Tracks developpement

[berzingue]

Hi,

any questions / suggestions :

- is it possible to place any cameras on side of the tracks ?
- can we see replays with side-tracks cameras, like on tv ?
- how can I say to AI it must follow a specific road ?

[NaN]

All very good suggestions. I'll add them to the issue tracker. They are not too difficult, might be interesting for new devs.

Track cameras is something I've really missed when recording the videos. It should be easy to implement too by reusing car camera code, adding a "switch to track cameras" control.

Adding support for track variants shouldn't be too hard. We support multiple roads(track segments) already. Currently a lap is defined by a lap sequence. Lap sequence consists of n road patches that have to be passed. We just need to add support for multiple lap sequences.

The lap sequence business could be simplified if we replaced them by a list of roads(track sections). Then each lap variant would simply be a list of roads. It would require changes to trackeditor though. To be honest, I'd prefer to ditch the editor and go for Blender only. We need to run a survey if contributors are OK with this.

I've been thinking about changing current race page to:

Code:

Race

Track Type           Circuit / Street / Offroad / Kart
Track Name           Ruudskogen / ...
Track Variant        A / B / C / ...
Reverse              On / Off
Dynamic Objects      On / Off

Event Type           Practice / Qualifying / Race
Laps                 1 / 2 /
Duration             15min / 30min / 60min / ...
Record Session       On / Off

Car Type             Same / Any / Street / GT / Kart
Car Performance      Any / A / B / C / D    
Opponents            1 / ...
AI Type              standard / experimental
AI Level             100%
Antilock             On / Off
Traction             On / Off        
Car Damage           On / Off

                     Edit Start List
                     Start Race
                     Back

Track preview would be replaced by the track map of currently selected variant. Car performance class could be derived from power to weight ratio. "Edit Start List" would be a separate page. Player car setup would go into a separate "Garage" page. There we could add rim/tire selection and maybe even suspension, transmission setup:

Code:

VDrift

Garage
Single Race
Replays
Options
Updates
Quit

My top priority atm is getting the new simulation code into master asap though.

[Timo 6]

This sounds awesome , but do make sure the current stuff is finished first. I think we should also move the data to github before starting this too.

[NaN]

@Timo 6 Do you mean something specific? 8)

I am still not sure about the data (> 3GB)... Even if I tried it would take me a few days with my crappy upload bandwidth.

[Timo 6]

Same, but bigben87 seems happy to do it for us, then transfer ownership (https://github.com/bigben87/VDrift-Data/issues/2) Also, it's more like 1.8GB :wink: - branches would be compressed to changes from master only. On that topic, can the data-gui branch be deleted now?

[berzingue]

another suggestion, this is about modeling method and .jpk format :

Modeling method :
- 1st, I'd like to save a basic track (road, kerbs, grass, walls, skybox) with collisions. Like this we can make quick tests in Vdrift, about races, camera position, ect.
- 2nd, I'd like to put side-tracks objects in Blender. For that Id like to open .jpk of the basic track, import any .obj of buildings, trees... put it on track and save it as .jpk.

Advantages :
- I don't have to re-assign collisions each time I make a graphic modification
- If an object is not very nice, I can delete it in blender, replace it by a nicest one.

Problem actually :
- when I save a track as .jpk,
- re-open it in blender
- import any .obj buildings on the scene
- save all of this as .jpk,
- and finally, re-open the .jpk,

Well, all imported .obj buildings don't appear on the scene...

Can you have a look about this ?

[NaN]

Are you using the latest script version? It has a mesh export related fix. I think I should have posed about it here.

github: https://github.com/VDrift/blender-scripts
direct link: https://raw.github.com/VDrift/blender-sc.../vdrift.py

[berzingue]

Will it work with Blender 2.62 ?

[NaN]

I have tested it with 2.63, should work with 2.62 I think. I've moved the script into blender26 directory, to avoid ambiguity.

https://raw.github.com/VDrift/blender-sc.../vdrift.py

[berzingue]

I've tried to open a .jpk file and here is the message :



But if you say it works on 2.63, then I have to install this version !

[berzingue]

So, I've installed Blender 2.63 and made a test with the new script :
- Open track.jpk (1.9Mo)
- import .obj buildings on scene
- export all this scene as track.jpk
- open default scene
- import track.jpk (16ko !)
- the scene appears empty...

[NaN]

Interesting. I'll try to replicate this issue. Can you upload you files?

[NaN]

It looks like I've only tested joe export and not jpk, which would fail indeed. You can see the error when running with Help/Toggle System Console.

Try the new version: https://raw.github.com/VDrift/blender-sc.../vdrift.py

[berzingue]

With this new version, when I open .jpk, the track is present, but added obj.buildings don't appear !

Message on Toggle System Console (sorry, I can't open windows more) :

[NaN]

I am not sure what you mean. You don't see imported objects in blender? Obj import has nothing to do with the vdrift script.

Could you give step by step instructions of what you are doing or upload a blend? Guessing around is very inefficient.