Custom Test Track v0.1

[Sluicer]

Guys, finally here is the afaik first custom test track. I know there is a lot of work to do, but I would like to ask you to test the version 0.1.

I did not edit the wdb files for now.

You have to unpack the archive into your TEST folder; don't forget to make a backup before. I hope I did not forget anything (feedback would be good! Thanks).

Edited December 10, 2015 by Sluicer

[aidenpons]

Why can't I open the TSTK.GDB in the PWB editor? It comes up with an error. POWERUP.PWB loads fine though. EDIT: Using Grappie's editor works (yes, I was using the clunky one previously.

 

As for feedback, are you able to make the rocks different textures? It just looks so repetitive...

 

Also, have a .pwb file that I made for it.

http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/296

Edited December 11, 2015 by aidenpons

[Fluffy Cupcake]

Can someone post screens? I won't be able to see it for at least another 12 hours if not. ;P

[Fluffy Cupcake]

In a sudden turn of events, we all find out that I'm a big liar I was able to get to this sooner than later:

 

[grappigegovert]

This is great Sluicer, I reckon you have figured out the collision structure?
I made a quick minimap, so you can see where you're going:
http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/298

 

 

[Fluffy Cupcake]

So after the track we've got powerup and minimap sub-mods to go with it. What's the next easiest thing, music?

[Lind Whisperer]

Sweet! Is it at any point theoretically going to be possible to(if one has the skills) model custom car parts for this? 

Edited December 12, 2015 by Lind Whisperer

[Fluffy Cupcake]

Is this what you're after?

[MaelstromIslander]

 

Is this what you're after?

Hilariously enough, we kept talking about making custom tracks in that thread, and here we are. 

Edited December 12, 2015 by MaelstromIslander
This editor amuses me.

[Fluffy Cupcake]

And it took only what, one year? I wonder how much progress we'll make in the next 12 months.

[Sluicer]

As for feedback, are you able to make the rocks different textures? It just looks so repetitive...

Yeah, I will work on that. I used original textures from LRR - but the uv-coordinates are not good by now. I will try to create a better version. If you have any suggestions which textures I should use I could also use better ones. Because some of my techniques are semi-automated, I have to be carefull (expecially in the corners - there I should also use different textures).

Also, have a .pwb file that I made for it.

http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/296

That was really fast and is really cool. I appreciate your support!

@Xiron: I think the test track is not designed to work with wormholes :-). I think you were lucky, that you landed at a position where the main floor was also present.

This is great Sluicer, I reckon you have figured out the collision structure?

Yes, I think so. But this track has special attributes, that made it a little bit more simple. E.g. there is only one level (no ramps) and all walls are at 90°.

I made a quick minimap, so you can see where you're going:
http://oresome.rockraidersunited.com/download/298

That was also really fast. I like it! Thank you also for the support.

Is it at any point theoretically going to be possible to(if one has the skills) model custom car parts for this? 

Yes, it is. I will continue the research on that, if someone finds a workaround for the triangle limit: http://www.rockraidersunited.com/topic/6313-leb-files/?do=findComment&comment=112162

Otherwise, nothing new from my side.

 

[Firedude34]

Which program did you use to make the track?

[Fluffy Cupcake]

One he wrote himself that is not yet released because it is still under heavy development.

*At least that is what can be assumed from previous works.

[aidenpons]

Some notes on warps and the track:

I can get to positions where I will use a warp and land outside the track. It's interesting, because I actually do land on - hah - land. (Yes, outside the track) I've also noticed that after exiting the warp, the collision inside the track is turned off. That is, you can go from the outside of the track to the inside, but not vice versa. (Remember the map is a tunnel).

I also recall mucking around with warps on the original test track. It would attempt to teleport you while keeping you inside the test track. From what I've seen, it appears the game still thinks the track runs round in those two loops and so attempts to teleport you along them; which is of course not the track that is currently there. Yet why you don't consistently land off the track is puzzling me...

