Yesterday, 02:43 PM
Hi, Alayan already said everything about making tracks for the new version in general.
1. You need a texture with an alpha channel, In the material properties you need to selcet "custom shader" and then type displace as the shader name.
This is a bit restricting and will hopefully be changed in the future but for now that's the only way to set it up.
2. To create such gaps you have to make individual woodplanks first and then place them in a way to create those gaps. I would highly recommend to check out the tracks in the media repo to understand how things are made.
3. Yes and no. At the moment most things can still be done with 2.7 but you should definitely start to use the newest blender scripts if you are not already. I'm still using Blender 3.3 because I had some problems with track exports in the newer versions, but you can also try the newest versions.
A few more notes regarding making high quality tracks in general:
- Don't make your tracks too long. Making highly detailed tracks can take a lot of time, making shorter tracks reduces the amount of work and especially when you're not as experienced that is very important.
- Alayan said this already for main game tracks. But even for training and add-on tracks I would suggest to create unique tracks. It will challenge you in different ways than basically copying the concept of an existing track.
- Be aware that modelling assets for your tracks will by far be the most time consuming part. It's also the thing where you will learn the most as a 3D artist. While it's important to use existing assets, you should not shy away from creating your own assets. Especially the most used assets that will define the character of your track should receive enough love and time to really make the track outstanding.
Ultimately you have to decide what you want create and how you want to improve your skills. I personally made Black forest as my biggest learning project after about one year of learning blender beforehand. But that took me really really long and I think most people wouldn't have finished such a long project. It can become very frustating when you're spending days over a very small detail that will only make a tiny difference visually. But those kind of things are normal andstaying patient is by far the most important thing.
(03-04-2026, 05:07 PM)TuxRacer_0827 Wrote: Here are the questions:
-How do you create those reflections in the water, like at the Cocoa Temple?
-How do you make the bridge so that it has those gaps?
-Do you need a specific version of Blender to do this?
1. You need a texture with an alpha channel, In the material properties you need to selcet "custom shader" and then type displace as the shader name.
This is a bit restricting and will hopefully be changed in the future but for now that's the only way to set it up.
2. To create such gaps you have to make individual woodplanks first and then place them in a way to create those gaps. I would highly recommend to check out the tracks in the media repo to understand how things are made.
3. Yes and no. At the moment most things can still be done with 2.7 but you should definitely start to use the newest blender scripts if you are not already. I'm still using Blender 3.3 because I had some problems with track exports in the newer versions, but you can also try the newest versions.
A few more notes regarding making high quality tracks in general:
- Don't make your tracks too long. Making highly detailed tracks can take a lot of time, making shorter tracks reduces the amount of work and especially when you're not as experienced that is very important.
- Alayan said this already for main game tracks. But even for training and add-on tracks I would suggest to create unique tracks. It will challenge you in different ways than basically copying the concept of an existing track.
- Be aware that modelling assets for your tracks will by far be the most time consuming part. It's also the thing where you will learn the most as a 3D artist. While it's important to use existing assets, you should not shy away from creating your own assets. Especially the most used assets that will define the character of your track should receive enough love and time to really make the track outstanding.
Ultimately you have to decide what you want create and how you want to improve your skills. I personally made Black forest as my biggest learning project after about one year of learning blender beforehand. But that took me really really long and I think most people wouldn't have finished such a long project. It can become very frustating when you're spending days over a very small detail that will only make a tiny difference visually. But those kind of things are normal andstaying patient is by far the most important thing.