Improvement Suggestions

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Brendon Pywell

Bob's Track Builder
I don't know everything so if you have thought of a brilliant idea, then let me here about it.

I value everyone's opinion but please don't feel too bad if your idea doesn't make it into BTB. Ease of design, speed, development time, priorities and game engine abilities all need to be considered when I mark out what's in the next release. I already have over seven pages of features I want to add to BTB so perhaps yours is already on there. ;) I won't be listing it here as I don't want to influence your fresh thoughts, and nor do I wish to raise false hope. I only like to list things I know I can deliver.

Please don't post your same idea over and over again. No ones opinion is more important than anyone elses. ;)
 
  • buckets

Not related to the editor itself but to the license system:

I think you should rethink that draconic system. I know i should have read the small printed stuff before i made the purchase but its easy to miss... Only found out afterwards that the license is for one PC only. Well this sucks because i work on my track at work during breaks and also at home. In other words i have to buy another license for my PC at work. That pisses me off quite frankly, even rFactor itself with its 5 activations allows me to install it on two PC's.

The allowed hardware change only once every couple of months is a pain in the ass too. My work PC gets updated quite often (i work in the video game industry), so when my boss decides that i should get a new CPU i cant run the track builder for around 2 months in the worst case? Thats really stupid, way worse then the worst DRM that i ever have heard of.

Don't know why you have to be so extremely paranoid about pirates for your niche product. I'm sure the people who appreciate this program will be happy to pay for it anyway. The great editor and being able to download additional content was reason enough for me to to pay for it.

You should really allow at least two licenses per user. For the people who have to change hardware and the people like me who want to work on their tracks from two different places.

I though you were provided with 2 licenses by default.
 
  • Steppenwolf

I understand your pov, after all i create games for a living.
However i don't like to pay the full price twice for a program that i only use for one purpose. Would it be possible that you offer a second license per user for a discount price? That would be a compromise between your personal interests and customer happiness imo.
 
Not sure if this idea has been put forward..

With the new versions you can click on the wall and it will take you there, it also has the '-' sign to delete it..

Can you put this into the 3d Objects also, would be easy to find what 3d Object it is that I have chosen in the list (already on the track) and also to be able to delete easily with the '-' sign especially if that 3d model can't be seen.. bit hard to delete :)
 
Not sure if this idea has been put forward..

With the new versions you can click on the wall and it will take you there, it also has the '-' sign to delete it..

Can you put this into the 3d Objects also, would be easy to find what 3d Object it is that I have chosen in the list (already on the track) and also to be able to delete easily with the '-' sign especially if that 3d model can't be seen.. bit hard to delete :)

When you highlight the 3d object you can press delete or
from the list highlight the object (eg Lasso_tree) then select CTRL-A (selects all object in this lasso) then press "DEL" button
 
Import 3ds track into BTB

Is it possible to add import also for 3ds track as a venue?

So far we can only import track from kml, csv. My main idea is to import my already shaped track back into BTB and plant trees and grass and other vegetation.

But it can come handy also for other situations.
 
after seeing the 't-junctions' thread, rather than having the much desired/requested 'auto-stitch' feature for the roads, maybe there could be a pre-defined basic t-junction mesh roadpiece. so you have a straight bit of road, then you can insert a junction piece, move it to whatever angle you like, then attatch more regular road to the other ends. kind of like s-objects, but for the road. T-junctions, X-junctions, roundabouts. handy for street circuits & pit-lanes etc. just a thought.
 
after seeing the 't-junctions' thread, rather than having the much desired/requested 'auto-stitch' feature for the roads, maybe there could be a pre-defined basic t-junction mesh roadpiece. so you have a straight bit of road, then you can insert a junction piece, move it to whatever angle you like, then attatch more regular road to the other ends. kind of like s-objects, but for the road. T-junctions, X-junctions, roundabouts. handy for street circuits & pit-lanes etc. just a thought.


Yep, considered this myself woochoo - would be great to have 'off the shelf' track components that could be used a starting point at least for these sort of junctions etc

I considered doing an xpack of pre-modelled junctions / cross roads etc but not sure how these would all knit together, especially considering how you would have to modify camber, height etc of each (as these would then be models not road sections)?

I believe Piddy once demoed a video showing 'bendy' objects prior to string object being release (i'm sure he 'bent' a house once??!!) so whether this sort of functionallity would help to modify the various junctions etc , not sure?

Thinking caps on I think for this one...
 
