WIP Circuit of Babel (WIP)

wildside · Jun 3, 2012

Hi there, as i'm new to track designing with BTB, don't expect any full perfection in none of my designs in the short run, as i get used to Brendon Pywell's ultimate masterpiece, that could shave off time in designing tracks for rFactor & RBR, and in the smallest learning curve.

But anyway, i introduce you...Circuit of Babel (For those who remember the Tower of Babel)
A ficticious track for rFactor, with insane changes in elevations, as well as the longest main straight, especially for modern hi tech open wheel cars where the search for a wild fast speed is a must

The track is 8.55km/5.31mi long, but don't expect for an immediate release, as what i only did so far, is the skeleton of the track, being this my initial phase of design, and the time i took in the sub-phases

Phase 1 - Track Skeleton
1. Placement of nodes: 55.3 Seconds
2. Unraveling of nodes: 26 Minutes 9 Seconds
3. Adding elevation: 5 Minutes 33.3 Seconds
Total this phase: 32 Minutes 38.1 Seconds

wildside · Jun 3, 2012

Gone with phase 2 - building the pitlane
1. Deploying Nodes: 6.1s
2. Unraveling them, and lining it up: 4m42.2s
3. Trimming away panel length by 2 metres: 2m31.2s

Lookin this fine!

Time for terrain. The most challenging for a rookie

Erwin Greven · Jun 3, 2012

are you clocking yourselfs?

My track: Hondsrugring. 3 YEARS.

wildside · Jun 4, 2012

Sorry but, this is how i keep time for each phase, including those who are in a hurry to have it released. But i piece it to calculate the total time developed.

Phase 3 - Terrain
1. Deploying Terrain: 1m49s
2. Anchoring terrain: 8m44s

So far so good

wildside · Jun 5, 2012

"it's GOOD!"
And i stopped timekeeping for daily distractons, as i now go with object placements and replacing surface/wall materials.

When it's done, the link goes here

KieferDJW · Jun 5, 2012

If you want to build the longest straight to get incredible highspeeds, you should build downhill like instead of flat

By the way, you could get probs because of the far sight (-> hugh number of objects). Maybe you should include some tunnels etc. to cut the view...
Keep on your work! The first tracks with BTB are difficult as I remember

and please think about a release for the other games (e.g. raceon) too...

Kennett Ylitalo · Jun 6, 2012

Community XPack storage: http://cream.galleria.fi/BTB/XPacks/ Comes handy at this stage. Before introducing objects to the main project, create a project with "Save as" and import the XPacks there. Place them anywhere you want, export with different name and try them in game. Saves a lot of hassle and possibly rendering the main project useless! Faulty XPacks are a bitch, once introduced, they are hard or impossible to delete thou i haven't heard that any of the community packs is faulty. The Default.zip in there is for BTB EVO, it has fixed startlights, Pro users won't need this.. CK-Tools is highly recommended, it has a collection of rulers.

Kennett Ylitalo · Jun 6, 2012

Another tip: create a LOT of backups. Create one daily, fastest way is to use the "Save As" and version numbers (like Trackname001, Trackname002 etc). Every day of build should start with a backup creation. BTB is prone to crash without a warning and more than once have i seen the main project become corrupted. I think all of us use daily backups so that if the worst happens, you lose only one day of work instead of weeks... You can always delete some of those backups later.

KieferDJW · Jun 6, 2012

Doesn't BTB create a whole copy included the xpacks if you're useing "Save As"?
I only backup the venue.bin 'cause there are all needed entries (track, wall, objects etc.) inside...

Kennett Ylitalo · Jun 6, 2012

KieferDJW said:
Doesn't BTB create a whole copy included the xpacks if you're useing "Save As"?
I only backup the venue.bin 'cause there are all needed entries (track, wall, objects etc.) inside...

Yes but the further the project goes, it becomes more and more of depended of exactly the correct set of XPacks and modified textures (if you keep detailed journal and changelogs, then you can backup only venue.bin.. Otherwise you're depending your memory on what changes were made in what phase..Not for me..). The loss is some filespace and the upside is 100% working backups. I don't leave these lying around for long, i usually only keep the few most important original design phases and the last three working backups. Also in cases when i've released a track, i keep the exporting project intact as a source backup. In todays HDD sizes, few 100mb is not a big deal. Alpine Hills with all of it's year long backups and few releases takes about a gig of space packed.

wildside · Jun 8, 2012

Walls are done, need to change textures, then it's onto filling the terrain, placing cameras, and change some road surfaces, then onto testing

wildside · Jun 10, 2012

Close to finished, just to fill up the inner area with terrain then lengthen the outer ones, plus add cameras, prepare racing line, then its testing time!

Forgot to say, it's a clockwise run