Senior Member
Hey guys I'm in the process of making a helpful tips tutorial video to help people make some better tracks in the editor. Here is what I have so far and would love some feedback, input and ideas of what else to add. Type up what you think should be added and I'll add itThanks!
Introduction
Welcome! to the glorious world of Custom Track building in Trials HD! I'm Jarr3tt88, and I'll be bringing you some tips & tricks on how to build better custom tracks in trials HD like a pro. Some of these tips will be of my own opinions gathered from my experiences from feedback, working in the editor and playing other custom tracks. Other tips will be similar beliefs held by other custom creators. Over the course of this tutorial, I'll have topics that range from camera uses, atmosphere, and common occurrences made by amateur track makers. We've all seen tracks made by KatamariUK, Storcken, o SKUMBAG o, HEETSAUCE, DrittesAuge, Redrider686 and a multitude of other epic custom pros. Like us all, we gotta start from the bottom up. I'm hoping with these videos, I'll be able to up all your standard track making skills to a better place that everyone wants to play and be a part of. So sit back, relax, and enjoy! Its Trials time baby EEEHHHHHHH YEAAAAAAAAAA*
Here is an example track of some of the most common occurrences I see in custom tracks from inexperienced creators. Can you see or point out all the occurrences? When I boot up a track that doesn't even have a tag in front of the track name, I know that its going to have no fog color change, no decorations, and floating ramps on the drive line. I almost immediately don't download these tracks. You can almost guess that when the track maker doesn't take the time to change the difficulty from beginner, or no tag and is named track aaaaaaa, that it will be a track that will be filled with these problems. Don't be discouraged though! Hopefully these simple guidelines to follow will help to create much better and more professional tracks. All of these problems are simple to avoid, you just gotta take the necessary time and care in making your track. There is no need to rush a work or art. If you make a track in about an hour, its going to show and some people won't take the time to play the track you worked hard to create. Making great tracks take time, some of my tracks having taken upwards to 50 hours to create (My DLC entry) my typical creation time takes roughly 15-20 hours between all the testing and adjusting. Custom track building takes along time to perfect. You are never done learning, because there is so much to know!But thats ok, because I'm here to help and hopefully get some beginner track makers up to par on making awesome tracks like the greats already out there! Will you be the next IRON WARLORD, or GENERAL RAM?
So where does it all begin? In the editor of course! This is the place where all the magic and wonder of custom track making happens. The first thing you want to do is open a new track and change the mode to advance mode. This mode will allow you to remove room blocks, rotate objects on 3 axis', and move the camera in anyway that you need to get better or closer view of what you are building. Once advance mode is chosen, immediately delete the ramps, rail, electric box and two wall lamps at the start. I prefer to move the driving line to the center of a room block, as it makes things easier for me. Find out where the drive line would be most convenient for what you are creating, and place it accordingly. After that is done save your track. It is VERY important to save your track as often as you can. I've lost a track awhile ago because of a console freeze, and its not a fun task recreating a track from scratch. A backup track might also be a good idea in case if you accidentally save over your hard work; could even be saved on a USB key for easy access. When saving your track, it is customary and courteous to add a tag to your tracks names. What exactly is a track tag? Simply it is a way to identify whos tracks are whos. My track tag is J88 with a dash and a set number that track is in. This keeps all your tracks together and makes it easier for the players to find your tracks instead of having to search through upwards of 600 tracks to find yours.
Theme/Atmosphere
Before even entering the editor it is good to have a plan of what you are going to create. I feel a well themed track is always a better track then just random obstacles that don't make any sense thrown together. Why is there a pile of rocks, then a line of barrels, followed by a pile of boxes? Make up your mind! If you are just starting out, why not try something simple for a theme: all wood, all metal or even just some scaffolding. So lets just start off with a wood theme for now. Once you're more experience with tools and knowing your way around the editor, try something more advance complex theme such as my track Welcome Home, or Storckens track Microtrials (which is an amazing track if you guys haven't seen or played it yet, there is a video on this channel of it check it out!)
