T3ED - Developer Guide

How to make tracks for NFSHS using T3ED version 0.07.

Step by step.

So, first let's talk about the capabilities of T3ED.

Program interface:

T3ED elements

View menu:

Toolbar - displays the tools palette.

Statusbar - displays the static panel.

Zoom In/Zoom out - zoom in/zoom out the track image, or simply press the buttons
in the toolbar.

Translation mode or - translation mode. Scrolling moves you around the track.

Rotation mode or
- image rotation mode. Rotation occurs relative to the active element on the track (red color) - a point, polygon, light source or special effect, block or object. Vertical scrolling - changes the viewing angle (from top view to side view). Horizontal scrolling - circular rotation of the observer relative to the active object. [ The selected mode (translation or rotation) is displayed in the static panel (TRANSL or ROTATE)]

Resolution - resolution. Full - full rendering of all elements, Low - much is simplified (I do not recommend using it when laying out new streets).

Show objects - Show objects, extra-objects, light sources and special effects.

Show lanes - display road markings and some polygons whose glow depends on headlight illumination.

Show track view - show a 3D view of the track section adjacent to the last selected active element. (If you need to open a file with textures, open the file tr0.qfs if the track file is Tr.frd (or was originally based on it) or trn0.qfs if the track is TrN.frd (or is based on this file))

Example of a 3D track view:

Here the active element was a house, which is clearly shown in the center of the Track view

Recenter - center the image relative to the active object, for translation mode.

Refresh - refresh the image.

The Edit-Modes menu contains elements analogous to the buttons
.

- block. A track segment 8 polygons long; when a block is moved, all objects and so on on it move too. Adjacent blocks also change their shape so that the track has a smooth transition between blocks. The main thing is not to overdo it, otherwise you can "break" the track so badly that you'll spend a long time struggling to straighten it by points :)

- point (vertex). A point element of the track. As a rule - polygon nodes.

Operations on points (Can be applied both to a single point and to a group of points. To select a group of points you must hold the Shift or Ctrl key. When moving a group of points, the key must be held) :

- horizontal movement (I recommend using it in top view, for more precise movement).

- vertical movement (I recommend using side view).

Movement operations are valid for all track elements: block, point(s), extended point, object(s), polygon(s), light and effect source(s) [ To avoid errors in the T3ED program, I strongly ask you to turn off Track view when moving light sources and special effects ].

- merge/split points (applied simultaneously to one point).

Merging. Select the point (left mouse "click") to which another one needs to be merged. Holding the Ctrl key, left "click" on the point that needs to be merged to the first one. The points are merged.

Splitting. Select the point node that needs to be split, with a left mouse "click". Right "click" on the node. Done.

- Extended point. Only movement operations apply. The effect when moving is similar to the effect of moving a block, though the results are not as global. Experts (Dennis Auroux) do not recommend using this element to modify the track, although there's no accounting for taste.

- Object. In T3ED, an object means the following elements:

Object (blue color).

Extra-object - as a rule these are trees, lamp posts and road signs, i.e. objects that somehow affect the car (green objects). [Activation of extra-object effects will be described later.]

Sources of light, flame, smoke, falling leaves, etc. (yellow-brown crosses).

All objects support movement operations (one or more objects at once), copying (Ctrl+V or ,
only for one object ) , deletion (Del or
, only for one object ).

- polygon. Movement and texturing operations ( Ctrl+T or ) are performed for one or more polygons.

Texturing.

Copying (only for one polygon).

Polygons of objects and road markings.

Track polygons when copying.

Deletion of ordinary polygons works the same way as for objects.

Specifics of deleting track polygons.

And one more most important thing that will be needed when creating new branches is the property for track polygons (black polygons, you can also select more than one polygon ). Calling the "polygon setup wizard" is done via the Edit tools/Polygon flags... menu or by pressing Ctrl+Enter .

Fixing of the properties listed below is set by checking the box next to them.

