A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

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Buka
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A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

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This tutorial was originally made by Crowella and published at forum.racesimcentral.com.

1. External Editors. This is one that will probably be mentioned to every person that makes a track only using the default Track Editor. You can export/import bitmaps for Land Maps (Lmaps). These bitmaps can be opened, edited and saved in paint, or any other editing program. A great program is Photoshop or the GIMP (free alternative). This can make it easier to border things, organize layers, do texturing (more advanced tip).

MS Paint however, can do pretty much anything with GR tracks as well, so for beginners, MS Paint is a good start, and this will most likely become the backbone of all your tracks. Very, very few tracks purely rely on objects and hmap for the layout.

2. Dithering. On the grass, use the spray function in Paint, select mud, and spray to create a dithering effect. Don't go overboard, just try and find a limit with it that looks decent. Use other colours if you like (Keeping in mind, red, yellow and white generally don't work out well.). It will look more interesting than just plain grass, and can create nice effects like dirt and such. This step is not 100% vital to a good track, but without it, most tracks will look plain boring.

3. Do more than just place stands or trees everywhere. There are a fair amount of objects you can use (trees, booths, houses, signs, lightposts). Try and use them in a manner that will actually look like that object is meant to be there, and use them in a way that also seems logical.

With trees, try and break a gap between them, so its not dense, organised forests. Most forests in real life have some gaps, and aren't in perfect symmetry, so why should yours?

After this, draw some LMap that would suit the objects (or vise versa in fact). For example, make the buildings have concrete around it, houses with paths to it, stands with paths linking them, trees with grass, you know, kind of make the LMap correspond to the objects, and sometimes the objects correspond to the LMap. It's no point having a skyscraper have no path lead to it, or have some tree placed in a parking lot. Try and think logical.

4. Designate an actual area for the pits. You can either make a lane and bay, or just simply bolt on some extra tarmac to the side of one section of the track. Make it look quite presentable and neat (don't just tack it on, plan ahead).

A good beginners tip is to make sure your S/F line and straight is Either 0, 45, 90, 135, 180 degrees on the Lmap. This ensures an easy way to make grids for the start/finish, and makes it easier to place pits. This is especially helpful in paint, grids, pits and even object placement, as it also gives you a visual to see if objects are aligned.

5. Don't use writing on tracks. This isn't much of a problem, but if you insist on using writing on your track, use it so it sort of incorporates into the track. For example, in a small WS track, having the word "track" may look acceptable on the S/F line, but having "Compulglobalhypermeganet" on a piece of grass in yellow writing doesn't. Best advice here, stay the heck away from adding text onto the track. It just looks too tacky.

6. Make the width of the track consistent (when necessary, mainly [cir], [stc], [ovl]). It will take time and patience, but it is truly worth it. It makes the track incredibly more desirable. Believe me, I can get fussy over 2-3 pixels of difference in points, and if something is incredibly wide compared to somewhere really thin, it just doesn't work.

This will also add for better racing, as you know that ahead of you, you have the same amount of width to squeeze past a car, not to mention that it looks more realistic.

This tip however, will actually require you to plan some way to make the track like this. Using photoshop and the GIMP's pen tool, this can become quite easy. For paint however, it can be a bit more tedious. I do recall there being a tutorial helping people in paint, but I cannot seem to find it.

7. PLAN AHEAD Oh, I cannot stress this enough. I can spend DAYS trying to figure out how to make the track look right. Be fussy about what you do, it seriously helps you get through it. Not to fussy, but enough to make sure that you are getting what looks right. This involves everything from layouts, to objects... Just plan ahead.

Another good tip is to even draw your track on paper, and jot down where certain aspects are like sand traps, side roads, stands, houses, even pits!

8. Experiment with stuff. No track is perfect, no matter what anyone says, there will be someone that won't like something on it. Just keep going, try new stuff when you think you have a grip on some basic things.

