MTM2.com

hey guys,


I deciced to enter the rhelm of Track making. And decided a good place to start is with TRAXX school (even tho Im laying out terrian for my first signature track). It would be much appricated if you can review it and point out any possible errors, you guys know the drill I change it up a bit with some models, made two of the straights longer, and tried to give it a touch of a MX track feel with rythm jumps. Have at'er guys, lemme know what ya think of my model properties, and such to make sure im setting them properly. You guys know the drill. Thanks for the input.

http://www.mtm2.com/~tracks/dl.cgi?dl=4253

I really dont know much about track making and never could figure out much about it either but i'm glad you're up for a good start. I couldn't help but to dl and try it. It's looking good for a first try.

I'm sure the real gods will take you from here to there with detail instructions so i' leave it up to them.

Just checked it out, MaX, I'll have pics for ya tomorrow.

MAX thats great, I'll give it the one over and see if I can give any advice. Being here in Beta World would have been my first suggestion, so your well on your way.

The track looks good, MaX; only noted a couple of things. After thinking about it though, none of it may be pertinent if Traxx school doesn't require the "student" to perform tasks associated with the pics I'm about to show ya. At any rate, maybe it's stuff you can keep in mind for future reference. Here we go:

The grandstand, which I believe is the one from C-98, is extends out to widest portions of the model, thus the actual impact point is invisible, and as you know, we racers hate trying to shave a model close only to hit a part of it we can't see. The fix is to set it to no-collide, then fit it with an object box, getting it as close to the model's actual dimensions. The same holds true for the water tower.

The cone and cow are immobile, as are the port-a-potties and road hazard signs. I don't know what command is used to render them mobile, but when you assign a weight property to them, you'll have to experiment a little the first few times most likely. Assigning too light a weight will result in the model flying off into oblivion at 250 mph lol. Too heavy a weight will slow the truck down too much, defeating any sense of realism.

That's it - that's all I saw. Oh wait! I did notice that your checkpoint flag is pointing out instead of in (reference Crazy 98), but that's the kind of nit-picky stuff Phin harps on and on about lol. If I were you I'd make sure they're right the next time...just so we don't have to listen to him gripe about it. :)

Glad to hear it man, keep it up and catch me in e-mail or AIM if you need any help!

When a weight of zero is assigned to a model they are immobile, while any weight above zero makes them movable. Zero is default, and a good minimum weight for even the smallest object is around 500.

Good point, thats exactly why I decided to place some more models in the track than just the standard TRAXX School Track teaches. So I can learn how to place them, and make them function propery if they are a moveable object.



Yup exactly! lol thats one thing as a racer that can really frost our cookies so to speek, hehe. I fixed the grand stands to no-collide, and put object boxes around all of them, same for the water tower, and got them as close as I could get them.




I fixed the cones, cows, port-a-potties, and road hazzard signs. I did what Mr. Roboto said and set the weight to 500 lbs, and the cones to 350 lbs, they work great now, and even with the cones set at 350, they dont fly into oblivian as COPE discribed.



Yea you have a good point, but if you look at the TRAXX School tutorial, Lesson D- Checkpoints, you can see thats how it shows to set them up, I questioned them when I was setting them up, cus when you pass throught them, you can see that the number on the CP flag reads backwards, but I left them due to the way it was shown in the tutorial. http://drive.to/Traxx

And there is one thing that I was aware of but didn't do, and maybe should have. Is to write my pod as uLtRaMaXTTAXXSchoolBeta.pod insted of uLtRaMaXTRAXXSchool.pod .So that changes can be made, and then re-uploaded under the current pod name. For my next track, I will do that. Thanks for the valuable input guys! Im hoping Phin or Mal take a peek at it, since they are truely the track editing gods in my eyes, to go over it and see if there is any final changes to be made, that way I can up the fixed version as uLtRaMaXTRAXXSchoolfinal.pod or something.

The purpose of Guitar Bill's traxx school is to help you become familiar with the program and it's tools. It is not meant to create the ultimate bestest ever track ever made. When you do it, you'll come across a lot of things that you, as a racer, have already seen - some good, some not so good. The trick is to learn from the experience and then, armed with this new knowledge, move on to more creative projects. But traxx school gives you those basics, so that's why it's the perfect place to begin... It doesn't matter if the flags face the wrong way around in lesson D. And, there are one or two other little things like that in there too, but I don't fix them. Why? Because it's a teaching tool. It's not designed to do your thinking for you. No introductory lesson can give you absolutely everything and traxx school doesn't even try. It gets you started. How far you go is then up to you.

As for the track, I think cope hit on all the major points so I'll just touch on a couple things.

