XPacks Discussion

[Brendon Pywell]

Expansion Packs (XPacks)

BTB organises all Objects, Materials and Textures into Expansion Packs (XPacks). They are theme based so that the textures for the road surfaces, walls, trees and ground all look good together.

By bunching objects, materials and textures together encourages a more aesthetic end result – although you will be free to use whatever XPacks you like!

This encourages two things:

1. People using your XPacks will create Tracks that are more aesthetic. That is the textures will look good together. Check how well objects from the Australia Rural XPack look against the road/ground textures.

2. Game performance will be increased by re-using the same objects/textures in creative ways rather than adding more objects from a number of XPacks. Good XPacks will reuse materials/textures, eg. the Texture for a house roof may be used on several House objects. When it comes to rendering performance, texture/material reuse is good.
These points will become even more important as the library of XPacks grow. Imagine having 12 different tree XPacks and trying to find some that match your terrain/theme.

Installation

Each XPack comes in the form of a Zip file. Additional XPacks will be created over time and installing them is a simple as dropping the Zip file into the BTB\XPacks folder. BTB reads directly from the Zip file, there is no need to extract the individual files/folders.

The initial BTB installation will not include much XPack material; they need to be downloaded from http://www.bobstrackbuilder.net/pro_users/XPacks.aspx .

Adding to your Venue

You use “File … Expansion Packs” to select which packs you want to be available in your Venue.

Each Venue (project) you create will exist in its own folder and all Textures and XPacks used in your project will be copied to an “XPacks” sub-folder. If you want to edit a Texture that you added to your project, you need to edit the one that gets copied to your Venue’s folder.

Updating XPacks

Over time XPacks will gain more Objects and Materials and you will want to get the latest one. Simply download again and drop into you BobsTrackBuilder\XPacks folder.
Your existing Venues will need to be manually updated by copying the XPack into the project’s XPacks folder and overwriting the existing one.

Creating XPacks

A new utility called XPacker is included to help you create your own XPacks. It will not build your objects or textures, but it does help you to organise them into the required XPack structure.
Press F1 for more XPacker help.

Creating a community of XPacks

I am not artistic in the slightest so it’s up to everyone here to help build a library of XPacks that everyone can use. My time will be focussed on coding more BTB/XPacker functions so I am relying on you guys to help out by submitting more material.
If you have textures, objects and materials that you think would be suitable, contact me ( bob at bobstrackbuilder.net ) and I’ll be happy to organise them into a suitable XPack. All work should be your own with all copyrights respected.

These are the current themes I have in mind:
- Alpine
- Desert
- City
- Rural Australia (Ennis)
- Coastal
- Forest
- Haywood Club (WeirdBeard)
- Jungle
- Racing (I need cones).
- Savannah Grasslands (Raceking)
- Snow
- Woodland
Feel free to come up with more (ideally along with your own contribution) or make suggestions on how to better categories these themes.

Object Import Format

The importing of objects can be done using either the Collada or 3ds formats.

I would encourage anyone looking to import objects to use the Collada format as it is far more robust and isn't plagued by the shortcomings of the 3ds format. For Max, you can get a free plugin for import/export from http://www.feelingsoftware.com/content/view/65/79/lang,en/ though I think you have to sign up before you can access the downloads.

I am happy to do the organising if you wish to send the XPacks my way ( bob@bobstrackbuilder.net ). Please feel free to give suggestions on how they should be structured or into what existing XPack you think they could be added. The textures should be your own work as I cannot use other people’s textures without their permission.

Advanced Editing

Creating Content

When adding one more object/material I always create a new XPack and test just that one item making sure it works ok in all games. Once it’s ready then I copy the contents of that XPack into the destination XPack and re-zip it.

This isolates the work so that I can test many times without the possibility of adding more materials/textures than required.

Editing Content

XPacks are just zip files. If you wish to change just one item of a project, it can be unzipped and so long as it keeps the same folder structure, BTB will use the unzipped version instead (restart BTB).

