Forum Postings 1999 April & May & June & July

as collected and (very little) formatted by addie walti


Threads

The start of a thread is marked with 0- (because sometimes the order is reversed)

Damn Scenery!
Subdirectories for jams
Camera problems
Short pitlane problem (as usual)
file size limits?

black flags
making CC cars faster
(initial) Track Widths
Time Traps
Fixed Camera Position?

Track heights
Objects shining through another
Two suggestions (de-unked jam code)
Track Crash
Scenery bridging

help! blinking fences
scenery
Strange Problems Editing A Simple Object.
Pit building question
internal object id=5

Bumpiness
Pedestrian Crossing
HELP HELP HELP HELP (cc-line trouble)
Can't install tracks
BMP will not display in TE (underlay BMP)

Track Width
brief underlay-bmp guid

end of file



Index

Damn Scenery!

0-Richard Selby (the_selb@hotmail.com) from 195.216.30.126:

OK, more scenery wierdness... I thought scenery 'went with the track' ie. curves round corners. There are no other cmds in any of the track sections except the scenery width and ribbon structures, but it goes straight! Any ideas, anyone?


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

Please refer to the scenery tutorial, section 3.3 and further. It's all there.
Martijn

Richard Selby from 195.92.194.46:

Have done, but this isn't. You say 'By default, the scenery ribbons follow the corners in the track.' But it doesn't. There are purely 0xaf and 0xb8 cmds in the section, but it just goes straight. Strange? If you want to have a look -
http://www.selby16.freeserve.co.uk/newtrack.zip
OK, so it's green. I only just started this.

--Rich


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

OK, OK, maybe it's by default "straight", but then switch it to "round" by placing one of those commands. It's a switch.
Martijn

Richard Selby from 195.92.194.46:

Oh, right! Didn't see that. I'll try it sometime tomorrow, and get back on whether it works.


Richard Selby from 195.92.197.38:

Yup. Thanks greatly.

--Rich



Index

Subdirectories for jams


0-Ndongo Bastos (ndongo.bastos@swipnet.se) from 130.244.55.108:

Hello everyone!

I'm not a track builder, just a frequent user of all the great tracks everyone is making.

My problem is that since I want to have as many tracks as possible on my PC I need to change the subdirectories that the *.dat files use.

For example, I just downloaded a Monza 1998, but since I want to be able to race the original 1994 track and this one without having to move the jamfiles, I need to learn how to change the subdirectory name for the 1998 track or any other track that uses the same subdirectory as another track.

I'd appreciate any help.
Thanks in advance,
Ndongo


Ian Hill (ijrh2@cam.ac.uk) from 131.111.8.68:

The paths to the jamfiles are specified in the circuit .dat file, and you should be able to change them using Track Editor.
Failing that you can use a hexeditor to change them, although it'd be best to use a directory with the same number of characters.

Ndongo Bastos from 130.244.118.67:

I realize that I must use the track editor to change them, but I don't know how to do it or where I find the paths in the editor!
Would you care to tutor me a bit?
Ndongo


Ian Hill from 131.111.8.68:

In the "tree" on the left hand side of the TE window, click the + by the track name to open one level, scroll down until you can see "Jam Files" and click the + by this, this will give you a list of all the jam files used by the track - now you need to change the ones that have (eg) "MONJAMS" (for Monza) in the path. To do this:
Double click on the filename you want to change, you get a dialog box with the path highlighted at the bottom. Just change this to the new path (eg MON94JAMS or whatever) and click Open.
Do this for all the files needing changing and you should be all set - now save the track file.


