Halcyonaut
AC, ACC, iRacing
Wow, only just heard of this track. Great work so far!
Tracks Thomson Road Grand Prix - Singapore
- Thread starter Fat-Alfie
- Start date
No updates before Christmas, sorry 
I'm currently working on the 3D grass and it's the first time I have tried adding this to a track (successfully). All the tutorials seem to be aimed at Blender users, and I'm a 3ds max guy. What I have been struggling with is correct lighting on the grass objects that sit on angled terrain. Defaultly, the normals of the grass point upwards, whereas the normals of the terrain point 90° to the surface. This leads to a discrepancy between the light that falls on the ground and the light that falls on the grass. Which looks bad
In case there are other modders who use 3ds max I thought I'd post a link to a script I found that takes the normals from one object (my terrain) and pastes them to another object (my grass). It's free, it works, and it's easy to use - bonus!
The script, Normal Thief, is here
And here's a few shots of it in action
And here is the grass in-game, with its normals matched to the terrain it sits upon
I'm currently working on the 3D grass and it's the first time I have tried adding this to a track (successfully). All the tutorials seem to be aimed at Blender users, and I'm a 3ds max guy. What I have been struggling with is correct lighting on the grass objects that sit on angled terrain. Defaultly, the normals of the grass point upwards, whereas the normals of the terrain point 90° to the surface. This leads to a discrepancy between the light that falls on the ground and the light that falls on the grass. Which looks bad
In case there are other modders who use 3ds max I thought I'd post a link to a script I found that takes the normals from one object (my terrain) and pastes them to another object (my grass). It's free, it works, and it's easy to use - bonus!
The script, Normal Thief, is here
And here's a few shots of it in action
And here is the grass in-game, with its normals matched to the terrain it sits upon
Last edited:
So the solution is to go with weather and lighting such that no light hits anything, normals be damned?
(It's probably just me, posted photos always look super dark on my phone but fine on my monitor.) edit: yep... totally different on my PC. Looks nice!
Foliage is shaping up nicely.
(It's probably just me, posted photos always look super dark on my phone but fine on my monitor.) edit: yep... totally different on my PC. Looks nice!
Foliage is shaping up nicely.
Last edited:
Well, at cloudy circumstances diffuse light is indeed almost non-present. Not the best way to show off your normals
I tried normal thief once but it failed badly on my machine so I didn't include it in my tutorial. Any hints on how you get it to work nicely? (i.e. settings? maximum number of normals selected, etc?)
I tried normal thief once but it failed badly on my machine so I didn't include it in my tutorial. Any hints on how you get it to work nicely? (i.e. settings? maximum number of normals selected, etc?)
Hmm... don't know, nothing special I don't think
I'm working with grass in 10k vert chunks (maximum), the donor mesh is about 1500 verts. It can take a few seconds but I haven't had any problems with it at all so far. (3ds max 2013, i5-6500, 3.2ghz, 8gb ram, W10 64-bit)
And yes, sorry about that screenshot - not the best one to use. I was just so excited that it worked
I'm working with grass in 10k vert chunks (maximum), the donor mesh is about 1500 verts. It can take a few seconds but I haven't had any problems with it at all so far. (3ds max 2013, i5-6500, 3.2ghz, 8gb ram, W10 64-bit)
And yes, sorry about that screenshot - not the best one to use. I was just so excited that it worked
I think I have worked out the best way for me to add my trackside foliage. I envisage the grass right next to the track being quite low, and gradually getting taller, more wild, and also darker as it moves into the area covered by the trees. I've tried to do this with a single texture / material,so the texture contains only 5 plant types, but at various darkness.
Thomson Road is like a tree-lined corridor, with 90% of the foliage being within a few metres of the edge of the track. It also has a relatively short viewing distance due to the nature of the layout. I have split the track into 20 sections, each section has 8 different plant types/colours and about 3,200 plants (25,600 verts). I have so far added plants to the first 7 sections, with no optimisation (i.e. those 7 sections contain 56 individual plant meshes still) and I hardly notice any drop in performance I love AC!
It's going to take a while to add it all as I have to split each distribution object into 4 strips, so I can ensure that the correct grass goes in the correct place. Then I have normal-match each grass object to get the lighting right in-game
Hopefully it will be worth the time and effort to get this element right. Thomson Road is starting to come together for me
Thomson Road is like a tree-lined corridor, with 90% of the foliage being within a few metres of the edge of the track. It also has a relatively short viewing distance due to the nature of the layout. I have split the track into 20 sections, each section has 8 different plant types/colours and about 3,200 plants (25,600 verts). I have so far added plants to the first 7 sections, with no optimisation (i.e. those 7 sections contain 56 individual plant meshes still) and I hardly notice any drop in performance
I love AC!
