Tracks Bathurst LiDAR reboot

[Ghoults]

Here is one way to get smooth surface over rough mesh. Basically just make one bezier for each edge of the road and add enough knots to it until it follows the road close enough but not too closely so it does not record the irregularities. Then use some helper meshes to follow the beziers and shrinkwrap the edges of the physical mesh to the helper edges.

Now just keep adding knots to the beziers to make it follow the surface. Then you can adjust your physical road mesh by making the arrayed road mesh longer which makes it less accurate but gets rid of the irregularities. Or make shorter which makes it more accurate. You can also then add a subdivision modifier to smooth it out if you go for the longer blocks so it doesn't drive like a staircase.

Here is a sample blend to get the idea. I only did the first straight out of pits. I put all my stuff on second layer. There are two road meshes. 02ROAD is finer mesh and 03ROAD is rougher mesh with subsurf. There is no difference currently because the beziers need more resolution. I used very rough bezier curves for this so you want to add more knots to make it follow the road better. When you add more knots and increase the bezier resolution you'll see which works better.

The trick with this is that the shrinkwrapped bezier curves only snap to the target lidar mesh at the knot points so you can control your smoothness with the density of your bezier knots.

Here is a sample blend file. It only contains small portion of the lidar mesh and all the stuff I did so it is just 3mb. Easy to append to your blend:
https://www28.zippyshare.com/v/JNkKeBck/file.html

 

[barf]

thanks @Ghoults !

About to give this method a go now, sounds like a much better technique!

I had been using a centreline nurbs path (converted directly from the NSW govt's centerline GIS data) with array and curve modifiers over a square/tessellating asphalt mesh.

 

[MattDignam]

What we have after one day. Or less. Heatwave here atm and had to put out a fire in a paddock twice while trying to do this...

Wonderful work @barf. I was wondering, how would one go about getting to this point with their own DEM data? I am familiar with Blender and have some data of my own (not Bathurst obviously). I'd love to give this a try but unsure of the steps to take.

 

[barf]

thanks Matt, using blenderGIS to import GeoTIFFs and drape textures on to the DEM, there's no secret really, most of the work (cropping, tiling, merging, reprojecting etc) is in QGIS then it's a simple import task in blender.

unfortunately I'm kinda busy and this bathurst reboot is on hold until I finish some other projects I'm working on (summit road, ruapuna and crown range road). will post updates when i get around to it

 

[MattDignam]

thanks Matt, using blenderGIS to import GeoTIFFs and drape textures on to the DEM, there's no secret really, most of the work (cropping, tiling, merging, reprojecting etc) is in QGIS then it's a simple import task in blender.

unfortunately I'm kinda busy and this bathurst reboot is on hold until I finish some other projects I'm working on (summit road, ruapuna and crown range road). will post updates when i get around to it

Thanks mate. I'll try and play around with blenderGIS and QGIS and see if I can get a work flow going.
All the best with your other projects too btw.

 

[Muzzy]

@barf

Are those other projects you've been working on public?

 

[barf]

@barf

Are those other projects you've been working on public?

yep! going to release them here for free, hard to say when they'll be ready tho, been a year so far. working on the summit road camber currently, good things take time!

@MattDignam if you want to play around with blenderGIS I uploaded the project 'GIS' folder here, QGIS project files and all.
https://mega.nz/#!TegGQIyD!hOwWqMjd77EynobjhdpMf3KWFsM16mRxx6MlMEzGPqY

import the DEMs in blenderGIS as 'Raw DEM' in the GDA94/MGA zone 55 (EPSG:28355) projection. blenderGIS will set the blender scene origin at the center of the DEM automatically.

BTW you're welcome to work on bathurst if you want to, there's better blender pilots than me and I'd be happy to see the data get used!

 

[MattDignam]

yep! going to release them here for free, hard to say when they'll be ready tho, been a year so far. working on the summit road camber currently, good things take time!

@MattDignam if you want to play around with blenderGIS I uploaded the project 'GIS' folder here, QGIS project files and all.
https://mega.nz/#!TegGQIyD!hOwWqMjd77EynobjhdpMf3KWFsM16mRxx6MlMEzGPqY

import the DEMs in blenderGIS as 'Raw DEM' in the GDA94/MGA zone 55 (EPSG:28355) projection. blenderGIS will set the blender scene origin at the center of the DEM automatically.

