Isle Of Man

[matty0l215]

Just so you know, i only used google earth to edit the gps data. It shouldny have changed any other physical data. I just removed 2 laps of data

To be honest the track looks great Matty for the differences in height(though I'm not privy to knowing the accuracies of the height map of the TT circuit in real life), but it does look good to me! 

Now to get the centreline sorted so we can run it in GPB(Hopefully)..... That is going to be a right pain in the arse! I think I'll do that over the next few days. Or maybe even leave that till next weekend when I've got more time. Lol

Hawk.

Whats envolved in doing the centerline. I could give it a go with a bit of guidence.

[Hawk]

Just so you know, i only used google earth to edit the gps data. It shouldny have changed any other physical data. I just removed 2 laps of data

To be honest the track looks great Matty for the differences in height(though I'm not privy to knowing the accuracies of the height map of the TT circuit in real life), but it does look good to me! 

Now to get the centreline sorted so we can run it in GPB(Hopefully)..... That is going to be a right pain in the arse! I think I'll do that over the next few days. Or maybe even leave that till next weekend when I've got more time. Lol

Hawk.

Whats envolved in doing the centerline. I could give it a go with a bit of guidence.

It's a very tedious and laborious job on a normal length track, but for a 37.73 miles track it will be absolutely mind numbing. Lol

I would suggest trying it out on a smaller track first and then decide if you would like to do it for the IOM track, because you have to try and keep the line centred in the middle of the track and that can be a little trick at times... Also for the IOM track it will be vital to keep the centreline segments down to an absolute minimum for the test as we don't know for sure if the max limit for those segments has been lifted for sure or not?

Here is the page for instructions on creating a centreline for a trackhttp://docs.piboso.com/wiki/index.php/TrackEd#Centerline

I would suggest you copy a current track folder to work on so you don't overwrite anything in a track folder your using for GPB right now.... Just in case you make a mistake. 

Any problems then just let me know and I'll try and sort you out. 

Hawk.

[HornetMaX]

Keeping the centerline in the middle of the track is not absolutely necessary. For sure you don't need to get too paranoid about it being exactly in the middle. Just eyeball it.
Most important point in the wiki documentation, #11:

It's a good idea to save your editable centerline to a .tcl file, so you can load it again if you re-export your trp. Go Centerline -> Save As

A tcl file is just a text file so on some occasions you could even do some smart-ass manual changes (if you really know what you're doing).

[matty0l215]

Oh I remember this (i've played around with Tracked in the past)

I'll happily give it a go, whats the worst that can happen?

[Storris]

Can this work be split up so that 3 or 4 people can work on different sections, and then folding them together at the end?  I've just been sticking pins in the Course every 100m on Google maps to get the total area (150Km²), and that was painful enough.

[HornetMaX]

Can this work be split up so that 3 or 4 people can work on different sections, and then folding them together at the end?  I've just been sticking pins in the Course every 100m on Google maps to get the total area (150Km²), and that was painful enough.

Due to the way the centerline is defined, this can't be done easily.
You'd have to agree on a precise point separating two sections, have the 1st section end exactly there, have the 2nd section start exactly there, stitch them together manually editing the tcl file and hope that the cumulative error of all the merge does not screw up the last sections too much. Not worth the risk, IMO.

I don't think it's a hard job: it just takes time. And we've plenty of that

[janaucarre]

Hi,  on the 4th page of this thread i've post 2 mega links for centerline,  perhaps you can use it and modify it

[PiBoSo]

Dear Storris,

we had a lengthy internal discussion, and also asked for advice to a friend with experience with laser scanning, licensing and much more.
All things considered, we decided we are not interested in your project, and will go our own way. It may sound harsh to post this message in public, but I think it's important to make clear to everyone that we are NOT involved in your campaign.

Now for some clarifications:
1) Working with the point cloud of a 60km circuit would be impossible without dedicated hardware and software. Even the mesh will be complex enough that it will probably have to be split into sections.
2) It's probably better to have the government help for the scan, for licensing reasons and because they are able to close the roads. You can remove traffic with two passes, but you cannot remove parked cars, for example.
3) We are not interested in a collaboration with another 4-wheel developer. You should probably do some research before messaging a developer, because it sounded a little bit offensive, as we have some experience with simulated cars, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR9EgFz4HK0
4) To be honest, it doesn't seem like you are very interested in motorcycles or sidecars... The feeling is that you want the Mountain Course in a car simulator, maybe even a specific one... If this is correct, could you please tell us which one? 