Vunz from 194.229.163.66:

At the moment I have GP2 five times on my harddrive, for the seasons 1994-1998. 1999 is currently under construction. This way yuo won't have any trouble specifying ther ight directories. Besides, you won't have to change the carshapes, carsets, season records, menu backgrounds, year opposition levels, tracknames and countries everytime you want to 'acurately' race another track....

good luck
Vunz


Ndongo Bastos from 130.244.54.220:

Gotcha Ian!!!
Thanks a lot.
Ndongo



Index

Camera problems


0-Robin (224436@hsholland.nl) from 145.81.160.23:

When I do finally get the chance to play that wonderful 15 secs of GP2, I still encounter a slight problem while editing some tracks. When altering the camera's, some don't work properly. Some camera's follow the car quite good, but a moment later the car disappears into the 'landscape'; the camera then only films a green filled screen (landscape maybe?) I've tried everything like changing the height of the camera, the x position, the y-position, but nothing seems to work.

Hope you guys can help...

Regards,
Robin


Paul Hoad (Paul_Hoad@autosim.com) from 212.2.17.129:

Robin,
Read the Camera Editing Tutorial at my web site "if you read it the cars will come", you'll be a camera guru by the end!
Paul Hoad

Robin from 145.81.160.23:

'If I build it, the spectators will come'...
Thanks Paul


Index

Short pitlane problem (as usual)

0-Mikael Olsson (bozze37@hotmail.com) from 194.18.99.85:

Right now I'm totally redesigning my old Anderstorp track to 1978 standards.
But, as there is a very, very short pitlane I had to shorten the parking area to make it all fit in. Now I've got my own car behaving very strange when leaving parking in the pits. It turns out as it should be, but then swaggers just like there is a non-working cc-line in the pits. This continues until the car passes the pit exit.
Has anyone encountered this before?
/Mikael Olsson


Ando (gp2@webfactory.de) from 195.94.90.24:

did you check the checkboxes 0x1 and 0x2 correctly?! See Addie's great tutorial for further information.
I don't know if this may cause the bug, but it is a possibility. :)
ando.




Index

file size limits?

0-grammy (holzhammer@t-online.de :) from 193.158.135.22:



Hi all,
I´ve wondered if there´s a limit of the total file size of the DAT file. If working on a large track and it seems like everything over 62.000 bytes won´t work.
I´ve had a version with 61.984 bytes which works fine and the next one (I added a few more trackside objects) with 62024 bytes doesn´t loading. GP2 says "wrong file type" or something similar (I don´t know how it´s called in the english version).
The track limits itself I haven´t reached IMO (Lengt T+P 7.18 km, Int. Obj. 41, Obj. 170, Tot. Comm. 584).
Is the file size too large are can it be something other?

TIA
grammy




Index

black flags

0-Augusto from 200.16.224.249:

Hello out there. Can someone explain me how do you use black flags in the track editor? Thanks in advance


Ando (gp2@webfactory.de) from 195.94.90.24:


hi,

you have to insert the commands 0xdf (for right side) or 0xde (for left side) into track sector 0.

the values you have to insert are the following:
a1: unused (0),
a2: begin of the black flag area from the start of the track in Cumlative length (see one of the last columns of the track data table for the correct value),
a3: end of the black flag area from the start of the track in Cumlative length,
a4: speed limit. enter the max speed with which this corner may be passed/shortened when driving over the grass. If you are over this speed in the game and run over the grass, you will get the black flag and you will become slower. I think the speed is in km/h, not sure anyway..

hope this helps.

cu
ando.



Index

making CC cars faster


0-Paul Maynard (pamay@caribsurf.com) from 196.3.192.46:

How can i make the cc cars go faster. i am using Paul Hoads track editor(great program). I give them the same gear and wing setup as my car but i can still run about 3-4 secs faster than them. i feel the physics section will make the difference but i dont want to fool around with them until i know what i am doing as i am new to this. so please give me a LOT of help as i need more competition from these cars
I have all cars running the same BHP so its not a lack of power
the most i see them do is about 186MHP and i can do sometimes 196-206MHP depending on the track


Salaverry Martin from 200.16.224.249:

try using for cc-cars 800 hp
and using for your car 600 hp


Mikael Olsson (bozze37@hotmail.com) from 194.18.99.85:

This also depends of which slot you are using for the track. Especially if you're using the F1ct16 slot, which seems to be completely different from almost every other tracks.

