The "What Are You Working On?" Thread

[Ben Lee]

I know everyone loves Suzuka, but I think Okayama is my favorite Japanese track.

 

[SATLAB]

Just here to say that "Otto" has been suited up (sort of).

I will probably release the Motorwagen in beta version tomorrow or the day after; there are several things I can't fix so I need to know from the community if they are fixable or not due to the car physics. For example you can't race the AI because AC has been programmed to retire a car if it proceed too slow... and the wagen has a top speed of 13-16 km/h...

Bonus "vintage" screen

 

[Kyuubeey]

Nothing incredibly exciting, but now when it's been about a week and I got elevations somewhat more settled, I traced the Google Maps image again to reel it in some more. The good parts were good, and some bad parts got more figured out. Initially it wasn't matching at all, but that was with bad elevations.

Next step is to set up some cameras for a more serious photomatching and to derive the dimensions of the main tower building. If I do that, I should be able to make an orthographic camera and get a good match from the Google Maps image (It's almost squared, but not quite). Then by photomatching the elevations and some details which might be obscured and correlating them to the corrected Google Maps camera, I should arrive at a reasonably accurate track layout.

When that will be I don't know, but I'm not willing to spend months and months matching the road surface, although it's still at least several weeks off. I need to graybox the entire track and photomatch every corner from every angle I have until it's okay to start doing the actual surface and visuals.

 

[Emery]

Plenty of material refinements and performance optimizations happening, too. I think I may not be too far off a preview release.

Where's the Shelby transporter?

Good attendance, but not 75k-people-crowded nor likely even 10k!

Meanwhile, 1963 Cobras to the front!

 

[NightEye87]

View attachment 516902

View attachment 516903

Nothing incredibly exciting, but now when it's been about a week and I got elevations somewhat more settled, I traced the Google Maps image again to reel it in some more. The good parts were good, and some bad parts got more figured out. Initially it wasn't matching at all, but that was with bad elevations.

Next step is to set up some cameras for a more serious photomatching and to derive the dimensions of the main tower building. If I do that, I should be able to make an orthographic camera and get a good match from the Google Maps image (It's almost squared, but not quite). Then by photomatching the elevations and some details which might be obscured and correlating them to the corrected Google Maps camera, I should arrive at a reasonably accurate track layout.

When that will be I don't know, but I'm not willing to spend months and months matching the road surface, although it's still at least several weeks off. I need to graybox the entire track and photomatch every corner from every angle I have until it's okay to start doing the actual surface and visuals.

To be fair, no-one that hasn't been there in real life will ever be able to tell if it's off or not. Once some people that have been driving there try it out, they can provide valuable feedback if needed

 

[Trava]

To be fair, no-one that hasn't been there in real life will ever be able to tell if it's off or not. Once some people that have been driving there try it out, they can provide valuable feedback if needed

I don't know about you but I've never been to japanese touges/tracks and I can still tell that most of them are completely off.
Roads being 1.5m too narrow or elevation being 30% wrong are kinda hard to miss.

Hell it becomes painfully obvious if you as much as compare the tracks to aerial photos most of the time.

 

[Kyuubeey]

To be fair, no-one that hasn't been there in real life will ever be able to tell if it's off or not. Once some people that have been driving there try it out, they can provide valuable feedback if needed

What Trawa said. Although after some point I don't think anyone can tell if it's off or not, despite driving there or not. Just depends how accurate it gets. I'd like to at least get it to the point where you're not too sure about it even if you have experience there.

 

[Thrashy]

Where's the Shelby transporter?

View attachment 516943

View attachment 516949

Along with a fair bit more dressing for the pit and paddock, it's coming! As it happens a very dear relative of one of my friends was traveling with the Shelby American race crew that season so I might have some even better reference imagery coming, if they can find the right old photo albums...

 

[NightEye87]

I don't know about you but I've never been to japanese touges/tracks and I can still tell that most of them are completely off.
Roads being 1.5m too narrow or elevation being 30% wrong are kinda hard to miss.

Hell it becomes painfully obvious if you as much as compare the tracks to aerial photos most of the time.

What Trawa said. Although after some point I don't think anyone can tell if it's off or not, despite driving there or not. Just depends how accurate it gets. I'd like to at least get it to the point where you're not too sure about it even if you have experience there.

