Track Builder

Hey guys. I've been working on improving the Track Builder, adding new features, to give you a powerful tool to create 3d Tracks. Here, I want to show you some new features.



More grid forms
Previously, the tracks were forced to be on a triangular/hexagonal grid, allowing only 60° turns. Now, you can also select a square grid for those familiar 90° turns and orthogonal roads. Additionally, you can create arbitrary curves where you specify the radius and angle. In the image below, you can see all three types of tracks.




Additional Border types and textures
Now it is possible to change the border of the track, selecting from a range of borders forms, as well as textures. The picture shows four border types: The regular border in blue, the bevel border in red, rail border in green and wall border in orange.



Parametrized borders
Some of those new borders can have different forms along the track, for example the height of a wall. The next image shows some varying heights.




Interpolations
Previously, the values for the height, bank and width of a track would be interpolated between two key values with the same interpolation function, to ensure a smooth and gradual change from one value to another. Now you can chose how to interpolate between the values.



Obstacles and Objects
Through the Editor, you can now place a variety of objects on the track. They can be moved, scaled and rotated. This way, you can place ramps to jump on, bumps to drive over, or rocks to evade.



Track Preview
Of course, we will provide you with a number of tracks. Here is a preview of two tracks which make heavy use of the wall and obstacle feature.


Bonus Video
Enjoy.

 

Yes, that is possible, but simply not implemented yet. (neither in the editor nor in the code that actually creates the mesh objects)

Yes, the art is The track is actually the "Rollercoaster" track which is in the current version of the game, though without the glowing. The first version of the style also had blue colors, but we changed it to BeamNG-Orange

Thanks! Yes, most of the more speed oriented tracks feel like Hotwheels. Though, if you touch any of the borders at high speed, the result will be much different than using a toy car...

Tracks can already be shared, though not through an in-game feature. Custom tracks are saved in under Documents/BeamNG.drive/TrackEditor. But because of all the new features, the format of the tracks has changed, so old tracks won't load in the new editor..

 

I really want to have something like this, but it will require some major changes in how the system works. Currently, the whole track is one "string" of pieces one after another, so the different modifiers like height, width and banking are more or less easy to interpolate. When you have forks, it won't be so easy . Also, generating these forks procedurally will be a challenge as well.
Though, you can have forks in the road already by using the empty-offset-piece, but it wont connect smooth to the track and is not really comfortable to use.

 

Unfortunately that's a bug and will be fixed soon.

 

Hello People,
Here's an update on what I'm currently working on for the Track Builder:

First thing is procedural obstacles. It means creating the meshes for the obstacles through code, so that you have finer control over how the obstacle should be shaped and textured. In the demo video below, you can see a few of the obstacles that are done yet: cube, ring, cylinder and cone. This can also be used to create finer controls over procedural ramps and the sorts.

Video - Click to Play - Direct Link

Bonus Video: Procedural Rings + Plane Mod Me262 (I am not a very good pilot)

Video - Click to Play - Direct Link

Second thing is multiple tracks and intersections. This means having multiple individual track sections that all belong to the same track, which was previously possible, but only in some hacky way by using the bezier piece with the "empty" option. This new feature allows you to create track sections that stay the way you left them - and create another track section somewhere else. Once you got all your sections made, you can connect them however you want. This also lets you create branching tracks, labyrinths, figure eight tracks and that sort of things. As a consequence, some parts of the editor need to be reworked, like the checkpoint system. Here are some pictures and a video of various intersections:

Video - Click to Play - Direct Link

See you next time!