The first thing to do when getting started is pick out a nice atmosphere. Change the fog color (Side note: this is my biggest pet peeve from custom tracks, not necessary but highly suggested), set the sunlight and decide on a color scheme for your track. If you want to make a night or dark track, turn the fog brightness and saturation all the way down. It is best to do this when you are ready to share the track for others to try out. When doing this though, be sure to have enough lighting for the riders to see. Not being able to see an obstacle or landing doesn't make the track harder, it makes it annoying and most likely the rider will quit (which is what we want to avoid) The tracks we are creating should be fun, addicting, new and exciting! Seeing the same old thing over and over tends to get boring. So once you get into the groove of track making, try and come up with fresh new ideas and themes. Track building should be fun, so get creative!
In addition to the themes, a track maker will come into his own style. This is what defines you as a track maker. No two track makers are alike, we are all unique! For instance: My style of track making is flowing tracks. I like to have new original concept tracks and try to be original. I also like to have mostly static tracks, because I'm not that great with the physics haha. On the other hand, xIRON WARLORDx likes to make tracks that have a lot of physics, grand and big idea tracks! While o SKUMBAG o likes to make them extreme/ninja difficulty tracks. Or Murdoc Loch and Redrider686 who take random objects, put them together and it looks like it makes sense, where they differ is Red likes the fast flow tracks, where Murdoc likes the more technical hard tracks. They are all brilliant creators and different in their approaches. So find your style!
Difficulty Setting
After you have your theme set up, you'll want to have a difficulty setting for the track in mind. Its important to design a track that is even throughout in difficulty. One thing you should never do is rate your track medium, easy or hard when it is extreme. Compare your track to the in game tracks and other customs when picking a difficulty. Nothing makes me more angry than opening a medium track and faulting a few times because of a hard obstacle or hard track and its really extreme. That's more annoying than the difficult obstacle itself, especially when I'm in the mood for something easy. Custom tracks tend to all be based around the hard difficulty, mostly 75% + I would suggest starting out with a medium difficulty track.
Here are some tips about difficulty settings from Trials HD forum mod and track creator, AkatsukiUK
Beginner: Rarely made these days, but usually the driving line is as flat as a pancake, thus providing no source of discomfort or any need to shift the riders weight.
Easy: Some bumps in the line and well done you used your first ramp!
The next set of difficulty settings range from easy medium to technical medium.
Medium easy: All about the flow in these tracks, it is possible to just hold down accelerate with some weight shifting required to get to the end of the track - Like wheres the ground
Medium technical: Still classed as medium, has a flow of sorts to the track but has the odd explosive and gaps in the course if you don't keep the flow and stops and starts with physics obstacles usually - Like under ground as a similar comparison
Hard: Idea of hard is that underneath it all there beats the heart of a medium track but it forces you the player to pull out the tricks. Tricks like bunny hopping, wheeling up ramps to gain more speed, flipping and throttle control etc. Distance between jumps are extended, few more explosives in tight places to penalize you if you don't get the jump perfect.
Extreme: Rarely has a speedy visible flow and always bite sized, checkpoint / something extreme...checkpoint / something extreme and so on. Has almost vertical inclines a lot of the time, (best extremes - 2-3 ways of getting over the obstacle and not luck based). One of the main sticking points with extremes now is that everyone has improved so much that they can sometimes feel like a hard track and adding a ton of explosives artificially raises the difficulty to extreme or perhaps ninja. Explosives are fine as long as your reward to the player for getting over the obstacle isn't another bang and or alternatively there is another checkpoint very close by if you like blowing stuff up Either way extreme requires you to be at one with the rider and the bike.
Ninja difficulty: This is a difficulty setting above Extreme, o SKUMBAG o has coined this difficulty with some of is crazy difficult tracks. Meant to be a little above and beyond extreme. This difficultly track should only be attempted after becoming very proficient in the track creator and once the creator has understood the concepts of advanced techniques. These tracks take the longest to create because
ALOT of testing needs to take place. Test and make higher, higher, higher, re-test higher, etc. Farther jump, test, test, farther, farther, etc. These tracks should be possible to finish, nothing based on luck and unique skills to pass. Checkpoints very close together otherwise the rider will most likely give up.
