Thanks, nice to hear! It's a combination of stuff. First and foremost, it starts with simply creating a good looking texture which is used by rF2 to its best effect. Examples of how not to do this, you can also find in my track, as I'm still learning the rF2 specific things as I go along. That is also one of the reasons this pitwall is one of the models that finally is 'getting there' if you ask me, as I'm learning more things which make sure what I do in photoshop makes sense in rF2. Also don't forget in a lot of cases people who convert stuff, hardly know what it takes to build 3d art, a texture, or let alone an entire track. When you are building stuff from scratch, you're building something for a platform specifically, not to mention you have the total freedom to change everything as you wish. Also, I usually do two color checks when I texture, platform independant btw. One is for my base colors and tones in photoshop to match my reference pictures. Finally, when the asset is finished and in place, I tend to do a second check, checkin all the colors in the rich dynamic environment rF2 offers. Usually, a small tweak here and there is needed, usually some slight desaturation and darkening. What it also comes down to, is not taking a badly scaled low res photograph including Tim's shoes and index finger, and slapping it on a box. The textures fit the meshes they were drafted for, as you might tell by the pitwall shots. Added wear, damage, grime, kind of make sense, or at least enough of it to seem realistic enough. Lastly, sadly, take a look at the date when I started this topic and the current state of the track. I'm taking more time than most, because I like to texture these things and I'm only liking it more and more as I understand more of the shaders/materials which gMotor offers. This being the first gMotor platform I'm building something for, it's a bit of a journey, but a fun one so far, there's always a solution for a problem and most of these problems exist because of a user error on my end to begin with. For example, some of the materials in Zolder have the normal map applied where the specular should be, because somehow, I expected the material to pull the specular map from the alpha channel of the normal map, where I stored it. Little did I know I completely misunderstood the shaders' description.. Hope that at least clears up something of your question there, even although this one was just an introduction to your real question Those corner workers are ISI made indeed. It wouldn't surprise me if those have not been touched for 3 years, they at least look like it. It is like with my road surface and how it looks. It works, you can drive on it, I'm more inclined to build stuff that is missing altogether than to polish something which is fully functional already but could use a visual polish. That said, the community could have easily built 2 corner workers and implement those in tracks. No attempt has been apparently, so I don't even know if there is a need. They do stand out, but that is also part of their purpose they are there. If you let these guys detract you from enjoying a track, I think you should drive faster
Thanks, but no, there is no 'the release'. It's simply a track getting ready to leave Alpha phase and heading towards a finished state. What 'finished state' means is totally undefined in terms of quality and time frame, I fully intend to keep it that way. Probably not the answer you are looking for though In case you were wondering what I meant with that other deadline on the previous page, the league I'm racing in has a race on Zolder in the second week of December. Some bugs need fixing before that time and it also means finalizing the pitwall. That version will be available two weeks before the actual race I presume, so I will upload that version when I have it packaged.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Taking the time to properly "texture" (is that a verb now?) the environment makes all the difference between a track that looks like a replication of a real world place and a digital (fake, too perfect, unrealistic) creation. The wear and tear is the item that is most often forgotten, so even when all the other elements are well considered, it still looks like a brand new facility that no one has ever used or that no car has driven on, which will rarely be the look that we should be going for. I am most glad that you are enjoying the learning experience. We will all benefit from your passion some day (hopefully!).
Yep, (and thats a verb indeed ) the difference between a replication and digital fake is the biggest issue to overcome and that's also usually the hardest to achieve. If you check out any iRacing track, you can easily see how well it works if you get it right, or right enough
It must be the most difficult to achieve because it's the rarest to find. iRacing does an excellent job of that, but we know it can be done just as well in rF2--feels3 proved that quite a while ago.
That few people take the time and make the effort doesn't mean it is super hard to do, it says more about those people who don't Having said that though, Zolder isn't nowhere near that level either As promised: These will give me a chance to check out how to work with LOD's, as of yet, I don't really know how to control them, will check it out later but I don't except it to give me too much trouble. Hoping to finish this first pass on the pitwall next week, then it's on to bugfixing, yay... It'll be very tight if I am to actually build that walk bridge before the deadline and if I don't finish the pitwall between now and next saturday I'm quite sure I will not be able to make it. I could maybe fit a mockup in there but that might be all I can get done before the race server needs to get updated to allow for training etc. Fact is, November 30th, a new version will be there to check out, with or without that bridge edit: Base is done, time to dirty it up and add some bolts and stuff, last bits on this for now. edit2: @ Sk1dmarks I can confirm I'm not going to be able to include the walkway in the next build, no time.. I'll build a temporary gantry so at least the start lights won't float. Will start working on that bridge directly after the update though
As promised: http://www.mediafire.com/download/8l0nef3c0f41fh8/Zolder_0.24_Alpha.7z Just as a reminder, it's still all very much a work in progress and as hinted at earlier, the pitwall is the only thing getting into the ballpark of where I want to go. I'm just going to continue at this leisurely pace and continue getting those buildings and bridges made
Thanks William. Although I`m not at home atm it`s still good to see progress. Will be testing this as soon as I`m back at the rig.
Yeah. I spent about 45 min with the Gran Sport(great car, thanks ISI!) and I like your work! Sure, there are a lot of work to be done like trees and grass, but it is already very good! I don't know if the pitlane exit is good(it seems a bit off to me) The pitlane looks already good.
Cool cool, always nice to read people having fun. Simply put there is ****loads of work to be done, the pitlane exit, I believe it is even mentioned in the release notes somewhere, not 100% sure about that myself
