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INTRODUCTION
Simplified quick guide to create your own stages for Rally Trophy.
The example Max file has 1 base block and a section of a simple stage for example purposes. Please note that they�ve been huddled quickly together and feature all kinds of cool texturing bugs, so it�s advisable you do your own and not use this one to build your stages from if you wish to have perfect looking stages. Always remember to use vertex snap when modeling and UV mapping your blocks!
NOTE: To avoid too big downloads, we didn�t include textures for the car and skybox model in the package. However, you can extract all the textures you need from BZF files using BZF Manager. Alternatively, you can take a screengrab from the UVW mapping window in Max to get yourself a nice template to draw your textures on.
OVERVIEW OF THE TRACK CREATON PROCESS
Copy all the plugins to the plugins directory in your 3DS Max folder, such as C:3DSMAXPLUGINS and you're set.
Shaping the track:
- Combine a stretch of a road from different track blocks. One and a half kilometers is a good length.
- Name it as Track
- Next, draw a straight Line which is of equal length with the road section, and has control points every 50 - 100 meters. Too dense control points makes the shaping harder, and too low number of control points don�t give you much to shape.
- Move the pivot points of Line and track section to their very beginning (0m) and add the track objects (trees, buildings, roadsigns, whatever) as you wish
- Select the track section and choose Path Deform from the Modifier List menu. In Path Deform parameters choose the Line you created as Path and change axis to Y. After this you can shape the tracksection as you wish by twisting the Line up using control points.
Be careful with height adjustments as the track might tilt to a side in the curves.
- add startpoints (start -objects) and checkpoints (split -objects)
- Add sun (Sunlight) and calculate vertex shadows (Apply Vertex Shadows)
- Export stage stage?.bmf (track) and stage?C.bmf (track collision)
- Move the sun to the same spot in skydome scene as it�s in your track and export it as stage?sky.bmf (generic)
1. NAMING
To function in the game, track has to include properly named objects. Object names can affect their function in the game.
All names without quotation marks!
?? in object name means you can write your own naming here, such as tree01, tree02, tree_birch04, tree_small etc
�track� track mesh
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"split_00", "split_01", ... - checkpoints, split_00 is the first checkpoint after startbox, and split_09 marks finish
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"start" startpoint of the rally
"start1", ... "start6" 6 startpoints of the arcade stage
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Checkpoint checkpoint signs
sign_?? traffic signs, ?? is free i.e. you can write your own reminder names here (i.e. sign_stopsign1, sign_dontfeeddogs etc)
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"grass1_??" ja "grass2_??" bushes / grass
"littletree1_??" ja "littletree2_??" small trees
"tree??" trees
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Objektit sky sceness�
"sky" skybox
"sun" sun location
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1.1 Name parameters:
You can add different functions to the track objects by adding a certain number in front of the name.
You can combine 2 functions by adding the numbers together. For example, 003 is a sprite that doesn�t get grouped (001 + 002 = 003)
001... game doesn�t �group� the object into track block
002... sprite object, i.e. object faces the camera at all times (like audience, some trees etc)
004... high detail object that doesn�t get drawn if the game settings are not in high detail mode
008... reduced diffuse (some objects may appear too bright in the game, this reduces the brightness)
An example:
012grass1_grass-stumps Grass stumps that are fixed, won�t align themselves to the camera and appear in high detail mode only
2. TEXTURE MAPPING
Stage textures are mapped in 12 meter sections, which means 1 texture spreads over 12 x 12 meters in the game. There are few rules that reduces the CPU load, such as big, unified mappings in the scenery is better than separate textures sprinkled all over.
For example, road and the ground next to it would be ideally single and straight in the UV map and doesn�t get cut between each block, or in the worst case every 12 meters (see example block). Hence, it�s advisable to re-map the roadblocks after combined the blocks you want to shape the track. After shaping, mapping gets practically impossible.
3. EXPORTING
Track gets exported as 2 files. Other has all that�s visible to the player (stage1.bmf) and other has collision data (stage1c.bmf). There are few objects that must not be in both files such as splitpoints and traffic signs. See below.
3.1 Visible objects:
Objects that have to be visible but not in collision:
Time checkpoints (splitpoints), starting points (start), moving objects, turning objects (crowd)
3.2 BMF Exporter
Export:
Generic - skybox
Track Collision - collision data
Track - visible track
Prepocessing:
Vertex cache optimize - Optimization that should be used only in the final version as it can take a while to process this.
4. SUN AND VERTEX SHADOWS
Sunlight is brought into the scene for vertex shadows with Sunlight object.
Shadows are calculated using Bugbear�s Apply Vertex Shadows -plugin. To be on the safe side, you should add a white vertex color to the stage before applying new shadows.
You can adjust with Max�s own object properties panels which objects cast shadow and which don�t (for example, collision walls and splitpoints shouldn�t cast shadows).
Some of the objects can�t be calculated shadows this way, such as trees, bushes and audience. These objects get their vertex color from the ground surface beneath them with GrassTouch plugin.
 
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