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I don't think it's necessary to compare yourself to anyone, RD. However, since you asked, one of the most prominent things I think you should be aware of is how attentive they are to small details, and mostly it's the little things I'm referring to, like what you'll see in the pics that I've taken. You won't find these kinds of blemishes in tracks made by "the masters" lol. They take their time and they're very meticulous about they're work. You currently have three betas uploaded at MTMG. I highly recommend that you stick to cranking them out one at a time, partner. If all goes well, a project like this one will take several weeks to complete, maybe even a couple of months, and that's fine. The goal is to end up with something you can be proud of, something you gave your best effort. Heck anyone can whip out three or four tracks at a time, but the trade-off is they're usually not very good tracks, and it's because the author sacrificed quality for quantity. That's not what you want to do.

Ok, moving on. I snapped a few pics which address some of the obvious blemishes. Take a look at the shots I took, then try this: take a casual drive on the tracks below and look at the texture/terrain work, model placement, and composition. For now composition doesn't come into play since you haven't put any models in yet, but you'll be able to see how balanced their work is. You don't need to toss in truck loads of models to have a great looking track, but how and where you place them can certainly have a huge impact.

Track One - no models, but take note of the texture work - you'll have a tough time finding misaligned textures. Also take note of the subtle blending between texture types. The mountains and hills are natural looking.

Track Two - The texture work isn't perfect in this one, but it's not bad either. Mostly take note of his composition, mountain work (very natural and realistic looking).

Track Three - This one has nice everything lol.

Ok now for Insomnia.

• The following pictures show where you have road textures bleeding up or down on the mountains and hills.

<a href="http://mtm2.com/~forum/images/insom1.jpg">1</a> - <a href="http://mtm2.com/~forum/images/insom7.jpg">2</a> - <a href="http://mtm2.com/~forum/images/insom19.jpg">3</a> - <a href="http://mtm2.com/~forum/images/insom22.jpg">4</a> - <a href="http://mtm2.com/~forum/images/insom23.jpg">5</a>

• You might consider using actual bridge models in places like these where the roads cross on another. You wouldn't have to worry about mismatched texture types (light green vs dark green), and it would give your track a more realistic look and feel.

• The circles indicate unnatural looking pointy hilltops. You have quite a few of them in this track. Again, take a drive on the two tracks I posted links to and note the difference.

• I definitely liked what you tried to do here. I recommend smoothing out the road so that it's smooth at the bottom of the drop and adjusting the ceiling so that the trucks clear it easier. You'll still want a tight fit though, forcing racers to use speed control to keep from slamming into top portion.

• This section here needs some work. Unfortunately I don't have a suggestion for ya lol, but I know it could use a serious change. I will say that this track is long enough and have more than enough variety that if you opted to wipe it out altogether it wouldn't hurt it at all. Not one bit.

• I like this too. I would recommend maybe turning it into a construction area and use narrow wooden planks to enable the trucks to cross. If you don't hit it sqaurely then you run the risk of falling in. Those who fail to successfully get across can still drive out thanks to the road below. Nicely done. Oh, one last thing - the openings in the road are squares. Try going for a more natural looking holes, maybe toss in a few backhoes along the side of the road on either side, which would also help to keep people from circumventing the wooden plank.

• Minor observation here - you've got 90º angles at this switchback. Round it off...and maybe even bank it a little, like this.

• More minor road texture work. Now look here & here. There are several different texture types, but notice how the road textures aren't sharply cut off. You don't see hard angles of any sort. Instead there's gradual blending from one to the other.

• Nice change up here, however I would smooth it out a little...maybe even take a couple of the jagged sections out altogether.

• These two pictures (1 & 2) simply show a section of road where there's no blending whatsoever between the two texture types. Oh, I also circled a few more piked hills lol.

• I think you know deal here without me saying a word lol.

• Blending...or lack thereof.

• In this shot here, I think if you lowered the hill enough so that racers who were able to hold a nice, steady line up to the jump-off point would come down on the other side nice and smooth. Those who didn't would pay a small price by landing just short, costing them a second or two in time.

Last, but not least, your backdrop has noticeably visible seams.

That's not all that's wrong with this track lol. I mean, I'm sure Phin, Wint, Mal (the Masters lol) could find a ton of other stuff, but that's not the point really. Making good tracks is a gradual process; you'll learn a little more each time out. This track has a lot of potential, RD - really it does. Overall I think the layout is great. Yep, it's long, but you have enough variety in it to make it interesting, and with a layout that keeps you on your toes, keeps you thinking about what's coming up next, you don't necessarily need a ton of scenery. SLO_HotShoe's tracks look great, and for the most part all he uses are trees...very nice trees, as you'll see in his track, Moutainous Jump.

