First of all welcome aboard, I'm always glad to see a new track maker.
I've noticed that scale is often misjudged by new track makers. If I may I'd just like to post some rough, unfinished, unpublished notes from a Traxx terrain tutorial I've had on the back burner for some time now, I think it may give you some perspective. Also, I'd suggest you carry a <a href=http://cownap.com/~mtmg/models/trucks/trucks.html target=trk>toy truck</a> around with you in the editor to keep you grounded.
Also see:
http://cownap.com/~mtmg/traxx/size.html
http://cownap.com/~mtmg/traxx/altitude.html
quote:
The terrain in MTM is in the form of a grid, Traxx allows you to see and manipulate this terrain grid in 3D, just as you would see it in the game. Each square in the grid is 32 feet by 32 feet, and every point on the grid (where the border lines intersect) can be raised or lowered within a 256 unit range. Each unit of altitude represents a two foot increment, suggesting that the total height of the terrain is 512 feet.
It's easy to work on a very large scale in the editor, which can lead to making things too large or too long if you're not careful. Tracks by new makers often feature flat straights that are too long and altitude transitions that are too abrupt, a result of not yet coming to terms with the scale of things in the editor and how it relates to the truck's ground-based perspective in the game.
To maintain a sense of scale, remember that four trucks (2x2) can be parked within a single grid square.
Raising a point on the terrain a single notch on an otherwise flat area will create a bump large enough to cause a truck's wheels to leave the ground, while two or three notches will make a jump, and five notches (10') is more than enough to make a truck jump the width of a typical road. Indeed, it can be very easy to create large mountains when you only intend to raise a small hill. For caverns I generally use a height of about 25-30 notches, less is certainly possible with out cramping the camera of chase far drivers, but more is often too much.
To maintain a sense of space and distance bear in mind that a complete 90 degree turn will often fit within a 5x5 area, and that a typical road is about two squares wide, or as much as four if there is a wide shoulder.
If you click the "File" menu, then "View POD file", you can load any existing track pod for viewing. This is good way to study how tracks are made and to see what they look like in Traxx.
To create a really smooth area by hand, or blend two areas, you'll generally need to look across the surface from a perspective that is extremely low to the ground, viewing it from many different angles, with the grid on. Only then can you truly see if the grid is flowing smoothly and consistently.
My firm recommendation is to begin by using the hand tool, adjusting one point on the terrain at a time, one unit at a time, which is exactly how great track makers finish their best terrains. After you've played with the hand tool and gained a sense of scale and perspective you can experiment with the larger tools to create hills, automatically smooth transitions, etc.