[Fluffy Cupcake]

Some notes on warps and the track:

I can get to positions where I will use a warp and land outside the track. It's interesting, because I actually do land on - hah - land. (Yes, outside the track) I've also noticed that after exiting the warp, the collision inside the track is turned off. That is, you can go from the outside of the track to the inside, but not vice versa. (Remember the map is a tunnel).

Thanks for transcribing the second half of my video I posted a few posts back.

[Quisoves Potoo]

I also recall mucking around with warps on the original test track. It would attempt to teleport you while keeping you inside the test track. From what I've seen, it appears the game still thinks the track runs round in those two loops and so attempts to teleport you along them; which is of course not the track that is currently there.

Yet why you don't consistently land off the track is puzzling me...

I don't think that's quite the case. If the files for the original Test Track are missing from the game, there's no way it could attempt to use them as a reference. What seems more likely to me is that the game uses the AI-paths for warps, and since the Test Track lacks those, it has little idea what to do. Though come to think of it, it is possible to warp inside the Sphinx, on the desert track, so there might well be something else going on.

[aidenpons]

I also recall mucking around with warps on the original test track. It would attempt to teleport you while keeping you inside the test track. From what I've seen, it appears the game still thinks the track runs round in those two loops and so attempts to teleport you along them; which is of course not the track that is currently there.

Yet why you don't consistently land off the track is puzzling me...

I don't think that's quite the case. If the files for the original Test Track are missing from the game, there's no way it could attempt to use them as a reference. What seems more likely to me is that the game uses the AI-paths for warps, and since the Test Track lacks those, it has little idea what to do. Though come to think of it, it is possible to warp inside the Sphinx, on the desert track, so there might well be something else going on.

Wrong.

I know, from experience, that the warps follow the track. I don't know about AI pathing, but in the test track they certainly have A path to follow.

With regards to warping inside the Sphinx, that's because collision is turned off. I know that happens because I've seen, in this new track, myself exit a warp and drive inside the wall.

 

Nevertheless, the game must have some way of working out where warps go. Possibly through checkpoints, though I think the test track lacks those as well.

[Quisoves Potoo]

I also recall mucking around with warps on the original test track. It would attempt to teleport you while keeping you inside the test track. From what I've seen, it appears the game still thinks the track runs round in those two loops and so attempts to teleport you along them; which is of course not the track that is currently there.

Yet why you don't consistently land off the track is puzzling me...

I don't think that's quite the case. If the files for the original Test Track are missing from the game, there's no way it could attempt to use them as a reference. What seems more likely to me is that the game uses the AI-paths for warps, and since the Test Track lacks those, it has little idea what to do. Though come to think of it, it is possible to warp inside the Sphinx, on the desert track, so there might well be something else going on.

Wrong.

I know, from experience, that the warps follow the track. I don't know about AI pathing, but in the test track they certainly have A path to follow.

Define "follow the track." I've warped off the original Test Track a fair few times, which has never happened for me in any other track. There's almost certainly some sort of adherence to the collosion mesh, but I've never seen anything to indicate that warps work normally on the Test Track.

[Sluicer]

Sorry, no update yet. But I will try to give a few answers and comments.

Which program did you use to make the track?

I used LDraw Tools to create two files. One is the 'mesh' of the track, the other one is the colliding map.

I wrote a little bit of source code, that creates the GDB and BDB files out of the 'mesh' file and the BVB file out of the colliding map. But currently you have to respect a lot of rules to create a working result. The process is absolutely not user friendly and I did not wrote down any rules or tutorials by now. Today, I do not know a simple way to create tracks. A lot of work was done manually!

Here are two images of the LDraw files:

 

This is the 'mesh' file. You have to respect the back face curling. The different colors are for different textures (black -> 0 -> first texture; blue -> 1 -> second texture, aso...). There is no chance to create vertex colors!

This is the colliding map. Here you also have to respect the back face curling (here green is the front side, red is the back side). I removed the bottom plane so that you can see something. This is the base for the tree in the BDB file. The game will not let you drive through a triangle from the front to the back; but the other way around.

