Introduction

I went to the Atlanta Supercross in the final stages of creating StepUp2. After looking at the track I thought that I could make a really good version of it with StepUp2. As soon as I got home I made a track. I was surprised at how well it came out. The biggest problem I had was the compromise between how it looks and how it rides. If you make it look like the Atlanta track it doesn't ride like the Atlanta track. When those situations happened I have leaned towards making it ride like the Atlanta track. I would love to have provided the Atlanta track with my StepUp2 plugin. Those of you who have been to my Web site are already familiar with my attempts to get Pace to support MCM and/or to approve the creation and distribution of tracks that resemble their 99 season tracks. They stated that it is a violation of their copyright for me to distribute their tracks. They said also that it was ok for me to create and use them for my own personal use.

As I added more to StepUp2, the complexity level of StepUp2 increased. I felt that for beginners it was probably better that they build a few tracks using some other plugin (like StepUp) first. I created the StepUp2Readme.html file to help lessen the learning curve. I also thought it would be a good idea to step thru the building of a track. I thought this might help someone new to track building get over the learning curve of using StepUp2. I figured my version of the Atlanta 99 track would be a good one to build. Feel free to modify this anyway that you want. The instructions show how I would build it using StepUp2. You may want to do it differently.

Tutorial

Before beginning the tutorial it is probably a good idea if you print out the _StepUp2Readme.HTML file that is in your trakedit directory.

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1. Start the Track Editor

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2. From the File Menu select New Track

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3. From the New Track dialog select Step-Up 2

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4. From the Options Menu select Track Name

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5. Enter a track name (suggested name: StepUp2 Atlanta 99)

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6. As you move your arrow around the grid you will see that your current position in the grid will be updated in the lower left corner of the window. So that we are talking the same language I will identify certain parts of the track grid. The top most corner of the grid is called [Col 1,Row 1]. The top of the columns move down to the right. So the next square to the right is [Col 2,Row 1], the next is [Col 3,Row 1], etc. The rows move down to the left. The next square down to the left, from the top square, is [Col 1,Row 2]. The square on the left most side of the grid would be [Col 1,Row 16]. The square on the right most part of the grid is [Col 16,Row 1]. The square at the bottom of the grid is [Col 16,Row 16]. Play with this until you are comfortable with the Column and Row positions.

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7. North is to the upper right, West is to the upper left, South is to the lower left, and East is to the lower right.

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8. You use the space bar to toggle a track piece's direction. It will rotate in a counter clockwise direction. Normally when you place a piece it will start out in the North direction. The Track Editor will sometimes automatically rotate a piece to help you out. Especially when laying the track out in an East and West direction. If you can't tell what direction it's pointing, than just use an unused portion of the grid to place the piece and you will see what the piece looks like in the North direction.

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9. When I use different pieces by name it may be a good idea to have the print out of the readme handy to refer to. You can also move your mouse area over the track pieces and the bubble text will display what the track piece is. If you don't have bubble text when you point to pieces on the grid, than make sure that the menu item "Tool Tips on Track" is checked under the Options menu.

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10. To start the track select the Start/Finish line and place it on [4,13]. It should be in the North direction. With the arrow pointing toward the upper right.

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11. We are going to have a Finish line, that is a mound jump, followed by a Table top. The Start/Finish line is created as a half mound with the North part of the mound cut off at the same height as all the monster pieces. Select the Monster Table Top and place it 2 squares to the North on [4,11]. We need it facing in the South direction so push the space bar twice. We now have a a half mound that has a vertical wall on the North edge and a Table Top that has a vertical wall on the South edge. We will connect these two pieces using the MM piece which has half of a Monster jump on the South edge and half of a Monster jump on the North edge. Select the MM piece and place it between the two pieces that you have already placed [4,12]. We now have a Finish line jump followed by a complete table top.

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12. Select the 90 degree turn and place it on [4,10]. It should be in the North direction by default. This will form a right turn after the table top.

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13. We will now make a 45 degree straight from that right turn heading SouthEast (straight down). Select a 45 degree straight piece and place it in the East direction in position [5,10]. You need to toggle the space bar until the piece is in the East direction. In the east direction the track will be on the left side of the square and the default terrain will be on the right. The easiest way to remember what direction it's going is by looking at the side of the piece that has the default terrain. When it is North the default terrain will be on top and when it's South the default terrain will be on the bottom.

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14. Place another 45 degree straight in position [5,11] in the West direction.

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15. Place another 45 degree straight in position [6,11] in the East direction.

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16. Place another 45 degree straight in position [6,12] in the West direction.

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17. Place another 45 degree straight in position [7,12] in the East direction.

