It’s been quite a while since I’ve updated the news but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been busy. I’ve got a couple more tracks heightmap and textures mostly done since my last update and the latest one is Washougal.

I wanted to show this one off for two reasons. Firstly because its the first track I’ve made that already exists as a stock track. It’s an interesting comparison to me.. I think Snappe did an amazing job with the stock Washougal and there are a lot of similarities but I have a few bits I think are hopefully a bit more accurate from my perspective and other bits that are a bit more rough and realistic.

The second reason is because it’s the first one to have my new method of  background and skydome implemented. I’ve now done it on every other track I have completed the heightmap and textures for in clear, cloudy and rainy. It’s meant I’ve noticed how dull some of my textures were and I’m now blitzing them all again one by one trying to brighten them up. Oddly, not done it on Washougal yet but I will be matching the track and grass textures to the background soon.

Anyway. Let me know what you guys think.

Sorry it’s been a while but High Point took a lot longer than I thought. I’ts pretty much done and at some point I’ll be releasing a video comparison of my old and new version. But for now, I fancied somthing to take my mind off how badly I built High Point V1..

So, here are some raw laps around Thunder Valley. Sorry it looks like YouTube has turned my video into a potato, not sure what’s going on there but will see if I can get better quality going forward.

Hi guys..

Went back and recorded a few laps around Hangtown for you all to see. This ones mostly finished – I’m not happy with the grass and the off track to background so will be redoing that at some point.

Anyway, 450f and 250f laps shown, as I was worried for a while that 250f’s wouldn’t be able to make it over the big triple..

WW Ranch heightmap and textures are complete! I feel like I am on a roll now.. I only have 3 more heightmaps to create – Spring Creek, Budds Creek and Wshougal. The rest (Red Bud, Unadilla and Ironman) I have previous versions that will be brought up to current quality and have updates where elevation was slightly out and quality needs improving and in the case of Ironman the new layout needs finishing.

I’m excited to do Budds and Washougal as we have had these in game in stock form (Maryland and Washington) for a long time now and I’m curious to see how my versions will stack up.

Sorry to anyone who was looking forward to seeing more in the way of track development like texturing and maybe more heightmap work. I recorded some footage and had some problems – I’ve recently switched from an old version of Premiere to Davinci Resolve and I think all teething issues are resolved. I’ll make sure the next track I do from scratch I will record some texturing techniques and other development bits.

Anyway for now enjoy this one! WW rides really well although this video a lot of the berms and inside lines are blown out as I don’t tend to reset the deform during development if I can help it. Some purposefully ridden pre made deform will be included but it will be lighter than this.

I recently asked on Discord if people would rather see plain trackwalks of finished heightmaps and tracks, track making videos or Blender videos. It seems like most people want to see track making which is good by me.

Here’s the first one. Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to improve how I show my track making progress, or if there’s anything specific you guys want to see. Check out the latest video where I start working on berms, inside and outside ruts and do a bit of general updating of the heightmap. Hopefully this helps you guys get an idea of the effort that goes into making these tracks and maybe some of you can pick up a few techniques along the way.

Coming next I’ll show a video on how I texture WW Ranch, although I already have a bunch of pre made textures ready to go for this pack so it might not explain a huge amount, I hope the technique could at least be useful and if nothing else it shows the work going into these tracks.

Also, I made a new intro. I’m pretty happy with the video format so far but will mix it up from time to time.

Just a quick vid today. Earlier on I was building berms and ruts and came to this split section. I had so much fun riding it and pushing the limits of grip I thought I’d share one of my better runs through it!

Something a bit different this time. I thought I’d share what WW Ranch 2020 looks like at different stages of development. Right now it’s a very early build but I will also record some laps when it’s a bit further along and when I have textures done.

In the following video you will see how it looks when the jumps and rollers are being placed. Luckily with WW there is no real elevation so starting with a flat heightmap was like getting a head start. The jumps might change, this is really a first draft – But I do like how it rides. I’m lucky enough to have had enough experience building jumps in L3DT that I was able to do 4 or 5 jumps and sections in a row to find they rode exactly as I’d imagined they would when building them.

Anyway, enjoy!