Starting into the turn-around

I guess it's just a turn around if i'm making Dead Man's Run out of it, but i'm not. So it's really just a sharp turn that starts the track into Tornado Flats. :P

I would have gotten quite a bit further into this if my wife and i hadn't caught the worst stomach flu ever. I had something like this when i was a kid, but it was nowhere near as bad. The amount of time i can spend looking at a glowing computer screen has been minimal due to a non-stop headache and waves of exhaustion. I'm finally feeling a little better today, but the headache has just kicked into full gear and i've got to get away from this damn thing. In the meantime, here's what will soon get a terrain work-over and become the 'turn-around'.

Got it loaded in RBR

I figured out that custom tracks in Richard Burns Rally can only be played via the RX plugin. So if i go to Options/Plugins and select RBR_RX, i can load the track.

The down-side being - my car spawned under the track and i won the race the same time i started it. So there's some work to do.

I read elsewhere that people have to run their tracks through 3DS Max to get them properly working in RBR. Hopefully that isn't the case, but i don't really know. I suppose i'll be finding out someday soon.

Otherside

Instead of slowing down to detail stuff, i decided to push ahead with terrain and fences. I've now got the basics strung out to the beginning of the turn around and have managed to get in some good down-and-back runs over the past few hours. The gradual hill down to the turn around is a tough one to get feeling right and i think i'm just going to go with what i've got now. It's better than the first version of the track i did, at least.

Here's a screenshot that doesn't show much, but it's what i've been working on. This is on the far side of the bridge that heads toward the turn-around.

Built the bridge, did some other stuff...

Just finished building the bridge and sticking some trees around it. I also did a vanilla run of terrain down to the turn-around and then went back and capped some sidewalks in town. I need to do a couple hours of detailing between town and the bridge before it'll be done, but it's next on the list. After that, it's onward to the turn-around.

Some screenies:

Tried getting the track into Richard Burns Rally...

...and failed. It's obvious i'm going to have to do some reading and figuring-out before i can get it working in RBR. rFactor just ports right over and it's raceable, but RBR is another matter. I'm sure i'll figure it out, but it's currently a bit of a head-scratcher.

To the bridge!

Got power lines, guard rails and fences strung out to the bridge. I also spent some time tweaking some track nodes to get it all feeling right at a high rate of speed. I have an old memory of hitting a slight hill and then that last stretch of track before town in such a way that i would glide across the ground for 50 meters or so. I had it so the hill that sent me gliding back in the day was sending me flying over a fence in the new version. It's all nice and evened out now.  The glide has returned. :)

A bug in my face

Okay, so the last thing i did last night was export the track and race around a bit in rFactor, getting screenshots. This morning, when i fired up the track builder, a poll at the end of each section of fence i put in last night got turned into a light poll. It's weird as hell and i swear i didn't do a thing to it.

My guess is that it's a bug in the new SObjects (string objects) function in the track builder and some model IDs got mixed up, but who knows. All i know is, i'm going to abandon the SObject fences i've been using thus far and just use walls with textures for my fences. Frickin gremlins in the machine.