John Harding
Active Member
Intro
Firstly a quick intro as I’m a newbie here. I’ve been a fan of motorsport since the 90s (mostly F1) and I grew up within about 5 miles of Donington. A friend and I used to cycle to the track as children and watch the BTCC back in its heyday, and lately it’s been really pleasing to see it’s resurgence both in reality and in the sim community of course. I finally bought a wheel in May this year (only a G29 but still), alongside AC, ACC etc. It’s been really fun uncovering this world in the past few months, like a good game of minesweeper
Anyway, I had some time available towards the end of July, and instead of getting out of the house I decided to try and design and make a track for the first time, following the excellent initial guide by @luchian of course. Much joy was had when my spawn objects first worked
Workflow
I have good knowledge of Rhino and Grasshopper, so have been using these to model an initial track idea, however my knowledge of textures and shaders is pathetic to be honest, so I’ve been learning a lot in the past two weeks from this forum, and by following a ‘learning by doing’ approach. Indeed thanks to @maruto who has given me some vital tips about working with Rhino, because objects do not have defined origins like in Blender and Max, so some workarounds are required.
Here is my current workflow which I’ve now switched to, and will grow of course over time:
The track itself, named Pinwheel (inspired by the village in Ether One), is designed around F1 cars, 26 pit boxes and 5.6 km long; about the length of COTA. I spent quite a bit of time getting a layout that seemed challenging and fun, with multiple lines through corners and banking. Indeed, I’m still not sure myself what the best way is around the current layout, which I think is a good thing. I have tried to prioritise the experience of driving and racing at the track as a whole before going into more detail, I’m just about at a place where I’m happy with the layout now to start working on the finer details.
An isometric view of the track showing elevation change and as yet unnamed corners:
Meshes:
The philosophy of this track is not to have too many advertising hoardings, instead use natural materials where possible. It will be a new venue rather than having the atmosphere of a historic track, so getting detail in there will be subtle but still important. The physical track mesh is relatively smooth, with subtle bumps and a few more pronounced ones especially going over the bridge movement joints.
Texture wise, the track is a complete disaster at present, I’m basically learning as I go along. Trees, kerbs, fences, etc. are currently horrendous in terms of textures/shaders. For example I have a couple of Monza textures which will be replaced. I’m just learning how to blend at the track edges, using masks, etc. but it’s a steep learning curve for sure. Yesterday I figured out how to get my normals and groups working for the ksTrees via Blender, but haven’t updated everything yet (as you can see in the video!). Grandstands, buildings, pylons, bridges, etc. are mainly low poly large wooden blocks at the moment:
Here is a video of a lap (note: textures are placeholders and not finished at all, kstrees not updated, Monza track surface currently, etc.!). Lap time is around 1:30 in the Lotus Stage 1 (some AI have done below this, but I can’t!):
I’m aware it’s not really the done thing to come up with fantasy tracks, especially not based on a real place, but personally I really enjoy coming up with things from scratch hence my first project having creative licence seemed to make sense. Once I’ve got a better understanding of the process (especially with regards shaders), my next project will be different as I’m making many mistakes.
Current todo list:
Thanks all,
John.
Firstly a quick intro as I’m a newbie here. I’ve been a fan of motorsport since the 90s (mostly F1) and I grew up within about 5 miles of Donington. A friend and I used to cycle to the track as children and watch the BTCC back in its heyday, and lately it’s been really pleasing to see it’s resurgence both in reality and in the sim community of course. I finally bought a wheel in May this year (only a G29 but still), alongside AC, ACC etc. It’s been really fun uncovering this world in the past few months, like a good game of minesweeper
Anyway, I had some time available towards the end of July, and instead of getting out of the house I decided to try and design and make a track for the first time, following the excellent initial guide by @luchian of course. Much joy was had when my spawn objects first worked
Workflow
I have good knowledge of Rhino and Grasshopper, so have been using these to model an initial track idea, however my knowledge of textures and shaders is pathetic to be honest, so I’ve been learning a lot in the past two weeks from this forum, and by following a ‘learning by doing’ approach. Indeed thanks to @maruto who has given me some vital tips about working with Rhino, because objects do not have defined origins like in Blender and Max, so some workarounds are required.
Here is my current workflow which I’ve now switched to, and will grow of course over time:

The track itself, named Pinwheel (inspired by the village in Ether One), is designed around F1 cars, 26 pit boxes and 5.6 km long; about the length of COTA. I spent quite a bit of time getting a layout that seemed challenging and fun, with multiple lines through corners and banking. Indeed, I’m still not sure myself what the best way is around the current layout, which I think is a good thing. I have tried to prioritise the experience of driving and racing at the track as a whole before going into more detail, I’m just about at a place where I’m happy with the layout now to start working on the finer details.
An isometric view of the track showing elevation change and as yet unnamed corners:

Meshes:


The philosophy of this track is not to have too many advertising hoardings, instead use natural materials where possible. It will be a new venue rather than having the atmosphere of a historic track, so getting detail in there will be subtle but still important. The physical track mesh is relatively smooth, with subtle bumps and a few more pronounced ones especially going over the bridge movement joints.
Texture wise, the track is a complete disaster at present, I’m basically learning as I go along. Trees, kerbs, fences, etc. are currently horrendous in terms of textures/shaders. For example I have a couple of Monza textures which will be replaced. I’m just learning how to blend at the track edges, using masks, etc. but it’s a steep learning curve for sure. Yesterday I figured out how to get my normals and groups working for the ksTrees via Blender, but haven’t updated everything yet (as you can see in the video!). Grandstands, buildings, pylons, bridges, etc. are mainly low poly large wooden blocks at the moment:

Here is a video of a lap (note: textures are placeholders and not finished at all, kstrees not updated, Monza track surface currently, etc.!). Lap time is around 1:30 in the Lotus Stage 1 (some AI have done below this, but I can’t!):
I’m aware it’s not really the done thing to come up with fantasy tracks, especially not based on a real place, but personally I really enjoy coming up with things from scratch hence my first project having creative licence seemed to make sense. Once I’ve got a better understanding of the process (especially with regards shaders), my next project will be different as I’m making many mistakes.
Current todo list:
- Textures: Kerbs, transitions, track surface, etc. All by following the excellent knowledge shared on this forum. Understanding the use of masks and normal maps.
- ksTree and ksGrass workflow, getting it right from Rhino > Blender > ksEditor, and following the excellent advice from @luchian and @LilSKi in this thread.
- Improve AI spline (currently some AI seem to like to ram the sausage kerbs!).
- Joining elements properly and working on LOD values to improve DIP.
- Move grid and starting line back, but struggling with the cross-over nature of the track here.
- Many more!...
Thanks all,
John.
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