? Track modding questions ?

[SA_22]

ok so i started to work on a  re make of cadwell park , but straight away i knew i needed to stop and make a small test track. to help learn the tools, work a few things out and fix any problems before i start working on a larger track.

i've read pretty much everything i could find, but there still alot of gaps that need filling!!

so i have a bunch of questions and queries that i need answering....


what scale should i be working too?

exporter settings for the sun don't seem to change its direction?.. tried all sorts of numbers... what am i doing wrong?

is there a newer plug in for the exporter?... fbx one crashes for me if i tick shadows on.. don't really want to install max 2010 again!

how different is the map viewer from what is ingame.. whats different?

how far can i push the engine before it starts to hit fps hard?... tri's, textures, texture sizes, alphas etc

how does the engine handle the order of alphas?

what exactly does the exporter take from the material?

how complicated can i get with the materials in max or is it a waste of time?..from what i can tell its just the texture maps nothing else.

does the engine handle multiple uv channels on an object?.. my testing say's no....

can textures be animated in a panning fashion? ie clouds

can transparent material cast shadows?

can decals be set to not cast shadows?

can objects be sunken into the group or does everything need to be flush?

is vertex painting supported?

do alphas need to be in the alpha channel of the diffuse?.. or can they be used separtely?

is the specular value in the txt file work as the glossyness of the material?

i see the naming conventions for the materials.. do the meshes need any?

how far is the draw distance?

any big no no's i should be aware of?




there's more i've just forgotten 

will update later.....


thx SA

[janaucarre]

Hello,
The scale is in meters, like in reality.
You can do all what you want with the sun in the .amb file in the track folder.
The last exporter plugins are in the gpbikes download page, if you have any problem report in the right thread, i think it's in the tracktool.
The differences are only what you can see:)
Like i said in other thread, by me the problems of export begin with about 300 000 polygons, perhaps lower.
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No multiple uv channels
You can have little animations, like a gif. Ask noss69, he knows how to do.
I dont think.
Only TRK and WLL prefix makes parts receive shadows.
Don't understand what you want to know.
I don't think.
I think they need to be in alpha channel.
Don't know.
I don't understand what you want. All parts of a track must be named with right prefix, in editable mesh or in editable poly.
The draw distance depend on your pc config.

[RBp]

ok so i started to work on a  re make of cadwell park , but straight away i knew i needed to stop and make a small test track. to help learn the tools, work a few things out and fix any problems before i start working on a larger track.

i've read pretty much everything i could find, but there still alot of gaps that need filling!!

so i have a bunch of questions and queries that i need answering....


what scale should i be working too? 1.1 mneters

exporter settings for the sun don't seem to change its direction?.. tried all sorts of numbers... what am i doing wrong?    that changed in the amb file

is there a newer plug in for the exporter?... fbx one crashes for me if i tick shadows on.. don't really want to install max 2010 again! not sure

how different is the map viewer from what is ingame.. whats different?  not sure

how far can i push the engine before it starts to hit fps hard?... tri's, textures, texture sizes, alphas etc, collsion data cause more fps losss than textures

how does the engine handle the order of alphas? not ure

what exactly does the exporter take from the material? eerrr the whole image file

how complicated can i get with the materials in max or is it a waste of time?..from what i can tell its just the texture maps nothing else.  bump for sure displacement I think as well, specular as welli think

does the engine handle multiple uv channels on an object?.. my testing say's no....  single ahpla I belive

can textures be animated in a panning fashion? ie clouds  not sure but animating texture is possable

can transparent material cast shadows? only colliable object cast shadow unless forced

can decals be set to not cast shadows?  decals wont cast shadow unless sforce I think

can objects be sunken into the group or does everything need to be flush?  sunk ok

is vertex painting supported?  not sure

do alphas need to be in the alpha channel of the diffuse?.. or can they be used separtely? not sure

is the specular value in the txt file work as the glossyness of the material?  belive that done map

i see the naming conventions for the materials.. do the meshes need any?  yes

how far is the draw distance? 25m meters for 3d grass, pretty far for the rest but don't know the distance

any big no no's i should be aware of?   try to keep track poly at 9o degress from grass edge for surface smoothness, don't add any bumps, to much camber the bike wont reset, don't have grass model under tarmac/ kerbs , don't have plain colliabe models be hit by the bike on the edge of the model this casue ODE errors.

