Tracks (WIP) Midfield Raceway (feedback welcome)

[NightEye87]

While the naming is correct, I suspect the block transform somehow isn't.
Does it look like this inside ksEditor?

 

[LilSki]

Yeah make sure you are using the kstree shader as Alfie said. You don't want "self shadowing" on a Y object or you get the harsh shadow lines. The kstree shader is specifically setup to eliminate self shadowing.

 

[Psy185]

While the naming is correct, I suspect the block transform somehow isn't.
Does it look like this inside ksEditor?

It looks like this:

Tree A is the one you fixed for me. That one I copied, scaled a bit on x and y axes, applied another texture, scattered it with the Scatter Object plugin in Blender, and converted the scattered trees to real meshes and renamed them correctly to B.

Just to be sure I understood correctly: Which trees can be grouped? All meshes with the same texture? Or do they have to be scaled the same way as well? So I imagined it has to be something like Group A is for oaks, Group B is for pines, Group C is for Birchs or whatever and within that group those trees can have different sizes, is that correct?

Thanks to ALL of you for your great support and patience! You are really motivating me to continue this project

 

[Psy185]

Your naming convention is correct, but you should be using the kstree shader, with much lower ambient and diffuse values (about 0.15 - 0.2 for each and adjust the texture for the correct exposure)

I did exactly all this, but well... still looks strange:

 

[NightEye87]

The groups are meant to convert a few hundred trees into one object (regardless of shape, UV position, etc.), but before it merges the trees it will apply spherical normals to each object so they will look round-ish.

I did exactly all this, but well... still looks strange:
View attachment 429476

This is definately something with normals. It sees the group as one object rather than seperate objects (hence the spherical normals on the whole).
Is it possible you haven't "converted" the scatter modifier? That makes sure it makes a new object for every instance of the tree you have.

Maybe you're exporting it as a single object? The screenshot above should be "KSTREE_GROUP_X_001" up untill, say, "KSTREE_GROUP_X_100" (so 100 objects) when exporting. The ksEditor then merges the entire "KSTREE_GROUP_X_n" into one 'blocktransform' object called X.
Take a look at that file I sent and you'll see that every tree is its own object, renamed to different groups along the track.

And then for instance group G is just this (so the game can cull any blocktransform that's not needed to render).

 

[Psy185]

Thanks for the explanation and merry christmas

Yeah, I definitely have applied the scatter modifier and have different objects for each tree:

One mistake I found was the origin. Apparently the origin is at the same static location for each tree and not at each tree's bottom center, as it should be AFAIK.

Did you place your trees one by one or have you used some kind of scatter function, too?

 

[Psy185]

Alright, seems like the scatter addon is the culprit... It's behaving in a really strange way.

The best way to create trees I've found so far (instead of the scatter addon):

1. create one tree
2. duplicate tree multiple times with snap to faces with Center activated
3. select all created trees and randomize transform (scale and rotation on the Z axis)

looks okay i guess

 

[NightEye87]

I used the native particle system to create instances. Although it's a bit weird with the "hair" settings - I'd rather use regular random scatter but couldn't get that to work.

Manually placing is fine for a few dozen trees but for a few hundreds or even thousands I'd really go down the particle system route

 

[Psy185]

I just wanted to update you guys:

Added bridge before first corner:

Added some cliffs around the last two corners:

Added a bridge for the part where the track crosses itself:

Adding basic landscapes so the track doesn't seem to be floating in the air anymore (this will take more and more time):

It will be all smoothed out later...

You can expect the next version when I'm done with the basic landscape It all takes a while because I'm pretty new to all this stuff, as I said earlier... But I'm spending around half of my free time on this for the past few weeks, so there will be progress.

 

[Psy185]

Hey there, I got a question regarding AI:

I recorded a fast lane and pit line with ai dev app. The ai drives okay (if a little slow and sluggish), except for when they cross the finish line, where they suddenly stop and do a 90° parking maneuver until they teleport to pits

Now of course I googled the issue and found some old forum post, where they mentioned it might be a problem if the surfaces.ini entry for the pits has the option IS_VALID_TRACK=1. So I disabled it for recording the spline, without success. Also I tried naming the mesh for the pit out and pit in area to 1PIT* instead of 1ROAD*, so it also isn't a valid track in the surface definition.

Well, I loaded the spline into ksEditor and can see that the left and right boundaries look strange (cyan lines):

Now, I don't know what I'm doing here, but what I noticed was that the values at that point of the spline were way off of the other values on the track.

Values at finish line:

Example value a few metres after the finish line:

The radius varies pretty much along the track, but all other values are around the same scale (at least for the first few hundred metres which I checked).

Or maybe is there something wrong with my meshes?

 

[Ofitus21]

Hey there, I got a question regarding AI:

I recorded a fast lane and pit line with ai dev app. The ai drives okay (if a little slow and sluggish), except for when they cross the finish line, where they suddenly stop and do a 90° parking maneuver until they teleport to pits

Now of course I googled the issue and found some old forum post, where they mentioned it might be a problem if the surfaces.ini entry for the pits has the option IS_VALID_TRACK=1. So I disabled it for recording the spline, without success. Also I tried naming the mesh for the pit out and pit in area to 1PIT* instead of 1ROAD*, so it also isn't a valid track in the surface definition.

Well, I loaded the spline into ksEditor and can see that the left and right boundaries look strange (cyan lines):
View attachment 431388

Now, I don't know what I'm doing here, but what I noticed was that the values at that point of the spline were way off of the other values on the track.

Values at finish line:
View attachment 431389

Example value a few metres after the finish line:
View attachment 431390

The radius varies pretty much along the track, but all other values are around the same scale (at least for the first few hundred metres which I checked).

