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.

 

[Andre_1th]

@Liquido , thank you for taking the time to check. However in the mean time I've learned so many things that Im basicly a little ashamed of this basics Doing things now much better, decreased amount of materials by creating sheets first like Martinez teached me, same material then for all.
I'm working now on a almost impossible architecutal project, wich includes all I've learned, happy to share when ready.

 

[Amber and Black]

How to create Add + Multiply maps?

Hi guys,

I've started to create an Xpack with all kinds of coloured textures. I'm quite pleased with my results for tarmac, gravel and concrete using diffuse/bump/spec maps (although they're not as detailed as I'd have like because of my lack of experience/Adobe photoshop).

Now I'm trying grass, which needs add and multiply maps. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any tutorials (or even any mention) on how to make them. I've looked at some from other Xpacks - they all seem to be 256 square where all other maps are 512 square (I don't know if this is relavant). The multiply maps seem to just basically be an invert of the spec maps... is this right? But I haven't got a clue about the add maps - they seem to be completely transparent, but there is colour there according to the colour picker.

I'd be really grateful for your help, ta!

 

[martinez]

For grass textures I just used these from Default XPack and they worked fine with various images of that kind.

 

[Amber and Black]

Aha, I tried that and it's worked fine thanks! But say I (or someone reading this ) wanted to make one for a surface that hasn't been done before (can't think off hand what this could be) - would you know how to do it?

 

[martinez]

I did some experiments with add/multiply maps in the past, but the originals seemed to work the best. I believe they will be enough even for the Moon's landscape
One thing you can do is to play with scale/offset settings to get different results.

 

[Andre_1th]

creating grass.

Get some grass picture rebatch to 128 x 128 and mess around
Btw Im using Irfanview to rebatch, great and fast prg. (and free)

After that add grass material to your xpack.
Start BTB open your xpack add grass material.
Happy building.
Just my 2 cents, how I do it.

http://members.ziggo.nl/world/BTB/tuts/grass.mp4

 

[Amber and Black]

Thanks guys that's great! Thanks for the quick replies

 

[brockyking]

G day all i have a problem well few

1. is that i wont to lern the steps to change the walls texture and replace it say with redbull sponser say like a corner what is the steps u need to do
2. I download a xpaxk and in it has some over past brides how do i change the text or put my own sponser on them need help plz as my track is nearly done i am working on two tracks as i have not worked that out at all and is doing my head in the tracks i have is sydney telstra 500 2010 and also a fantasy track and i need sponsers on them wont to change the ones u download to my own need the process plz help cheers guys

 

[Andre_1th]

G day all i have a problem well few

1. is that i wont to lern the steps to change the walls texture and replace it say with redbull sponser say like a corner what is the steps u need to do
2. I download a xpaxk and in it has some over past brides how do i change the text or put my own sponser on them need help plz as my track is nearly done i am working on two tracks as i have not worked that out at all and is doing my head in the tracks i have is sydney telstra 500 2010 and also a fantasy track and i need sponsers on them wont to change the ones u download to my own need the process plz help cheers guys

Your own sponsors ?

Also possible that I didn't understand your honest intensions.

Edit : oops me was wrong, sorry !

 

[R Soul]

Yes, you have misunderstood; he just wants to replace the texture.

This is going to be funcbeat:

It sounds like that bridge is an object, so you'll have to find the material (using Edit Materials). Texture filenames aren't displayed. Make a small change to one of the properties (e.g add 1 to the specular power) and click on OK.

Go to your BTB project folder, open XPacks\"X Pack Name"\Materials.... Keep opening folders until you see an xml file. That file was created because you edited the material in BTB. Open the file with a text editor, and you will see what textures are used.

Find the zip file for the XPack (the most convenient one will be in your "project name"\XPacks folder). Now I don't think Winzip can extract from these files, despite their extension. You can use 7zip. Find and extract the texture. Don't extract it to your project folder.

When you've finished editing, save it somewhere. In BTB, go back to Edit Materials, find the bridges material, go to Textures, Diffuse and then Load the new texture. Click on OK to make the changes persist. BTB will copy the new texture to the correct part of your project folder.

All that is necessary if the bridge used a single texture (or a small number). If it used lots of small textures, and the part you want to replace has it's own texture, the previous paragraph is the only thing you need to do.

 

[brockyking]

cheers sould ill have a go well my point is i would like to no how to change logos on my track and also everytime i change a sponsor or the material at the materials menu, when i load the game up and the track in rf it comes up with a texture or a material error like roada something i have xfire if anyone wonts to help or team speak 3 aswell cheers if anyone can help me more thanks

 

[Andre_1th]

Tnx R Soul, yep, me very wrong, me bad :ups:

btw good explanation

 

[brockyking]

lol can u help mate

 

[Andre_1th]

lol can u help mate

Working on it, interesting issue. I found a faster solution Forgot to eat (again) back in ca 1 hour with some vid how I did it.

 

[Andre_1th]

lol can u help mate

Goto your BobsTrackBuilder\XPacks.
Copy the Default.zip to some new folder like 'testpacks'.
Unzip with 7z or Winrar.
Goto Materials\Wall\Cement\Cement005.jpg
Open Cement005.jpg with some paint programm.
Type on the material (jpg) your text. (the easiest way).
Save as Materials\Wall\Cement\Sheeps_are_fun.jpg or whatever name
Start BTB Xpacker and create new pack. Like 'Sponsor'.
Click on Materials, 'add from texture' and add the
Materials\Wall\Cement\Sheeps_are_fun.jpg picture.
Zip to BTB.
Open BTB, choose also expension pack 'Sponsor' Add Walls/line.
Click on Material, Replace selected, and done.

Works with all Xpacks and also for (objects) bridges.

 

[brockyking]

cheers man as i am noob ill give it a go sounds eazy well c how i go then cheers

OH WHERE DO SAVE THE FILE AS U HAVE SHOWN ME I HAVE OPENED THE FILE IN PHOTOSHOP DO I SAVE IT IN THE DEFULT ONE OR JUST MAKE A SPARE ONE UP NOOB MAN I NEED STEPS LOL SRY

 

[Andre_1th]

Me noob also, but I find always another solutions wich works fine for me.
It seems that there are always several ways within BTB to achieve your goal.
Like several ways wich lead to Rome

And sry, I really want to make a vid, but it is almost impossible.
I mean I can not reveal all what is on my system, after copy the pack however
I can show you what I do with btb xpacker etc.

 

[brockyking]

if i was to give u a folder with say 13 jpg files could u zip up a xpack so i could use it as my track is naked naked i say
do u have xfire

 

[Andre_1th]

if i was to give u a folder with say 13 jpg files could u zip up a xpack so i could use it as my track is naked naked i say
do u have xfire

PM plz,

Stopped some time ago wih TS not needed anymore, still have some account there, but now I understand it
can be convinient for fast explanations like this issue. Have to install all again, sry.

 

[brockyking]

np well isent the file to u so c what u can do cheers