1920x3428
tracks3.jpg
🧵 Untitled Thread
How did people go about blocking out environments like these a decade ago? at Tue, 25 Jan 2022 21:48:51 UTC No. 878072
I want to work on some stuff for Assetto Corsa and I've always been fascinated by the fantasy urban race tracks in games like GRID, Ridge Racer, Split/Second, and others but I never found out how the pros do the white boxing for these, people on Artstation never show the initial stages of the process so I'm not sure what would be correct, do I just use splines and modifiers to make the base of the main road? That would work to some extent if my track were to be just a ring of concrete over grass, but it would fall apart if my layout were to be made in the middle of a city (GRID 2 in pic related), extruding geometry around doesn't seem very optimal either as iterating on it doesn't sound very practical, I've seen some magic done inside Houdini where it spits out a track based on splines but it still doesn't answer my question about more abstract environments like cities.
To put it bluntly, my question is: What is the optimal workflow someone would follow in the production (especially the initial stages of block out) of a racing game environment? In special the ones people made for 7th gen games. I also don't want it all chewed into my mouth step-by-step, just a general outline used in production would be more than an eye-opener.
Anonymous at Tue, 25 Jan 2022 22:12:56 UTC No. 878078
>>878072
1. search for city streets that would be cool to race on
2. stitch them together in photoshop
3. elevate a few streets
4. drive around and see how much fin it is
5. play with elevation and drag around the layout, make corners wider/more narrow, etc
6. if you absolutely cannot get it to work start at 1.
7. only now start making buildings and props
Anonymous at Wed, 26 Jan 2022 01:54:41 UTC No. 878121
>>878072
There is no single technique that is 'whiteboxing'.
When people talk about whiteboxing it is the process of making the initial pass of the environment establishing it's boundaries and start approaching
a simplified geometry that can be hardened enough to do playtests.
What it really gets at is the geometry equivalent of sketching. Any and all methods you can employ to help you fill in the blanks in your plan is useful.
What did people do in the olddays? simple geometry in 3D programs, pen and paper drawings scanned and mapped onto image planes.
Mockups with real world geometry, posicle sticks + hot glue, wire and strigs, Lego bricks etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6a
Anonymous at Wed, 26 Jan 2022 04:49:10 UTC No. 878144
>>878078
Lines up with what I've seen other people do for rFactor/AC, I'll keep it in in mind.
>>878121
I remember that video, using LEGO is quite unexpected but it surely is smart. The fact that there isn't a single white boxing method is known to me, should've worded my question better, was talking more about racing games in specific but, going by what you said, it seems that anything goes when laying the foundation for a track/level/map.