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Well after not touching mtm2 since 2001, I've decided to dip back in and build a new track. I do intend on finishing it, however life is unpredictable and job changes, moving, employment variances, etc. may delay or simply kill off this project any time. It's not a one week job, this track will be huge and use most of the available track area.

To start, here's a diagram by the FAA of IAH (the code for the airport)

PM me for the link, I have to have two posts apparently.

Breifly, for the non-aviation enthusiasts here... the solid thick black lines are runways. At the end, are numbers and letters. Such as 15L and 15R, 26L and 26R. (L=Left R=Right) The thin lines that go between them are called taxi ways. When a plane lands they have to turn off the runway onto the taxi way as soon as possible to clear the runway for the next incoming jet.

As you can see, runways and taxi ways are long. 15L is 12,000 feet (2.5 miles) long.

Of course it'll be impossible to build in every single airport detail into this track. But here's a few key elements I'm aiming to build in:

- runways
- taxi ways (with signing)
- close resemblance of terminal equipment. Obviously it won't be possible to have moving baggage cars and food service equipment, but they should at least have a static presence.
- close-as-possible gate and terminal numbering
- a few jets parked at the terminals in various branding. yes there will be jetways.
- the tower. Can't have an airport without a tower!
- using the mtm2 'train' and an animated bin model to simulate an airliner doing a low approach over a runway, then taking back off into the sky. repeat.

Things that IAH has that just will not be in this track:

- parking garages. Unfortunently IAH has some very complex spiraling garages that are impossible to emulate. Still pondering painting up some ground boxes to look like parking garages.
- moving aircraft (other than the flyby) IAH is a very busy airport, there's always a plane moving around somewhere..
- Marriot hotel, even in real life it's fairly insignificant to IAH
- fewer aircraft. the real IAH is always packed with planes, unless you want to play at 10 fps, there won't be as many as the real
deal.
- possibly eliminating night and dusk weather play. An airport really comes alive at night with all the lighting, and I can't think of a way to effectively enable any kind of night time play.

The track -

A monster truck rally around a major airport, use your imagination. Right now I'm thinking of using the inner taxi ways for side by side car crushing (drags) and setting up avaition style banners for checkpoints in the rally. It's hard to set up a track without drifting too far from realism, but if it was uber-realistic, it would be boring.

And yes, jumping over an airliner will be part of the rally.

So if anyone has any ideas, thoughts, etc. Voice em'.

I'm also looking for bin models and textures, I need all the help I can get.

Progress right now is two runways are laid out and the taxi ways are coming along. also have some of the terminal locations outlined.

Garret L.

Plenty of models and art from the game Fly! can be found here
http://cownap.com/~mtmg/models/Fly/mod0.html
We've since learned it's best to remake the textures and remap as it cuts down on lag in the game when driving.


Another excellent resource
http://malibu350.com/scraps/


Malibu350's son rewrote binedit and he updated traxx. Check them both out here. You won't believe the difference in binedit now.
http://malibu350.com/m350/
http://binedit.com/ help pages here and we can dig up more if you need them.


Making custom textures has never been easier and with better results than ever. If you do all the background reading there's quite a pile to go through but since you are already familiar you can probably just dig right in.
http://cownap.com/~mtmg/templates/


Welcome back.

Yep, got the latest Binedit and Traxx and been toying. Amazing programs now! Much better than before.

Thanks man

Garret L.

hey garretL, you're a big fish round here from the looks of it. i'm new here, maybe you could show a newbie like me the ropes.
p.s. love your mods, bro.
chazza.

Aside from bits and peices I barely remember from years ago, I doubt there's much I could teach you, I've been out of the game for a good 7 years now.

Should've seen me the other night getting re-aquainted with Traxx, I laid an entire runway block by block until I remembered the texture paint tool. Doh!

Maybe one of the real pros can help us both out.

Garret L.

Heh... i cannot use the texture paint tool


I have to lay the road block by block or else i cannot "feel" the visual length in traxx compared to the length in-game.

Dude I was sitting in a plane taxiing out onto the runway of BWI today and thought about making the exact thing you're trying. Thanks for saving me the hours of effort (now I can start on that city harbor marketplace track I've been wanting to do for 6 years or more).

My suggestion would be to not replicate a specific airport but to make something which is more generic and therefore easier to fit all the airport stuff in. A generic airport does not need spiraling garages, the runways and interviening space can be adjusted to form a more interesting/exciting track, and you can just generally be more creative with it. You could name it anything you want then, too.

Oh, and welcome back man! It's because of your early stuff that I ultimately tortured myself making Monster Mutt.

Cale you're probably right, I'd like to base it off my 'hometown' airport, IAH, but it's sheer size may prove a challenge. Just laying the runways out in Traxx is taking days... but I"m only giving it a few minutes a day, I still work 40 hours+ a week too...

We shall see.. I might wind up just downscaling it to save myself from stress. Doc says I have high blood pressure. Psh, I'm only 26 man....

Garret