Hope to see you on TTB 

[Storris]

Hey PiBoSo,

1) Even the mesh will be complex enough that it will probably have to be split into sections.

Yep, it will be a big job.  Part of the reason I suggested working with another team...

2) You can remove traffic with two passes, but you cannot remove parked cars, for example.

I mentioned this in my earlier posts as being a reason for shipping a point cloud.  It'll be easier to remove static obstructions from the cloud than a processed mesh.  Processing that cloud into a mesh will also be a big job, but that's par for the course with this project.  Nothing about it is small.  If the KickStarter is successful, both the mesh and cloud will be available for those that want it.

3) We are not interested in a collaboration with another 4-wheel developer. You should probably do some research before messaging a developer, because it sounded a little bit offensive, as we have some experience with simulated cars, too:

Cool.  Like I said in the PM, it was just an idea that I put forward to gauge your interest.  I thought, being a massive piece of work, that collaboration might be a good idea, obviously not.  I had to find out either way.

4) To be honest, it doesn't seem like you are very interested in motorcycles or sidecars... The feeling is that you want the Mountain Course in a car simulator, maybe even a specific one... If this is correct, could you please tell us which one? 

Yeah, I want all of them.  I want, 2 wheels, 3 wheels & 4 wheels, I'll even take an 18 wheeler if someone wants to do TT Trucks!   I don't think the proposal could be any clearer, scan the track and release it to everyone, try to get a team of developers on board to build a usable track for the community, and then see where it leads.

I appreciate that you've given the project your consideration, just remember if the KickStarter is successful the data will still be available for you to use , and yes, you will see me on TTB, hopefully near the top of the online leaderboards!

[Hawk]

Exporting the .map and .trp files now for IOM test run.....

Dev Log:

• Matty used the GPS data from Storris's link and kindly ran it through BTB to create a template track surface for me. I've rebuilt the 37.73 mile track surface from that template and added a track texture.
• Added a flat grass terrain for a very simple background effect for this test run, so effectively the track surface itself will actually be hung in the air.
• Checked and adjusted the scale and made sure the track is the full 37.73 miles in length... BOY! This is one hell of a big circuit!! LOL!! 

Work still to do in TrackED:

• Create the track surface centreline.
• Create the .rdf file(Pits/Grid/Timing Sectors)
• Create the min/max lines.

Already I can tell that if we ever got a team together to complete this project(if it's viable for GPB), then the track/terrain would have to be split up into sectors and worked on individually as such. There is just too much going on even now for my system to handle the 37.73 miles well(plenty of processing time required even for simple 3D tasks).

Hopefully the export of the .map and .trp file will complete successfully and then the dreaded task of creating the centreline is the next task. 

Hopefully we should be able to test run this in the next couple of days if everything goes well. 

Hawk.
PS: This test will just involve the track surface alone with the flat terrain background just to test how GPB handles that. 

[matty0l215]

Excellent work mate

[Storris]

Can't find the like button, so I bought you this instead 

[RiccoChicco]

@Hawk

I made a full IOM track using GPS data (but not from the same source) something like one year ago. I used BTB as well but I didn't generate anything else. I've made something like half of the track centerline, since it was at the time segments number was limited. I shoud have it on one of my computer, I'll try to get my hand on it in case it can help. It should not fit perfectly but maybe it will save some of your time

[Hawk]

@Hawk

I made a full IOM track using GPS data (but not from the same source) something like one year ago. I used BTB as well but I didn't generate anything else. I've made something like half of the track centerline, since it was at the time segments number was limited. I shoud have it on one of my computer, I'll try to get my hand on it in case it can help. It should not fit perfectly but maybe it will save some of your time

Hi Ricco.

That sounds very promising.... We'd definitely like to take a look to see if it could save us a lot of time if it does fit anything like. 

Any chance of uploading it tonight as we plan to start creating the centreline this evening? 

Thank you for that Ricco! very much appreciated indeed! 

Hawk.

[RiccoChicco]

So I took a look and I can't find it. Really sorry  

Let me know if any help is needed