Track "Jet Streams"

[cheesebrother]

"Jet Streams"... a bit of a premature view but a view nonetheless. Why? I've got some issues with this that i need help with. This is my first track and i promise you it's interesting (at least the idea). You start on a runway and blast up into the air. No, you aren't flying, just going up to meet the semitransparent track in the sky. You drive up there for a while (you'll see an immediate similarity to the space track) and then come down for a steep landing. Over the finish line again and back up for another flight! This is where i've got a BIG problem. When you cross the line the lap doesn't change. Please look at it (the .skp, .blend, and compiled track are in the file) and let me know what's wrong with it. Also please let me know what you think of the actual track. I've got more work to do on the scenery, textures, a runway. The reset catchers need to go up and the driveline needs to be improved... but hey, as i said this is premature and i'm not done with it yet. Another problem is that i can't get gift boxes. In the past with my arenas i've just put empties for everything but this must be consistent because a track has lots of things and i don't feel like positioning the empties every time. So i've got a simple wireframe cube for my boxes and nitros, select it, set it to a giftbox or nitros in the stk panel and wala, it doesn't work. Please help .

Edit: One other problem is that of resetting. For some reason every time i reset i'm placed at the top of the first slope which besides not being a good place to start is completely irrelevant to the place being reset from.

Another thing with the design is the lack of clouds, i mean come on myself!!! i've got to put clouds in! I think that images would be the only possible way of doing this so please let me know of any cloud pictures which you have or know of. I haven't yet searched on the texture links on the stk website so there's a good chance i'll find a good cloud or two there. I started out with a cloud as part of the track but it looked way to crummy, pictures are the way to go - just as scenery.

[Auria]

Hi,

can you run STK as shown in http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Art ... checklines ? This will help you find (and see) what is wrong with your drivelines

The resetting issue is likely the same issue as lap counting, namely probably some checkline is not correctly triggered

And Boxes and Nitro need to be blender "Empty" objects, this won't work on cubes

[cheesebrother]

Ok, i've been fixing tons of easy things. First of all, now the lap counting works (it turned out that the checklines were too high) and you can race on it properly. I've changed the airborne section of the track to blue (associates for with the sky and is different from the space track) and made a transition from invisible to the blue track. As you can see the sky is now filled with clouds which add a lot to the scenery. I'm not quite sure what i could put for scenery on the ground as you can see quite far but i'll keep on thinking about it. The hangar is much more detailed, and textured which has my newly modelled airplane inside it. The watchtower also has much nicer textures than before. You can't see it so much but the runway looks sooooo much nicer (i got the asphalt textures from tux tollway) and the launch section has arrows on it. I'm not quite sure whether i'm still doing something wrong or if i'm bringing out the worst in the stk resetting system but really weird places are choosen to be reset. For example when i reset right at the end i was placed back up on the sky section, would adding more checklines eliminate this?

[ctdabomb]

this looks like a fun track, cant wait to play

[sj04736]

I'm not quite sure whether i'm still doing something wrong or if i'm bringing out the worst in the stk resetting system but really weird places are choosen to be reset. For example when i reset right at the end i was placed back up on the sky section, would adding more checklines eliminate this?

Don't quote me on this, but I *think* that when you are reset, you are sent back to the last good quad that you were on, so either your quads may be too high or maybe you should add more?
Following http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Artist_Debug_Mode, you should be able to start STK from the command-line with --track-debug to see where your quads are.

[Auria]

Usually you should be reset to the last valid quad you were on, depending on checklines. If this is still problematic you can post the blend and I will check

[cheesebrother]

cant wait to play

I'm not sure when i'll get around to completing this, been rather busy lately. I haven't even uploaded the latest verion of CC so i'm a bit unorganized at the moment.

Sorry for quoting you sj04736...

so either your quads may be too high or maybe you should add more

Thanks so much for the help. It must be that they're too hight because there are certainly enough of them. When i get back to this i'll lower them all and try it out.

