I'd like to present you my second STK track Dyson Speedway.
After I completed Toy Block Raceway last year (https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic ... 18&t=14214), I started this one as another personal learning project for 3D modeling with Blender. Later it turned more into an individual art project. I also spent lots of time making new textures for the track with Inkscape and Gimp.
First of all, something about the idea behind the track:
Many people I play STK online with, enjoy high speed tracks and so do I. Space environments seem to be popular, too.
So my plan was to create an ultra high speed race track that fully utilizes STKs gravitation feature.
The basic idea was to race inside a dyson-sphere-like construct. A dyson-sphere is a hypothetical spherical megastructure in space, constructed around a star (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere). One of these theories describes a closed shell, with its own gravitation. The first time I heard about this, was in an episode of Star Trek - The Next Generation, back in the 1990s. Of course the dimensions of my model do not quite reach those of the one from that TNG episode. Instead my sphere is more similar to a space station. To keep up the SciFi topic, I imagine that this sphere is still being built and later it would hold a warpcore factory of the fictional RX1 corporation. While this factory is under construction, it is open for the intergalactic STK community to race on a colorful temporary speedway.
I spent a lot time with this track, but it never was intended to become part of STKs main source, because I am aware that it violates many of your design guidelines. So I am going to upload it to STK add-on site and hope that many people play and enjoy it. I decided not to upload the work in progress versions so far, because I figured out that there are many gamers who install add-ons, but never update them. The track can't be driven in reverse yet, and there are some other open tasks.
Here are some facts about the track and my work:
- Supported mode: Forward race. Reverse race and egg hunt will follow soon.
- A large sphere in space with windows, a dome and force field gates.
- The track comes with lots of new textures, incl. seven new zipper arrows.
- A dark but colorful design that uses lighting, lots of PBR effects (mostly glow and reflections) and some particle effects (like a burning banana field). It was important for me to make the track look good with and without improved graphics. The following picture shows a screenshot made with the lowest graphics setting (top) and another one at the same view that was done with improved graphics activated (bottom).
- Wide turns and large straights with lots of ground zippers and some obstacles for interesting high speed racing. I have locally modified the STK scripts to make higher zipper speeds possible. The modified scripts will be included in the source archive.
- Upside down straights, turns, twists and wall rides with gravitation and high speed boost pipes.
- An upside down area and a wall ride surface without gravitation, where the players slide over something that looks like a force field.
- Several special features and secrets:
- Three big sphere with different behaviors if you hit them. The blue sphere shocks the player, the green one bounces you away, the orange one pulls you inside and then shoots you into the central sphere star.
- a few small intended jump (and nitro) short cuts
- a hidden cannon
- a hidden alternative line with an extra strong "nuclear boost" zipper (the purple one)
- Three big sphere with different behaviors if you hit them. The blue sphere shocks the player, the green one bounces you away, the orange one pulls you inside and then shoots you into the central sphere star.
- 15 movables: rolling balls and bubbles and few movable cargo boxes
https://rjotz.uber.space/sc/index.php/s/5NLHewFyjzrds9s/preview - Polygon count: currently around 100.000 tris
I have already tested the track online with a few fellow gamers. The responses were good and the track seems to perform well online (no lag experienced so far).
While the track mostly is very wide, to deal with the high speeds, it still has sections that require precise steering and some practice.
Here is a demo video of the track: https://rjotz.uber.space/sc/index.php/s/doFpm2HabwaQwzB
It shows me racing one lap on Dyson Speedway. I was running STK without any of the improved graphical features.
If you like, you can see more pictures of the track here: https://rjotz.uber.space/sc/index.php/s/sLnz7JPMDE4zYa7
To try the tracks WIP state you can download the installation files here: https://rjotz.uber.space/sc/index.php/s ... b/download
During the construction I had several problems and I still have some unanswered questions. I will explain / ask those things in my next post here.
Greetings
RX1