[REL] Mexico 1966

Discussion in 'Locations' started by Mauro, Dec 31, 2019.

  1. Mauro

    Mauro Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2011
    Messages:
    2,128
    Likes Received:
    3,973
    Last edited: Sep 14, 2020
    SRGP, The Great Apt, sman and 11 others like this.
  2. Mauro

    Mauro Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2011
    Messages:
    2,128
    Likes Received:
    3,973
    It's a little fps heavy on my system but (like modder had already done with mont tremblant track) a fps update is planned

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2019
    sman, Legend, Churrinche and 9 others like this.
  3. Pauli Partanen

    Pauli Partanen Registered

    Joined:
    May 15, 2012
    Messages:
    1,091
    Likes Received:
    1,748
    wow that was unexpected!! Nice
     
    blindthing and pascom like this.
  4. pascom

    pascom Registered

    Joined:
    Feb 5, 2013
    Messages:
    503
    Likes Received:
    438
    Wow! How nice it is!
     
    Mauro, Legend and Pauli Partanen like this.
  5. jimagn

    jimagn Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2010
    Messages:
    360
    Likes Received:
    229
    Wonderful! Keep 'em comin'!! Clearly worth the modest donation.
     
  6. Eric Rowland

    Eric Rowland Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2012
    Messages:
    268
    Likes Received:
    278
    My word!
    Memories of GPL flooding back......
    Sliding the car into the diminishing radius Turn 1, Keeping patient and tidy thru the Esses, and sliding the BT20 round Peraltada...
    Man what a blast!
    Thank you for this splendid work!
    Do more please!
     
    blindthing, Legend, Corti and 4 others like this.
  7. blindthing

    blindthing Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2018
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    32
    Hi everyone,

    Many thanks to Mauro for his support and for posting this (and my other track) here and for everyone's kind comments - really great to see people are enjoying my work!

    I specifically tried to make the track as reminiscent of GPL as possible because I think we all loved that game and Youtube videos of the GPL version were my main reference - especially as photos, and videos in particular, are so limited.

    I plan to work on a V1.1 update this weekend so if you have anything you'd like added/changed or have any issues then please let me know.

    My current list of things to address is:
    • Improve FPS performance (reduce LODs and shadow out were appropriate)
    • Remap terrain (to fix mapping issues) + refine grass/sand changes (edit vertex colouring)
    • Fix control tower windows (so they're not wonky!)

    So please feel free to add to it!

    Regarding doing more tracks: I would love to do more but these two tracks have taken a great deal of time (although the second a lot less than the first because I knew what I was doing second time around!). The primary problem however is that I used 3DS Max and Maya on student licenses that last for 3 years and these end early 2020 (I can't remember when exactly but I believe in February) so after this date I won't have the programs I need to continue making tracks unfortunately.

    Regarding the V1.1 update: I'll let everyone know when it's released here and you should be able to use the link in your original purchase email to download the new V1.1 version. If you have any issues though, just send me a message and i'll get your link for you.

    Cheers everyone!
     
    jimagn, pascom, billyblaze and 3 others like this.
  8. Dady Cairo

    Dady Cairo Registered

    Joined:
    May 11, 2017
    Messages:
    243
    Likes Received:
    160
    Wow!
    Just what we need to complete the GPL-Tracks.
    Bought blind,
    blindthing!
    Cheers and keep it coming...
    DC
     
    blindthing, pascom and Mauro like this.
  9. Legend

    Legend Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2018
    Messages:
    110
    Likes Received:
    190
  10. Eric Rowland

    Eric Rowland Registered

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2012
    Messages:
    268
    Likes Received:
    278
    Issues that I found.....
    10L quick race, clicked "start" and instead of being on the starting grid I was clustered together with some AI under a tent behind the paddock.
    Some AI in the race were taking corners way too fast and crashing (90 %) :).
    There was a circular blue haze around individual cars ( '67, '68) in my mirrors (not track related).
    Great track...looking forward to the update.
     