It's going to take a while to add it all as I have to split each distribution object into 4 strips, so I can ensure that the correct grass goes in the correct place. Then I have normal-match each grass object to get the lighting right in-game
Hopefully it will be worth the time and effort to get this element right. Thomson Road is starting to come together for me
WOW, that looks like nothing else in AC currently, at least I can't think of anything similar right now. Huge effort and truly amazing results.
I have no understanding about track modeling but your methods always seems to be very high tech and super smart, this is going to be something really unusual, it already is in your betas.
I have no understanding about track modeling but your methods always seems to be very high tech and super smart, this is going to be something really unusual, it already is in your betas.
Just like we knew it would.
Seriously, Alfie... that's a jungle. Looks fantastic!
Great work so far, impressive!
Just a question from a track builder ignorant: is it possible to rotate the tall palms, that are the ones you mostly notice, so that don't look copy/pasted? I mean, place some at 90°, some at 180°, ...
Sorry if it's a stupid question.
OT: happy holidays guys!
Good point I do need to rework the large trees, once I have all the foliage in place. I currently only have about 6 palm textures and about 16 large deciduous tree textures. I did start to create new textures using SpeedTree so maybe I need to think about adjusting my balance of palm / deciduous.
It is possible to rotate the tree models but only up to 60° (?) as the models are Y shaped and you just end up seeing the same texture but on the next face. I could flip the texture on some models but then the lighting could look odd as the shadows (in the texture) would be falling in the opposite direction. I think my best option would be to create more varied palm textures as they are the ones that catch your eye, as you so rightly pointed out
Oh, I would like to thank @LilSki for his support and inspiration. He is a top bloke and really epitomises the people who frequent this section
Merry Christmas to everyone (I hope you all find some 'you' time to enjoy AC over the holiday)
I do need to rework the large trees, once I have all the foliage in place. I currently only have about 6 palm textures and about 16 large deciduous tree textures. I did start to create new textures using SpeedTree so maybe I need to think about adjusting my balance of palm / deciduous.It is possible to rotate the tree models but only up to 60° (?) as the models are Y shaped and you just end up seeing the same texture but on the next face. I could flip the texture on some models but then the lighting could look odd as the shadows (in the texture) would be falling in the opposite direction. I think my best option would be to create more varied palm textures as they are the ones that catch your eye, as you so rightly pointed out
Oh, I would like to thank @LilSki for his support and inspiration. He is a top bloke and really epitomises the people who frequent this section
Merry Christmas to everyone (I hope you all find some 'you' time to enjoy AC over the holiday
)
Last edited:
Outstanding work Merry Xmas mate
Merry Xmas mate 
Lies... all lies...Oh, I would like to thank @LilSki for his support and inspiration. He is a top bloke and really epitomises the people who frequent this section
Lies... all lies...
Confirmed.
WOW its looks like a complete other track like your last public beta release
Latest News
-
Sim Racing Black Friday Deals 2024Black Friday is nearly here, but a lot of Sim Racing's top brands and names have already started...- Connor Minniss
- Updated:
- 8 min read
-
Racing Club Schedule: November 17 - 24A new week means a new set of events in our Racing Club. Here's what's on tap from November 17...- Yannik Haustein
- Updated:
- 3 min read
-
Macau Grand Prix in Sim Racing: Deserving of More?This weekend is the Macau Grand Prix and whilst a shadow of its former self, this tight street...- Angus Martin
- Updated:
- 3 min read
-
How One Announcement Quadrupled Forza Horizon 4's Player BaseIt is exactly one month until Forza Horizon 4 will no longer be available to purchase online...
- Angus Martin
- Updated:
- 2 min read
-
Assetto Corsa EVO New Car Configurator In The PipelineAfter this year's sim Racing Expo, the excitement around Assetto Corsa EVO has continued to...
- Connor Minniss
- Updated:
- 2 min read
-
Steering Wheel Showdown: Which Wheel Would You Like A Sim Racing Version Of?Sim racers have plenty of choice when it comes to hardware. There are a number of cool steering...
- Yannik Haustein
- Updated:
- 2 min read
-
Gran Turismo 7: Yamauchi Teases New Cars For Update 1.53It is that time again when Gran Turismo series producer Kazunori Yamauchi teases us with an...- Luca Munro
- Updated:
- 5 min read