TRACK TUTORIAL from 0 (Under construction)

[Aritz]

This is a tutorial for dummies. I did a track and I fixed my own mistakes like you will have to do. Follow the instructions and you will find the way to solve the problems that you will have.

Google maps, seek the track and PRINT SCREEN button:



PASTE the image on your photo editing program. Edit the image and select what you want, in this case, I will the easy track of course...



Open Bob's Track Builder (BTB) and click on the shown icon to create the track:



Create nodes, in this case I've created 5 but as you will see, 4 were enough and I delete one few steps after (DELETE button once selected the node)
BTB has 4 windows, one is 3D (push 3 to select it) and it is the most usefull, but sometimes we have to use the up/left window (push 1 to select it) or all of them (push 4)





Select window 1 and edit the nodes (I want you to learn how to handle the nodes, their options, even if is better to do with the background but it is more clear without it)



Click on the node and those pink line will appear, they let you to make curves. Play with them, shrink or enlarge them, move left/right, until you understand how the track can be modelled.



Now we will open the background to fix the track on it. This way is very simple and not very accurate, but well done is enough. There are better ways, using Google Earth and creating a path on the track,
but like I said, my way is enough at least for me
I've fix the background using the Windows photo preview as you can see, do it properly and the track will be accurate:





Open again "transform" and edit the nodes now using the background:



First of all, resize the track. I put 180m but I don't really know how long it is, you must know of course:




HERE I MADE THESE STEPS AFTER THE LAST STEPS, BUT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS ORDER

BTB puts the track on air, don't ask me why. We have to lower it just over the background image.
Select four windows view and select all the nodes in the down/left window using SHIFT or like me. Once selected (the nodes will be red) use SHIFT to move them together (in BTB shift is like ctrl in Windows)




Move the nodes down until the track disappears under the background image and then move them a little over the image.



The track has very low polygons and the turns are not curved at all, so select that and put less panel lenght. 1 meter is quite good for straights (even 5 for better FPS) but use 1 or 0,5 for turns. I've used 2 only for this tutorial:




One problem, the polygons are wrong here, let's fix it using transform and moving the node again:

[Aritz]

Now the terrain, select the mountain icon and use these settings (play with them if you want)
By the way, BTB uses a lot of memory and it is very common to have crashes and its "undo" option doesn't work (crash guarantied) when the track is full of things, so it is unusefull  Save every step.




You can see the wireframe in this screenshot, use W for options (only wireframe, mixed with real image and only real image) We need this for avoid the next problem. You must seek the entire track.
We have a polygon overlapped here, we have to fix it:



Select shape and click on the edge of the polygon, one red square will appear. Move them until the overlap is fixed.




Now we will merge the terrain (use 1st window). Select vertex in groups and right click on mouse to merge. Don't select hundreds, select wisely. Here is easy, the track is short and simple, but with complicated turns, the groups must be small.





We are going to add objects but we need more xpacks, because Default has only a few:













Let's do the pits. I've done the most simple pits possible. You should do better, with more than one secondary track.













Now he have a big problem. Our grass is under the pits, so we have to delete it and do a proper terrain. These steps are, by far, the trickiest job with BTB, so pay attention:

[Aritz]

After that, the kerbs. First the easy way, using simple kerbs, but you must delete the grass under them, and this has to be done using 3d Max, is quite easy there.










Now the second way to do kerbs. It is easier to do but you will lost the shape, the kerb will be flat... Sometimes is enough and we wont have stocked karts because of big sharp edges:





We have to merge the terrain, some areas are grass, some kerbs and some pits in this case. Let's merge all first and then, we will split the kerb and the pit expansion area:






Track done, now the export to rFactor (we can't do anything better)

[Aritz]

After the export, follow this guide:

Hello,
I finished the conversion tutorial today, with the great help of vizzz I managed to convert a track, so I decided to write an accurate tutorial for everyone  who has not that much 3ds Max knowledge like myself. So don't thank me thank vizzz

At first you will have to get the textures and 3d gmt files out of the .mas files of your rFactor track.
Therefore you need the gMotor 2.0 MAS Utility
from here:
http://rfactor.net/web/rf1/devcorner/

Open the mas utility and just drag and drop your track's .mas file into the window.
Mark all -> right click -> extract -> now extract it into a folder of your choice.

