Track Editor

[cotharyus]

I've got some questions about the track editor. I checked it out of svn, and I've been looking at it. Someone commented that it was derived from a previous version of vdrift. I noticed that it doesn't build on my system (complains about GL/gl.h not being there, but it is - I'll figure that one out) but I was wondering where we need to start on this. Obviously there are a few things that need to be taken into account based on what I've heard:

It needs to be "better" (please, define better)
It needs to be able to define multiple starting points for multiplayer stuff.

Please add to this and discuss possible solutions or a process order to take care of it.

[joevenzon]

Yep, it's based on an old version of VDrift with some of the newer track format stuff hacked in. You fly around and point with the mouse like you're pointing a gun to select vertices, and set car start locations by maneuvering the camera to where the car should be (and face). I think a proper mouse-driven interface would be much better, perhaps with a main perspective views and then some additional top & side views in smaller windows. You might want to just start from scratch.

[xTs]

Another thing the track editor could do is generating a 3D model of the track to show it in the track selecting dialog. Now you get on an unknown track without knowing anything about it.

And calculate the track length, too. Nordschleife is pretty long and i'd like to know such things at the beginning.


And i still don't think that the editor is that bad. Just setting the start location sucks.

[thelusiv]

Cotharyus, The reason it needs to be better is that it is not intuitive or very interactive. Right now we need to use external tools like listedit to edit object properties. This should be done in the track editor so it is easier to tell which object one is working on (however there is a good argument for still making the listedit console available for batch and wildcard property setting).

xTs, I'm not sure that we need a model for the track selector, an image of the track's outline would be fine, I think. Also this is not necessarily in the scope of the track editor, but probably better generated when the game is run, or stored as a static image and distributed with the track files.

[joevenzon]

thelusiv is right, that's a big feature that needs to be added -- some way to select an object or objects and set the properties.

If you take a look at this post, I have a huge list of steps for developing a track from scratch. Ideally, the steps should be something like:

* model the track in blender, then export it using the export script
* load the track editor, create a new track, add the objects, set object properties, trace the roadways, place starting positions, mark the timing sectors, save the track to your vdrift folder
* run the track in VDrift

Currently, the track editor can only trace roadways, place starting positions, and mark the timing sectors (and it's not a very elegant interface for doing those things).