T3ED Updates (NFS4 Track Editor) by JimDiabolo

[pete9516]

I've been fiddling around with this for a decade and i've always been wondering what reason it could have that the roads are so bumpy though according to their track shape they should be smooth. There are big tracks where you fall through the road into nothing because of not recalculated Poly VRoads. I hope you can update the function to recalculate each block's polygons properly with "straight" setting, because it's a real pain to recalculate every single polygon. Even original EA tracks suffer from wrongly calculated Poly VRoads, best example would be Summit's ZickZack road at the small town near the finish where you jump in the air out of nothing, i hope you get what i mean, i'm typing all this on my smartphone

[PomFrit]

Its possible to add "Recalc Poly Vroad" function by manually added angle? Not just straight, left, full left, right and full right?

Especially on the S curves, the AI struggles with handling and speed if i send them straight. For AI its not straight, but side drifting. For example, on Celtic Ruins, the big S curves at the ruins is not possible to send AI straight and quickly. This new feature has a big effect on the opponents' AI. It's still bad because I can't add the right angle, but the AI speed is increased by +/-20% and it has no effect on the traffics ( not like changing VRoad ).

It probably helps with sharp turns, which are also hard to do quickly.

[pete9516]

Its possible to add "Recalc Poly Vroad" function by manually added angle? Not just straight, left, full left, right and full right?

Especially on the S curves, the AI struggles with handling and speed if i send them straight. For AI its not straight, but side drifting. For example, on Celtic Ruins, the big S curves at the ruins is not possible to send AI straight and quickly. This new feature has a big effect on the opponents' AI. It's still bad because I can't add the right angle, but the AI speed is increased by +/-20% and it has no effect on the traffics ( not like changing VRoad ).

It probably helps with sharp turns, which are also hard to do quickly.

If you want the AI to go straight, you have to change the virtual road points and keep the floats at 0.0. In addition, the Poly VRoads HAVE to be calculated straight each single one, also don't be distracted by AI "drifting", it is also in nfs 2 and 3, it's better to keep it that way if you want an AI that drives good. AI drives on "rails" and they suffer way more from not straight calculated Poly VRoads, they would only jump into the air randomly more often and keep them slow.
The best for any track, AI and player is to calculate Poly VRoads to "straight", it's also the way EA has calculated them.
You can't bring PS1 AI behaviour to PC version, it will remain as a dream.
Another important thing is to set brake points at sharp corners, otherwise the AI will simply smash into the wall, there's no way past that.
But i agree with PomFrit a bit because converted tracks like Rusty Springs Raceway is an issue: If you recalculate a single Poly VRoad to straight, it will be 90 degree according to the track shape and the AI will brake hard at that specific area

[PomFrit]

Traffic lines are bounded with VRoad points, if i change it, traffics hitting walls or going where not to be. OR Cops putting roadblocks on grass .

I did some tests and you have partialy right. If its rotated too much, AI is weird, but 10°, 20°, 30° may work fine.

AI lines ( float numbers ) are made incredibly stupid, so i dont think what EA made ist the best option.

[pete9516]

Traffic lines are bounded with VRoad points, if i change it, traffics hitting walls or going where not to be. OR Cops putting roadblocks on grass .

Are you sure that this behaviour isn't about virtual road point floats and/or lane polygons? Maybe track polygon width?
And if you change it that way so that the traffic is messed up, how do you change it?

[pete9516]

AI lines ( float numbers ) are made incredibly stupid, so i dont think what EA made ist the best option.

I think you got me wrong, i was going for the way how Poly VRoads are calculated, if you look at original EA tracks you can see that (mostly) the track lane polygons are calculated in a way that is equal to when you recalculate a single one to "straight" and that's important for a smooth drive over behaviour, a counterexample would be a track like Russian Summit Where any gradient makes your car bounce

[AJ_Lethal]

AI lines ( float numbers ) are made incredibly stupid, so i dont think what EA made ist the best option.

I think you got me wrong, i was going for the way how Poly VRoads are calculated, if you look at original EA tracks you can see that (mostly) the track lane polygons are calculated in a way that is equal to when you recalculate a single one to "straight" and that's important for a smooth drive over behaviour, a counterexample would be a track like Russian Summit Where any gradient makes your car bounce

Could be also that the reason why at past a certain point, an incline acts like a wall with certain flag settings (for example, when you race Aquatica backwards, if you hug the wall on the divided road tunnel by the observatory area your car will crash and go airborne)?