Say for instance you wish to change replace the colour of the Default\Barn object.

1. Locate the [yourVenue]\XPacks\Default.zip.
2. Extract the shed01_end.dds and shed01_side.dds so that they are in a folder [yourVenue]\XPacks\Default\Textures\Objects\Building\.
3. Replace the shed01_end.dds and shed01_side.dds file with your own.
4. Start BTB.

Any of the files can be replaced using this method.

 

[Ayce1955]

I had the same problem with those two files as well. When I first tried to download, I got a web page with nothing but text. I just tried again by right clicking, save as, then when the save box came up, I changed the default (html) to "all files" and added .rar to the end. Got them both now, tyvm.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I had the same problem with those two files as well. When I first tried to download, I got a web page with nothing but text. I just tried again by right clicking, save as, then when the save box came up, I changed the default (html) to "all files" and added .rar to the end. Got them both now, tyvm.

That web page with nothing but text is the file list. you click on the file to download it.. I guess i'm just too old but once the web was all like that, really.. That's the reason behind the interface, it's the simplest type of filelist and as such should be supported by any software/smartphone/anything-that-has-html since august 1991 and conforms to web 1.0 or later...Commodore 64 with a modem can download them.. When you use Mediashare or similar that line of text is replaced with a neat little "DOWNLOAD" button, it works exactly like my links.

 

[danwilkie90]

Hi, my BTB won't export to rFactor or RBR, I'm told that it's because of a problem with the Xpacks I made, the .dds files are blank and something about .jpegs not being deleted, I'm not really sure what this means, I'm very new to all this, what will I have to do next time to make sure my Xpacks don't cause problems and allow me to export my track to a sim?

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Hi, my BTB won't export to rFactor or RBR, I'm told that it's because of a problem with the Xpacks I made, the .dds files are blank and something about .jpegs not being deleted, I'm not really sure what this means, I'm very new to all this, what will I have to do next time to make sure my Xpacks don't cause problems and allow me to export my track to a sim?

Send me one of those XPacks and i'll check what's wrong and explain it too.

 

[wildside]

The RapidShare links for Road Light, Road Medium, and Road Dark xpacks are faulty. The first two crashes at 6%, and the last one has been removed from their servers.

Whoever has those in Mediafire, please pm me. Bear that in mind that i'm a pro user

 

[neteye]

if i remember right, "more_xpacks_roads.rar" of http://cream.galleria.fi/BTB/XPacks/ is what you are searching.

greetings,
neteye

 

[FerrariMan96]

if i remember right, "more_xpacks_roads.rar" of http://cream.galleria.fi/BTB/XPacks/ is what you are searching.

greetings,
neteye

This is correct, I downloaded it the other day, thinking it was more road textures that I haven't seen before, only to open up the .rar to be greeted by three of the first xpacks I'd downloaded

 

[wildside]

Thank you very much.

 

[KieferDJW]

I'd made a xpack with flags (simple pole + flag) for every country plus some specials e.g. WTCC, rFactor, ... Enjoy!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/Flags.zip

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I'd made a xpack with flags (simple pole + flag) for every country plus some specials e.g. WTCC, rFactor, ... Enjoy!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/Flags.zip

Added to collection.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Ok, i figured out a solution for uploading XPacks. It's in testing now and it all depends on trust.

Use http://www.dropitto.me/xpacks (pass: btb) to upload your XPacks.

They are added to http://cream.galleria.fi/BTB/ automatically (1h intervals since it's using my personal bandwidth, i'll reduce it anytime i like if it starts to interfere gaming but at least once a day..).

