Thankfully the Tecpro meshes seem to work really well with Ilya's fantastic deforming walls. The old low poly invisible mesh is now placed slightly behind just in case: (edit: corrected link to repo)
Hello, WIP has now become Released-Final. Happy to labour the point some more, but a real big thank you all for the help and this resource. It has been a fun journey this past year creating a track and honestly without this website it would have been impossible. I hope I have been able to give a little back by documenting the journey. I know it's not perfect, but I finally reached a point at the weekend where I decided that was it for Pinwheel and I need to move on to pastures new. I'm not quite sure what yet but probably something fantasy related just because that scratches a certain itch I seem to have. Whether the location ends up being real or not I haven't decided. Suggestions welcome! A few highlights in the latest release: Grandstand and pit sounds thanks to the thread here by gunnar333 and posts by Johnr777 in particular. Digital flags, helped by Stonewaiterz' initial question here. Massive kerb overhaul to get the textures working much better and more rubber laid at apexes. More detail everywhere around the in and outfield, masts, paddock lights, domes, etc. Flag revisions - very tempting to copy from Kunos but I must resist! Sticking to all the meshes being scratch-made on the track. If anyone wants the mesh let me know. Shader replacements on things like grass, a couple of lines for CSP can make a huge difference! Cows. Plus some other hidden Easter eggs. I've attached here the final ext_config.ini just in case any of it is any use to anyone (I have found looking at some of the threads of how people do CSP things on here very useful). Note that further to my previous post, I actually had to take the deforming walls out. Sometimes AC would load and then the walls would just basically vanish, and sometimes they were there - it was very odd, it only happened occasionally, but it followed no pattern and enough for me to not use them unfortunately. Fully rigid Tecpro it is!! I can live with it. After finishing things for 1.0, I spent the weekend attempting to learn how to do video editing - it's rubbish but at least something to mark the end of the build (see below). I have the upmost respect for sim racers such as GPLaps who do this kind of stuff for fun. My weak effort was very frustrating to make! I'll stick to making tracks I think Anyway, thanks again (particularly to the site admins and long-term members who really keep this place going!) and best wishes to all. Take care. John.
Nice to see I'm not the only one with this view! Professional Industrial Designer here, with basically the exact same reason for modding; I create stuff. Replicating someone else's work isn't interesting to me, so the stuff I do is pretty much entirely fictional. And I'm also a glutton for punishment so even the porta-potties on my circuit are custom designed GREAT work on Pinwheel, I hope I can achieve a similar level of polish once I'm finished with Sparwood, and I can't wait to see what you tackle next!
Very nice work John, inspiring and beautiful. We followed your journey with delight through your monthly updates, you learned very quickly and delivered something quite unique and special. Thanks for your work and dedication, you can be really proud of what you accomplished this year
@John Harding thank you for your outstanding contribution - truly a joy to drive and explore, and it has been an enlightening journey to follow you for the development. I look forward to whatever comes next! And will be enjoying Pinwheel in the meantime
Absolutely brilliant work on this, John. Feels very cohesive and love all the little details that bring it to life. Great job!
@maruto , @Brandydo , @Sam Dale , @Ryno917 , @fughettaboutit , @Johnr777 Thanks for the kind words guys, means a lot. Congrats on the release of Trois-Rivières Maruto/Brandydo. Got some time tonight after work to give the latest version a bash so will let you know how I get on! Looking forward to it. John.
I’ve watched this thread with great interest, and I consider it one of the inspirational ones here on the forum, great work and great communication. Congratulations on the release John, it’s a fantastic track!
Hi John! I really do admire your Pinwheel track. I tried to put some kind of a "package trolley train" onto my Hahn-Airport track. I just copied your meshes and naming all according your roller coaster as "john_loop" and "john_train". My own mesh wiht names like "cube" etc. didn´t do anything. I didn´t find any clarification about that whole thing. Is there so strict naming convention for the train? If I will have to just copy and paste your naming, it makes me feel totally incompetend, because I don´t understand WHY. Glad to hear from you! And thank you for your great track. #################### I think I found out, that renaming it to "test_loop" and "test_train" also worked. Will keep it to this pattern and it will hopefully do the job.
