Twisted DIRT Forums

Thanks for the kind words regarding UnCorked!

As for Reflex track making...it is WILDLY different from what you already know. The only real similarity is the displacement map, which you can make as normal. For the rest, first things first. Troll the forums here and download Digital Earthworks, and check the downloads link on the TD main site as well as the ones on ReflexCentral.com.

You will want the Reflex Track making tool kit. Read everything you find and get to know the RGB MaskMap and Zone maps and what they all do before you start making a track.

You want to start off by making a basic displacement map that is rideable with jumps that are makabke fairly easily. Then using the zone maps and softness map you can adjust things like drag and traction to make the jumps a bit tougher and keep things challenging. As you can probably see by now, this is a LOT different from the way we used to do things. This means that you don't have to spend weeks on the displacement to get it riding the way you want as we have a lot of other things that help us control that now.

The Textures are not rendered as we used to do. Instead you make an RGB Mask that tells the game where to render each if up to 4 textures (because you have red, green, blue and black to assign textures to). You can make up your own textures or use the ones from the stock tracks, but you also need bump maps for all the textures...so I would start off using the stock ones.

Also we have the ability to do custom objects, which can have normal (aka bump) maps, and specular (highlight) maps...

You can control the sounds made by the bike on different terrain using zone map 4...

WAY too much to tell right here, and I'm currently on the road to a job interview...so I'll stop for now. If you are on steam add me ElDiablo (Paul) I think...and we can talk more.

Now go download, troll and READ...Lots of it to do!

Does anyone have a WORKING shadow volume map? Can you please post it or a link to it so that I can see what a decent one looks like? Probably need to compare it to a disp...so if you don't want to post yours for opportunists to steal...maybe photoshop it and add some red text on top of the map rendering it useless for any practical purposes. THANKS in advance!

Is this supposed to make sense?! You are replying to a thread last posted in 12 years ago as if you are jumping into a current conversation. Add to that the lack of making sense and I'm left wondering if I should delete your post and maybe ban you from the forums altogether...might want to explain yourself!

Hey guys...

Anybody got any idea what the Alpha for the Water UV Map is for? I found a map in the track creator kit that has an alpha. But it's unclear what the black and white areas are defining. I can't tell if it's for defining the area of the body of water OR if it's something else like the waves, etc...

Anyway...any help/insight is very much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Hey all...

Well it's no secret that I'm working on a new track. I have pretty much finished all the detail work of the track itself and am just working on the environmental aspects now to really make it all FIT together and make sense. Things like making ATV and walking paths between sections of the track, adding a lake/water feature, sky, etc...

What I need now is the make the lake look more realistic. So I'm asking for help with the settings on the WATER because at the moment there is just a dead (non-moving/no waves) lake, and I THINK that the water should be able to have at least some sort of waves in it? Am I wrong here?

Finally...I am looking for some dead trees to place on the edge of the lake. Around here we have a lot of man-made lakes and there are usually dead trees around the shoreline unless they have been cleared out (which doesn't happen much around here). So I know of some 2D trees...but I'm hoping that there are a few 3D ones available in the veggies.

Any help or advice on either subject is very much appreciated and respected. So thanks in advance!

Well...it also doesn't display the track name. So ideally it'd be nice to have both!

UPDATE: Issue Resolved! I noticed that the last couple of beta saves had not been saved with the spline. Somehow it got deleted either through DE or my ignorance. In any case...I clicked out a new spline and exported to Beta01 and just like you'd hope. I had AI, and Trees, and Objects! The track now feels much more natural and I'm kinda digging the environment. Though I think I'll add a few Evergreen trees. I'm using an eco without those...not sure if I can combine or not. But I guess I'll figure that out pretty quick! lol I'm trying to emulate a track that comes from the Midwest, and Pines/Evergreens are not the ONLY type of tree, but they certainly are ONE of them. Plus there's a few areas where the trees are sort of a bit sparse where I'd like them present to keep the rider's vision focused more on the track. Plus I find that objects and trees give a better sense of speed.

I'm re-energized and ready to proceed with this finally!

Here's a quick question however. Is it possible to make track pics that will show up in the game?

by the way...the spline has been working FINE up to now. Not sure what the deal is...but I think it's eco-related. ANYBODY?

