XPacks Discussion

Brendon Pywell

Bob's Track Builder
Expansion Packs (XPacks)

BTB organises all Objects, Materials and Textures into Expansion Packs (XPacks). They are theme based so that the textures for the road surfaces, walls, trees and ground all look good together.

2eyaohs.jpg


By bunching objects, materials and textures together encourages a more aesthetic end result – although you will be free to use whatever XPacks you like!

This encourages two things:

1. People using your XPacks will create Tracks that are more aesthetic. That is the textures will look good together. Check how well objects from the Australia Rural XPack look against the road/ground textures.

2. Game performance will be increased by re-using the same objects/textures in creative ways rather than adding more objects from a number of XPacks. Good XPacks will reuse materials/textures, eg. the Texture for a house roof may be used on several House objects. When it comes to rendering performance, texture/material reuse is good.
These points will become even more important as the library of XPacks grow. Imagine having 12 different tree XPacks and trying to find some that match your terrain/theme.

Installation

Each XPack comes in the form of a Zip file. Additional XPacks will be created over time and installing them is a simple as dropping the Zip file into the BTB\XPacks folder. BTB reads directly from the Zip file, there is no need to extract the individual files/folders.

The initial BTB installation will not include much XPack material; they need to be downloaded from http://www.bobstrackbuilder.net/pro_users/XPacks.aspx .

Adding to your Venue

You use “File … Expansion Packs” to select which packs you want to be available in your Venue.

Each Venue (project) you create will exist in its own folder and all Textures and XPacks used in your project will be copied to an “XPacks” sub-folder. If you want to edit a Texture that you added to your project, you need to edit the one that gets copied to your Venue’s folder.

Updating XPacks

Over time XPacks will gain more Objects and Materials and you will want to get the latest one. Simply download again and drop into you BobsTrackBuilder\XPacks folder.
Your existing Venues will need to be manually updated by copying the XPack into the project’s XPacks folder and overwriting the existing one.

Creating XPacks

A new utility called XPacker is included to help you create your own XPacks. It will not build your objects or textures, but it does help you to organise them into the required XPack structure.
Press F1 for more XPacker help.

Creating a community of XPacks

I am not artistic in the slightest so it’s up to everyone here to help build a library of XPacks that everyone can use. My time will be focussed on coding more BTB/XPacker functions so I am relying on you guys to help out by submitting more material.
If you have textures, objects and materials that you think would be suitable, contact me ( bob at bobstrackbuilder.net ) and I’ll be happy to organise them into a suitable XPack. All work should be your own with all copyrights respected.

These are the current themes I have in mind:
- Alpine
- Desert
- City
- Rural Australia (Ennis)
- Coastal
- Forest
- Haywood Club (WeirdBeard)
- Jungle
- Racing (I need cones).
- Savannah Grasslands (Raceking)
- Snow
- Woodland
Feel free to come up with more (ideally along with your own contribution) or make suggestions on how to better categories these themes.

Object Import Format

The importing of objects can be done using either the Collada or 3ds formats.

I would encourage anyone looking to import objects to use the Collada format as it is far more robust and isn't plagued by the shortcomings of the 3ds format. For Max, you can get a free plugin for import/export from http://www.feelingsoftware.com/content/view/65/79/lang,en/ though I think you have to sign up before you can access the downloads.

I am happy to do the organising if you wish to send the XPacks my way ( bob@bobstrackbuilder.net ). Please feel free to give suggestions on how they should be structured or into what existing XPack you think they could be added. The textures should be your own work as I cannot use other people’s textures without their permission.

Advanced Editing

Creating Content

When adding one more object/material I always create a new XPack and test just that one item making sure it works ok in all games. Once it’s ready then I copy the contents of that XPack into the destination XPack and re-zip it.

This isolates the work so that I can test many times without the possibility of adding more materials/textures than required.

Editing Content

XPacks are just zip files. If you wish to change just one item of a project, it can be unzipped and so long as it keeps the same folder structure, BTB will use the unzipped version instead (restart BTB).

Say for instance you wish to change replace the colour of the Default\Barn object.

1. Locate the [yourVenue]\XPacks\Default.zip.
2. Extract the shed01_end.dds and shed01_side.dds so that they are in a folder [yourVenue]\XPacks\Default\Textures\Objects\Building\.
3. Replace the shed01_end.dds and shed01_side.dds file with your own.
4. Start BTB.

Any of the files can be replaced using this method.
 
I'm also interested in that. I'd be happy to use crowd textures from existing tracks if we can get the creator's permission. A lot of historic tracks actually use the default ISI crowds (the one with bumblebee man). Historic Interlagos seems to have a good crowd texture. If you can find any other tracks let me know.
 
