Tracks Pacific Coast 1.0

[Phoenix77]

Haha I'm all in for a Test Drive revival! Great idea!

Well it will probably end up a Cannonball run, Miami Vice, Need for Speed, Test Drive Hybrid if I have my way lol
"Need for Cannonball Vice Drive"? lol

Wow! I must have been so focused on the road in front of me, I completely missed the 'rest stop' area where you've parked your yellow Ferrari 458. I'll be sure to look around and enjoy the scenery on my next drive.
If I knew that I would be moving out of California back then I would have given the PCH a final drive in the more northern areas. California is such a ridiculously huge state and I think the total length of the PCH is like 650 miles. I have driven some of the beautiful areas of PCH, like what you're recreating, but I also drove on PCH in areas going through Orange County and Los Angeles County which looked more like this:

Not quite as majestic as what you're building.

Maybe I need to put up parking signs? lol
I'm glad you didn't notice the rest stops (a bit of flat sand at the moment lol)
That means you're focusing on the road and hopefully putting your foot down
I hope you've got your music on while cruising, or going for it... has to be done mate

And that road doesn't look too bad to me... apart from there are too many cars on the road.. lol
That white van needs to get out of the way! He or she has clogged up the overtaking lane! lol

That looks pretty majestic to me, for one its sunny
Roads round where I'm from are a bit more like this, so I suppose I'm easy to please:

That's a good excuse to be late for work! lol
Gary.... Back the car up... Get some speed up... I'm sure you can make that jump lol
Check the wind direction 1st though, and kick the tyres!

 

[SS454]

The water on my PC just doesn't look right.

 

[SS454]

I did drive the latest version. Big improvement! The track is much smoother and more flowing. The exhaust sounds reflecting off the the mountains in the canyon is super cool. A Ferrari sounds majestic in there.

I also may have found the funnest car to drive on the Pacific Coast. Ford Escort RS1600 with H pattern shifting! What a blast.

 

[Phoenix77]

@SS454 I'm not sure if you're running any graphics mods... or what exposure you're using... But I'm setting things up for 100% exposure... default PP filter (as people recommend setting a track up for this) Your screen looks a bit over-exposed to me mate... The water might receive a tweak later... But to be honest... If you look at water on quite a few AC tracks... the ocean really doesn't look too bad on here. There is a balance to be met... Between the water normalmap (bumpmap) looking good from 100 - 200ft up the side of a mountain (further away)... To down low where you took your screenshot... Most of the track is higher... So that's the balance I've gone for... If you get what I mean?
Exposure wise... Here's your screen

Here's mine default clear weather /12:00 / default PP / 100% Exposure

Glad you're liking the flow I think it's almost there flow wise... I want to get it smooth as... Then will subdivide and add some "noise" to the physical mesh to increase the FFB feel... But obviously I don't want to subdivide until the roads 100% in the right place... otherwise I will have thousands (probably 10's of thousands times) more verts to move around.

Gotta love a bit of reverb When I get the more important things done, I will probably calculate the reverb early reflections etc more accurately for the size of canyon...

I might have to try the Escort... I've been too sidetracked with the Porsches, Lamborghini's and Ferrari's. I also haven't tried the Audi R8 plus yet.. I love the sound of that V10 engine.

 

[SS454]

I'm using the stock AC settings, I think I'm running high detail in the game. No idea what exposure I have. I know I ran that at 13:00 with clear skies. From higher up, it seems to look like there is only 3 colors. Maybe the texture of the waves could be smoothed out a little? Maybe a tint or two darker? I dunno. I will look at my settings though, as maybe its partially something on my end.

I like your attention to detail, even though I think the road surface is good as is. Any tiny bumps that remain could be expected from a public highway. Few odds and ends and then you can work on a new highway track haha.

This was the first time I have ever driven the Escort, and I think it's perfect for the highway. Sure it only hits 225 kph, but revs to 9000 and shifts so nicely.

I usually like to drive race cars, but on the Pacific Highway I like to drive the road cars. I also only drive on an Old surface to simulate lower grip levels of the real deal. That makes cars like the Yellowbird a handful.

 

[Phoenix77]

No idea what exposure I have

Use PG UP / PG DWN to set it to 100% mate

From higher up, it seems to look like there is only 3 colors

Technically water has no colour by itself... It's all coloured by scattered light, which is why the old ocean was crap... It was simply satellite imagery taken on a cloudless sky... Therefore the old ocean would look rubbish with "Light Clouds", "Light fog" etc... It would still remain blue.

