1:1 Scale Vs. Overscaled

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Sorry it’s been a while. I’m still working on things, it’s just been a difficult few months to get through more work than I ever thought I would have in my spare time.

I’m not going to type too much, I’ve said pretty much all I wanted to say in the video regarding whether we should be replicating tracks in 1:1 scale or not. Surprisingly I’ve still had a couple of people tell me that overscaled tracks are ‘more accurate’, and 1:1 tracks become ‘one lined’ which I just can’t understand!

More fun, subjective. How exactly do overscaled tracks offer more lines? Instead of hitting everything WFO you have to slow down and tread carefully, this increases the skill gap.

It’s funny. We all bought the ability to ride like JS7, you get MX Bikes and you can scrub, whip, clear 80 foot jumps and not worry about the consequences of getting it wrong. I think that plays a big part in why people all of a sudden think clearing big jumps is ‘too easy’ in game. Maybe if you just pinned it for once in real life you’d realise it’s not as hard as you thought.. Or maybe you’d end up in hospital. Probably best not to try..

 

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Track Progression Preview Video: Thunder Valley Laps

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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.

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Here We Go Again: High Point

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Here we go again, another run at High Point. I haven’t played this track in a long time but I’m at round 5 now of heightmap and textures so I load it up to take a look at what we have, and all I can say is I’m disappointed.

It’s probably as 1:1 as it gets, but it’s too small. The jump faces are too tight, the roughness is too intermittent, the track edges come and go, I could go on. I’m not even overjoyed with the textures.

I’m looking forward to posting a trackwalk on High Point when I’ve rebuilt it. The only thing I’m happy about is I already have the track folder, masks, and some good geographical data in the heightmap so I don’t have to go through the setup process and mapping off track.

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Track Progression Preview Video: Hangtown Raw Laps

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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..

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Track Progression Preview Video: WW Ranch 2020 Raw Laps

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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.

 

 

 

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Track Progression Preview Video: WW Ranch 2020 Corners Inside Lines and Tweaks

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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.

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Track Progression Preview Video: WW Ranch Jump Placement

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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!

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Asset Progression 5: Speaker Crane Speed Build

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Check out the video below to get a glimpse of what goes into developing assets for the AMA pack. I’m doing all the work myself which means things are going to take longer than if I was working with a team or using pre made purchased assets. I hope this means that in the end the entire series is going to look perfect. My plan is that each track will have the same world quality so this crane is designed to be both low poly for good performance, but also the look is consistent with the other vehicles I’ve made. I will also be adding normal maps before getting it in game so may return for a part 2 video at some point.

Enjoy, please share, and please

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Track Progression Preview Video: Southwick

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Southwick 2020!

We didn’t get a Southwick in 2020 unfortunately (definitely one of my favourite rounds) so the only thing I can base it off is what we were most likely going to get. Well it doesn’t change much often except for when it was reversed.. One change is going to be the pro version gets the grandstand thing by the mound next to the start funnel where the practice version (in the video) has the standard Southwick hut.

This track feels amazing to ride. The pre set deformation is just enough to give it a real sandy feel, the rollers are wavey and there are quite a few multiple line choices.

I’m very happy with the environment on Southwick. The trees have been reworked and look fantastic, the off track area took a lot of work but I’ve tried to be true to the track itself so you even have the American Legion Post 338 building re created in what I’d call enough detail. There are a lot of very bespoke objects on tracks like Southwick which can make the object side of things a very lengthy process (especially when you can’t find good reference pictures) but it’s also one of the most enjoyable things for me as a track maker to get stuck into.

Remember Southwick is SUPPOSED to be rough!

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