Tracks Mountain Route 1.0

[Rogerbee]

You do what you can when you can. I'm sure the results will be fine. Look at LA Canyons, there are nice textures there that weren't resource heavy.

 

[schz]

You do what you can when you can. I'm sure the results will be fine. Look at LA Canyons, there are nice textures there that weren't resource heavy.

The problem is that some mountains are outside of the original terrain and i can't apply textures there in RTB, applying textures would't affect performance i think, but covering the mountains with trees does. I try to learn blender for the textures and hope the track will have nice background mountains in future versions. The creator of lac knew what he's doing from the beginning, this track is still more like a beginners experiment.

 

[Mofoso]

This track is amazing, best one i've tried so far! I tried it in multiplayer with a friend and we can both say this was the most fun we had on the game. I drove a drift car and my friend a Rallye car, very polyvalent map !

One thing i must say though : there are some corners where you can easily pass through the map if you crash. I had the problem several times at the beginning of the full circle, between the rocks.

 

[Alonedark]

thank you

 

[Genezis]

It's very nice !

 

[schz]

This track is amazing, best one i've tried so far! I tried it in multiplayer with a friend and we can both say this was the most fun we had on the game. I drove a drift car and my friend a Rallye car, very polyvalent map !

One thing i must say though : there are some corners where you can easily pass through the map if you crash. I had the problem several times at the beginning of the full circle, between the rocks.

Really nice that you enjoy the track. The holes in the terrain are a problem on the map, I can't see them in the editor. Guess I will fix this with invisible walls.

 

[schz]

After a break, I started working on this track again and got already a lot done. The next version will have reworked backgrounds and other stuff. I've added a lot of trees and hope that I can improve the performance for the next release. Here are some screenshots of the WIP version.

Screenshot1
Screenshot2
Screenshot3

 

[Zsolt Feher]

Anyone could help, it loads in nice, than a blip noise and just jump out to main menu. downloaded the file from the link. Any additional file is missing?

 

[schz]

Anyone could help, it loads in nice, than a blip noise and just jump out to main menu. downloaded the file from the link. Any additional file is missing?

Hi, there are no files missing. Do use use the Custom shaders Patch? I had similar problems with other tracks and after disabling/updating the CSP it worked again.

 

[Zsolt Feher]

Now you have to teach me. is that some additional plugin to the basic AC, or to Content Manager?
Sorry to be numb.

 

[schz]

You can install the CSP via the Content Manager (CM --> Settings --> CSP)
If that is not the reason for the crash, you could also check the logs for a detailed error message (\Users\yourUser\Documents\Assetto Corsa\logs). Please let me know if you find something.

 

[Zsolt Feher]

there are several files from today, can not find anything in the error log file about the track. Silly enough my brother downloaded the rar and works straight away. ???? No clue.

CM CSP is updated\reinstalled so that is not the problem. CM had a missing file error ones about the track never again, so can not tell what error message was it

 

[schz]

That's strange. I'd try with disabled CSP, the track doesn't need CSP to run. You could also delete the log files before starting the track, they will be recreated and you can find the message easier.

 

[alekabul]

started working on this track again

Lovely job on the road and the near ground!
I have few suggestions how to make some more goods for the track:
- the pines can benefit from some smoothing of vertex normals to make them look varied and not that bright overall.

Also in that conifer forests there has to be some smaller scale or height pine-babies and toddlers, and patches of ferns on the forest floor and near the road edge. This image

is what I used with good result to re-skin the ferns on my copy of Applecross

It's easy to make it even thicker

- the far terrain looks alien because of the silhouette of the peaks. In v09 those are vulcanoes in a valley and spaced too close to each other. Their green color would match their nature if it was Africa or an island in the tropics with cocos palms near the road. To make them fit they have to get wider bases by raising the valleys in between and maybe the texture on some of the tops and sides has to be darker, grey or scwartz and texture-painted with properly scaled small vucanic debries (txDetailA.dds can work as main diffuse too). The top of the biggest peak will look better with an open crater and some glowing lava peeking through the cracks. The sight will be worth the effort to get up there, much more so in low light;
- there is a much more direct and performance-friendly option for the far background - the photo-textured funnel around the circuit.

