Racetrack (conversion)

[Pixel]

Hello.

Thanks for letting me know. I notice it's now being called "The Stadium". I'm not objecting to that, but I'm curious- is there
another track named "Arena"?

EDIT: I'm still working on the regular race mod Racetrack mod as well. I'm slowed up right now in part because of some tricky mesh
work. I hope to pick up the pace again soon.

[Auria]

The main reason I renamed it is because all arenas are arenas In STK we use the terminology "Arena" to refer to any track where battle mode can occur. If one of them is name "The Arena", this could cause confusion among players, who might understand 'The Arena' instead of 'an arena'

[Pixel]

Oh, ok. I hadn't really thought much about that.

Will The Stadium be a release track for 0.7?

[hiker]

NOTE: I've used the driveline from my racetrack mod to get the arena to load. Also, you will have to have to request a rescue
for your kart if you run without AI karts, because the starting position is inside an object. (the arena includes empties for
the normal battle mode starting positions)

The new track exporter (in SVN and in the wiki) now supports arenas (details in our wiki), and allows the setting of start positions.

Thanks for the arena, it was great to have a test case at hand

Cheers,
Joerg

[Auria]

Will The Stadium be a release track for 0.7?

So far, it seems so, we haven't got many arenas so all we can get are welcome!

[Pixel]

I'm glad the track was useful for testing.

I tried to make it suitable for use as an in-game track. I still haven't figured out how to make a believable crowd texture though.

UPDATE: I haven't worked on the Race track proper lately. I've been beaten down by a moderate flu bug, and I'm not quite up to par
yet. I hope to be able to work on it some more in a few days.

[Pixel]

Okay, I need some help. I need a standard bridge concrete (white or off-white) texture. I'm not good a making textures.

[asciimonster]

We are also bad at making textures, we just know where to look for them...

For instance:
INCOMPATIBLE http://www.cgtextures.com/
INCOMPATIBLE http://mayang.com/textures/
http://opengameart.org/ (Various free as in freedom licenses)
http://www.burningwell.org/ (CC0/PD)
http://agf81.deviantart.com/gallery/31629337 (CC-BY 3.0)
http://gpl.imageafter.com/ (GPL)
More alternatives: http://freegamedev.net/wiki/Art_asset_resources

Be sure not to use textures that upset the GNU GPL licence...

[edited to not motivate people to use non-free resources -qubodup]

[Auria]

http://www.burningwell.org/ is also a very good resource... everything is public domain there, and there's lots of concrete images too

I would recommend against http://mayang.com/textures/, their terms are not really open-source, and linux distros like debian will refuses to ship images under these terms. it's probably the same for cgtextures.

[Pixel]

Textures are easy to find. Finding something with a suitable license is the problem.

I actually looked at OGA before I posted. I found one texture I liked, but it was CC-BY (without -SA). I'm not sure that's compatible with CC-BY-SA.

I checked out CGTextures, but I think it's a NO go

~FROM CGTextures Terms of Use~

It is NOT permitted to:
- Sell or distribute any of these textures in an unmodified form, or where the derived product you are selling or distributing is a Texture or a collection of Textures. IN OTHER WORDS: Do not sell or distribute any of these textures (modified or not) by itself or in a texture, material, clipart or scrapbooking pack!
- Bundle the images with software such as paint programs, 3D programs, photo-kiosk software.
- Reselling the images at 'print on demand' services (mugs, t-shirts, mouse mats, etc)
- selling skins for laptops, phones and other devices, created with images from CGTextures.
- Stockpile images with the goal of making a local copy of all textures on the site.
- Using a special program (spider, leecher) or script to automatically download all Textures on the CGTextures website. Users who try to mass download will be banned from the website automatically.
- Interfere with the security or otherwise abuse, disrupt, place excessive loads on, or attempt to gain unauthorized access to the CGTextures website or any system resources or networks connected to this website.
- Release the Textures or derivative products under Open Source Licences

Note the line in bold. To me, it looks like CGTextures can't be used for OSS projects

EDIT: I see Auria beat me to it.

[charlie]

Actually CC-BY is less restrictive than CC-BY-SA. The latter requires you to share any changes you make. You can use the former in modified form in commercial work without having to give back the modified version of the image, for instance.

[qubodup]

May I use these textures in my Open Source (Creative Commons, GPL, etc) project?
No. These textures may not be used in Open-Source projects. The licenses are not compatible. Almost all Open-Source licenses allow redistribution of the materials, and redistribution is not allowed for these textures.

http://www.cgtextures.com/content.php?action=faq

[Pixel]

Just thought I'd post a quick update.

I've been working on some shortcut-blocking walls. I was going to post a WIP update of the track, but I couldn't get the track exporter
to setup an automatic lap-line. I might have done something wrong. Once I found out there were more changes due for the exporter
(changing the coordinate system), I decided to wait for awhile.

Does changing the coordinate system means that I would need a newer (alpha) version of STK itself to continue testing the track with
the newer export scripts?

[hiker]

to setup an automatic lap-line. I might have done something wrong.

