I do not really care if there is a track , apex on the track , and grass , if its laser scanned ,
The points he pointed out I have never noticed personally just the pleasure and joyment of maybe just racing this glorious track ,
I love imola its maybe the best track on the game and although its not an F1 track parsay , its the most fun on the game ,
On the other hand converting non laser scanned track , I expect , myself , not other but myself ,
That the track is not accurate , but the scenery and high res textures are that good , I soon forget about it not been that accurate to reality ,
Therefore not really making that much difference overhaul ,
And again taking into consideration that the tools have been released that fully support all the shaders that kunos use , and hes taken no care to try it for his self ,
Is just crazy . the SDK tools are not there for you to design a track / car ect .
They are there to give full assetto corsa , shaders / cameras / lighting / and animation to a project that you will have created from scratch yourself maybe inside 3DS Max or Blender , or that you have maybe converted using 3Dsimed and then brought it into max to convert to a FBX file format before then importing into the SDK , to then add the shaders that look correct within Assetto Corsa ,
AC is a next generation graphics engine , so his has state of the art as we are going to see for maybe about another 36 months or so , then over that period that Kunos will have maybe kept updating AC or then brought out AC2 with new cars and updates ,
My point being , is that the SDK is a graphics based devkit that has all the shaders that Kunos use in there laser scanned tracks , all which are mind blowing to drive and have the privilege to drive ,
I myself do not talk about what I can do or what I know I can do , I have asked 3/4 people if I can have the permission to convert there tracks to AC in which no one has replied to my dismay ,
I would first of all start with the textures and make sure first of all that all the textures are in DDS format ,
Secondly , before even looking at the mesh of the track in 3Dsimed or the SDK , I would go through all the textures in CS6 and look at first the exposure levels of the textures and change them accordingly, from the 12 months experience I have had in AC to what I myself think is the correct exposure levels for that texture ,
3rd I would then either open 3Dsimed if it was a rFactor 2 track for example then I would add all the pitlane objects ,
which start from AC_PIT_O , to AC_PIT_26 for example , then start on the starting grid and add the same amount as I did on the last step ,
I would add the objects for AC_START_O , to AC_START_26 ,
then after that step was completed I would then add the ,
AC_TIME_0_L and AC_TIME_0_R ,
the AC_TIME_0_L goes to the left of the start line , and does not matter which orientation the object is in X.Y,Z Axis , as long as its in the same position as the start line that runs Parallel it does not matter if its , next to the start line on the track , or twenty meters away , as long as the ,
AC_START_0_L and the AC_START_0_R are Parallel of each other and are accurate to maybe 6 inches of the start line , it does not matter the axis or orientation of the object , as long as they are accurate to the starting position ,
For the sector times for example sector 1 , 2 , you repeat the process again but rename the objects for sector 1 for example ,
from AC_START_0_L and AC_START_0_R ,
To AC_START_1_L and AC_START_1_R ,
then the same again for sector 2 but changing both names to AC_START_2_L and R ., by now you get the picture but making sure that they are running Parallel to the sector time marking that was already created by the previous track modeler , or a track you are creating yourself ,
After all that and you are happy with all the textures firstly been all DDS or PNG that AC supports , and you have gone through all the textures and checked maybe firstly you are happy with A , the way they look to you B, that they are of standards of AC and the resolutions are of whats to be expected then C ., to double check to what you think is the correct exposure levels that will be correct or look correct within the sim itself ,
After you are happy with these steps and then you have added ,
the Pitlane objects , the starting position objects , and then the sector times , 0,1,2 from starting across the starting line to sector 1 and then sector 2 ,
After you are happy that you think everything is done to the standards that you are personally happy with , then its time to take your track from 3DSimed to 3DS Max ,
Taking your track from 3DSimed you need to firstly use the ,"pluginexport"
and you need to export the track in Collada.DAI .,
This is the only way that you can export the track and for it to be successful inside max ,
Then open max up and then import the Collada.dai ,
that you exported from 3DSimed , once then inside 3DS Max ,
And you have your track within view , and you have quickly checked that you are happy with the import , and all the objects are there and are all correct ,
Then export the entire track through the export tab as FBX 2012 Format ,
After exporting your track as FBX format ,
Make a new folder if you do not already have one created , for example ,
rdtestrack , and in the folder rename the .FBX file to rdtestract ,
and within the folder all the DDS files that you are happy with in the previous steps ,. make sure that they are in a folder named , "texture"
After all these steps are completed and you then have your folder named rdtestrack , and within that folder , you have your FBX named rdtestract , and next to that you have your folder named "texture"
with all your DDS files located within ,
Now its time to launch the Kunos SDK ,
the SDK is kunos , studio development kit ,
This is not found at the moment within the sim ,
You need to go to , Steam , Library , drop down menu and then click on the tools tab ,
Then inside the tools tab , click on the Assetto Corsa SDK ,
Anyway once you have that installed and you have checked and read all the previous steps , I myself would take ,
Then open the SDK , once inside the SDK ,
Go to open FBX ,
go to the file for example which we created earlier named , rdtestrack ,
and within that file open the FBX file that we created within 3DS Max ,
It may take between 5-60 seconds to load the track depending on your PC specs But I personally find with my PC that it takes about 5-10 seconds ,
Anyway for starters you need to make sure that once the track is loaded that it has the textures loaded as well , if you see no textures loaded you need to double check that the folder named "texture"
is spelled correctly , has the SDK loads from the FBX file , and the folder named texture , and there is only 2 supported formats that the SDK supports that is DDS and PNG , files ,
After you see that firstly you have the track loaded , and then you see the textures are also loaded ,
Then its time firstly , in my opinion , to go to the materials tab at the top of the SDK and the one underneath it and go down all the materials and make sure that nothing is in RED ,
If you see materials that are in RED lettering that associated material is not loaded correctly ,
Any objects that on your track / mesh ect ,
and you have both materials loaded , and there is nothing in RED as a warning , then right click your mouse , on the objects this will bring up all the shaders and settings for any onject selected in the materials tab ,
Then go through all the textures then on the track making sure that all the correct textures are loaded into the correct positions , and that all the materials all have the NM loaded , which is the object space map, that gives reference in 3D space the size and position of the normals ,
Anyway there the NM , Negative Mask layer maps ,
Once you have gone through everysingle texture and checked that they are all loaded correctly , all have the NM loaded correctly ,
then its time to go through and change all the shader properties and make sure that all the alpha channels are showing transparent , to the layers and that all the track , grass , trees ect all look vibrant and colorful in the SDK ,
Kunos has provided a Video tutorial on these next steps ,
I myself am no expert as I consider myself , everything I have just explained is from memory and a few hours experience within the SDK ,
I have asked for peoples permission to convert the tracks , but yet have not been successful but stil hold a little hope as it would be fun to me ,
I take offence that people seem to think I have some kind of grudge , or if you think you can do it better then prove it ,
I have to prove nothing to no one ,
I create things for fun and pleasure , and I am probably the nicest person you will ever likely to meet and yes I do get upset , when the community post stupid remarks , and comments ,
specially when I come and be friendly and just try to give advice from experience when working within assetto corsa ,
Anyway good night and god bless
