Tracks Absolute newbie needs help creating track

[Stereo]

Ambient means not in sunlight, diffuse means in direct sunlight. With CSP the ambient value depends on which way the object's facing (up is bluer, down yellower) and of course the diffuse value also depends on how it's facing (towards the sun is brighter, but also any other light shining directly on it uses diffuse) Usually you should use the same value for both unless it's some complicated material like satin or brushed metal.

It's not one or the other though, you always add the two together (diffuse can be 0 if no lights hit it, ambient's never 0)

 

[miwashi]

Dear all
thanks for all the help. I've done quite a bit of changes to the track but still no textures. I'll upload something soon to let everyone have a look.

One thing is bugging me though, are the scales in AC accurate? in Blender, I have set object and track measurements to the same size as in real life in meters, but in AC, it's either the car is really huge or the environments are really small. For example, the main track I have has 5 lanes, and is around 20 meters wide. But in the game it looks like half of that or even much less.. The same goes for the Shutoko project, I can't help but feel that the lanes are not quite as wide as they are in real life. Anyone else have this feeling?

 

[NightEye87]

Your scale was correct (judging from that one building). I guess that will clear up when you apply road markings, barriers, and such.

Just to make sure, I double checked:
In-game your road width at the starting location measures about 32 m, in Google Earth I measure 33,5. Without much detail it's hard to say from where to where I need to measure, so I guess that's about right.
Then going from one river crossing to the other, in GE I measure 1084 m, in-game I measure 1082 m; again confirming the scale

 

[miwashi]

yep, measurements wise, it's close to real life, in fact my track at 32m is wider than in real life (it's around 24m, I think google earth sattellite data is guesstimation), but it seems so narrow from the cockpit. Could be because of the field of view in AC?

 

[NightEye87]

This is a screenshot from above overlayed on aerial imagery to match the scale; then I copied the cars onto all lanes.
I'd say it looks about right.
In-game it's really hard to judge scale (especially on an 'incorrect' FOV - if that's the case), and especially without much reference around you (road markings, barriers, etc.).

 

[miwashi]

ok, i'll go with that.

I've uploaded the latest build for everyone's enjoyment. Still a long way to go, there're floating buildings here and there and missing walls, but this one is just for the proof of concept. No collision detection either as I think enclosing the road dividers and things in collision detection boxes makes it hard to edit for now.. I'll do that later.

Just drop it into your \content\tracks folder

mymarinacoastalexpressway.rar

Compressed (zipped) Folder

1drv.ms

btw, is there any way in the kunos editor to get an overhead map view (i.e. zoom out)? or do we only have a car field of view in it?

 

[miwashi]

Hi all

I'm still stuck as to putting trees in the track.

Is there anyone who has a blender file with just a single tree in it, that you can share, so I can see how it's done?

 

[NightEye87]

Here is my "tree blender file".
This might not be the correct way of doing things, or the quickest, or whatever. But it works just fine

I have a polygon mesh (I drew a polygon onto my base mesh and shrinkwrapped it in Z direction) which I use as scatter object. I added some basic tree models in a group, and pointed towards this group on the scatter modifier. I use "use count" to set the fractions between each trees (each tree in the collection is set to 1 for a perfect mix, but if you have more oak than birch, set the oak to 10 for example).
For single trees, I used 'point scatter' rather than 'surface scatter' on an object with verts only where I want a tree to appear. The number of trees in that case matches the number of verts to prevent overlapping trees.
I use randomized rotation (might not be the best for lighting, but it's never bothered me) and randomized scale to make the trees a bit different from each other.

For exporting, I collapse the modifiers, make all trees single user and rename them in groups as per Kunos default.
For that, I use the regular selection tool in X-Ray mode, select a chunk of trees (not number-depandent, but "view-dependant" so the game engine can cull those groups easily) and use Batch Rename (CTRL+F2) with "Set Name - New" to rename them to KSTREE_GROUP_A, then select a new group, Batch Rename, KSTREE_GROUP_B, etc.
This is an overview of all the different groups by colour (mind you: I have joined the trees here for this image; they should be left as individual objects!):


Have a look.

Trees - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[miwashi]

Thank you very much for the help.

I tried simplifying your file, deleting all the extras and leaving just one patch of trees for me to understand how it works and test.

I appended this into my main file, and now when I tried importing into kseditor, it crashes. Do you have the same problem with the file? I've attached the FBX below.

Microsoft OneDrive

1drv.ms

 

[NightEye87]

It gives errors that some paths don't have a material set. Deactivate that group when exporting
Also, Cube.1699 (AirportComplex) has more than the allowed amount of vertices; cut that up into more objects or replace it with a texture for the geometry further from the road.

Other than that, it loads fine on my end.


And be sure to convert the particle system into geometry and only export that. I usually make a new group to move the exported ones in.

 

[miwashi]

It gives errors that some paths don't have a material set. Deactivate that group when exporting
Also, Cube.1699 (AirportComplex) has more than the allowed amount of vertices; cut that up into more objects or replace it with a texture for the geometry further from the road.

Other than that, it loads fine on my end.


And be sure to convert the particle system into geometry and only export that. I usually make a new group to move the exported ones in.

Thank you, yes, I know the nurbs paths don't have materials, and that object is overly complex. On my end, the materialless nurbs paths give errors but still can load in kseditor, so I think the problem is when I appended the trees to the file. If it loads fine on yours, I need to see what's wrong on my side.

When you say 'convert the particle system to geometry', do you mean something like 'applying' modifiers? When I go to the 'modifiers' tab and "apply" particlesystem, all the trees vanish.

When I go to the 'particles' tab, I don't see any way to apply it, as seen below.

 

[NightEye87]

I'm referring to the "Convert" button (it says something different on your end; I'm still on 2.93):

It should create individual objects from the scattered ones.