Alright it seems I'm going to HAVE to release this based on response! I'm really flattered and happy to hear that everyone's loving it! I am pouring my heart and soul into the development of it so it's nice to have it validated of course, who doesn't like being told nice things!?!? Hahaha. I'm excited to share some of the things I've been working on later tonight. The AI has been redone now, and they're driving far better than they were the last time - when they were driving far better than before that - thanks to using "stay in lane" and redoing the lanes wide, with less points, and "one way" set to on. My first AI paths were simple, spaced pretty well evenly along the lanes, about 4meters wide (average HWY lane is 3.7meters) and told the AI to follow that. They did, and crashed, because the points weren't placed in optimal spots -> They would brake too early, or too late, momentum would get messed up and certain cars hated it. So I redid it, this time by placing 0.1meter wide roads down following a racing line, then traced that line with some AI paths. They performed FAR better hitting every apex and it looked great. Trouble was, they never crashed or hit each other, and it was. . . boring. So after that I placed new paths again, but this time used "manual" AI mode and set them to go to a waypoint instead of CHASE which allows them to follow the paths much more carefully. Again, they drove well, but kinda boring. I'd have to bump their RISK factor up to 1.5+ but then they'd wipe out randomly. SO, finally . . redid all the paths, 5meters wide, spaced evenly, with brakes and throttle apexs taken into account, following the lanes on ai, and presto, I can run cars at 2.0 risk factor and they drive well, where before they couldn't even complete it at 1.0 risk factor while being boring. All in all, major impact on the level! Back to it. --- Post updated --- Doing some AI testing, and I keep getting some wicked scenes, I can't not record them right now but it's not TIME TO YET! I just uploaded this as a bitrate test for both encoding and youtube testing purposes. 4 Sunbursts doing their thang:
Ah man, after going around and tweaking all the terrain around rocks and such for the past almost 7 hours, I just noticed that my AI paths weren't saved!! I have AUTO SAVE ON, and... it didn't save that ENTIRE time!? Ah well. *le sigh.
Bemj, y u no sav. reep That sucks, but can't wait to race AI around that...atleast before my CPU races off to space in an explosion yes I will keep making jokes like this because I am a sad boy
Hahaha! Ya that's where my head is at right now. There WERE a few things I thought about redoing so if anything now I must =D
If we only had more modders on this forum with such enthusiasm & motivation as you have, there would be a lot more fine quality mods
So get this, while I was searching for, "Mediterranean Bush" I found some pretty cool things (among others, da haw haw) one of them being MAJORCA ISLAND. I think Spain copied my map! So I started looking around at Majorca, travel shots etc.. then I found the proof I needed, Spain DID COPY MY LEVEL! Is that a JOKE!? That's my Castle Run! Albeit no beachs or roads really, but. . that's kinda crazy! I don't know if I'm happy or sad about it, I was thinking Castle Run was all me and unique yadda yadda, then there's this freakin' island in the middle of nowhere and it has their own ORIGINAL Castle Run goin' hahaha Okay maybe mine is a little different, but still . . I can't get over this! Like even down to the damn boat! Sure I have a hell of a lot more TREES and less. . shrubbery (which is what got me looking in the first place!) but this is crazy
I'm quite certain that island near Spain was before, some millions of years, probably even castle precedes you by some hundred years, but it is cool consequence that you happen to design map that is close to real world spot, we can say your design is then quite realistic
Heheh yeah I dunno, I never saw it before I made the map, sooo... =D --- Post updated --- Maybe one day when I'm a billionaire I'll buy that area and make a real-life Castle Run! I just keep forgetting to win the lottery . . . --- Post updated --- Wow after finally remembering that Maya 2013 doesn't deal with heightmaps very well, I got displacement setup again annnnd blamo Maya hates this hatemap hahah! The resolution is 128x128 instead of 4096x4096 as it just kept crashing out instead of building it. EIther way, kinda neat to move around in my native 3D app, but the game sure as hell does a better job of making it look nice!! =D
I keep meaning to get pictures up, "a picture speaks 1000 words" well I just took this video instead, 1000's and 1000's of pictures combined, so that should do the job for now haha. Just a static camera, I didn't plan on making this a video until after I had it recorded so don't use this as any gauge to how I record things! =)
This is the video I've been waiting for! Astonishing attention to detail, it looks genuinely amazing! How much do you have left to do? It looks basically complete to me... And oh my god that reverb in the tunnels aaaaaaaahhh
Hey now! Glad to hear it! Today; I went around and fixed that ai pathing that I lost the other day. Built a bunch of normal and specular maps. Got ground models working for custom assets! Made a handful of cleanly looping ambient sounds. Rebuilt a few corners and added new guard rails and run offs (which the ai is very thankful for) Built a new lake! Recorded and edited test shots for a good four hours... So when I wake up again I'm getting right back into it as always, literally 14 hours a day and I keep busy! So I have no idea how much longer but lemme tell you, I wouldn't mind finishing any day now!! =D
On one hand, I'm happy for this map because it's awesome. On the other hand, I'm sad because it's awesome and I can't do anywhere as well
Aw man, dude I love your map! I've been building levels in games since the mid 90s (although I did take time away to adult because bills) so if anything I'm jealous of how well your doing on your first map here! (No idea your experience level though sorry to assume!)
I mean, thanks I guess. I'm kinda surprised myself how good some pieces look, but ehh. And you're right. First map that I didn't quit at day 6...still, I'm jealous either way.
Been digging into animating some lights and figured I'd get around to animating the arrow signs I've been wanting to get to. Animated the lights moving from behind the sign (inside the mesh) to infront and applied an emissive/glow effect to the texture. It worked better than I hoped! Something subtle, but that's where all the details like to hide!
Thanks man! The way I see it -> Everyone's seen crashes head on, tbones, rear ends, all in every slow motion possible way, but I want to show more "racing" with more than just the same old bollide wiping out into a tree, something more to SEE at the very least. Having more detail makes it so much easier for more creative camera angles let alone actual crashes =D The major issue I'm having though is that the guard rails wreck the AI. They touch them and get a slightly bent wheel, and refuse to drive afterwards, which REALLY messes things up. An otherwise perfectly fine car that simply needs 2° of steering correction, just gives up and drives 20km/hr for the rest of the map. Hopefully some ai tricks will come into play sooner than later from the devs.
I did read/hear that the devs are reworking the AI system..or that may just have been the new feature that came with 0.15. Maybe if you record a run with the AI recorder and save that in the map as an AI path?
