Track editing progress notes

[CowtownBob]

Very good!
Just a thought: if at some point you could add the ability to do non-flat rooflines - gable, mansard, etc. Would be nice but not necessary.

[checkpoint10]

That would definitely open things up to cover most buildings.

By the way, I think @boblogsan already has a suite of tools to convert from Blender to 3DO - https://icr2noorok.tumblr.com/

I believe it is a Blender plug-in, and I suspect this is the best way to create 3D objects for the game. Unfortunately I would have to learn Blender which has its own learning curve. I hope others who know Blender already (or willing to learn) can take a look at this.

[checkpoint10]

Question for the experts: I have a large building a couple city blocks from the track that I would like to be visible from a long distance. Right now it is pops into view halfway down the front straightaway which feels distracting. I am hoping there is a way to adjust this, and I was thinking about Cleveland where the large skyscraper seems visible from far away. Moving the building closer to the track somewhat fixes the issue but not ideal if I want to make the placement more realistic.

This is the .3D code that I made for this building.

3D VERSION 3.0;
% USER DEFINED POINTS
% FLOOR
point1: [< -737494, 421425, 0>];
point2: [< -748030, -15803, 0>];
point3: [< 748030, 21071, 0>];
point4: [< 742762, 453032, 0>];
% ROOF
point5: [< -737494, 421425, 1633855>];
point6: [< -748030, -15803, 1633855>];
point7: [< 748030, 21071, 1633855>];
point8: [< 742762, 453032, 1633855>];
% POLYGONS
roof: POLY <47> {point5, point6, point7, point8};
side1: POLY <45> {point1, point2, point6, point5};
side2: POLY < 46> {point2, point3, point7, point6};
side3: POLY <45> {point3, point4, point8, point7};
side4: POLY < 46> {point4, point1, point5, point8};
% BSP TREE
nil: NIL;
_roof: BSPF (point5, point6, point7), nil, roof, nil;
_side1: BSPF (point1, point2, point6), nil, side1, _roof;
_side2: BSPF (point2, point3, point7), nil, side2, _side1;
_side3: BSPF (point3, point4, point8), nil, side3, _side2;
_side4: BSPF (point4, point1, point5), nil, side4, _side3;

[checkpoint10]

I believe I can answer my own question. The key is to add the object to the ObjectList lines for more track sections in the track.3d file:

ObjectList_R2_1: LIST {__TSO41, __TSO40, __TSO25, __TSO26, __TSO2, __TSO38};

The Holiday Inn hotel is TSO41 and TSO40. So I just added them to the couple of track sections before where OPE had automatically placed them in. Also, I found that the order matters - I had some trouble with the farther building bleeding into the closer building, this seemed to be fixed by reordering the ObjectList - for example putting the hotel at the beginning of the list ensures that they are drawn first.

[checkpoint10]

Made four hotels so far. From left to right in the illustration: Holiday Inn, Imperial Palace, Flamingo and Caesars Palace.

I have a feeling that the 3DO is not meant to have polygons with above 5 vertices. Strange things happen to the roof polygons for the more complex buildings. But they load in game fine and the roofs are not visible.

[samsepi0l]

Made four hotels so far. From left to right in the illustration: Holiday Inn, Imperial Palace, Flamingo and Caesars Palace.
.

I hope you have a permit to do so much construction ????

[checkpoint10]

I think I may have found the problem causing the game to crash at the start of the race. In CAESARS.TXT there are a few parameters that were not updated. Please try with the following values:

PIT -176000 25000000 33299373 32339373 -440000 -668000 500000 24 32099373 32299373 100
PACEA 2 38500000 45000 -45000 0
GFLAG 30000000

I think the previous values exceeded the track length and causes the issue on starting a race. With the above values I can actually start the race now even though the pace car behaves strangely at the end of the pace lap; however if you had recorded better AI for it, maybe that will address it.

Attaching the TXT file as well.

[Pavel 69]

I believe I can answer my own question. The key is to add the object to the ObjectList lines for more track sections in the track.3d file:

ObjectList_R2_1: LIST {__TSO41, __TSO40, __TSO25, __TSO26, __TSO2, __TSO38};

The Holiday Inn hotel is TSO41 and TSO40. So I just added them to the couple of track sections before where OPE had automatically placed them in. Also, I found that the order matters - I had some trouble with the farther building bleeding into the closer building, this seemed to be fixed by reordering the ObjectList - for example putting the hotel at the beginning of the list ensures that they are drawn first.

Yes you can manually add objects to this list. I do it that way. You also can use variose tree functins from 3D object creation to solve some drawing isuues (BSPF, BSPN and others).
Objects order in the list metters. First object in the list - farthers object, last object - closest when you drive in normal direction. When you drive backward opposit is true. Also if the object is presented also in next track section it will aways be farthers for objects in previouse section (no matter where it placed in list in previouse section).

---

Made four hotels so far. From left to right in the illustration: Holiday Inn, Imperial Palace, Flamingo and Caesars Palace.

I have a feeling that the 3DO is not meant to have polygons with above 5 vertices. Strange things happen to the roof polygons for the more complex buildings. But they load in game fine and the roofs are not visible.

Can you post 3D file for this building. I've made polygons with more vertices, is not a problem for the game if the lie in same plane.

[checkpoint10]

Here is an example of an L-shaped building where I have sides with 4 vertices each, but a roof with many vertices. I post the code below and screenshots of what it looks like in OPE and 3DOEd.

3D VERSION 3.0;
% USER DEFINED POINTS
% FLOOR
point1: [< -639762, -588766, 0>];
point2: [< -190074, -588766, 0>];
point3: [< -162258, 157622, 0>];
point4: [< 630490, 101991, 0>];
point5: [< 639762, 593402, 0>];
point6: [< -625854, 621218, 0>];
% ROOF
point7: [< -639762, -588766, 1338580>];
point8: [< -190074, -588766, 1338580>];
point9: [< -162258, 157622, 1338580>];
point10: [< 630490, 101991, 1338580>];
point11: [< 639762, 593402, 1338580>];
point12: [< -625854, 621218, 1338580>];
% POLYGONS
roof: POLY <47> {point7, point8, point9, point10, point11, point12};
side1: POLY <149> {point1, point2, point8, point7};
side2: POLY <148> {point2, point3, point9, point8};
side3: POLY <149> {point3, point4, point10, point9};
side4: POLY <148> {point4, point5, point11, point10};
side5: POLY <149> {point5, point6, point12, point11};
side6: POLY <148> {point6, point1, point7, point12};
% BSP TREE
nil: NIL;
_roof: BSPF (point7, point8, point9), nil, roof, nil;
_side1: BSPF (point1, point2, point8), nil, side1, _roof;
_side2: BSPF (point2, point3, point9), nil, side2, _side1;
_side3: BSPF (point3, point4, point10), nil, side3, _side2;
_side4: BSPF (point4, point5, point11), nil, side4, _side3;
_side5: BSPF (point5, point6, point12), nil, side5, _side4;
_side6: BSPF (point6, point1, point7), nil, side6, _side5;

[checkpoint10]

Something fun I made in Notepad! The one thing surprising on this one is that the BSPF point references needed to be reversed for the 2 right columns compared to the 2 left. Not entirely sure why that is because they are otherwise the same object which I just copied over 3 times. Anyway, it worked!!

Other thing I learned while writing the .3D file is that you can name your points and polygons anything, and be strategic about it. I named the points for the columns in such a way that I only had to add a prefix to all the names each time I duplicated it.