Creating Tracks For Racing

CTR Creator supports the creation of raceways. There are a few things we need to do to ensure that when we build our track that our cars are set up ready to race.

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The OvertakeFlag

The WagenDaten_'s Overtake flag enables two cars to sit side by side on the track and allows one car to overtake the other as they compete their way around the super slam. The WagenDaten_'s Overtake flag comes with its own version of RidebetweenTrackSplinesFlag so the RidebetweenTrackSplinesFlag flag doesn't need to be set up separately in the BahnDaten_ if we've already set up the Overtake flag in the WagenDaten_.

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The Start Preset

The BahnDaten_'s StartPreset needs to be flagged at 4 = Racing. This ensures that when the track is built the cars are configured to operate as expected on a raceway.

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StartOptions

For raceways, two start options need to be flagged: 1 = Continuous circuit + 16 = Racing, so you'd enter a value of 17 here (1 + 16 = 17). Most of the other StartOptions aren't useful for a raceway so this value will usually be 17. We haven't tried this ourselves but the data in this article suggests one might be able to build a drag racing track with the addition of 2 = Powered Launch and/or 16384 = Multiple Powered Launch.

Wheel Bones Adjustment

The wheelfl, wheelfr, wheelrl, and wheelrr effect bones should always be located at Z=0 in our modeler. Whenever we attempt to adjust these bones upwards or downwards from Z=0 in our modeler, in the game these bones will always default to the center of the rail and at the Z=0 height of the rail so when raising your car above the track you need to raise everything except the wheel effect bones. There are two occasions on which we may wish to adjust our wheel effect bones along the Y axis (away from the car's sides or towards the car's centre).

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wide tracks in which we want to set the RidebetweenTrackSplinesFlag, and

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raceways created with the WagenDaten_'s Overtake flag, a flag that come with its own version of RidebetweenTrackSplinesFlag.

For non-raceway tracks, when the RidebetweenTrackSplinesFlag is used our car will journey towards one side of the track and then to the other and it will do this based on the car's inertia as we've set it up in the WagenDaten_'s Car_Inertia field. In most instances, in our modeler we need to adjust our wheel effects inwards to the center of the car model. With the distance of our wheel bones from the sides of our car thusly reduced, in the game our car will travel farther outwards from the center of the track and get closer to the sides of the track which gives a more realistic appearance that it is actually reacting to one side of the track and then to the other during it's forward travel.

For raceways, instead of one car being centred in the track, the WagenDaten_'s Overtake flag will center two cars side by side on the track. With the track divided in two lengthwise by this flag, if we call the right side of the track's centre Side A and the left side of the track Side B, from there the Overtake flag will centre Car 1 on Side A, Car 2 on Side B, Car 3 on Side A, Car 4 on Side B, Car 5 on Side A, and so on.

Whether on Side A or on Side B, the Overtake flag guides all the cars on the track between the track edge splines in addition to allowing the cars to overtake each other from Side A or from Side B at those places in the track where there is only one side occupied by a car. Because this flag centres two cars on the same track, care needs to be taken when deciding the width of your raceway cars. For example, cars for the Karts track should be no wider than 140cm which ensures that each pair of cars (e.g., Car 1 and Car 2) won't overlap each other in the center of tracks nor will they overlap the scenery built in to the edges of the track. We've placed 11 test cars on this Karts track to demonstrate.

To achieve more space or less space between each row of your racing cars your custom car may additionally require an adjustment to the carfront and carrear bones. Of course this is optional depending on your personal preference. In addition to determining how close the cars are while they're travelling around the track this can also determine how closely they are when at rest in the station while guests board or disembark. Our finished Karts car shows we've chosen car placements at the maximum width from side to side, and at the minimum distance from front to back.

We like this effect in spite of the fact the cars overlap a toudge on track curves and while overtaking each other. Other gamers may prefer to have a little more space between their cars.

With the WagenDaten_'s CarCountPerTrainMax field given the correct value custom raceways may be set up so that trains race each other instead of single cars.

Rotating Wheels For Rails

In addition to the rotating wheels we're about to create next, the wheelfl, wheelfr, wheelrl, and wheelrr Bone Effects will still need to be Imported with the car model. While these effects guide the car around the track in relation to its position on the track section, the animated wheels we're about to create are another part of the car model designed to give our car wheels an animated rotation.

