Tracks Some advices for creating trees for Assetto Corsa mod track?

[ChicAnne]

Hey guys! I'm creating a 21km hill climb stage above Zagreb, Croatia called Medvednica (Sljeme) and I really need your help. I came a long way considering I had zero knowledge in 3D programs. If you wish you can check my progress on my Youtube channel which I'll link beneath this post. All I really want is to create a great stage and share it for free with all of you wacky racers. I did get a lot of help from my friends who showed me how to use Sketchup and some of Blender but now we are stuck. I see new mod tracks every day with their own tree types and I want to create some trees for my track. How do you create a double sided texture or material? How do you create something called an X-tree or a Y-tree? Please, any advice or a good link will help. Even better, if someone is willing to share some trees with me, that would be perfect. Although, I would prefer making my own and learning the skill. Thank you so much in advance!

My Youtube channel:

ChicAnne

Hi, I am Anne! Welcome to my channel. I'm here to have fun and become a better SIM racer. My favorite sims are Assetto Corsa, Assetto Corsa Competizione, Pro...

www.youtube.com

 

[AccAkut]

TOOL - Trackbuilding resources list

This is intended to be a evolving collection, of links to usefull information, for new and experienced trackbuilders. Updated 28/3-2016 All in links...

assettocorsamods.net

is a good start for everything. For your trees, AC does not use double sided materials, you simple mirror a plane to have it visible from both sides

 

[ChicAnne]

Thanks a lot, I did reply earlier to your post and I thank you a lot but i had to edit my reply in the end. The thing is, I've read this massive post or a collection more than once, before starting my project. I just forgot about it. For someone just entering the world of 3D modeling, it's way too much, I mean my stage is almost complete and I still don't understand 75% of the terms used. The free collection of trees in that one post is great and yes, I will use this. This will help a lot.

The biggest problem for me is to find a tutorial. I mean, if I tipe X-tree tutorial I will get only christmas trees. If I search mirroring faces, I only get how to create mirror effect in Sketch-up or Blender. Almost every other thing I got sorted out; AI lanes, lights, objects, string objects, grassFX, etc.

My question still remains. How does one create an X tree from a texture from a site like this?

Meye

Meye is a collection of free cut out PNG trees from all four seasons by landscape architect and photographer Mikkel Eye.

meye.dk

 

[Ben Lee]

Thanks a lot, I did reply earlier to your post and I thank you a lot but i had to edit my reply in the end. The thing is, I've read this massive post or a collection more than once, before starting my project. I just forgot about it. For someone just entering the world of 3D modeling, it's way too much, I mean my stage is almost complete and I still don't understand 75% of the terms used. The free collection of trees in that one post is great and yes, I will use this. This will help a lot.

The biggest problem for me is to find a tutorial. I mean, if I tipe X-tree tutorial I will get only christmas trees. If I search mirroring faces, I only get how to create mirror effect in Sketch-up or Blender. Almost every other thing I got sorted out; AI lanes, lights, objects, string objects, grassFX, etc.

My question still remains. How does one create an X tree from a texture from a site like this?

Meye

Meye is a collection of free cut out PNG trees from all four seasons by landscape architect and photographer Mikkel Eye.

meye.dk

I think you would need to create an alpha channel and then save as a DDS, DXT5.

 

[ChicAnne]

Thanks Ben! I did manage to install Nvidia's patch or something for exporting DDS textures out of Photoshop. It is working. I would really like to create the trees in Sketchup, but I think that won't happen. Blender is my best option. Or am I wrong?

 

[AccAkut]

Thanks Ben! I did manage to install Nvidia's patch or something for exporting DDS textures out of Photoshop. It is working. I would really like to create the trees in Sketchup, but I think that won't happen. Blender is my best option. Or am I wrong?

Sketchup is never a good option for track creation, its a CAD tool which's output mesh is very unoptimised for use in game engines.

Trees are very easy to make, but need some baseline understanding in Blender modelling

https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/proper-technique-in-track-making-plus-tips.27180/page-2#post-610794

 

[ChicAnne]

Sketchup is never a good option for track creation, its a CAD tool which's output mesh is very unoptimised for use in game engines.

Trees are very easy to make, but need some baseline understanding in Blender modelling

https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/proper-technique-in-track-making-plus-tips.27180/page-2#post-610794

Yes, I understand that Sketchup is not ideal or even good for making game levels or tracks, but for making my dream come true, it works. As an object creating tool, it just works. I see no glitches, I see no FPS drops, so I'll keep on using it until I learn Blender some more. Thank you for the proper technique link in creating trees. Now I have some more clues what to do next.

 

[NightEye87]

Sketchup is never a good option for track creation, its a CAD tool which's output mesh is very unoptimised for use in game engines.