Otherwise, setting the rear wing of the cc cars very low always makes them go faster (adjust the gears to this setting too).

If neither of the above works, you probably have to redo the cc-line :-(

Good luck
/Mikael Olsson

Knuckles (brett_knuchel@geocities.com) from 203.166.224.77:

You could go the other way and slow your car down.
I am not thinking of changing the BHP or Grip or anything like that but rather in the Track file you could consider increasing the air resistance. This figure seems to have stuff all effect on your car but quite dramatically effects your car, this would reduce your top speed down so you could get more of a parity of peformance.
Also it would seem that for 3-4 seconds you may be out cornering them as well, increasing track grip could help (It would speed up both you and the computer cars but they will gain more from it if they are not as good as you through the corners).
You could also try using increased acceleration values as well if they are slower in the corners, I would use this in conjunction with increasing air resistance as mentioned above though.
Obviously you could also simply have a really shit cc line.
I would also concur with the thought of lowering their wing values as a possible solution.


Kees van Wijngaarden (keesvw@gironet.nl) from 192.87.16.130:

I worked with this features in the TE to solve the same problem. But it only makes every car faster or slower, not only the CC but also your own car. You must redo your CC-line and/or the CC-setup o to correct the difference between your car and the CC's. Changing the weight or BHP of the CC's is the other sollution for the problem.

Richard Selby (the_selb@hotmail.com) from 195.92.197.52:

The case that you could be racing on a level too low for your standards is a possibility. Maybe you've become incredibly good at the track and can whip some serious ass, and need a new challenge.

Knuckles (brett_knuchel@geocities.com) from 203.166.224.73:

Unfortunately I will have to disagree with you on this one.
Reason being is that I have actually closed the gap between cc cars and the human car by 1.5 seconds on a track that I am developing at the moment. This is on a track that has lap times around 25 seconds so it can be done, the air resistance in particular effects the human car considerably more than the cc cars.


Index

Track Widths

0-Richard Selby (the_selb@hotmail.com) from 195.92.197.39:

Does anyone know how to change the initial track width? I haven't had time yet to look through the help files, so if someone knows for certain that it's in there, please let me know. Otherwise, any ideas?


Bob P from 24.64.229.103:

Last I did this I just inserted the trackwidth command in the first track segment. Worked for me.

Bob P



Index

Time Traps

0-Mathias Freche (MFreche@t-online-de) from 193.159.10.54:

I like too work on the time traps. Where I can find the cmds in the Tracks ??? Has anybody experience.


Malcolm Mitchell (malcolm.mitchell1@virgin.net) from 195.147.133.63:

Use the TrackEditor or GP2Lap. I'm not sure how to change them with GP2Lap, but with the TE, you go to Track and then Track Name (GP2INFO) and then near "Preferred Slot" you'll see Split 1 and Split 2 there is where you enter a new value. To see where the splits are on the track, go to Show and then Info and then click on Show Splits.

There is good documentation with GP2Lap to explain what values to use.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,
Malcolm Mitchell



Index

Fixed Camera Position?

0-Ronald Loonstra (R.Loonstra@net.HCC.nl) from 212.4.196.35:

Hi to all,

Recently i installed the patch for GP2Video. With this patch it is possible to review a whole race. One of the "bugs" in this patch is that sometimes the track-side camera looses control: it may take dozens of seconds before the car you are following comes into sight. This reminds me of a whish i've had for years: Is it possible to get one fixed camera position for a whole track as if you are viewing the race as a visitor? This, without being bound to one particular car?
I'd be very pleased if someone made it to program such a patch.

Please react!




Track heights

0-Leo Breevoort from 130.161.23.33:

Does anyone know who the TE track heights relate to reality? I guess an altitude of 1000 in TE is about 5 or 6 meters in reality. Am I about right????


addie from 194.191.82.13:

my guess always was 1m is 40 units in the TE.

if we knew the exact altitudes levels of e.g. the spa or the monaco track, we could load the original gp2-version of them into the TE and have a look at the altutude values there and make a little bit of arithmetics and we had the about exact factor.

does anybody know the real altitude values of the mentioned tracks ?
addie


Leo Breevoort from 130.161.23.103:

I looked at the Suzuka track; at the cross-over the height difference between the two track sections is about 1000 units in TE. That's why I guessed it's 5 or 6 meters.





