AMS Modding - Tracks (Work in progress)

[Gringo]

Sorry Gringo, since you guys seems to be back in action (did you ever stop?lol) there is hope to see Donington, Thruxton, Silverstone National etc?

Hi,

It is a one man team these days. Patrick has no plan to start up again that I know of.

Unfortunately there will be no new tracks coming. I am just polishing a few of the tracks we have as I experiment with my 3ds Max skills.

In a week or two I will release the final Mega pack and then that will be the end for me too.

Cheers

 

[alexSchmurtz]

We will never thank you enough, both of you, for all the work you have done. These tracks are top notch and extend so much the choice of tracks for this game!

 

[wowbagger]

Yes, agreed! The work you guys put into this game is massively appreciated, and for me it is as important as the base content for my enjoyment of Automobilista (which is considerable).

Thank you very much.

 

[Gringo]

My wife trapped some clothes in the door of our front loading washing machine and damaged the door boot seal today. Thanks honey! But, I managed to replace the door seal, and still find time to remodel the pit exit a bit more. Still not true to life, but the sim racing should benefit. I have the basic AIW's for the 4 layouts complete and will paint the grooves tomorrow.

The new curbs look great and the physics in game is very nice.

 

[Marc Collins]

My wife trapped some clothes in the door of our front loading washing machine and damaged the door boot seal today. Thanks honey! But, I managed to replace the door seal, and still find time to remodel the pit exit a bit more. Still not true to life, but the sim racing should benefit. I have the basic AIW's for the 4 layouts complete and will paint the grooves tomorrow.

The new curbs look great and the physics in game is very nice.

View attachment 253085

Wonderful news that the layouts are coming for Queensland and the other tweaks! You and Patrick have done such an amazing job for the benefit of the AMS community.

 

[Gringo]

Wonderful news that the layouts are coming for Queensland and the other tweaks!

I just finished all the remodeling. More stuff added with improved tire stacks, new cement walls and perimeter fencing that are more accurate, new track side and infield adverts as close to real as I could do. The track curbs, cement walls and tires stacks are painted in 2017 colors. I just need to make the AI fast lines final for each layout and that should be a job done.

Oh yes not to forget, I have rebuilt modified the track side buildings and the pit engineer boxes to fix 95% of the z fighting issues.

National Layout in Summer colors.

Sprint Layout in Spring colors

Sportsman Layout in Dry Summer colors

 

[Marc Collins]

Oh yes not to forget, I have rebuilt modified the track side buildings and the pit engineer boxes to fix 95% of the z fighting issues.

You are my hero!!!

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

Hi chaps
Quick question, is there a quick and easy way to change the road surface brightness? I've converted some rfactor tracks to AMS, and in some of them in 3D Simed the texture looks fine, but in game it's a blinding white colour.
Is there a quick track brightness fix somewhere in .scn . gdb files etc?

Thanks!

 

[Gringo]

I've converted some rfactor tracks to AMS, and in some of them in 3D Simed the texture looks fine, but in game it's a blinding white colour.

Its not an easy explanation.

It depends on the shaders and the textures you are using.
Reiza shaders use "alpha specular" textures... that is the alpha channel of the T1 texture is the specular texture. You need to study some Reiza textures and compare with older rFactor textures. If your old T1 texture has a white alpha channel you will likely get an overblown specular response.

rFactor shaders don't work quite right in AMS. You can try and darken the specular textures for the older rF shaders to help with blown out spec issues.

Or make new textures by adding the old spec texture to the T1 alpha channel and use an AMS shader.

Cheers

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

Its not an easy explanation.

It depends on the shaders and the textures you are using.
Reiza shaders use "alpha specular" textures... that is the alpha channel of the T1 texture is the specular texture. You need to study some Reiza textures and compare with older rFactor textures. If your old T1 texture has a white alpha channel you will likely get an overblown specular response.

rFactor shaders don't work quite right in AMS. You can try and darken the specular textures for the older rF shaders to help with blown out spec issues.

Or make new textures by adding the old spec texture to the T1 alpha channel and use an AMS shader.

Cheers

Thanks for the explanation Gringo, much appreciated!

 

[Dann Murillo]

@Salvatore Sirignano
There is a quick tweak you can do in the scn file, for the lesser experienced modder (like myself).

This line is an example:
Type=Directional Dir=(0.338743,-0.883505,-0.323532) Color=(255, 255,255) Intensity=(0.90)

Adding the Intensity= and playing with the values anywhere from maybe 0.80 to 0.95 or so can dramatically change the darkness/lightness of the entire track.

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

@Salvatore Sirignano
There is a quick tweak you can do in the scn file, for the lesser experienced modder (like myself).

This line is an example:
Type=Directional Dir=(0.338743,-0.883505,-0.323532) Color=(255, 255,255) Intensity=(0.90)

Adding the Intensity= and playing with the values anywhere from maybe 0.80 to 0.95 or so can dramatically change the darkness/lightness of the entire track.

I've finally had chance to experiment with that, and changing the value to 0.8 worked perfectly!
Thanks very much!

 

[Savohk41x]

Hello to all guys
I wanted to know if the following Tracks Mod were done or there is some W.I.P. around:
- GP Korea Yeongam F1
- Valencia Street Circuit F1
- GP Holland Zandvoort
- New GP Miami F1 2019 or something similar on Miami

Thanks!!!

 

[Dann Murillo]

I have working versions of Zandvoort, Valencia (street), and Korea. Not sure about Miami.

 

[Gringo]

CMP renovations. Open the karting track. Coming soon.

 

[schlitty]

Skidpad!

 

[Gringo]

Still a few bugs to kill, and try to improve the AI a little bit more (kart AI is a chore). Almost done.

This skid pad is not very useful (I think), no plans to make it available.

Cheers

 

[Salvatore Sirignano]

@Gringo, which programs are you using to build your track? I've scratch built one in BTB, but editing any objects and importing/modifying them into 3dsimed or as an Xpack in BTB is an absolute chore..
Quite a lot of it seems to be a dark art as far as Reiza is concerned, there is no info on making the tracks dynamic, or implementing streetlights or distant lights such as at Ibarra for example - or billboarding trees.

Fine work you're doing, if mine looks a third as good as yours I'll be pleased.

 

[Gringo]

which programs are you using to build your track?

Hi,

I must say that these are not my tracks. Patrick did the heavy lifting on CMP and all the tracks he released.

I use 3ds MAX 2011 as this version of MAX is compatible with plugins and some other tools used in AMS track making. If you modify/edit, then 3ds MAX is really the only way to go. That said it is a lot of work to import the materials into MAX.

Quite a lot of it seems to be a dark art as far as Reiza is concerned

Yes this is true. Reiza decided not to support modding for AMS, so the tools and documentation were never released to the public. I happened to get directly involved as an AMS dev and learn some of the Alex Sawczuk magic for AMS special features.

Cheers

 

[Gringo]

In Progress.