Edited December 18, 2015 by Sluicer

[lol username]

I've also noticed that after exiting the warp, the collision inside the track is turned off. That is, you can go from the outside of the track to the inside, but not vice versa.

The game will not let you drive through a triangle from the front to the back; but the other way around.

In case you don't know, aidenpons, this isn't at all unusual for collision detection in games - it's not "turning off" anything, it's just what Sluicer said. And using a warp in the vanilla test track very often leads to you falling out of the track.

[Fluffy Cupcake]

You have to respect the back face curling.

 Curling... culling?

 

Anyhow, thanks for the full proper answer to that question, even if it wasn't mine. =P

[Black Boy]

Nice track you made my man, was it difficult to make track 

[Fluffy Cupcake]

8 hours ago, Black Boy said:

Nice track you made my man, was it difficult to make track 

 

From three/four posts up:

On 2015-12-18 at 7:07 AM, Sluicer said:

I do not know a simple way to create tracks. A lot of work was done manually!

 

[TheChief]

First of all, a very happy new year to you all, best wishes for 2016.

 

Secondly, great work on the very first custom track for the Lego Racers game. It really looks nice.

 

So, to sum up: You changed the GDB, BDB, BVB, (and PWB) files from the test track. Are there any other files that you've changed?

A track mesh and colliding map from LDraw (.LDR format?) were converted to these file formats for use in the game.

By manually editing, you will mean changing the model by hand using the binary editor?

 

Looking at this information, I think the limiting factor is the tool you wrote. Modelling is something we can learn.

Now if you need some help with that tool, I did not have much time to develop my own programming much further, but I did get to assist on monitoring several coding projects.  If you want to, you can come with questions and I will have them answered for you by someone with sufficient knowledge. It may speed up the progress on your tool and therefore speed up the progress on the overall custom track creating process.

 

Anyways, very impressive job. 2016 will be the year of custom tracks! I would like to explicitly thank you for all work you have done to make this happen.

[Sluicer]

On 31.12.2015 at 8:32 PM, Xiron said:

On 31.12.2015 at 0:30 PM, Black Boy said:

Nice track you made my man, was it difficult to make track 

 

From three/four posts up:

On 18.12.2015 at 4:07 PM, Sluicer said:

I do not know a simple way to create tracks. A lot of work was done manually!

 

Exactly. It was a continuous process. Trial and error. Change one thing after the other and hope that anything is working. I wrote some lines of code that help me; a lot of things were/are hardcoded; some things became good, others don't; a lot of manual changes in the source files and/or in the results needed to be fixed manually; etc. I now have some kind of idea how they can be made but the absolutely biggest problem is time. You may have noticed that the progress in research and implementing is very long drawn-out. Sometimes I am online, but I can hardly find the time to read all interesteng entries and I keep you waiting for answers.

 

5 hours ago, TheChief said:

So, to sum up: You changed the GDB, BDB, BVB, (and PWB) files from the test track. Are there any other files that you've changed?

A track mesh and colliding map from LDraw (.LDR format?) were converted to these file formats for use in the game.

By manually editing, you will mean changing the model by hand using the binary editor?

Yes, I created new GDB, BDB and BVB files. I also edited the MDB and TDB files. For that I used the awesome BinaryEditor.

The track and colliding map were drawn in LDraw (manuall with a lot of copy and past). I used quads and triangles and had to be carefull with the corners because of the texturing. The texture-coordinates were added by a converting algorithm I wrote (currently hard coded). LDraw was a bad choise because it does not support texturing but I can handle it very good.

And there are a lot of other things that are hardcoded. I did not wrote a tool, I implemented some classes and let them handle the files during unit tests. From my poit of view this is a good choise for trial and error.

I also manipulated the LDraw files. I added the top and bottom plane manually (matching a hardcoded thing; due to this the colliding tree is a litte off) and I sorted them by plane normal and x and y coordinates. So the colliding tree is kind of good (in my track there are only planes in 90°!).

 

But at the end of the day - I need more time. More spare time.