rec.autos.simulators

Based on some 3d map building I did for Quake,
I know this is going to be hard and the scale
(the 17 track should be between 8 and 12 miles
long) will make it worse.  I intend to work from
detailed maps (http://www.racesimcentral.net/~morgan/17track.html
has my assembled tiles from MapsOnUs for 17),
topological maps and a videotaped drive of the
course (from a tripod taped & tied to the passenger
seat).

The Grand Prix Legends and Viper Racing models
are my favorites, but I prefer touring, sports or
rally cars for this kind of thing to open wheel.  I found
the CART Precision Racing (C:PR?) model fair,
but the cars have too much damned torque.
I find that I can drive GP3 cars or the Viper by
shifting early & keeping the revs down, but the
Champ cars are impossible!

These courses will be kind of horrible because there are
no sand traps or runoff room- you***up & you're
in a wall or tree or over a cliff, but I'd rather do it in a sim than
real life...

Thanks,
    -JCB (anti-spam pseudonym)

P.S. if anyone in the (Santa Cruz/San Jose) area
wants to participate, reply to the group.  I have quick
internet connections to make collaboration easier.

Interesting topic - one that I would like to see on the SRO message
boards.  If interested, stop on by: http://www.simracing.com

Cheers!

Marc

* Switch confused.net with concentric.net to reply...Confused-yet? *

I found the Grand Prix Legends editor
work-in-progress page (run by the fellow
that did the F1 Grand Prix 2 editor) and
it looks promising.  If GPL can handle
Nurburgring, it should handle my maps.
Well, um, is it the short (~2-3 miles) course
or the country roads 13+ mile course that
comes with the game?

The page documents what's been discovered
of the file formats so instead of trying to develop
graphically, I'm thinking of creating maps from
real world data.

There would be two possible approaches:
1) create a database from flat & topo maps,
probably involving a lot of hand-entry.  Tracing
a map with Adobe Illustrator would give curves,
but extracting them would be irritating.
2) do a GPS survey like the CART:PR folks did.
  It isn't possible to walk
17 and I don't think GPS receivers and altitude
sensors are fast enough to track to 10' at
40MPH, so this is out.

I think a text language version of the GPL
track description and a compiler is the way
to go.  I can turn maps into this language
with a program to get featureless, but
accurate driving courses, then tweak the
look by hand.  Some of the best Quake maps
were done this way-- you imagine what
you want & "write" it then view it in the
game.

-Morg

   14.189 miles, 174 turns.

<technical stuff clipped>

   Interesting project!  Keep us informed.

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