Creating tracks

[wolfracer]

G'day all,

I see all these mods and custom tracks about. How does one actually go about making a track?

I'm part of a university racing team, it'd be awesome if I could model the track we race on. Its a pretty simple track that we put cones on, and graphic quality isn't important to me.

But at the moment I dont even know where to start, google searches have turned up nothing on how to actually make a track. If anyone could point me in the right direction of just where to start, I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks,
Wolf

 

[Andrew Evans]

ello matey....

i've been dabbling in this stuff for the last 6 months and the information is scattered all over the place... and usually, not that helpful...

my initial thought would be to have a play with bobs track builder
http://forum.racedepartment.com/bobs-track-builder/

not used it myself, but hear it's pretty sweet for knocking up something to get you started...

the other alternative is to go hardcore and build in 3dsmax... (which is what i did )... there's a plugin that allows you export your objects in the GMT format... (the model format for tracks)....

it also depends on which platform you want your track to run on... both bobs (i believe) and the 3ds route will only give you something which runs in rFactor...

to get stuff into simbin games you'll need a conversion utility called 3dsimed
http://www.sim-garage.co.uk/

this allows you to convert the track geometry into the simbin format... porting from rFactor to GTL/GTR2 is a fairly simple process with that (i don't know of any other way tbh)

also.. if you want it to run in evo you need to port to GTL/GTR2 first because evo doesn't create the file required to tell the sim what is and isn't a driveable surface...

if you want any more info, just shout up... :thumb:

 

[Philip Oakley]

Sorry to be so noobish, but does Bobs Track Builder work for GTR Evo as well as rFactor?

 

[Ryan Callan]

GTR Evo is RACE 07....

GTR Evo is simply the 'umbrella' of all RACE 07, STCC and the GTR Evo add-ons. All use exactlythe same game engine.

 

[Andrew Evans]

Sorry to be so noobish, but does Bobs Track Builder work for GTR Evo as well as RACE 07?

it also depends on which platform you want your track to run on... both bobs (i believe) and the 3ds route will only give you something which runs in rFactor...

:nod:

 

[Philip Oakley]

Sorry, I meant rFactor...sorry.

 

[wolfracer]

Thanks for the tips!

We should have 3dsmax on the computers at University, so I'll check it out if I have some free time this week. I've never used 3dsmax, but I've used 3D CAD programs like NX5.0 (what we use to design the whole car). Can't be too much more complicated, can it? It might even be possible to export a model from NX to 3dsmax.

If its feasible, I could go spend a day at the track making measurements of angles, elevations, distances, etc and create a set of data points that model the track, then turn those points into a surface. Is 3dsmax capable of stuff like that? I know NX can do it.

Oh well, thanks for the help, I'll look into the stuff you mentioned this week and probably come back with more questions

 

[Andrew Evans]

i think if you've done any 3d modeling - or have half a clue about you - 3ds isn't as daunting to get to grips with as the rumours imply

there are a number of different techniques i've read about and attempted - never seen anything about importing in the manner you mentioned but i only know what i've taught myself to get by...

i use a spline in the shape of the track and scaled to be the correct length.... you can include the elevation data in the spline.... then take a the a cross section of the track and repeat it until it's long enough and apply a path deform to the spline to give you the basic track surface...

one thing to bear in mind is the plugins for 3ds only work with older versions of the app... v6 and v7 i think....