The vertex normals on that funnel have to point all up to hide the not-round shape. Any tile-able pretty photo of mountain would do for texture as much as it don't clash with the color temperature that's already established on the circuit. Those backgrounds can be easily selectable by skins and cost meager few MB of storage. Only drawback is the shadows from 3d clouds reveal the shape of the funnel so in Sol config it has to be 2d clouds.
- the waterfalls need some additional low vegetation and rocks along the edges and maybe a strips of bright white "foam" at the ends. Using of CSP-water shader doesn't give good results, so Stereo's animated shader is the way to go.

- for the physics it would be better if anything that is not meant to be road surface is renamed accordingly - 1WALL for the rocks on the sides, 1GRASS for any green and brown ground, 1PIT for the spawning areas, 1GRAVEL for the unpaved roads (defining in surfaces.ini is a must and order of paragraphs there matters as the last takes precedence over all previous).
- the road visuals can be improved if you change the main "TarmacBrightAC3_schz" material to use a "ksPerPixelMultiMap_NMDetail" shader for example as it gives the varying of the surface with WetFX of CSP and Sol and spares the need of additional overlay
- for the proper working of CSP check and fix all wrong "ksAlphaRef=1". On almost all materials that disables shadows. Pick values of 0 for solid objects. Driving in properly shaded version of this road is much more fun as the close situated heights cause quick changes of lighting seen from behind the wheel.

Thank you for the accurate use of the most common assets for track-modding in AC. It's the best I've seen and shows you got skills and a plan.
I would love to see more of your work!

 

[schz]

Thanks a lot for this amazing feedback, really appreciate it.

- the pines can benefit from some smoothing of vertex normals to make them look varied and not that bright overall.

Also in that conifer forests there has to be some smaller scale or height pine-babies and toddlers, and patches of ferns on the forest floor and near the road edge.

I never was really happy with the trees and vegetation objects. It was the best I could find with google when I started the track. For future versions I wanted to replace all trees and add new vegetation. Smoothing the vertex normals seems a nice temporary solution for the next version. Sorry for my dumb question, but can this be done with 3DSimed? I only used RTB and the KS editor so far and didn't know this option exists.

- the far terrain looks alien because of the silhouette of the peaks. In v09 those are vulcanoes in a valley and spaced too close to each other. Their green color would match their nature if it was Africa or an island in the tropics with cocos palms near the road. To make them fit they have to get wider bases by raising the valleys in between and maybe the texture on some of the tops and sides has to be darker, grey or scwartz and texture-painted with properly scaled small vucanic debries (txDetailA.dds can work as main diffuse too). The top of the biggest peak will look better with an open crater and some glowing lava peeking through the cracks. The sight will be worth the effort to get up there, much more so in low light;
- there is a much more direct and performance-friendly option for the far background - the photo-textured funnel around the circuit.

The background mountains are more a relict from the beginning of the track. I did some mistakes at the beginning and most of the mountains are outside of the original terrain and thats why I can't apply any texture there in RTB. I have to remap the terrain maps in blender if I want to apply different textures than the main terrain texture there . Your suggestion with the funnel looks really amazing, I especially like the snowy mountains. I'd love to include this for the next release. Can I add the photo texture with 3Dsimed?

- the waterfalls need some additional low vegetation and rocks along the edges and maybe a strips of bright white "foam" at the ends. Using of CSP-water shader doesn't give good results, so Stereo's animated shader is the way to go.

Yes, there is a lot to improve. I will have a look at the shader.

