Description: I had this idea while i searched a workaround for the fact that the Torque 3D mesh roads have no clipping yet, and as there are many map creators who can't model or dont wan't to spend time on it, i thought this would be a good thing to throw into the community. I orientate me on what kind of static parts you would find in a city building simulation game, with respect to BeamNG physics. There are over 290 differently shaped concepts on the paper so far, but it depends on my endurance and other aspects how much i can provide in the end. Purpose: This Modular Mesh Roads Pack is supposed to provide a more easy way to build perfectly smooth roads without losing to much nerves and time on the terrain editor. It will be completely up to you, and only you, what you chose to create or do with these parts. As i will release this pack as open source pack, you will be allowed to customize, mod and/or redistribute all of the included models or textures with your map. If you come up with something thats worth a complete overhaul, you may even redistribute it as modded version of my "vanilla" pack. Credits are allways nice tho. But first lets see how it works out. Features [Working, WIP]: - Modular, build roadsystems by combining differently shaped parts. - Highly diverse range of shapes. - Exchangable textures for you to chose from. Changing 1-2 textures, normal- and specular maps, in the folder, will effect all parts. - Tire friendly collision edges, aka dont get stucked. Sneak Peek: "Planned" extra parts: Four way intersection T shaped intersection Freeway/Highway like on-ramps/slip roads for entering and leaving roads without losing to much travel speed. Steep turns? Custom decals of road damage to position singlewise (prevents ugly loops)? Status 03.02.2014: Lightweight Alpha Test Pack released! I fixed the material, uv-map and texture problems, and then restarted to create parts. The Alpha Test Pack contains a selection of 17 different shapes, to make you able to build first test tracks and experiments. Atm all parts and texture maps are located in a single folder, to make the material.cs file work as easy as possible, which is no big deal with 17 parts after all. But as we slowly climb up to the 300 parts that i am dreaming of, it becomes a real nightmare to browse throu them in the editor. So later i will test if i can keep the material.cs file, and so all texture maps, working in their actual setting when i create subfolders. As these parts are no passive mod you install and forget, but a kind of application if you like, i need all the feedback i can get please! Most interesting would be: - Performance while using many parts. - Can you cause a performance drop by having collision meshes intersect each other on different ways? - Topology & Polycount. - Texture/Normal map/Specular map quality & performance. (just found a loop fail on one of the white stripes right after the upload was done...) - Thickness of parts. - Bevel size and angle/need for a slope. Semantic of .dae model names. "StrL10up" = Straight Long 10° upwards, "Co30L10down" = Corner 30° Left 10° downwards. Note, Co90 can be used in both directions. How to use/import: Copy the folder called "MMRP" into the art folder, or any of its subfolders, of the map on which you want to use the parts. Recommending "levels\MAPNAME\art\shapes\misc", to preserve the orderliness.^^ You are ready to import mesh roads! In the import dialog window just click ok to confirm, no custom settings needed. Here is a Tutorial on importing in shape of a screenthot. Hint: You have to close the world editor(F11) to get the collision shapes updated and working. Download:
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 This is cool. The intersection pieces and freeway on-ramp/elevated highway stuff will be awesome. Thanks and looking forward to this.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 Excellent ! great idea ! Have you considered making the sections thicker to compensate for bumpier terrains?
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 Awesome stuff mate. Cant wait to do some testing for you Uhm i guess you caneasily flatten the surface beneath it in the editor? I dont see any point for having thiker parts honestly.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 Great, I'll continue working on my map with your roads and finish it.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 I also think thicker base for the roads would be a good idea, otherwise we'll see a lot of floating roads. Matching the terrain and thin roads with Torque editor would be very time consuming. Sloped sides would be good too, then you could drive on and off the road even if the terrain doesn't match perfectly. I guess these would work as small bridges or elevated roads too. Maybe some concrete pillars under the road so it doesn't just float? They could be separate parts (more work to place them) or part of the mesh (more performance impact, but it wouldn't do much harm even if the pillars are underground).
