Tracks Dessau 1949-1956

[THL]

Edit: I did a test with a few tri's. 17 million of them, and it hardly impacts performance on my system. And that's with everything visible at once.

Thank you for your test. Very impressive. A nice car park for Assen
This agrees with my thoughts: Number of objects and materials seems to have a greater influence on performance than sheer poly count. Nevertheless I try to keep number of polygons at a reasonable level and/or provide different options for users as an alternative.

I think you can achieve reasonable results with 3d and 2d (with normal maps) people combined, just like you have 3d trees and 2d tree walls

Another interesting approach. I will keep that in mind. Thank you for your tip!

 

[THL]

Status:
1952 layout: 72 % of scenery done
1949 layout: 43 % of scenery done
1950 layout: 31 % of scenery done


My plan for the spectators: I want to give groups of spectators different values for LODout, varying between 100 (high level of detail, nearby) and 500 (low level of detail, in the back).
As a result there should be enough people in the distance (low poly groups with LODout 500), but with a higher level of detail towards the car/camera (detailed with LODout 100 to 200).
I want to create three types of spectators:
A) people in uniform, mechanics and marshals (detailed, each person about 1000 polygons)
B) crowd people, front row or exposed positions (detailed, each person about 1000 polygons)
C) crowd people, back row (raw, each person about 150 polygons)
In short: more details for first row of people, less details for the people behind.

I redid the complete motorway entrance. Radii should be more accurate now. As mentioned, the course of the road changed through the years, but I found some motorway construction guidelines from the 30s with figures.
The angles of the exits are corrected from 15 to 5 degree, now in accordance with reference images and mentioned motorway construction guidelines.

Furthermore I reduced material count from 24 to 21 and painted new textures for the motorway. I switched from Photoshop to Affinity/Gimp, used the same DDS-export-settings, but got a different, very ugly result (checkerboard pattern).
I changed filter from Mitchell to Nearest and everything is fine again. The devil is in the detail.

First 1000 tris person in the screenshots, a person in uniform I found on a reference image from a GDR race of the 50s. No texture yet, only 3D model.
A screenshot of the fire truck with 4000 Tris, an overview image of the motorway exit and an image of the main straight with a lot of monotone trees (like in reality back then).

 

[Mark DENNY]

Fantastic looking forward to this track

 

[Rodger Davies]

Looking good, thanks! Just out of interest, are the pits in the '52 layout just after rejoining the motorway after the junction?

 

[THL]

That's one of the missing parts, I haven't done yet.
As far as I know, there were no real pits, only places for the paddock.
In one of the screenshot above (the first one) you can see the paddock of 1950 (tents and cars in the back).
For 52-56 version I want to reduce them a bit.

I painted a small graphic to demonstrate the paddock areas.
In the map of 1949 there was a so called Fahrerraum, "room for drivers".
I don't know what's the difference compared to paddock.
A secret wellness area for drivers only with no mechanics allowed? ;-)
Some expert out there?

 

[Rodger Davies]

That's one of the missing parts, I haven't done yet.
As far as I know, there were no real pits, only places for the paddock.
In one of the screenshot above (the first one) you can see the paddock of 1950 (tents and cars in the back).
For 52-56 version I want to reduce them a bit.

I painted a small graphic to demonstrate the paddock areas.
In the map of 1949 there was a so called Fahrerraum, "room for drivers".
I don't know what's the difference compared to paddock.
A secret wellness area for drivers only with no mechanics allowed? ;-)
Some expert out there?

Yeah, they've not given you much space to work with there! It's like the original circuit designers weren't taking AC modding into account when designing the layouts...

Wondering if "Fahrerraum" is a 'dummy grid', where cars are lined up before their race - presumably most of the meetings that took place there were made up of lots of sprint events?

 

[THL]

Wondering if "Fahrerraum" is a 'dummy grid', where cars are lined up before their race - presumably most of the meetings that took place there were made up of lots of sprint events?

Maybe a starting line-up for race 2, when race 1 isn't over yet ... and so on (there have been 12 races on that day in 1949). Yes, it makes sense.

Update:
During the last three days I created 10 different 3D people. Wives and children will of course follow.
Moreover, I did start/finish for 1952 layout. I found a good reference image showing the small grandstand and the flags behind. I used START/ZIEL banner from 1950 layout, even though there is no evidence, that it has been there in 1952 too.
I think, I should add even more trees here, should be more shadow, less light. And more people of course.