Index

Objects shining through another


0-grammy (holzhammer@t-online.de) from 193.158.135.22:

Hi,

how can I prevent objects from shining through another one?
I´m working on a track and when leaving pits there´s a building on the left side in a downhill section followed by some trees. And the trees are seen through this building. Also I placed a stand on the right side after a turn left and it is partially seen through this building, too.

TIA
Tom


[M] from 130.161.124.18:

You can play around with the "detail settings" in the object box
If you put it on "always on", chances are, it won't be "transparent" anymore.


Index

Two suggestions (de-unked jam code)


0-Richard Selby (the_selb@hotmail.com) from 195.92.197.37:

After a lot of racing and sorting to make a good '99 season, I have two things to ask people.

1. (Big one) Please don't put your jams in the original folders, other tracks may want to use the originals! I've spent about half an hour changing files.

2. Check non-textured jam colours. In my mirror, it's amazing to see what I've just driven over. (Actually I don't know how to do this myself, but kerbs are very easy)

Thanks for listening.

--Rich

Mal Ross (mal@humford.demon.co.uk) from 193.237.112.166:

Hi Rich,

What do you mean by "check non-textured jam colours"? Are you saying that some colours don't appear the same in the mirrors as they do in the front view?

Mal.


Mal Ross from 193.237.112.166:

Rich - you're a star. :)

It appears that UNK_16 in the unknowns list seen in the Jam Editor is in fact the palette index of the colour to use in low-detail mode.

To see the effect of this, open your gamejams\roadsgn.jam file and change the UNK_16 of the green-light texture to a value of 63. Now load up GP2 and turn off the textures on track-side objects; the lights will go yellow at the start of a race, not green! I suspect that UNK_17 is also related to low-detail colour - perhaps the colour used in the mirrors instead of in front of the car. I'll just go and find out... :)

Mal.

Mal Ross (again) from 193.237.112.166:

Actually, did everyone already know this? From your original post, Rich, it sounds as though you knew, at least.

Mal.

Richard Selby from 195.216.30.126:

I thought there must have been a way to change it, but I haven't started on jam editing yet. I thought someone might have discovered it by now though. My mate's got a p90 and complains sometimes about driving over green roads, whereas some people can afford to have textures in mirrors too, so don't notice. Damn them!

Mal Ross from 195.238.164.184:

I think most people can afford to run in high detail everywhere (I'm one of them and my PC's not particularly fast). That's probably the only reason why it hasn't been discovered before now.

Mal.

P.S. I'm afraid I haven't figured out what UNK_17 does yet. Anyone?



Mal Ross from 193.237.112.166:

I've just realised that in the posts about a jam texture's UNK_16 value being the colour used when no texture is displayed, I should have said IDX_16. I got a bit confused with the "Unk 16" in the texture's flags, which is just an on/off switch whose meaning is not known. So, just to clear it up:

IDX_16 is the palette index of the colour used to display the 'texture' when running in low detail (i.e. with texture-mapping turned off).

Cheers,

Mal.


Paul Hoad (Paul_Hoad@autosim.com) from 212.2.17.129:

I'm very impresses that still some 18months on we are still discovering things even though their effect might be small for people not running textured mode this is important!

Well done Richard/Mal for discovering this

Paul Hoad




Index

Track Crash


0-Robert (novrob@hotmail.com) from 195.121.217.69:

damm track

it seems that my track works perfectly... in the practice option.
everytime i want a qiuckrace or a non-championship race the game crashes while loading the track.

but NOT with the practice option
what is this???


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

I think you used a JAMfile too many. Try not-loading one (unimportant) JAMfile and see if it works then.