Usually you should be reset to the last valid quad you were on, depending on checklines

Well then they're definitely too high because i was being reset about halfway back along the track!

This all gives me new hope for my track.

If you tried the uploaded version you'll find another thing which must be fixed in this track. The invisible section of the track going up is pure zipper, this does the job in getting the karts up with ease. The only problem is that if you turn a bit or bump into another kart then you're done for... off the side and then are reset. The AI especially have problems with this as they don't try to avoid each other (it's the worst in follow the leader), someone bumps someone else, and next thing they're all over the edge. At the moment i'm not sure how to fix this, i tried decreasing the power of the zipper but that was useless. At the moment i'm thinking maybe to have strips of zipper all the way up. This could still launch you off the edge but there would be much less chance of it happening - HELP!, IDEAS!, ANYTHING! - it's a big problem.

[cheesebrother]

Update:

Yes! I've never had so much pleasure in pressing 'reset' in stk before. It works perfectly now and i can move on to less fundamental problems. The one about the lift section of the track would seem to be the last big problem. I've added zippers on the sky section to speed things up up there, this makes the circuit time 15 seconds less than it was before (total circuit time now: 1:15). Considering that that builds up over a few laps and that it isn't that interesting up there at the moment (i really need to improve that part) this makes the track much better. I also made an invisible wall so that the player can't go and get stuck in the engines of the airplane (i've added those recently).

[sj04736]

I'm not entirely too sure what the track looks like, but maybe you can have some helicopters and planes flying around up in the sky? (Hot air balloons seem like a bad idea for an air-base). Between those, clouds, birds, and maybe a small plane with a banner flying circles around the track, there are several scenery items you can put up there.

[cheesebrother]

This track has been evolving an awful lot over the last few days. Before i give another version for everyone to try i'd like to solve some bugs in it. As you can see in the screenshot the trees (which are 2 2d images) draw right through the blue-transparent track. Both are alphablended, what would be the right thing to set them to? The clouds have the same problem as well but aren't nearly as bad as the trees. Also, i've added a rainbow and unfortunately it's cut off because it's too far away, could i make it so that this doesn't happen?

I've decided not to put in moving scenery because 1-I have no idea how to do so and 2-I really don't feel like it. The track looks much better now as i've changed the sky part to blue instead of yellow, i've added a few cloud rings, made a radio tower, put in lots 2d trees, and added a cheery rainbow. After i get a few more ideas and put them in the track will look much better.

[machrider14]

What about the helicopter that you made? Not only it goes to Lincity Towers, but in this track as well. Try figuring out on making some moving scenery.

[ctdabomb]

maybe you should make some cloud people?

[machrider14]

maybe you should make some cloud people?

I don't think it's gonna work.

[ctdabomb]

that was kind of a joke, but it would be cool.

[sj04736]

cheesebrother: this might be the z-ordering issue that has cropped up a few times in the last little bit. iirc, if the entire track is a single node, then irrlicht has difficulty calculating which face goes on top of what.The solution was to either break up the single mesh into several smaller meshes, or to set these smaller objects as specified in http://supertuxkart.sourceforge.net/Sep ... ed_Objects - that is, for them to be saved in separate b3d files. Perhaps try both (backing up your .blend), and maybe it'll fix your problem.

[cheesebrother]

Thanks for the help sj04736 but i'm afraid i wasted a bit of your time. I was REALLY fooled by that but there's nothing wrong with how it was rendering. It's just that blue doesn't blend into forest green very well. The attached screenshot was taken in sketchup, which is really unlikely to be drawing wrong. In the picture you can see a difference in the tree right at the edge of the track, but shift back and forth between the ends and you can't hardly detect a difference. I'm solving this nasty looking problem by deleting the trees which are underneath the track so that you can see them around but not through the track. I've also managed to fix the rainbow problem by moving it closer to the track and making it smaller to fit.

[Ludsky]

The track is still working ....?


(Sorry for my Médium-English)