The new assets, content and track rework thread

[rubberduck]

I have now opened a PR on the blend files repo, which includes the hexrocks, obstacles, dynamic objects and the ruins.
Sky / Cloud files are coming later in near future, when I have done a few, where I will also do some more soon

[CryHam]

Great, I merged.

[rubberduck]

a marble scenery ( + momayon) update is coming soon...

[CryHam]

Wow, looks awesome.
This is what I had in mind back then.

[rubberduck]

before getting back to clouds / skies I discovered something new what I want to do:
making some new flower "grasses"
I tried it first the usual way of editing images, but I didn't find anything useful, but then I found some free 3D Models to render them out quickly

for example the alien flower "grass" is from this one
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/alien-p ... 6fb9dfe813
and the other one
https://polyhaven.com/a/shrub_sorrel_01

[CryHam]

Very nice. It's been so long since we had new plants and grasses.

[rubberduck]

I am getting back to clouds and skies now,
though once more experiments, on how to create new cloud types, like the funny one a bit to the left

but also about getting different effects and studying render time

it was actually the one in the middle that took longest , maybe around 20 min at this resolution, which is the one the current ones have (4096x1024), bringing it up to 8192x2048 would take around 4 times longer)
It also depends on the type of sky and where clouds are.
I once rendered many clouds in the distance / horizon which was much faster than instead a few clouds right above the player in the zenith. Which means I can save render time when creating a sky like in the first image where are no clouds directly above

[rubberduck]

I worked on more skies
I learned a lot in the last weeks, on improving the skies and what types of skies are best to create with this technique

https://sebastianplaten.lima-city.de/ot ... _skies.zip

I also haven't forgotten the grasses, I think I will upload them with the next track and make a few more too, and I already have a cool idea for a track in a jungle + water scenery
a jungle world like that: but more lakes than islands, both images are from a place in palau which looks really cool
https://i1.wp.com/img3.wikia.nocookie.n ... pelago.jpg
and really saturated blue water:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d2/c3/e4 ... 343fe1.jpg
where you partly drive underwater again , including a layer of white mud at the bottom or even some small mud lakes, it will definitly have mud, maybe lots of mud too

[CryHam]

Great. Good progress. I like those curly clouds on pink sky, would be cool in some surreal tracks or such.

[rubberduck]

I didn't have so much time as initially thought, anyway, I created some new clouds that I will use in the next step creating skies

[rubberduck]

new skies are ready, including a few procedural and some more hdri based, one is still wip though but almost finsihed, where I worked the last 1 1/2 days on
https://sebastianplaten.lima-city.de/ot ... vol_02.zip

for some sources here there are, though separated, the second zip is pretty large, packed almost 1 gb, unpacked 1,8 gb:
https://sebastianplaten.lima-city.de/ot ... vol_02.zip
https://sebastianplaten.lima-city.de/ot ... ack_01.zip

what do you think?

[CryHam]

I only had a quick look at previews, looks good. Didn't test in editor yet.
I see the HDRI based are great, and procedural are interesting. I see some clouds look like close smoke, which for me doesn't feel right, well if we aim at a real sky, for surreal it'd be cool.
I've been setting up my new PC lately. It's way faster than my previous. Maybe I'll give it a try to render these and tinker some, but this has to happen after SR3 beta release.
Good progress. I guess this is about 40% of all skies (we would like to replace).
For sure the more unique skies the better, we can always adjust colors but if we do that too often then it'll feel repetitve in game since we have plenty of tracks.
I suspect there could be much extra work to redo those space and alien skies we have. Do you have any plans for these too?

[rubberduck]

yeah I was figuring that out, the procedural ones look not so realistic and like smoke. With these techniques making skies for surreal tracks is a good idea, just to do something that doesn't exist in real life, including space and alien skies where I already have some ideas how to do them. I learned a lot techniques creating skies since I started with some experiments doing such skies.
For 2.8 I will do maybe a few more hdri skies and some tracks, and other ones more for after 2.8 or 3.0

[rubberduck]

I worked on some more content, that I create for another track, and in the process I kept adding stuff into existing tracks, also for testing. Though I even made some tracks a bit longer, atlantis and shore.
Though not everything I created is for the new planned track, I kept some because I find it interesting, the coolest thing what I want to have for my new track is white mud and really milky water, but then I added really clear water just for fun

[rubberduck]

another asset I added, originally planned for my upcoming track
based on https://polyhaven.com/a/modular_wooden_pier

[CryHam]

New things look very cool.

[rubberduck]

I started with my new track today, a screenshot from an area that is finished so far...

[rubberduck]

the track is now 98% finished and coming soon

[rubberduck]

a few more screenshot of my new track called milky way, a track jungle scenery mixed with a slight surreal space touch

.

I actually got the idea of the track from a place on earth (in the small country palau) that is called milky way and the upper lake is shaped really similar, which is also a mud lake. Others have mud deeper on the ground, except the last 2 ones
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1a/2e/64 ... 380b27.jpg

the lowest lake has it's own underwater jungle too

[CryHam]

Wow, looks very pretty. Being inspired by real place is cool too, for a change.

[rubberduck]

I am finally done now.. Is was quite a lot stuff I uploaded, but I think I got everything.

[rubberduck]

I also just started to develop another scenery...

[CryHam]

Nice flowers. Reminds me of how country fields and meadows look like around here.

[CryHam]

Okay I'm gonna post here, not in PRs.
This is cool but I'd really like it if this was in few PRs, at least new track in own (easy to merge), and modified tracks in own (or even in archive not PR, so I could choose).

We also got to the point where I modifed at least Shore (or other tracks IDK) in SR3 and you in SR 2.x. Which will cause some trouble, we'll see. I'd like to have a tool to merge Hmaps partly seems somewhat time consuming.
There is also that weird issue where your road previews have red pipes, instead of yellow. And many images didn't change but still get commited. Probably editor should have some smart logic for that.

Well, there is also more work needed, since now all track ghosts need updating (I got like 15 to do now), track times, possibly challenge points, etc.
I'm not saying it's bad, but yeah we're in a state where we basically have 2 games and I'm afraid of splitting.
Obviously new tracks are best, no issues. Still need to add new data to SR3, adjust colors etc.

I'm merging all. Will try to sort out things later.
And ugh, I don't even have old SR on my new PC built yet to test, lol (scream).

[rubberduck]

ok, I will check it next time
anyway, I have something for the funny development gallery