If not, please come back here. If it works, please report also :-)

Martijn


Robert from 195.121.217.32:

thanx

i did just as you said and it works perfectly

thanx again:)



Index

Scenery bridging


0-Robert from 195.121.217.14:

can someone explain me how to bridge the scenery?!

µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

I tried my best in the scenery tutorial. If it isn't clear, please tell me why and what



Index

help! blinking fences

0-Robert from 195.121.216.122:

As i almost finished my track i'm still saddled with one tiny bug...
It seems that the fences are blinking and that the scenery vibrates in some tracksections.

does anyone got a solution for this...?


addie from 194.191.82.13:

as for the blinking fences, you could try to solve by dividing the appropriate track-sectors into short pieces. especially if the sectors are someway curved (corner or gradient-change).
basically the same for the scenery, but here you have to do it by inserting more cmd 0xaf/0xb8-pairs ...

i hope it helps
addie


Index

scenery

0-Derek (verland@mb.sympatico.ca) from 205.200.28.46:

Hi there, I am working on a track, and I am having a problem with the scenery covering the road just after the last corner leadind to the s/f straight, ?It only lasts for a second but is annoying, tried various things but to no avail, any help appreciated, Thanks.


grammy (holzhammer@t-online.de) from 193.158.135.17:

Maybe there´s a ribbon crossing the track. Then it would help if you would insert a 0xB0 command into that sector to switch this ribbon off.


addie from 194.191.82.13:

is the pit entrance pretty close to the s/f line ?

it seems that there has to be a minimum distance of the pitlane entrance (about where the 0x9f in the pitlane is positioned) to the s/f-line. and the limit seems to differ from slot to slot ...

in case the pitlane entrance is closer to the s/f-line, effects like the described one could happen ...

Derek from 205.200.28.46:

Yes, it turns out to be a track slot problem. The track is based on slot 12, and this were the problem occurs, but when I switched to slot 13, it went away. Thanks




Index

Strange Problems Editing A Simple Object

0- Obi Offiah from 194.168.122.106:

Hi!

I'am having some trouble with object editing. The object I edited was an advert, all I changed was the scale data to reduce its size and then mapped a different advert texture to it. In the Object Editor the Ad looks fine with a Mobil ad on one side and an Opel ad on the other. After importing the ad to GP2 and running the program, I find that when viewing the Ad from the Opel side, it is stretched to what seems like the original scale of the advert board before I edited it, however on the Mobil side the advert is fine and looks like how it did in the Editor.

Can someone please help me cure this problem. Thanks

Obi Offiah


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

Some textures seem to be inscalable. Try to use another texture ID, or mess around with the flags in the Jameditor. That's all I can think off...

Please report when it helps!




Index

Silverstone 98/99 (move s/f line)

Eddie said the following:

Has anybody done these tracks witht the correct start line location, i.e. half way down the pit straight. I keep mucking up when I try to mess around with a track, and so I'm handing over to the experts!


Dave said the following:

I would also like someone to do this as I have now idea how to move the s/f line

Eddie from 195.166.139.131:

That was the problem I had. I could mess around, and move the track sections about, but the s/f line was always at the same place!


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

You can change the start/finish position by shortening the straight going to the first corner, and at the same time lenghtening the straight coming *from* the last corner to the s/f line. Then, all you need to do is remake the CCline :-)

(or you can shorten the first ccline section by the same amount as you did change the straights, that *may* work but it's more luck than skill in this department



Index

Pit building question

0-Augusto from 200.16.224.249:

hello. i have a question. When you are inside the car in the pits, ready to get out sometimes you can´t see the pitbuilding in your mirrors, why this happend, is there any way to fix that? Thanks in advance


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

You may have a look at the object definitons, the *detail level* settings. When it's put to *always on*, then you can't better it this way. The only thing that worked for me was importing a always-visible pitbuilding from another track! (like monza, jerez possibly)




Index

internal object id=5

0-addie from 194.191.82.13:

hello

maybe all this is old news for some of you. in that case sorry for wasting your time.

