Back to My Turbo Sliders Nonsense...

Don't worry, it's just a mockup. You need to calm down!

So apparently last month saw me suffering from what I may call as the Ramadan Blues, sort of like Monday Blues but in the fasting month, in which in this case I ended up spending more time on bed than on the computer, apart from break fasting with friends at some point, plus some near-Eid works like house cleaning and new clothes. Even despite promising myself doing a lot of stuffs like continuing my 3D works or stuff like that, the only finished product I managed to produce in the last fasting month is none other than the E!Online TV ship competition recap, analysis, and spreadsheet, and not even race car-related stuffs like, for instance, the Formula car I just did prior to the fasting month, or any of my Turbo Sliders projects.

No later than one week past Eid, I started to have an urge to return to the creator's desk, and I just did, simply by opening one of my existing references and tried a new approach at carmaking. It turns out doing a new approach on the carmaking, which I will explain later here, is actually fun and more hassle-free than the last time I did. Apparently, I restarted with a bang as I jot down three main cars as a new WIP of mine and actually completed one for my long-term project. Earlier before the fasting month, I did work on one new track which I was inspired after watching the first World Tour event of the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Sport Championship, of which one of the tracks used was the latest addition at that time, being the Autopolis Circuit in Oita Prefecture, Japan, and I did another car as well...

GARAGE EXPANSION AND A NEW APPROACH

A Facebook fanpage cover picture where the inspiration come from...

There was one time that I saw an image of a car in top-view. It was a Facebook fanpage cover picture for a local Sim Racing team and the car on display were a series of Ferrari 488 GTEs and Ford GT GTEs. The cars in question don't have window lighting effects as I would expect, but in turn I thought to myself "why not making my next car's process a less hassle one?", although the execution didn't start until days after Eid. Ultimately, I took one of the references I saved way before and train myself for the new approach.

To be honest, the process to make a shading effects for cars makes up most of the carmaking in TS aside from tracing the car's shape, which also includes other stuffs like windows, lights, and aerodynamic parts such as a hood intake and/or a rear wing (if any). Although I could take the easy way of getting a ripped 3D model somewhere and render it (which would actually solve 95% of my problems), making a car from scratch has been my style since I started into this game, especially for the fact that I owe a lot to the carmaking approach as displayed in MiniRacingOnline cars (especially Vivndum's cars, they're some of the best), something that might work in TS, or not?

The truth is, my existing style has been a mainstay for my recent releases, like the DBR9 GT1 (download here) and the McLaren F1 & F1 GTR (download here), and has been adapted to a couple of my WIPs (most of them) and cars I've finished but haven't released yet, such as the 2000s GT2 pack featuring Panoz Esperante GT2 and Porsche 911 RSR and prototypes like Lola B12/80 and Nissan GT-R LM NISMO. I have to admit that the lighting effect on the windows looks good, but probably not as good as any of the Vivndum's cars in MRO, although to be honest that comparing TS and MRO cars isn't an apple-to-apple thing to do considering the differences in sizes, and that shading in bigger cars requires more work and precision than in smaller cars.

Something to look forward to: can you guess what these cars are? These will definitely be in the game!

This is pretty much why there's always this drag when it comes to shading, especially windows. At the same time I want to make the car look great, the execution doesn't seem to go well. The tool I used for this purpose was none other than the brush tool and the brush tool only which, after a long thought, might not be the "end-all" solution. Alas, to alleviate such pain, I decided that, for my next set of WIPs, the process would be revised; the tracing for the window actually starts with the pillars first. Before this, the pillars were simply done by adding the stroke on the windows' shape, which apparently made the work on window lighting a little unsettling. The pillars utilize the "subtract shape" feature in the pen tool and are shaped accordingly based on the reference blueprint, then the base pillar shapes (the ones that aren't used for subtraction) would form a glass frame which would be placed a layer below the pillar, whereas a window banner can be placed one layer above provided that the layer mask is set, which in this case is the glasses layer.

With this new process comes a new idea: what if I put my focus on the interiors at the same time? This is because the new process actually allows the interiors to be solved below the glasses layer provided that it has its own layer group and the group in question has a layer mask of the windows' shape. This way, I can form the car's interior parts, including the seats, a steering wheel, and a rollcage for racing versions, even the driver as well, just like what you can see above (interesting WIPs here!). And by the way, the driver is simply traced from the 3D model of a driver in Real Racing 3 via GameModels.ru, with moderate details given the size when applied. This might not be that visible on closed-cockpit cars, but I might consider adding details when I step into open wheelers (and that reminds me of something; I might do Dallara SF19 in the future).

Comparison between the shading implementations.