Obviously. I'm not saying "just trace the Google Maps image", I'm saying "don't waste 3 months on minor tweaks to get it as close as you possibly can". Your dedication to accuracy is great and it will provide an accurate enough version in not too much time. 1 or 2 meters will show, 20 cm will not. 3 degrees of camber will show, 0,3 won't.
It's hard to put my point across, but I hope that cleared up my comment

 

[Kyuubeey]

Obviously. I'm not saying "just trace the Google Maps image", I'm saying "don't waste 3 months on minor tweaks to get it as close as you possibly can". Your dedication to accuracy is great and it will provide an accurate enough version in not too much time. 1 or 2 meters will show, 20 cm will not. 3 degrees of camber will show, 0,3 won't.
It's hard to put my point across, but I hope that cleared up my comment

He isn't actually the one doing the road surface, I am. You're replying to the wrong guy.

I don't intend to use 3 months just on the road surface, but the grayboxing will probably take at least that long and if I do find something, I'll go and change it. I'm not being paid to get it out quickly so I might as well do a fine job.

Either way these things will take months because I simply can't work on it every day as much as I did now in the beginning.

 

[KittX]

I'm not being paid to get it out quickly so I might as well do a fine job.

the biggest trap of my life, honestly
been spending 10 years on Ahvenisto for that very reason, remaking, starting over every time i get better data or become more skilled, and now there is already pretty good Ahvenisto available, which is still off in few places, and generally i'd approach some things differently, but why bother if it already exists... If there is any lesson that can be taken from it, for me it's - work on your hobby project as quick as you work on paid project, or you as well might never be able/want to finish it.

 

[Kyuubeey]

the biggest trap of my life, honestly
been spending 10 years on Ahvenisto for that very reason, remaking, starting over every time i get better data or become more skilled, and now there is already pretty good Ahvenisto available, which is still off in few places, and generally some things i can do better, but why bother if it already exists... If there is any lesson that can be taken from it, for me it's - work on your hobby project as quick as you work on paid project, or you as well might never be able/want to finish it.

I think it's just about knowing when you can't acquire any more data. Although I definitely don't regret spending several years making my FD3S, NSX, Skyline and so on physical models. If you find more data I think it's worth putting more work into it if you're doing it for the sake of the model and not to accomplish a goal or to get paid with it.

I can't imagine spending 10 years on any single car or track though. If you haven't found enough data to finish it at that point then maybe you've picked an impossible project or your expectations are too high.

 

[KittX]

I think it's just about knowing when you can't acquire any more data. Although I definitely don't regret spending several years making my FD3S, NSX, Skyline and so on physical models. If you find more data I think it's worth putting more work into it if you're doing it for the sake of the model and not to accomplish a goal or to get paid with it.

I can't imagine spending 10 years on any single car or track though. If you haven't found enough data to finish it at that point then maybe you've picked an impossible project or your expectations are too high.

more of the second. Tbh nowadays you could just walk around with iphone and lidar the whole thing (if you figure out where to dump all the generated data along the process), but i didnt really go much further than the roads/curbs until i photomatch all the bumps/undulations etc. And then the off-time comes to an end, and next time you get back to it in few months and don't remember where the hell you've paused, and start to double-check yourself and redoing things over instead of progressing further. Meanwhile i've participated and built many other more complicated tracks from scratch, being obsessed over them too, but to more sensible degree, but it's actually that very "phew, now i'm not in a rush, i can slow down and make things i feel the most right" mindset that kills the progress for me.

 

[Trava]

I'm saying "don't waste 3 months on minor tweaks to get it as close as you possibly can".

The two people autists involved have both spent over a year on a single project so far, 3 months is a really optimistic estimate.

 

[NightEye87]

He isn't actually the one doing the road surface, I am. You're replying to the wrong guy.

I don't intend to use 3 months just on the road surface, but the grayboxing will probably take at least that long and if I do find something, I'll go and change it. I'm not being paid to get it out quickly so I might as well do a fine job.

Either way these things will take months because I simply can't work on it every day as much as I did now in the beginning.

That should've been a multi-quote, sorry.

 

[AccAkut]

more of the second. Tbh nowadays you could just walk around with iphone and lidar the whole thing (if you figure out where to dump all the generated data along the process), but i didnt really go much further than the roads/curbs until i photomatch all the bumps/undulations etc. And then the off-time comes to an end, and next time you get back to it in few months and don't remember where the hell you've paused, and start to double-check yourself and redoing things over instead of progressing further. Meanwhile i've participated and built many other more complicated tracks from scratch, being obsessed over them too, but to more sensible degree, but it's actually that very "phew, now i'm not in a rush, i can slow down and make things i feel the most right" mindset that kills the progress for me.

And then at a point where you got the main track rather finished, you suddenly get a PM from someone working at the track going "great work, but there's a few issues, here, we took these photos on a track walk"

 

[aphidgod]

That sounds weirdly specific.

 

[kcabe1]

Riley and Scott MK.3C for my upcoming SCC Revival Mod.

 

[THL]

AI and more houses.

 

[wmialil]

AI and more houses.

Those industrial buildings look crazy good