Planning to make a new Island track

[Arthur]

After making my first test track and publishing it on stkaddons, I want to step up and make some real effort into a new track. Am I aiming to replace the current Island track? Both yes and no. I want to make the track as good as I can, and thereby I am aiming for inclusion into STK. At the same time, I know that it will become my second finished track overall, and my first serious attempt at making one, so I realize I might not be able to make it high-quality and worthy of inclusion into the main game.

That being said, I've sketched up my basic idea of the track: http://i.imgur.com/egEum.jpg

You will start over the tunnel and drive towards left in the sketch. After a while you will be presented with a fork in the road, where you will have to make the decision of taking the jump (upper road), or skipping it (lower road with tunnel).
After that the forks will unite before the straight leading to the finish line.

Any comments, ideas, criticisms?

[Crendgrim]

You have to be careful that both tracks are equal, so you don't have an advantage if you take e.g. the jump.
Personally, I think it would be cool to make the tunnel longer, so you really drive a while in it. I don't know if it'd concur with the other track elements, though..

The only criticism I have is that the part between the start line and the road fork looks quite boring in your sketch. There you should pay attention to bring in some funny elements (maybe more turns between the houses? Or an up-and-down slope?)


Crend

[Arthur]

I will make the fork roads pretty much equal, but the jump one might be a little shorter. On the other hand, it will be more risky. The tunnel could be made longer yes, I am not 100% sure how the mountains/scenery will be, and that will probably affect such things.

I agree about the first part being a bit boring. I might add more curves there, and I'll definitely make the road go more up and down than in the sketch. It's just harder to sketch those variations.

I welcome any ideas to make it better, but before I start on it I'll not know all details as I don't make too detailed plans. I like to improvise a bit.

[KroArtem]

And I've painted a cute kitty, let me share it with you:
http://i.imgur.com/3Jngi.jpg

Speaking about track, it'd be better to see some sketches in blender. IMO, your painting lacks of sharp turns, at least 1.

[Arthur]

That kitty must be evil, taking the fish from Tux!

Yeah, sharp turns are lacking, and that's something I want to make. This sketch is not only lacking in detail, but looking at it now, I realize the scale is pretty wrong as well. ^^

I will post the basic road shape once I've made it. I just want to ensure that my basic idea is good and that several forks will work (the stairs going from one way to the other). hiker, any comments on that?

[Arthur]

Very early draft of the main road. It's entirely flat so far, and expect that to change.
I just want to know if I have a fair curves-to-straights ratio for the main road (secondary road by the jump gap will be added after adding height to the main road).

Expect a flat landscape with no objects and the grass texture is not final (will try to roughly use the color/texture palette of the current Island, and add additonal stuff as well).

[Crendgrim]

I think the road is too narrow. If you have AI karts, you'll be pushed from the track every few seconds, and you cannot overtake them. That's the same problem as the old Island track had.
It took me (on expert level) less than a minute (about 0:56) for one round, and at about 40 seconds the road disappears. Is that intended? Should there be a bridge later?

Except from that, it's hard to judge. If you widen the track a bit (which I would suggest), the turns will change as well. So no opinion on that yet.


Crend

EDIT: corrected the times. Silly me.

[Arthur]

The narrowness should be fixed in this new version. The disappearing road is the gap for the jump I'm planning. How wide it will be is not decided yet. Now I just need to know if there are enough curves and straights. Btw, the curves are a bit blocky. Will see if I can find a way to smooth them out somehow.

[Arthur]

OK, now I've added height to the track. What's missing is mainly scenery (will also make it easier to know where the track goes), and the secondary road by the jump. The jump is not final either; I'll probably make it a longer jump by adding a zipper texture and increasing the distance between the jump and the landing spot. Add some items and nitro in, and I hope to get a decent jump while giving the possibility to skip the jump by driving to the left in the yet-to-be created road fork.

So don't expect too much just yet, but the height and curves for the main part of the road is now pretty much in place (unless you have something to pinpoint). I might add some slight banking in a few of the curves though. Any feedback is welcome, as long as it's constructive.

[Arthur]

Changes: Secondary road added, proper drivelines, longer and cooler jump.
Still left: Any kind of scenery, items, lap counting and some texturing niggles. I am not sure if the Island road texture is the best; it gets a bit blurry on my wider road. The grass floor is just temporary and will be removed after adding proper scenery, or possibly be used as water (with another texture, of course).

[Kinsu]

Just tested the WIP, the shape is good I think, there's some challenge

I didn't manage to succeed with the big jump, it's hard !
Maybe the road is still little narrow, but I'm not even sure of this ^^'

Waiting to see the improvements !

[code-breaker]

How hard would it be to make the road have some height to it? It is completely flat, meaning many sections are invisible if your perspective is level with them (including a turn just ahead of you).

If you were willing to change the style a bit, you might call this track "Los Angeles" (after the complicated highway system). Or maybe it could be a rollercoaster at an amusement park.

[Arthur]

The road does have height. The problem is that I haven't made the scenery yet, so you have no visual clues on where the road is turning next, making it very hard to drive at the moment. Scenery should fix that.

I think I'll try to keep the style, since I have a better view on what I'm aiming at because we have an island track already. The road shape of the current Island is just a bit boring (you turn left about 50 percent of the time), and thus I wanted to try something more original in that department.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions though, I just want to keep the current goal as it's my first serious attempt at a track.

[Turtle]

I have not downloaded the zip files (wouldn't know how to install it either), but judging from your sketch why not make the karts go inside the houses and out? It could be like small mini-tunnels, so it wouldn't be necessary to make that other tunnel longer. What I am thinking of is like how this railroad track is setup:


However, make it so you only get brief glimpse of sunlight in between house (basically all the caves would be a lot closer). Also, you could perhaps put several gifts to make it seem like they were left there by humans.

Just my 2 cents.

I wish I could learn how to make tracks, I would so totally make a track around beagle (track is inside a dog-house + dog bowl).

[Funto]

I wish I could learn how to make tracks, I would so totally make a track around beagle (track is inside a dog-house + dog bowl).

Feel free to do so, see http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Tra ... %27s_Guide and http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Tra ... 7s_Guide_2