Absolutely no idea what I'm doing but doing it anyway. Wanted to try and put together some sort of track forever but always put off with how much there is to learn and such little time to do it in, so finally decided to do what may be the most boring and least imaginative track ever for AC, just a generic (but crucially, modular) city block.
The idea is because I dont have the time to carefully make something accurate to real life, nor the imagination to make a fun fictional track, I can simply focus on learning the techniques for a very small area (120 square metres to be precise), then make an array to have something decent sized to drive on.
Its also wide enough I can make something akin to a Formula E track with barriers that is at least a little bit more interesting than a 14x14 grid
First I started messing with physics mesh variables; poly density, noise frequency/amplitude etc to see what felt good on FFB. Had quite a lot of options
Eventually I narrowed down what I wanted, and started with the city block. This is more or less what I have now - the road has a subtle crest in the middle, which you feel when driving in the far left/right lane where the intersecting road influences the road, kinda like that bump at Monaco!
Its quite bumpy at speed in stiff race cars, though in street cars its totally fine.
So I've started texturing the visual mesh now, not totally happy but its good enough for a first attempt (and not likely for there to be a second attempt any time soon). Road paint, tarmac base and pavement, obviously there is a million and one things I still need to add but its looking reasonable now. Will add some rubber over the intersection to mark the seam a bit, same with asphalt patches and cracks etc.
I think modelling trackside objects should be slightly more familiar territory for me, so lets see how that goes in future. Fun to have somewhere to skid around already though
Bonus gif if you got this far: