Changing Road Surface Material

Dear sirs,

I've panned out a 21km track and started adding trees, walls etc. Now i want to have different road material but the program will not allow me to choose which parts of the road material I want to change. It is as if I need to change the whole lot. This would be a killer for me and my project as I am making a street track and need to have different road marking at difference segments.

Can anyone give me some sound advice please?

Many Thanks,

Fahim
 
Hello Fahim,
Sorry for me english, I hope you'll undestand.
Normally it's easy to do, you have to use the "edit track surface properties" tool. In 3D view, ctrl+left click on the track, and you create a new shape. You can add a lot of shape. In the tool window, you have a "shape" button, and a "material" button. Each can be activated or not, when click on the option "set shape..." or "set material...".
Click on "material", set the part on the track you want to replace material, it's becoming red, then right click in the "material window" to open the menu, and you find what you need.
The first time you're opening the window, the menu "material" is very long to come, but only the fisrt time.
I hope it will help.
Regards.
 
Am writing as I have been a bit frustrated in changing the road surface materials as well. I have watched the tutorial vid on youtube multiple times and cannot seem to conclude from it what key and mouse combination is needed to make things happen (which the video makes to look like a breeze!). If possible can someone with a bit more experience clarify the following???

1) You seem to be able to highlight sections of the track surface (the whole width and say 10 meters of its length). How do you set the first line and then the second line in order to change the surface material in between? Also once I learn how to do this I also assume I can begin to change the shape between those two lines creating road bumps!? In the vid there was a 3rd line added in order to do that.... I also do not know how to do that!

2) In the video in the surface pop up window there is a line (similar to the wall window) representing the surface. When I try to change a surface material the whole line is red and there are say 4 small boxes on the line quartering off the surface. If I want to change the right hand outer edge in to the first box in from it- how do I do that? In the vid it looks like a combination of mouse and keys which allows you to just change one "strip" of the surface between the set lines. I can't seem to find the combination for that...

3) Lastly in the xpacks there are some great surface textures denoting grid spots or pit boxes. I would think if I can figure out answers to questions 1 and 2 I'd be able to lay the same down on my track. Or as noted elsewhere is it better to do these with walls layed flat? What do you guys suggest?

My apologies for another few questions which may be obvious- but must admit I ran through the help manual, youtube and forums repeatedly trying to get to the bottom of this last night and I'm still looking for answers... The vid makes it look so easy- which is the frustrating part- as I think once I can get beyond these 3 points I can take a big step forward on my track.

Would appreciate any help or advice given.
Thank you.
 
1) You seem to be able to highlight sections of the track surface (the whole width and say 10 meters of its length). How do you set the first line and then the second line in order to change the surface material in between?
In the 3d view, Ctrl-click on the track in two locations: the start and the end of the section.
For both surfaces, select 'Set Material' in the surfaces window.
Select the first surface, right-click in the surfaces window and you can replace the material.

In the vid it looks like a combination of mouse and keys which allows you to just change one "strip" of the surface between the set lines. I can't seem to find the combination for that...
The points at the edge of the material will be green (by default). Click and drag from one of the green points and move the mouse towards adjacent points. Then you'll have a gap between two points. Right-click and select Add material and it'll go into the gap.

3) Lastly in the xpacks there are some great surface textures denoting grid spots or pit boxes. I would think if I can figure out answers to questions 1 and 2 I'd be able to lay the same down on my track. Or as noted elsewhere is it better to do these with walls layed flat? What do you guys suggest?
I'd much rather make a track texture with the markings painted on, like the road_dark, road_mid and road_light xpacks. Walls have their advantages: they can keep the total file size down because you'll just be using the same small texture (e.g. grid marking) a few times, and you have a bit more flexibility when placing walls, because if you want to bunch the grid up a little bit, you can edit the material scale/offset.

On the other hand, 'flat' walls tend to flicker from some angles because there will be polygons (of the wall) very very close to other polygons (of the track). I've found that headlights can reveal overlapping polys that you can't see under normal conditions, and there is an infinite combination of camera angles that could also produce flickering, so it's practically impossible to eliminate flickering from all angles unless the grid markings are a foot above the track.
 
Thank you. I did some more testing last night. Will use these points as well to better develop it. I tried laying down a long flat wall to make use of the "Dark Road Xpack" pit boxes. Looks cool- but I can see what you mean on the flickering here and there. More to learn and to keep testing on! Thanks again.
 
On the subject of flickering, it's worth adding that I've seen a few tracks that use flat walls (or their equivalent) for ground markings and they don't suffer from flickering. Essington uses a grass texture with softly-transparent edges to create a smooth grass-gravel transition. UKRally has road markings, and LeMans 77/79 (by Virtua LM) uses a dirt texture between the road and the grass. Unfortunately I can't see how any of the authors stopped the flickering.
 

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