    Last edited: Jan 3, 2020
    Pauli Partanen likes this.
  11. davehenrie

    davehenrie Registered

    Joined:
    Jul 6, 2016
    Messages:
    7,454
    Likes Received:
    4,370
    The circular blue haze is an rF2 issue, not the track makers. (although I have never heard of it visible in the mirrors, good catch.) You can edit your player.json file to eliminate that as a temporary work-around.
    Look for these lines in the player.json
    "Heat FX Fade Speed":0,
    "Heat FX Fade Speed#":"Speed at which exhaust heat effects reduce by half (0 to completely disable)",
     
    Eric Rowland likes this.
  12. Lazza

    Lazza Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2010
    Messages:
    12,346
    Likes Received:
    6,572
    I think you misread blindthing's post.
     
    Mauro and Pauli Partanen like this.
  13. blindthing

    blindthing Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2018
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    32
    V1.1 released with the following changes:

    - Terrain remapped + grass/sand transition areas refined using vertex colouring edits + new multi overlay texture for an improved look
    - Control tower windows fixed
    - FPS improvements through LOD, shadow out and VIS groups changes (e.g. crowd LODs reduced dramatically and smallest bushes now only visible if track is played using MAX circuit detail). [FPS now runs around 50 higher than Trembling Mountain so everyone should be able to run a full grid without any issues :)]
    - Improved shading on key buildings (pits, grandstand, etc.) by detaching all vertices (unable to detach to smoothing groups as required due to the fact I'm using Maya so this is a kind of work-around test. The results seem mixed. I think overall the shading has improved but depending on the lighting, there's still some really jagged shading).
    - Corrected incorrect "-1" waypoint in AIW file (which may have been causing issues) + minor AI speed adjustments in some corners.

    If you've already purchased the track: please get your download link from the email you received when you originally purchased the V1.0 version of the track (following this link will now allow you to download V1.1 - if you have any problems though just contact me and i'll get your link for you.

    Please also remember to uninstall V1.0 first.

    - Legend: I have considered Blender but I would have to learn how to use it first and as it took me well over a year to learn how to use Maya properly, it would definitely take some time.

    - Eric Rowlnad: I was unable to recreate your issues. The first issue where you end up in an area behind the paddocks is very strange. When I first read it, I thought that I'd accidentally left the 0,0,0 garage waypoint in place but i've been through the AIW file garage, pit and grid locations and they all seem in order so not sure what caused that exactly. I did find an issue in the AIW file (waypoint without previous waypoint defined), which could possibly have caused it as I know this can cause some big problems with AI - now fixed of course, so hopefully you shouldn't encounter any issues of this kind again. Regarding the problems of AI crashing a lot: I've also been unable to recreate this problem. With large fields (20+ cars), the AI does tend to have some issues at the hairpin but generally nothing too bad (e.g. I did a 15 lap race with 25 AI and only 4 had accidents, mostly due to them pushing each other off-line). It could be to do with the aggression level though. I have noticed that aggression levels over 50 tend to make the AI more "lungey" and generally a bit gung-ho, so it might be worth playing with the aggression setting a little. Of course though let me know if it's still an issue.

    - Graphicaluserinterface: I did look for historical satellite imagery/aerial imagery but it seems that it's just not available unfortunately as I couldn't find anything even close to suitable (only some low flying helicopter shots, etc.). This is why I had to use the GPL track as the main reference for the outline curves - simply because I just couldn't find any suitable overhead imagery from the period and doing it "blind" would have resulted in something far more inaccurate. I also didn't just "increase the resolution" of the GPL track as you suggest (which would involve just adding divisions, etc. to any existing mesh): I simply used the GPL mesh to build my own curves (essentially using it in the same way you would use reference imagery). With flat curves I then added the dips etc. based on the images of the track that I found, much the same as the ones seen in your link, before lofting to NURBS and converting to polygon mesh. I did perhaps air a little too much on the side of caution (only because it can be a nightmare to fix bumps/dips that are slightly too big, etc. as I found out with Trembling Mountain), but the track certainly has some some elevation change, particularly on the insides of corners of course and the hairpin especially - keep in mind though that the real life track was, and still is, very flat indeed (less than 3m of elevation change). Redoing the RaceSurfaces at this point would be impossible given the time left on my licenses for Max and Maya as this would also require the terrain to be redone as well as the armcos and changing/moving many of the objects, etc. Ultimately I've done the best I could with the resources and knowledge I have so i'm afraid this is it...

