Help Needed

[JK_Dizzy]

Hi all im currently creating a track for my university's simulator which uses the racer software but im having serious trouble exporting it from bobs track builder. I look at the qlog and its talking about to many nests etc. when i load the track Racer goes into the loading screen and then straight to the front end. I have no idea what im doing in terms of file names etc.
If anyone still visits these forums i hope u can help

 

[William Geuze]

I suggest you take a look on www.racer.nl and read some of the articles there which explain a lot of aspects in detail

 

[Stereo]

Posting the specific Qlog errors is helpful. If you're using a recent version of Racer, BTB also doesn't output very optimal files and ideally you should load it into another editor (3dsmax has the best export tools, so far as I know) and merge the objects, eg. make all trees on each section of the track 1 big object, make the sections of track longer (at least 500m of track in each).

 

[Mr Whippy]

I'm not sure I've seen the too many nests problems before. That sounds like a geometry ini that is badly formatted to me.

BTB really should be avoided for Racer track making in my view, simply because last time BTB probably did any work for Racer support was half a decade ago at least... a LOT has changed in the last 5 years, never mind the last 10, and BTB was never really vogue with Racer content developers either.


To sum up, you are on your own if you are using BTB for Racer content because I don't think any one here ever used that combo.

BTB makes good tracks but you'll need to kinda hand-hold the software in getting a working track out of it and into Racer!

I'd recommend looking through the ini files and understanding what Racer expects by using a good known working track, then look through your own and try figure out what Racer doesn't like about it!


Cheers

Dave

 

[QuadCoreMax]

Hi JK,

All my tracks except LiL Track was made via BTB....so I'm the One of the few Ones who knows all the secrets & all the procedures to get the most professional results.

It's your lucky day & here's the Know-How from my 4 years experience...

*---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*
To get nice tracks via BTB over 3DSimEd, Maya 2010, 3DS Max 2009 & Racer

- Build your track in BTB
- Export as X files
- Open them in 3DSimED (first Sobjects i.e.)
- Filter them -> delete everything except the skids i.e.
- Re-do the operation with the other meshes once you finish on 1 object
- Rename the material to the desired name- Skids, Trees etc..
- Explode & assign all pieces to the newly created material (operation needed to delete all materials for all separate faces)
- Purge Materials & verify in Material Filter (1 material ONLY / per Skids, Rocks...)
- Check faces count (20.000 max for Racer Geodes)
- If necessary, cut faces & paste into a new 3DSimED file to avoid reopening the other meshes
- Export as DAE to Maya Import directory

- Open Maya, create new project & import DAE
- In Maya Settings (Preferences) > Up Axis = Z / centimeters / degrees
- In UV Set Editor, rename the UV sets to 'map1' for later combining (its needed or you'll have more than one UV channel)
- Do a vertex merge 0.0001 or less 0.001 + a soften edge
- Verify materials assigned by selecting objects from Hypershade
- Verify scene objects visually & fix eventually problems
- Once all done, combine objects with the same material together (check polycount < 20K)
- Reassign the material to the combined object
- Correctly rename all objects for later in Racer (cleanest way of doing it)
- Export as FBX > Edge Smoothing ON, the rest OFF, Convert to : NURBS, centimeters, Y Axis, SHow UI, FBX200611

- Open 3DS Max 2009 & import FBX file
- In Max, Customize > Units Setup > Metric : Meters , Lighting : International
- In FBX Import, Animation OFF, Re-evaluate SG : ON, Scale Factor 1, File units : Centimeters, Show : ALL ON
- In Utilities, use the CTR Racer plugin
- Choose track folder, create geom.ini, Optimize
- Manage Flags & LODs eventually
- Export selected objects
- Done !

*---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Keep in mind, that I have created custom Xpacks not released to the public because it was specifically engineered for Racer where different 'ad panels' meshes with their UVs are regrouped into a single UV map (texture) to get a low # of materials in Racer.

I've also created one of the best low pol 'collidable' tree (not Xtrees) for collision realism purpose which isn't the case with Xtree. Check my website in diaporama to see its structure.

Take your time to experiment, I wish you all the best for your project & hope that this top secret infos which I've kept for myself will help anyone really interested in this subject...

Actually speaking, as revealed recently here in RD, my skills & knowledge allows me to create a BTB track from scratch in less than 1 day with my custom Xpack, that's why all the objects thru almost all my tracks (16 free tracks) are the same, basically for simplicity & rapidity. Some were build in CE which is even quicker than BTB, but that's another discussion.

I'm still amazed of the ignorance worldwide, personally, I never failed to satisfy & follow my spiritual inspirations...& indeed am proud to destroy any mystifications, illusions & lies people will tell you, no matter what, in which area of life.

---------------------------------------------------------------
[Spiritualist / Futurist / Awaken SouL]

 

[Mr Whippy]

So you need BTB, Maya, 3D SimEd and Max, to get a BTB to Racer?

Considering this guy is a uni student learning motorsport engineering (I assume) then all this stuff is going to be pretty hard to grasp and get working right.



JK_Dizzy, if you can share your track then we can see why your DOF/track isn't working.

I'd personally try figure out why BTB doesn't export well, and then work around it, than do an export path that is going via many programs that you'll have to learn.

Since you will very likely be iteratively updating/tweaking the track to get the desired look you want, then a long-winded export process is going to be costly vs just learning the way Racer wants it's DOF/ini files to look and just managing it manually.



Ie, maybe it's possible to go from BTB > Racer with some problems, but tidy them up in 5 mins in TrackEd/modeller/notepad++


Post your track and let us try make it work

Dave

 

[Stereo]

Since you will very likely be iteratively updating/tweaking the track to get the desired look you want, then a long-winded export process is going to be costly vs just learning the way Racer wants it's DOF/ini files to look and just managing it manually.



Ie, maybe it's possible to go from BTB > Racer with some problems, but tidy them up in 5 mins in TrackEd/modeller/notepad++

I tried the demo version of BTB, the only thing I needed was a backup .shd & geometry.ini file to migrate the sky over (BTB overwrites these and wasn't giving a usable skybox). But I also wasn't doing anything complex - everything else just had vf_standard shaders. I'm not sure whether this made it qlog error-free, but it did basically look ok in-game.

I ended up being slightly overwhelmed by how much work a track would be, to make it more detailed than "single route with object scenery on the sides" so I didn't continue from there. Also couldn't get good height data for the area I wanted to model, so I would have had to tweak everything a lot. It's more that everything beyond the basics would need an actual 3d editor, really. If you're only interested in a driveable track BTB's quite decent.

 

[Mr Whippy]

I've never used BTB because what it does easily/quickly is relatively easy/quick in a 3D app any way... once you get good at one.


JK_Dizzy, I take it you are at the Uni of Hertfordshire?

You should talk to David T as he went from no skills in 3DS Max/Photoshop to making a pretty good track for Racer... it's taken him a while but I think he'll score well for his work. All considered it looks great and you wouldn't even be able to begin to make a course like he has made in BTB (a circuit within a city type layout, so streets/buildings all over with a race track through it)

Dave

 

[Dave Tred]

im thinking jK_dizzy is you josh?

i got his track working on racer, the geometry file was in the wrong format and missing a few things i.e. a sky. There was also no inputs in the special file from TrackEd so the it didnt know where the car should start. still couldnt get some things working as ive never used BTB,

i dont like it, seems like you build everything else where and then struggle to import it to BTB using numerous other programs but never mind eh!!