/bobs-...round-scenery-hard-easy-way-3.html#post609900

Butters69 said:
Ok thanks for that. Could you tell me if I was to want to create a new fence would I be wanting to create a new cross section? Basically from the image below you can see that the track has 2 fences one for restricting the cars from entering the spectator area and another to stop debris and stop fans from reaching the track area. Almost all of the tracks have there own version of this protection so I don't want to just create one generic for all.
View attachment 29329

Thanks again for your time. Can't wait to start creating some end products that I can show you

You can do 2 things, 1, Make a new xpack with the fences made using the cross sections etc, 2 scratch build each fence with each new track. Personally, I prefer to scratch build each thing, not only does it give each different track individuality but it gives a more precise result.

Butters69 · Sep 23, 2010

I would really like to make them from scratch. Can you tell me when turning the object into and SObject in the xpacker is there any special settings? Do you need to add one for the start and one for the pattern and one for the end? Or is it one pole for the start one pole for the end and wire is the pattern? I created basic fence consisting of 2 wooden poles with some lines (which didn't show up in BTB) between them to represent the wire. When I went to use as SObject in BTB it has 2 poles next to eachother when dragged out with no wire. All I did was add it into SObjects as a pattern with no start or end.

Sorry if this post is confusing I think I've even confused myself just hard to put into words. Thanks again for your time and redirecting this thread.

mianiak · Sep 23, 2010

Let's say you have a pole and a wire, the wire can be either cylindrical poly's or a flat plane with a transparent texture.
You start with a pole, then the first part of the pattern would be the wire, then the second part of the pattern would be a pole, you would not need an end piece because the pole is the last thing in the pattern.

To better explain the start and the end function, lets say you have a ripple strip with a start piece that is tapered at the end, then you have the sections, 3 colour's, each colour has its own piece, (basically, 3 rectangular prism's each with a different colour). Those rectangular prism's have square ends, so you will need a tapered piece to put on the end to finish it off neatly.

/=======\

For a fence, you wouldn't need the end piece because the second piece in the pattern being the pole is in itself an end piece.

Butters69 · Sep 23, 2010

mianiak said:
Let's say you have a pole and a wire, the wire can be either cylindrical poly's or a flat plane with a transparent texture.
You start with a pole, then the first part of the pattern would be the wire, then the second part of the pattern would be a pole, you would not need an end piece because the pole is the last thing in the pattern.

To better explain the start and the end function, lets say you have a ripple strip with a start piece that is tapered at the end, then you have the sections, 3 colour's, each colour has its own piece, (basically, 3 rectangular prism's each with a different colour). Those rectangular prism's have square ends, so you will need a tapered piece to put on the end to finish it off neatly.

/=======\

For a fence, you wouldn't need the end piece because the second piece in the pattern being the pole is in itself an end piece.