Archive: 18 posts

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So my first track on LBPK wasn't actually a track at all, but a huge battle set within a realistic New York City. For my second offering, I am looking at creating a proper racetrack taking place amongst a middle-eastern city in the midst of liberation, inspired heavily by watching HBO's excellent 'Generation Kill' mini-series. So far I don't have a track layout (although I know exactly what it will be in my head, it was one I was planning to do in Modnation Racers, but doing it in LBPK will give me a lot more freedom). Two key elements that will be included will be cross-traffic sections and animated military props, such as roaming tanks and (budget permitting) an attack helicopter that may or may not suffer a major malfunction on lap 3 You'll also be racing the level in a fully armed HMMWV (or 'Humvee' to you and me). I plan on creating a progress report of this track with pictures and insight into my design process along the way. Whether anyone will actually read it or not is another question entirely... To start with, here are a couple of pictures to whet the appetite for what is to come. Thanks, and watch this space! https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/744713/data.jpg https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/745905/data.jpg

2013-07-01 13:18:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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Looks like this'll be interesting! I'll be watching this thread like.......like a sniper :kz:

2013-07-01 15:54:00 Author: theIronHorse Posts: 279

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Looks like this'll be interesting! I'll be watching this thread like.......like a sniper :kz: Thanks! I noticed a lot of the really cool looking levels on this thread seem to be perma-pending which is a shame as there are some nice projects being showcased, your train level included! I fully intend to finish and publish this track, in fact I have a new update raring to go, just as soon as my uploaded photos sync with the LBPK.me servers... EDIT: So, as promised, here is a new update for you all! The first thing that I did was to lay the track down. This is the bare bones of a project and it looks... uninspiring, to say the least. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/757365/data.jpg I'll do a lot of work with the advanced edit later, but for now, the basic layout is down, including a mega jump section. After I laid the track my thermo shot up to 46%! BUT (top tip incoming), removing all the default fences from around the track put that down to 21%! Amazing, a quarter of the total budget spent on useless fences! I also changed the track to cardboard road as this seems to use the least budget. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/757367/data.jpg Aha! What's going on here then? Well, I made a piece of material at maximum size then resized it to fill the entire map. From this I cut away to leave the basic track layout in tarmac, which can easily be moulded later on. This is a huge time and budget saving tip to make a massive piece of material and sculpt from it, rather than having lots of little pieces all joined up and taking forever to align properly (a tip I learned AFTER the fact on my first level, but I still went and redid it this way for budgetary reasons). Anyway, by using material for my track I can change the track to "remove road" further freeing up precious thermo budget. I can still see the layout of the track using 'horizontal' edit mode so as I more finely tune the layout later on I can adjust my asphalt to match. For now though, it's a rough cut. I've added a strip going across the switchback sections too. This will be populated with vehicles following paths to create cross traffic at the intersections. On lap 3 the track layout will change so that you actually have to drive against the flow of traffic for a period. Should be quite a hair-racing experience (sorry, couldn't resist a little joke from Modnation Racers there.) I've also carved out a section of river at the lower end of the track, which will later be home to a military guarded bridge into the city. I've made a stone river wall running along both sides of the waters (again using the massive one-piece technique) which tidies the river bank up nicely. Also, you'll see the very early start of a palace, one of the key centrepiece's of the track. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/757369/data.jpg And here is the dictators palace a lot more fleshed out. As you can see the track runs right through here. A jump that will lead to a grappling hook positioned above the fountain is the quickest way to go, but if you want weapons (or shield) you'll need to take the slightly longer route to the right. The route to left is the quickest and will be triggered to open a few seconds after first place enters the palace, what I like to call a 'straggler' cut, to allow those further behind to make up some ground. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/757373/data.jpg And here is where I am currently at. The palace is horizontally enclosed at this point and both an entrance and exit doorway are present. The next step will be to put the roof onto the building and finish off the architecture. I have a dome already made using a max-sized ball sunken to create the dome, but unfortunately it will only go so big so it will not be suitable for the largest dome that will dominate the centre of the building. For that, I'll have to be a bit more clever... Thanks for reading, i'll be back soon!

2013-07-02 21:44:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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This looks huge That's also interessant to see the different steps of your thought and the way you realized them. It gives me good methods

