I'm currently in the early stages of making new layout, and I thought I'd share what I'm doing, rather than show the finished project.

No idea how it's going to end up looking, as I've not got anything in mind except it'll be a circuit (start/finish at almost the same place), and that it'll likely have at least 1 alternate route.

So for this layout, I started with a hairpin, then added a long straight. Normally for long straights on the LA layout, I put the track on the road, but this time, the edge of the track is the edge of the pavement furthest from the road.

Struggled on the hairpin. I put in a little bit of straight then a straight after the corner, then basically joined both straights up with curves.

Problems with 'joining' walls together in a straight line is that in LFS you can turn objects in 256 increments to turn 360 degrees. Which means 1 turn = 1.40625 degrees. This makes it hard if you use the wrong angle to get the edges to meet up properly, and they can be slightly offset, so you don't get a nice straight line.

So my straight after turn 1 is 45 degrees.

Spent ages fiddling with the hairpin. Not happy with it, but it's servicable. I'll wait till I'm finished most of the layout before I go back to it and see how many objects I've got left to try make it better.

Put a blue wall round the hairpin section, as this makes it so much easier for me to judge where the turn is. I could have put a stand there, but in real life, circuit owners wouldn't as they'd have to be aware that cars can easily go straight on, and even with tyre barriars and catch fencing, objects could still end up in a crowded stand.

I also spent some time making a 'Y' junction after the checkpoint, with the start paralleling the main straight.
I plan to make a chicane next to break up this second straight.

I've attached a lyt of the bit I've done, so, if you want, you can do timed run from straight, round the hairpin, and run to Checkpoint 1.

So more work on layout.

As I had intended, I put in a chicane past the 'Y' junction, although it took a lot of trial and error. Originally had it much tighter so you almost had to crawl round, but I eventually made something that flows a lot better.

To start with, I had concrete walls on outside, with banner signboards on the inside. But problem is that when you hit the outside wall, the wall acts as bumpers to get you partly round, whereas with the banners, if you hit them, because they're angled, you end up going up and over them, or rolling the car. So the way they are now, you have to treat them with a bit of respect.


I spent so long doing the chicane, I barely had time for anything else.

However, I've laid a 'S' bend route leading to another straight, and from the straight, I'll probably loop it back round to the start/finish straight.

Look like a simple version of Grand Valley Speedway East, funny

Not expecting anyone to believe me, but I had to go look up Grand Valley track. You say plagiarism, my first thought was serendipity, but not really happy about it, so coincidence would bea better word.

Any tracks I've copied I've said that's what I've done.

Anyway.

I spent a little time working on an 'S' section, then looped round to the start/finish straight. The corners aren't quite 90 degrees.

.

Next stage will lbe putting in walls (likely roughly positioning), just to see what it's like to drive.

Visually, this V4 looks like V3, but for this update, I sort of joined the dots, and roughly placed walls to show track edges.


The long lines in the images (yellow lines with orange dots) are mainly insim lines, which you can only see in SHIFT U mode - not when driving. I use these for drawing straights and curves. Very handy when you want to keep outside and inside barriers equidistant throughout a turn. You can also use Insim Circles, but sometimes I prefer my squares. I used the squares to make my 'S' bend.

16mx16m insim checkpoints made into squares and each square turned to make a rough outside and insie line.

After I put barriers in place all round this short track, I then reversed it to see what it was like.

I prefer the reverse layout. But I'll continue with the original, clockwise, direction just now.

I've included lyt's for both for anyone that wants to try them out.

More work this evening.

Cleaned up the short section, putting in proper (joined up) barriers all round.

Also worked on making both a rough layout of the overall circuit, as well as very rough path for another alternative route - the orange looking squiggly bit inside the layout.


It's likely that the orange piece of track from top left, curving down to the bottom will be close to the lines I put down, but the squiggly bit in the middle of the overall layout may change a lot - maybe to a very large 'S' shape, joining higher up closer to the track before it turns right.

A lot will probablhy depend on how many objects I have left after finishing the overall perimeter of the layout, although simpler likely to be much better anyway. And simpler to do too.

I've now got about 95% of the perimeter track done. Just the very fiddly last chicane to do.

I've changed the squiggly bit in the middle of the track. Just copied and pasted large turn I had made in another layout, then turned it a bit to join the first part, then pasted the turn again about 180 deg, so it joined the existing perimeter, then added a little straight between the first 2 curves I placed, where both ends kept curving round, then fiddled with it till it looked about right.



From a distance, it looks neat and tidy, but it's not. I need to work on it a bit.

So now I've got a perimeter layout, a short layout, and a no idea what to call a mainly perimeter with large infield section layout.

The next stage will be to finish the last chicane, fix the infield section, and add more signage. After that, play around with the walls. I think I'll lower a lot of them, so the track looks less constrained. Then, depending on how many objects are left, add some stands or some such.

The last thing to do will likely be the hardest; thinking of a name for the layout.

But I'm not going to be able to work on this layout again till at least the weekend.

It looks so much from Gran Turismo series.

Quote from UnknownMaster21 :

It looks so much from Gran Turismo series.

Is that a good thing?

I've now finished the layout.

Tidied up the infield section, slightly changed the hairpin, added more signage,and added some stands, etc. I also added a small pit area.

So there are 3 route choices - perimeter, infield and short.


Still haven't thought of a name, although 'seal_on_a_rock' was one of the first things that came to mind when I was colouring the 3 routes.

Robbenfelsen Perimeter / Robbenfelsen Infield / Robbenfelsen Short?

ALtogether, because I placed everything by hand/eye, changed things as I went along, spent a bit of time tidying things up, etc., I spent anything from 24 - 30 hours on this layout.

Anyway, I hope you found the process interesting.

The right layout seem very fun to drive, i like the process. Hype to try

Quote from THEFRENCHDESTOYER :

The right layout seem very fun to drive, i like the process. Hype to try

So I've rented a LFS Server - Sin'rs Too - and it's running the 'Robbenfelsen Infield' layout.

See if you like driving it.

Has all original 20 LFS cars, plus an assortment of 20 mods, from a bus to single seater F1 type vehicles. No motorbikes.

As of today (16 June 2024), there's about 10 times recorded. Mainly the slower mods.

I'm using LFSLapper ("lapper") to record times and drift scores.

Haven't used lapper in couple of years, and since a major update, so back to the learning curve, and trying to get things working properly.

!top - to list top times
!drf - to list top drift scores

Very nice looking layout and fun to drive. I like how the minimap looks on this layout.

There are some minor things on the GUI (insim) side that need to be fixed, like overlapping buttons. But as you mentioned, you are working on it.

I do miss the curbs on this layout. I bet you ran out of objects.
We can never have enough objects, right?

Quote from Bass-Driver :

Very nice looking layout and fun to drive. I like how the minimap looks on this layout.....

Hi.
Just saw you've taken the top spots on the list

Glad you like the layout. I tend to drive in VR now, so cars and track stuff looks good.

As for curbs - I'd need to get rid of a tree or two, to have enough curb objects. And if there were more objects, I'd probably put in more other 'stuff' round the track first, to break up the background a bit more.

Overlapping buttons - this is my 'little people' messages. Likely I'll have to either totally overhaul whole lot, or simplify it to one message.

Almost 30 top timed runs and drift scores...
Thought it would be nice to have the top time before too many more people try the layout.

Drift scores not high as I think people who've been on the server have been trying for quick times.

Very nice layout to drive, really fun, i saw a little gap on the concrete at the second bridge, on the right side, if you want to correct it

Had to hack at one of my 'trees' to get some more objects, but the gap is now fixed.