Our ReVolt Pub

After having spent a lot of time creating a plugin to import-export several Re-Volt file formats in Blender, I thought that the best way to actually test it was to use it for real. So I decided to start building my own track... In fact, I think I was waiting for this moment for years.
Of course it will be an extreme track (as the goal is to model it fully in Blender), and I'll try to target a "top grade" quality level. But as it'll be my very first track, I hope I'm not just too high-flying...
Well, for now, I still don't know what an AI line is, and how they have to be created. I'll keep that for the end. And I'm still discovering the MAKEITGOOD mode...

I think the name will be "Destination Moon". But it's just a name, it won't be located on the moon at all... And except the name it has nothing to do with the the Tintin comic, nor with the 1950 SF movie.

The modelling has already begun, it's still just a sketch for now, but I think the main racing line is already fixed. It won't be a very fast track, as I like better challenging tracks like eg. Re-Ville.
I don't know yet if I'll use some custom elements.
I may or may not post teasers (depending of whether they can be teasing enough or not, ahah).

That definitely sounds like an interesting project, Jigebren. I personally hope you'll show some Work-in-progress screenshots from Blender or at least tell about any techniques that you have found helpful while modelling. Is it too early with some questions? I am very curious!

- How much detail/work are you going to put into this track?
- What kind of look are you trying to acquire in the track?
- Do you use a specific scale while working in Blender or are you scaling up till it fits about right?
- What do you estimate the polygon (triangle) amount to be? Higher, lower or approximately the same as stock tracks?

Looking forward to hear more about this "little" project of yours.

Wondering what you're going to get! Good luck.

I am very curious and intrested about the track. Good luck!

Thanks for your interest, guys.

To answer Urne's question:

3) About scale, as I make a wide use of use te Grid when modelling, one unit in Blender gives me the roughly the height of each floor. For objects, I start with a rough size then I compare directly in re-volt against the stock car size to see if it fit.
I don't have (or need) a more accurate method for now, but maybe one day I'll find more comfortable to stick to an exact scale value (which still have to be determined AFAIK).

4) In the current state, I have 7147 vertices and 6674 faces (tri or quads). To compare, NHood1 has 14869 verts and 5866 faces (only 5841 vertices if removing dupplicates).
I have quite finished the main structure (walls, ground), but a not draws yet all objects, etc. which are likely to use more faces than simple walls, so these numbers are still going to increase noticeably. I try to design it with low-poly in mind, but as soons as there is spherical or soft bodies, it quickly uses up a lot of faces.

Points 1) and 2) are a bit too sketchy, I'm unsure about the kind of answer you expect...


Here in a wireframe preview (top view) of the track. I have also drawn the planned race line (but not the shortcuts ).
As there will be several levels, blue is roughly the bottom level, red is the top one and green is in the middle.
And for info, the track will be reversable...

EDIT: Replaced the full wireframe screenshot by a simpler and clearer one (only edges displayed). You can still get the old one by clicking on the image.

It seems to me that you have a pretty good plan there jigebren, from your reply I can tell that you are progressing fast. Thanks for the reply to my previous questions, there is a few more to come but I hope you don't mind!

Since I began modelling myself I've always drawn sketches in hand, rough thoughts on paper I felt was necessary to do if I during a night suddenly got an idea for the current track I was working on. I believe that these ideas makes track making a lot more interesting, but unfortunately makes them a lot more complicated to plan. Today I am always trying to gather as many ideas as possible before I start out because I'm simply afraid that I will have to start over if I suddenly get an idea that requires me to do so. I am curious as to your current work-flow. Have you been in the same situation yet? Or has everything been planned to detail?

I've fallen in love with UV Mapping after I understood how the pixel blending works and how I should create the textures in a proper way for Re-Volt. Is there anything you have stumbled upon that you really liked about track making yet? If I understand your work-flow right, you haven't begun the process of applying texture to your model, even though you only have limited space. Was this decision made in order to simplify the process of modelling itself? Is it a preference? And is such case what makes it your preference? Does Blender offer tools that in some way makes it easier to divide the texture space between polygons while keeping things seamless? Perhaps you're just using simple math?

I am not sure that you have even been thinking about UV Mapping, so perhaps you can't comment on that yet. Perhaps this isn't your focus and I neither think that it is required for making a top-graded track (especially on RVZT). I am just very interested in this subject and I hope you don't mind.

Jigebren wrote:Points 1) and 2) are a bit too sketchy, I'm unsure about the kind of answer you expect...

1) You are targeting a "top grade" quality level for your track. You are aiming for a very high goal and IMO you are also putting a great burden on yourself if you are serious. I think we all have our own way of defining a quality track, so I was curious as to how much detail and how much time/work you are going to put into this track. I am looking forward to the results though.

2) I was primarily thinking of reality/surreality. For their time, the stock tracks seems to me to be aiming for a realistic look with the textures, vertex colored shadows and Shininess being a good example of that. Making a realistic track in a lowpoly environment is very hard though, so that was why I asked. Who knows, perhaps you would make the textures in the a comic book style and implement a cell shader into WolfR4?

Jigebren @ Scale wrote:About scale, as I make a wide use of use te Grid when modelling, one unit in Blender gives me the roughly the height of each floor. For objects, I start with a rough size then I compare directly in re-volt against the stock car size to see if it fit.

Well, that's at least more precise than what I have been used to. How hard is it to determine the scale that Re-Volt is using? And how does scales and units even work? Does each 3D editor have its own scale or does everyone use their own? I would really like getting used to using scale myself as I believe it can be an important part of the planning before you begin the serious modelling.

Jigebren @ Polycount wrote:I try to design it with low-poly in mind, but as soons as there is spherical or soft bodies, it quickly uses up a lot of faces.

I am pleased to hear that you are aiming for a low-poly track. How well does Blender's interface work with making individual faces and "controlling" polygons like that? Have you gotten into "work-arounds" yet or is Blender offering fully "manual" editing? (Sorry if I am a bit unclear with my expressions).

To me, track making is a very interesting topic to talk about since there is so many aspects into it. I will have a closer look at your wireframe preview later and perhaps return with some questions just to warn you. Please don't be scared to reply though, skip any questions you either find annoying or hardly well thought-through. On forehand, thanks.

Looks quite confusing. I hope I'm wrong, though.

@Urne
A lot of interesting questions... I didn't know you were that interested in track making. I lack of time to answer them now, but I'll try to do it step by step.

At least I can tell that I can't answer about UV mapping for now... Currently I have only created 5 very basic textures (just random pixels with a global color green, blue, grey, red, yellow) and a grid which is a simple color drilled with holes (using black pixels scolorkey), and I simply apply eg. the green texture to face that would look best in green. It's only to be able to properly test the track in re-volt before I actually do the final UV mapping (which I plan to do when the modelling is finished).

@miro
It's a bit more complex than Market2, obviously, but I think the race line is pretty clear once we're used to it (I hate it when there is no clear path).

hi jiggy, i see you have a plugin thread, so i'll change this to simply say keep up the good work on your map, it looks great. i'll repost into your other thread.

the overview looks awesome!