How do you build tracks?

General discussion about your experience with the game.
Post Reply
User avatar
SammieVL
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:16 am
Location: Roermond, the Netherlands

How do you build tracks?

Post by SammieVL »

Yes, how? What LMap thingies look good in your opinion? What objects can you put together for neat walls? How exactly can you make a mud tire track under a track corner, AND, make it look good?

Well, discuss it here! Discuss what a good track is and all of it's aspects, and go specific if you want!
I'm kind of hoping for replies since i need some tips from some trackmakers... kind of on what i mentioned above.
Maybe to start, just making a few scribbly lines works good on a road, making it look old-ish. If i'm not mistaken the road in Aelbank Forest was done like this.
asdfhsldf.PNG
asdfhsldf.PNG (4.59 KiB) Viewed 2066 times
And banking, what works for me is setting the HMap brush size to something comfortable and just HMapping it down at just a bit from the inside of the corner, until it fits the corner.
Do you have/need useful GeneRally tips & tricks?

Well...

The Great Track Tips & Tricks Topic
Areen

Re: How do you build tracks?

Post by Areen »

(I'm sorry if you won't understand something, my English sucks xd)

So, generally, in tracks I'm looking for:
- great layout,
- interesting scenery,
- great objects placement,
- excellent work with lmap,
- little details that makes the track different than others.

You asked about lmap thingies, so I can tell you, that I hate when the lines are drawed "bad". I mean, they're crooked, underdeveloped. It hurts my eyes ;d

About choise of objects and their placement, it depends on what kind of colours you used before to make lmap and other objects. E.g. you used much of red in lmap, so using big ammount of soft walls is destroying general look of the track. "What objects can you put together for neat walls?" You can put everything, if it looks well comparing to the rest of the track.

"How exactly can you make a mud tire track under a track corner, AND, make it look good?"

I'm using a pencil in paint. It simply gives the best effect, but you must put much effort in it ;) You must simply play with it, and find your own way to do the best dithering. I learned it from JohnQ, because he is completly master of all time in dithering in generally tracks.

And about dithering the road. I developed my own technique, and I'll show you how it works (I've done it on most of my tracks, so you can really see the effect, but now you can see how it's done. ;P)

So this is my Sakhir (yea, but this track is on my PC since 2011 XD).
1.png
I'll put my base texture on it.
2.png
2.png (742 Bytes) Viewed 2048 times
1. Texture on first corner.
2. Now I'll put the darker tarmac on the best line using only pencil.
3. Now on the less used sides I'll use the birghter tarmac, still using only pencil.
4. Some final touches.
Voila!
dithering.PNG
dithering.PNG (2.65 KiB) Viewed 2048 times
User avatar
Qurpiz
GeneRally Trackmaster
Posts: 109
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:48 pm

Re: How do you build tracks?

Post by Qurpiz »

I have this huge .bmp, this is 3rd or 4th of it's kind, where you can see these circles of varying sizes, for turns, and straights in different angles, for straights. I've done it all from scratch, and I do all my layouts with it in the old Paint. I actuelly had to install the old Paint on my Windows 7, because the Paint in Win 7 was way, way too fancy to do 16 bit images.

You can see I have circles and straights for pitlane, too. Also, huge, HUGE area for all the layouts that I come up with (usually one every day or so), and then save it in the empty area for further use/post it in the Abandoned thread. You can also see some of the... experimental stuff in there, that's just me being high on my computer.

That black box in the upper left corner is exactly 512x512, that's where I do the layouts, to keep it within the borders, once I come up with a layout I like and feel needs to be seen in-game I create a new bmp for it, in 512x512, and import in to TE. This is the first time I use TE in the process, and by that time the layout usually has the pits done, kerbs, some safety areas even.

So, if you look back at my tracks closely you can see the same turns, pixel by pixel, come up again and again, and that's because they're all done in Copy & Paste with Paint. I only use Paint and TE to do my tracks, there was a time I used GIMP, too, but that was dropped off quickly.

It's a thin line between genious and autism

EDIT: and to aswer the question in OPs post, what I think looks good in a track, I like it when it looks like a real track, that could exist in real life. A lot of thought and effort goes in the service roads and stands, and all that stuff in my tracks. I don't like drawn objects, though. You see a lot of tracks with cars and buildings being drawn into the Lmap, and I just can't get around it, I don't like them. Don't hate them, but the dislike is there. And some of them are really well made, and even look good, but in principle I detest them, and don't think I've never used them
Attachments
Mothership.jpg
User avatar
SammieVL
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:16 am
Location: Roermond, the Netherlands

Re: How do you build tracks?

Post by SammieVL »

Qurpiz wrote:It's a thin line between genious and autism
Aren't people with autism very "genious" too?

Anyways, that track making thing with the huge bitmap with the curves and stuff in it sounds really cool!
Do you have/need useful GeneRally tips & tricks?

Well...

The Great Track Tips & Tricks Topic
User avatar
SammieVL
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:16 am
Location: Roermond, the Netherlands

Re: How do you build tracks?

Post by SammieVL »

Now here's another tip: make your tracks FUN!

GeneRally was in my opinion never meant as a simulator. It's an arcadelike game.

That's why i don't like the real life track remakes and real life cars on here. The tracks are too flat qua HMap and kind of boring, and the cars mostly handle too bad, and are slow.

It's why i always add loads of banking to my tracks, and obstacles to avoid. Take a look at my track Barrowedge.
Barrowedge.PNG
Barrowedge has banking everywhere, and then in the town it focusses on another part, avoiding obstacles (not exactly combining them seems to work well for some reason). You actually need to master the track.

There's a big jump, and then a sharp corner. If you're a good driver and you know the track, you can land into a drift, and slide past the sunktire obstacle on the bridge. It sounds way more fun than "drive on a straight part and drive through some corners", right?
Do you have/need useful GeneRally tips & tricks?

Well...

The Great Track Tips & Tricks Topic
Post Reply