Race Track Builder News

Latest release has a bugfix for this problem that only occurred for some users. There are some minor improvements, but nothing radical.

I forgot to make a news announcement for the previous large release. That was Walls. See the video for how that works ...

https://youtu.be/Cssrqpmzx_Y

There are several things I have planned for future releases, although progress on these have been slow. Family commitments, a new job (with long hours and longer commute) have seen my spare time plummet. Programming on a bouncing bus is difficult! So the speed of new releases will be slower, however development has not stopped (as I see some people suggest).

As usual, please use the forums and help each other out with questions. Collectively there are many more people out there with far greater knowledge than just me. ;)

https://www.facebook.com/racetrackbuilder/photos/a.837096909692510.1073741828.806911602711041/1211886562213541/?type=3&theater


Good news! Despite my own advice, I’ve gone ahead and added End Caps to the walls. The old BTB method of clamping down one end using shapes felt out of place in RTB. There’s still more work for me to do before this gets released as the caps add further complexity to the editing of walls and XPacker requires further updates to allow the design of End Caps.

Invisible wall creation has also been added so you can make simpler collision objects for keeping cars from straying from the road. The plan is to eventually extend this feature so String Objects, and even other walls, can auto-generate their own simplified, invisible collision walls – but that will be for a later release.

Hoping to probably maybe possibly be a few weeks away from finishing this release, as there is still much more code to write and bugs to squish.

Introducing a new tool called Workshop Uploader - allowing you to share any XPacks that you have created with other RTB users.



Two things need to be prepared in order for you to upload an XPack. A small jpeg image file that will used as a thumbnail/screenshot in the workshop, and the XPack itself. The Workshop uploads an entire folder so it's important that the XPack exist in it's own folder with no other files, not even the thumbnail.

Uploading is a two step process. After starting the Workshop Uploaded (from within Steam):

1. Create New Item - This creates a new empty placeholder for your Workshop Item. When running for the first time you will be required to accept Steam's Workshop Legal Agreement.
   
2. Update Item - This is the actual uploading part. Set the Title, Description, Visibilty, Tags (to help people search and find your XPack), the Folder (containing just the XPack) and the Image path, then click Update Item. This will load the contents of your Folder to Steam.
   

You can run the Update Item process many times for the same XPack, thus providing updates to your fans/subscribers as you develop more content.



All shared content will be available for others to download. This content will appear in the Workshop ... http://steamcommunity.com/app/388980/workshop/

Simply click the Subscribe button for Items that you want to download. Steam will automatically do this for you.

Restart RTB and items that have been downloaded will then become available.

A few people will have noticed a few minor updates fixing a few minor bugs. Phew! Thanks to those giving great descriptions of the bugs, makes finding and fixing much easier.

XPacks have recently been getting a bit of attention in order to support collisions, moveable objects and driveable surfaces. I’ll do a tutorial video that explains how this all hangs together in a Complex object, but the smart cookies will probably have examined the Stunts XPack and figured it out already.

XPacker is now a very capable tool, but there’s still relatively very little XPack content to be found. RTB XPacks are scarce and although some people have privately converted older BTB ones, this hasn’t resulted in a resource that is easily accessible. Google just doesn’t cut it.

Thankfully there’s a feature in Steam that supports the sharing of User Generated Content. Steam’s Workshop allows people to upload “game’ content into the Workshop where others can then “Subscribe”; Steam the downloads the resources automatically.

In RTB, users could use the Workshop to upload XPacks they have produced so that other RTB users can enjoy their work. There’s even the ability for authors to earn money for their content should they like to explore that avenue. I’m in the early stages of understanding how best to utilise the Workshop and am producing a tool that will assist in the process of uploading XPack content.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts and experiences about Steam’s Workshop.

- Added: Material property AC_GameSurface now determines driveable surface type when exported.
- String Objects can now also be made Driveable so kerbs will act like kerbs.
- Improved: Minor updates to XPacker and Materials Editor.