Track making tips

[KitsuneAmy]

I've detailed my method for making tracks below, should it be useful to you in any way.

1. Gather reference media (if track is a replica)
This means maps, photos, and/or screenshots.

2. (Optional) Make track map bmp, convert to mip with winmip2
If you choose to do this, it will be very helpful, especially when making a replica, but even if you have a plan to make your own custom course, you can make sure the track is laid out perfectly.

3. Gather track construction materials
Either by unpacking existing tracks for them or making them yourself.

4. (Optional) Set track map as background image
It's important it's scaled correctly so you don't make your track with a warped image. Generally, setting the size to its size in pixels is good.

5. Create track piece and texture it
It's very important you texture (F-sections) the first piece the way you want and lay down any walls or fences (W-sections) before laying out the entire track so you're not texturing every segment individually. Now is also a good time to decide where to put your track boundaries. (X-sections)

6. Lay out track
Lay out the segments of your track. If you have a background image of your track map, follow it as closely as you can.

7. Scale track up or down if necessary
You can scale the track to the correct size you want with this step, the length doesn't matter before this as long as your layout is correct.

8. (Optional) Scale background image with track
If you choose to do this, you will have to multiply your background length and width by the percentage you scaled the track.

9. Place down pit stop
Knowing where and how to place your pitstop is important, whether the position is predetermined or not by your track map.

10. Put in desired elevation and banking using Height View
Doing this after everything else is important because adjusting X-sections on banked pieces of track will change the banking.

11. (Optional) Test current track layout
I say this is optional, but personally I would make sure all your banking and elevation is correct by driving on your track before moving forward from here.

12. Place track side objects (TSOs)
Place any and all static objects in your track's environment here. Be sure to tick whether the object is fixed or moving.

13. Edit track.ini (pace and pit road speed limit, where pit road begins and ends, positions of pit stalls and cars for full and partial pace lap, etc.)
This is a lengthy step and you'll have to tell the game where everything is in dlong and dlat. X and Y are only used for crowd sound sources.

14. Record reference laps (reflaps) for the AI (.lp files)
When in a testing session, press CTRL, ALT, SHIFT, and ~ to enable reflap recording. Use ALT-R to begin recording your line, and when you've finished, press / to show your work. if you're happy with your line, press CTRL-/ to save it.

15. Name the .lp files according to the lines ran (min/maxrace, min/maxpit, min/maxpanic, limp, race)
It's important you name all the lines correctly for the AI to know where to drive. Max is the leftmost side of the track and min is the rightmost.

16. (Optional) Edit the camera file to your desire
You will need camedit if you wish to complete this step. It's rather confusing so I don't recommend beginners do it.

17. (Optional) Perform final testing on your track, drive on it to make sure everything is to your liking
This is your last chance to make sure everything is the way you want it before you're finished. Sure, you can go back and fix anything you notice is wrong at a later date, but I think it's better to fix any problems while they're fresh on your mind.

18. (Optional) Pack the track files into a DAT file so the track folder is neat and free of clutter
This is optional, but it will pack all loose files except setups, lps, and stps into one neat little file.

19. Make track logo and track shot, save as .bmp, use winmip to convert to .stp
Self-explanatory.

 

[Highbank]

NICE!

 

[JNorton (WKC)]

((12. Place track side objects (TSOs) ))

You would actually want to move this option farther down the list. LP files even if they are first draft and pit stalls should be done before loading a ton of TSO's. There is nothing worse than decorating a track then finding out that the AI doesn't work. Make sure that track works first. Then the rest is all icing on the cake.

 

[JNorton (WKC)]

16. (Optional) Edit the camera file to your desire
You will need camedit if you wish to complete this step. It's rather confusing so I don't recommend beginners do it.

Optional? This a pet peeve of mine. Too many people build/edit tracks and just plain ignore cameras. It should be learned and completed before ANY track is released.

 

[JNorton (WKC)]

18. (Optional) Pack the track files into a DAT file so the track folder is neat and free of clutter
This is optional, but it will pack all loose files except setups, lps, and stps into one neat little file.

This is NOT optional.. Clean up your unused junk files and then pack your track into a dat file. I cannot begin to tell people just how many tracks I've downloaded from lazy builders who leave a track unpacked and have a 100mb of junk included in that folder. Some will also have an extra unpacked folder with 100+mb of more unused junk in it. To ignore cleaning and repacking is just pure laziness.

 

[KitsuneAmy]

In four months or so, I'll have been building tracks for NR2003 for four years. I remembered this thread existed so I'm going to rewrite it here without looking at my original post to see if anything's changed with my methods. (Spoiler: it's more verbose.)

HOW TO BUILD YOUR VERY OWN NR2003 TRACK: NOTES FROM A BUILDER WHO'S STILL LEARNING NEW THINGS ABOUT SANDBOX

1. Have an idea for a track. Is it from a game you played, real life, or your own original creation?

2. Gather or create reference media for your track. This can be maps, photographs, videos, screenshots, pictures, etc.

3. Assemble a project folder for your track. You can start off by using WinMip2 to unpack the building materials from Papyrus' tracks as well as the shared folder, and copying all those files (namely .3do and .mip, as well as the trackmat folder(s)) to your project folder. Then you'll need a track.ini for your track. You can copy one from a track that's roughly similar to what you're making and edit it later, there's more in-depth guides for that elsewhere because it would be too complicated to explain here. For now, just edit stall_0 under regular stalls to be 0,0,0.