Or maybe is there something wrong with my meshes?
View attachment 431392

I can record AI files when I can, meshes shouldn't be an issue here

 

[LilSki]

Just record your own boundary lines with either exporting from blender or using the AI line helper app. Both tools can be found here on RD.

Blender addon: Import/Export .csv and .ai files

Edit February 2021: AI-line recording is somewhat bugged with CustomShadersPatch enabled (it does not work at all!) . So when doing ai-line/border stuff, then I STRONGLY recommend to disable CSP! Edit2 May 2021: with CSP enabled, please disable...

www.racedepartment.com

AI Line Helper

Demo Video: AI Lines Extended Tutorial: Partial Side Lines Demo: Extended Tutorial Corrections/Additions/Clarifications 9:30 I should have said “I like the FX17 for recording side lines” 15:50 You don’t need to start recording a fast_lane...

www.racedepartment.com

 

[Psy185]

Release 0.3 beta:

Changelog:
- fixed tree and distance signs texture / shaders
- fixed sun coming from the right direction (same as in GT)
- created pit in/out lines
- cams by steevee (thanks!)
- created some cliffs, the lake and basic terrain
- created the bridge for the part where the track crosses itself
- created the bridge before 1st corner

Next steps:
- improve AI
- trees, grass
- add bumps to the tracks (it's too smooth)
- details, details, details

I would be very happy if you gave it a test drive and give me any feedback in the comments. Of course it's in a really early stage and a ton of work, so please don't expect a polished track...

Check my channel soon for newer versions of this track.

Download track as well as older versions:
https://mega.nz/folder/uqhCybIY#s61RliHXbk3bBstAFslr3A

Car:
acc_mazda_rx7_time_attack

Mazda RX-7 Time Attack Spec

Something fast for a change.

ascobash.wordpress.com

 

[Psy185]

@LilSki: will try that, thanks! For now I have a working Line but I'm not sure how I did it lol

@Ofitus21: thanks for the offer, I might come back to that if I can't get it working

 

[Ofitus21]

Release 0.3:

Changelog:
- fixed tree and distance signs texture / shaders
- fixed sun coming from the right direction (same as in GT)
- created pit in/out lines
- cams by steevee (thanks!)
- created some cliffs, the lake and basic terrain
- created the bridge for the part where the track crosses itself
- created the bridge before 1st corner

Next steps:
- improve AI
- trees, grass
- add bumps to the tracks (it's too smooth)
- details, details, details

I would be very happy if you gave it a test drive and give me any feedback in the comments. Of course it's in a really early stage and a ton of work, so please don't expect a polished track...

Check my channel soon for newer versions of this track.

Download track as well as older versions:
https://mega.nz/folder/uqhCybIY#s61RliHXbk3bBstAFslr3A

Car:
acc_mazda_rx7_time_attack

Mazda RX-7 Time Attack Spec

Something fast for a change.

ascobash.wordpress.com

Just gave it a go, so many memories coming back, the flow is absolutely there.

Regarding the track, things I think could be tweaked:
-The runoff at the exit of T2 was slightly wider in GT games, although I kinda like the way it is now, so satifying to brush the wall.
-The exit of the long left hander, the wall seems closer than in GT6 (and I'm way too familiar with that wall in GT6 )
-The crest at the exit of the final turn is a bit too steep, I've driven a couple of GT3's and road cars, and all of them took off there

As you can see I'm nitpicking as the track is truly wonderful to drive, I can't wait to see the track evolve

 

[Psy185]

Well if that is all you're criticizing, I'm pretty satisfied with myself Thank you very much for that feedback and compliments!

-The runoff at the exit of T2 was slightly wider in GT games, although I kinda like the way it is now, so satifying to brush the wall.
-The exit of the long left hander, the wall seems closer than in GT6 (and I'm way too familiar with that wall in GT6 )

IIRC correctly, the walls should both be around 2 metres from the tracks edge (I drove with ~10km/h around the track in GT6 for hours in order to get all walls right lol), so about one car's width. I will check again

-The crest at the exit of the final turn is a bit too steep, I've driven a couple of GT3's and road cars, and all of them took off there

Well... what can I say. The crest was like this in the old rFactor version from crxdriver63 and I kinda liked it, because it's a small challenge to keep control of the car if you've gone flat out through the last two corners. So I made it the same way.
But I agree that it's a bit arcade-y and not an accurate represantation of the GT version. I will think about wether or not I will change it

 

[Psy185]

-The exit of the long left hander, the wall seems closer than in GT6 (and I'm way too familiar with that wall in GT6 )

Hm, I just compared my version to GT6 and it seems to be roughly the same?!

About T2 you were right though, it's supposed to be 3 metres, not 2

PS: is it considered spam if I post two comments instead of editing one post?

 

[Psy185]

@Ofitus21:
Would you prefer it like this, so you could step on the gas earlier?

0,5m wider and blue concrete (not there in GT6)

 

[Ofitus21]

@Ofitus21:
Would you prefer it like this, so you could step on the gas earlier?

0,5m wider and blue concrete (not there in GT6)
View attachment 431735

That's amazing!
Totally your call on the concrete, I would keep it as grass however, for realism's sake.

BTW, I have recorded AI lines for myself, but I will happily send them and save you an hour of work

 

[Psy185]

That's amazing!
Totally your call on the concrete, I would keep it as grass however, for realism's sake.

BTW, I have recorded AI lines for myself, but I will happily send them and save you an hour of work

Ok, let's stick to grass then... Even though "realism" is a broad term here, Mid-Field being a fictional track anyway

Yes please, I would really appreciate it! It was really going on my nerves haha I would rather spend my time on modelling the track.