WIP Lake Superior

[Shawdad]

This is a fictional track I've been working on. It is supposed to be set in Michigan (where I live), on the coast of Lake superior. I've been playing around with the wall tool in Bob's track builder to see what exactly I could build with it. I do not own 3Dmax and with the software I do own; Lightwave [8], I was having trouble getting my objects into XPacker with the textures intact. So until I work that out, I decided to see what I could build within BTB with the wall tool. I plan to create most of the textures. All the textures you see in the screenshots are the default concrete texture from the wall tool (sort of looks like paint primer ironically ) and various XPacks. I'm just using them as a reminder of what type of texture I want to create for that surface. Overall I would say the track is only about 30% finished

 

[FerrariMan96]

Looks pretty nice

Just some things to bear in mind:
1. You can use Google Sketchup to make objects, which is free and completely supported by BTB. I don't really see any reason why you couldn't use blender either, seeing as it's (apparently) similar to 3DSMax but free. Although I haven't used it myself I imagine there is a way to use it . In saying this though, what you have done with the walls is looking really good .

2. If you do persist with the walls, you should try and find some textures other than the default wall texture to use on the different structures .

Other than that, looking really good

 

[Shawdad]

I Definitely plan on creating all my own textures! Those you see are just temporary. I have Photoshop and the obligatory Nvidia plugin and actually have no problems getting my textures into XPacker, just getting them to work with my objects (.3ds) exported from Lightwave. I personally have never been a big fan of 3DMax from a modeling standpoint so if blender is similar, I doubt I would like it, although if it's free, I guess I should at least give it a try.

 

[R Soul]

Good work with the track. Some of those walls look very detailed so make good use of each wall's LOD Out property. If a wall is very long you can add a new cross section and select 'set material'. You'll then get two walls with a similar LOD value to the property.

I use Blender to make my track objects. There can be a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of it (especially the interface) things tend to go quite smoothly.

 

[Shawdad]

@ R Soul

Yeah I'm definitely keeping an eye on the frame rate/LOD settings. I'm amazed what you can get away with when you take the time to adjust/test/adjust/test...

 

[Shawdad]

Here is a video of an AI driven lap around the track.

 

[Ken Leamy]

Nice Track

 

[Shawdad]

The final layout of the track. I'm not tweaking it anymore!....i think

 

[Ken Leamy]

be cool to make a foggy version.
If you DL my Alpine Crest Fog version.
you can take the necessary files and rename them.
and in the AlpineCrestFog.scn copy the sky settings.
Create a dds .mas file and a gmt .mas file and put them
in the main folder, rename my AlpineCrestFog.mas to
LSFog.mas. and AlpineCrestFog.tdf to LakeSuperiorFog.tdf.
so in the main folder you will have
LSDDS.mas
LSGMT.mas
LSFog.mas
LakeSuperiorFog.tdf
sky.mas
then you will have two track folders
LakeSuperior
LakeSuperiorFog
When you do an extract you just need to copy the normal scn
to fog folder and recopy the sky settings
When your done I'll help you do it if you want.
or explain it in better detail.
I just remember all the foggy days off Superior.

 

[Shawdad]

Thanks Ken! I was just thinking while running on your track how cool it would be to have a Lake Superior fog version. Would be cool to see the lighthouse light shining through the fog (or at night) Just need to figure out how to make a light for it...

 

[Ken Leamy]

That is no problem, If you DL my xPack ( LighthorseXP ) look at my search light or the spot light from the Helicopter It is on that same principle.

 

[Ken Leamy]

I uploaded a xPack called lighthouse it has lights

 

[Shawdad]

Thanks again Ken! I tried your search light. Once I stretched it out to the right size, it works beautifully! I wonder how hard it would be to get it to animate (rotate 180 degrees horizontally) I remember the blue spot lights from the Nordschleife 2007 track that rotated vertically. It would be like that only white and rotating horizontally. Where did you upload your lighthouse xpack to?

 

[Ken Leamy]

They are here !! It might not be showing yet I do not know How long it takes

 

[Ken Leamy]

If you dont see it gt it here Lighthouse

It is hard to get help here, but as soon as I get help rotating the lights
for the lighthouse and search lights I will update my files. I would also
like to have my blimp travel around the track.

 

[Ken Leamy]

Do you have the original object file for your Lighthouse??
If so I can put it together with the Lights

 

[Shawdad]

Do you have the original object file for your Lighthouse??
If so I can put it together with the Lights

Actually the lighthouse isn't an object. I made it with the wall tool.

 

[Ken Leamy]

Ummm intresting, then take my Lighthouse unzip it to a folder called lighthouse in
BTB \Xpacker\xpacks then open it in Xpacker, delete Lighthouse, LighthouseK
do not delete LighthouseKGlow, then close go to \Xpacker\xpacks and zip up Lighthouse
as LighthouseGlow.zip then use it and move it up or down using Shift Y and put it in your
lighthouse.

 

[Shawdad]

Here are a few objects I've been building for the track (some obviously not complete). The track, overall is now about 75% complete (track/objects/textures) the only objects/textures I am using that are not of my own design are the trees and start/pit lights from the default xpack and maybe the crowds xpack.

This is a crane I was thinking of putting in my track. I see a lot of very large cranes in other tracks and I thought it would be cool to have this little crane around mine. Plus it just looks like it would be fun to drive! Its the Grove Yard Boss 4409XL

 

[Barbje_Keller]

Nice, little in some places to high detailing, but all is impressive