Partial Solution to the Track Merging Problem...

Some notes for RBR users:

If you convert track after finish BTB Track to 3dsmax (to export to wallaby) you should weld the meshes at 3dsmax. There you can better control the polygone form (should be a square polygone, but not long as possible). For remaping it is good to make Polygones same sized (as possible).

Lamda
 
It looks like work very well, as Piddy's solution also do.

To be honest I do not bother to ride over track joints at all. Both solutions provide a smooth riding without bumps or car flights.

What bothers me is those flickering textures in merging zones. Even you perform a very precise adjustments, far out cameras showing flickers triangles sometime in game rendering.

See you
 
It looks like work very well, as Piddy's solution also do.

To be honest I do not bother to ride over track joints at all. Both solutions provide a smooth riding without bumps or car flights.

What bothers me is those flickering textures in merging zones. Even you perform a very precise adjustments, far out cameras showing flickers triangles sometime in game rendering.

See you

This is the problem with all overlapping textures or polygons and the biggest pain to eliminate. One other thing that seems to come to mind with over-lapping polys it the cars being sucked into the track in an around these sections of track ... especially in an off-road environment ... (although this may be more of an rFacter side-effect than a BTB issue)

I really try to steer clear from over-lapping polygons as it is the biggest turn-off for me to see flickering.

The only cure for me is to finish the track as best as I can then repair it in Simed by erasing, welding those offending poly faces ... this is really time consuming ... but still the necessary evil if you want you track to look right and not noobie-ish ...


But this is a HOT topic and I guess one that boils deep in a few of us BTB-Old-timers ...

In either event ... there will probably be a better solution ... someday ...

the best one is to avoid having to merge too many sections of track (chicanes, alternate routes & pit roads) ...

Personally for me, even the pit entrance and exit is too much to hassle with anymore.


I will still wait for that day ...
<joking> (and smile from heaven when it does) ...

along with the day that background blending the track surface textures with the background terrain texture materializes ...</joking>

Cheers ....
 
  • dampire

This seems time consuming however I will give it a try eventually.

Currently I connect every track via terrain. Just extend the terrain off the main piece to meet the incoming track. Makes for very smooth transitions, all you have to do is assign that part of the terrain a road texture and your good to go.

Oh and it only takes a couple minutes, and saves polys.
 
  • dampire

That sounds brilliant dampire, I havnt tried it yet but....
can you attach terrain to the end of a track?

I dont attach them myself (unless i bring it into 3ds later)

what I do is make the terrain match the verts on the incoming track to ensure they are seamless then use terrain tools to get the right vertical value.

So I take terrain off of the track being intersected and extend it to the end of the incoming track.

I dont think you can extend the terrain on the endpoint of a track. Rough example bellow, and no the left section of that track IS suppose to have that profile. The colors used are for mock-up purposes.

TrackJoint.jpg
 
Edit - not to take anything away from the OP, Mr Soul, your solution is very clever, but you have to admit, it is a bit complicated :)
I DEMAND SATISFACTION see your point, and I'd probably use terrain for things like a pitlane. The reason for posting my method is that it allows the texture to bend with the second track without having to add low walls for the white lines.

Each has it's merits, so whatever floats your boat.
 
I've used pretty much the same technique as dampire. If only BTB could do some proper UVW mapping on the terrain then that would be a completely satisfactory solution for me.

If UVW mapping for terrain is easier to implement than full-on track merging, then i say 'Piddy, put your eggs in that basket' (for now at least). It's double win: terrain mapping + track merging all in one

edit: as mentioned by others, as a bonus, having terrain anchors for the open ends of the track rather than manual placement.
 
When you export as a Direct X file, each 'thing' becomes a separate file. By 'thing' I mean each track, each terrain area, each object etc. So you could export it, find the file for that bit of terrain and import it into any object program. After sorting out the texture mapping, you could export it as .3ds and import it back into BTB as an object.

If that were the case, I think it would be more realistic to ask Brendon for more precise control of object placement.

I once found a means to convert .x to .obj, which I could import into Anim8or :D
 
That is a solution, however once it is re-imported as an object you would lose the ability to move/edit terrain nodes/polygons, as well as the ability to blend textures (which i think he might be investigating for road materials as well (brilliant)).
 

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