I would like to start this discussion about best practices for NR2003 track builders. Though there are some general guidelines you can find here and there on forums and websites to build tracks, I'm interested in learning the "forgotten" little tidbits track builders have learned over the process of building tracks which help improve the quality and performance of the tracks and avoid game crashing issues.
Additionally, I'm curious to see if there is a reason certain tracks tend to cause more crashes than other versions of the same track. For example, BBMC tracks (Phoenix, Chicagoland, Charlotte Roval, etc) are known to cause game crashes and they still persist even when using the lower performance track texture pack. What are they caused by? Are they caused by overlapping X-sections? Are they caused by .mip textures which are too big for the game to handle? Why do these tend to crash more than other versions of the same tracks?
All this boils down to these main questions which inspired me to start this thread:
- What are the "unwritten rules"/guidelines for track builders to follow to avoid their track from crashing the game?
- What are the best practices for each sector of track building?
- How do you improve performance while keeping quality?
For example, one of the "unwritten rules" that I learned while building my first track is to not overlap x-sections from different segments like this:
Even though this worked inside the game, it caused the walls within the overlapping segments to be visible but you couldn't collide with them.
Some questions I had in mind to begin the discussion are:
Geometry Editing View
- How many segments of track can you have before it starts having issues?
- How many segments of track which are 1m long can you have together before having issues?
- Does overlapping X Sections across different segments cause issues?
- How does having sharp edges/essentially nonexistent length on the leftmost or rightmost X-section of the track segment cause issues?
- What are the recommended dimensions of a .mip file to texture the track that balance both performance and quality?
- Do all segments of track have to be connected or can you have a part disconnected and not interfere with the rest of the track?
- Do you need to texture all the way to the edges of the left and right X-sections of a segment or is it better to leave a gap between the left/rightmost X section and the left/rightmost F section?
Trackside Objects (TSOs)
- How many TSOs can a track have before it starts having performance issues?
- How many polygons/vertices can a TSO have before causing issues?
- What is the optimal dimension size for TSO textures?
- Does the size of the TSO matter in terms of performance?
Track Surface Decals
- How many decals can you have before having issues?
- What are the recommended dimensions of a .mip file that balance both performance and quality?
Other/General
- Is there anything in track.ini or anything else that can affect the game performance both positively or negatively?
- What causes some tracks to tend to crash more than other tracks?
- How can existing tracks with constant crashing issues be fixed? What would you look at first/second/etc to fix the issues?
- Are there any tools out there that can help identify track problems other than testing them ingame?
I'll keep a list of "unwritten rules" down here updated as the discussion progresses:
Geometry Editing View
- Don't overlap segments of tracks. It will cause walls to be visible but not collidable
- All segments should be connected to one another
Trackside Objects (TSOs)
- ...
Track Surface Decals
- ...
General/Other
- ...
Additionally, I'm curious to see if there is a reason certain tracks tend to cause more crashes than other versions of the same track. For example, BBMC tracks (Phoenix, Chicagoland, Charlotte Roval, etc) are known to cause game crashes and they still persist even when using the lower performance track texture pack. What are they caused by? Are they caused by overlapping X-sections? Are they caused by .mip textures which are too big for the game to handle? Why do these tend to crash more than other versions of the same tracks?
All this boils down to these main questions which inspired me to start this thread:
- What are the "unwritten rules"/guidelines for track builders to follow to avoid their track from crashing the game?
- What are the best practices for each sector of track building?
- How do you improve performance while keeping quality?
For example, one of the "unwritten rules" that I learned while building my first track is to not overlap x-sections from different segments like this:
Even though this worked inside the game, it caused the walls within the overlapping segments to be visible but you couldn't collide with them.
Some questions I had in mind to begin the discussion are:
Geometry Editing View
- How many segments of track can you have before it starts having issues?
- How many segments of track which are 1m long can you have together before having issues?
- Does overlapping X Sections across different segments cause issues?
- How does having sharp edges/essentially nonexistent length on the leftmost or rightmost X-section of the track segment cause issues?
- What are the recommended dimensions of a .mip file to texture the track that balance both performance and quality?
- Do all segments of track have to be connected or can you have a part disconnected and not interfere with the rest of the track?
- Do you need to texture all the way to the edges of the left and right X-sections of a segment or is it better to leave a gap between the left/rightmost X section and the left/rightmost F section?
Trackside Objects (TSOs)
- How many TSOs can a track have before it starts having performance issues?
- How many polygons/vertices can a TSO have before causing issues?
- What is the optimal dimension size for TSO textures?
- Does the size of the TSO matter in terms of performance?
Track Surface Decals
- How many decals can you have before having issues?
- What are the recommended dimensions of a .mip file that balance both performance and quality?
Other/General
- Is there anything in track.ini or anything else that can affect the game performance both positively or negatively?
- What causes some tracks to tend to crash more than other tracks?
- How can existing tracks with constant crashing issues be fixed? What would you look at first/second/etc to fix the issues?
- Are there any tools out there that can help identify track problems other than testing them ingame?
I'll keep a list of "unwritten rules" down here updated as the discussion progresses:
Geometry Editing View
- Don't overlap segments of tracks. It will cause walls to be visible but not collidable
- All segments should be connected to one another
Trackside Objects (TSOs)
- ...
Track Surface Decals
- ...
General/Other
- ...
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