Race Track Builder News

1.6.3.0 is now out of Beta testing. Restart Steam and Enjoy! Thanks again to all those that help test the many beta versions.

Many hours have gone into this to provide an interface that allows plugin for the height and image data. Image plugin is threaded so you can begin working on the tracks before the terrain has completed getting the image data.

Bezier curves give you more control over the track curve.

New Track Import function takes the old BTB concept and adds smarts to break up track into smaller pieces and smartly places nodes and control points to better represent the track.

A few bugs fixed and some minor enhancements made.

And the next release after this is not too far away. :)

Finally the feature 2 people have been waiting 4 years for.

Import tracks from kml/kmz files (produced using Google Earth) or from data stored in CSV (Comma Separated Values) files. This allows coordinates in Longitude/Latitude optionally with Height captured via GPS device to be loaded into Race Track Builder.

But it’s better than the old BTB import. With the Google API enabled, the tracks are automatically given height information. For performance reasons, the Tracks are also automatically split into many smaller tracks and seamlessly joined.

See Support\GPS\ folder for examples.

Video tutorial coming soon.

This is currently only in Beta version and the Beta version is still Beta because I’m not getting enough/any feedback to indicate it’s working. There’s been a few minor fixes too so I expect it’s more stable than the main release. I’d be delighted if more people responded to say that it’s working, or report any bugs. Once I am confident that the Beta is working well we’ll release this too all.

Please give feedback. Please.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/388980/discussions/0/1639789306539445143/

The next version of RTB is still in development. This version is mostly around separating the Google Maps and Height functions into two plugins that can be swapped out for other plugins. This will enable us to move away from using Google and those clever enough will be able to develop their own plugins to use with RTB. Height Maps and Laser Data anyone? 😊

Another related improvement I have made is the ability to load the Google image on a background thread, so you can start working on the laying out of the track, walls, objects whilst it gathers all the images. This also lays the foundation for adding more than one Google image to your project – something I’ll add in a future release.

As usual I have underestimated how much work has been required to extract these functions into plugins and then change the RTB interface to support. I also over-estimated how much spare time I have so things are taking longer than expected (or as expected if you know me well enough).

The result will be worth it though I am sure. Once done with this (dare I mention it) I’ll start to work on adding the long-desired Bezier Spline with control points that some people can’t live without. 😊

Fixed Bug : FBX failed to initialise when people had interesting names with funky characters in them.

- Added: Terrain point Edit tool.
- Added: Context menu to Fetch Points from Google again (if they were manually moved).
- Added: Hide Tracks checkbox on main toolbox.
- Added: Context menu to Delete Track/Wall Shape/Points.
- Added: Context menu to Smooth selected Track Nodes.
- Added: Hold D when lassoing Nodes in Tracks/Walls to deselect.
- Added: Hold D when lassoing Points in Tracks/Walls cross-sections to deselect.
- Added: Terrain "Lock Track Nodes" will keep Track Nodes in fixed position whilst raising/lowering/flattening points.
- Added: Backups of the Venue.bin file are created in the "[YourProject]\backups\" folder when saving. See Options for Backup Count.
- Improved: Interface no longer prevents user interaction (momentarily freezes) whilst flagging grounded objects.
- Improved: Flagging end node of a joined track as Grounded will also flag the other node of the joined track.
- Improved: Walls are flaged for calculation less often (more efficiently).
- Improved: String Objects that are Grounded and Tilted use faster hit-test.
- Improved: Google Fetches height data, then updates in larger batches to avoid triggering the recalculation too often.
- Fixed: Rendering of non-AC Terrain when Target set to AC would cause some rendering artifacts.
- Fixed: Couldn't open any Venue after attempting to open one with a missing texture.
- Fixed: Grounding Node for String Objects and Walls wouldn't take effect until next calculate.
- Fixed: Prevent project from being create with non-ascii characters in the path. Autodesk FBX SDK can't handle them.
- Fixed: Terrain wireframe not rendering at some angles on high areas.
- Fixed: Setting Wall LOD Out value not working.
- Fixed: Allow Venue to load when String Object is missing.
- Fixed: Straight Wall with multiple Surfaces not calculating correctly.
- Fixed: Rotate Wall Material not working when selection performed in particular order.
- Other: Updated FBX library to latest version from Autodesk in hope it would fix non-ascii character issue - it didn't.