Tracks (WIP) Midfield Raceway (feedback welcome)

[Psy185]

Release 0.5 beta:

0:00 New features
0:58 Chase cam
2:16 Static external view
3:33 Track cameras

Changelog:
- redone the whole surface (road, pits, grass) and added bumps to it
- added billboards and the start/finish arch
- new and better curbs
- increased detail of first tunnel entrance
- better pine trees (thanks NightEye87!)
- added Japanese geo coordinates for correct sun angles

Hint: The track is optimized for usage with CSP (custom shaders patch). If it doesn't look like this, you probably don't use CSP, especially regarding the 3D grass.

To-Do:
- better tree shadows
- rocks
- convert all pngs to dds
- higher tree texture resolution
- fences
- split into multiple .kn5 for faster exporting (see LilSkis Tutorial)
- more diverse textures for grass, rocks, etc.
- make textures look less repetitive
- tunnel reverb sound FX
- details, details, details

I would be very happy if you gave it a test drive and give me any feedback. Of course it's in an early stage and a ton of work, so please don't expect a polished track...

Check my channel soon for newer versions of this track.

Download track:

File folder on MEGA

mega.nz

Cars (12,50 €):

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[Ofitus21]

Amazing! Hopefully this weekend I have a bit of time to record new AI lines!

 

[Psy185]

That'd be awesome! I tried using the Blender plugin for AI lines but couldn't wrap my head around that stuff yet

If I may make a request, please try a later brake point in T1 and let the AI use the two flat curbs I added to the track (they are allowed to use regarding the track limits). Also they seem to brake unnecessarily before T2 and the last corner sometimes Thanks in advance!

 

[Ofitus21]

That'd be awesome! I tried using the Blender plugin for AI lines but couldn't wrap my head around that stuff yet

If I may make a request, please try a later brake point in T1 and let the AI use the two flat curbs I added to the track (they are allowed to use regarding the track limits). Also they seem to brake unnecessarily before T2 and the last corner sometimes Thanks in advance!

Yep, noticed that. T1 was interesting, any faster and they have a massive pile up in T1 at the start of races.
But don't worry, I'm now faster around the track, so when I re-record the AI, it should be faster too.
T2 and the final turn will be fixed with a couple of AI hints, so don't worry about that

As for the kerbs, fear not, that can be easily solved too

Finally, creating AI lines is a lot simpler than you may think

 

[Psy185]

Thanks for the recommended video! I used the dev app to record a fast_lane and pit_lane, but wasn't able to fine tune it to perfection, regarding curbs, track limits, brake points, etc. But I will have a look into that tutorial the next few days and than I should have a better understanding of it...

BTW, a question to y'all... at what stage of development do you usually release a track (i.e. upload it to RaceDepartment as a resource)? When will my track be ready for that? Or is that just my own judgement, when I feel it's ready or "good enough"?

 

[NightEye87]

Well, you're already releasing versions for a while. It's just that they are a bit easier to find if you publish them on RD as a resource. All up to you
I think Assen was just a ribbon with aerial imagery applied to it when I first released it

 

[Ofitus21]

Thanks for the recommended video! I used the dev app to record a fast_lane and pit_lane, but wasn't able to fine tune it to perfection, regarding curbs, track limits, brake points, etc. But I will have a look into that tutorial the next few days and than I should have a better understanding of it...

BTW, a question to y'all... at what stage of development do you usually release a track (i.e. upload it to RaceDepartment as a resource)? When will my track be ready for that? Or is that just my own judgement, when I feel it's ready or "good enough"?

I think the moment to release it is when you have the layout finished. Once you are happy with the asphalt mesh, the AI works, and everything looks fine, it's the moment to release it. But again. That is up to you. I have only released a car, so not much I can say.

Bear in mind many people don't notice track updates after the original release or don't really follow them. So they could leave poor reviews because they think the mod is incomplete and abandoned.

Looking at V0.5, I think you can confidently release the track when you finish V0.6. You are making progress at an unbelieveable speed.

 

[Psy185]

Thanks for the kind words Ofitus

Bear in mind many people don't notice track updates after the original release or don't really follow them.

And I am so guilty of that But I wouldn't leave bad reviews because of that.

You are making progress at an unbelieveable speed.

I'm really trying to make some good progress before getting the keys to the new house in March, because there will be very little time for modding after that So I guess my goal is to release 1.0 until then. Of course such a track is never finished and you can work for years on it, as @NightEye87 's Assen track confirms

Well, you're already releasing versions for a while.

Yeah I know... but I meant more... officially and if there are any requirements for that.

But I thought the same thing like Ofitus said... once somebody downloaded it, they may never update it and of course ratings will be a mix between different versions over time. So what I will try to implement for 1.0 will be some more noticable details like the big grandstands, fences, crowds, buildings and some of the stuff @LilSki collected in this post.
And of course I don't plan do stop after 1.0 forrever I will just take a break until the house is "finished"

 

[Psy185]

Another question at the track modders: what shader values are you using for tree lines so they kinda match the trees? I can't seem to find the right values:

You see they are much darker than the real trees when using the same values. This is due to the fact that I'm using a diffuse value of .15 and the sun is on the opposite side of the plane. In the other direction it will be fine, because the other side of the plane is lit by the sun. So I thought to myself, well let's use a diffuse closer to zero and a higher ambient value. So this is how that looks:

Which is better, except in the evening or bad weather, when the tree line becomes too bright:

How do you guys do it?

