GPL Track Creating - Introduction Pg. 2

Authored by the GPLEA

There are several stages to creating a track, and you should be aware that they were not created by the same people, or in the same style, so you will have to learn a lot...

TRK

Most people start with GPLTrk - the program written by Peter Prochazka to create .trk files. Trk's contain the physical surface of the track, and are used as the basis of the graphical content.

3DO

When you have a .trk file, you require a .3do file. trk23dow is the program used for this. It runs under good ol' MS-DOS, reads in several different files for texture information etc., eats serious CPUs for breakfast and outputs a nice pile of polygons wrapped up in a handy .3do file (or a bunch of errors, depending on what you gave it).

MIPs & SRBs

If you don't give trk23dow any details on the textures you want, it's going to use one default texture for the whole track - not exactly what you want. Use your favourite paint program and one of WinMip, MipMan or SrbMan to make your track look like 1967.

3DOs (trackside objects)

Want a tree, bridge or bunch of loonies standing in the freezing cold watching bits of metal fly round a track? Add some trackside objects in the form of 3DOs. You have two options - use Paul Hoad's GPLTrackEditor, learn the art of Binary Space Partitioning and go mad staring at a bunch of vertices & invisible planes - or take the easy way out and use the Object Repository so kindly provided by fellow track creators. Then all you have to do is position them on your track so they don't clip with anything else (that word 'clip' is going to be your best friend, muahahahaaaa).

CAM

So you made your track, you go watch a replay, and all you can see is green or trees. All is not lost! Thanks to Joachim Blum of C.A.R.E., Track Cam has been created to let you position your cameras as you see fit.

PBFs

These are the program covers, track maps, weekend screen and newspaper pictures. You'll be wanting a paint program and WinMip/GPLBatch for these.

LPs

Multiplayer is the way to go, but lots of people still race against the AI, so create some LP files from a smooth replay using Nigel Pattinson's rpy2lp program. One of the LP files is also used for shift-r, so you'd better make one if you don't want to get stuck in the armco every time you crash!

track.ini

Just some numbers, but they control a lot, so do it properly! Ed Solheim has written a tutorial.

Updated 31-Dec-2000

Transferred to the wiki: 30.04.2009