Concept: Track tiles

[Michael Hartlef]

Please post track tile concepts here. Be it pencils drawing or 3D shapes.

Thanks
Michael

[ISAWHIM]

Arg... I forgot that 3D stuff was in Media...

For the simplicity of the post... (Width=XorZ, Length=XorZ, Height=Y)
- 100 x 100 x 100 meters = one block, for city-blocks, wall-blocks and track-blocks. (Possible city-block over track-block.)
- 100 x 200 x 100 meters = special track-block. (No overlapping city-block.)
- 200 x 200 x 100 meters = special track-block. (No overlapping city-block.)
- 200 x 200 x 100 meters = special city-block "Land-Mark"

Craft size??? Undetermined, but I included what I have used in the SandBox3 as an open guide.

Attached files contain city blocks, and sample universal track forms. 100 x 100 x 100 format at 3DS files.

[Michael Hartlef]

How much are meters in TBGL units?

[Michael Hartlef]

Forget about it, I think I found it.

[kryton9]

Thanks Jason will study it.

Trying to sleep I kept racing with ideas and this is what I came up with:

First starting with gliders/crafts:
To allow a nice amount of room for very different looking designs I thought 4m wide x 4m long and 4m high as Maximums.
Some craft can be small and others tapered to maybe at some point the 4m maximums. With these dimensions we should be able to handle many different styles and designs.

In Racing you usually see just 2 cars passing each other and rarely 3 side by side. With the 4m maximum dimension, even if all three vehicles were passsing for a total of 12m,
we would still have enough room in between them on a 20m wide track.

I thought also the side walls would be 1 meter thick on each side, that includes the angle on the side walls for a total of 22m wide for the structure. That leaves 1.5 meters on each side on a 25m tile.

Also 25m is a decent size for a small building or apartment or even decent size house. So this dimension is pretty neat.

If the quadrant (1/4 city size) is 1km x 1km that means 40 tiles by 40 tiles for the editors.
I think having one uniform tile size will make things a lot easier than different sized tiles.

[ISAWHIM]

Sorry, a unit is a meter... (1) in TB = (1 meter).

Replace the generic model I used in the SandBox3 program with one that is 4-meters wide, and see how it looks.

I will make the code to load the city-blocks also, for testing scale.

I attached a 4-meter diameter UFO style M15 craft... Use this to replace the ship-file in the SandBox3 test.

Looks a little large, which would call for a larger track-block and city-block size. However, to keep the game-scale, we can resize it... But I think a 2-meter width may be the vehicle-max for that track-size. (Remember, the track-size was scaled off a 1-meter wide personal vehicle, not a full-size truck that is nearly double-wide.)

The larger the vehicle, the larger the game has to be, and the slower it will appear to function, due to the larger scale. (That is the airplane effect.)

[ISAWHIM]

We will only be seeing a "portion" of a city, in every track. The city is figmentive not actual... There is no connection from city-A/track-1, and city-A/track-2.

The "City", simply determines which "Style" of models we load. Technically, we could use that track in another city, and only the scenery and possibly the track style would change. We would not be mixing city-A buildings with city-B buildings, because they both would have the same ID.

Though the styles change from city to city, the shape that they have, must be within the same sizes. If there is an "Overpass" in one city, the same overpass must be in all cities... and work the same. (EG, if it is 20 meters off the track in city-A, it must be 20 meters off the track for city-B style, city-C style, and city-D style.)

I attached a sample image... how the game sees maps, as "Owned" by a city... not physically part of a large block of a city.

[ISAWHIM]

The "Bank" has to be twice the width... or it is just a wall that you hit. A 4 meter craft can not "Bank" up a 1-meter wide slope, the incline would be 4:1. (A 4-meter wide slope would be a 45-degree bank or 4:4, which would be like a ramp-launch. A "Bank" is a smooth curved surface that you can ride-up, with minimal angle change from your left to your right side of the vehicle.)

25 meters may be good for an individual house... but a track-turn can not be in a 25 meter box if the track is 25 meters wide. (Car intersections that span 25 meters at 90-deg bends, have a radius equal to that distance. But that is for a stop-light. You can not do more than 25 mph on a 25 meter radius turn in a car.) That would put a block at a minimum, using those specs, of 75 meters by 75 meters, to create a "Turn-block", which has an inner radius of 25 meters, with a 25 meter wide track.)

With a 10 segment track at 75 meters per block, that is 750 meters per side. (Well within view.)

However... if the building-blocks are individual buildings... at 25 meters. That turns 750 meters into 30 by 30 tiles to fill with city buildings. That is 900 building-blocks to track, rotate, position, etc...