all of you who dealt with internal objects will have noticed the internal object(s) with id 5. this object has a sub code and in the tutorials section of the track editor homepage you find a list of all those subcodes and what “object” they mean.

my explanation for this specific object: the internal object id 5 is defined as (a single) object simply containing one texture which will be shown in a certain way (like an advert-object, but with the same texture mirrored on the two sides; un-streched). e.g. you have a tree-texture and this texture is shown on both sides, mirrored, so you get a tree.

the point is: the subcode is simply the id of the used texture minus 256. so you could take ANY texture for a internal object id 5, as long as the texture-id is 256 ...

so, if you e.g. want the tree with texture-id 348, you position an internal object id 5 with subcode 348-256=92, et voilà. and if you e.g. want your own texture with an id say 400, you position an internal object id 5 with subcode 144 ...

i hope this simpyfies dealing with internal object id 5
addie




Index

Bumpiness

0-Ian Sears (iansears@quest-net.com) from 209.91.30.77:

I'm having difficulty finding an aspect of the trackfiles that influences the surface bumpiness in any noticeable way.

i.e. Magny-Cours: Smooth
i.e. Imola: Bumpy

I would greatly appreciate any hints on where to begin looking.
I can only influence it at the changeover between two sectors, and this isn't realistic enough.

Sincerely,
Ian

µartijn from 130.161.124.18:

Look at the "Track config" data, = various data blocks =
data blocks 50 'till the end is the bump-table where you can specify the "bumpiness" for a certain part of the track.


Ian Sears from 209.91.30.77:

µartijn:

Thank you for the help. I'd looked right at it in the past but didn't recognize it for what it was. Hopefully I can edit well enough to contribute something worthwhile. Again, thank you µartijn.
Sincerely,
ian




Index

Pedestrian Crossing


0-Oli (oliver-kirsch@gmx.de) from 62.52.238.78:

Hi! I want to add a pedestrian crossing/crossway to my track (like in Monaco). Could you please tell me, how to do. Thanks!

Oliver


addie from 194.191.82.13:

its done by mapping a texture on the road. please have a look at the command-library and look for the command 0xbc. everything is there

i hope it helps
addie




Index

HELP HELP HELP HELP (cc-line trouble)

0-Jason hope (hope1@videotron.ca) from 207.96.131.78:

there is aproblem with my track that i am constructing. Someone else is making the cc-line for me, but as he reached a certain piont in the construction, the cc line does not appear on the road anymore...personally, i have never heard of anything like this. If anyone has a clue as to what is going on, please contact me via the forum or my E-mail. There could be a problem with track length section, but i really don't think that this is the case...all the sections going through there have a lenght of 1 unit...any clues?

Jason hope


Jason hope from 207.96.131.78:

fixed the problem. I believe aswell as Juraga Branimir, that there were too many tracksections crammed in such a small space with very high radius'. I was making a hairpin that is extrememly tight, and as my partner in crime was making the cc-line, it suddenly disapeared around the hairpin. when I removed some sections and extended others, the problem was resolved.

sorry for the bitching,
Jason hope

BJ from 195.29.234.56:

CC line reappeared after changing the track sector length. It seems that angle was too big. Thanks guys.



Index

Can't install tracks

0-Joe from 209.5.104.163:

I've tried everything to install my new tracks but it won't show up on the track screen.


eddie
from 195.166.139.131:

Have you tried playing the track that is in the slot... I mean, you have to change the menu pic for it to appear, but the track will still be there!




Index

BMP will not display in TE (underlay BMP)


0-David Richards (davrich17@hotmail.com) from 202.12.71.4:

I am having trouble with getting underlay bitmap to show up - I rotated image and it won't show.
What limits are there to bmp size/colours etc?

Regards,
David

William Dale Jr (wgdale@tpgi.com.au) from 203.37.230.136:

You haven't got the 'Maintain Aspect Ratio' option selected do you? I've had that happen recently and that was my problem.
Regards,
William Dale Jr

David Richards from 202.12.71.4:

Thanks William, that was the problem.