A good start for a beginner is by making [cir] rather than [stc] or [ral]. The reason being is that it esentially means that more focus is put on the track rather than surroundings, which means that you don't require focus on as much detail (like road markings and gravel road dithering). It's plain and simple. It also helps you try to draw kerbs.

Again, kerbs can be easily done in Photoshop or GIMP, but for paint, will actually require some patience, and the pencil tool, and alot of pixel editing. It is the only way to do it neatly, even Photoshop and GIMP require that at one stage.

9. Try and get ideas for your track off your own tracks. If you have read something about your track before, and someone suggested to do something to benefit you. DO IT! People comment so you know what to do next time.

It can take some people 1 track to do it, the others, 100's. It's no excuse, if you are asked to do something to your track. It's really no use doing it on your old track. Do it for your next one. It will only help, and it means that you will progress, rather than leave gaps (a trend I've noticed with some people is that they get asked to do something, they do it, but on newer tracks, don't consider it). Learning requires piecing together the gaps.

By no means does this mean mistakes are evil. Mistakes are often the best way to learn.

10. Look outside, inside, on the web and look at others for inspiration. Track Masters tracks are often a great way to start, as their tracks are usually of a very good quality. The web will have many pictures of real tracks to help assist you plan yours, and looking outside can help plan stuff like trees and buildings and such. It's amazing what you get

Get inspired to do it also. If you feel like You are forced to make a track. Stop! Take a breather, and rethink why you are doing it. It's good fun, and a boredom killer.

So learn from track masters, and other tracks by others also, they can seriously help you pick up. Heck, Gabor Kozma was pretty much my main inspiration to tracks for a while.

11. Patience is the key. Most track masters will tell you this. Don't churn out a track a day because the idea came in your head. I jot the track down on paper, by the end of the week, I could have 5 tracks... I might do 1, might do 2, 3, 4, 5... sometimes don't do them at all. Wait for the idea.

Patience though, does not equal time spent on track. People are different in how efficient they work (I for one am very slow). You will build it up eventually, tracks will become easier to make as you seem to find a groove to make tracks. If something on your track isn't right to you. Change it so it is

12. Find Your style. It won't be mine, won't be anyone else's. You will find a style that suits you, but works for many others (not all, as I mentioned earlier). By this I mean trying to find how you do certain things like dithering, layouts, even Point Of Views. All requires some experimentation. Find what you are happy with.

13. Don't forget HMap. The program GRHMEditor is a wonderful program to use for Your HMap. It is quite a beginners tool for making HMap, and I assure you with a little practice, it will make everything alot better HMap wise.

Also, try to include HMap with your tracks (should be pre planned, with everything), and make sure it suits the track. I don't expect to see a huge cliff on the road, or anything like that Also try and use HMap outside of Your track. It can make for great effects like water, cliffs, it can even change the heights of buildings! As I said, experiment so it looks right and clean!

14. Practice. Shouldn't need to explain it, but put all of this to practice, and just try and improve every time!

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Czech translation
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Crowella »

Goodness me, someone had that saved! Thanks a lot :)

I still recommend everything there. :bg:
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by The lost Ninja »

Crowella wrote:Goodness me, someone had that saved! Thanks a lot :)
I had this tutorial saved on my HD too, hope you don't mind me uploading it as a .doc here! :D Note: If you're author of content restored in this topic and want to manage these files on your own (e.g. for updating attached files to their latest version), feel free to ask forum administrators to replace poster of the reply to by your forum profile, which will allow you to edit the reply according your needs and wishes.
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by A1 Aaron »

Does anyone have a link to the GRHMEditor file?? :)
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Buka »

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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by A1 Aaron »

How do you extract the files. I downloaded it but when i extracted the files none of the files opened the application
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Buka »

Sorry, wrong link. Here's correct one: http://mlynki.wz.cz/download.php?f=GRHMEdiE.zip&v=p
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Mad Dan »

I hope that Crowella don´t mind that I´m translating this to Czech :).

