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finally completed my conversion of Laguna Del Sol from evo. thank you phin for converting the models for me! the balloons on this track remain idle, because making them move would mean having them travel along the ground.

this track is kinda hard to race on, but fun if you get the hang of it. i kept the bumps there, and for good reason too . if you add AI racers to this, it makes for a tight and challenging race.

enjoy, and tell me what you think.



Laguna Del Sol

Looks great Tyler! I'm off to reserve my copy with MTM2.com Direct Delivery service
Maybe I can trade in that broken desert rally I picked up a few days ago...

Very nice Tyler, love the short and fast tracks bud.

Laguna del Sol = Sun's lake

great track - great work!

but serious better if it had 4X4 evo

Wow, I love the balloons!

thanks for the replies, people. maybe one day if im not too busy on an evo track, ill make a track of my own, a non-conversion.

Pretty good track, all round.

What I like:
nicely realised track surface & challenging layout - a lot of fun to thrash around as fast as possible
as usual, far better as an MTM2 track than in Evo

What I don't like:
inconsistent collision detection on rocks - try the one on the inside of turn 1...
visual glitches on trees viewed from certain angles; holes in backdrop on dusk setting
track palette seems tinted very red...

Overall a nice bit of track for charging around from which the few small complaints do not detract greatly

perhaps i should have placed more than one box for the rocks, but i just wanted a simple collision area, since the rocks alone on simple collide make too huge of a collision area. my best advice for this track is to stay on the road for more parts, although a few parts you may find that its ok to cut corners, as long as you know you can do it.

visual glitches on the trees? havent noticed anything on that. i just set them as noncollide (always facing).

holes in the backdrop at dusk... i have noticed that. dont know why it happens and dont know how to fix it. my guess is that certain parts of the backdrop are slightly transparent.


dont know why. used the 800x600 screenshot (the top one in this topic) and resized it to 257x210 (it was slightly smaller than 210 so i just kept the white borders). then i changed the format to bmp. it may be because it went straight from jpg to bmp.

If you are gonna release another version i think it would be well worth it to make the baloons move. I know there is a way altho i do not know exactly how. I have seen trains that move along ground boxesand think mtm2 doesnt usually check the ground boxes underneath moving objects. Umm. Maybe u have to make an invisable face off to the side and down low to make it be high up. Umm. There has to be a way - it would be worth it.

The trees from evo don't always convert nicely. I think they would have looked better if instead of being two models crisscrossed, remove one so that it is like most mtm2 type trees, Just a flat .bin.

I think you would have benefitted from using the beta room instead of using it as a preview. I know those things d2s pointed out would have been mentioned in the beta forum.

well i got no time for another version now... im leaving for England tomorrow night at 8:45 pm. gonna be gone for 12 days.

I wasn't suggesting another version. I was just suggesting the use of the beta room so you would not run into little problems like these.

Fast Lap: 00:39.50 by SLO_COPE
Garage Setting: 1200 med tires/soft suspsension


“Laguna del Sol” is Tyler Wysocki’s first attempt at an MTM 2 track, and he opted to go with a conversion of EVO 2 4X4’s track of the same name. In general he did a fairly decent job, especially on the texture work with respect to alignment from what I can tell. However, like Kdawg pointed out, this track could have benefited from a few days in the MTMG Beta Room. The purpose of the Beta Room is not to convince track makers to modify their work to suite the preferences of the testers, but rather to uncover technical flaws and provide possible solutions if necessary. Creative suggestions are also made to the track maker, but that’s all they are – suggestions. Overall the goal is to “inform” him/her about different aspects of their track so that they can decide how best to proceed. Having objective viewpoints from other track makers and racers has proven extremely beneficial to track makers on every level from guys like NIRcc_Ashes and Nd4SpdCharles, who are just starting out, to Winterkill, ZooN, Malibu350, and Phineus, who are considered by many to be the absolute best in the game…and yes, I get paid to say that lol. Still, even the so-called “track masters” make use of the beta testing process; it’s just that not everyone sees it because it’s done outside of the beta room

