Our ReVolt Pub

well, my new track is nearly done, its not really finished but ok for race safe and stable. i would like to release it by christmas, so i can read the praises under the christmas tree joking, i hope you guys will like it, its a kind of odd one i think, but certainly something recognizably of my style, so to say. i mean its just like my old tracks mixed together with different textures. right turns, left turns here and there, you know. ill post some pictures probably soon.

cool human
really cool
try to make better AI that on Human center

it will surely be better
furthermore manmountain is creating an ai node version, it will be kewl. humma is doing well for example. but ai is always going to be easy to beat once somebody have practiced revolt for a while.

Glad you're getting closer to release Human. It's been what, over a year since you started? hehe. Don't forget to send it over for testing and tweaking .

yea, i need to let it go because its driving me crazy, haha.
over a year i think, yes. the quality isnt necessarily reflecting the amount of time thats been put in, i dont think its gonna be as successful as helios for example, but i like it, i have been racing it for a long time

Glad to hear - you will realise you track... (finally next track by human !)

how about you release it before the year rolls over?

im planning to do it next week.

cool, good luck then man and if you need some help we are all here for you my dear

One year? Hell yeah I'm waiting. "Jailhouse"... sounds interesting.

there will be a few days delay guys, but ill defo upload it between xmas and new year, ill upload a few screenshots later on today.
have cheerful christmas holiday season and a grand new year everyone.

I agree, can't wait till you release your artwork! Merry Christmas

i didnt have time for shots but because i promised, here are a few, this is how it looks like:

looks wicked man!

hey! that's an excellent work! looking very great

Looks more like it belongs in a first person shooter.

thx guys, i hope the track itself wont be disappointing comparing to the pictures.

Awesome textures! How long is it?

its 723 meters,
and my personal record is 00:50:953

which means its a bit shorter than toytanic and what is the record on toytanic again, i cant remember, its close to that isnt it? that means its a fairly fast track if the driver is good

Awesome! (one word):)

Looks great! Pretty job on the lighting / shadows (mainly noticed on 1st and 3rd images). Nice textures too.
The 1st image seems to me reminiscent of some duke3d levels...

Looks like a stock map or some fps game, great.

It's Just gonna be the best dude!!
I am well excited!!

thanks a lot guys!

now, i have run into a bit of problem here, the only thing thats left is a custom pickup model, and its 95 percent done, but i cant make it reflective in the game like the original pickup model. here is what i did, tell me please whats wrong:

1. created model
2. vertex colored it, no textures
3. welded all the vertex points
4. set smoothing group def according to morph switch:
32 for no collision and 30 for environment on (shininess)
5. converted with -m (morph) switc, got the prm and the ncp file
6. put both into models folder after backup the original
7. renamed pickup.prm to pickup.m
8. launched revolt, pickup appeared on track but not shining

any idea?

Hi Human
Custom pickup models are shiny.
I think you should not use the -m
switch when you go from ase 2 prm.
I have made lots of dif. pickup models
and they always have the shiny texture.
Try that I cant see any reason it wont work.
Cya

I think you have to have some sort of material assigned for it to appear shiny. Just a theory.

No!
No material is needed.
Just a map that you want.
No surface groups.
The game gives the texture.

It depends on the ENV.bmp you've used as well. Since it sounds like you pretty much changed everything there was to change, I guess you got a custom one too?

Why did you put the .ncp file in the models folder?
I don't think it is needed.

Are you using a ENVSTILL command line in the .inf?
If so, check the path in the line. I sometimes forget to
change that line when I rename a stock track folder
to the final folder name

Also, env does not show in Object edit mode.
Other than that I don't see what the problem could be.

no envstill change or command in the .inf file,

ill try what ricky says, does that mean that pickup models are always no collision in the game regardless to smoothing group definitions? its logical, though imagine solid pickups but i thought no collision is to be set by SG flags (number 30 in morph switch).

i re-export the model and ill get back to you guys.

Since the collision data won't be stored inside the prm file (aswell as surface properties), the pickup.m won't have any collision.

thank you guys, i followed ricky's advice and it works, no need for sg groups and switches.
see, i didnt no this, this is my first custom pickup model. i just assumed, if its gonna be no collision and shiny i need to set it up in max first.

so, what have we learned? if you want your pickup model to be shiny in game, dont make it shiny in max and dont convert it using ase2prm switches, because it wont be shiny then. just do nothing for shininess and then it will be shiny. simples.

other problems occured which i started a parallel topic with, please read, thanks again for your ready help guys.

Simples indeed lmao

track is up on rvzt,
thanks in advance for downloading it.
please read the readme to see how to install the extra features.
thanks for the ready help of everybody who helped me in creating this track, see the readme for names.

You've made such a great modeling work, Human! I was amazed by the spinning ceiling shadow (didn't even know it was possible to do that), and the projected window lights on the ground look so nice. There is a lot of other nice details like the drainage steam, the lasers, etc, that give an overall feeling of a great quality track.

