Some track making tips
This page is just a place for me to rattle off some random tips. They are in no particular order and they are not complete. I will add to them over time and at some point I will have to reorganize them. A lot of these tips are generic and will apply to any terrain-based game that uses a displacement map. I plan on making a converter that will let me make terrain for Combat Flight Simulator using some of these same techniques.
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The first thing is to know your tools
The basic building block of a track for MCM 1, MCM 2, Extreme Biker, and MX Mania is the displacement map: a grayscale image that describes your terrain. White is high and black is low. To create these you need to paint them with a paint program such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop.
The next basic element is the texture. Sure, you can have ’Dillo create one for you, but if you want your track to stand out you need to paint one yourself. To accomplish both of these you will need to become proficient with a few basic tools within these paint programs. It is worthwhile learning these because they will help you in the long run. I never realized how handy the skills that I learned from making tracks would become when doing other tasks.
Most important tools
- Airbrush
- Selection tool
- Blur
- Layers
Other helpful tools
- Cloning tool
- Filters and plugins
- Touch-up tools
- Color adjustments
These lists aren’t complete, but if you master the first four then you will be able to make tracks easily. Learn the next four and you will be able to make textures easily.
How do you learn? Use them. Don’t be afraid to practice a few things that you end up throwing away. The experience learned will be valuable.
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Experiment
One of the difficult things when making tracks is deciding how big to make something. What color do you use? What strength do you use? What grid resolution do you use?
The easiest way to figure that out is to try it. I recommend making a displacement map with several different jumps. It’s not a track; it’s just a displacement map with many jumps. Try it out. Which ones did you like? Keep track of what you did so that you can recreate them. If you like them, keep them. They can also be cut, pasted, and rotated later.
Do the same thing with textures. TNTGuru250 told me that he tried out different textures in the game by painting a big grid with different textures in each square. This let him see what they looked like in the game. He kept what worked and threw away what didn’t.
Bruce (AMA_DirtTwister)