The next step is to convert all the .dds texture files into .tga files
Therefore you need the dds converter
You get this small tool from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?u3n2dgz690zms77

Note! To avoid any kind of scale problems, after importing the track to 3ds max you have to correct 2 settings in 3ds max:
Go to the top bar --> Customize--> Units setup...  --> set it to Metric and Meters --> then click on the "Sytem Unit Setup" button --> set the system unit scale to meters  and your done, now your track should have the same size like in Bobs Track Builder and forget anything else I wrote about rescaling the track !

Now you have to bring the track into 3ds Max, so you need the gmt importer plugin and script for 3dsMax and also rF hardwareshaders.
You get the gmt plugin at:
http://rfactor.net/web/rf1/devcorner/     rFactor Max Plugins (32 Bit)
Installation:
Extract the zip file into C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max\stdplugs\

You get the script from the attachment of reply # 4 http://forum.kartracing-pro.com/index.php?topic=95.0
Installation:
Extract the zip file into C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max\Scripts\Startup\

You get the hardwareshaders from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?r6vpv78d197m64c
Installation:
Extract the zip file into C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max\hardwareshaders


(In the following the marker will show you where to click)
Start 3ds Max

EDIT: You should set the units setup to meters, so that you may avoid the rescaling of your track at the end (I'm not sure if it helps)
Click on Customize (at the very top bar in the middle) -> Units setup... -> select Metric and meters -> OK

Click on the hammer symbol-> MAXScript --> choose gmt2 Importer -->
change the additional texture path to wherever you saved the TGA textures of your track-->
activate No smoothing (my 3ds Max freezed when I had selected proper smoothing) -->
Import a directory--> search for the folder where all your .gmt's of your track are saved





Now it should take a bit time and all the textures should be found automatically (if not, some textures are missing so 3ds max tells you to find them manually, if you can't find them use spare textures you can still replace them later on with some proper textures)
When this process is finished you are going to see the whole track with all textures and also the Material Editor window.

In the Material Editor window you see all the sub materials of the multimaterial.
As a next step you need to change all gMat materials into standard materials.

So press the button grass2 (gMat)
3




--> scroll down in the marked area until u see the textures area at the bottom (now you may see 3 textures, at my track there was the normal colored texture, and 2 others with a similar but bit more specified name which are not of interest // you will understand what I mean during the next steps) -->
Press on the first button Map #76 (gTex)
4





--> At first, note or remember the name of the texture (as you can see it is just named ground_grass003.tga without any _spec or whatever, if you would open this texture from your tracks texture folder you would see that it is just the normal colored one, so exactly the one you need) -->
Now as a second step click on the yellow marked small button in the top row to get back to the area where you have been before (picture above) or you choose grass2 where currently the name Map #76 is shown, both ways bring you back to were you have been before.
5



When you are back at the grass2:
Click on gMat --> Material/Map Browser opens
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Material/Map Browser:
Choose Standard --> click OK
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The grass texture turned grey therefore you had to remember the name of the texture
--> click on the small yellow marked button right beside Diffuse --> Material/Map Browser opens again
8



Material/Map Browser:
Double click on Bitmap --> navigate to the folder where all your TGA textures of the track are located and search for the certain texture of which you have had to note/remember the name
IMPORTANT NOTE for textures:If you have tree textures in your scene on which you want the sky above to be transparent, they NEED an alpha channel, so if you convert from dds to tga there should still be the alpha channel, if not you'll have to create it. Therefor I would suggest, that you convert your texture to png and cut away and delete the sky above the trees, afterwards convert it to dds and an alpha channel will be automatically created, then convert it back to tga. Another way to create the alpha channel would be to do it in photoshop directly at the layer menu.
Another important thing is that you should add the prefix CK_ to your tree textures name. (eg. CK_tree.tga ) this will prevent problems with the visibility of trees which are behind each other in the scene.
9



After that you get back to the Material Editor, there you have to press the checked cube button, to make the textures you have just chosen visible at your 3d scene

10
--> now you have to click 2 times on the top right button in the blue circle to get back to the basic Material Editor page where all the other submaterials are shown.



At the basic Material Editor page you now can see that the grass2 submaterial isn't a gMat material anymore but a standard one and that's exactly what you want.
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That's how you change the gMat materials into standard materials, now do it the same way for all the other submaterials in the list.

