[roa] Galibier

[Piet_Agoras]

I present my first track:

Galibier

"It's the day before the arrival of a stage of the Tour De France on the "col du Galibier". Fans have already painted names of the favorites on the tarmac. The finish area is in place and everybody is waiting for the spectacle tomorrow. When suddenly a bunch of crazy fools start racing around. Nobody knows who they are, but there cars looks like 40 polygons..."

Any comments? (or congratulations)

V1.1 In the zip-file.

[egamad]

First, I want to congratulate you on your first released track. And second, I want to tell you what I like and dislike about it:

+

- Dithering. It makes the track look 100% more natural, and yours is nicely done for a first track.
- A great thing is that you included hmap variety. A lot of first tracks are flat (like mine was) and aren't too appealing.
- You filled the map, which is good, because there are no big empty spaces.
- You connected the track with some public roads, which contributes to it's realism.
- The track has constant width, which is good. Many first tracks vary in tarmac width.
- The office block isn't plain square, that's good.
- Nice story.
- Maybe some other things that I forgot.


-

- The cliff thingy in the middle. The idea is nice, but it came out a bit strong.. The surface is constant everywhere, but here it's like BAM! Cliff.. And I mean lmap and hmap. And on the top of the rock/mountain is supposed to be snow? Why only there (it's like 15 meters tall)?
- Not very convincing object placement. That boat doesn't really have any space, so why put it there? Only because there is water on the map, and boats generally belong into water, there's no need to actually put a boat into every puddle.
- You should always put some space between trees. In nature trees need some space to grow, and don't grow in perfectly straight line. Also maybe there are some bushes, stones, meadows,... Also combining different tree types makes the forest more pleasant to the eye, e.g. fir-leaf, pine-leaf,.. But usually more than 2 is too much IMO.
- Those lined houses don't look too good to me. The same problem as with the trees.
- Office blocks (and most of the times, houses) aren't built on grass. Make some tarmac spots, maybe a parking lot,...
- Writing on tarmac usually isn't a good idea, but at least you covered it with a story.
- Maybe some other things that I forgot.

Don't get me wrong, this is a much better first track than mine was, but I always learnt something new from comments like this. Thy to have this tips in mind the next time you're making a track and the result will be much more pleasing.

[Piet_Agoras]

First, I want to congratulate you on your first released track. And second, I want to tell you what I like and dislike about it:

+

- Dithering. It makes the track look 100% more natural, and yours is nicely done for a first track.
- A great thing is that you included hmap variety. A lot of first tracks are flat (like mine was) and aren't too appealing.
- You filled the map, which is good, because there are no big empty spaces.
- You connected the track with some public roads, which contributes to it's realism.
- The track has constant width, which is good. Many first tracks vary in tarmac width.
- The office block isn't plain square, that's good.
- Nice story.
- Maybe some other things that I forgot.

Thanks

-

- The cliff thingy in the middle. The idea is nice, but it came out a bit strong.. The surface is constant everywhere, but here it's like BAM! Cliff.. And I mean lmap and hmap. And on the top of the rock/mountain is supposed to be snow? Why only there (it's like 15 meters tall)?
- Not very convincing object placement. That boat doesn't really have any space, so why put it there? Only because there is water on the map, and boats generally belong into water, there's no need to actually put a boat into every puddle.

Made the puddle a bit larger and removed the cliff thing.
I'll implement it an other time

- You should always put some space between trees. In nature trees need some space to grow, and don't grow in perfectly straight line. Also maybe there are some bushes, stones, meadows,... Also combining different tree types makes the forest more pleasant to the eye, e.g. fir-leaf, pine-leaf,.. But usually more than 2 is too much IMO.

I know, but I did it to give the feeling that you're racing where it's green. Otherewis you would just see the sky

- Those lined houses don't look too good to me. The same problem as with the trees.
- Office blocks (and most of the times, houses) aren't built on grass. Make some tarmac spots, maybe a parking lot,...

I tried to fix that.

- Writing on tarmac usually isn't a good idea, but at least you covered it with a story.

It looked like fun to me

Don't get me wrong, this is a much better first track than mine was, but I always learnt something new from comments like this. Thy to have this tips in mind the next time you're making a track and the result will be much more pleasing.

I'll remember it

Anyway v1.1 is in the first post now, with the adjustments that you proposed

[egamad]

Hey, that's a quite big improvement IMO, but still you should put your energy into creating new tracks, so you can improve as a trackmaker. But as I said, a decent try for a first timer, and if you learn at that pace, I think you're a guy we should all watch out for.

[thegreatfalcon]

Mostly remove that text on the track as Ivo said in the preview I think... Also, use a spreading tool to add dark and light tarmac on the tarmac... Paint's spreading thing works good but my favourite is GIMP's Pencil Sketch (see attachement). I like this because you can select a portion of the track wether with magical stick or rectangle selector and put dithering without messing up the non-waiting-to-be-dithered part of the track....