Drsný návod jak dělat kvalitní tratě

1. Externí editory. Tak tohle bude připomínáno snad každému kdo tvoří tratě pouze původním Track Editorem. Je možnost exportovat/importovat bitmapové obrázky pro Land Maps (Lmaps). Pak se dají otevřít, editovat v malování nebo třeba v Photoshopu, GIMPu (ten je zadarmo) a jiných. V externích editorech je daleko snažší tvořit tzv. okraje tratí, zajímavější textury povrchů kombinující různé barvy, a také se dají používat vrstvy.

Malování je asi nejpoužívanější a umí toho dost, pro začátečníky ideální. Malování je dobrý start a v něm upravený Lmap bude jeden ze základů většiny tratí.

2. Dithering Na trávu zkuste v malování sprejem rozstříkat různé další barvy. Například mud, sand, dirt. Když chcete, použijte i jiné, ale pamatujte že třeba červená, žlutá a bílá většinou nevypadají dobře. Při ditheringu musíte najít limit kdy to ještě vypadá dobře a když už ne. Bude to vypadat daleko lépe než jenom obyčejná tráva a dají se tak vytvořit zajímavé efekty. Samozřejmě že dithering vám trať nezlepší o 100% ale bez něj bude většína tratí vypadat nudně.

3. Tribuny a lesy nemusí být všude Generally nabízí spousty objektů (stromy, budky, domky, dobpravní značky, světla, atd.). Zkuste je použít tak, aby seděly k svému okolí a celkově ab to vypadalo logicky.

Když tvoříte lesy, zkuste občas dělat mezery mezi stromy tak, aby výsledek nevypadal tak organizovaně a hustě. Skutečné lesy tak nejsou perfektně symetrícké tak proč by měly být v GR?

Potom udělejte Lmap co by padla objektům. Například, beton kolem domků, paneláků. Cestu k domku, tribunám. Stromy aby stály na trávě. Zkrátka aby Lmap korespondovala s tím co na ní je a případně obráceně. Není důvod mít mrakodrap co nemá přístupovou cestu, nebo mít stromy uprostřed asfaltu. Prostě logicky přemýšlejte.

4. Určete prostor pro boxy. Můžete použít pit lane nebo jednoduše přidat nějaký extra asfalt ke kraji trati. Tak aby to vypadalo reprezentativně a pěkně (plánujte dopředu).

Dobrý tip pro začátečníky: Udělejte startovací čáru a cílovou rovinku v úhlu 0, 45, 90, 135, 180 stupnů n Lmap. To zajišťuje snadný způsob jak nakreslit startovní pozice a umístit mechaniky.

5. Nepoužívejte nápisy po trati. Tohle není zas až takový problém, ale když už musíte něco napsat tak se snažte ať to sedí k celkovému looku trati. Například pro trať s malou WS je akceptovatelné mít napsáno jméno trati místo cílové čáry, ale velkej žlutej nápis "blablabla" na trávě je blbost. Nejlepší radou je vyvarovat se nápisů. Prostě to vypadá lacině.

6. Šířka tratě by měla být konzistentní (ovály, okruhy, městské tratě). Vyžaduje to trpělivost, ale stojí to za to. Trať pak vypadá daleko lépe. Věřte mi že 2-3 pixely za až tak velký rozdíl nejsou ale když je trať někde zbytečně široká a někde šíleně úzká tak je to špatně.

Zároveň to zlepší kvalitu závodění. Nemluvě o realističnosti tratě.

Tenhle tip ale vyžaduje abyste trať tímhle způsobem plánovali. Ve Photoshopu a nástrojem pero v GIMPu to jde udělat celkem snadno. Bohužel nevím jak to jednoduše udělat v malování, někde tady je na to určitě jiný tutorial.

7. Plánujte. Já sám trávím DNY vymýšlením trati do detailů, aby vypadaly skutečně dobře. A když říkám do detailů tak myslím od layoutu po objekty, zkrátka si to předem rozmyslete.

Další dobrý tip je nakreslit si plánek na papír, layout, kačírky, přístupové cesty, tribuny, domky, paddock a pozice boxů.