(Note: Afterwards you can close the Material Editor you can open it up again with pressing the M-key of your keyboard)




When you finished changing them all into standard materials, your next bigger task is to rename all objects in the scene with proper names.
You find these names in PiBoSo's track creation manual under the category Names.
http://tools.piboso.com/index.php/Track_Creation_Rules

Read completely through that section and you should be able to match the existing objects of your track with the correct names of PiBoSo's guide. If not just ask in this thread

To rename objects in the scene is pretty simple, it works as follows:

(At first you have to get in selection mode of 3ds Max --> press on the marked button in 3ds Max top task bar see picture beneath) 
For example you begin with the main track surface, just select the track surface by clicking on it, for selection of the track surface 3ds Maxs' Top view is advantageous (selected objects appear white, before selection they have any kind of color).
Now you see the objects name at top right position "t0_s0", rename it with the proper name which here is TRK (the prefix), followed by ASPH (for main track surface) so the complete new and correct name is: TRKASPH_object1

12


------> 13


Let me give you another example, for a tyre wall, select it and rename it:
WLLTYRE_object1,2,3....

The parking lot would be:
OFF_TRKCONC_object1  (OFF_ is an additional prefix for asphalt/concrete objects)

Note:You can rename more objects at once, this will make the renaming process way faster, just follow these instructions:
You have to select one group of objects (using ctrl + left click)
Tools (top task bar) --> Rename objects and fill in  "base name", "prefix", "subfix" and "numbered" (starting from 1 always) using Pibosos guide

EXAMPLE:

Base name: ASPH
Prefix: TRK
Subfix: _object
numbered: 1


That's how you rename all objects.
When you finished with renaming them you are almost done with the 3ds Max part.

As a last step in 3ds Max you have to export your scene 2 times.
One file hast to be a collision file .trp and the other one a map file .map.

For exporting you need the EDFexp plugin
http://tools.piboso.com/index.php/Export_Plugin
Install it like PiBoSo explained.


The exporting process:

File --> Export...

Save in your new track folder named like the track

Let us start with the .map file
14

15



Now the .trp file
16

17


If ending log is shown while the converting process it is finished.


That was the whole 3ds Max part of the conversion



Next you will have to work with PiBoSo's Track Tools (Track Editor/ TrackED and Map Viewer) software, which you get from here: http://www.kartracing-pro.com/?page=downloads

Which both are pretty good explained here:
Map Viewer: (in Map Viewer you can open your .map file and see if it looks alright)
http://tools.piboso.com/index.php/Map_Viewer

TrackED: (in TrackED you finish your track for KRP)
http://tools.piboso.com/index.php/Track_Editor

Follow PiBoSo's Workflow instructions:
•   Create a centerline
1.   Centerline -> New
2.   ....
If you finished that, you will have to create the Race Data.

Just play around a bit with the values and you will understand how it works.
(save the finsihed Race Data as .rdf file with the same filename as your .trp and .map file into the same folder)



And don't forget to set checkpoints to prevent cutting the track! In top right of the race data window you see the checkpoints, works exactly the same as setting up sectors, so just add as many checkpoints as you need to make the track secure against cheating.



This step is followed by the last part, bring it ingame

Right now you have the three files StyriaKarting.map, StyriaKarting.trp and StyriaKarting.rdf all in your track folder (StyriaKarting).

Navigate to the Kart Racing Pro main directory and copy the file tracks.pkz to a place of your choice (desktop or anywhere else), this file is a zip file, so you can open it with winrar or another archive program winzip etc. Inside the tracks file there's tracks\lonato. Extract the lonato folder to
X:\Program Files\Kart Racing Pro\tracks\ 
and rename it into your tracks name (StyriaKarting).

Inside the folder rename all lonato.xxx files into your tracks name (StyriaKarting.xxx)
-->  delete the file bestline.tl  --> copy and overwrite your three track files StyriaKarting.trp, .map and .rdf into it.

Now open the file StyriaKarting.ini (configuration file) with windows editor accessory and type in the correct data of your track)

The very last step before you can enjoy your new track in kart racing is to exchange the TGA pictures with appropriate ones of the same size and name showing your Track


I hope this tutorial helped you enough to manage the conversion by yourselves

If you still have a question or something isn't working as expected feel free to ask here.

Note: Don't forget to ask the rF track creator for permissions, if you are allowed to convert it

[Aritz]

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[Aritz]

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[Aritz]

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[Aritz]

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[Aritz]

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[Aritz]

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[MarceL]

Maybe you can help me.
How can I do these red waypoints, and how can I save it as KML file?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxEu4EtpC3Q

[Schwoni]

Maybe you can help me.
How can I do these red waypoints, and how can I save it as KML file?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxEu4EtpC3Q

You have to build a path in google earth, save that path as .KML file and import like in that video.

[jd88x89]

Now how would i make the othe parts to another config. on the configuration that i am making? 

[Kimzu97]

Thank you Aritz! So now no more track requests!