portets {l Wrote}:personally i think it's a great idea. and it would be nice to see a track take advantage of the new irrlicht features.
but it's a bit like the mines track..
Varivar {l Wrote}:I really like the idea. That cart is very coo, reminds me of my mines track (maybe a bit too much).
Varivar {l Wrote}:Maybe you can add some jungle elements to the track. Or some signs of a lost ancient culture in the mountain (a lost temple), that would make it a real adventure track.
Varivar {l Wrote}:What about some rolling rocks crossing the track?
==== World : creating AI kart for #0===========
==== World : creating AI kart for #1===========
==== World : creating AI kart for #2===========
==== World : creating player kart for kart #3 which has local_player_id 0 ===========
ERROR: no valid starting position for kart 0 on track testtrack.
DanielT {l Wrote}:
- And I've got a problem with the texturing of the driveline. Either I prepare a texture for one short part of the driveline[1] (from one vertex to the other) and then it will repeat so heavily that it disturbs. Or I prepare a texture for a longer part of the driveline but then the UV unwrapping will get a real pain (especially if you want to change something sometime). Is there a trick to UV unwrap say the first ten parts of the driveline, texture them and then copy this texturing to the rest of the driveline (or selected parts)?
Is it for example possible to model a round plate that is part of the driveline and that turns around like a caroussel so that when you drive onto it you have to countersteer to drive straight?
a prototype of the driveline texture is in the attachment (it would be nice if somebody with a little bit more experience could look at the prototype texture and tell if it is ok for a driveline texture or if the colors are too intensive or if it has other problems).
horace {l Wrote}:better use blender's array and curve modifiers. you can create a track mesh tile (which can be as long as you want if you have problems with repetition) that gets cloned along a curve (there is the option to automatically weld vertices where the cloned pieces touch). the track will stay fully editable. you can keep working on the track mesh tile and also on the track curve as long as you want. at the end you just will need some connection pieces to close the loop or connect different track parts.
horace {l Wrote}:http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3 ... filter.php
...and this is an article about using the high pass filter for avoiding annoying patterns in tiled textures...
Auria {l Wrote}:you are using 0.7, right? I guess I will let Hiker answer to your problems since he coded that bit
Auria {l Wrote}:Indeed, as was suggested by someone else, feel free to reuse material from my old jungle track
rudy85 {l Wrote}:What is the version of blender you're using?
DanielT {l Wrote}:That sounds really cool! So I am going to discard the islandtrack like mood idea and rather concentrate on a more jungle-like feeling (though keeping the mountain or the cave or however you like to call it). Maybe inspired by Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider? Something like this?:
Of course not as detailed and complex as in this picture (then the track wouldn't be finished in five years ) but in a similar mood with lots of green and grey (plants and stones) and maybe a muddy brown driveline.
Or maybe a kind of scythe that swings over the driveline and will push your kart off the road when you don't look out?
I've still got a few questions:
- Is it for example possible to model a round plate that is part of the driveline and that turns around like a caroussel so that when you drive onto it you have to countersteer to drive straight?
And I've got a problem with the texturing of the driveline. Either I prepare a texture for one short part of the driveline[1] (from one vertex to the other) and then it will repeat so heavily that it disturbs. Or I prepare a texture for a longer part of the driveline but then the UV unwrapping will get a real pain (especially if you want to change something sometime). Is there a trick to UV unwrap say the first ten parts of the driveline, texture them and then copy this texturing to the rest of the driveline (or selected parts)?
I wanted to test the first part of my track to see if it is driveable or if I have to make it steeper or less steep. The STK Track Exporter works well and doesn't report a warning. But if I select my track in the game and click "Start Race" STK chrashes and gives the following error:
- {l Code}: {l Select All Code}
==== World : creating AI kart for #0===========
==== World : creating AI kart for #1===========
==== World : creating AI kart for #2===========
==== World : creating player kart for kart #3 which has local_player_id 0 ===========
ERROR: no valid starting position for kart 0 on track testtrack.
But how do I define the starting point? I thought it was specified by the two free vertices at the beginning of the driveline mesh.
[1]: a prototype of the driveline texture is in the attachment (it would be nice if somebody with a little bit more experience could look at the prototype texture and tell if it is ok for a driveline texture or if the colors are too intensive or if it has other problems).
Varivar {l Wrote}:That would be very cool. Remember there's already the jungle track, so there should be a clear distinction between that track and yours.
Varivar {l Wrote}:The starting position of the track has to bee at (Blender coordinates) 0,0,0. It should work then.
DanielT {l Wrote}:Varivar {l Wrote}:What about some rolling rocks crossing the track?
