Tunnels???

[HAR_RJ]

How hard is it to make tunnels for a track? I haven't figured it out yet. Is it possible to do with BTB?

Thanks,
RJ

 

[Kris Vickers]

What about something like this, completely done in BTB.

Its ugly, but it took 2 minutes and i`m sure it could be done neater.

 

[R Soul]

Lighting and shadows need to be considered too. I suggest turning up the time scale in rFactor to the maximum and watching the tunnel as day turns to night and back again. Just be careful not to get a 'not using your headlights' penalty.

 

[Emery]

R Soul - Howie2010 is only interested in RBR rather than rF, so our rF game-specific knowledge isn't going to help him.

Howie2010 - There probably is info out there on what RBR needs in the way of a 3D file, but this forum concerns BTB first & foremost.

 

[MaxVK]

But there is one issue that needs investigating. What effect on framerate is there when a massive 3d object is on screen? Maybe the object just needs to have a change of materials, in the same way BTB splits up the terrain. You'd have to check with someone who's used 3ds max.

I'm a RBR fan myself and terrain is something that Iv played with a fair bit.

Using some info from Zaxxon's tutorial I managed to get the terrain data from an area defined in Google Earth. This was finally exported as a .3ds file and added to an XPack.

Roughly the terrain is about 10 square miles and when added as an object I saw no framerate drops. The only issue is the texture, which probably needs to be fairly basic if you don't want slow downs.

I added a simple ground texture and then added trees etc and had no problems. In fact the biggest problem was then getting the track to line up nicely on the terrain object, although the addition of actual track terrain sorted that out.

I see no reason why you shouldn't use the 3D app of choice to create your terrain, just as long as it can be exported to .3ds for inclusion into an Xpack, Id just be careful about the size and complexity of the texture you put on it.

MVK

 

[R Soul]

Well I'm sure we don't have to have a single big texture over the whole object. The texture on BTB terrain is tiled and the same could be done with a 3d object. And of course we can use multiple textures for variety.

If it's of any interest, I followed this tutorial to get a heightmap image, though I stopped at 'HCMS' and used Terranim8or and then Anim8or (both free) to make a .3ds object.

 

[doser]

Use the object from Ennis Extras xPack.

 

[CodjaX]

I'm a RBR fan myself and terrain is something that Iv played with a fair bit.

Using some info from Zaxxon's tutorial I managed to get the terrain data from an area defined in Google Earth. This was finally exported as a .3ds file and added to an XPack.

Roughly the terrain is about 10 square miles and when added as an object I saw no framerate drops. The only issue is the texture, which probably needs to be fairly basic if you don't want slow downs.

I added a simple ground texture and then added trees etc and had no problems. In fact the biggest problem was then getting the track to line up nicely on the terrain object, although the addition of actual track terrain sorted that out.

I see no reason why you shouldn't use the 3D app of choice to create your terrain, just as long as it can be exported to .3ds for inclusion into an Xpack, Id just be careful about the size and complexity of the texture you put on it.

MVK

Have you considered making World-Machine part of the workflow: http://www.world-machine.com/features.html

It can import heightfields, as well as vector splines - that spline can be used in BTB to create the track and then in World Machine to model the terrain. e.g. The heightfield from google earth AND the road path can now be used in the same program.

The terrain can then be imported into your 3d app for manipulation (e.g. adding a tunnel) and then finally back into BTB. It should then making lining up the track and terrain a lot easier as World-Machine does the bulk of the sculpting for you.

I'm going to crack on over xmas to see if I can get some sort of workable process going.

 

[MaxVK]

Now that looks interesting - I look forward to your findings. The current method works well, but lets be honest, its a lot of back-flipping through hoops!