 

[NightEye87]

You could maybe fake extra shadow using the same technique as Lilski with the horizontal planes on trees. Just cover the canopy instead of applying it to trees. Not sure if it'll look good, but it wouldn't affect performance and it's quick (and dirty in this case)

 

[Rodger Davies]

That's a LOT of people to watch me repeatedly screw up...

 

[THL]

You could maybe fake extra shadow using the same technique as Lilski with the horizontal planes on trees. Just cover the canopy instead of applying it to trees. Not sure if it'll look good, but it wouldn't affect performance and it's quick (and dirty in this case)

Good idea. I used Lilski's technique for my first track and it made a huge difference there. An easy way to improve things. VAO is another option.

 

[Sergio Loro]

pretty cool people

 

[Gevatter]

A "Fahrerraum" is a driver's living quarters for the race weekend, where he sleeps and relaxes between sessions and where he keeps his stuff. Could be in a trailer, in a container or maybe in a tent or a little hut. The designated area is there so the public has no access. At least that's how the word is used today in the German language. Then again, the same word is also used for the car's cockpit, so who knows

 

[THL]

Status:
1952 layout: 74 % of scenery done
1949 layout: 43 % of scenery done (no progress)
1950 layout: 31 % of scenery done (no progress)

800 3D people alongside the forest straight, further 100 people in Jugendkurve.
I used 25 different people. They are repeating every 20/30 meters with varying rotation. You can see that in the screenshots, but I think it's not recognizable at 200 kph.
Without optimization my framerates dropped from 180 to 100, after joining and LODout settings I got back to 140 to 160 frames.
Flags and motorway signs have been improved a bit. For the banner at the back of the grandstand I had to paint every single letter by hand - it is my aim to recreate the used typography as good as possible.
Forest section is nearly finished. Next things to work on: second part of the back straight and the S-curves (Schlängelkurven), where I changed cambers yesterday.

 

[NightEye87]

It looks awesome, can't wait!

 

[millen]

It looks awesome, can't wait!

I second this, it's looking amazingly good. Great details!

 

[Mark DENNY]

This looks fantastic, keep up the good work, looking forward to giving this track a go.

 

[THL]

First of all Happy New Year to all of you!
Please stay healthy!

Here's another small update on progress regarding Dessau.

Status:
1952 layout: 76 % of scenery done
1949 layout: 44 % of scenery done
1950 layout: 32 % of scenery done

Changes in detail:

There are some buildings on my reference images, but resolution is not high enough to identify details.
Seem to be small temporary buildings, so I made toilet houses out of them.
I had a reference image of a toilet house at Leipzig 1950s race (Scheibenholz), so I copied the sign "TOILETTEN" and the posters on the wall to have the typical appearance of a toilet house of this particular period.

Furthermore I added additional signs. Again it's some guessing.
There have been signs on the right hand side approaching Süd-Kurve. Possably part of the motorway signage, but I found them at Leipzig too (this track had no motorway part). I think they are brake mark signs. A similar sign on another GDR track (can't remember which one, maybe Halle or Dresden) supports this thesis.
Very likely, they used these signs for more than only one corner. Therefore I added them at Jugendkurve too.
Many GDR tracks had red/white direction signs at hairpins or other sharp turns, so I wanted to have them at Dessau too, although I have no guaranty, they really used it.

The back straight has more trees and more people now, it's nearly finished.

Framerate: 120-210 now (target 150+). DIPs: 2000-6500 (target below 1000 if possible, still a lot of single objects - therefore the high number, joining in the end)

Again some Screenshots showing the progress.

Brake marker sign at Jugendkurve:

Building at Jugendkurve:

The back straight with more green and less pinewood - and a new sign:

Schlängelkurven (turn 2 of 3) with another toilet house and already new 3D people:

Direction sign at Süd-Kurve (end of the motorway section):

 

[Rodger Davies]

Because I'm a crazy stalker, I also saw the full lap video on your YouTube channel - details in the screenshots will add a lot of depth to the overall experience (buildings are looking great), but the 'wall of people' is terrifying looking!

 

[guidofoc]

I love the way you did the spectators, with proper 3d modelling, shadows etc they look real!

 

[THL]

The hairpin. As written before, I have no reference image of the hairpin in 1952. I basically used 1950s hairpin layout transferred to 1952s hairpin location. I only had one photo of the elongated motorway bend from the 30s, showing vegetation in perspective shortening. So I can only guess the density of bushes and trees, there seem to be shorter trees in this area (compared to other parts of the track and compared to today's situation), maybe young trees? Still a big question mark ... but it looks quite nice.