My personal little criticism, as quite usual with custom track, is the feeling to be lost in the track. Compared to stock tracks, we always have to learn the trajectory by heart before being able to enjoy the track. We need to be more guided. I noticed also, that perhaps some parts could have benefit from being sized-down a bit, like the playground, or the sewer. And a bit more of instances, to add more fun... Ok, it's enough

Apart from that, a really great track. It's a pleasure to see work with that kind of quality level.

thanks jiggie,
i strongly believe that you need a maximum of three laps to learn the racing line.
the sewer is a part where you need some kind of clever wheel work to stay on maximum speed, so i kinda like it for this reason, as for the playground, i dont think it was too big. what kind of car do you normally drive? i mean in revolt of course

After 3 laps, I still had to follow the HUD arrow... But that's ok, I just need more pratice. That's just a general remark I make about a lot of custom tracks.
In fact, for the sewer, in wouldn't have like it shorter, but a bit less wide, to make it more fun and challenging. And I found the playground perhaps a little too empty, it lacks a bit fun. A big truck near the crates would look so cool...
But don't mind too much about it, that's just my personal point of view about things that could be improved. I still found this track awesome.

PS: I drove it with toyeca and bertha. I don't have favorite car as for now, I spend more time on testing/patching that on playing.

Now this is a track that would look amazing with hi-res textures. The lighting is probably my favorite thing. No one really messes with light and shadow much these days. Really nice custom background too.

thanks a lot guys.
yes, i could have put more objects on the pitch, but thats the place where you see a lot of polis around you and i wanted to keep fps as high as i could. and since i only had a few hours per week to work on the track, inserting more stuff could mean another half year delay in publishing but the main problem is revolt itself with its limits. with 512 textures i think we can manage to put much more details on the track because pixels will replace vertex points so to say, details will be achievable by using more textures instead of increasing poligon and vertex count.

thanks adam, i payed a lot of attention on the shadows and lights- this is what i normally do in real life anuway, because photography is my serious hobby.

human wrote:yes, i could have put more objects on the pitch, but thats the place where you see a lot of polis around you and i wanted to keep fps as high as i could

One point for you.

Adamodell wrote:The lighting is probably my favorite thing. No one really messes with light and shadow much these days.

That's true. On your screenshot, we can see clearly see how attention was paid to the shadows. I think we can intuit in that the photographer's eye.

Will you release a hi-res version of the track? (just an open question, I mean, don't feel yourself obliged to answer yes).

PS: we can't get the star with a low car like RC Bandit, we're passing under.

jigebren @ Jan 8 2010, 07:26 PM wrote: Will you release a hi-res version of the track? (just an open question, I mean, don't feel yourself obliged to answer yes).

PS: we can't get the star with a low car like RC Bandit, we're passing under.

i have totally forgot about bandit and his fellows. lets say stars are for the big boys

i didnt plan to hi-res the track, i consider it as my last 256 texture work.
well, i dont think i will recreate the textures in 512. most of the areas are saved only to fit the 256 bitmap. i would probably spend the same time with creating a new 512 track.

by the way! jiggie, will ase2w work with the 512 textures?

Hey human, to answer that question, yea they will as ase2w only looks at the UVW Cords, the ID's & the last letter on the bitmap, when it comes to material in 3ds max & Gmax - as of what I know of.

human wrote:i didnt plan to hi-res the track

human wrote:i consider it as my last 256 texture work

I was just asking I case you already have texture sources in high resolution.

human wrote:by the way! jiggie, will ase2w work with the 512 textures?

I think urne has answered the question better than I could, since I don't know any of the ase tools. I have never used MAX and I think I will never will. I one day (when I'm done with all the patching stuff) I think about track making, I will probably do it in blender (as month ago, I began to write an import filter for revolt files in blender, but for now, I'm waiting to migrate to version 2.50).
So to answer your question, since the UV coordinates are not absolute but relative to the texture size, I think there will be no problem with any tools you can use, as long as they don't have to read the texture file.
In fact, the only difference between a 256 textured track and a 512 textured track will be the size of the texture image, period. The indices, the texture mapping, all of that remain unchanged.

thats good news guys.
my next track (time and other things permitting) will be a hi-res one, i want to think it through before opening max at all. i realized that a good plan is needed for an effective work, i think the original authors had the whole thing in their head (and on paper) before starting 3d modeling.
its good to know that this 512 thing is gonna work. im looking forward to see what i can do with four times more textures.

I have been running texture tests from max to re volt all week dudes and have had no problems as of yet. ASE2W in both -a and -m are fine.....

Sorry all, was going to ask a qustion but found the answer my self lol.
Mike...

Skitch2 @ Jan 19 2010, 05:26 PM wrote: Sorry all, was going to ask a qustion but found the answer my self lol.
Mike...

Lol...i'm probably done with 256 tracks too...so you can expect Asphalt Rally 2 in hi-res!

Having fun while testing the Blender import plugin I'm working on, I tried to launch the NCP file of this track (ie. the collision data), to see if the plugin work as nicely with an user created tracks than with stock tracks...

The plugin did work, and while checking the face's material, I noticed that the poles supporting the basketball boards in the courtyard have been assigned the Market conveyor material... Maybe the result of a Human's experiment with ASE tools. Oh, and in case you don't know, assigning this material actually enables the conveyor effect for the surface.
You can check it in game: when the car hits the pole, it bounces back exaggeratedly (it can be more or less noticeable depending on the face).

Well that's all, but I though it was worth mentioning it.