Please put a message to this thread or PM me so i know what files are added. There are no filters so please, use your judgement and don't upload anything illegal. 75mb limit per file

 

[KieferDJW]

I've tried to make some roadway markings, so that we can use them as "walls" to build lane arrows etc. instead of creating different surfaces.
But I still don't know how to get the dds-files transparent.
Maybe someone can splitt and finish them... https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/roadmarks.jpg

If there's already a xpack including something like that, I'm sorry for wasting your time

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I've tried to make some roadway markings, so that we can use them as "walls" to build lane arrows etc. instead of creating different surfaces.
But I still don't know how to get the dds-files transparent.
Maybe someone can splitt and finish them... https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/roadmarks.jpg

If there's already a xpack including something like that, I'm sorry for wasting your time

Use PNG as format, it is better than JPG as far as textures go. JPGs diffuses hard edges, PNG preserves edges better plus it has transparency... JPGs are untileable too since it changes the "border" pixels, PNG doesn't do that. BMP would the best quality since it's non-compressed and has transparency layer but they are bigger files. If someone tried to make those lines in to transparent DDS, he has to sharpen the image first to get the real edges, then do smart blur to remove noise...

PNG format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics

 

[KieferDJW]

Use PNG as format, it is better than JPG as far as textures go. JPGs diffuses hard edges, PNG preserves edges better plus it has transparency... JPGs are untileable too since it changes the "border" pixels, PNG doesn't do that. BMP would the best quality since it's non-compressed and has transparency layer but they are bigger files.

Here we go - png & bmp
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/Roadmarks.7z

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Here we go - png & bmp
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/Roadmarks.7z

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84727521/roadmarks.dds there you go, both alpha (DXT3 explicit) and chroma is set (chroma key is 128/128/128) so you can choose either of them, alpha takes more performance but edges are smooth, chroma is hard edges (i had to rebuild ALL the edges and resize it to 1024x512..)... But.. Atlas textures are a bit hard to map with wall tool... So you either have to make it as SObj or split up the atlas.

EDIT: Oh, one more thing. PNG is supported by Sketchup... As it is lossless, you get to see the full texture quality, with JPGs it's not so accurate. Good for mapping atlases, JPG can be harder with all that edge diffuse...

 

[KieferDJW]

Thanks!
Would it better to make one texture for each arrow?
But that would means more work for you to convert them
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84476123/seperate.7z

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

I tried it on track but the edges are crap.. My edge recreation didn't really work, i think you have to redo it.

BTW, that mark is done with SObject....

It's completely flat and with "Curve with Spline" and "Move Vertices to Follow the Ground" you get it to follow the road, just like the wall tool does.

 

[KieferDJW]

Haven't tried it yet with SObject but I'll give it a shot!
Is it just the viewposition or is the arrow a little bit too big? That one in real will shock me and let me crash into the next tree / sheep

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

It is big, i scaled it quite a bit, i was testing how to do marks with SObjects at the same time as the idea just popped in to my head. I was mainly trying how the SObj handles very steep gradients, the answer:it does it well.. So the mark in the picture is 20-25m long but the ragged edges are visible in the 5-10m range where those marks should probably be. There is also added benefit of removing unnecessary faces when using custom shapes.... I will use this technique in the future.

How well do handle the Sketchup -> XPacker -> BTB routine? When making those kind of "layers" you need to use pretty tight grid of faces. I found that 50cmx50cm squares are somewhat good scale. Maybe even do two versions, one for flatter surfaces with 1-2m squares and another for higher gradients and around bumbs.

 

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Ok, i figured out a solution for uploading XPacks. It's in testing now and it all depends on trust.

Use http://www.dropitto.me/xpacks (pass: btb) to upload your XPacks.

They are added to http://cream.galleria.fi/BTB/ automatically (1h intervals since it's using my personal bandwidth, i'll reduce it anytime i like if it starts to interfere gaming but at least once a day..).

Please put a message to this thread or PM me so i know what files are added. There are no filters so please, use your judgement and don't upload anything illegal. 75mb limit per file

Thanks people. Keep sending XPacks, the system seems to be working fine Just please, send a message to me so i can inspect the packages. I won't be checking whether they work or not, i'll just want to check the contents (it's on my name, don't wanna get in to trouble..). If you find a non-working pack you can fix it and send it with the same filename, the script replaces the old XPack then.