Tracks L.A Canyons

[Phoenix77]

Download L.A. Canyons (0.3)
Fastest Lap: 9:39.5 by [B]Gary J Paterson[/B] using the Formula Hybrid 2017

L.A Canyons is going to be a 25 - 30km (EDIT it's a 42.5km) circuit... using real elevation data... and is a set of real roads winding through the San Gabriel mountains near Los Angeles, California

These roads have an amazing flow, similar to my Pacific Coast track (except this is a circuit)... But without the ocean to fall into... And with a tunnel... And a few bridges crossing a ravine or two

 

[Phoenix77]

To give you an idea of the kind of road this will be...

I saw a few minutes of this video and thought
**** yeah I'm doing that road lol

 

[Phoenix77]

Things are getting more arid looking... I will be using this track for testing terrain textures for Pacific Coast... without the risk of messing something up

 

[Phoenix77]

I think the arid textures are starting to work now If you look closely you can see the path the road will take...

 

[Phoenix77]

I slightly under estimated the track length... After putting in a driveable road... It works out to be 42.5 km (26.4 miles)

If you want to compare it to the real road... This is a link to it on Google Maps.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@34.2908286,-118.1011788,10360m/data=!3m1!1e3

 

[Phoenix77]

 

[AccAkut]

These are the roads most of Matt Farrah's "The Smoking Tire" videos are taken, right?

 

[Phoenix77]

These are the roads most of Matt Farrah's "The Smoking Tire" videos are taken, right?

Nice video... Yeah mate.. They're exactly the roads in the 488 GTB video though... Otherwise known as Angeles Forest... The exact roads I'm doing are...
Clockwise Layout.
Angeles Crest Highway... into Angeles Forest Highway... into Forest Service Road FH59.. Back on to the Angeles Forest Highway... a right turn into Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road (you need some big Tujungas for this road lol)...
then back on to the Angeles Crest Highway to complete a 42km lap...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@34.2908286,-118.1011788,10360m/data=!3m1!1e3

For now I'm putting the pits / start here

 

[Phoenix77]

9:00AM In the Canyons... With a working ghost car... I managed to do a cautious 15:26.830 lap

It's extremely dangerous atm with no barriers... But what a road!!!!!
I might have to upload this quite soon... Seriously fast road... with plenty of places to do some high speed drifts

 

[Phoenix77]

Finally managed to get a reasonable AI line recorded... They don't seem to mind driving on the edge

F1 Cars can make the 42km lap in around 11 minutes...

 

[ALB123]

Sweet...I love these types of roads in Assetto Corsa. Man, I miss driving roads like this in southern California. Whether driving through the middle of nowhere, the high desert or even the low desert, there are so many good driver's roads. It will be interesting to see what direction you take this thing.

 

[Phoenix77]

Sweet...I love these types of roads in Assetto Corsa. Man, I miss driving roads like this in southern California. Whether driving through the middle of nowhere, the high desert or even the low desert, there are so many good driver's roads. It will be interesting to see what direction you take this thing.

This was originally a texture test thing for Pacific Coast... It still is.. as the landscape on PC needs a good look at... But it's quickly becoming a Californian Nordschleife IMO... Only twice as long... and mountainous... and with a tunnel etc lol

I bet you must miss driving roads like these... They're awesome... Whoever's responsible for these roads in real life should get some kind of award. And whoever did the research for Top Gear, when they were looking for the best roads in the world... Probably needs to be sacked for not spotting some of these roads! lol

Textures and techniques I learn on this track will be transfered to PC...
I just created this track to have a clean slate (and also remove the risk of messing something up with PC)
Also my work flow with PC has been a bit messy with different file versions all over the place where I tried to get things working (as it was my 1st track)
The work on L.A Canyons has been much smoother as I know much much more, and I also have a much better idea how Max works now

 

[Phoenix77]

Having a play about with the road surface...

 

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Dude this is something! I always watch Farrah's stuff and enjoy the road and surroundings but never thought that someone would actually build it for the virtual world. What a treat! By all means abuse your texture test area as an AC Smoking Tire Loop!!! Will drive the **** outta this track...

You plan on adding some vegetation and objects next to the road? Would add a ton of immersion. I can only imagine how epic this would be with a sundown skyfix.

Thanks a bunch for taking on these roads out in Cali which without a doubt must be some of the best driving roads in the world!

 

[Phoenix77]

Dude this is something! I always watch Farrah's stuff and enjoy the road and surroundings but never thought that someone would actually build it for the virtual world. What a treat! By all means abuse your texture test area as an AC Smoking Tire Loop!!! Will drive the **** outta this track...

