3DS Max 2014 Full Track To Racer

ScottWalker92 · Nov 18, 2013

I go to the University of Hertfordshire and I am trying to build a race track for our cruden simulator which runs racer pro.

I have modelled a full track on 3ds max 2014 and its very detailed.

I now want to import it to racer, but I am really struggling. I have read the tutorials on racer.nl but they aren't helping.

Please can anyone help.

ScottWalker92 · Nov 22, 2013

I can (but would take time...) but exporting isn't the problem. I will give you a list of my process.

1.I build a box in 3Ds Max
2.I convert to editable poly.
3.I open the materials editor and set default 1 to a multisub material.
4.I delete ID numbers: 2 to 12.
5. Double click on Id 1 give it the name road.
6.Double click on material then maps.
7.Click on difuse colour and then bitmap and choose the jpg in my track folder named road.
8.click on the box as as a whole and set ID to 1.
9. after render box is shown with texture, otherwise its grey.
10.Export using your settings to desktop.
11.Auto ASE to DOF.
12. Import DOF. (I can now see purple box).
13.I choose save track.
14.Make track_template.shd
15.Rename to track.shd
16. Save track again.
17. reload track or close and reopen TrackEd (box gone)

Any mistakes here?

Thank

Scott

QuadCoreMax · Nov 22, 2013

I'd like to help you out, but I admit I took me some weeks to understand Ruud Tracked way of working, back in 2009/2010....Be patient & do little tests at the beginning, just to see what's going on.

If you close & reopen Tracked & don't see your box, you might check the geometry.ini file.
Please enable Qlog.txt in racer.ini & keep it open when debugging, you'll see what he's saying & tell us what errors are generated. We know exactly all "known common" errors...

Also, check 1 of the most amazing Tracks Pack I've created for the community, it's definitely quality work that can help you understanding the workflow. You'll find it in the tracks releases.

Last thing, with the latest versions, we have a new 3DS Max Racer Exporter, so you might use it to facilitate your export. I just use it & then in Tracked I set Cameras, AI Splines, Triggerlines, etc...

Hope it helps a bit, don't forget it takes time to achieve stuff in life & most people don't have any patience nor will to get thru all the dirty work, we 3D experts/devs/programmers experience day by day.

ScottWalker92 · Nov 22, 2013

I would really really appreciate it if someone could make a video of adding a simple box with a texture on it to YouTube, covering what needs to be done with all files i.e. track.shd, geometry.

This is all I feel I need to get going with this.

Thanks for your time guys!

Scott

William Geuze · Nov 23, 2013

It's not a video but this is what I managed before heading out:

Make sure that:
- your material is in a multisub
- there are no unused materials
- use lowercase without special characters (bar a _)
- all geometry of the model has the correct material id assigned

Export using the settings as provided on the previous page.

- Auto ASE to DOF
- You will be prompted about a optimization p[ass or not, just go for the optimization by clicking OK
- Automatic ASE to DOF finished succesfully, OK.

If at this stage you didn't get the last message, something is wrong somewhere in the preceding steps. Check QLOG.txt for hints where exactly that might be and retrace your steps.

While you are at it, copy and paste a sky.dof and a sky_clouds.tga (or whichever) from an existing track and copy it to your own track folder. Hit import dof models and keep the asterix (*) already filled in and hit okay. This will now import all files with the *.dof file extension in the track folder which, in this case, will be the grass_0_teapot_01,dof (material_materialID_meshname.extension) and sky.dof You can check if everything imported correctly by going into the model properties mode (F4) and in the statistics portion of the screen (upper left) you will see how many instances are imported into the scene. In this case just the two of them

Before doing anyting else, hit save track and reload!

Now use the create track_template.shd function to build up a file which states all shaders and the shader definitions they use. By this time, I've included a screenshot of how the track folder should look like at this time. (To ensure the track can be loaded and used, a track.ini and special.ini are needed, best copy them from Carlswood_NT and adjust the names in track.ini)

Rename the track_template.shd to track.shd and edit the file to make sure the shaders use the right textures and the sky uses the proper sky shader definition. The latter you can grab straight from the racer.nl documentation of Carlswood_NT.

Now when you reload the track it is possible everything is still black because of the camera being outside the skybox or something, so you can press H to get a dialog in which you can select geometry and move the viewport camera to it to it:

ScottWalker92 · Nov 23, 2013

Thank you so much, after two weeks I have a box and a sky (screenshot)

!!
Okay just to clarify for anyone in the future that the problem I was having was to do with the track.shd file.

I wrongly assumed when you choose make track template, that it does it all for you.

Now I have applied the shaders, using carlswood_nt track.shd as a reference I was easily able to import my objects.

After I have completed my track I will upload it for everyone to use. After its been marked ofc.

Thanks everyone!

ScottWalker92 · Nov 23, 2013

Another problem guys... hopefully this is probably an easier to sort out...

Any object I make works fine with the way I export and assign textures in track.shd

However with a loft it decides it doesn't want to appear. When I import the loft which is a 2d plane, it looks invisble from above it and has a blue colour (not the right texture) from underneath it. I have converted it to editable poly in 3DS Max and can see the textures working fine in 3DS Max.

If I extrude the borders, I can see the extrusion with the right textures, just not the loft planes, strange one...

Any ideas?

ScottWalker92 · Nov 23, 2013

If I then import the saved track with the loft imported back into 3DS Max using Maxscipt, I can see the loft exactly as it should be...

So it must be a problem with the shader right... ill investigate...