We don't have to have odd sizes, it just makes it look better if everything is not a square.

For the track... it is almost a necessity. You can only do so much inside one solid square, and it will be too generic and repetitive, if we don't include a few odd-shapes for a driving challenge. Those "Special" track segments are where you create the 90-degree turns, and overpasses, and tunnels, and zig-zags. (You surely can't do that in a 25 meter block, with a 25 meter wide track.)

This is why I wanted us to do the flexible track... it does not need blocks, only points.

[Petr Schreiber]

We don't have to have odd sizes, it just makes it look better if everything is not a square.

Yes I agree, any element which breaks too evident "regularity" is good one.

Kent, your scheme for game city is very good, but would lead to too much modeling. I am for making some visually nice city around the track ( as I said, Potiemkin decorations - something to make you feel there is big city but without doing big city :) ). That is basically what Jason proposes.

For this reason I am thinking the outer ring could be part of skybox maybe?


Petr

[ISAWHIM]

Since I could not get the SandBox programmed as quick as I can copy-paste in a 3D editor... LOL...

Here is what the models and the track, and the "personal craft", look like as one.

Keep in mind... I did not make any "track-fill" city sections, and I used only one city-block over and over, turned, flipped and placed as the border.

A skybox doesn't move, relative to the player (It moves with the player, so to speak.) So that would make the city appear to move on the horizon... Might look odd when the city starts to disappear past view. (Which is why I suggested that we stay within the limit of 1000, but possibly with an actual view distance of 2000, to ensure everything present stays in view. Having a lower-view setup as a selectable option in the game-options.)

The wall can be one-sided, and auto-created around the city-limit, to hide the true horizon.

[Petr Schreiber]

:)

Exactly what I think it should be like, good job!


Petr

[ISAWHIM]

This would be an ugly example of a custom section of track... This would be 1:3 ratio, or 100m by 300m...

Again, just for an example. A city-block 200m x 200m would have a similar use as the one non-repeating (Unique) city block in each track for that city.

For the track, it is only to provide more than a tube-run. (More wide areas, forks, freaky stuff.)

Don't forget, we can use the "Cinema" view to overlap the full rendered scenes as one city. (As a still view, or artistic view. One that suggests they are connected, and one is north, south, east, west.)

I will try to setup a smaller grid, with the larger crafts, so we can have fair judgement on the matter. For now, making individual buildings to merge into a grid should be enough work.

[Lionheart008]

hi jason:)
hi petr, kent, michael and all...

@jason... first of all... it looks very good, I can now imagine what a track tile looks like with buildings around, very good one! ... - do you work with rhino or 3ds max? I ask because of the import possibilities of my 'cinema 4d' objects compatible modus... I can load 3ds files... :) perhaps I can help with tile-track or support you If you like...


Again, just for an example. A city-block 200m x 200m would have a similar use as the one non-repeating (Unique) city block in each track for that city.

my qt: 200mx200m - is this the right block x,y,z size for cities areas?

bye, Lionheart

[Michael Clease]

Frank they are done with Google Sketchup.

Jason complements on the models very quick work and gives a clear idea of what you were talking about.

[kryton9]

Jason, that is really great what you did! Really gives a great sense of what you have been writing about. Your idea will be a lot more doable for sure from what I have seen.

I will study it more when I get home tonight. Thanks for the work and presentation!

[Michael Hartlef]

So are we have to model track tiles (each tile is a M15 model) ?

Jasons latest brain attack lets me think that a track will be implemented via his first suggestion he made (created via pointsets and on the fly). Please state clearly what you need.

There is no need to waiste time on modeling if you guys plan a different track implementation.

[Lionheart008]

dear guys...

- I have tried this first track-area-test as a dummy test with a half sphere (with transparence, ca. 225 m size and sculpt it over the area), some little objects (houses) and will create more details on the track area and of course a new better track line Wink

- the ground has a size of 200x20x200 meters... one tower is nearly high with 200 meters;)

- all works are in progress Wink

- good evening, lionheart

[Lionheart008]

... part two:)

I show here only the track shapes...

- with this idea I can create every shape of track lines... I have found another way to create such a non-uniform track line... perhaps it's interesting to drive on such horrible streets? ;) it's possible to create equal track size, don't worry about it :D

- the big advantage of this shapes: you can change the size of the streets or take a new track crossing the old one... or take it over/under the first track line...

- quit the first way of creating the track attempt.... the last tracks weren't equal in width ... the problem belongs to extrude functions with splines :)

bye, Lionheart