Track width

0-Iso-Hannula (isohannula@gnwmail.com) from 195.197.160.43:

Track widths are usually 950-1800. How they should be converted, if I want to have it at same scale as tracksection lengths.

Eg. If section length is 1, what is width, so that it would be square. I checked some values with PE, but I didn't find out clearly. Someone explored this?

I have noticed that pitlane width can't be altered. There must be some standard width, but what is it?


µartijn from 130.161.124.18:


*Perhaps* 1024 units = 16 feet, about 4 metres. This scale is used in the objects (like adverts etc).

Seems a little too small though, for my liking. Perhaps it's twice that (for both left and right), then it starts to make sense!!!!

BTW the "trackwidth" is more of a "global scale" that affects the verges too, although hardly noticable when useing "normal" verges. But if you have a track width of 2, then the verges are ALWAYS near the track, even if the supposed distance is 250.


addie from 194.191.82.13:

i also prefer the idea of having twice the width actually. that explaines why there are three cmds for changing the track width. with the regular track-geometry you define a virtual “center”-line and with the three track-width-cmds you define the distance from that line to the border of the track. both halfs separately or both halfs at the same time (would give a width of twice the value of the argument).

(btw: 16 feet is 4.87m)




brief underlay-bmp guide

0-addie from 194.191.82.13:

brief underlay-bmp guide

(this may be old news for some. in that case, sorry for wasting your time)

in my experience working with an underlay-bmp is the only reasonable way to make the layout of a real world track as good as it gets. this is how i do it:

- i make a 256-color bmp (other resolution incl b/w do work also)
- on that bmp i prepare the most accurate track-layout i can get.
- i do dimme the content of the bmp to a light grey. i also make notes (e.g. the real length of the track for checking in the TE, the bmp-filename, whatever ...)
-then i do scale it, thats the most difficult part. at the end i want a bmp with equal sidelengths (e.g. 2000 x 2000 pixels) and the side-length has to represent 2480m in reality as good as it gets ! so, wit scaling i mean i do add or remove margin until i have those 2480m / sidelength. of course this is pretty difficult to figure out sometimes, but we want to do a proper job, wont we ?
- the finished bmp i do copy into the circuits-directory and then i go to the TE.
- in the TE i go to the track-tree to the “misc config” section. there i set the values 21 / 21 / 510 / 510 (these are the values of the “world extend” in the track view)
- i check “edit / maintain underlay aspect ratio” it has to be UNchecked! (see forum posting lately)
- then “file / underlay bitmap” and choose the file
- if it shows up now, its ok
- if its not there, i check “show / show underlay bitmap” (or the appropriate button in the toolbars)
maybe i have to uncheck and check again

now all you have to do is to define your track-sectors in order to match the underlay. i do it quick and dirty, at the beginning with long sectors, even in corners. as soon as both track-ends match, i go to “track / track statistics” and check the length in km (or miles) of the track to see whether i have to shorten or lengthen the track.
BEWARE: the length in the statistics window is wrong by 1 length-unit (paul, do you copy?), as both track ends do overlap by one. those who dont believe may try to map a texture onto the very last track length unit of your track. so, in the statistics, the track has to be too long by 4.87m (or 16 feet). some may say this is for perfectionists only, but why shouldnt we do it the best we can where its that easy ?

sometimes i also have to rescale the underlay by a few percent, in order to get the right length AND the good match of layout and underlay. especially if the underlay includes more info, e.g. scenery or buildings ...

if the length is ok and the layout matches the underlay i go and divide the tracksectors to smaller pieces (for having a smooth projection in the game, tv-cams in particular) and all the other stuff, you know what i mean ...

happy editing
addie


addie from 194.191.82.13:

just to be sure there is no misunderstanding:

as for the lengh in the track statistics. of course the cumlative length of track length units is correct (at least i guess so) but the calculation of the real-world track length with of that number is not correct. we first have to subtract by 1, then multiply by 16 feet ...

































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