Hi there I'm just wondering how long it takes to convert a 3ds file to a rf2 track. You and I know I probably never get the track into RF2. But who knows. ;-) I'm an architect and able to modelling different things in ArchiCAD and export them as 3ds file. So I built just for fun my local indoor kart track. I have not finished yet. Befor i do i like to know how realistic it is to drive this track in RF2. How much work is it to get it into the game? I have no idea about this part. This the race track: Layout: http://salzmannracing.ch/images/content/bilderkarting/raceinnstrecke.jpg Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpxIFB5YaUo That's what i got till now with some simple textures: Please tell me how realistic my plan is. Just be honest. May someone help me. If not it's okay too. Thanks and good evening. Lighty
Without seeing the model in wireframe, it might contain too many polys. Looking at guardrail and tirewall you either have lots of polys there or then you have used smoothing groups very well. Very, very rough workflow is something like this: Model your track with reasonable amount of polys, map it and export it to FBX format. Import FBX to ISI application called gJED, finetune materials and export it in game. More information can be found over here http://wiki.rfactor.net/index.php?title=GJED
Anything can be done if you have the will to keep working at it. It might not be the traditional method for doing something, might take a lot of extra time, but is possible. With that said, one of the things you are going to run into using a 3DS mesh is that they only support 1 channel of UVW mapping. In order for the RealRoad (groove, marbles, etc) feature of rf2 to work properly you are going to need some way to map additional texture channels to your road surface mesh. Judging from the texture tiling, it looks like the surface is a monolithic slab. I'm not sure if RealRoad can work for a mesh like this even if you find a way to map more/different texture channels. This is a good read to help understand what you need to do (The Implementing RealRoad section, page 5+): http://imagespaceinc.com/downloads/rf2/modsresources/rF2_Track_Technologyv3.pdf
Thank you for the answers. I thought it wouldn't be that easy. There are really too many polygons. The guardrail is a sideview following a spline. But ArchiCAD makes many polygons out of this. Same with the tyres. I would have the will but not the time to get into this materia. Life's too short.:-/ Anyway. Thank you for your time and the description.
Yes. You need to do all modelling and mapping in 3D application before importing FBX to gJED. Lightstoner - Many times these high level modelling tools (like tools of ArchiCAD, SolidWorks etc.) creates too many polys, which makes them almost useless in game development.
You might want to see if there is a way to reduce the poly count before you export to FBX. See if you can reduce the number of spline 'steps' on the splines that are 'followed' to make the poly objects (steps, control points, vertices.... not sure what these are called in ArchiCAD). or.. from ArchiCAD-Talk: "You could try converting the Object to a Morph, then using the Modify Segmentation... > Fewer Segments command to reduce the polygon count. ... " or.. Mootools Polygon Cruncher: http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/polygoncruncher/cmdline.htm Track Surface: ~ 1.5m to 2.0m quadrilateral. Other Surfaces: (usually larger.. as large as visually acceptable) quadrilateral or tri-mesh. Look at wireframe views of track meshes in this forum's threads for examples. Many of us (also) use 3dSimEd as a low cost editing tool.
