Our ReVolt Pub

This is my second Blender track. Its intended to be textured as a canyon with metal reinforcements on the lower part of the walls, in some places. Features include several tunnels, a few open scenic views, bridges and a huge water tank that you drive around the edge of.

I tried to make sure that all of the polys were facing the right direction this time, so hopefully nobody will have to worry about that when mapping it. This model took about 4 hours to complete. I figure I can add additional instances when the rest of the track is put together, such as arches and boulders or distant mountains.

* View Track Map
* Download 3DS File


Here are some textures that might work with this track:

Wall, road and lower wall reinforcements.


Bridge textures and some bricks just in case.


Concrete for the water tank, reinforcements for outer wall and inner railing. Also some lights that could work for the lower walls inside of caves.


Caves could just be textured with the usual wall texture and made darker with lights in the editor.

Wow, you're just cranking them out now. But, that looks more like an off-road track than pod cars. Very rough and uneven racing line. Pretty short canyon walls though, don't ya think? I saw no problems with your model. Excellent. Maybe someone else will want to map it.

zagames @ Feb 3 2009, 07:33 PM wrote: that looks more like an off-road track than pod cars.

As long as its looong and has wide enough turns that POD cars can handle it, it should work fine. Nothing says every track has to be industrial/city themed. Besides, POD actually has a Canyon track.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY3mgbGdHSQ

In how long time have you been modeling with Blender?

I dunno, I've had it for a good long while I just don't use it all that much. The only part I'm really any good with is modeling basic shapes and that's pretty easy. But I've used it on and off for maybe 5-7 years?

Its pretty easy to use once you get the hang of a few shortcut keys, and its free to download.

the track map amd the textures look very good to me, aeon.
where did you get the textures from?

I might be able to find time to texture map it, and do the smoothing groups, if you can separate the texture groups of the model. I downloaded the current 3ds, everything is mixed together into one group. This makes it very hard to separate for texturing. I understand that a good portion of the track is obvious, but some is not.

The textures mostly came from Absolute Background Textures and www.planit3d.com. I layered several of them together to make other textures.

I'm not a texture artist, these just seemed like they'd work.

Bob - I know nothing about texturing tracks. I was kind of hoping that these other people here would know what they're doing and could send me back some mapped track pieces.

Well I'll poke around at it and see what I can come up with. I've found in the past, that it's easier to map parts of a model as you shape it, than to try to texture it later. Give me an e-mail and I'll send what I get done to you as I finish it.

Wow Aeon! I'm glad! Finally... you got some attention for once. I hope someone takes this somewhere so it isn't a waste of a model. It looks like a track I'd actually like for once because the line is simplistic and very wide-turned.

If someone else doesn't get to it first, I'll be glad to map it in a month or two

How long do you think it would take to map one of these? I'd be happy to make more if I thought anyone wanted them, but I'm going to run out of steam real quick if I don't see any progress. But if they'll turn into tracks I'll happily keep making more.

I would say, try to keep one or two at a time. Don't jump too far ahead, or people will lose interest in texturing. Good job though, those will make great tracks once they're finished. Just hold off for a while. When one gets finished, then you can make another, just don't bite off more than you can chew

Alright, I guess I'll just have to work on making cars for a while.

I'll suggest that you begin modeling accessories. There doesnt exist many good tracks that doesnt have any accessories. Find the theme of your track and begin modelling things that you might think of, when you see this theme. Here is an example:



My track is a jungle track, and that pic is near a river. So a Willow tree will match perfectly to there.

I could probably do that as far as modeling goes, but I'm not sure about texturing as I don't really know where or how many textures might be used on the tracks. It would be easier to design additional parts (as I intend to do) when the tracks themselves are finished so I can see how the parts fit in.

ok, that's your desicion. But usually i always create all 10 textures before begin texturing. Then i can be sure that i dont use too much space on one texture, or have too much space left.

Here's a pic of a finished section. Let me know if this is what you want.

Looks much more awesome than I expected it to look Bob. Looks like you have a knack for mapping textures. What about the sections with two-part walls?

Did you want separate textures on the walls there?

If you look at the first texture set, the tiles below the dirt and road are supposed to line the walls in those sections. Assuming it looks good, anyway. That should also flow into the edges of the caves using the red lights for the walls, so that the caves can be lit with the red lights. (Otherwise I'll have to stick something on the ceilings.)

