When I saw the first video here I thought this would be another way too big track that probably stays in a "not so beautiful" state but damn!
This looks stunning!
And since a wild LilSki appeared, I guess we will see a similar quality as his tracks
This is just awesome, keep yourself motivated! We'll try to help you with that
Thanks
Saying stuff like this really does help with the motivation. The track isn't THAT long btw, it's about as long as Spa I think, so in the 7-8km range.
The challenges of making a fantasy track
Of course, LilSkis tracks are superb and essentially match the quality of Simone's work. And while that kind of quality is certainly what I'm trying to achieve, it's very difficult because of one simple reason:
The track doesn't exist and never did, which means I have to invent everything myself. Starting with the layout, which took months and many iterations since I had no experience with track design whatsoever. But also the look of the track itself (asphalt textures, grass / sand next to the track, transistions, etc.), curbs, markings on the track, walls, guardrails, barriers, fences, pit buildings, grand stands, bridges, etc. -- Making all of this up from scratch and giving it a look that just "fits" and creates the impression that this place could exist in reality is a lot of work and requires lots of experimenting. Did I mention thinking about places to retrieve stranded cars, places for the Marshalls, and walkways to get there? I can't just go there and take pictures for reference for the 3d models (or look at youtube videos). More importantly, I can't just take textures from photos and slap them on there. All that I believe makes it way more difficult for me to create a high visual quality on this track.
What does help of course is that I actually went to the location again 2 months ago to snap some pictures of the trees, plants and environment for reference.
The advantage I have with this fantasy track vs. a modeled real track is of course that I don't need to precisely match a given track and all its little bumps and irregularities, which I imagine can be quite tedious as well if you don't have a laser scan (I believe LilSki will be familiar with this).
Feedback?
So all this is also why I would very much appreciate more detailed feedback or ideas about stuff that might still look a little out of place. For example, I'm still not 100% satisfied with the center pit building (the one with the large glass windows where the podium would go), I could use some input/ ideas for the currently non-existent "flag waver's hut" at start / finish, and I'm not sure about the design of the first long bridge (before turn 3). Or basically anything else that sticks out to you as being unrealistic or unfitting, etc. Or details that I could include on the track, like flag poles, loudspeakers for the grand stand, ideally with an idea about where to put them, maybe even with pictures from similar real race tracks as reference.
Of course this request for feedback mostly goes in the direction of people who know a bit about race track architecture (especially older / smaller tracks that aren't built to meet the FIAs rules for F1 tracks).-- I'd appreciate having a discussion about those design choices I made / make.
Support the project
If you want to support me and this project:
(1) Please subscribe to my youtube channel and leave a like for the videos
(2) If you want to do even more, you can donate to this address via PayPal: donations at leonsuetfeld dot com
(3) Another way of supporting me would be to help me get in touch with companies that might be interested in placing ads on the track, possibly for something in return. I know I already got a few ideas from you guys (and I did reach out to them), but the more the merrier