Or maybe a kind of scythe that swings over the driveline and will push your kart off the road when you don't look out?
Is it for example possible to model a round plate that is part of the driveline and that turns around like a caroussel so that when you drive onto it you have to countersteer to drive straight?
- {l Code}: {l Select All Code}
==== World : creating AI kart for #0===========
==== World : creating AI kart for #1===========
==== World : creating AI kart for #2===========
==== World : creating player kart for kart #3 which has local_player_id 0 ===========
ERROR: no valid starting position for kart 0 on track testtrack.
But how do I define the starting point? I thought it was specified by the two free vertices at the beginning of the driveline mesh.
<start x="..." y="..." z="..." h="..."/>
Varivar {l Wrote}:You can make a rotating carousel. The driveline, however,consists of static quads, but you can drag a driveline over the rotating carousel. I don't know how the ai would handle this. I somehow feel they will get lost on the carrousel...
horace {l Wrote}:i also have a driveline question. does the the track have to be flat? or is something like a half-pipe possible?
hiker {l Wrote}:If you model this in your track, I can have a look if this can be done, but no guarantees (and it will be some time before I can get to this).
DanielT {l Wrote}:In the video in my first post you saw a moving kart. I animated it with the "Follow Path" constraint in Blender and an IPO curve. Like described in the wiki I gave the kart the type "object" and the interaction "none". And the exporter exports the kart mesh succesfully to a .b3d. Unfortunately the kart doesn't move. Do I have to assign the IPO curve from Blender somewhere so the exporter knows about it?
DanielT {l Wrote}:There's still one question left that nobody yet answered:
How do I get my animations out of Blender? I'll just quote myself:DanielT {l Wrote}:In the video in my first post you saw a moving kart. I animated it with the "Follow Path" constraint in Blender and an IPO curve. Like described in the wiki I gave the kart the type "object" and the interaction "none". And the exporter exports the kart mesh succesfully to a .b3d. Unfortunately the kart doesn't move. Do I have to assign the IPO curve from Blender somewhere so the exporter knows about it?
DanielT {l Wrote}:I modeled the rest of the driveline and just have to finetune it a little bit. Is it ok if one lap takes approximately two minutes?
Varivar {l Wrote}:Blender is set to an animation speed of 25fps. So set Blender to the first frame and place the cart at it's starting position. Now press I -> LocRot. 1 second later you want the cart 3 meters further on its track. So move Blender to frame 100 (25*4) and move the cart to it's new position. Now press I -> LocRot again. Continue this way to make the cart follow it's whole track. When you're finished select all curves and press E -> Cyclic. if you export the track now, the cart should be moving.
Varivar {l Wrote}:It will be the longest track in the game, but if you make the track interesting to drive, I don't think that matters.
DanielT {l Wrote}:I suspected something like that
The technique you described would be no problem if I wanted to animate for example the turning plate I mentioned above, but because the track of the kart is so complex (with curves and rotations and it goes up and down etc.) it would take hours just to animate a few metres. That's why I used Blenders "Follow Path" constraint. You just tell the kart to follow the curve and Blender does the ugly job. Unfortunately Blender doesn't convert this kind of animation to two IPO curves (position and rotation), but uses a so called "speed" IPO curve. Maybe I have to check in the Blender forums if you can convert the animation inside Blender itself.
Varivar {l Wrote}:You can animate the cart in Blender with the "Follow Path"method. Once you've done with that, press I-> LocRot at every 25th frame. This way you might be able to convert the movement of the cart into Location and Rotation curves.
DanielT {l Wrote}:I suspected something like that
The technique you described would be no problem if I wanted to animate for example the turning plate I mentioned above, but because the track of the kart is so complex (with curves and rotations and it goes up and down etc.) it would take hours just to animate a few metres. That's why I used Blenders "Follow Path" constraint. You just tell the kart to follow the curve and Blender does the ugly job. Unfortunately Blender doesn't convert this kind of animation to two IPO curves (position and rotation), but uses a so called "speed" IPO curve. Maybe I have to check in the Blender forums if you can convert the animation inside Blender itself.
DanielT {l Wrote}:I created a dead easy test scene. If you open the .blend in the attachment you will see a cube and a bezier curve. If you play the animation (Alt+A with the mouse over the 3D View) you can see the cube move along the curve. On the right side (wile the curve is selected) you can see the "Speed" IPO curve that belongs to the curve path. When you select the cube you can see that it has a Follow Path Constraint added and that it has no IPO curves at all. I hope someone can find a solution to the problem (maybe with help of this test file). If not I can still go over to a Blender forum and ask over there if it is possible to convert it.
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