Glad you're liking the idea of having this in AC... I saw Matts 488 GTB video and thought WOW!!! Now that's a road... And after getting this driveable... I can confirm it is an amazing road... Upper Big T is a really high speed section that I can just picture people racing down in the Super/Hyper cars... It's almost flat out... even though there are some long sweeping corners to it. It will take some time to get the bankings right... And I will probably have to leave the barriers until I get the spline curves right, but if I can do a 15 minute lap with no barriers I'm sure others will be able to... It really helps having AI / Ghost car working

You plan on adding some vegetation and objects next to the road? Would add a ton of immersion. I can only imagine how epic this would be with a sundown skyfix.

I do plan on adding vegetation / objects... But due to the Massive landscape mesh (loads of polys) and my present lack of optimisation skills... This is a concern for a bit later down the line (think I've learnt a few things already though). Crash barriers are high above the vegetation in the priority list! I will probably use Pacific Coast as a vegetation tester for this track... So hopefully each track will help the other track out in different ways.

Thanks a bunch for taking on these roads out in Cali which without a doubt must be some of the best driving roads in the world!

No worries mate, this has to be done Even if I am still a bit of a track making newb... Some of the roads featured in Motor Trend's videos also need to be done... But I'm not sure where they are. Matt Farah kindly mentioned Angeles Forest... So I had to do it Whoever planned these road routes... should be making race tracks... They're ****ing amazing!

 

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

I'm currently on a 3D project for a flight sim building an entire aircraft from scratch so I'm happy when I can make some time for that and have no extra time whatever for anything AC related. I must say though seeing your project(s) and some others (like the D ring and also some car projects like the Focus) makes me want to carve out some time for assisting on some projects or starting my own. I been dreaming of building an older Alpina BMW (like E24 or E12) but like I said I just don't have the time. Looks like I gotta finish my Tomcat soon enough so I can get into some (hopefully a bit less complex) car and track work.

I agree those canyon roads are just awesome. It could eventually end up in downtown LA in order to recreate a 'midnigh rambler' Magnus Walker vintage 911 style drive. That'd be motor heaven given the deep history of motoring culture in Southern California.

Good luck on further progress! Would be glad to beta test .

 

[aphidgod]

Port that F14 to AC, I say.

 

[Phoenix77]

I'm currently on a 3D project for a flight sim building an entire aircraft from scratch so I'm happy when I can make some time for that and have no extra time whatever for anything AC related. I must say though seeing your project(s) and some others (like the D ring and also some car projects like the Focus) makes me want to carve out some time for assisting on some projects or starting my own. I been dreaming of building an older Alpina BMW (like E24 or E12) but like I said I just don't have the time. Looks like I gotta finish my Tomcat soon enough so I can get into some (hopefully a bit less complex) car and track work.

I agree with @aphidgod lol There will soon be some canyons to fly it through
It's great to be creative... That sounds like a seriously cool project mate... Good luck with it Got to love the F14. I totally know what you mean about carving out some time... I've been lucky over the last week to get some free time to have a look into some things...

I agree those canyon roads are just awesome. It could eventually end up in downtown LA in order to recreate a 'midnigh rambler' Magnus Walker vintage 911 style drive. That'd be motor heaven given the deep history of motoring culture in Southern California.

Good luck on further progress! Would be glad to beta test .

I don't think I'd have the polys spare to model downtown L.A otherwise that would sound like a plan lol

Cheers mate... Shouldn't be too long and I will be releasing an early version on here... Just need to model a tunnel and do a quick camset
It's already pretty fun, have just used an Aston round here to test out some terrain shader settings using a normal map... which gives the terrain a right kick up the....

 

[stingray_SIX_TWO]

Some more motivation...note the rails as I'm sure you have already. Rails and vegetation will do magic for the sensation of speed. Farrah also talks alot about the roads 'big tahunga' or whatever its called. From the turn around at 5:50 onwards...

We'll have to add a custom camera call it the 'One Take GoPro Roof cam'

 

[Phoenix77]

Nice video, I didn't recognise Upper Big Tujunga... Until he turned around.
He's using the reverse layout that I haven't done yet lol

I love the way on this road where you come round a sweeper and see the road open out into a reasonably long straight.... Which although long... is effectively shortened when you're travelling along it at 180mph

I agree, the barriers and vegetation will do a lot for the sensation of speed...
It's already pretty surprising just how much the sensation of speed has gone up since I've started using a terrain shader with a normal (bump) map.

I won't be putting the barriers in until I get road position 95% bang on...
Otherwise I will be continually tweaking the spline objects over and over.
The roads X and Y position is already pretty much there... But the road elevation and bankings will be getting a good looking at as I go along. I've managed to get round in 14 minutes now (in the Aston) to test the flow and it's pretty much there apart from a few bumps where the road mesh has got slightly folded up.