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Well this track making IS HARD, first yes there are seams, doing the textures is like doing puzzles{ I hate puzzles}. So yes i need big help. I know most will not like the gully like turns after bridge, but if the al trucks can do it, we as people can handle it 2. The brigle,well i have boxes so u cant drive off the sides, but isnt working, u go over any way. What did I do wrong? Used ground boxes on the 1st over water area. Looks like it needs help 2. The end where the oval looking area {last turns before start finish line} is set 2 be a native american village. I have teepees but looking 4 more, Please any ideas 4 more props? {SO PLEASE PRO'S, HELP THIS ROOKIE}. Had more 2 say, But now cant REMEMBER{DOPE}. Also would like water another color, but dont know if I can? o' i know round off my corners Thanks Charles

You did nothing wrong. This is a funny thing, the fact is that Traxx is lying to you, Traxx has problems with object boxes and this is proof. It looks like your walls are up high enough to block the trucks from falling off but in reality the top of your boxes are below the bridge surface. Raise them about 10 feet and you should be fine. I was mystified until I loaded your track in TrackEd3, which <a href=http://mtm2.com/~trackville/tmp/traxxlie.jpg target=1>SHOWS</a> where your object boxes truly lie, driving in-game you can detect they are below the bridge but there is no trace of them above the surface.

Nice work so far buddy.

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The water looks bad because your custom track color palette has too few colors in it at this stage, consisting of mostly browns there just aren't any blues and grays for the water to draw from. I'd say don't worry about it for now, just regenerate your custom palette once you have more models in the track.

Well my friend that did work great 4 the bridge, i see , there isnt much color at the moment, that does make a big differents. Learn another 1, do custom color palette later 4 now on, thank you sir

Btw, whos picture is that, messing with the minds are we. LoL

Nice layout, Charles! Lookin forward to seeing how this one develops, bud.

Got rid of ground boxs, put another bridge in. Also went over in and out side edge of track fixing more of the seams. Corners still need work, not much I myself can do with it.

Well the 1st beta WAS bad, this is a little better. Got rid of the seams I could, by going over and hiding some{ Cheated}. Im not doing any thing until I get some feedback. Sorry I sould have never put the first 1 out, { Still learning folks}. Please remove the 1st track Awb1, thank you. O 1 more thing. Ive seen most bridges at most scrapes. I would like 2 change the 1 Im using. Some thing closer 2 a old western look. If you know a track that has something like that, Please inform me. Thanks again

Hey, the models sure fit in with the terrain and textures! Which is cool considering their different sources.

As for bridges, I agree that the one you are using doesn't work well, but what I can tell you is that existing bridges or piers at scrapyards could resized or trimmed of excess to fit your needs. Also, if you've seen "Wake Up!" the bridges in it were assembled from invididual pieces of wood, the technique or materials of which might be adapted to your purposes.

From beta one I liked the natural terraced look of the terrain of the 'parallel' roads, at upper and lower levels, which seems to have been obscured somewhat by the tunnel work now. Overall your terrain work is very nice, but the whole last 'loop' of the course seems weak to me (from tunnel to tunnel basically), the checkpoint arrangement allows the road to be ignored, the ground is flat, and overall it's just not interesting to me. However, I do realize this is a work in progress.

You've done very well with the collision boxes! Making objects non-collide and then placing lots of invisible boxes around them for solidity isn't easy to do well. Still, they might need some tweaks before all is done.

And hey, no apologies for the first beta, you needed some advice and some advice you got.

As for the "textures are like puzzles" comment, are you piecing them together yourself? Most texture sets available have ready to use <a href=http://mtm2.com/~mtmg/traxx/patterns.html target=pat>"patterns"</a> to make the task easier, in the form of Traxx "txp" files that contain pre-assembled curves, straights, intersections, etc. One's for the stock game textures are available the page I just linked to at MTMG.

In any event, check out these two pages for use in future projects:
http://mtm2.com/~mtmg/traxx/template.html
http://mtm2.com/~mtmg/traxx/patterns.html
You asked (or wondered) before if Phin was the guy behind all those MTMG pages - the answer is.... yep.


As for your earlier comment about "messing with minds", hehe, if you refer to the screenshot I posted, it's a picture of your track as seen in TrackEd3 (the 4x4 evolution editor). (<a href=http://mtm2.com/~trackville/tmp/awb1.jpg target=awb>another shot</a>)

Thank you Wint, youre 1 of the few in life that could mke a MAJOR let-down, not seem as bad. Honesty is the best policy. Yes sir I did loss a lot of down the road look. Maybe the last area will turn out ok once i do some real work on it, as 4 the brigde, i just dont know. Ill check out the PATTERNS page 4 the future. Ill finish this track, I may not feel the same about it, but ill see 2 the end. And Phin, MAN needs a metal {are a life}LoL] 4 putting so much in 2 this SITE, It shows his true love 4 this GAME. As always Wint, youve shown nothing but CLASS, I thank you again

Now here's where you have to make a decision, Charles. Unlike Wint, I think the layout is fine, as are the checkpoint positions. Yep, you can cut corners from checkpoints 2 to 3 and 6 to 7, but in an actual race you'd lose in the end because a trailing racer sticking to the road would have the momentum going into the ensuing turn and make the easy pass. However, I think it would be smart to use terrain and or models to discourage cutters from "the notion" of even making an attempt to go off-road.

As for the interesting aspect of the layout, what I'd like to offer up is there are quite a few novice racers out there who love tracks exactly like this; simple and straightforward with lots of speed. They may be bland to some, but the newcomers love em. Personally, I could see myself having a great time on a track like this. No, it's not something I'd fire up first thing in the morning because it's such a compelling piece of work, but it would certainly be a nice warm-up for the pros, and ultimately a track beginners would really enjoy.