Anyway, negate all those shorts in the replay (may have to reposition some checkpoints, but close em off), make any changes you think are necessary based on the input I just gave ya, then upload another version. Check it thoroughly yourself before you reupload. I'm sure you'll catch a few things yourself. Other than that, keep up the good work!

thanks for the input. I kind of wanted the hills to be pointy in some areas, so I didn't try to smooth them out. With the texture transitions... where can I find the transition textures or how can i make the textures transition? I didn't and don't know how to do that. And with the diagonal path, how can I do that? Would I have to redo the texture set?

~RD

The topic of textures can be quite involved, and there are usually several ways to do the same things. So, to help you out with probably the easiest way, you might want to begin here.

http://cownap.com/~mtmg/traxx/trans.html

Angus explains it well, and you don't need to overhaul all your textures. It's not a perfect system, but it should accomplish what you're after for this track. And by the way, I'm really referring to step one only. And, yes, I still use that method when just touching up a just couple textures.

Once you feel pretty good with that, let us know and we'll hook you up with some more ambitious texture work.

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As for pointed peaks and other things Cope has noted, please understand we provide suggestions here. You are the track maker and are certainly allowed to do the designs you want. We just want to make sure you're aware of things and that your choices are conscious decisions and not careless over sights. So, if you're happy with them, then so are we.

Yep, I hear ya, RD, which is why I said, "... make any changes you think are necessary based on the input I just gave ya ...".

As long as you know it's there whatever decision you make is fine.

ok. And I just uploaded Dirt-Cheap. I tried to put an object in, 8Bbrl or something like that, but every time I tried to reopen the track in Traxx for more editing, it said that the object was a bad model. So I figured, It's pretty good anyway, I really don't need many (any) models, so I uploaded it. Check it out!

~RD

This is a nice long race-course with an imaginative layout. It does appear a bit bare with no models of any sort on it. It needs checkpoint markers at the least, and fence-barriers marking the edge of cliffs on blind turns in the best case.

It's such a cool track to drive on that I think it deserves the extra time to get the models re-inserted and debugged. I hope you consider it. This could be a new favorite.

Unfortunately I'm not nearly as impressed with this track as BD. I will concede that the layout is imaginative, but there are several spots where you run into invisible objects of one kind or another. Furthermor, you're able to circumvent extensive sections of the course (from cp 9 to 10, and then from 10 to 11) that have very high altitudes by simply driving around them using the flat surface off to the side. You only used 12 checkpoints when you could have easily negated those cuts by adding just a few more. Finally there are quite a few portions that could benefit from a little more smoothing, tweaking. Having a rough road is one thing, but there are parts of that track that need work - period.

This is exactly the kind of thing I referred to when beta testing Insomnia. How some are content with uploading half-baked tracks that are riddled with problems as final products. You seem to have a knack for producing rallies with interesting layouts, RD. Why sell yourself short by releasing work that's incomplete? And I'm not referring to the lack of models either. Dirt Cheap would have been deemed "a promising piece of work" as a beta in my opinion, but it's certainly not a finished product - not by any means.

At any rate, those are my thoughts. I'm working on it for a lap time. Should be in the 4:45 range or so when I'm done.

Edit: Here's a replay of a 4:52.02 lap. You can see the shortcuts I took for yourself. There's a helicopter cut to cp 3, which I didn't use in this replay. I'm not sure if it's faster or not, but it's close.

I have to agree with you Cope... there's a switch.

When I ran each one, I got the feeling that I was running the same track with different textures. They all felt the same, and looked very similar.

All I have to add is, RD, you're better than that, these to me seemed rushed, and way to similar. I look forward to your next, and all of your stuff, but I was kinda disappointed this time. I have nothing much else to add, that Cope didn't already say.

They are far from bad, but usually your layouts are much more fun. Go back to basics, fast tracks. But stick with the Rally thing for my benefit though, lol.

ok. Can do. I don't know why my models don't want to work when I try to put them in. It's probably something simple, I'll have to look. I'll try to take my time as well, I agree, I was sort of rushing to get through these, I do that sometimes. Thanks for the input!

~RD

To keep the models from disappearing in Traxx go to your folder options and uncheck 'Hide file extensions for known file types' as described here... http://cownap.com/~mtmg/errors/lnth.html

Someday someones gonna come along and fix that error, I just know it, but for now that's the bandaid.

I ran into some of those invisible objects, but I assumed that it had something to do with his disappearing models, and would be fixed if he replaced or repaired them.

...This is why I make trucks, and not tracks (heh heh).

will do. THX!