That greatly depends on how you use SketchUp. If you're using it as CAD user, you're absolutely right. If you're using it with game models in mind, it's absolutely fine. Texturing wise SU isn't great for game models in any way, but the models itself are fine. I've done 90% of my buildings in SketchUp.

 

[AccAkut]

That greatly depends on how you use SketchUp. If you're using it as CAD user, you're absolutely right. If you're using it with game models in mind, it's absolutely fine. Texturing wise SU isn't great for game models in any way, but the models itself are fine. I've done 90% of my buildings in SketchUp.

oh thats surprising. I've not used it myself in many many years, but worked on/tried to fix some tracks made primarily with Sketchup and RTB, which were in every way catastrophic (separate materials for every object, buldings which were made up of hundreds of subobjects (down to doorhandles), 50000 tris trash bins etc).
Like does Sketchup have a UV editor?

 

[ChicAnne]

And yes, this is the problem of 3D modelers and people alike these days in a nutshell. I've read a lot over the past 8 months or so on forums and similar pages and the story is always the same. I've checked RTB's Steam community and watched a ton of Youtube videos to see people fighting over not so much important details instead of sharing knowledge. I will repeat, I don't have the skills in these types of programs and all I need is a simple simple tree for RTB to be able to create my own trees. All these "helpful" links people have given don't include a thing about creating your cardboard tree, X-tree or Y-tree but they do cover a lot on the tree's final design, how their shadows work, etc. The process of creating one, not so much.

If you don't have the knowledge, I think Sketchup is a great program to go to if you want to create simple objects for RTB's Xpacker. It's not ideal from a game modeler's perspective but it will get you there. X-trees or Y-trees as I see it not so much, again.

The only real tree tutorial is from Teodore and it's for an older, real different version of Blender. Yes guys, I need help. Just can't do this on my own. Pretty please?

 

[AccAkut]

All these "helpful" links people have given don't include a thing about creating your cardboard tree, X-tree or Y-tree but they do cover a lot on the tree's final design, how their shadows work, etc. The process of creating one, not so much.

well all these tutorials are aimed at people that have the very baseline knowledge for their modelling tool of choice. And all tools (like blender, 3dsmax, cinema4d, lightwave etc) those tutorials are applicable to are slightly different.

anyway, here's a handful of trees from my track project and their texture, maybe it helps you: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ztnh5887wb73p0k/trees.zip?dl=0

 

[ChicAnne]

well all these tutorials are aimed at people that have the very baseline knowledge for their modelling tool of choice. And all tools (like blender, 3dsmax, cinema4d, lightwave etc) those tutorials are applicable to are slightly different.

anyway, here's a handful of trees from my track project and their texture, maybe it helps you: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ztnh5887wb73p0k/trees.zip?dl=0

I have just read my last message and I'm sorry if I was too harsh there. I always help and share everything I've got. Thank you, thank you, thank you, you are the best! I will go and try something right away with your trees.

And yes, you are right, all these tutorials are aimed at people with some knowledge in these programs. After 8 months, I am still a noobie. Soon, I will put the track here and people can help me make it better, I hope.

Kisses, thank you once again

 

[NightEye87]

Yes guys, I need help. Just can't do this on my own. Pretty please?

I actually made a tree model for you to use, but then that link was posted and figured you were helped out
I guess now you are with the latest link. If not, let us know, 'we' are always happy to help in any way possible.
Also, if you have any basic 3D knowledge, Blender's basic skills are learnt within a day. It surprised me when I made the switch.

oh thats surprising. I've not used it myself in many many years, but worked on/tried to fix some tracks made primarily with Sketchup and RTB, which were in every way catastrophic (separate materials for every object, buldings which were made up of hundreds of subobjects (down to doorhandles), 50000 tris trash bins etc).
Like does Sketchup have a UV editor?

SU is known for hundreds of objects when exporting. Because SU works woth groups or components, these will be exported as separate objects. So always explode everything before export and you'll be fine.
The amount of materials is all in your own hands. Same with polycount. Just don't use 128 sides arcs but use 3 or 4 where needed. If you don't know that's possible (be honest, most users don't even know the basics (no offense meant, ChicAnne)), bad stufff happens.
UV is a weird story.. you can UV map stuff, but it works very, very, differently. It's completely aimed at projecting a photo onto a building, not with games in mind. So yeah, best is to do that with any other programme

 

[AccAkut]

it was things like this that formed my opinion
48 objects, textures and materials for a single street sign... should be one object, and use one material and texture together with other track objects

 

[Please Stop This]

idk if its any good but did you look at xpack section?