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18. Select a straight piece and place it in position [7,13] facing the North direction.

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19. We now want to make a 180 degree left turn. Start the turn with the Start a 180 degree left hand turn piece [7,14].

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20. Finish the turn with the Finish a 180 degree left hand turn piece [8,14].

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21. The first sequence of jumps on this stretch will be a Big jump followed by a Monster Saddle. To give some run to the Big jump, we will shift the Big jump so that it straddles two grid pieces. To do this we will use the BE piece back to back. Using the BE piece place one in the North direction on [8,13] and one in the South direction on [8,12].

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22. Now let's build a saddle. Select the Monster Saddle piece (MS) and place it on [8,10] in the North direction. This piece is a dip between two monster jumps. Place an ME on each end of it. An ME facing North should be placed in [8,11]. Another ME facing South should be placed on [8,9].

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23. Place a Big jump on [8,8]. To do this select the Monster Jump piece and then rotate it to the South direction. This will make it switch to a Big jump. Since they are symmetrical this piece works in both the North and South direction.

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24. We'll now make a table top by placing the Monster Table Top facing North on [8,7] followed by an ME piece facing South on [8,6].

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25. Follow the Table Top with 2 Big Mounds. These work the same way as the Big jump. Select the Monster mound and rotate it until it is in the South position. It will switch to the Big mound. Place one on [8,5,] and [8,4].

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26. Place a 90 degree turn facing east after the second mound [8,3]. This will make a left turn. The turn works the same way as the 45 degree straight. The default terrain will be on the right side when it is in the East direction. If you look back at the one we placed in the North direction you will see that the default terrain is above the turn.

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27. This stretch will be a simple stretch with two small mounds to slow you down a little. This is a good place for the mechanics to stand. Place the first small mound at [7,3]. To select the small mound place the small jump and rotate it until it turns into a mound. Make sure the mound is going in the right direction.

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28. Follow the mound with 3 straight pieces facing West at [6,3],[5,3], and [4,3].

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29. After the straight pieces place another small mound facing east in [3,3].

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30. We are now ready for a 180 turn to the right. Place a Start 180 degree right turn piece at [2,3] and a Finish 180 right turn piece at [2,2]. Rotate them so that they are in the right position. This 180 degree turn is a West version. The one we did before was a South one. I don't have an easy way to remember it. It really doesn't matter with these. Just rotate them until they look right.

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31. This next stretch is a series of whoops, ending with a sloped whoops, with a jump into a right hand turn. We'll start out with a regular whoops. Place a Monster whoops at [3,2] and rotate it until the M goes away and it's facing in the right direction.

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32. Place 3 more monster whoops and leave them monster whoops at [4,2],[5,2], and [6,2].

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33. Now we need to make the sloped whoops. Place the Sloped whoops piece facing East on [7,2]. It most likely will be placed in the West direction, so two hits of the space bar should get you into the right position.

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34. Follow it with an ME piece facing West to complete the jump. The slope of the ME piece should go up towards the Sloped Whoops. The Sloped whoops has a verticle wall at it's highest point. The ME piece should have it's vertical wall up against the sloped whoops.

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35. Select a 90 degree turn and place it at [9,2] facing East. This will make a right hand turn.

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36. We now have a complicated series of jumps that includes two saddles followed by a triple. To help visualize what we are building I will have you put the ends and the saddle's in first and then the connecting pieces. To start let's place the end pieces. We want a BE piece facing South at [9,3] and a BE piece facing North at [9,9].

    Now let's place the saddles. We want two Big Saddles (BS) at [9,5] and [9,7]. They need to face South. Just place an MS piece and then rotate it until it becomes a BS and is facing in the right direction. What I mean by the right direction is it should be in the (North/South) direction with a BS and not the (East/West) direction.

    Now let's take a look at what we got so far. The first BE ends with a vertical wall. There is then a saddle with vertical walls on both ends, followed by another. Finally there is a BE with a vertical wall facing the saddle. We now need to connect all the pieces.

    To connect them up we will use the BB piece. A BB has half of a Big jump on both ends. So select the MM piece and place one at [9,4],[9,6], and [9,8]. As you place them rotate them until they change to a BB and are facing in the right direction (North/South). You now have completed this jump sequence.

    While riding you should be able to jump from the first BE to the saddle, then jump to the next saddle, and then jump beyond the last BE. An alternate but slower route would be to jump into the BB pieces, jumping over the saddles.

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37. Let's put a straight piece in facing North at [9,10]. We need this to get up to speed for the triple.

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38. To start the triple place a monster jump at [9,11] facing North.

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39. Place a Monster mound at [9,12] facing North.