Hi Christoph, thank you for the kind words about Pinwheel. It looks like you have solved it, but it just has to match the naming in the ext_config.ini file, there is no strict naming convention as such. I actually wrap the meshes for each train carriage as each one also has lights. The meshes themselves are located at 0,0,0 (and offset 3.75m each from there for each carriage), which at Pinwheel is underground. This means that if someone is running vanilla AC they don't see a floating train that didn't seed on the tracks! Just something to bear in mind depending on where you have your pivots. Here is the part of the ext_config that controls the coaster: Code: ; ===== ; Coaster ; ===== [WRAP_MESHES_...] NAME = _train_node_0 MESHES = john_train_0, RollerLights, RollerSideLights0 PIVOT_POS = 0,0,0 PIVOT_DIR = -1, 0, 0 [WRAP_MESHES_...] NAME = _train_node_1 MESHES = john_train_1, RollerSideLights1 PIVOT_POS = 3.75,0,0 PIVOT_DIR = -1, 0, 0 [WRAP_MESHES_...] NAME = _train_node_2 MESHES = john_train_2, RollerSideLights2 PIVOT_POS = 7.5,0,0 PIVOT_DIR = -1, 0, 0 [WRAP_MESHES_...] NAME = _train_node_3 MESHES = john_train_3, RollerLights2, RollerSideLights3 PIVOT_POS = 11.25,0,0 PIVOT_DIR = -1, 0, 0 [ANIMATED_...] NODE = _train_node_0 ; node to move MOVE_ALONG = john_loop ; alternative looped path CLUSTER_THRESHOLD = 3 ; required for finding trajectory from train_path properly CUBIC_INTERPOLATION = 1 ; smooth out path NODES_FOLLOWING = _train_node_1, _train_node_2, _train_node_3 ; move those things as well INVERT_DIRECTION = 0 ; for looped paths TICK_TOCK_MODE = 0 ; set to 1 to go forwards and backwards ;STARTING_POINT = 24.618, -1.145, 24.747 ; for unlooped paths, start here and move to another end SPEED_KMH = 160 ; basic train speed PIECE_LENGTH = 3.75 ; length of attached carriages LAG_UP = 0.99 LAG_DOWN = 0.9 DEBUG_PATH = 0 SPEED_ADJUSTMENT_0 = 5 SPEED_ADJUSTMENT_0_POINT = -312, 4, 190 SPEED_ADJUSTMENT_0_RADIUS = 5, 12 Hope this helps. I've actually just downloaded your latest track build for Hahn Airport from RD, will give it a whirl once my new wheel arrives this coming week. Best wishes, John.
Hi John! I think I have got it so far. At least for the standard parts. But now I want to add the jet noise to the group - and it doesn´t do anything. And I wanted to add movable colliders to the "trolley train" but they just didn´t follow. I want to do some more try but for me it´s hard to understand what I´m actually doing. So maybe if I may ask you later for some advise - I will came back if that´s OK for you.