Most crowds seem to vibrant for me, whether it's historical or not...
I found some nice subdued ones that I used at Port Wakefield, they're still modern-ish clothes but at least they don't jump out from the background! :D
Feel free to use them if you want, Ive already forwarded the dds onto Erwin... ;)
 
I also saw your message on facebook with the same texture. For a modern track I think the vibrant crowds are fine, but there's no harm in a bit of variety.

I did a google image search for 1960s fashion and found a few images. Here is a thumbnail view:
60sfashion_zpsad232acd.jpg


I'm not sure if there is yet enough variety, or if these people look like typical 1960s motor sport spectators, so I'll keep searching. If anyone else would like to have a go, feel free to share your results.
 
here so fine ladies too
 

Attachments

  • 60.fashion6.jpg
    60.fashion6.jpg
    43.4 KB · Views: 477
  • dress-swing-mw-61.jpg
    dress-swing-mw-61.jpg
    7.6 KB · Views: 482
  • go-go-outfit.jpg
    go-go-outfit.jpg
    12.9 KB · Views: 563
  • mod.jpg
    mod.jpg
    15 KB · Views: 510
  • boots-2.jpg
    boots-2.jpg
    16.7 KB · Views: 464
  • 60.fashion14.jpg
    60.fashion14.jpg
    13 KB · Views: 447
  • dress-mcc-67.jpg
    dress-mcc-67.jpg
    9.9 KB · Views: 770
SObjects are formed from regular Objects. So first you create a new Object in some 3D editor (Sketchup is probably the most common option since it's free and really good for lo poly assets or Objects. Note, you need to export with Sketchup6 if you use Collada (.dae) format. Collada is probably the one that is the most compatible with BTB.
 
Hi,

I've built a simple .3ds pit building with Sketchup and created it as an object in Xpack. After importing it into BTB and exporting to Rfactor, when I drove in Rfactor the building looks flat and colors merged into each other. I attempted to give all the building parts textures to see if it works but the building parts still look very undefined (see picture of pillars merging into ceilings etc.) Adding shadow casting ability etc also failed to make any difference.

20141111_231456_zps57c3e5ba.jpg


20141111_224122_zpsa3824682.jpg


I suspect I'm doing something wrong in Xpacker in terms of material/texture configurations. Can anyone enlighten me how I can bring out the looks of each building object?

Many thanks.

Yeek
 
Some of the materials might be fully lit. Check your material settings, and make sure the Emissive colour is pure black (0,0,0). It would be easier to tell if you took a conventional screenshot.
 
If you have only diffuse maps that are pretty uniform in color and details (like painted surfaces usually are), they will start to blend, ie the colors are so similar no matter what their angle is that you can't see the edges. You need to add bumb and/or spec map to get better lighting.
 
My materials all have 0,0,0 emmisive settings....will try to add bump and specular maps tonight and see. Hmmm....if I add lights in a location usually run at daytime, dunno how it would look like. Will try too! Thanks!
 
Daytime lights would make it even worse. What i mean about better lighting, is when you apply bumb and spec mapping to surfaces, the light hitting them will better reveal the face orientation, ie what angle the light is hitting the walls. With only diffuse map, it is lighted all over equally, if it has blue colored texture, it is going to be the same blue everywhere. But with bumb and spec maps, the angle of the light is calculated better so it looks natural. You don't necessarily need to use both, for materials that are "matte", not shiny at all (certain types of concrete for ex), you don't need spec, for materials that are very smooth (like metal pole), you don't need bump.
 
so did anybody sort out the gaps between sobjects pieces .i also lie to know why it suddenly appears .i have the objects in. 3 pieces . and made a sobjected in btb xpacker. try in new project with only the default and my objects expansions. and when ever i try to spline/line/or others there a gap between the objects?
 

Attachments

  • 3dsfull.jpg
    3dsfull.jpg
    120.7 KB · Views: 521
  • 3pieces_section.jpg
    3pieces_section.jpg
    237.3 KB · Views: 484
  • btb_splits.jpg
    btb_splits.jpg
    364.2 KB · Views: 688
done that ,But they start to separated on the other side.using the offset options.i mean they shift the whole section over.including the pieces i haven't selected.
1st pic above is the whole objected has one complete. attached in 3dsmax only
2nd pic is split up into 3 sections. that i added in btb.
3rd pic. is well you all ready seen the results
even the full 3d version seems to split up in btb. but not in simed
 

Latest News

Online or Offline racing?

  • 100% online racing

    Votes: 74 7.3%
  • 75% online 25% offline

    Votes: 106 10.4%
  • 50% online 50% offline

    Votes: 147 14.5%
  • 25% online 75% offline

    Votes: 279 27.4%
  • 100% offline racing

    Votes: 407 40.0%
  • Something else, explain in comment

    Votes: 4 0.4%
Back
Top