Hello Racers,
We have been continuing to work hard on the new Westhill. As many of you know, we have gone to a new level with the new track. There is a new National configuration and an International configuration which is similar to the old Westhill. Eric has made the scenery highly detailed and driveable, which makes the open configurations a lot of fun.
The high level of detail resulted in some loss of frame rate, specially in open configs, so we have worked on a new system where open configs can use 'paths' (and change between paths as needed) so LFS knows where you are and what you can see from your location. This keeps the frame rate high by avoiding drawing too many objects. I worked on a new hidden object removal system which doesn't miss objects like the old system did. I plan to release updated hidden object files for the existing tracks.
In the last few days I made a new system that allows for higher detailed fences without increasing the number of objects. It is a flexible system that allows a repeating model to be placed along any of the 'segments' that are used for tracks and fences in LFS.
This has been used now to improve the appearance of some of the fences and barriers in the new Westhill and allowed the removal of some 'alpha test' textures (which do not work well with multisampling AA) because geometry can now be used for repeating supports. I was able to write some auto-repair code that saved Eric from having to manually edit thousands of fence segments.
Eric is finishing some models and has been filling some of the distant landscape scenery. I still have a few things to do left on my lists. After the weekend I'll need to examine my notes and get them together onto fewer sheets of paper and I'll know where I stand then. We are trying to get the release done as quickly as possible but with high quality.
We hope you enjoy these screen shots that show the new fence and barrier system.
We have been continuing to work hard on the new Westhill. As many of you know, we have gone to a new level with the new track. There is a new National configuration and an International configuration which is similar to the old Westhill. Eric has made the scenery highly detailed and driveable, which makes the open configurations a lot of fun.
The high level of detail resulted in some loss of frame rate, specially in open configs, so we have worked on a new system where open configs can use 'paths' (and change between paths as needed) so LFS knows where you are and what you can see from your location. This keeps the frame rate high by avoiding drawing too many objects. I worked on a new hidden object removal system which doesn't miss objects like the old system did. I plan to release updated hidden object files for the existing tracks.
In the last few days I made a new system that allows for higher detailed fences without increasing the number of objects. It is a flexible system that allows a repeating model to be placed along any of the 'segments' that are used for tracks and fences in LFS.
This has been used now to improve the appearance of some of the fences and barriers in the new Westhill and allowed the removal of some 'alpha test' textures (which do not work well with multisampling AA) because geometry can now be used for repeating supports. I was able to write some auto-repair code that saved Eric from having to manually edit thousands of fence segments.
Eric is finishing some models and has been filling some of the distant landscape scenery. I still have a few things to do left on my lists. After the weekend I'll need to examine my notes and get them together onto fewer sheets of paper and I'll know where I stand then. We are trying to get the release done as quickly as possible but with high quality.
We hope you enjoy these screen shots that show the new fence and barrier system.