UPDATE(again): So I was sent both dll's from the forum and was able to load and get the track working sort of...but now when it exports (or tries to) it fails saying that Environment Failed to export...see the log. Here's the info in the log which conversely seems to be spline related? I'm baffled!!!

Error: Couldn't fetch Count first lap flag for spline.
Compiling spline 1 failed.
(Error) The database and package files failed to compile.
Track failed to compile.

Okay...so I uninstalled DE and deleted the folder, then reinstalled. When it opens it already knows the last track and previous track versions and it WILL open the track with all the trees AND it appears to be exporting the track as well. But when I go into Beta01 it is the previous version without trees (just bales and a couple tree object models that I had placed quickly). So I switched beta slots to 02 and exported. When I try to run that one in game, the game crashes! There are 8 beta slots...so nothing got uninstalled that needs to be redone in the game files. So now I guess I'm stuck with releasing a track without eco files OR just not releasing anything at all. Since I don't like unpolished stuff and that's really NOT what Twisted D.i.R.T. is about...I guess I'm left with nothing unless someone has an idea how to FIX this?

So...does anyone have a WORKING version of DE who could send me the reflex.dll please?!

UPDATE: I tried deleting the 'reflex.dll' from the plugins folder and then DE runs fine without the error message. HOWEVER...it appears to export the BETA track fine...but it isn't. The track has older deleted models (leaning trees) which I have since deleted (since getting the eco tab working with the install of 8.2.23). So I believe I still need that dll file to get things working properly.

Thanks for sending the file DS19 but what I need is the OTHER dll that is simply "REFLEX.DLL" as this seems to be an older version that will not load. At this point I am flat dead in the water without a newer version of this DLL file. I actually DO find both dll's in the C:/program files (x86)/DigitalEarthworks/plugins folder but the date on the reflex.dll is 4/3/2014 while the other is 1/22/2016. So I tried to reinstall DE and the dll files remained the same. No joy in mudville!!!

NEW PROBLEM! The editor upon load gets a failed message (something like reflex.dll failed to load, you may need a new version for this version of DE). However after clicking that away the editor DOES go ahead and load. BUT...now I can't export my track with the new eco system (with trees placed)?

Hmmm...it's working fine now. NO IDEA how the heck I could've downloaded the wrong version from the first post in this thread. But it's now 8.2.23. So all is well!

WTH? I d/l'd it from the first post and yet my link says version 0.8.2.7? What is going on!?

Umm...PROBLEM! I don't have an ECO SYSTEMS tab!? WTH?! I have the latest version of DE but no eco systems tab? How is that even possible?

Well...it was the tree facades. When I reopened the track in DE they were all "dropgates"! Not sure what is up with that...but that explains it. I wound up deleting them all and re-exporting the beta and it worked fine. But the problem now is...the leaning trees. I think I'll have to delete them as they aren't even touching the ground. Probably a problem with the axis point somehow. But in any case...it's very difficult to SEE them properly in DE and so I can't really tell what they are going to look like in game. I like the way they look aside from the fact that they aren't at all natural in their placement and defy physics currently! lol

I will watch the video you linked...thanks again DS19!

Well...I spent a couple hours placing objects and then tried launching the game and as you might expect I'm going to say...the game crashed!

Any tips for objects you can't place in a NAT? I placed some real bales, a few leaning trees, a couple of the fmx tire stacks and then some tree facades. I would imagine that it's one of the models causing the game to crash or possibly the way they were placed? I rotated the leaning trees to make them look less like they were...leaning. Scratching my head as to what I can get away with and what may be causing the issue(s).

Also...is there a tree model that looks like a normal tree one might find in a forest or in the Midwest?

Hey guys (and gals?)...

I've been messing around with creating tracks for Reflex and since it's been so long I no longer have 3D Studio Max to do my textures. I have however discovered "BLENDER" and wonder if anyone has figured out how to render displacement shadows? I googled my hands off and couldn't find a good tutorial on this subject. I did find a sort-of related video tutorial but the problem is when I import my displacement map and then get it to displace properly (sort of) the whole map is not visible...not sure why this is but it appears to be only the center of the map and not the whole thing.

Anyway...if anyone could sort of point me in the right direction that would be GREAT and if you know of a video tutorial that's even better! THANKS!