4. (Optional) Create a mip using WinMip2 with your track map on it. The way I do this is I map, save it as .PNG, then save it again as .BMP with a size closest to the .PNG in binary sequence (powers of two) because a mip can only be sizes like 64x256, 512x1024, etc. When you open it in WinMip2, convert it to a mip and place it in whatever folder your track will be created in. Then, when you set your background image, set the size to the resolution of the .PNG you made, or a multiple of it, so it will be the correct ratio.

5. Create a straight and start building your layout. You will save a lot of time later if you place all your walls (W-sections), textures (F-sections), and banking (X-sections) on this initial piece, because when you append a new segment onto that piece, it will copy all the sections placed on it to the next piece. Try to put walls and textures that most parts of the track will have in common to, again, save time later. Something I will say now so you don't learn the hard way is to not hit any key as a shortcut for a texture that does not exist; for example if you hit the 'x' key on accident, and there is no texture that starts with 'x' present, the program will freeze. I've had to learn that the hard way on several occasions.

For F-sections, define the surface type (i.e. Asphalt, Concrete, Grass, etc.) and extended surface type (i.e. Racing Surface, Apron, Pit Road, etc.) Select a texture that appears in the drop-down menu and use the boxes to adjust the size of the texture.

For W-sections, define the wall type (i.e. Armco, Wall, Wire Fence, etc.) and extended surface type (i.e. Racing Surface, etc.) Select a texture for each part of the wall; top, left, right, near and far. Near and far are not used for walls that are connected.

6. Once you're finished with your layout, you can scale the track if necessary. After that, you can start texturing unique sections, i.e. parts of the track that have different details than others, such as pit road entry and exit, and different types of fences/walls and different surface types associated with them. If you need a straight texture or wall on a curved section, right click it and select "Mark as Euclidean".

7. If your track has elevation or banking, this is where Height Views comes in. Be mindful to only have Height Views open by itself, only using Camera View in tandem to check your work since using both is memory heavy and prone to crashing the program. That being said, this is a good time to remind you to save often, and try to always make new saves, not overwriting old ones. Having several backups is also helpful. The left side of the window is primarily for elevation, and the right side for banking.

8. Once you finish your layout, elevation, and banking, now should be your first test in-game. Create a folder with the filename of your track file in your track directory in your NR2003 folder, and copy all of your project files to it. Then open your game and load up your track in a testing session; drive on it some. Everything look and feel good? If not, go back to one of the prior steps to fix this. If so, we can move on.

9. I usually don't do this until close to the end, but now I would recommend to record LPs for your track and get the AI working. You can find a guide on how to use the reflap utility elsewhere. (A guide comes in the "docs" folder of Sandbox.) You need to define the racing line, track limits, and pit line, and after that, the location of pit stalls (This can be done easily with a tool called Pit Tool.), and where the pit lane starts and ends in track.ini. Be mindful that your pit stalls aren't negative numbers if they go before the start/finish line. If they are, they will glitch out in a replay. Once you've done that, reload your track, this time in a single race, and check if the AI is behaving correctly.

10. Open your track again. Now's the time to start placing track side objects, or TSOs. You can get these from existing tracks, free online downloads, or by creating them yourself using Blender or 3DS Max. For a first time user, I recommend using Papyrus' objects. You can use View3D, which comes with Sandbox, to view 3D objects you have unpacked from those tracks. Change sandbox to "Object Placement Mode", and right click to place a new object. Be aware that some objects may not appear until you save and reload the track. You can freely adjust the Height, Yaw, Pitch, and Roll of an object freely after changing the object to "Fixed".

11. When you're finished decorating, you're free to repeat step 8 and check your work in game if you'd like. This is the time to tie up any loose ends. Track.ini needs a lot of information about the track filled in, such as track and chassis type, partial and full pace lap positions, spotter and crew chief (SPCC) sections. You will also need car setups for your track; you can copy these from a roughly similar track to start off with and edit later. These are the .sim and .acd files you find in track folders. You will also need a camera (.cam) file that you can copy from an existing track for starters and edit later.

12. (Optional) Edit a camera file to your liking. A program called camedit can be used to do this, but I wouldn't advise a first time user to do this as it can be confusing. Using this, you can edit the positions of the pit lane cameras, TV cameras, and spectator camera. When you're done, the file name must be the same as the track file and folder.

13. Pack your track into a neat .DAT file using a program called N2003DATter05. You select your track file, then excess any files that your track did not use, then pack them into the .DAT file. It will leave folders leftover called "Excess_Files" and "Files_In_DAT". I usually delete the excess files and put the files in dat into the project folder after deleting all the files in it to save space.

14. (Optional) Create a track shot and logo for your track. You can convert an existing one from .STP to .BMP to start using WinMip2, then edit them to your liking and convert them back into .STP to put into your track folder.

I'm sure I'm missing something (or many things), but that's the gist of it.

 

[JNorton (WKC)]

Camera editing should NOT be optional unless you are updating a track that already has a set camera file that was actually edited by papyrus or the builder. We see too many cam files that are total junk where the builder didn't bother doing anything to the cam angles, or even set up pits cam 1&2. It not rocket science and each one should be edited unless as I stated they were setup by Papyrus or the original builder.