8. Experimentujte. Žádná trať není dokonalá, nezáleží na tom co kdo říká, vždycky se najde někdo komu se na ní něco nebude líbit. Ale nenechte se tím odradit, pokračujte s tvořením tratí a zkoušejte nové věci když už si myslíte že základ zvládáte.

Dobrý začátek pro nováčka je okruh [cir] spíše než městská trať [stc] nebo rally [ral]. Důvodem je že se stačí zaměřit spíš na trať než na její okolí (paddock a tak). Což u rally a měst je spíš opačně, tam je okolí stejně důležité jako trať (dithering na šotolinových cestách, bílé čáry a značení u městských tratí). Také vás to tak trochu donutí naučit se kreslit obrubníky :).

Obrubníky se dají snadno dělat ve Photoshopu nebo GIMPu, ale v malování je třeba být trochu trpělívější, použít tužku a udělat s ní pixel po pixelu. Je to jediný způsob jak dělat obrubníky hezké, i ve Photoshopu a GIMPu je to třeba upravit tužkou.

9. Nápady. Když vám někdo okomentuje trať s nápadem co udělat jinak. TAK TO UDĚLEJTE :)! Odezva a kritika je důležitá a nasměruje vás tím správným směrem.

Někomu to zabere jednu trať to udělat tak, jiným stovky. To ale není omluva, jestli tě někdo požádá o to udělat něco se svou tratí. A opravdu nemá význam to dělat na tvé staré trati, udělej to na té příští. Jenom to pomůže a to znamená, že se zlepšuješ a ne že necháváš mezery ve svých schopnostech nedotčené (trend, který jsem postřehl u některých lidí je, že oni udělají na té staré trati to, o co byli požádáni, ale když pak dělají další, tak už to neberou v úvahu). Učení je zaplňování mezer ve vědomostech.

Dělání chyb je ten nejlepší způsob jak se cokoliv naučit.

10. Hledejte inspiraci. Skutečný svět a závodní okruhy jsou skvělou inspirací, stejně jako tratě mistrů (pod avatarem nápis Track Master) které jsou obvykle vysoce kvalitní. Na internetu je spousta obrázků a videí z reálných závodních okruhů a ty vám mohou pomoci vymyslet vlastní. Venku všude okole je také spousty inspirace, stačí se dívat, pak je snažší naplánovat umístění budov, stromů atd.

Nemá smysl se do tvoření trati nutit, když si myslíte že to děláte spíš ze setrvačnosti nebo že musíte. Přemýšlejte proč to vlastně děláte. Měli byste to dělat protože vás to baví.

Učte se od tratí mistrů a nejenom jejich. Ostatní vám skutečně mohou pomoci zlepšit se.

11. Trpělivost je klíčem. Většina mistrů by vám tohle řekla. Není nutné každý den dělat novou trať jenom proto že jste dostali nápad. Radši si to předem nakreslete jak už jsem řekl. Každý týden můžu vymyslet 5 tratí. Můžu udělat jednu, můžu udělat všechny, někdy nemá cenu udělat ani jednu. Čekejte na co nejlepší nápad.

Trpělivost ale není srovnatelná s čistým časem stráveným tvoření tratě. Každému to trvá jinak dlouho, třeba já dělám trať hodně dlouho. Čím více tratí budete mít za sebou tím jednoduší bude dělat další. Jestli se vám na trati něco nelíbí tak to změňte, trať by jste měli dělat hlavně tak aby se líbila vám, jestli se někomu nelíbí a někomu ano, není tak podstatné.

12. Najděte vastní styl. Nebude můj, nebude stejný jako někoho jiného. Najdete styl co vám bude vyhovovat. Myslím věci jako dithering, layouty a třeba i pohledy na trať (úhle, zoom, rotace a tak). Všechno vyžaduje experimentovat. Zjistěte s čím můžete být spokojeni.