Wall collision detection - fixes collision with an invisible wall (recommended to set for polygons located directly next to polygons that are not drivable).

Extra-object collision detection - fixes collisions with extra objects, i.e. crashing into posts, fir trees, etc., rather than driving through them like a mirage.

No forward neighbour - no forward neighbour.

No backward neighbour - no backward neighbour.

Drive-over behavior properties :

Passable - make the polygon drivable, smooth asphalt effect.

Passable Gravel - the polygon is drivable, dirt road effect.

Passable Soil - the polygon is drivable, earth road effect.

Passable Leaves - the polygon is drivable, "autumn" road effect.

Passable Dust - the polygon is drivable, sandy road effect.

Passable Wet - the polygon is drivable, effect of puddles, streams, etc.

Passable Jolting - the polygon is drivable, "Red Square" effect, stone road.

Passable Snow - the polygon is drivable, snow effect.

Not passable (inner) - the polygon is not available for driving. Used for polygons located in the middle of the track.

Not passable (outer) - the polygon is not available for driving. Used for polygons located at the edges of the track.

Now you can move directly on to creating changes on the track.

T3ED has special automatic options that will help you quickly create some modifications on the track. So, in the Edit-tools menu there is a special option for simplifying several tasks, called Erase All .

What does this mean? So, in order

Track shape (XY) - makes the track perfectly round, in other words, a track for "newbies".

Road elevations - makes the track perfectly flat (only the road), without any hills.

Scenery elevations - makes the shoulder and everything else, except objects (any), flat relative to the track level at that location.

Lanes, fences and sound sources - removes all road markings, all sound effects, all fences from the track.

Polygon objects and light sources - removes all polygon (regular) objects and all light sources.

Extra objects - removes all extra objects.

Global animated objects - removes global animated objects from the track, such as the train on the Kindiak park, Redrock ridge and lost canyons tracks ; the helicopter in Empire city ; the balloon on route Adonf ; the airship on the Atlantica track, etc. Though I did not use this option when editing tracks.

Road textures set to... - make the entire road and the shoulder adjacent to it use texture number...

Scenery textures set to... - make all object polygons use texture number...

Main types of track modifications.

1. Texture changes. This is not done in T3ED .

2. Routing changes. Here the word routing does not mean DSL connection settings, but changing the track model ( smoothing out or adding turns, decreasing or increasing the track slope, etc.). Done by moving blocks or with the Erase all options.

3. Profile changes. I.e. adding all sorts of bumps, etc. ( Using Extended point, points and (or) polygons, applying move operations to them).

4. Adding additional roads.

Adding new roads.

After analyzing the tracks I have available for a long time, I found two ways of adding new roads. They were named by me after the tracks where they were most pronounced. The ways:

1. The Hometown High Stakes way

2. The Durham rage way.

Here are some fragments of these tracks:

Comment: Notice how the streets are made. A wall 2-4 polygons wide was destroyed, then it was stretched out to the side. The next step was repeated use of combinations of the Polygon/Copy and Point/Merge options, and, of course, the move option. Plus these polygons were configured to be drivable. In practice it looks like this:

As you can see in the picture, there are so-called "invisible roads" here, plus there is a place on the track where the game simply crashes.

Here, as you can see, more work has to be done, but there is a good plus: no glitches and good quality. I'll explain how this is done. Select polygon mode (or points mode, whichever you prefer), mark all the needed polygons (or points) using Shift, switch to top view (for precise horizontal movement), move the shoulder away from the track, and subject the resulting "polygon masses" to the Polygon/Copy and Point/Merge operations. Edit the resulting grid surface using horizontal movement of points. When the new road is formed, proceed to texturing and polygon parameters. The final touch is adding objects to the track. They can either be copied from another place on the track or created from scratch. The only drawback is the time that has to be spent on laying new roads. An example of how this looks in the game, though using the Durham city BETA 3 track made by a similar method ( due to the lack of textures for the Durham road track I cannot show frames of the Durham rage track itself).