    Cheers everyone for the support, I'll be taking a break from simracing for a while as it's been pretty intense creating these two tracks so I definitely need some time away but I will keep returning here from time to time at weekends only.

    Thanks again and I'll leave you with a couple of images to try and better show the dip at the hairpin (I know it's definitely not 100% to the real track but I think it's not too bad) and a few images of the track in the wet.

    GRAB_198.JPG GRAB_199.JPG grab26 (1).JPG grab26 (37).JPG grab26 (38).JPG grab26 (40).JPG grab26 (41).JPG
     
    Legend, davehenrie, pascom and 8 others like this.
  14. LilSki

    LilSki Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 7, 2015
    Messages:
    58
    Likes Received:
    368
    Imagery from 2001 on Google Earth has 99% of the original layout intact. Only part missing is the original T2. Still not the most ideal but still better than any original GPL track. Also camber in the hairpin look way too low compared to some historical photos out there of it.

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Emery

    Emery Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2010
    Messages:
    3,035
    Likes Received:
    1,654
    Hairpin camber and billboards

    1966 Mexico City hairpin ads.jpg

    Colors and vegetation along main straight. Note that they're not palm trees and mostly not deciduous!
    1965 Mexico City colors along straight.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 5, 2020
  16. Mauro

    Mauro Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2011
    Messages:
    2,128
    Likes Received:
    3,973
    tried 1.1 version
    now fps are fine with max settings too. very good improvement

    thanks blindthing
     
    Duncan, Eric Rowland and pascom like this.
  17. Legend

    Legend Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2018
    Messages:
    110
    Likes Received:
    190
    +1
    thanks #blindthing
     
  18. blindthing

    blindthing Registered

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2018
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    32
    Glad the improvements have worked!

    - Emery: indeed, the trees I've used are definitely not accurate - this is perhaps something I could change without needing 3D modelling software, so I may look to do that at some point for sure.

    - LilSki: AH! that's really annoying because I didn't even check google earth imagery as I know it only goes back to around 20 years ago and I foolishly assumed most of the original track would have been destroyed/changed beyond recognition. Definitely a big oversight on my part.
    Out of curiosity though, I thought I'd take this imagery into Maya as a reference plane, line up the distance markers and see just how different the track I've created is from the satellite imagery:

    mexic_aerial_comparison_with_curves.png

    As you can see the main track is really quite close indeed. There definitely are differences and deviations of course, most notably the hairpin which is slightly out of place (couple of metres for sure).

    The infield paths are also clearly not correct but by far the biggest problem is where I placed the infield loop:

    mexic_aerial_comparison_with_curves_2.png

    So yeah, the infield loop is a long way from where it should have been unfortunately. But overall, I have to say I'm pretty pleased with how close the track is to the imagery, especially the main track!
     
    pascom, Pauli Partanen, Hazi and 3 others like this.
  19. Mauro

    Mauro Registered

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2011
    Messages:
    2,128
    Likes Received:
    3,973
    Track free to all!
    https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/mexico-1966.34340/


    Hi everyone,

    As mentioned on my Trembling Mountain update, I'm also releasing Mexico 1966 here as well.

    Once again, huge thanks to everyone that purchased this track over on my sellfy store and for your support - really made the work worthwhile!

    I think this is quite a nice addition to the series of 1966 tracks already available in rf2 and I've had some pretty fun races with the AI on this track - although it could certainly be improved. I unfortunately think I've done all I can but if anyone would like to make changes and improve the track that's absolutely fine and should you need any original files just get in touch!

    Thanks again everyone for your support!

    Hope you enjoy this track too!

    Best,
    Leighton
     
  20. The Great Apt

    The Great Apt Registered

    Joined:
    May 3, 2020
    Messages:
    68
    Likes Received:
    38
    Was looking to buy this for the 67-Season, so free is nice.

    Went to the page anyway and it's no longer there; is there still a way to 'buy you a coffee' for this?
     
    Bidle likes this.

Share This Page