2013-07-03 13:19:00 Author: gipsy Posts: 408

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Hello again! I didn't realize how much progress I'd made without an update, so this is gonna be a big one! Right now the track is roughly 75% complete and the thermo is roughly the same. There are still some gaps and there are still things that need adding, but I have some dynamic events and cross traffic that works nicely in the heat of the race. The really tough thing about making a large, detailed level like this in LBPK is the thermometer is a constant menace, I swear if I could I'd make every building in full 3D and full detail, although it would take about 6 months to complete! As it is I have to compromise on a few elements but even so, I feel the level is progressing nicely and is developing at a standard I am happy with. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/770581/data.jpg This is the end result of the dictators palace, which was still under construction in the last update. I created a gated section surrounding it and added some of my own custom foliage props to brighten things up a bit. This is an old photo mind you, there's not so much empty space surrounding it anymore! https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/775087/data.jpg https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/775091/data.jpg Here are a couple of pics showing the main drag upon which the traffic moves. Currently I have nine different vehicles set to pathfinders that travel up and back down the stretch of highway, crossing over various points of the track. As they operate on a loop you'll never know when they might cause an obstruction in your quest to win, but if they do, you're toast! I may add a few more (budget-pending) to try and create more of a rush hour feel, but too many and it will likely hinder rather than help the level. I plan to change up the route on the final lap so that you actually have to drive up this perilous highway into the path of the speeding traffic. Should be chaotic! Iraq and Baghdad in particular has been the main inspiration for the aesthetics of this track, so I've been scouring the net to find suitable architecture to try and implement into my level. This was based on a picture of some sort of administrative building for the government I found, in the track it sits directly in front of the start line. As you can see, the occupying forces are keeping it under close guard. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/775081/data.jpg And this was based on a train station in the city. The pictures I was using as reference seemed quite old however, so I'm not sure if it still exists in the new Baghdad of today. I added a sneaky alternate route if you cut inside where you'll be able to snag a cheeky weapon pick up in the finished track! https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/775079/data.jpg And finally how I left it today. Before you leap across the river you must first cross the bridge, guarded by another military checkpoint. Then you'll enter this peaceful and pleasant suburban neighbourhood before a choice of jumps take you back across the river. Currently the decor is not up to scratch IMO, but suddenly my thermo started playing up and adding 1% for every cloned object whereas before it didn't, so I'm hopeful this is just a temporary editor oddity and when I return normal service will be resumed. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/775089/data.jpg That's all for now, keep em' peeled for a new update soon!

2013-07-05 23:40:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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Currently the decor is not up to scratch IMO, but suddenly my thermo started playing up and adding 1% for every cloned object whereas before it didn't, so I'm hopeful this is just a temporary editor oddity and when I return normal service will be resumed. I'm no expert, but I'm afraid it won't be temporary. Mm once said LBP's thermometer is in reality several thermometers, one for moving objects and physics, one for materials and stickers, one for amount of objects, etc., each thermometer guarding against a single game engine limit. You could experience this in the game yourself. For example, by placing a single block of a large number of materials you'd see each material adding a bit on the thermometer. If you then add new objects of an existing material, the thermometer won't move until the object thermometer exceeds the material thermometer. At that point new objects will increase thermo, but a new material won't. Your experience reminds me of this mechanism, so Karting may be using the same system. By the way, the level is looking good!

2013-07-08 12:53:00 Author: Rogar Posts: 2284

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Ah okay, thanks for that explanation, I can see what you mean in hindsight. In ALL the LBP games the thermo has been the single most frustrating element to deal with, I wish they'd make it more transparent as to what effects what while you are creating. Roll on PS4 with it's 8GB of RAM and a new create game, there should be no excuses to impose these paltry limitations then! Just a couple of quick pictures, the first shows the modern hotel complex that stands as a stark contrast to the traditional middle eastern architecture and the second shows my Apache Longbow Helicopter, currently hovering menacingly over the river. I've also played around a bit with the global lighting, trying to create a hazy and hot feeling, not sure if this is the final settings but it certainly makes the colours of the buildings pop! https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/791377/data.jpg https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/791385/data.jpg

2013-07-08 14:09:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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Dude, this looks so sick already!! Love how you are trying to build everthing as realistic as possible and when u said I swear if I could I'd make every building in full 3D and full detail, although it would take about 6 months to complete! i really started to think that you are my evil twin. **** thermo. I would love to create a level together with you but unfortunatly this isnt possible in this game. Bye the way did you test the hummve already? Because sometimes there are strange collisions with custom carts. I think it is happening if you make them smaller after you created them. Happend to me and its frustrating, just wanted to warn you incase you havent tested them yet.

2013-07-08 23:00:00 Author: IIITAKTLOSSIII Posts: 15

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Haha, yes mate, I cannot understand WHY they didn't implement the ability to co-create a level in the editor like in LBP and LBP2, another silly omission! I made the custom kart humvee using a scale prop that my friend OnePoppa provided, basically I made it quite small anyway but the key element that affects hitboxes is the width. I found this out because after I made my humvee v1.0 I realised that it wasn't wide enough, so I remade it which is what you see on the level in the pictures above. However, when I converted that one to be used as a custom kart the hitbox issue went into overdrive just for adding a few extra inches of width. Thankfully I still had the v1.0 saved so I just use that for the race kart and have the full size v2.0 as the scenery. But yes, it's very annoying, I wish they would let you actually see the hitbox whilst you are making your kart I will give away the kart scaler prop as one of the numerous prize bubbles in the published version of the track. Thanks for your kind words, the level is about 90% complete right now, I just have a couple of final areas of the map to complete then I will be moving on to creating the path for the helicopter for all three laps (with a little help animation-wise from OnePoppa), the crash effects, various sound design throughout the level, alternate third lap route and finally custom weapons and icons. The end is in sight!