It doesn't need to be done everywhere.

Ok, I'll see what I can do.

Fantastic looking iron bob, good job

Good luck Bob!

Well, I hope you don't want this done any time soon. I've been working on it when I have time. It's taking quite awhile to separate everything first so it can be textured. The section I showed you was easy compared to some of the overlaping tunnel sections. If you make more tracks like this I would suggest finding a way to separate the walls, floors and cielings. Like into layers or groups.

I can separate into layers in Blender but I don't think it works well with 3DS format (especially since exporting said Blender files into 3ds results in blank files).

Perhaps it would be easier if I modeled the track and then exported 3 different objects: walls, floor, ceiling. Then you could texture each independently and then import all three as instances into the track, at the same exact location? I don't know if the center point would be "off" if I tried that, might have to create some invisible polys at all 6 corners or something to keep the positioning accurate.

Think that might work?

I'd like to be able to model some tracks and have them work in Re-Volt without creating a huge hassle for anyone trying to map them, but if it isn't going to work then it isn't going to work...

I use Milkshape3d for modeling and texturing. If you exported the groups as separate 3ds files I could import them as separate groups. Realignment, would be simple to compensate for. But, doesn't blender also do smoothing groups? If so, you could separate them that way to.

Blender does about umpteen bajillion things that I don't know how to use. All I'm any good at is modeling shapes and a few other tricks that are only good for rendering 3D images, not creating things for games.

Which layers would be ideal, do you think? Just the three? Or are there any other situations where you'd want separate layers?

And did you want me to re-do Canyon Run into separate sections?

hey guys,

using layers makes work much easier. its highly advisable to create separate layers for every important part and object. in max i layer, group, color, freeze, etc objects in order to edit, so bunch of polys can be highlighted or hid any time which is handy.

one thing to remember: ase2w does not convert groups, therefore all groups that are needed on track should be undo before exporting the .ase.

It is usually best to separate everything by texture. Then also separate into workable chunks. (example: Imagine you have a brick house and a brick wall in your track. Both use the same texture. It would be easier to map them as separate items than as one item. Especially, if the fence surrounds or connects to the house.) As far as redoing Canyon Run, only if you can whip it out quickly. Otherwise, I have it about 1/3 regrouped already.

If you're already making progress on this track, maybe we'll just try new things with future tracks and see if we can work out something that's a little easier.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still working on it. I have the track about 90% separated. I'll hopefully be texturing sections soon.

cool. can't wait.

Likewise, and the track had darn well better turn out fun for all the trouble!

Back at you, Aeon

BTW, Is this a jump over a cross section? (circled in red)

Yeah, its supposed to be. Hopefully I got the angle right.

That looks like a really nice track, espacially with those textures!

But i would suggest to choose another name.. JimK already did a track called Canyon Run.. a long time ago

Its just a tentative name.

Aeon @ Mar 1 2009, 11:39 PM wrote: Its just a tentative name.

Yeah, I think we all know about Canyon Run... it was actually one of the first tracks I downloaded.

And tentative most likely means it'll get scrapped soon enough. I can't come up with a track name... dangit... this post isn't of much use. I'll edit it if I come up with any possible names for it that don't suck.

Sorry this is taking so long to finish. I just don't have the computer time I used to. I have the track separated and the track floor textured and some of the walls.

I'm in no big hurry. At the moment, I don't even have Re-Volt installed on my computer so it would be hard to work on it were it finished anyway.

I'm getting closer to finished with this. I have just a couple trouble sections to work out.

Sweet action

yes very sweet
I agree with
Zagames

If you're close to having this track finished, I'm all ready to start working on the rest of it.

Sorry, I've been busy for a while and haven't had time to work on it. If you want I can send you what I have done. Let me know.

ok Aeon , good work.

I still want to finish this track. But I've been so busy with work lately I just haven't had time to work on it. I only get one day off a week and that's spent just keeping up with house work. I'll try to get it finished when I get more time.

I could probably work on a section of it if you want. Just send me an email and let me know what's going on.

Any word on this? Did you want zagames to take a whack at it?

And question: If I built tracks like this out of multiple models - one for floor, one for ceiling, one for walls, etc... Would it be notably easier to texture the models?