BTW you're welcome to work on bathurst if you want to, there's better blender pilots than me and I'd be happy to see the data get used!

Cheers @barf. I've just sent a message your way mate.

 

[SaXXXon]

Been quite some time since last update. Any news for us following the project?

 

[Ben Lee]

There were two very promising Bathurst mods started but sadly it looks like they have been left to gather dust...

This was the other thread...

Tracks - Bathurst 2017 [WIP]

Something I've been chipping away at in my spare time. I recently discovered this track in AC when trying out the V8's, once driven never forgotten ;) Very disappointed with the accuracy of the current AC conversions so decided to embark on a scratch build project. The new track mesh has been...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[GTAce]

Guess because of the Forza rips.

 

[gecco]

Not AC I know, but...Bathurst was released yesterday as part of the Intercontinental GT pack for ACC. It's amazing

 

[Ben Lee]

Guess because of the Forza rips.

I find that odd that an unauthorised rip from another game would mean a modder would give up on a project. For a start the Forza version is far from perfect, with some incorrect crests and strange camber at some corners.

 

[GTAce]

I find that odd that an unauthorised rip from another game would mean a modder would give up on a project. For a start the Forza version is far from perfect, with some incorrect crests and strange camber at some corners.

I know, most Forza tracks have accuracy issues.

 

[mclarenf1papa]

I find that odd that an unauthorised rip from another game would mean a modder would give up on a project. For a start the Forza version is far from perfect, with some incorrect crests and strange camber at some corners.

Same thing as car rips (or sometimes not even rips) stopping better scratch projects from getting done/started. Why bother getting it release-ready when you mostly get what you want out of your work when it’s 50% done.

 

[GT VIRUS]

Same thing as car rips (or sometimes not even rips) stopping better scratch projects from getting done/started. Why bother getting it release-ready when you mostly get what you want out of your work when it’s 50% done.

This is very very true. I personally want to do some of the new F1 circuits, but there really isn't any point when come terrible rip will just come along before I get anywhere

 

[Ben Lee]

This is very very true. I personally want to do some of the new F1 circuits, but there really isn't any point when come terrible rip will just come along before I get anywhere

That's an interesting viewpoint. How I look at it is that any poor rip would almost certainly be disregarded as soon as a superior version came along. Some of the car mods we are working on, there are already poor rips available from past titles (rFactor, RACE07 or Forza rips) however the way I see it is that those will become pretty redundant as soon as the scratch made mod is released.

 

[GTAce]

That's an interesting viewpoint. How I look at it is that any poor rip would almost certainly be disregarded as soon as a superior version came along. Some of the car mods we are working on, there are already poor rips available from past titles (rFactor, RACE07 or Forza rips) however the way I see it is that those will become pretty redundant as soon as the scratch made mod is released.

I wish everyone would see it that way.

 

[mclarenf1papa]

That's an interesting viewpoint. How I look at it is that any poor rip would almost certainly be disregarded as soon as a superior version came along. Some of the car mods we are working on, there are already poor rips available from past titles (rFactor, RACE07 or Forza rips) however the way I see it is that those will become pretty redundant as soon as the scratch made mod is released.

I wish everyone would see it that way.

Obviously people will flock to whatever content is the best; that’s not important.

The part you’re missing is that 1000 hours of work isn’t worth it if you’re going to make something that’s just a bit better than what’s already out there. It has to be magnitudes better or otherwise unique for a content creator to remain interested.

And maybe it’s different when you spread that thousand over six years and five people or if you only do the easy parts of content creation, but you have to remember that you started most of those projects well before any rips were even available.

 

[Ghoults]

Rips especially are bad because even if they are inaccurate they are usually well made by a professional developer at some point in time and look graphically nice (even if they could be technically outdated) which for some people is already enough. If a modder then comes along and makes something that is a lot more accurate but doesn't quite look as good then chances are people will still prefer the prettier version. Like kind of what mclarenpapa said above. If the rip is seemingly high quality just its existence can stop someone from even starting their project.

Also another pov is that most modders (I think?) don't want to start on making something that is already being made. In a way it is a weird logic because I'd say about 80% of mods never get ready. It is just how it is. People spend their free time on something and when they don't have suddenly free time anymore or just lose interest or someone in the team loses interest or just vanishes... the mod dies. But it still exists as a project in the internet which for someone else looking at doing that car or track can be enough a reason to not do it.