T3ed adjust road width tool help

[Zalcus20]

Hello to all. 

     This was supposed to be a surprise upload sometime in the future but I need some help with something. I have been working on a new track for HS which was started in 2014. I will upload some screens when I get the chance.
     I still have a long way to go before the track is finished but I have stumbled upon a problem: On some blocks, the virtual road needs to be adjusted. Naturally I try the adjust road width tool to solve the problem but it doesn't seem to matter which method I choose (Dennis Method, use VR to setup..., etc.). The old Dennis method is always selected. I can't deselect and when I click OK, the width of the VR is so narrow that the AI only sees one lane (the specialty of my track is that the AI are smart and they know how to take a turn and are aggressive). Am I doing something wrong. Or is this a bug with T3ed? 

[FranknFurter]

 ... well known problem one faces making or editing tracks .. AI driving lines can only be moved as a whole on 'Objects mode' (VR points) not widened .. made that experience too

Denis stated that he hasn't yet found a way to fix AI driving lines' width .. pity

Only way to fix strange AI behaviour is to either copy and paste another block from different track with wider AI driving lines and then revert that by keeping VRoad but hard to find matching track section or making track polies and objects passable .. 

[Zalcus20]

quote by FranknFurter:Only way to fix strange AI behaviour is to either copy and paste another block from different track with wider AI driving lines and then revert that by keeping VRoad but hard to find matching track section or making track polies and objects passable .. 

Funny. Haven't thought about doing that. I'll try that when I get the chance...

So, the adjust road width tool in t3ed is not fully implemented, I guess?

Thanks Frank. 

[FranknFurter]

no in fact it isn't .. I read Denis' description and he states not having found a way to do that properly ... but at least you can move the AI driving lines' center spots in objects mode ... I did that for example on Jimi's 'Lake Diabolo' by the lake's middle-on-road rocks so now even traffic Semis and Buses can pass there .. man I love that track

Nevertheless Denis did such great work on his T3Ed would miss it soo much fun ... chapeau

[Zalcus20]

Yeah. Lake Diabolo is one of my favorites. T3ed is such an amazing program. I'm surprised at how much can be done. The authors of this program are geniuses.

Thanks again Frank. I'll post some screens of my track here. It's a totally new track BTW so you wouldn't be able to tell what track it's based on by looking at it. 

[Freak-DS]

Make sure you have the lastet T3ED version by JimD and that it was actually started in the program infos. I had some trouble with new functions because and old program version was loaded although I had a different version assigned to open .frd files.
I used the virtual road egde flag thing and moved the v-road points a bit, that helped me a lot with the porsche leipzig track - i even managed to get the bus-stop chicane to work like that!

[Zalcus20]

@Freak-DS: pleasure to meet you.  I usually open t3ed first, then load the .frd. I'll still check that I have the latest version. Thank you. 

[FranknFurter]

I usually open t3ed first, then load the .frd

No need to do that .. T3Ed automatically assigns *.frd to be opened by it with first start of program .exe file -LOL

Make sure you have the lastet T3ED version by JimD

Huh? Where? what? .. is there a later version out there than this one I'm using: 'Plus dev3.9 (0.07 pre1.1 H-1f dev3.9) by JimiD?

[Zalcus20]

@Frank: I keep all my editing tools for HS on a flash drive so the auto assignment of .frd files does not happen. The info on the 'undo but keep vroad" helped significantly. I was able to widen the VR a bit. The AI racers still keep crashing into the back of traffic cars. Guess I'll have to live with it. 

@Freak-DS: I downloaded the version that JimDiablo posted here recently. I assume that's the latest one?

[Zalcus20]

Here are some screens of my Track. I don't have a name for it yet. 

[Zalcus20]

A few more...

[FranknFurter]

Really nice Zalcus ... that track slope reminds me of 'Mediterraneo' ..?

.. looks also long and large .. maybe good track for 'the Bandit run' ... any rivers so far?

VR is somewhat different from AI driving lines .. VR is calculated by trackpoly attributes (wether if driveable or not, (dark=centre or main road)green or white (=non-passable) areas) and AI driving lines are being set as left and right boundaries (blue lines) of the AI node points in middle of the road (red line) .. you can move those node points in object mode (with showing 'VR width and node points) and watch how also AI lines are moved along that but the width of AI driving lines inbetween them cannot be changed for reasons unexplained ...

the green colouring only means a calculated assumption of where VR area 'probably' is located based on driveable areas and centre AI line, if you for example move the AI line's centre node points very much to the left or right the coloured areas also change their position while of course the trackpolies' attributes haven't changed ...

stretching the node points' distance means also changing drive behaviour since the speedfiles tables are then updated to greater values when track is saved .. setting node points narrower means then also slowing down AI cars like e.g. in sharp turns

[JimDiabolo]

Select View -> Show Virtual Road Width and Nodes Points
Select Edit Modes -> Object

Zoom in, into a block that you can see the virtual road. Select the litte cross and move it like objects. the width can't be changed that way.

I got the best results, when I worked on "Lake Diabolo", with copying the spdFA & and spdRA information from an similar block of an original track to my created block. Start t3ed two times, load your track and a original one. Search for a block that looks similar to that one you want to change. Copy the block from original track and paste it to your track. Select "Replace selected block" with ONLY "Paste heigts sim data", "Paste spdfa bin data" und "Paste spdra bin data". That was a lot of worked, changing some blocks, start HS, whatch the bots driving and start over again till it was good enough.

[Zalcus20]

Many, many thanks guys.  I was able to fix many messed up areas (not all) on the track. Also figured why the bots seem to deliberately crash into traffic at certain points of the track; reason is because the track that it's based on (aquatica) has those problematic blocks as the narrow tunnels (ie. Neptune tunnel, seaside tunnel). Bottom line: it's a flaw that came with the original track.


Great! I can finally get on with the track editing now. 

Special thanks to: FranknFurter, Freak-DS, and JimDiabolo. I'll include your names in the readme file when this track is released! (No time soon, I'm afraid)

[FranknFurter]

@Zalcus: .. too much of an honour you're welcome, that's what community is for IMO ..

Good luck and much success for your current project .. keep up your good work

@Jimi: hi there Was that being complete nonsense what I wrote about copying and pasting in a different block from another track to get altered AI driving lines width? .. since I made that experience .. maybe was just coincidence ..

So what values is the AI driving line's width exactly based or calculated upon, have you ever found out about that? Is it kind of hardcoded? Ever wondered why of all values that specific one cannot be altered