ScottWalker92 · Nov 23, 2013

Just some images to show you what I can see:

ScottWalker92 · Nov 23, 2013

Okay this is killing me now, spent the past 8 hours trying to sort this...

Would someone be able to download my track and have a look at why my loft is only appearing from below the grid with no texture.

The 3DS Max file for the track's loft is in tracks\London\Unused Files/LondonLoft

Thanks in advance!

the link to the track: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ppc9vymv7vvm0k5/London.rar

Mr Whippy · Nov 23, 2013

I think until you understand how Racer deals with all these things from a base point of view (ie, DOF models, shaders, textures, UV's, geometry.ini, special.ini etc), then trackEd is just confusing you.

Qlog won't help unless you know Racer inside and out to know what the error even means.

I can help you through this but not till Christmas.

I'm busy this weekend now so can't really write a 'from scratch' tutorial explaining from first principles what you need to know and do to get and bug-track a trackEd workflow build.

Just so we can help on this thread though, can you delete the qlog, do an export from max, and then work through trackEd and post the qlog contents?

We can then see what is or isn't happening.

Also can you please be more clear with the descriptions of problems.

So far it simply looks like the camera view in trackEd is under the track, maybe the track normals are flipped, and auto-exposure is making the track look dark so hard to tell if the texture is there or not.
Usually a missing texture shows up pink in trackEd iirc.

Dave

ScottWalker92 · Nov 24, 2013

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the response, can you pm me when you have time to help after Christmas.

My track is due in april next year, just got a progress check coming up and I didn't even have a road so was panicking :/

Dave you were spot on, for some reason the loft was upside down, no idea why...

Now I finally have my track, Thanks

Scott

QuadCoreMax · Nov 24, 2013

I can help now & prepare your track for performance (UVs, Normals, Binormals & Tangents checking/packing, DX textures generation, etc...), please pm me your 3DS Max scene/track file in FBX 2006/2010 format. I'll check/fix in Maya & afterwards export it via Racer Max Exporter.

If everything is almost clear & nicely modelled, it should take me a couple of hours only to make it available to the community. Afterwards, you could experience/play with it until April to get your own cameras, ai, sounds, events & all the stuff you want...

Alexander Knoll · Nov 24, 2013

ScottWalker92 said:
Okay this is killing me now, spent the past 8 hours trying to sort this...

Would someone be able to download my track and have a look at why my loft is only appearing from below the grid with no texture.

The 3DS Max file for the track's loft is in tracks\London\Unused Files/LondonLoft

Thanks in advance!

the link to the track: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ppc9vymv7vvm0k5/London.rar

Hello Scott,
ok first, i have no acess to any max version, so i use zmod107.
I only import the road model in to zmod and reoriented the faces.
i delete the layer 1 in track shd for road texture, because you need only one....
i deleted the geometry ini for a new clean import in to tracked...
set the flags...and safe it....choose a grid pos and save it...
choose it in racer 090rc8 and got this:

but i saw your struckture and i think it's not the best....

you:

and for example a part of carlswood:

here is your changed part back:

http://df-racing.wow64.net/DF-Racing/London.7z

...hope it helps...

Alex

Stereo · Nov 24, 2013

Yeah, it's probably worth keeping in mind that it's a lot easier to set up a smoothed track (via splines) if there's only 1 polygon across the width of the driveable track (that is, curb to curb) and more polygons along the length of it.

Alexander Knoll · Nov 24, 2013

ok, after i regenerated the normals via racer moddeler.exe it looks like it should...i think...

oh..yes this is only a part called "orange_0_trackm.dof" with material "c_orange.tga"

ScottWalker92 · Nov 24, 2013

Hi guys, before I received your messages I had realised that my spline has way to many polygons compared to the other tracks so I had already gone about changing that:

However now when import this into the trackEd software it appears like this:

Is this to do with the shaders? If so could someone please explain this:

The other things I could really do with clearing up are:
What are flags and how are they used?
Why I get the error car gets stuck in newtown?
Is there away to for exsample if I make a barrier, to curve it arround my entire track in 3DS max, is loft or sweep right for this?

Once again you guys have been very helpfull

Scott

ScottWalker92 · Nov 24, 2013

Ps: I am creating a document as I go along of all the things I've learnt and all the errors and mistakes I have made for uni, so I will post it for new people to use after I'm done.

Stereo · Nov 24, 2013

That could be the shaders (if you have a scale= line in them that's not scale=1) or it could be that the texture dimensions are not a power of 2 (256x256, 512x512, etc.) in the second case it'll put it inside a larger texture that is one of those sizes, so eg. 520x520 would end up inside a 1024x1024.

Newton's the name of the physics engine being used for object collision. It creates a cache in the track; if you go in the track's cache folder and delete trackcollision.bin it might fix things (it speeds up loading the track to cache this, so it'll take longer to load)

Flags determine the properties of each object - things like "can be driven on", "can be collided with". Probably best to just check off the things you want inside TrackEd in F4 mode.

Alexander Knoll · Nov 24, 2013

yes, i second this, if you look in the geometry ini in the file i posted you can see...

ScottWalker92 · Nov 24, 2013

That could be the shaders (if you have a scale= line in them that's not scale=1) or it could be that the texture dimensions are not a power of 2 (256x256, 512x512, etc.) in the second case it'll put it inside a larger texture that is one of those sizes, so eg. 520x520 would end up inside a 1024x1024.

Exactly right, I changed to 1024x1024 and worked a treat!