-animated physics objects are not possible -audio following animated objects is kinda buggy ever since
July 2023 Update After a bit of a break, last month I decided to finally complete the alternative short layout for pinwheel - ah I can't seem to just let it lie! This is something that I had sketched out 2 years ago but never found the time or motivation to finish, not least because it means tweaking quite a few tedious things to make it work properly, and also learning how to work a track with two (or more) layouts which I couldn’t be bothered to do last year. Hopefully this short post might help anyone else doing it for the first time. Here is the new track layout map with additional portion shown blue: Initial decisions. There were a few existing elements such as grandstands and trackside objects that influenced the location of a new portion of track, but ultimately I wanted to retain the high speed nature of the place so banked the main hairpin that leads onto the straight. Clearly one has to consider the pit entry and making sure to give adequate track before it for cars to position their cars appropriately without causing an AI shunt. The short layout is 2.9km so about half the length of the original (now known as the GP layout) that is 5.6km. For reference, this is about the same as COTA but a little shorter than Spa which is 7km long. There are three new corners, named respectfully after Amin Taha, Álvaro Siza and David Chipperfield - all architects. I wanted to change the atmosphere of this new section, so decided to create a tunnel to initially form the landscape over the track and somewhere for spectators to view from and access the main grandstand at Bo Bardi hairpin. The new track extension runs under a list trellis/tunnel: About a year ago, @maruto took some photos from Trois-Rivières and offered them up to the community, thanks so much for this! These were perfect for the walls in the tunnel: File structure. To make things a little easier on my brain, I decided the following when the short layout is loaded: The spawns would be replaced entirely as the kn5 file contains sector timing points and a hotlap start point. New kn5 file: “pinspawnExtensionBlender.kn5”. A single additional kn5 file “pinextension.kn5” would be added containing new objects to guide the driver. Nothing other the original spawn points (now used for the GP layout) is taken away. With regards the latter, not taking any physical objects away for the short layout means there is no barrier to the new part of the track even if you load the GP layout - in theory you can drive through the tunnel shortcut, but of course as the spawns are different, you won’t have gone through the second timing point and therefore the lap would not count. It's still quite fun to do though So there are two model.ini files in the pinwheel folder, with all the kn5 files in there ready to load depending on the layout chosen. Of course you can see the same thing with many tracks in AC. Each layout gets its own folder (named accordingly) which contains unique data and AI subfolders, there is still only one CSP ext_config.ini file, despite the two layouts. Here is the file structure: The extension.kn5 contains a minimal number of objects that would not make sense in the GP layout – namely new distance markers, signage to direct drivers around the new portion of track, and temporary painted lines. That's all there is in this kn5, taken from Rhino: AI spline. Once the new layout is ready to race with the new spawn objects and meshes, it was time to record a new fast_lane and pit_lane.ai. One must start afresh unfortunately, editing the spline even the pit_lane one is a nightmare in kseditor, so it’s just easier to do it again. I usually record my AI lines in a Tatuus just to keep the line smooth. This however unfortunately means first recording it and then secondly going around in ksEditor tweaking all the anomalies as you go around the new spline - but it is what it is. Simply put some nice music on, start from 0.000, end at 1.000 and it’s done in an hour Note that usually the anomalies are usually to a set distance (for example, snapping to an edge mesh or something), so you can use the addition values to tweak the left and right splines, stepping through each of the 1826 (in my case) nodes, quickly correcting the offset (see highlight in yellow): As the new layout uses 5 of the old corners, then with 3 additional new ones, much of the early part of the lap can be copied over in terms of the locations along the fast_lane.ai spline. The first part is simple, divide the length of the original GP layout by the new short one, and then multiply all the positions by this factor. This works for both the cameras and sections, and then its just a case of setting up a few more with the new layout at the end. Pit boxes. I can’t emphasise enough, if you’re starting a new track then make sure to include at least 32 pit boxes if you can. I thought 26 would be more than enough at the start, and wanted to keep a relatively short pitlane to not penalise pitting in the race too harshly, however in practice once people started using Pinwheel in league races I did get some comments saying that 26 is a bit limiting. So in order to get 32 (and not change things drastically in terms of the pit entry) I’ve had to double stack the 6 additional boxes which isn’t ideal – it works as collisions are off in the pit of course, but it grates my soul a little and this image makes me wince! Anyway, what’s done is done: So in summary, it’s not that complicated to add more layouts, it’s just a bit of a faff and worth thinking about early on before modelling too many objects that might lock you into decisions you regret later. The new shorter layout is fun, much better for racing with road cars and the 32 boxes creates more action in the race – if your CPU allows it, mine only just does : ) You can download 2.0 on racedepartment here: https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/pinwheel-circuit.47559/ As always, thanks everyone. Have a good summer. John.
