Industry Raceway

New map with new blocks.
You can get the blocks here: Road to GP Turn Blocks

The map is quite technical. There are some driver initiated slides, auto-slides, and quite a few sections where you can no-slide. I hope you enjoy the new blocks and this new map, which demonstrates some of what is possible with them.

GPS (behind start)




The story of this track is really a story of the blocks that went into it. So here goes...

Last year I was invited to the ManiaPlanet 4.1 beta. It was a technical beta. One of the tools that was being tested was Mesh Modeler. I had got into it a little, to delete something off of a block here or there, or convert some things to items. But now it was time to test it, and so I had to dig in and really put it through it's paces. In the process, I learned a lot about how it works. In fact I continue to learn new tips and tricks about how to use it everyday. It's one of the coolest tools added to the game since the addition of MediaTracker. Literally we can make our own blocks now, and we don't even need third party 3D software to do it.

So I started messing with custom blocks in the beta, and seeing how I would modify different Canyon blocks. I ended up creating over 22 test maps with custom blocks, just to test this new feature (previously we could only create custom items). Using those maps I also created my first titlepack (solo campaign) to test the Title Makers, but that's another story.

After showing some of the blocks I was working on,   Miss <3 (creator of OpenPlanet) asked if I would create a 90 degree Road to GP turn block. This presented a new challenge. Not only did no base block exist that would facilitate having clips for both the GP side and the road side, but this would be an entirely new block, not just some minor modifications of existing ones. But it sounded like a cool concept, so I set about working on it. I started pulling elements from various blocks in order to piece this thing together. I started learning about crystals and how I could use them to transport elements from one block to another. I began experimenting with the transformation tool to stretch the ripple strip to the shape I wanted it. And slowly the block began to take shape.

At the end of the beta, the block was drivable, but quite rough and not really in a releasable state. In fact the road texture was just a plain gray asphalt. No lines or anything. It didn't match the set of GP blocks at all. So I put the block away and figured I'd finish it someday.

Five months passed.   Kousseau asked if he could use the block in one of his maps. This gave me the motivation to finish the block. The big missing piece of knowledge was how to create this curved road texture. Thanks to   niebo for writing a great tutorial on using the brush tool in material mode, I was finally able to get the road texture looking good.

I used the mirror tool to create a mirrored version of the block, and modified all the written signs on the block so they weren't flipped the wrong way.

Because there is no GP clip on the block, it has to be blockmixed into place. Also, when connecting a GP block to it, the clip of the other block won't get removed. So a clip remover block has to be used each time, otherwise you end up with some flickering textures.

So now I wanted to build a map to demonstrate how I would use these blocks. I built the route and used 7 of the new GP to Road blocks. Slowly I layered on some scenery. I wanted to try something different from my usual style, so I opted for a more industrial look. The scenery is partially inspired by tracks from   WRAITH and   butifarra. I wanted a little bit of natural scenery as well, but still different from my usual style, so I made it primarily a map over water and then used this terrain that was added with the February 2013 update (and yet I still so rarely use).

After test driving the map a lot, it gradually became apparent that the original design of these blocks was flawed. The ripple strip was an odd shape and you could really see it while drifting past it at speed. In addition, it wasn't immediately obvious which direction the road turned as you approached from the Road side. So I removed a bunch of elements... a fence, some light poles, and other things, and I tried out several variations of roofs until I settled on this curved one. The curved one gives you some kind of visual cue that the road is turning, without necessarily needing a sign every time. I'm quite happy that I took the time to change that, even though it meant destroying some work that I spent a lot of time on in the past. The important thing is the end result.

An early version of the block was used in "Sego Sprint by   PangoLynne, before I changed the ripple strip and roof. In fact it was while driving this map that I first realized the ripple strips needed to be tweaked. The map by PangoLynne is very fun tho. I recommend trying it. I certainly never envisioned driving this block with the Coast car.

A big thanks to many of the Mesh Modeler and 3D pros that have helped with tips along the way. Just to name a few who gave me invaluable tips:   xrayjay,   sorrow,   Larentz,   niebo,   Trackmaniadude,   Demented, and AurelSM. And especially a big thanks to   PangoLynne who encouraged me to try out Mesh Modeler in the first place.

And a huge thanks to all those guys at Nadeo that have worked on Mesh Modeler, including   niebo, BSO, and many others I'm sure, including those who approved the creation of it in the first place, and it's continued development. It's been really cool to see it take off and so many mappers use it. I even heard of one user who used it for a school project.