XPacks

BTB XPacks

www.racedepartment.com

it has a tree pack too, preview: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/trees-xpack.96236/post-3276231

mostly for BTB, but take a look about xpacks here, especially comment from "SquidCap":

BTB xpacks into RTB? :: Race Track Builder General Discussions

Hi all, is there a guide anywhere for total beginners to import/use BTB xpack content in RTB? I need road textures, signposts, typical roadside objects etc. Can't find any ready-made for RTB.. :(

steamcommunity.com

 

[ChicAnne]

idk if its any good but did you look at xpack section?

XPacks

BTB XPacks

www.racedepartment.com

it has a tree pack too, preview: https://www.racedepartment.com/threads/trees-xpack.96236/post-3276231

mostly for BTB, but take a look about xpacks here, especially comment from "SquidCap":

BTB xpacks into RTB? :: Race Track Builder General Discussions

Hi all, is there a guide anywhere for total beginners to import/use BTB xpack content in RTB? I need road textures, signposts, typical roadside objects etc. Can't find any ready-made for RTB.. :(

steamcommunity.com

Well I did convert some Xpacks from BTB to RTB but didn't see this one before. I'll try this one today. Thank you very much!

 

[ChicAnne]

I actually made a tree model for you to use, but then that link was posted and figured you were helped out
I guess now you are with the latest link. If not, let us know, 'we' are always happy to help in any way possible.
Also, if you have any basic 3D knowledge, Blender's basic skills are learnt within a day. It surprised me when I made the switch.


SU is known for hundreds of objects when exporting. Because SU works woth groups or components, these will be exported as separate objects. So always explode everything before export and you'll be fine.
The amount of materials is all in your own hands. Same with polycount. Just don't use 128 sides arcs but use 3 or 4 where needed. If you don't know that's possible (be honest, most users don't even know the basics (no offense meant, ChicAnne)), bad stufff happens.
UV is a weird story.. you can UV map stuff, but it works very, very, differently. It's completely aimed at projecting a photo onto a building, not with games in mind. So yeah, best is to do that with any other programme

Oh c'mon, you did that? That's sweet. Too bad you didn't post it here. I actually did get AccAkut's trees project last night but was too tired to make anything work. I did load them into Blender and managed to get them working in RTB but didn't get the transparency like it should be so I went to sleep. About learning Blender, yes, basics are easy to learn but if you check any of these tutorials, they aren't as basic as it seems.

Look, in Blender, what I did and where I got lost;

I deleted the cube that you get at the start. I created a plane (my first question that I didn't have the answer to was, how big should the plane be?) I created a plane number two, and number three. To be able to create a Y-tree, I got to a conclusion there should be 120 degrees angle between the planes. Somehow managed to do that. But what then? Do I make these three planes a single object? Or not? I saw some posts regarding shading that say I should split the planes in half, so I did that.

The other thing. I did create a couple of textures in PS and exported them as PNG and as DDS texture, just to try many different ways. Which DDS format should I use is also the question? People say DX5, but where in the export does it say DX5?

 

[EttieApple]

Textures4ever vol. 8

Textures4ever volume 8 gives you 848 high resolution alpha trees in png file format, made from rendered 3d trees. Maps resolution is 1000x1000px up to 3500x3500px.

evermotion.org

This site has two good packs of free and high quality tree textures.

 

[Please Stop This]

i hope its not wrong for gimp:

in photoshop:

not sure if not this:

or this:

 

[ChicAnne]

I'll post a couple of pics here just to show you I ain't messing around. I will make my track! Most of the objects are made in Sketchup, they are all exploded but most of them use PNG as a texture. I will retexturize them with DDS but not now, considering SKetchup can't use DDS format (or am I wrong?). As i understand it, you can make new textures for objects in 3DSIMed so I'll do that later on.

Don't mind the broken fence to the right, it was my first try at creating a string object. The second one, a steel guardrail was much better

Compare that to a real life track here:

Some other buildings, a wall and my metal fence string object:

Here you can see the first photo location after a couple of days of editing, more of everything and I still get more than 120 FPS.

Yes, this track is huge, 21km to be exact. But what I did, I have put 10 times more trees that I would ever use, I made a road 10 times as big, copied and duplicated objects and fences in a way that I will be safe all the way to the end of the project. And everything worked, as a charm. With PNG and JPG textures too.

The trees are not lasso-ed in, they are made of clusters I made, so copying them I get the desired look. No branches should overlap, they flicker otherwise in the game and replays. This is already 5th version of this forest. As soon as I get my own tree types working, I'll delete this and create a new one. The final one I hope Trees have no shadow, unless they are sitting by the road. They are all pass through, but the ones near the road have invisible walls on them so they are not.