13. Nezapomeňte na Hmap. Program GRHMEditor je na to ideální. Je dobrý jak pro začátečníky tak pro kohokoliv jiného, jsem si jistý že s malým tréninkem se s ním dají dělat divy a Hmap úroveň vašich tratí se zlepší.

Také Hmap byste měli plánovat dopředu aby seděla ke zbytku tratě. Nečekám obrovský kopec uprostřed silnice a podobné nesmysly. Hmap se dá využít i na krajinu okolo okruhu. Například se s ní dá dělat voda, útesy, dokonce může změnit výšku budov! Jak jsem řekl, experimentujte, ať to vypadá hezky a čistě.

14. Trénink. To snad ani není třeba vysvětlovat. Jen se snažte ať každá trať vypadá líp a líp.

(Poznámka, tenhle tutorial psal Crowella, já ho pouze přeložil. Nicméně každému nováčkovi vřele doporučuji si ho přečíst :bg:)
Thanks to Trigger Happy for help with text in section 9 :)
Last edited by Mad Dan on Fri Dec 03, 2010 5:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Lukeno94 »

I think different language versions are a very good idea. A Suomi one could also be an especially good idea.
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by eMeR »

Haq, It very useful for me because I'm not good in English. :happythanks:
Sorry for my bad English!
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by XYY »

and I might think of making a german one if I have nothing to do ;)
But that could also be posted at german forums.
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Mad Dan »

Ok, Czech version is updated ;). And if you are from Slovakia you should understand it too :).

btw I think it would be useful to have Italian, Portugese (Brazil), French, German, Suomi and Polish translations as well, but I can´t translate them :(
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by GeneSuomi »

I started to do finnish version :bg:
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Zero »

I didn't know that this thread is here ;D
So thanks for post something - i also could start the German version if XYY had not done/started this before
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by XYY »

No, I didn't start yet ;)
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Zero »

Ok ;) - so i will, if i have enough time. (Want to make this on only one day but the school.. ^^.)
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by GeneSuomi »

Suomi
Attachments
Crowellan radanteko-ohje.zip
(5.91 KiB) Downloaded 343 times
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by Frenchy »

I really want a french tutorial, but I can't translate. :shrug:
Sorry for my bad English.
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by TuomoH »

GeneSuomi, it's great that someone has finally translated this. However, I must say that the language isn't natural and it makes the text harder to understand - this is usually the problem when the translation is done on such direct level as you have done here. It doesn't sound like a Finn talking, it sounds a bit like a machine translator, even though not even close as bad as usual translators. Plus there are typos etc. But as I said, it's good that we have at least some Finnish version. :)
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by GeneSuomi »

TuomoH wrote:GeneSuomi, it's great that someone has finally translated this. However, I must say that the language isn't natural and it makes the text harder to understand - this is usually the problem when the translation is done on such direct level as you have done here. It doesn't sound like a Finn talking, it sounds a bit like a machine translator, even though not even close as bad as usual translators. Plus there are typos etc. But as I said, it's good that we have at least some Finnish version. :)
Yes I know that. Some of the paragraphs were almost impossible to turn into finnish so I had find the way to keep the main points. :shrug:
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by chicken »

GRHMEditor is impossible to use, trying to make a mini pikes peak hill cross and keep on having troble with getting the HM too high, overlapping, everything, also impossible to try to bank turns
Need someone to help with making Pikes Peak Hill Climb Hmap.
process making GT2 rally tracks
1.retrieve map,scenery,checkpoints.2.post pic of map on WIP topic.3.Build tracks.4.test tracks.5.UPLOAD!
programs to be used:ePSXe 1.7.0 (check), 24 hr download of GT2 arcade .iso (check), paint/paint.net/GIMP (check/x/check), track editor (check), generally (check).btw, i have my own PSX.I would post in tiny, but thats too tiny
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Re: A Rough Guide To Making Quality Tracks by Crowella

Post by eMeR »

Tutorial for banking curves (and other ones) was made by DiSi on his YouTube channel: GRDiSi or by Rich Nagel in Tutorial section.
Sorry for my bad English!
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