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 I thought about both aspects at the beginning. The roads are 80cm thick at the moment. But thickness is a very twisted thing for me as a more thick version has as many disadvantages as it has advantages imo. The main reasons why i create these, beside the lack of mesh roads, is to get roads of better quality, talking about usability and look. If i now create the parts very thick, i am feared people will do half assed work on their maps and have more than 50% of the terrain not even close to the edge of the surface, but just throw them in the existing terrain and spend 5 minutes adjusting it a little. Having a slope at the outer sides would, in first, benefit this lazyness even more. Additional this adds another source for possible failure while positioning parts, which in the end causes you to spend more time on step A(positioning) instead of step B(adjusting terrain). If you have a flat surface, there is no problem if you positioned one part slightly left or right to the last, only the texture will not connect very good. If you have a slope at the sides however, any difference in positon, in respect to the last connecting part, could create a new hard edge within the roads surface. As one of the slopes will be more left or right and so higher or lower than the slope on the other part. I rarly see roads going in and coming out of the terrain every couple meters and compensating for that by having a 50+cm slope at their edge. Note that 50cm would allready be much compared to the cars size, but very tiny in respect to terrainchanges and 100 meter of road per part. These are just the reasons that caused the parts to be that flat and if you have valuable argues against them, i shall consider them. XD But till now you only saw them from very far away, take a closer look, maybe its not as thin as you thought? At least i hope so. In case i have to redo all of them it would be better to do so now than later, so i guess i have to get a very basic beta test together for you guys. (consider, texture on the pic is a placeholder)
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 I must say this is a good idea and project, keep up the good work bud! Also, i too thought it looked a little to thin. But yeah that picture shows it well, and looks thick enough in my opinion.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 That's really great and nice of you to do this ! Will definitely motivate me a lot more to make maps. Especially because that's exactly what I need for drift tracks ! All I can still ask for is tighter turns and higher and steeper slopes. But that's already quite a real big pack from what I read. Thanks a lot.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 The 25 and 50 meter long parts will get the same angles as the 100m previewed ones. As they are shorter, their turns should turn out way tighter while having the same angles. Steep turns are on the paper of concepts but as they would nearly double the ammount of parts, they are also delayed for a while. Unless the community demands them more than intersections and highway slip roads/on-ramps. But even then, standart shapes like previewed come first.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 You may call me Failbob... I overlooked some detail of the uv-map of the part i used to create all others from. This detail turned out to be only fixable by editing every single copied uv-map, which is more time consuming and less accurate than just recreating all parts from a fixed source part again. You could say i was too greedy imagining all the possibilities. ^^ I am sorry to say so, but this will cause further delay obviously... In respect to this mess, i will create 5-10 base shapes first and release those in a lightweighted alpha test package for all of you. This way i can get sure to erase all possible failures i might have overlooked before this can happen again. Also this will give you the chance to test things like track thickness, the possible need for a slope, positioning the parts relative to each other and so on. Bear with me please.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 I'm relatively new to modeling things ( in Blender ), but I can already see that UV maps can be ball busters. I just learned a method to make some work less time consuming, which is nice.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 Hehe, ya uv-mapping can be a real pain, but i think i use the most effective way allready, as long i dont mess up.^^ i just have to edit a single uv-map of a single mesh, the rest gets transformed from this source mesh. Build a test track with the new fixed parts. Placed by eye bearing, every 4.-5. part finetuned by editing coordinates and its completly driftable without getting stuck. You dont even see where the transitions are on 80-90% of them. Took around 40 minutes. Maybe i can add a video laters. And yes, you can drive a looping of that size, with the right car, dropping out of the wallride.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 I was messin' around with a loop. I started with a torus rotated on it's side, then I modified it heavily. It was cool, but in order to make it drive-able I had to make it much smaller than the loop in your pictures. Also, in third person view the car is blocked by the top of the loop, which is the worst time to have the view of your car blocked.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v:0.0.1 Its just a question of speed and how good the vehicle can keep this speed up in relation to the shape of the surface. If you have enough subdivisions to make the car have a smooth ride, it will keep its speed way better. Also in case you use a small diameter for the loop (20-30m), it doesnt matter how fast you drive into it, you will be slowed down while the underbody of the car slides over the surface because the suspension can't withstand the g forces anymore. So a big loop works even better than a small one.
Re: Modular Mesh Roads Pack v: 0.1 Lightweight Alpha Test Pack released! also double post, but i thought you would like to see this in the new posts list. ^^ I released the first Alpha Test Pack with a small selection of parts. Have fun and please provide detailed constructive feedback, so we can get this project to a high level of quality that everyone can enjoy. Check the "Status" field in the first post and the attachments of course. Have Fun.