You shouldn't have to do anything (except iirc using a newer track exporter than the one included in the alpha release).

Once I found out there were more changes due for the exporter
(changing the coordinate system), I decided to wait for awhile.

Does changing the coordinate system means that I would need a newer (alpha) version of STK itself to continue testing the track with the newer export scripts?

Yes, we intend to do an alpha release 'soonish', and this would obviously include the new exporter, which must be used for that release. So the current svn track exporter won't work with the first alpha release anymore (the tracks have actually a higher version number, so they would be ignored by the alpha version).

Cheers,
Joerg

[Pixel]

You shouldn't have to do anything (except iirc using a newer track exporter than the one included in the alpha release).

I'm not overly concerned about it. Worse comes to worse, I can always go back to a slightly older script and set lap
lines manually. I'll think I'll just wait though seeing as major changes to the exporter are in development.

Yes, we intend to do an alpha release 'soonish', and this would obviously include the new exporter, which must be used for that release. So the current svn track exporter won't work with the first alpha release anymore (the tracks have actually a higher version number, so they would be ignored by the alpha version).

Cheers,
Joerg

I was expecting that, but I wanted to double check. I'm waiting for a new video card to come in next week anyway, that should make dealing with Blender
a good deal easier.

I mainly wanted people to let people know I hadn't forgotten about the track, but I'm glad to have confirmation of the changes coming.

[Pixel]

I took a break from track work while waiting for alpha 2. Now that it's out, I thought I'd post an updated track model. I've got it basically laid out,
and some supporting objects. No items yet, haven't decided where they should be placed.

I plan to focus on shortcut prevention next. After that, items and finishing touches, then hopefully the track will be ready to go. Not sure how long it will take.

NOTE: Normally I'd use the BZ2 format, but this is a rather rare case where ZIP offered (slightly) better compression. On dial-up, every little bit helps.

[Auria]

Hi,

good job in general!
However I need to say that I don't really like the gray bridges and the blue fences; because of them the view is not very pretty

[Pixel]

However I need to say that I don't really like the gray bridges and the blue fences; because of them the view is not very pretty

I don't care much for the blue fences myself, I was experimenting with some shortcut prevention. Now, as to the bridges, first, I haven't found a good way to represent concrete, especially on the "S" shaped bridge. The city concrete texture works well in Canyon, but I can't seem to get it to work for this track.

Second, is the problem mainly the forward view going under the bridges, or the walls blocking the view on the sides as you go over the bridges?

[Auria]

I think it's mainly a problem when under

[Pixel]

I've always liked bridges and overpasses, and I was hoping to have at least one in the track. They're a bit wide, but I was trying to leave some room on the sides for issues with AI or weapons when going over the top. I'm going to need something to support the track where it goes over the lower sections. I'm not really sure how to fix the view issue.

[Pixel]

I've thought about the problem. I decided a tunnel would allow for a better forward view from the start line. Also, I might be able to squeeze
a grandstand in right at the start line, where one would expect a grandstand on a real course. I couldn't do that at all with the archway bridge.
I left the S-curve bridge in, hopefully this will be a good trade-off.

I've textured the tunnel's openings on the outside, but the tunnel itself isn't quite finished. There are some visual anomalies still to work out.

I've included an "update" of the track with this post. First, if you haven't already, download the "racetrack.zip" file just a few posts back (4.98 MB) and extract,
then download this zip file and extract where the data files from "racetrack.zip" were extracted, to add the new data.

There is a missing texture for the S-curve bridge. It shouldn't cause a major problem, and the bridge will probably need to be re-textured eventually
anyway.

[Auria]

Hi Pixel,

I like very much the shape of the road. Now if you can improve texturing and the scenary in general, it would make a great track

[Pixel]

Hello

Agreed, texturing and scenery both need some work. I haven't put serious effort into the textures because I'm finalizing the models. So far, altering the
meshes has meant losing the UV layout of textures already in place, meaning I've had to redo the UV unwrap. That's why I haven't focused on texturing yet.

I actually hate UV mapping, but it's the only way to do it.

Scenery is sparse, I admit. I believe I can model most objects (and scenery), but texturing is a larger problem for me.

Is the brick texture okay for the tunnel?

[minicoolcow]

Another idea I had : it could be interesting to keep the original stadium by Horace, since it looked quite good; but remove the road and keep only the stadium, and use it as a battle arena. Since we have very few battle arenas it could be great. I could maybe look into making the battle stadium in addition to your racetrack (though if someone else can go ahead!)

[Pixel]

Hello.

I've finally got the tunnel almost done. Working on the inside was very tricky.

The track structure is mostly done, except for some walls and cleaning up the terrain. I'm starting to think more about visuals.

I want to experiment with (simple) animation. How would I go about making a rotating object? The wiki doesn't go into
much detail.

Is there a way to set up the object to rotate at a certain speed? (i.e. one rotation every 10 seconds?) How would I do it, IPO or skeletal?

Does "skeletal" mean using armatures in Blender?

Thanks