The odd shape of the grandstand. That is usually only a problem if the grandstand is near the road. For example, Charles' BCtheSequel had a grandstand near the finish line that you naturally try to cut as close as possible. In that case, yes, no collide and object boxes were definitely the way to go (and he did). But on c98, the stands are away from the driving lane so it's not as important to achieve that perfect fit. So, the point here is, that many things become a judgement call. It's up to you to size up the situation, then decide what best suits that particular application. Beta testers can be helpful, but don't count on them exclusively.

Speaking of object boxes. Trees are always no collide facing. Trunks are optional and depend on the track and your personal preference. But they are always no collide facing... unless they are palm trees, lol.

Weighted objects. When in doubt, add the tonnage. Usually too heavy will yeild fewer complaints than too light. But that too is a judgement call. If you like 350 then use it. Myself, I think I never go lighter than 5000.

Water depth. Nobody has really talked about this, I mean, set a rule of thumb type thing. But water depth is usually considered reasonable if the truck's cab stays above the water. One foot deep will impede your progress. One hundred feet deep just annoys people.

Track names. Traxx creates all the underlying files using the first eight letters of the track's name. Therefore, it's reasonably important to use unique names for your work. There are ways around this, but as a beginner you're best to stick with the unique name idea. And to be painfully laborious about the topic, it's not the file name that must be unique, tho that should be the case too, but it's the track name as it appears in the game that needs to be unique. So, I know it's only traxx school, but might as well get naming practice right at square one. Give your track a unique name, any name you like. When you upload it, signal it's type as traxx school so people know what they're getting.

Uploads. The server checks for unique zip file names. If no other file has that name, then it drops your original to lower case, and then uploads it. So, for you, we got this: ultramaxtraxxschool.zip. If you want to upload it again, then just name the zip file differently. For example: ultramaxtraxxschool2.zip. The name you show on the page has no effect on how it's uploaded (trucks are a different story but we're talking tracks here).

File names. Please name the pod file the same as the track's name as it appears in the game. There's few things worse than trying to decipher tracks and pods. Eg. If your track is called Ultramax's Traxx School then the pod should be UltramaxsTraxxSchool.pod. If the track is just traxx school, then the pod should be TraxxSchool.pod. Naturally, it follows that zip file names should reflect the track name in the same way.

Uploading fixes. No problems whatsoever. Just note the file name thing for the server and you'll have no trouble. We can remove previous versions from the list if asked to do so, but we delete nothing. Our philosophy is better too many than too few.

Do you need to upload a fixed traxx school? No. But, I liked my traxx school project, and if you feel the same way about yours then by all means go for it. There's no problem and nobody will get the least bit upset about it. Same goes for beta versions.

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Computer trucks. I can't test computer trucks right now but noticed my truck took a funny turn after the finish line. It would be nice if somebody who doesn't mess with the stock truck pod to have a look, or you check it out yourself. Many people like to see working comp trucks and there's no reason not to make at least a small effort to accommodate them.

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I just had a look and see you really jammed in the course segments on the corners. Use traxx's view pod file and take a look at c98 to see how they should look. That set up won't always work but nine times out of ten it will. They way you have yours now will cause more grief than anything else.

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Exceptions to the rules. The lessons are designed to teach things the easiest way possible. You get the most productivity out of it that way. But there's usually more than one way to do things, and things that appear impossible can often be done other ways. As you encounter these situations, you'll find traxx school continues for years and years. At least, if you want it to.

Yea, my water level was too deep, so I changed it to 96 feet and set the ground level higher underneeth the water so that the top of the trucks cab is barly showing.




Yea my pod name and what appears in the game are diffrent, so to make sure I got it right, I changed the pod name to TRAXXSchool2.pod




Yea, my bad, I just noticed how when I set it like TRAXX School said to (same as C98) that my map corners looked more 22'ish degree angles. When I placed them the way I did, and I displayed my map, it showed more rounded corners, I did leave this due to the way the map displays it. Next track I will do it the other way.



I tested the compter trucks numours times before I uploaded the first track (uLtRamaXTRAXXSchool.pod) and all computer trucks follow the course propely, I had a heck of a time though getting them to do so. I had to make 17 segments to make them follow the track properly, cus most of the trucks would do an odd right hand turn around in the middle of the track and then head back the way there suppose to go. They may not be very fast around the track, but they follow the course properly.

I re-uploaded the final version of the new pod TRAXXSchool2.pod to the server.

Cool - I'll have a look when I get home. I sure hope you fixed everything. I'm gonna be kind of busy today, so I don't want to have to take more pictures of stuff you screwed up lolol.

Very nice, MaX. See, what have I been tellin ya all this time? If extremely average guys like Valejob, ZooN, Winterkill, Phin, Malibu350, SpazMonstr, HotShoe, Sleeper, etc. can make tracks, so can you!