Austin GP - new track

[Pax-raider]

I know there's some other things I could/should be working on, but I started messing with track layout & elevation for a new track. Anybody recognize it?

[Tomte]

Ermn, eh... isn't that.... well.... no....
I have the impression I know it... but then again, I have no idea...

[djpimley]

Ermn, eh... isn't that.... well.... no....
I have the impression I know it... but then again, I have no idea...

Ditto.

[Tomte]

Austin, Tx.

[Tuktuk]

Austin, Tx.

How did you find it?

Will the locals understand an auto race where cars turn left and right? - Haha

On this site they showed the area where the rack will be built:

I searched for it in Goolge Maps: http://maps.google.de/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=de&geocode=&q=Austin,+Texas,+Vereinigte+Staaten&sll=30.172437,-97.650604&sspn=0.382881,0.727158&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Austin,+Travis+County,+Texas,+Vereinigte+Staaten&ll=30.139041,-97.637386&spn=0.023938,0.045447&t=h&z=15

@Pax:

[Tomte]

well, I checked through most of the European circuits, because it didn't look American, but none of the tracks I thought it could be matched the picture...
The I saw that this is a counter clockwise track, and for whatever reason there seem to be less than clockwise tracks.
Armed with this, I seached Google Images for "counter clockwise circuit" and there it was....
Austin F1 circuit on Wikipedia

[Pax-raider]

Well done, some good detective work grasshopper...

It seemed an attractive one to do, because (if it actually gets built) its going to be a twisty circuit with 40m of elevation change. Another attractive feature was this image that Tilke released, giving me an excellent map of all those elevation changes. The huge and rapid 30m or so rise heading into a near 180 degree turn at the end of the start-finish straight looks like it will be a particularly interesting spot...

The trickiest thing will be that there'll be no onboard video to show me how the dips and turns actually work, so there's going to have to be some guesswork involved. Its also pretty likely that the layout will change by the time it gets constructed, but it gives me something to do in the little spare time I have these days.

[Tuktuk]

Another attractive feature was this image that Tilke released, giving me an excellent map of all those elevation changes. The huge and rapid 30m or so rise heading into a near 180 degree turn at the end of the start-finish straight looks like it will be a particularly interesting spot...

Looks like that:

[Pax-raider]

Has anybody paid for a membership on CGTextures? I just want to check that the 49 euro will get me all the "premium" content before I shell out the moolah...

[djpimley]

Sorry, I haven't used it in a while else I would have paid up. The membership info looks pretty straightforward, I see no reason to doubt you will get full access for your €49.

[Pax-raider]

Making slow progress on roadtyping (elevation and course layout is done). There are 20 labeled turns on Tilke's map, I started on the start-finish straight leading to T1, just finished T2 last night. Not burning the midnight oil like I used to, so this is going to take a while.

I did wonder about the approx 30m rapid rise into T1, and realized I could probably find the location in Google Earth to see what's there in real life. As he's done at other circuits, Tilke is using the natural topography -- T1 is close to the top of a hill that quickly rises from about 155m to 193m at that exact spot. Not a big surprise, but at least it confirms that the elevation map they released can be believed...

[Kenners]

Making slow progress on roadtyping (elevation and course layout is done). There are 20 labeled turns on Tilke's map, I started on the start-finish straight leading to T1, just finished T2 last night. Not burning the midnight oil like I used to, so this is going to take a while.

I did wonder about the approx 30m rapid rise into T1, and realized I could probably find the location in Google Earth to see what's there in real life. As he's done at other circuits, Tilke is using the natural topography -- T1 is close to the top of a hill that quickly rises from about 155m to 193m at that exact spot. Not a big surprise, but at least it confirms that the elevation map they released can be believed...

Are there topographical maps available in the UK/Europe, like the USGS maps we have in the US? That's a great way to get your terrain modeled... If you haven't looked for them for the area where the track is, I'd encourage you to do so..

K

[djpimley]

Are there topographical maps available in the UK/Europe, like the USGS maps we have in the US?

Austin and Pax are both in the U.S.

[Kenners]

Are there topographical maps available in the UK/Europe, like the USGS maps we have in the US?

Austin and Pax are both in the U.S.

I knew that.. Just thought Pax was native Englishman & might not know... Are there such things (topo maps) available over there?

K

[Tuktuk]

I have a nice iPad app called Topo Maps. With this amazing, phenomenal and awesome app you can download topographic maps from the whole US and Canada for free.

Here is an example of this area (I hope the right one) of this track (here the scale is 1:24000). But I am not sure if this scale is detailed enough. (low quality here because of resizing)

[Pax-raider]

Yes, native Brit , but within a year of spending half my life on the other side of the Atlantic...

Looks like you found the right spot Tuk, thanks. If I can get hold of a higher res image it would be great, although I'm not hugely concerned about matching the real scenery precisely because this is still an imaginery track, and I don't have the energy any more to worry about that level of realism...

[djpimley]

Are there such things (topo maps) available over there?

We have the venerable Ordnance Survey. You can always trust an Englishman to document everything to the nth degree

[Pax-raider]

Here is an example of this area

Got it, thanks Tuk.

Can I have the iPad as well?

[Tuktuk]

I just saw these kind of maps or also available via the web in better quality, e.g. here:

http://www.digital-topo-maps.com/

Maybe there are better scaled maps (1:10000 or so) online too ...

[Pax-raider]

Just a quick update, just reached the far turn, turn 11 of 20, and almost exactly half way in terms of meters roadtyped. Hoping for some kind of alpha for MP testing before the end of the month.

[Pax-raider]

Another quick update, finished a first pass at roadtyping, but I need to go over it some more before putting something out: too much gravel in the runoffs and some rising/dropping turns need vertices for smoothing. To do after that -- some yard markers, a few trees to help with differentiating the turns, a sky and a splash-screen. Planning to wait until the GT4 tourney is over for a first release. My impression is that people's macs are now so fast that even tracks without modeling give playable FPS even in MP, so I want this to be reasonably well polished before putting it out there. I do think you're going to like this one...

[DonaemouS]

ummh I think I see this track in GT5...

[Pax-raider]

Got bored of roadtype fiddling and decided to relearn modeling in Blender. Fortunately for me, somebody wrote down how to do it all in the RL wikispace, so it wasn't too bad.

So, here is the first model for Austin. Haven't made a pit box before, it will spiffy-up the start-finish straight nicely.



What might be fun is if anyone else wants to make their own skin... I reckon I can manage about ten more (I want to do one in the now-classic tie-dye Pax-raider colours, so that'll make a round dozen), so speak now if you fancy a shot at it, and download one of the skin files here:

flat jpeg format
layered PS4 format

Just make your skin, send me the file and I'll generate the model.

For those who know what to do with it, here's the model as a wavefront file:
pit box obj file

[Pax-raider]

Well, I guess that didn't generate much excitement...

[djpimley]

Well, it's a pit box, mate. It's not very sexy, is it?

Wait a while though, it's close to Christmas and many people are busy but I'm sure somebody will have a bored moment in the coming weeks. Nice model, btw. Low poly but very effective.

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