2013-07-09 14:58:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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The end is in sight! I can't wait anymore

2013-07-09 21:47:00 Author: gipsy Posts: 408

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WOA WOoaa woa woah.... Wow! That looks frigging amazing! Can't wait to play it!

2013-07-09 22:00:00 Author: Ryanz19 Posts: 50

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Just one final picture as I wanted to share a technique I'm using for backgrounds which I think works rather well. Basically, I go into a blank level and create a nice looking cityscape scene then I take a photograph of it and then go back into the main level and mount that photograph on some white polystyrene and make it huge, then push it to the edge of the map. This creates an effective cityscape facade. The final thing to do is to get several magic spotlights and position and resize them so that you can match the coulour of the sky in your level as best as possible (because the photo's you take always come out with much more dulled colours than you would see in game). As you can see from this picture the effect is very cool and helps create a feeling of density, that's actually 3 different photographs mounted onto 3 separate pieces of polystyrene and I've used strategically placed foliage and buildings to cover up any obvious joins between the three. https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/807899/data.jpg I do wish the resolution of the photos you can take were better though, LBP photographs have always been notoriously poor quality, especially compared to MNR's crisp high-definition images that showed off the game's beauty brilliantly...

2013-07-12 17:59:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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Just one final picture as I wanted to share a technique I'm using for backgrounds which I think works rather well. Hahaha, that's brilliant man. I can see why your navigation map is all wonky too; the game must be freaking out trying to create an effective path with this much detail.

2013-07-12 18:41:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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Just a brief update on the progress of this track... Some of you may have noticed I've had a BETA up the last few days for testing. I thought I was close to the end, but there has been a continuous nagging issue of lag due to karts getting caught up in the moving traffic. I tried so much stuff to try and eliminate the issue of them getting dragged along and MAJOR graphical slowdown occuring, including trialing physics tweakers, destroyers and even creating a custom hitbox around the vehicle using forcefield. NOTHING worked succesfully and my hair grew ever shorter as I began to tear it out in frustration. But then... a miracle. Well, a savior, in the form of OnePoppa, who came up with the genius idea of making the vehicles themselves scenery, so the game engine doesn't have to render solid geometry and just makes the accompanying hitbox solid. How to do this? Well, it's actually really simple. - First, you attach a piston motor to the vehicle. Set the minimum length and maximum on all three time settings and set gameplay priority to 'scenery' (this is a a technique to make ANY object in your level drive-thru-able, incredibly useful but not explained in any of the in-game tutorials). - Next, you attach your pathfinder motor to the piston (because attaching it to the vehicle itself would disconnect the pathfinder as only one motor can be directly attached to an object, so you have to use a chain instead). - Finally - this is the important part that makes the whole illusion work perfectly - you create a block of material the same height and width as the vehicle with forcefield. You position the forcefield over your vehicle's start position so it lines up with the edges. Then you take the same pathfinder motor that is used for the vehicle and attach it to the forcefield block as well. Voila! You now have TWO objects running in perfect sync using the same pathfinder motor's setting. As the vehicle is connected to the piston it behaves as scenery and so takes less rendering power and when the shared velocity of the hitbox connects with a kart during the race only the material of the solid forcefield is rendered. So you have the very real illusion of the car itself hitting you, but unlike before, you don't end up getting stuck inside the complex geometry of the vehicle itself and simply get shunted around, which was precisely the effect I was going for in ther first place! And that's it, a very simple but incredibly effective technique to be able to have multiple moving vehicles speeding around your level that don't impact upon the framerate or the processor too much at all. Since I did this I'm getting no lag and I'm now able to press on with adding a few extra elements (like custom weapons and icons) that I feared wouldn't be possible due to the need to preserve the budget to render all these complex moving vehicles. Not anymore. Look out for the final published version in the next couple of days.

2013-07-19 13:03:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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Wow, looks really amazing! I look forward to playing it!

2013-07-19 17:58:00 Author: Chup Posts: 95

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The finished version of the track is now up, I do hope you guys enjoy it. https://lbpcentral.lbp-hub.com/index.php?t=80922-Uprising! https://lbpk-production.s3.amazonaws.com/player_creations/841434/data.jpg

2013-07-20 21:46:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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I just want to say this Idea is really cool, I could more see this idea as a battle rather then a race though, it reminds me a little bit like battlefield having planes and cars

2013-07-26 16:43:00 Author: bizkitboii Posts: 40

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I just read this thread back. This is a good tutorial to see the differents steps for creating an awesome race. Amazing job Atheistw

2014-06-12 19:48:00 Author: gipsy Posts: 408

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