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40. Place a Big landing facing North at [9,13].

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41. After the triple we need to make a small bump before the turn. I used the small landing to do it. So place a small landing piece facing South at [9,14].

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42. To complete this stretch place a 90 degree turn facing South at [9,15] to make a right hand turn.

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43. This stretch contains a trick dual height jump, half jump, and saddle combination. To start we need to place the half jump facing West at [8,15]. It should be automatically facing West when you place it.

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44. Immediately after the half jump place the dual jump facing West at [7,15]. It should be automatically facing West when you place it.

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45. For this Saddle we will be starting out with a Monster and changing to a big jump on the end. So to start with place an ME facing West at [6,15].

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46. Place a Monster Saddle MS at [5,15] facing West.

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47. Since we will be finishing this off with a Big jump we will be using a BB instead of an MM. This is ok even though the end of the Saddle is a Monster. As long as the next piece is smaller they don't have to match up exactly. So place a BB facing East at [4,15]. Select the MM and rotate it until it is a BB facing the proper direction.

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48. End the jump combination with a BE facing East ast [3,15].

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49. Place a 90 degree turn facing West at [2,15]. This will make a right hand turn.

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50. This is the last tricky stretch. On this stretch we want to double up onto a saddle that has a Monster jump on the end, which will take us over a triple. To do this we will use the BM (Big/Monster) Saddle piece. To help show what's going on let's place that piece first in the North direction at [2,12]. This piece will be the launching piece for the triple, so let's finish the triple off next.

    Place a BE piece facing South on [2,9]. The BE is the landing ramp for the triple and the BM is the takeoff ramp for the triple.

    To finish the triple place two BB pieces inbetween them at [2,10] and [2,11]. Select the MM piece and rotate it until it turns to a BB and is facing in the right direction. The valleys of the triple are inbetween the B's of the two BB pieces.

    We still need to double up to the BM piece. So place a BE piece facing North at [2,13], this finishes up the BM piece.

    Now we just need a jump to let us jump up onto the BM. Place a Big jump facing South at [2,14]. Do this by selecting the Monster jump and then rotating it until it becomes a big jump and is facing the right direction. This complete the complicated jump sequence.

    On this section the stock MCM 250 rides like the 125's at Atlanta. They had to land perfectly on the BM piece in order to make the triple. That's the way the stock MCM 250 rides it. It can be done with practice lap after lap, but it takes practice. The 500 or some variation of it rides it like the 250's at Atlanta and can easily make the triple.

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51. After the triple we need to place a straight facing North at [2,8].

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52. We now need a 180 degree right hand turn. Place a Start 180 degree right hand turn at [2,7] and a Finish 180 degree right hand turn at [3,7].

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53. This stretch is a whoops section. To start with let's put a small landing facing north at the beginning [3,8] as a means of jumping into the whoops.

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54. Place a Monster Whoops facing North at [3,9], [3,10], and [3,11].

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55. The real Atlanta had the whole whoops section changing height as you went through it. We can't do that so we will just have it change height at the end by placing a sloped whoop pyramid. Select the sloped whoops and place them back to back in [3,12] and [3,13]. Place the first piece facing South and the last facing North.

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56. To complete the track all we need is a 180 degree left hand turn. Place a Start 180 degree left hand turn at [3,14] and a Finish 180 degree left hand turn at [4,14].

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57. To finish off place the blocker pieces as indicated in the table below.

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58. Congratulations you have finished. Now it's time to save and compile. Go up to the File Menu and select Compile Track. A dialog will appear asking you to save your track. Type in a file name (Suggested name: StepUp2Atlanta.trk). Click on save and your track will be saved and compiled.

    When it's done you are ready to race. Your track will show up in the Supercross section of MCM under User Created Tracks.

    NOTE:

    There is a bug in the Track Editor. You will sometimes get an erroneous error that states that your track appears to run off the edge of the earth (sometimes it is real). All that is needed to fix this is to exit the Track Editor and reload it. If you have just created your track, you are now in a Catch 22, because you cannot exit without losing all your work. I have a work around below that will let you save your track.

    To work around the problem just replace the Start/Finish line with a straight. Then create a small oval in an unused portion of the grid. Place a Start/Finish line, followed by two 90 degree turns, a straight, and two more 90 degree turns. You should now be able to save the track. After it's saved exit the Track Editor and restart it. Then reload your track, put the Start/Finish line back and you should be able to save and compile your track. Others have said that they have gotten rid of this problem by uninstalling and reinstalling MCM. I have done this several times and I still get this error every so often. I have gotten this error using every plugin including the Classic one. I have yet to get this error when it is valid, although I am sure it is possible.