- for the physics it would be better if anything that is not meant to be road surface is renamed accordingly - 1WALL for the rocks on the sides, 1GRASS for any green and brown ground, 1PIT for the spawning areas, 1GRAVEL for the unpaved roads (defining in surfaces.ini is a must and order of paragraphs there matters as the last takes precedence over all previous).
- the road visuals can be improved if you change the main "TarmacBrightAC3_schz" material to use a "ksPerPixelMultiMap_NMDetail" shader for example as it gives the varying of the surface with WetFX of CSP and Sol and spares the need of additional overlay
- for the proper working of CSP check and fix all wrong "ksAlphaRef=1". On almost all materials that disables shadows. Pick values of 0 for solid objects. Driving in properly shaded version of this road is much more fun as the close situated heights cause quick changes of lighting seen from behind the wheel.

I will have a look at these issues. The problem with naming objects is that this can't be done in RTB, so I'm not sure about the workflow here, since the names get overwritten when I export from RTB. I guess I have to wait for a final version, if I want to avoid naming the objects again for every single new version. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks again for your amazing feedback, I hope I can apply all this in future versions.

 

[alekabul]

Smoothing the vertex normals ... done with 3DSime

This is what I've used. The other option - Blender is much more complex to learn although it can work too.

the funnel looks really amazing

For the geometry and mapping you need Blender or other full-feature editor. In the link below you will find the model for the funnel ready for joining the rest of the track and the .dds texture with the snowy peaks. In 3DSimed you may want to change the angle and/or height of the funnel to achieve the best skyline. It can be done too with editing of models_**.ini by changing values for "POSITION=" and "ROTATION=" in a new paragraph

[MODEL_5]
FILE=sky09.kn5
POSITION=0,0,0
ROTATION=0,0,0

One quick way to try it is to use "bgr_far" that has in it the part of "GRASS_6" that has to remain in order to not leave a big hole in the middle. In that case "FILE=bgr_far.kn5" is the name of the model and you have to save "mountainroute_v09.kn5" with no "GRASS_6" object in it.

Textures are easy to test - just use the exact name (incl. file's extension) and place it into track's subfolder "..skins\default\". Then on each loading the game will use the re-skinned mesh. The photo on the mesh is originally from "Dorifto Mountain" so if you like to use it for release ask for permission the author. The showy peaks texture is mine and you can use it as you like.

If you are new to Blender or other 3d editor then the learning curve is steep (almost as the one leading up to the peak of Mountain Route) but is worth taking on. For a man with creative thinking as you that will open many important options and I recommend it.

For a real test of my stab at the water animation you can look at the model "1waterMR" from the link below. Use the copy of "mountainroute_v09.kn5" to remove from it all the objects with "Water3" material before adding the "1waterMR.kn5" to models***.ini. Animation was done in ksEditor with no additional textures than the two found in v0.9. You may have even better results with different textures. Just make sure you set the ksEditor's "Illumination" to "Clear" weather and load a PPfx to match without dimming the scene too much.

overwritten when I export from RTB

I get the same impression from many other tracks. Better to get used to batch-renaming the objects in 3DSimed than to release beta's with wrong physics. It's not difficult when you learn the limitations of 3DSimed. In comparison - to rename many objects with Blender you write a script (and become a programmer instead of track-builder).

So here are the things that are ready to use.

Cheers!

 

[schz]

Thanks a lot, i've tested the background image and it looks amazing, this adds a lot to the track. I will also buy 3Dsimed, which I wanted to do anyway and try to get the rest of the stuff working.

Screenshot1
Screenshot2

Blender is indeed hard to get used to, a lot of functions and new terms to learn. RTB hides a lot, but the possibilities are limited.

almost as the one leading up to the peak of Mountain Route

I didn't think anyone finds this and makes it up there. Congratulations.

Appreciate your help. Cheers!

 

[Zarrex]

Updates look fantastic, this is one of my favorite maps to cruise/hotlap with friends. I assume the update is still pretty far off from being released?

 

[schz]

Updates look fantastic, this is one of my favorite maps to cruise/hotlap with friends. I assume the update is still pretty far off from being released?

The update is as good as ready and I will release it in the next days. However, the performance optimization didn't work as planned but I guess most people are still able to play it without issues.

 

[kaneda06]

Hi

i love your tracks but IA miss

i wait for notes because this tracks value is 5 star when IA comes , you make fantastics jobs
congratulations !!

yves