Implementing a race track

#1 I had the same questions myself and was looking for a way to implement a race track. I had seen many games like Wipeout, F-Zero, and the like that implement the track as one, continuous surface. There are many ways to handle just such a thing, but most people don't look towards a more customized solution when thinking about it. People tend to lean towards DIF or DTS, because they don't know of any other options. Not such a bad idea, but it can be very limiting. By purchasing the engine, it is possible to implement a complete solution that draws its own surface, implements collision, and provides the flexibility for future enhancement.

It might be specialized right now, for what I am working on, but eventually it could become another resource to be used with the engine. This shows an example of the power of developing a customized solution. The track is generated from a path, dynamically, and maintains its own lighting, collisions, and shadowing. But, more importantly, it demonstrates the reasons why you might want to look into more than just modding the engine, and investing in the source.

Eventually, after we've finished production of our game, we might consider this to be a resource that people will benefit from and sell it as an addition to the engine.

- Brett

#2 Jason, I would choose to do it using DIF.

#3 Hi Jason,

I think I would make a bunch of .dif track pieces using LOD, and segment them together in the world editor. I think you can make some pretty large tracks that way.

EDIT: Grammer

-Jeff

#4 Hi Jason,

like the others I would say use difs to make a racetrack.
For -=Grid=- we make DIF pieces and put them together.

Here some samples:

#5 Personally I like Brett's system and have since the first day I saw it :) I think it provides the most flexible way of doing things and speeds up production because its very simple to just lay roads without having to model them first.

#6 I think Brett's track editor is amazing but I do want to make a DIF based track editor. I'm working on my first game project and I want to keep it simple. I figure I can create a track editor based on the built in world editor.

Here are some pics:






Has anyone else tried to do something like this?

#7 @bigpapa: did you do those models yourself?

#8 Yes. I modeled all pieces in Hammer and "snapped" them together in Torque's built-in world editor. I kept it simple by making all pieces same sized squares. This way I knew they would all fit perfectly when I put them together.

One of my goals is to make an editor that can be used to put together tracks out of these track sections.

#9 Good job keep up the good work, do you also do contracting work? if not wora try

#10 Hi nice stuff you gott there..

but the only MINUS - is that the track is kind of BLOCKY wouldn't it be better if the track "corners" were arched..
but you propaly allready have thought about that.

Regards
Bardur

#11 ----

#12 @Bardur - I agree with you. It is blocky. This is the first set that i've created so it will go through a lot of revisions.

@Jim - Do you mean dRacer? I do like it too but I'm following the advice of experienced developers. K.I.S.S.

#13 And how about collision between track and vehicle.
Do anyone have experience or document about it???

#14 That's a cool editor Brett...
it would be a useful addition to TGE/TSE...
what about performance issues... does your system slow things down more then useing a diff based solution?

#15 Indeed. I'd love to see something like this.

Any word? I'll try E-Mailing him.

#16 I used dts shapes for the track and it works nicely, but i cant get the bikes to stick to the track during loopings, any ideas how i can have that?

is it possible to have a gravity ball move under the bike on the underside of the track? and like follow it whereever the bike goes?like perpendicular to the trijectory?

#17 @ Brett - great solution, very smart way to create a track, I'm a beginner but I think the tracks of the best games are built as you say...

Would you share the basic steps to do that with us?

;)