While wheels can be animated like this through XML's the drawback of using this method is that they always rotate at the same speed regardless of the speed of the car or what side the wheel is on the car during any turns. The preferred way of animating wheels is to make adjustments to our model and set up those adjustments through the Importer.

Usually, complete rail wheel sets are made up of

A

the standard top wheel that rolls on the top of the rail,

B

a side-friction wheel that rolls on the outside of the rail, or

C

an up-stop wheel that makes contact with the bottom of the rail.

These three wheel arrangements are shown in this next slideshow.

We'll show how to set up all three wheels after which if you desire an arrangement with only two wheels or just a single wheel you may simply follow the same instructions after deleting the wheels you don't want from the SKP that's included with The CTR Creators' Pack that's available for download at the end of this article.

We found an excellent rail wheel texture on the internet that we'll be using for our demonstration. Note there's a red center marker, another red marker showing the place where the wheel makes contact with the rail, and an arrow showing the direction in which the wheel should spin on the rail.

First we'll apply the wheel texture to the triangles that represent our wheels in the model. The texture comes with convenient dotted lines as an aid in lining up the texture at the triangle points.

All the red arrows on the wheel textures should be pointing all on the same side towards the same triangle corners.

Observe that from whichever side we're looking at the track mock-up that the orange arrows on all the wheel textures are at the front of the car's direction of travel. This ensures all the wheels, whether on the port side or the starboard side, roll in the correct direction when the car is moving along the rails.

This is a track mock-up and not a duplicate of an actual track section. It would be highly unusual if the positioning of your wheels around the mock-up rails did not need further adjustment once you viewed your results in the game so do expect to update the positions of your wheels after you’ve Imported them.

Now we'll texture the car and then add the Bone Effects. The wheel effect marker grid ensures the wheelfl, wheelfr, wheelrl, and wheelrr Effect Bones are exactly where they should be in relation to the length of the car.

Select all of the wheels and group them into a single mesh. Put your texture, your external alpha, your ASE file, and your WagenDaten_ TXT file all in a single folder.

Now we're ready to open the Importer at which time you'd

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set up the car as an animated model,

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add your textures,

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set up your external alpha with the wheel texture,

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delete the ticks from the boxes at the mid right edge of the Edit Animated Model Settings dialog and then click on the A to add the Effect Bones,

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link your meshes with your textures.

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set up the wheels texture with these steps:

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flag the wheels texture as a Scrolling Sign,

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set the Texture Style to AlphaMaskLow,

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set the texture Faces to double-sided, and

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set the Normals to +Z.

If you flag as a scrolling sign first it's possible as the next step to set up the desired texture style while the mesh remains flagged as a scrolling sign.

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set up the LOD's,

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enter the name of your ASE file in the Name field,

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select the path to where you want the OVL saved,

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remove the Prefix,

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Import,

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Create your car OVLS with CTR Creator,

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Install your car OVL's in Cars>TrackedRideCars folder,

Next you need to create a BahnDaten_ TXT file to make a track on which to operate your car in the game. For ourselves we've decided to use Track11. If you prefer a different track

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select the track type you'd prefer to test with,

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complete a BahnDaten_ TXT file,

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Create your track OVLS with CTR Creator,

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Install your track OVL's in Tracks>TrackedRides

To see your wheels working in the game start building your track with the station and, without adding any lift chains or launch sections, add maybe twenty flat sections out of the station so the train moves slowly enough out of the station to give a good look at the wheels. While it's slowing down this will give a good amount of time in which to observe the wheel rotations. Depending on the track type and the results you want to achieve you may adjust the positions of one, two, or all three alpha stacks around the rail - they don't all need to be adjusted as a group. Do remember when adjusting the position of anything to do with your car in your modeler that the wheelfl, wheelfr, wheelrl, and wheelrr Effect Bones must remain on Z=0.

After confirming you've now got a set of working wheels that are all turning in the correct directions and that they're all in the correct positions around your track's rail you may return to your modeler and replace the example wheels texture with your own wheels texture.

Drag the above toggle to a

convenient place on your screen.