Part One

　　Racetrack environment creation has been my staple diet for the last eighteen months as I have been working on Total Immersion Racing, at Empire Interactive’s Razorworks studio based in Oxford. Razorworks, renowned for their Apache helicopter flight simulations on the PC, decided to take simulation into the racing genre, albeit with an arcade twist. The result is a multi-platform racing game containing real licensed GT cars and a number of racetracks

, both real and fictional. I joined the company at the early stages of development and have focused soley on track design and creation. For TIR I helped to develop two real circuits, which required a keen eye for real world accuracy, plus two invented circuits where I could let my imagination flow a little! This tutorial concentrates on the processes involved with geometry construction and texturing of a typical polygonal racetrack environment that could be run within the TIR game engine. Duringthe development of the game, it became clear that we were generating our own in-house style for the track creation, and many of the stages you see here are the result of hours of refinement to streamline the process. The track itself is one that unfortunately did not make it to the final build of the game but is a simple example that is useful to show track building techniques. CREATING THE BUILD CURVES

　　

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　　(1) Seeing as the overall track distance is in kilometers, the first step is to set the units within Maya to meters. This is found in the Settings tab of the Preferences Options, found in the Window menu. Then import the track design in the top view as an image plane, which can be accessed in the top view’s View menu. Click here to access the track design as seen in the screenshot above (2) Using ei

ther the EP or CV NURBs tools set to a 3 cubic curve degree, trace the centreline of your track starting at the point where you would expect the start/finish line to be, usually opposite the pit lane. When completed, do not join the start and end points of the curve – overlap them slightly.

　　

　　(3) Depending on your skills at drawing NURBs curves, you may need

to modify the CVs or EPs on the curve. Try not to have any turns that are too sharp and make sure the curve is smooth and consistent. You may need to delete points or add more using the Insert Knots Tool.

　　

(4) Use the Arc Length Measure Tool found in the Create menu and position it along the curve until you reach the overlapping end point. This is the distance of the circuit in metres and depending on your original image scale could be large or small.

　　

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(5) Scale the curve, up or down, until the arc length value is about 3840 then snap the end point to the start point of the curve. The total circuit length will then be approximately 3.84Km. Notice how this value is a multiple of 2 – you will see why I have chosen this later.

　　

　　(6) Add height to the track by moving the CVs in the Y axis – made easier by selecting in the top view and moving in a side or front view. Notice in the track design, a 30 metre maximum height difference of the two small downhill sections, and the longer sweeping uphill.

　　

(7) Offset Curve 3 times either side of the centreline. The track width will be 13m so offsetting four lines +6, -6, +6.5, -6.5, will compensate for the edge of the tarmac and the white line. Then offset twice again +9.5, -9.5 that will act as the outer edge of the grass verge.

　　

　　(8) Again using the Arc Length Tool mark out the centreline approx. every 128m. Notice how I chose 3.84km as the track length. This will ensure that the circuit has 30 sections of 128m. This simplifies the modelling for purposes of this tutorial.

　　

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　　(9) In the top view, use a 1 cubic curve, and mark out line

s perpendicular to the centreline positioned at every 128m marker. Then select all curves in the top view and Cut Curves selecting in the options box, to cut At All Intersections and keep All Curve Segments.

　　

REBUILDING, LOFTING, TEXTURING (10) In areas on the track where there are severe turns, like at a chicane, you may wish to fine tune the 128m sections by spli

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