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The original question was:

I don't like to admit this, but as a designer, I suck at making turns. They never look right. Can anyone help? And, why can't I copy an area from a pod file, so I can simply paste the turns? (I want to use The Excatvation, since I am using stock textures from it)... Can anyone help me? (This is making me rather mad)

Good altitude work is probably one of the toughest things when making a track. There are so many things to take into consideration. In most cases, we can be half way satisfied if it comes anywhere even close to be being smooth.

A few notes on alititude work, please see here. This page covers several aspects of working on the terrain. For example.

1. Transitions to and from hills (this is what wk was describing to you)
2. Banked U-Turns (this will help on some corners in your track)
3. Copy & Paste Terrain Area (this is good, but will paste at exactly the same z value)
4. Raise & Lower Terrain (can be helpful if you dig too deep or work too high, we used this on godzilla vs bigfoot).
5. Jagged Landscape (just a few notes on making the track look smoother)
6. Rough Corners (tips from malibu for creating smooth embankments)

You might also want to play with the curvature tool. It can make bumps and variations in the road much smoother.

>>why can't I copy an area from a pod file

You can.

First you need to get the terrain bitmap from the track you want to use. Then the terrain bitmap from your track. See here for notes on how to do that.

What you would do is open both bitmaps in a paint program, select the area you want from the one, and paste it onto the other, then reload the bitmap back into your track. Now you can goto the new curve in traxx and copy the area and move it more closely to where you want it. This scheme is not perfect, but it can work in some circumstances. Over all, though, I'd say it's a very hard process.

But if you want to edit like ZooN or ValveJob, the best way is to practice. Super Rally was a good start, next track will be a bit better, and the one after that will be better still. Nobody is perfect every time, and especially not when they're first starting. You just have to try a few of these ideas, see which ones you like best, then keep at it - no matter how frustrating it gets.


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- Phineus

Edit: I just reviewed the bitmap page. I've learned a thing or two since then, so it seems it could use some updating.

[This message has been edited by Phineus (edited 07-03-2000).]

Thanks, Phin! But, that didn't really help. I meant copy a texture area. Go into Traxx, use the texture tool, and right click. You will see 'Copy Area' This is what I meant. It copies all textures in that area in that pattern, etc, and then you can paste them on your track. But, I couldn't do this while veiwing 'The Excavation' in pod format... Is there any way to do this?

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-Wipeout

Yep, sure it. What you do is copy the area you want, then open the patterns box and hit paste, give it a name and you're done. Then in your track, just open the patterns box, click the one you just did, hit copy. Now it your track, right click at the spot you want and select paste area. You're done. One note, you will have to make sure the art is extracted from the pod you're viewing.

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- Phineus