MVA Track Project(s)

[JvdL]

Hey there,

Well, seeing I've been poking about on the forum for a good while now concerned about track creating tools such as EU2. I believe it would only be fair to show why I'm asking that many questions on the subject.

So here, is a small teaser of what is coming out of all those questions that have been asked and replied by you guys. Just my way of saying thank you for the help and support I've recieved from you so far (and do make sure that you atleast ride the final product once it's finished and released, have a little extra for you Twisted Dirt lot in there too).

Will show more/give more info on the track in the upcoming week as the deadline for the track contest comes in closer. As I do not want to spoil it all just yet!



Enjoy,

John.

(If others feel like showing off some work their selves, feel more than free to do so please!)

[mcm2boys]

Looks very nice John, thanks for the preview looking forward to seeing the finished track.

Laurie

[Garasaki]

That pretty much just simply looks amazing...

[Fixer]

Great looking track! (from what I see there) almost makes me want to install MVA again...

[JvdL]

Thanks guys!

And Fixer.. You should! Don't know what time zone you are in, but we pretty much have a race going each evening with friends. So feel free to join in if you like! (goes for anyone around here by the way!)

Another teaser:



Still need to fix some little stuff, like change the tire color to a greyish color instead of black so it looks more worn.

All in all though, I hope I won't kill any computers. *grins* Being effecient as I can be (so far I used only 2 512x512px texture maps for the objects, excluding the trees). But yeah.. You'll need a bit of a PC to run this flawless I think. Doing quite a lot of testing on different PC's, and only had one that had lag problems so far. So I geuss it aint too bad. If all fails though, and a lot of complaints come in about lag problems. I'll get a less detailed version up in the air for the people who have lag problems.

Thanks again!

John

[mcm2boys]

Since it's a competition track i wouldn't worry too much about the lag issues just yet since Mike and Checkerz should have reasonable PCs to test with at RBW.. 

I notice there aren't any shadows in there yet, is that because it's still in teaser mode?

Laurie

[JvdL]

There is just shading of the terrain there (3d Max baked ones). I have yet to fiddle with EU2's fixed shadow generator. (I tested it with objects without alpha mapping. But not sure yet either if EU2 supports alpha mapping on objects when generating shadows. If it doesn't. That might be a little funky looking with all the trees being there.)So expect them to get added if I can get them to work.

To the question why I haven't done that yet. As im tweaking minor things, such as placement of certain objects for example. I rather just do the shadow work one time around. Instead of redoing that again and again after each minor tweak.

Thank you for spotting that little detail though. It's not something I have forgotten, just something I'm saving untill I'm satisfied with my object placement.

John.

[JvdL]

peek-a-boo!

[JvdL]

Track Name:                  De Stekkenberg
Track Type:                   National (High Definition version)
Suggested Physic Set:    EP/SIM
Rideable Physic Sets:     Stock/EP/SIM

[mcm2boys]

You have a great eye for detail John, love the object placement mixed with the veg, and the veg in the water looks very realistic. I'd have to say you must have a great shot at winning the comp.  Are those UE2 shadows, RBW or Max?


Laurie

[JvdL]

You have a great eye for detail John, love the object placement mixed with the veg, and the veg in the water looks very realistic. I'd have to say you must have a great shot at winning the comp.  Are those UE2 shadows, RBW or Max?


Laurie

Thanks! Glad you're liking it.

(Don't know if you noticed yet. But on the 5th picture from the top. Those Green tape lines. Are actualy tape lines with "TwistedDirt.com" on. )

My goal was to get this track both visualy, and experience wise while riding it, as close to reality as possible. Think I managed quite well there.

The shadows are a mixture actualy. Terrain textures were baked in 3d max on a 50% grey texture. Then enhanced in photoshop. The tree shadows are done by EU2. Exported again and enhanced with photoshop. (Had 3 dupe's of the EU2 tree shadow map. One with a 5.0 blur, one with a 1.5 blur and one with a 0.5 blur. Made sure the 0.5 blur was the strongest out of those three. This achieves a nice soft and realistic shade. Can see the result here: Stekkenberg HD Texturemap)

The object shadows dont work properly in EU2. Atleast I could not get them to work. It renders shadows that arent even near to what it should look like. Twisting objects in the most weird ways possible. Kind of clueless on that.

All in all though. EU2 was seriously helpfull through this track making progress. And it wouldn't have been possible to achieve the same result without EU2. It just opens so many locked doors for track builders.

Thanks,

John.

[Garasaki]

It just opens so many locked doors for track builders.

Amen to that.

Object shadows from UE2 worked pretty good for me.  Not perfect (like banner with the "legs" sunk below ground level - the legs appeared in the shadows) and they were quite blocky, but I was sort of past the point of caring too much.

The veg shadows from eu2 were quite superior to the RBW shadows, IMO.

I did the veg shadows quite similar to Messiah, although I also added noise to them before each blur.  I think, if I didn't have a deadline to work under, I would have really worked to get (more) realistic veg shadows, like with light peaking thru here and there, but just plain didn't have time.

[AUS_Twisted]

Really nice looking track, post a few pics without the blur which is meant to be a depth of field effect on a camera using zoom and low apeture which you wont get much with wider angle shots like these.

[Fixer]

Really nice looking track, post a few pics without the blur which is meant to be a depth of field effect on a camera using zoom and low apeture which you wont get much with wider angle shots like these.

Good eye, it does turn most of your attention to the track itself though, making it look more detailed.

[JvdL]

Thank you.

Really nice looking track, post a few pics without the blur which is meant to be a depth of field effect on a camera using zoom and low apeture which you wont get much with wider angle shots like these.

Good eye, it does turn most of your attention to the track itself though, making it look more detailed.

Correct. That is the beauty of digital art, not a lot of limitations or rules you need to keep to.

The exaturated depth of field on the pictures is to pull your eyes towards the track. This is to pull the attention towards the finer details that have gone into the track and are there. (So not to show "more" detail than there is.)

I do agree that I could have done it a bit nicer than this. But I just did a quit job on it. Shame on me.

Thanks for the tip though! I'll remember this when enhancing screenshots in the near future.

Thanks,

John

[AUS_Twisted]

Yeah I totally understand why you did it and yes it does focus attention to a certain part of the track. I just thought it would be good to see a few pics without the blur.

[JvdL]

Thanks for your support everyone!


(click the image to download)

[mcm2boys]

Congrats on the win, a great looking track.. and thanks for the TD banners on the finish line etc

So what's next and what are you going to do with that xbox 360 then? 


Laurie

[JvdL]

Congrats on the win, a great looking track.. and thanks for the TD banners on the finish line etc

So what's next and what are you going to do with that xbox 360 then? 


Laurie

Thanks! And you're welcome!

Well, I'm probably just going to play it till I drop to be honest. Finaly having some time off again and such and its been a while that I've been fully focused on purely gaming. So should be fun actualy!

[no27]

Just wondering if anyones done any upto date tuts on HD tracks yet? I can usally figure this stuff out but there is a few little things i still dont know eg, there are a few objects in the list in UE2 that show up in editor but not in game! Im using the dillo method.I have only just started looking into this hd idea in the last wk or so and i have manage to make small sections of track in hd and after testing in game im thinkin of making tracks again its giving me the options i have been looking for...but i still dont know enough to finish a complete track.Im after links to current tuts! thanks