Although simple, “Laguna del Sol’s” layout is certainly well suited for tight, fiercely competitive racing. Inhibiting those characteristics are unrefined road texture and models with poor collision property settings Visually speaking, Kdawg’s point about the trees is right on the mark; having a flat bin set to no collide facing would display much better compared to what you’ll see in the track, as would the vegetation. Aesthetic blemishes and shortcomings certainly have their place in track making, but are relatively insignificant to your run-of-the-mill racer whose focus in general is how the track responds during a race. In reference to the terrain, it’s ok that the road is rough, but a little smoothing here and there, coupled with online testing with other racers to workout additional kinks would have netted improved performance from a racer's perspective. To piggyback off of Kdawg (again) and D2S, the collision properties for the boulders are grossly inaccurate and inconsistent. For example, take a look at these pictures: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4. They show partially transparent boulders, a boulder that’s set to no collide, and one where you impact invisible portions of the model well wide of the visual boundaries. Track making has come quite a long ways over the past several years, and the standards have been raised substantially. Suffice to say, accurate use of object boxes to preclude hitting what you can’t see, as well having impacting points where you should is status quo nowadays, and anything less is…well, unacceptable as far as I’m concerned. Suggesting that racers stick to the road doesn’t quite cut it either. If that was the intent, so be it, but it’s the track maker’s job to effectively negate corner cuts and outright shortcuts if they want to keep racers from going “off-road”, which brings me to my next point.

Take a look at this replay. Running the track according to the map will yield laps in the 00:44 range. I managed to take 5 seconds off of that using various cuts, and probably could have taken another second off if I didn’t have to compensate for the inaccurate collision properties of the boulders. You shouldn’t be able to slice and dice tracks this small. Pro racers always look for ways to circumvent the traditional route, and by any means necessary - using the helicopter, 360 turns, climbing walls, etc. Given the slightest opening, a pro racer will make an attempt exploiting it, usually making it work to his/her advantage.

Beta testing doesn’t guarantee that every flaw in a track will found, that all possible shortcuts will be brought to light, and that any and all creative/artistic suggestions will be made available. But given the level of experience of the people who frequent that room, odds are once a project is ready to release, the track maker is pretty satisfied with the outcome, and at the very least the most obvious flaws/blemishes were addressed. Additionally, they’ll have learned from the experience so that they can carry that information over to their next project.

As for a Copey Rating, this one rang up a respectable 7.5 out of 10 possible points. Again, not a bad first effort, but the guesswork involved with respect to the boulders and their collision properties detract from the overall experience. Furthermore, the visual quality of the track given the choice of tree and vegetation models left a little to be desired, as well as the unnecessary directional signs which serve only to clutter the track, and in some cases amount to nothing mroe than a road hazard to racers. Finally, checkpoint two triggers on the outside of the pole on the right. It doesn't result in an advantage to the racer, but it's definitely inconsistent with the other checkpoints.

Sound kind of harsh? Hehe it’s not actually, I assure you. It’s just objective criticism; very much the kind of feedback you would get in the Beta Room. One thing’s for sure, Tyler, you definitely have the talent to make tracks, good tracks. I highly encourage you to make use of the resources at MTMG. The emphasis is on helping others make their tracks a little better. We’ve cranked out many a satisfied customer with only four lawsuits since 1998, which is a respectable record by anyone’s standards lol. At any rate, we hope to see ya the next time around, Tyler.

I like the evo conversions they have a great look on my computer, the graphics seem to be top notch.

I also would like to include that after seeing someone elses track record I better get back to raceing, you got to be kidding me, I stink!

Hehe just be aware that that time is the result of the shortcuts I found in the track. Watch the replay.

yeah cope, I watch your replays, we all know you are mr. short cut finder. I ask my self, "how the heck did he find that one?" LoL, thanks for all the short cuts,

ps, maybe you could show a couple from the stocks as well. i've been shown some but not all.
that would be cool.[/u]

hmm. i never was good at box placing on rock objects. in evo2 im so used to setting it as complex, which makes the collision points accurate, but bouncy. the box rotation is an issue in trying to make the collision points accurate. i was just trying to give it a simple collision point by making it noncollide with one box... the purpose being enough to not interfere with racing on the road. really i didnt care too much about the collision points that extended outside the road.
...i wasnt sure about that top-crush option. would that make it possible enough that if you hit the boulder, you would go on top of it? the problem with that option was that theres a 10 limit, and i was afraid it was going to be too unrealistic.

one of the shortcuts between checkpoint 6 and 7 was actually originally there in the first and second evo LDS, but i actually made it shorter than before by moving the checkpoint back a little.

the trees i probably would be able to make it one-faced...
i have binedit, but i havent really touched it. i tried it once but couldnt figure out what to do. im guessing theres an easy "detach face" option.

the directional signs... i placed them because they were in the original one and i needed something to do with them lol. and importantly, they tell you to use more control on the turns andtry not to hit them! it wouldnt be that great to drift out of bounds anyway. see i like my tracks a little challenging by placing road-side objects.

Hehe I hear ya, Tyler, but here's the thing: you're one of the few people who were well aware of the beta room and what goes on in there. You would have been made aware of all the information I mentioned in the review (and more) had you opted to go that route. From there you could have made decisions about what to fix, what to throw out completely, and possibly what to adjust or slightly alter. As I said, pro track makers make use of beta testing, and in part it's the reason their tracks are as good as they are - both technically and creatively.