Landscape on BTB

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

Hello,
It's possible to add a landscape from google earth on btb?
what's are the passages?

I'm doing a real open hillclimb track of Northern Italy and i'd love to add the real landscape around on the BTB project. what i have to do exactly?
thank you!

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

BTB Pro - yes. BTB EVO - no.

"Add a background Image" button - third from the left. Pull the nodes to stretch image.

In "Edit surrounding Terrain" (12th button from left) - Materials select the Blending pull down box and "Background Image".

In BTB Help - Background Image, and Editing Terrain - Blend.

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

Thank you, I added, but it works also as 3D image?
or better, when i'll drive the track, i wll see the landscape exactly around the track like a really 3D landscape?

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

That, I think is a "use to could" for BTB. When one could use sketchup to xpack a terrain as an object. Not at all easy for a mountain terrain and now you need sketchup PRO for that.
RTB is cheaper and basically does all the terrain building with google earth images without sweating.
The only other way, besides pulling all the landscape manually, was with The Zaxxon Method which uses scripts to take the terrain from SAS Planet (a sort of russian Google Earth), and import into BTB. Since I have installed windows 10, that method doesn't always work and as its quite a long learning curve, to find it hasn't done it's job, is a pain.
So I would say for a BTB 3D landscape it's No. Move to RTB.

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

o h m y g o d ! i didn't know that exist a program like that!! go to try absolutely!!! maybe finally i can make some good track!

thankyousomuch!!

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

https://www.facebook.com/racetrackbuilder/

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

http://store.steampowered.com/app/388980/Race_Track_Builder/

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

Mainly for Assetto Corsa and rFactor 2.

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

uhm, ok. but it's possible to convert the project for rfactor1?

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

What you get from RTB is an fbx file which contains the whole track, objects and all.
Assetto Corsa and rfactor 2 have their own editor which imports the fbx and converts it to their game. To convert it to rf1 you can do it either with 3dsimed (Cheapish), Blender (Free) or 3dsmax (Keep you in whisky for life!).
3Dsimed imports fbx and spits out rf1 gmt files. You probably have to mess with the textures a bit and I don't know how a terrain, google earth, blend texture will end up.
Blender has a rf1 import - export gmt script, but don't know how an fbx import - gmt export will pan out.
If you can afford whisky for life you will not give a ---- about your dream track!
I'm going to try to convert a simple track from RTB to 3dsimed to rf1 to see how it goes. Will let you know.

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

i tried to import a small terrain from RTB to 3dsimed but it crashed. while i have to say that RTB is great and quite easier to use rather than BTB but to find the exact way to have a perfect track is not so easy.. :/
BTB has many more objects and xpacks than RTB (even i read that you can import to rtb..
uff..

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

Takes a while to understand all the nuances of RTB. If you rush you are going to be disappointed. You have to see all the videos and practice. Plus, like BTB used to be, it's work in progress.

What crashed?

First hint - all pieces of a track can't be more than 1000 meters long.

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

nono i don't rush it's only that:
- in RTB you have the great things about google maps real landscapes and quite easy use, but with few objects or xpacks (and with the difficulties to convert for rfactor)
- in BTB you have many things but it's difficult to me to add a real landscapes.

3dsimed is very difficult to use to me.. it crashed because i added a landscape of 3 km around

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

I've just got a track into 3dsimed - no problems.
Do you have the latest edition - 3DSimED31m

Gardner78 · Feb 28, 2018

it's 1.16 version

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

Update to the latest - now it's
3DSimED 3.1o

ebrich · Feb 28, 2018

Managed to get a track into rf1 but I had to use the AIW file from another track and in win 10 the rFactor AIWCAM Editor.exe doesn't run so cannot get a aiw file for the conversion.
Will see tomorrow if I can open the aiw editor in win 7.

Alex Everitt · Mar 14, 2018

ebrich said:
That, I think is a "use to could" for BTB. When one could use sketchup to xpack a terrain as an object. Not at all easy for a mountain terrain and now you need sketchup PRO for that.
RTB is cheaper and basically does all the terrain building with google earth images without sweating.
The only other way, besides pulling all the landscape manually, was with The Zaxxon Method which uses scripts to take the terrain from SAS Planet (a sort of russian Google Earth), and import into BTB. Since I have installed windows 10, that method doesn't always work and as its quite a long learning curve, to find it hasn't done it's job, is a pain.
So I would say for a BTB 3D landscape it's No. Move to RTB.

hi ebrich. If I were to create a 3D map of the area of my stage, could either; a) import it as an object into my current where I already have a route (with height data), then raise the map object until it meets with the track. or b) create and import the map as an object into a blank BTB canvas, then draw the route on top of the object?

My thought with idea A is that I'm unsure there is a way of changing the elevation of an object. Either that or I move the entire track down to the same level as the object. B - I think i'm right in thinking that drawing routes will not attach to an object which means I'd have to move the nodes up and down manually to make it flush with the 3d object.

Your thoughts?

ebrich · Mar 14, 2018

Idea A - At the bottom of the Add - Edit Objects - Properties you can change an objects position easily with the xyz scroll buttons.

The difficult part is selecting the objects node (little red dot) to actually activate the object. The node appears at the xyz 0,0,0 from when you made and saved the object. Needle in a haystack to see it, unless you know where or try and make sure you do not deselect, having placed from an xpack, and go straight into positioning it.

The track will never meet the terrain, as object, close enough to make a good join.

You can, after positioning the terrain, use a small amount of BTB terrain with a blended Google earth texture, from the track, to overlap the object (track or terrain nodes don't connect to object nodes).

Without using an external 3d software to manipulate/join the track/terrain to object I would think that the latter, overlapping method is the best. That way, your keyboard stays in one piece and your hair stays firmly planted in scalp.

Alex Everitt · Mar 14, 2018

Okay I will have a go at the xyz thing. I can get some practice with a scenary object I have in an xpack.

I see what you're saying with the overlap. So basically I'll use the 3D object as a reference for surface materials, but also to save time out of creating hills and mountains. What i'll do is create the surrounding terrain (as planned) and raise the object's height until it slightly intrudes the surrounding terrain.

If I can get the 3D software i have in mind to export as a DDS it should import to BTB.

Thanks for your help good sir

I'll let you know how it goes.