Grand Prix Series (GP Round 2 Now Released!)

i like the 3ds.

Well here's to resurrecting a 5 year old thread!

First, a little history. I got back to this project quite some time after finising Neon Nitehawk. The loop piece you saw on the earlier screenshot was basically where I left off (with a few minor changes from that). After getting back to work, I completely finished the track layout after some time in Anim8or.

After that I switched to 3DS Max 2009 to work on the rest of the modeling. It's still in progress but a ton of work has been done over the last few months. I don't want to reveal too much; I'd rather save it all for the release so here's a limited teaser screenshot.

http://img189.imageshack.us/f/gpr2teaser.jpg/

Important points/clues:

- There is a big display screen in the stadium slightly to the right of the picture. The image I put on it is considerably outdated but I never got a chance to update it. Once enough stuff is complete I will update that screen as well as several environment maps throughout the 3D objects.

- All trackwork is complete. You may be able to make some inferences from this even though the screenshot doesn't show a whole lot.

- List of programs used to create assets: NoLimits, Anim8or, 3D Studio Max, Object Creator textures, Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks 8, Notepad, ...Audacity... (*wink)


If all goes well, this will definitely be my most 3D-heavy track so far. (Actually it already is.) I hope to be able to add to the outside of the stadium; entrances, roads, a parking lot, and a low-detail distant city. As for release date, I hope to finish this before the middle of October but you may see it sooner or I might slack off again and take a few years. Actually, I think the latter is unlikely at this point since I've made too much progress to just throw it back down to sit by itself for so long.

Will this be a FRPS killer?

Whatever the FRPS is, it doesn't exist so there's nothing to kill.

Oh yes, framerate. Well, the 3ds's are fairly optimized. I'll admit I could've used lower curvature detail for the stadium itself but otherwise, all transports are set to hide device, all non-visible polygons are removed (to the best of my knowledge), etc. On my laptop with Geforce 8200M, I usually get 30fps with basic water settings though that might have gone down from the environment maps I added. On the rig I'm working on, I'm usually getting 60fps but some background tasks have been throwing it down to 40fps randomly lately.

I may test on a Radeon 9600pro/AGP4x later (my old computer) and/or an Intel 4500MHD. I don't think it's worth it though, since anyone with a reasonable computer should be able to get fair framerates on this and I don't want to compromise too much quality.

Right now there are 7,650 triangles on the main model, plus a few more for the spotlights and background city. (I'm expecting the end total to break 8,000 or it may even be over 9000 lol.) In comparison, high detail terrain (256x256) requires 327,680 triangles and medium requires 64,516 triangles. I'm currently using medium detail terrain.

Will it go under the stadium in the drain ditch. I mean the area where I put the lines.

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Originally posted by coasteragent99

- All trackwork is complete.

That goes for both the 3ds track and the NL track itself.

That said, the track layout is not that long; I'd say just over three times longer than Round 1. You won't be racing by the stadium's offices, going underwater, or anything like that, but there will be four total jumps/stunts.

Originally posted by cool5

I get a sex site for each picture.

Are you using some kind of browser designed only for porn?

^ I bet it was an infected version of IE. At least he's using Firefox now.

Edit (5/04/2011): I necro this thread again for some updates.

As always, I slumped back and took a break from this project again (damn good thing I'm not the one working on NL2, or it'd never get done), but have lately started back up on finishing more 3D objects for the ride.

I have decided to strictly keep the track under tight wraps; no screenshots and no reveal of the track/inner details until release. However, I do have something interesting to put out, and that includes an exception to that rule.

My last updates to the track was the addition of billboard advertisements. Just like IRL stadiums, there will be ads for Grand Prix Round 2: Sickspeed Stadium. The billboards contained in this track will advertise my previous tracks/projects, including some non-NL related items, and will be bombarded to the viewer. I should note that they do add to the atmosphere quite well.

Which gives me an odd idea; a member to member advertising system. The idea is this; a user who wants to advertise their track, or even something else like a website, their username/track page, etc. asks a designer for billboard space in their upcoming track, and the designer charges a set amount of CoasterCrazy points. The advertiser donates points and provides the image accordingly, whose resolution/aspect ratio requirements (if any) must be specified by the advertiser. The advertiser then makes the ad appear around the ride in some way, shape, or form. Obviously, the ad would be subject to regulatory policies imposed by the designer as well as by the track exchange being uploaded to, and all that crap.