Last but not least is the lighting effect for the windows that I could revise at will. You already see this implementation in the last picture but here I'm comparing how the shadings work both in general and in window-specific parts. The McLaren F1 GTR on the left (which I actually released a long time ago) utilized a series of brush tools to achieve the effect, even down to the windows, basically the MRO carmaking style I've practiced for the majority of my carmaking, although there were layer masks involved as well to make sure some parts don't clutter. On the right side, the Supra RZ, I tone down the usage of brush tools a bit and emphasize more on layer masks for specific parts and pen tool tracing, playing with their opacity/fill levels to fulfill the effect. The pen tool approach is also used to jot down the window lighting which is actually much easier to manage than using the brush tool. Both approaches still use the gradient tool to give the darkness to the right window to achieve the effect.

Basically I've found a better carmaking approach which actually solves a lot of problems I had when it comes to carmaking. I'm actually glad that I could discover this method after taking a long hiatus, ending me up in being motivated to make about five cars or so, with more kits for individual cars to come, as this business has no end, mind you.

AUTOPOLIS BUSINESS

So it was weeks ago when I caught the first World Tour event of the GT Sport Championship, in which the races involved new contents available within the update at that time, which also included the new Autopolis circuit in Oita Prefecture, Japan, which set up the final stage of the Nations Cup, among the new cars. Without spoiling anything, I'd recommend you to watch the full event unfolded (link way above) from the semi final races to the final. If only I can afford PS4 and a new TV so that I can afford GT Sport next so that I can jump in the FIA-certified fun. I mean, Digital Motorsport sounds like a great prospect for me since I once talked about racing games/simulators as an e-Sport, gaining the same traction as, for instance, Dota 2's The International, and that I've geared myself already in a racing simulator, although it was just four laps to be honest.

After seeing Autopolis in action, I realized that this might be the chance for me to recreate it on TS. This would be one of my recent IRL track works to be made after the Indianapolis Speedway I made a long time ago, and the second actually used in a competition (in this case, the SCARTS series) after Tsukuba, third if you count the fictional Nippon Highlands for the TS F1 Championship. Other than that, the other Japanese IRL tracks already made are Suzuka and Fuji, both by F1 Speed League, which I can't help myself thinking that two of a couple of tracks in the main Japanese motorsport calendar (say, Super GT and Super Formula) are already there so I'm adding another.

As far as the track work goes, the tracing went straightforward as I laid down the exact layout as in the reference I've acquired, but this time with a twist: the tarmac effect. New for my trackmaking approach is something that's out from the MiniRacingOnline trackmaking book, or perhaps more leaning towards the one that can be seen on Tinjovic's top down racer project. To describe the process, I used a new layer to draw the shape using the tracks path, then utilized a combination of "Outer Glow" blending fine-tuned to make it look realistic and the opacity/fill levels to ensure the realism.

How the new tarmac effect implementation looks like.

This approach isn't without flaws though; continuous static lines. While the effect improves aesthetic at face value, the blending follows the path's shape so there's that. To solve this, I jot down the projected racing line path as the overlay and toned down the effect as subtle as possible, and later the braking lines for sections which would take a lot of paths, but that depends on the IRL reference. Tinjovic's F1 track, the Flakemoore, is the reference for this very effect, and these are achieved by its own tiles so that the effect actually relies on their placements. This would take time.

Other than that, another new approach is in place as well; the walls are now drawn via paths instead of tiles to save time, although this would impact the eventual image file a lot (think a set of walls embedded on the track's image with Drop Shadow effect vs. 100s of wall tiles placed on track, of which the data of their placements and rotations are stored within the *.trk file). Also, since Autopolis has a unique grandstand on the final corner, I thought it would be a good idea to make it from scratch while at the same time try to follow the basic shapes as shown in existing grandstands tiles from various authors. Later on these will be populated with person tiles so that the role of this special grandstand will be fulfilled. The rest of the environment stuffs shall follow the IRL reference (i.e., the trees)

Closer look at Autopolis' unique last corner grandstands, replicated in TS.

Going with the theme, the Red Bull X2019 Competition you've seen way above was also made at the time of the track's construction, and has the car shape completed despite its complexity. I also took the chance to rework the window and cockpit parts from the original shape with the aforementioned method. The caveat is that without lighting effect the window is flat and could compromise the car's shape in general, but thankfully making the lighting effect for this car is quite simple so it's manageable. The real challenge is that I based the car on the X2014 car whose top view image exists on the internet already and the real car hasn't had a clear top down shot yet. Maybe someday?

At the moment, I'm focusing more on the cars because a new thought for a WIP has materialized from my break. The focus is in fact based on real-life motorsport which would be the reason why I made so much cars like above, more into that on the next post.

~[R]