[PomFrit]

Traffic lines are bounded with VRoad points, if i change it, traffics hitting walls or going where not to be. OR Cops putting roadblocks on grass .

Are you sure that this behaviour isn't about virtual road point floats and/or lane polygons? Maybe track polygon width?
And if you change it that way so that the traffic is messed up, how do you change it?

I you move Vroad node, traffic line will be moved too, this is the reason for having Vroad nodes on middle of the road. Traffic lines are not stored in Track folder, because if you replace, for example Landstrasse with UK, traffics still acts like it was Landstrasse. Only thing what affects traffics is VRoad edge, traffics wont go behind it.

[PomFrit]

AI lines ( float numbers ) are made incredibly stupid, so i dont think what EA made ist the best option.

I think you got me wrong, i was going for the way how Poly VRoads are calculated, if you look at original EA tracks you can see that (mostly) the track lane polygons are calculated in a way that is equal to when you recalculate a single one to "straight" and that's important for a smooth drive over behaviour, a counterexample would be a track like Russian Summit Where any gradient makes your car bounce

Vroads are calculated this way, because AI didnt always follow float numbers ( blue cars on picture ) like Cops or if opponents are too close each other or close to the player ( lots of testing ). For ideal case game needs different Vroad for float numbers and if they are following only AI lines. If you change AI line in your float numbers line, for opponents its signal straighten car with calculated VRoad, thats why it looks like drifting on S curves. For example Vroad is calculated left ( blue cars ), but float number wants to go right ( red cars ), thats why AI cars drifting a slows them.

[pete9516]

AI lines ( float numbers ) are made incredibly stupid, so i dont think what EA made ist the best option.

I think you got me wrong, i was going for the way how Poly VRoads are calculated, if you look at original EA tracks you can see that (mostly) the track lane polygons are calculated in a way that is equal to when you recalculate a single one to "straight" and that's important for a smooth drive over behaviour, a counterexample would be a track like Russian Summit Where any gradient makes your car bounce

Could be also that the reason why at past a certain point, an incline acts like a wall with certain flag settings (for example, when you race Aquatica backwards, if you hug the wall on the divided road tunnel by the observatory area your car will crash and go airborne)?

That is a very interesting point AJ! Because mostly, wall polygons or other non-lane polygons are calculated completely wrong

[pete9516]

Traffic lines are bounded with VRoad points, if i change it, traffics hitting walls or going where not to be. OR Cops putting roadblocks on grass .

Are you sure that this behaviour isn't about virtual road point floats and/or lane polygons? Maybe track polygon width?
And if you change it that way so that the traffic is messed up, how do you change it?

I you move Vroad node, traffic line will be moved too, this is the reason for having Vroad nodes on middle of the road. Traffic lines are not stored in Track folder, because if you replace, for example Landstrasse with UK, traffics still acts like it was Landstrasse. Only thing what affects traffics is VRoad edge, traffics wont go behind it.

I guess i'm going to try this out, i've always known that Celtic Ruins and Durham Road are left traffic tracks, but driving lines being tied to track folders alone is new to me

[JimDiabolo]

I looked at the 'PolyVRoad' thing again.
A direction vector is required to set the 'PolyVRoad'. If the recalculation is called via "Virtual Road, Heights" (Ctrl H), a vector from the first to the last VRoad point is used for all polygons of the block.
If the recalculation is done via "Polygon Virtual Road Flags", I used the points of the individual polygons for the calculation. That seems to work better. There are probably only problems with some converted tracks that have a different order of the points.
I'm considering adding a selection to "Virtual Road, Heights" to include both options.

[pete9516]

I'm considering adding a selection to "Virtual Road, Heights" to include both options.

omg this would be so epic! What kind of features would the added option have? Like selecting different angles? Best would be "straight" if you ask me. So it would be possible to recalculate a whole block with "straight" (individual for each polygon) settings?

[JimDiabolo]

I just added T3ED_Dev4.4.0.417 to my Magenta Cloud.
It now has three modes for PolyVRad calculation. You only see differences in parts with curves. Visually, the new mode 2 looks the best. It is the same as specifying 'Straight' individually.
Please try it out.

[WiLL]

I totally don't understand all this as of yet. I hope to some day.
What's this do make the Ai' Cars take corners better an faster then, an smoother is great 👍

Thanks for this update JimD bud.
Rock on huh 😎 ☮️