http://tools.piboso.com/index.php/Track_Creation_Rules




there's more i've just forgotten 

will update later.....


thx SA

[SA_22]

You can do all what you want with the sun in the .amb file in the track folder.

how is the amb file created?.. right now i've just copied another tracks amb and changed the name and contents

Like i said in other thread, by me the problems of export begin with about 300 000 polygons, perhaps lower.

test track is only at 4500... still crashes if i export with shadows

No multiple uv channels

what about the groove, puddles etc... says on wiki needs second uv channeL?

[SA_22]

exporter settings for the sun don't seem to change its direction?.. tried all sorts of numbers... what am i doing wrong?    that changed in the amb file

so just leave exporter at 1,1,1 and chg it in amb?

how far can i push the engine before it starts to hit fps hard?... tri's, textures, texture sizes, alphas etc, collsion data cause more fps losss than textures

is it possible to make my own collision mesh and export that?

[SA_22]

also tried to get the test track in game today.... but it just crashes on connecting??

poly count is low

only 5 or 6 1024 textures

everything is named correctly

from what i can tell everything is correct......

i wish there was more documentation for this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[janaucarre]

What do you want for more with the amb file? a copy is all what you need.
You need to make a centerline and place the pit place and start grid and speedtrap line and start line and split to work corectly ingame.
Go here:
http://forum.piboso.com/index.php?topic=537.0

[SA_22]

all of that is done.... still bricks the game!

........................ no idea! 

[RBp]

double check the centreline has been closed before merging,   you can check by moving the centerline it should move in a single piece and not just the last segment


I found closing centreline not easy to do and this caused the track to CDT

[SA_22]

yea thats what it was....... should of double checked it after i hit close!

so starting to get my head around the importing... still a few more questions tho!

having a confusing time setting up the lighting!.. seems as if the xyz cordinates in the exporter are different than in the amd from what i can tell? tried all sorts of variations of number but i cant seem to get the track and the rider lit the same way.. y always seems to be flipped no matter how i mess with the numbers



another thing i've noticed is the lack of shadows created by the track... maybe down to not being able to create the shadow maps without the exporting crashing?... but shouldn't the 'sun' still cast shadows?

also the specular is confusing me... tried all kinds of combinations with the map ( dark - light) and the shininess in the shd... all seem just as flat as each other.. if i'm  honest i dont even think its picking up the normal or the spec.. names all seem correct tho....

edit: the name of the shd should be the same as the diffuse map right? or is it supposed to be the name of the material in max

[RBp]

I don't understand the spec and bumps map's fully myself so no use on that for shadows I use a model with  decal prefix and  texture and place them the sam as the amb

but I don't d to many shadows and im sure there a better way.

[SA_22]

I don't understand the spec and bumps map's fully myself so no use on that for shadows I use a model with  decal prefix and  texture and place them the sam as the amb

but I don't d to many shadows and im sure there a better way.

played around with the normals more 99% sure there not showing up... file names and .shd are all correct according to what little documentation there is!.....

yea doing the shadows like that is neat trick for some spots... but from what i can tell from other tracks, there is another way to get them to show up. if you could use more uv channels you could bake them out in max.

really starting to get frustrated with lack of documentation and crash heavy modding tools!.. with a game ( a great game) that only ships with 3 bikes and 1 track, you think there would be ALOT more to get more and better content into the game.

[RBp]

For documentation piboso KRP fourm is better, there only afew of us here doing tracks, I was lucky and had someone to sit by the side of me and show me the basic's.  If you got question just ask and we always try to help.

Shadow maps can be created by the exporter, there an option for it. I belive it only gives shadows to object with naming prefix's but not to sure.

I can't get any animation to work myself as the documentation make no sense to me.

[SA_22]

yea i've read all  of that.

i am asking and u, janaucarre and hawk have been super helpful... but theres still a lot that needs answered... trying to work this out myself is nothing but hitting brick walls.

having that option on crashes the exporter

[SA_22]

bump for piboso!