Anyway, that's just one racer's point of view.

> needs a metal

needs a paycheck.

> It shows his ...

No symbols where none intended. It shows nothing.


But thanks for the kind thoughts =)


Now that's out of the way, let's get back to track making

Thanks Cope, Ill make sure 2to3 and 6to7 arent easy. Between you and Wint, im not sure if there as nice of folks as you guys are, as I said CLASS, BOTTOM LINE. Thanks Bro. Phin take the compliment, run with it man, any body that loves this game that much, deserves all the hopla they can get.

After spending over 36 of the last 48 hours {+ 1 MAD WIFE } on this track, I figured out that its not 2 bad, GREAT racing. Im sorry 2 the folks that drive with an out side view of the cockpit, Ill keep that in mind 4 the future. Now 1st, is there nothing i can do about the water color? On a scale of 1 to 10, have about a 2 in lag, is it 2 bad? Seems fine 2 me, but Im a rookie so. Also {Mal} if you see this, ? 4 u. The brigde is from your scape page, 2 side by side, I still have the invisable runner from the 1st brigde, do i need it. When i was changing the other brigde, it stayed in place, so i said, why mess with it, had it in place, didnt wont 2 mess it up. Still got a few seams, is there a stagecoach out there or a texture with a picture of 1, seems Ive seen 1 some place. Any way Please give last rights 2 this headache. {Wint} hope ya think its a little better my friend, try that cockpit view, its harder, HeHe O' Please remove AWB2, Thank you

hehe, I had a reply written even before you posted the update today Charles, but I left it setting on my desktop. This is part of it:

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Well said Sir Cope!

Thank <i>you</i> Charles. And hey, no worries, this track is turning into a fine one. You are systematically nailing down every aspect of track making and believe me... I think you're well on your way to turning 'pro', assuming you keep on keepin' on (and your lady doesn't mind, hehe).
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I had also written some things regarding Phin, which is really what held me back from posting, but I think i'll just let them go now.

Anyway, tired guy with mad wife... you've done great! You've done some really nice work here, drives great and looks great. No apologies!

The bridge looks good to me. The only thing that doesn't look right is the Duke on the hillside - terrain textures and model textures are often made differently, and as you can see, half of his face has been chopped off because of it.


>> is there nothing i can do about the water color?

Yes, there are things you can do, but I really don't see a problem with it on my computer.


>> On a scale of 1 to 10, have about a 2 in lag, is it 2 bad?

The general fire pit area does seem to cause a bit of lag, thanks to a lot of complex 3D models. If you like, you can switch (<a href=http://cownap.com/~mtmg/traxx/level.html target=level>see here</a>) the setting of some the complex models to... "normal" or "complex" - right now all models are set to the default "sparse", which makes them visible no matter how the game's detail settings are set. For starters, the fire pit rocks and some the 3D (green) cactuses would be good candidates for this. This is all optional of course. Your lag isn't bad, I could live with it, yet you could optimize it for others by using the model settings as outlined on the handy page I linked.

Oh, you have the fire pit rocks set to "non-collide facing", I'm thinking they shouldn't be "facing".

Lastly, I had kinda planned to teach you how to make custom pictures for the in-game menu before this track was finished, but lets hold off on that for now. Would you like to use this one? -<a href=http://mtm2.com/~trackville/tmp/wells.bmp>wells.bmp</a>- If so, save it to your hard drive, then right-click on the "browse bitmap" in the "track component" box, select "load" and load the bmp.


p.s.

chuck wagon?
http://cownap.com/~mtmg/models/Mtm1/transp1.html

> wells.bmp

APACHE1.bmp or APACHE2.bmp

heh! Nicely done Phineus (aka Sepia Sam), I approve, they work well when they meet the track palette too. APACHE2 looks like a good choice, but the ultimate choice is now in <i>Nd4Sp "gimme a short track" Charles'</i> hands.

Hey guys, I had 2 tell ya's I LOVE the bitmaps, The Duke is my idol. Thanks {Phin & Wint} , them and the billboards that {Mal} made me, are not ALLOWED 2 be deleted from this computer, EVER. Got rid of the Duke on hill side, THANKS 4 pointing that out, cant do that 2 my boy. Well then, the water looks good 2 you, good enough 4 me then. I set the models 2 normal, will try both 2 see witch looks better. Ok no on the facing, but leave them no-collide? 1 more time I have 2 say THANK YOU'S 4 THE BITMAP, THATS GREAT MAN. I know Phin hates it, but you guys are the BOMB, awesome people, Thanks

Just a few observations.

The sides of the tunnels are a pretty good fit but you can drive through most and one is a few feet in on the left side. As previously noted, this is a tough assignment. I suggest you go over all of them at least one more time before you call it done.

The big cactus plants should probably be set to no collide and fitted up with a stump. There's just a tad too much invisible wall to smack into.

The cactii away from the road can be made no collide, and forget about the stump, if you want. and they can be put on normal scenery level. The ones near the road that might affect the driving lanes should stay on sparse.

The little plant things should be no collide with no object box. Monster trucks are not slowed down by shrubbery.

The 'alamo' needs to be set to no collide and use several object boxes to fit the walls and fences. The square/box of the bin is just too big to ignore even if it is quite a ways from the road. The slightest detour to look around and whack!

Yes sir , ill check ground boxes around tunnels & check points, make the mission no collide with boxes around all walls and go over the cactis again, Thanks Phin

Please remove AWB3, Thank you's