I have not considered whether or not I will do this for Grand Prix Round 2: Sickspeed Stadium, but I may look into it for a future project. Those of you in need of points and can make good rides that can get a lot of attention/downloads, as well as create 3D objects, remember where you first got this idea from. =)

As for GPR2:SS, I am just about done with my own ads. They are 512x256 in a lossless format (NOT .jpg) and are sprinkled throughout the ride. Like I said, I'm not sure if I'll accept others' ads for points (or perhaps even for advertising space on another's ride), but I'll think about it and if billboard space is in high demand, I'll be more likely to open it up. Note that rating score bribery is not an acceptable form of payment and is against most track exchanges' policies. =p

Here is a sample ad.

http://imageshack.us/f/842/gpr2addemo.png/

Now as for the rest of the track, I'm still unsure how far I want to go with the 3D modeling. I may opt to add more details around here and there, and might even add parking lots/structures and roads leading away to the background. In other words, no sure release date yet; it depends how soon I want to wrap this up and call it a day.

One last bit: Remember those Mario Kart styled arrow booster panels shown earlier? Each one will make a sweet sound when the motorbike drives over it. =)

In No Limit's or Youtube?

Both. A few things are limited to the video though, such as the lights countdown and music.

The project is pretty much officially done and ready to wrap-up and upload. Editing the video will take some time though, especially since it's being done in 1080p. (I had to move my desktop over to the TV to do that since I don't have a 1920x1080 monitor lol.) After that, I spent an hour or two adding more Easter eggs in. =p

I'll upload on Sunday to get a new week of ratings/medals, which will also give me some time to edit the video. I may or may not be able to get the video in when I upload but once I do I'll post about it.



Edit: Track has been uploaded here: http://coastercrazy.com/coaster/3677/gr ... ed-stadium

CoasterCrazy's uploader is messed up right now and resulting in a 500 internal server error, but you can still get the track from NLE even if you don't have an account. (This is because the track is hosted by Mediafire right now; NLE prohibits .zip files but the NL Track Packager cannot and will not include several important files for GPR2.) If I get CC's uploader to work, I'll edit this or post again.

I can't extract the files because I get this "access is denied" error 5 times. And there seems to be no copy option on my Windows 7 computer.

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I updated the link; try this: http://www.mediafire.com/?k9lhpwvct9tpqmx

If it still doesn't work, disable UAC or run Winrar as admin or something.

Do you right click the mouse to run as admin? or select from a drop down menu?

Go to winrar.exe and right click to properties and there will be a checkbox you can use. Also, it's worth checking the properties on the zip file itself; go to the security tab and make sure you have fill privileges.

I tried extracting the whole folder including the enviorment, objects and the track to the No Limits V1.7 folder but the objects still dident show up in the editor. I absolutely hate zip folders because the objects never load. The trackpakager does all the hassle of getting the corrects folders tot he right locations for me.

Well the track packager won't pack all the files properly so unless there's some kind of hack for it to get the missing files in, I don't have many options.

Try disabling UAC (Google this) and see if that fixes it. I can extract all the files just fine on other Windows machines that I'm using so far.

Edit: Track is up on CoasterCrazy.
http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/18060

Edit: Or try using Windows' built in Compressed Folders extension instead of Winrar.

I extracted each folder to it's correct location in No Limits 1.7 but the objects still didn't load in the editor. Will a restart of the computer help any with the objects showing up?

It might. You can also try DLing from CC as others have gotten it to work fine.

The objects still don't show up even when I download from CC! What am I doing wrong?

Hey, cool ride man. How did you get the curves on the cylinder shapes to be so smooth? Also, HOW did you get the reflective surfaces??? I've been looking for the answer to that forever!

The track was carefully done in Anim8or; I generally created a set of pieces I needed using a bend modifier and merged them together. To do the same in 3DS Max would work out better (since 3DS Max has more snapping functions), and I actually used the same technique to create the huge grandstands.

For the track, when the bend modifier wouldn't do, I ended up moving vertices one by one. Was kind of a pain, but the results turned out fairly well.

As for reflections, I don't know which modelers support it, except that 3DS Max will do it. You can assign the desired spherical map to the reflective slot on the material editor and it'll show up in Nolimits. I know pretty much for a fact that Anim8or, Sketchup, and Object Creator do not support this as they have extremely limited .3ds exporting capabilities.

This page may help. http://nolimitscoaster.de/index.php?page=howto

cool5, follow this tutorial:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... ows-vista/

For Windows 7, set to NEVER NOTIFY and I can pretty much guarantee it'll work after.

Now all of my tracks in No limits 1.31 and 1.7 are gone except one and the one in the zip file.
It also seems that all of my objects and environments are gone also.

[yoshifreak]

Longcat is long, very long. Really cool ride man, I really enjoy seeing the creativity some people employ on designs like this. The 3ds were truly amazing.

^^ Sounds like you love something up.

^ There's more lol.

Cool5, I would check to see if they're in your recycle bin, I'm not exactly sure how that works.