Maybe the texture of the waves could be smoothed out a little? Maybe a tint or two darker?

I might reduce slightly the scale of the normalmap... and reduce the specular amount (reflectivity) But it's not really my priority at the moment... More important things to do... You'll have to bear with it for now I'm afraid mate... Drive faster... or close your eyes! lol

I like your attention to detail, even though I think the road surface is good as is. Any tiny bumps that remain could be expected from a public highway.

Thanks, I'm about to sign off the road as done... which will mean barriers and close to track details can go in

Few odds and ends and then you can work on a new highway track haha.

lol Oh I certainly have a few plans... One being a Utah/Arizona track... Another being somewhere in the Swiss Alps... Another running around a mountain/volcano in Japan (imagine a 20km Akina, but where you can do laps). And a stage down a mountain in Japan... Which is one of the most stunning roads I've ever seen And is one that the Top Gear guys completely missed!

This was the first time I have ever driven the Escort, and I think it's perfect for the highway. Sure it only hits 225 kph, but revs to 9000 and shifts so nicely.
I usually like to drive race cars, but on the Pacific Highway I like to drive the road cars. I also only drive on an Old surface to simulate lower grip levels of the real deal. That makes cars like the Yellowbird a handful.

I had a go in the Escort... IMO it needs more gearing... I must admit I didn't go into the setup though... I think the Pacific Coast is great for Supercars, Hypercars, and Muscle cars... Although now the road is smoother... Race cars are certainly an option Maybe even F1 lol
I'm really looking forward to putting the GT3 RS through it's paces down here later today!!

 

[Phoenix77]

Draft layout for the gas station... this will probably change depending if the pit_lane.ai works properly or not...

 

[Phoenix77]

And some better looking trees... Sorted out the normals

 

[Phoenix77]

I had to cut down some trees to make way for this...

Still needs some work... But I'm sure you get the idea

When I plant some new trees... They'll work well together

It's like the Gumball has come to California...

 

[Alexandr66]

I had to cut down some trees to make way for this...
View attachment 161661
Still needs some work... But I'm sure you get the idea
View attachment 161662
When I plant some new trees... They'll work well together
View attachment 161663 It's like the Gumball has come to California...View attachment 161665

Hope, this asphalt texture - is "wild beta"..
Cool, any way

 

[Phoenix77]

Hope, this asphalt texture - is "wild beta"

lol Do you really need to ask mate They are wilder than a wild thing out in the wild!
Just getting it into AC rough to see if all 23 AI cars could leave the parking lot... No point spending time on textures if the concept didn't work...

They can all leave fine (sometimes with the occasional bumping)...

Cool, any way

It's so much cooler than having the pit's on the road...
And when you're sitting at the pit box 1 (next to the pumps) and hear all 23 blast out down the road.... It's pretty cool IMO

There will be MUCH more work on textures... Anyone that knows my attention to detail will already know

 

[Phoenix77]

@Alexandr66

Better textures? lol

 

[Alexandr66]

@Alexandr66
View attachment 162156
Better textures? lol

Thank you to show up!..
Should i simply agree? If so, than - Yes...=)
But please, not "premium" gasoline... Name it "cleanest", "pure", "high-octane" - it make sense
PS. "Drifting near gas-station - is Dangerous" - good sign to put there for you

 

[aphidgod]

"Premium" is a common term in the US for high-octane gasoline. Given the road in question, it's perfectly appropriate.

 

[Phoenix77]

Thank you to show up!..
Should i simply agree? If so, than - Yes...=)
But please, not "premium" gasoline... Name it "cleanest", "pure", "high-octane" - it make sense
PS. "Drifting near gas-station - is Dangerous" - good sign to put there for you

lol yeah you can agree..... or not if you prefer mate...
Sorry I completely disagree... As @aphidgod states... Premium.. Is a US term for gas / petrol...
I will however completely agree with the words high octane... At some point when there aren't more important things to be done... I might have to put that in somewhere...
Funny you should say about the drifting near gas station... I designed the layout of the gas station so drifting around the building is a possibility... And I might put up a "please drive carefully" sign on the back of the building and possibly some graffiti... But again... There are far more important things that are being done. The next update should have a lot of things sorted

"Premium" is a common term in the US for high-octane gasoline. Given the road in question, it's perfectly appropriate.

Thanks for clearing that up mate I think it's completely appropriate too...
Cheers for confirming it
If it wasn't appropriate I wouldn't be too bothered... It's my track, I'd still do it anyway lol

 

[Phoenix77]

Phoenix77 updated Pacific Coast with a new update entry:

0.512 (North layout & Gas stations)

Added the North layout (No signs or cams yet)
Includes AI & Pit Lane.
Added gas stations at either end of the track
(If you remember the original Test Drive game)
View attachment 162341
(Good to drift around)
View attachment 162342 22 pits boxes in the parking lot behind.
Pit box 1 & 2 are either side of the gas pumps.
Re-worked trees
Re-worked track cameras
Tweaked AI line (South) for AI to get through Salmon Creek Chicane better...
(turn...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[garyjpaterson]

One suggestion:

Can you separate the road markings (white lines, etc) from the road surface texture? I say that because AC seems to have terrible anisotropic filtering, and most tracks and road markings looks very very blurry at a distance.

I notice the Kunos gets around this by having the white lines a separate 'object', which hovers a couple of cm above the track itself. This means on a road such as this one with prominent road markings, it stays nice and sharp at small viewing angles.

IMO that would improve this track hugely, and the road marking textures blurring is one of the most distracting visual aspects for me, and its not just this track.

Otherwise. great job so far

 

[Phoenix77]

Cheers for the suggestion Gary,

If I can work out how to do that... I'll give it a go... and yeah I've noticed the anisotropic thing... It looks ok on 16x though... I think to do a separate line object will involve me getting better with spline objects in 3DS Max, being a bit of a novice... that might take me a while to get my head round (also why I haven't put the safety barriers in yet)
My 3D skills have improved enough for me to get the gas stations in though.

I also need to "cut" the terrain mesh into lots of different sections... so I can apply rock face textures etc. ATM I only have 1 multilayer shader with 2 grass textures and one sand/dirt...
When I "cut" the terrain mesh into separate objects... There will be a shed load more variation
Until I can sort these things out, I'd recommend maxing up your anisotropic setting (if you haven't already)

Good to know it's not just my track... means I haven't messed something up with the texture or shader settings... As the blurring thing is annoying at low anisotropic setting.

Glad you're liking it apart from that

 

[garyjpaterson]

No its definitely not just your track, but its most noticeable on tracks where the markings are prominent. With yours being a public road, you have very clear markings down the centre of the road, and are a focal point - on most race tracks its just the white lines at the edge, and go unnoticed most of the time.

And AC does seem to deal with it worse than other games, usually x16 AF is fine, but in AC its not ideal for some reason.

You can see it in this image:

But yeah, no rush, its looking really good so far.

 

[Phoenix77]

No its definitely not just your track, but its most noticeable on tracks where the markings are prominent. With yours being a public road, you have very clear markings down the centre of the road, and are a focal point - on most race tracks its just the white lines at the edge, and go unnoticed most of the time.

And AC does seem to deal with it worse than other games, usually x16 AF is fine, but in AC its not ideal for some reason.

You can see it in this image:

But yeah, no rush, its looking really good so far.

Yeah I know what you're saying mate...

The will be a slight issue with having the lines as a separate object when I get to the point of doing HeliCams... With different objects close together, when viewed from a longer distance... But I'm sure I'll figure out a way

With that photo (SS454's photo?), I can tell that's from a previous version... I've changed the texture type in the material, which I think made it slightly better, still not how I want it to be... I'm also looking at adding slight cracks to the road surface, and some variations. But will have to try and make it FPS friendly.

I think I will have to look at it when I start using the "proper" textures Most things in the track are about 70% where I want them... and that extra 30% will be the icing on the cake lol

Number one priority is sorting out the road mesh, and the holes where the faces are folding at too sharp an angle... There are a couple more bumps (more like creases) that need ironing out... Then I can subdivide for a HR FFB mesh.. and add some noise and some gentle bumps. on a 23km track it can be a b**ch tracking them down when looking at a wireframe lol

Thanks mate, glad you think it's looking good so far... I still have some room before it gets to V1.0 so it's halfway there IMO.

Then main thing is the fun factor as far as I'm concerned... I'd say it certainly has that... especially in online multiplayer,
24 hypercars down here is crazy