 

[NightEye87]

It might not be the industry standard way of doing it - I have no idea - but I pointed the normals upward on the tree line so it's lit the same way as the ground. It has the same material as the trees, just edited the diffuse through the DDS rather than through a different material. I think it works fine for distant trees. You don't get any of the highlights that the spherized trees get, though.
So yours may be too near for that? But definately worth a try. Or just add another layer or three of 3D ones before you make a tree line.

 

[LilSki]

The first row of tree walls I usually put the bottom normals parallel to the ground with the top ones pointing up. Then the walls after that are all pointing up. The 90* normals at the base makes them darker down low to blend better with the Y tree normals.

 

[Jeffrey Gaskin]

Mid-Field Raceway by Psy185 V0.5! IMSA Race With The Corvette C8.R!! - YouTube

I love the updates so far to the circuit!! I posted a race I did over on my YouTube channel at Projekt EDEN...such a fun drive! I look forwards to future updates!

 

[Psy185]

Mid-Field Raceway by Psy185 V0.5! IMSA Race With The Corvette C8.R!! - YouTube

I love the updates so far to the circuit!! I posted a race I did over on my YouTube channel at Projekt EDEN...such a fun drive! I look forwards to future updates!

Great clean race, thanks for the video! On what difficulty were you driving on? And at what time of the day and which weather? I'm just trying to get a feel for the shaders and the lightning.

When I look at 1:47 I might reduce the bumps on the start/finish line a bit though Of course it looks very exaggerated with that small fov of the track cam...
Also the crest in the last corner might really be a bit much, as someone already mentioned earlier in this thread...


@NightEye87 @LilSki
I will try that, thanks! As I've never edited normals before, is this basically what I do (for the first wall)?:

• Subdivide vertically (my tree line still has a single face from top to bottom)
• Select Bottom Face, Alt+N -> Rotate -> 90° downwards - wrong thought... just keep them as they are?
• Select Top Face, Alt+N -> Rotate -> 90° upwards

And then I can basically use the ksTree shader with similar values to my Y trees?

But there are tons of Youtube tutorials on normal editing in Blender, so I will look into that as well.

 

[Jeffrey Gaskin]

Great clean race, thanks for the video! On what difficulty were you driving on? And at what time of the day and which weather? I'm just trying to get a feel for the shaders and the lightning.

When I look at 1:47 I might reduce the bumps on the start/finish line a bit though Of course it looks very exaggerated with that small fov of the track cam...
Also the crest in the last corner might really be a bit much, as someone already mentioned earlier in this thread...


@NightEye87 @LilSki
I will try that, thanks! As I've never edited normals before, is this basically what I do (for the first wall)?:

• Subdivide vertically (my tree line still has a single face from top to bottom)
• Select Bottom Face, Alt+N -> Rotate -> 90° downwards - wrong thought... just keep them as they are?
• Select Top Face, Alt+N -> Rotate -> 90° upwards

And then I can basically use the ksTree shader with similar values to my Y trees?

But there are tons of Youtube tutorials on normal editing in Blender, so I will look into that as well.

I had race start at 8am using Sol Few Clouds weather preset. Opponent difficulty was at 92 +\-5 with aggression at 75.4 +\-8.1.

I used the Sol_ACC filter as it brings out more of the color palette found in GT5&6, and in VR everything feels amazing. I don't know about anyone else, but I love the bumps around the circuit, even the crest out of the final turn! Kinda gives the circuit surface character and definitely a fun factor which is similarly found in a lot of the American circuits like Road America and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, as well as British tracks like Oulton Park which I love!

 

[Psy185]

Haha alrighty Well I like to drive it as it is as well... But in replays I thought it looks much more arcadey than other tracks. So I'm unsure whether or not to change it. But for now my priorities are on other things on the track anyway!

 

[Psy185]

Short question: are these the correct settings for saving DDS in Photoshop? Especially compression and MipMap settings

 

[Jeffrey Gaskin]

Haha alrighty Well I like to drive it as it is as well... But in replays I thought it looks much more arcadey than other tracks. So I'm unsure whether or not to change it. But for now my priorities are on other things on the track anyway!

I went back and watched the race again and...yeah, I will agree that the crest makes the track feel a bit too arcadey...I would say that the climb up is good, rounding it off a bit so that the cars maybe feel a little light at the top but not get airborne would still be good.

 

[Ofitus21]

BTW, I notice you said you still have to change the files fom

Short question: are these the correct settings for saving DDS in Photoshop? Especially compression and MipMap settings

View attachment 438648

I usually edit textures using GIMP, but I'm sure that someone else can help out

 

[millen]

Short question: are these the correct settings for saving DDS in Photoshop? Especially compression and MipMap settings

View attachment 438648

Also interested in this, sorry to hi jack.. haha.
Seems when I save with Intel plugin my dds textures don't seem to work properly, so I'm doing something wrong, which is confusing because there isn't that many options.
So I've been using the NVIDIA plugin without issues... Although I can't seem to see how to set a manual mipmap count, automatically is always just making 13 levels, which is too many right?

 

[NightEye87]

Texture export settings depend on what you want. Sometimes you want DXT1, sometimes DXT5, sometimes 8.8.8.8.. there's no "standard for all".
As for mipmaps, I export without and let AC generate them. Loading times are slightly longer. There's a whole topic on this at the official forums. I'll try and look it up again