I believe Piddy once demoed a video showing 'bendy' objects prior to string object being release (i'm sure he 'bent' a house once??!!) so whether this sort of functionallity would help to modify the various junctions etc , not sure?

that video is exactly what i had in mind. but as you said, rather than being an 'object', having it as a genuine piece of track, so then the camber and polygon profile would all match up, so then all you have to do is move the nodes and attach more track. this would pretty clearly be a big step forward, i wish you luck with your thinking caps (which i'm sure must look like something out of starwars :skywalker:)
 
I'm not against a new function to weld roads together, but I think having pre-defined road junctions is the wrong way to go. The only thing we need to do that is the same tool as we use for terrain but suitable for road :

-Move track anchors
-Anchor auto merge
-Pull edges of the track to form new polygons
-Split the face edges

That would be as easy to use as terrain tools for now...

:dance2:
 
I've recently been thinking about connecting tracks, and junctions etc. The easiest means I've found is to extend some terrain from one track:
TerrainTrack1.jpg


The same goes for T Junctions:
TerrainTrack2.jpg


The good thing about terrain is that it starts at the edge of the track, so it won't break the surface no matter how complex the cambers and bumps are. It's also very easy to control the shape because we can add/remove polygons and move their vertices around as much as we want.

Suggestion

The only problem is the texture. On terrain it always runs north/south, so my suggestion for an improvement would be the ability to rotate terrain textures. Then we could make a junction texture (or one for tight junctions and one for wide junctions), apply it to the terrain and rotate as necessary. Of course we can make pre-rotated textures with our image software, but that limits the ability to reuse textures.
 
I know, I'ts sooo easy to ask or speak but ...:wink2:

I don't know if it is posible now a day but I think, whe need something like UVW Mapper like 3DS Max has. With this, whe can start and finish a stage with BTB, with the best

quality, talking about textures, of course :dance2:

In another hand, with better collision engine, with unmovable and movable collision detection, BTB was the king :rotfl:

PD: All my sugestions, are fucused in RBR.

Have a nice day.
 
Mine would be not a suggestion but only a thinking (or a question?)

Last release of BTB has a RBR plugin improvement, which makes me thinking about a will to not hug original RBR format.
I don't want to compare now rbr_rx tracks and original tracks, but only asking which will be the future of BTB->RBR export process.
If the way is going to take somethin' from wallaby and its export process, everything's fine.
Either if rbr_rx will be the definitive export tool (let me name it as this :wink2:), I would like to suggest to create moveable objects with different "weight", shadows and shadow boxes for tunnels, moveable marshalls...

And this to thanks a lot Piddy and Black_f....you are my heroes! :wink2:
 
-- New Tools

Info Tool

Set all informations about the Track

- Information:
. grandprix name
. venue name
. track type
. location
. lap record
. track lenght

- Calendar:
. race date
. pratice, qualify and race times & duration

- Config:
. track loading screen
. scene colors (fog, ambient, directional)
. track north direction / latitude

I think this is very easy to implement. Just get everything important of GDB file (for rFactor).



-- Improvements


Track Surface Tool

- Coordinates Option
"Y box" to set the height of nodes and "X box" to set the distances of nodes. Give us a precise tool for help in merge terrain or to set perfectly all units for both side of a track.
For example, set Y to 0 to move a node to the ground.



XPacker

- option to just Update or Replace 3D Objects
save much time than having to build the entire SObject tree again when u need to update some stuff.

- XPacks folder linked with project instead of has a copy of zip in every project folder
eliminate XPack folder in My Projects Folder and use only 1 folder for all XPacks.
Prevent against every time you do some changes in your XPack and "zip to BTB" (or even new BTB releases) u need to copy this zip to your project folder.



-- New Ideias


Terrain

i know the problem with merge tracks is about the loft process.

Why BTB just doesnt keep the track lofts in background (invisible) like a reference?
When u click to edit some track node/width/material, the track loft is shown/visible. When u exit to another tool (terrain tool for example) or finish the changes/export to game, track loft is disable and program convert (clone) to a mesh/poly track and merge all overlapping polygons.

well, maybe will demand more time and processor :(
 
I find that the front and right 2d views can become rather cluttered as the track gets more complex, so here's an idea taken from the editor for another game:

Have a cuboid which can be placed and resized, and when activated, only things which are inside the cuboid are drawn on screen. For more flexibility, allow several of these to be placed and activated. That would make it possible to place a box around a few corners in top view, and then in front and right we'd only be able to select the correct control points and the correct terrain vertices.

Another feature I'd find useful would be one which lets the 'drive on your track' tool (and 'fly over') start from the selected control point. That would make it easy to change some terrain or a corner, and quickly (and repeatedly) see how it looks.
 
i also agree with r-soul on the terrain textures, seem to run at arkward angles,n to w. there needs to be a rotate button for terrain textures so we can flip and turn them,


also we need to sort the off tracks area's to be above/or on the ground level like the objects.and join them ,especially if people are going to make the track and grass area first.
 

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