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New No Limits Ulitity Under Development!

Discuss anything involving No Limits Coaster Simulation.

Post December 26th, 2004, 10:05 pm

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UPDATE: Download the example track at http://www.weeweeslap.com/track_exchange/detail.asp?tid=6332


I've become more and more annoyed with the NoLimits wooden support generator. My main beef is that the horizontal bracing is almost twice as far apart as it should be, which really throws off the preception of height, causing basically all NL woodies to look too short. This utility is at a very early stage, and no where near a public release, but I'm so excited by what I've got so far, I just had to post something ;). My focus is going to be realism, to the greatest extent possible. THIS MEANS FPS WILL SUFFER. Sorry, but that's just the way it goes. However, it's not terribly worse, and it looks so much better.

So far, the only wide support style I've implemented is the style used by John Allen, roughly equivilant to the 'steeple' style in the builtin generator. The following ride was built as a quick test bed, but even at this stage, I think the following comparison shots are pretty compelling. In each pair, the first shot is with my supports, the second with the builtin supports. I plan to have this ride posted (with my supports) on the site shortly. It's nothing mindblowing, but it should give you an idea of the detail level involved. Right now, after running each track through Buster's support optimizer, my supports contain roughly 30% more beams than the default supports (9,800 vs 6,700). I haven't figured out the catwalks yet, so they aren't in yet.


BE SURE TO CLICK THE PICS TO SEE FULL SIZE!

Overall View, from station roof

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Looking at the first turnaround.

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Looking up at the 108ft first drop.

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Last edited by Banned User 3276 on December 26th, 2004, 10:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Post December 26th, 2004, 10:18 pm

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Post December 26th, 2004, 10:26 pm

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It's not just about making them look bigger ;) I also want to make the supports more realistic looking in general. For comparison, here's a pic of John Allen's "Great American Scream Machine" at Six Flags over Georgia, which has almost the same lift height as my coaster. Note how close they are are structurally.

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Post December 26th, 2004, 10:43 pm

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Post December 26th, 2004, 10:49 pm

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yeah it's alot more realistic to, im just amazed at it lol. The original is the way i used to support woodies in RCT2

Post December 26th, 2004, 10:50 pm

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Very, very, VERY interesting man!! I look forward to seeing how this turns out, and want a full report so I can apply it to the wood I am working on here! Sweet deal man!

Post December 26th, 2004, 11:01 pm

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Here's a comparison pic, using trackwalker's Screechin' Eagle after running it through the program.

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Post December 26th, 2004, 11:13 pm

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very impressive i love them better than no limits supports

Post December 26th, 2004, 11:33 pm

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TConwell wanted me to run one of his coasters through it, so i did. Here are a few comparison pics. Again, first pic is my supports, 2nd the original.

The First drop / lifthill

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Turn around

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Return hills

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Post December 26th, 2004, 11:36 pm

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Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! [lol]

Seriously, perfect it and work to get it published man! Anything that improves the editor (or even an underground tool that helps us work better) is a step in the PROPER direction!

Post December 27th, 2004, 12:19 am

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Post December 27th, 2004, 9:32 am

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Looking good, run it through my tracl Archaic if you want because i hated the supports on that trcak and i would really like to see how that would work out. They look great of TConwells track. As said above get this published. How close are you to completion? If you get the catwalks sorted out, your support structure would look almost perfect!!!! Well done mate. Looking forward to that.
Please try the supports with my trcak Archaic which can be found here, but dont upload the track, just the pics! PLEASE. It would be interesting. Thanks mate!

http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_excha ... p?tid=6047

Post December 27th, 2004, 11:04 am

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Now hes just gotta figure out a new CCI style, and importantly, Id love to see GCI stuff, its so perdy.

Post December 27th, 2004, 11:17 am

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I'm working on CCI right now ;)

Here's an early shot. I've still got a lot more detail to add, but the basic outline is there.

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Post December 27th, 2004, 12:07 pm

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Yea, but the triangle sections that brace it laterally, they are in pairs. Ive got a great wooden coaster calendar and has some beautiful shots of Shivering Timbers. It looks like it stair steps up in pairs.


Ill just trust you are serious enough to have studied this stuff :)

Post December 27th, 2004, 12:23 pm

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They go up to the highest complete level of the bent. It's purely determined by the slope of the hill.

I've gotten the internal detailing for the basic support pretty much done. Here's a shot:

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Next thing to do is to work out code to determine track curvature. I see the CCI as having at least 3 different cases for supports, the basic supports, high curves, and low high banked curves.

Post December 27th, 2004, 12:29 pm

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Looks nice. Think you can do an option like on Ghostrider where the vertical poles stick up a few feet past where the angle braces connect?

Post December 27th, 2004, 12:36 pm

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I looked at Shivering Timbers again, and it does the same thing. Done.

Post December 27th, 2004, 12:53 pm

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I am drooling guys ... seriously.
This improvement could revolutionize how we make tracks and continue to add to the realism of NL's capability.

And oh, FYI: http://www.coastercrazy.com/forum/topic ... IC_ID=6990

[lol]

Post December 27th, 2004, 2:55 pm

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Originally posted by Real

Looks nice. Think you can do an option like on Ghostrider where the vertical poles stick up a few feet past where the angle braces connect?


yeah a "Earthquake prone" option would be sweet

Post December 27th, 2004, 5:22 pm
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maybe an option to use the original wood support thing would be awsome, too (for people release) incase you would like the original stuff, also.

Post December 29th, 2004, 1:28 am

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It wouldnt overwrite the existing one, you would select it instead of the original wood magic, I hope is how hes coded it.

Post December 29th, 2004, 10:41 pm
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^ me 2, also, another idea, do you have it set up where it can either make the supports of of wood, or out of steel? Because there are some parts of the ride that I wouldn't want to be steel, so if you did it with the new support generator, it could be more percise, and crap.

Post December 30th, 2004, 10:41 pm

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What about when you terraform?
Will this add-on be able to recognize the ground and stop putting supports in below ground level?

Post December 30th, 2004, 10:56 pm

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Right now I don't plant to support terrain. Doing supports for flat ground is hard enough.

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