For this week’s milestone, I worked on re-learning 3Ds Max
after a long absence. I spent many hours poring over tutorials online on the
best methods for both creating terrain and conforming roads to that terrain.
Depending on what I was trying to achieve, my results have varied. However, I
did eventually manage to create a basic track with detachable walls by the end
of the week.
First, I played around with the terrain editor in Max:
The first plane had a noise modifier on it; the others I
used height maps on that I found online. The purpose for me creating these was
just so that I could get used to working with the terrain tools in Max.
I then proceeded to go through a bunch of Youtube tutorials
on creating tracks and terrain:
My
first attempts at conforming roads to uneven terrain.
Ignore the green track; the blue track in this same scene
worked out much better. I essentially created three lines: one that acted as
the path that would go over the terrain, one that would act as the road for
that path, and one that acted as the shape of the road. Using the “loft” tool, I
connected the road with the shape. After that I used the “path deform” tool to
attach my road to the curving path. Finally, I used the “conform” tool to mold
the road to the terrain.
However, this process was really overly complex and I found
an easier way. Instead of using “path deform”, I would just draw a spline
outlining the entire path of my track. After that I would add a “normalize
spline” modifier to smooth out the curves. Next I would add a “sweep” modifier
to it and use the “channel” option under the “built-in Section”. I would then
rotate that 90 degrees and make it an “editable poly”.
This is the track I ended up with for now. It’s got
detachable walls as separate objects so that Greg could put different scripts
in those; after putting it in Unity, adding a mesh collider, and putting in
waypoints, it’s functional in there as well.
This has been primarily a learning week. As I get used to
working with these techniques in 3Ds Max, I’ll start being able to create
better quality terrain / roads.
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