Aesthetics
When it comes to the aesthetics of your track, the way it looks, you want the track to be appealing and professional. Some common things you'll want to avoid are: Texture glitching, lack of structure/floating objects, and non-realism. Texture glitching is some of the most common occurrences in custom tracks. What is texture glitching? It is as shown here. When two objects (usually of the same type) try and “fight” to be seen; the result is this. It looks very sloppy and unprofessional, it is also VERY distracting in some cases. Its very simple to fix and should be looked out for. Most common places this happens is with metal plates and tile pieces, walls and floors. Simple fixes include not overlapping the pieces to begin with. But for some cases this will have to happen. So in those cases, just slightly shift one object up or down like this and its barely noticeable. Floating ramps, platforms and objects in general don't look very good. Add some sort of structure as in a pile of boxes and pallets, or some beams to hold up those floating scaffolding. As for non-realism, try to avoid having barrels, tires, or other objects sticking in each other and at weird angles. Everything should look like its supported.
Misc.
Checkpoints- These are VERY crucial to a track. Riders that are going for 0 faults won't be using them, they are mostly for people first learning the track, and for riders who need them. A checkpoint should be after every single obstacle. You can have up to 30 checkpoints (including the start and finish) so theres no excuse not to have them. When using a checkpoint, try to avoid the rider starting in an object or at a spot where the rider will have to back up. Checkpoints are rewards, if there is a hard obstacle, give the player a checkpoint right after. If a player faults, starting from the checkpoint should be easier. When making a rider start from a checkpoint, it should never be more difficult from the checkpoint then have never faulting there to begin with. Also test the checkpoint obstacle, & it is also very important to test the checkpoint prior to the checkpoint being tested & after as well for consistency. The reason for this is it might be possible from the checkpoint, but more difficult from the prior checkpoint.
Triggers- When using triggers for glass, try to put the trigger as close to the glass as possible and set the trigger to break/explode and physics. This ensures the glass will break before the rider goes though it and is the most realistic. Triggers in general are very useful for having physical objects fall in or out of the way, and to break or explode objects at an opportune time. Triggers can also be used to turn on/off lights and activate pistons. It's important that if a trigger is needed to move something onto the driving path of the rider whether it drop, explode, etc that the trigger be used early enough so the rider doesn't have to stop and wait for it. Riders tend to not like to have to wait for fancy physics objects no matter how pretty they may be. This slows down the action and feels like forever in Trials time.
Signs- Signs are important to riders to give an idea of what is need to be done in confusing situations. If a flip is needed, try putting 4 arrow signs in a circle, or the rider is speeding along and will need to slow down? Place a turtle or 10 sign. How about a section that needs to be done really fast? 150 will help here. In addition to aiding in confusing places, they also notify the rider of what might be ahead in the track.
Physics- If you are going to have physics obstacles in your tracks, you want them to be 100% consistent. Physics obstacles take the longest to test, depending on how complex they are. Physics obstacles should not be based on luck, and if they are should be changed.
Annoyances (in my opinion)-
Don't have a fast speed section then have the rider run into a brick wall. If this situation can't be avoided, give the rider advance notice with a turtle sign or 10 sign.
Don't have debris on the floor- If this is avoidable, please do. Debris on a track creates an obstacle that is based on luck. Something that is not good for tracks. Debris is very inconsistent, and is annoying to ride through.
No climbing stairs- Yes sure its a hard obstacle, but its very annoying & slow
Always be sure the rider is visible. If not add a custom camera where appropriate. No one likes to perform obstacles where they can't see what they are doing.
Track size/object limit- There are two limits in Trials, the size limit and the object limit. Object limit is self explanatory, only 1000 objects are allowed. Once this is reached, the room complexity will fill max and you won't be able to place any other objects. Size limit on the other hand is less predictable. You can only have a track 8kb in size. Things to do to keep the track size down is to use the same orientation of objects. Try not to have objects at different angles as it increases size. Try not to remove too many room blocks. No physics = NO GLUE! If objects don't need to move they shouldn't be glued together. All these create bigger files.
Lag & Slowdown- Fires, explosions, lights (light blocking) , too much breaking glass. All of these will cause lag & slowdown in your track if used in excess. Anything with heavy animations and lighting should be spread out as much as possible to avoid lag. Lag in a track no matter how slight still makes some obstacles more difficult than needed to be. If lag is necessary (which is the case in some tracks) try to make it at a time when the rider doesn't need to be doing any complicated obstacles. Lag when restarting a checkpoint is very annoying, to prevent this from happening, don't remove too many room blocks. The more room blocks remove, the more the editor and track itself will lag. If you want a big open feel to a track, just increase the fog all the way and only one or two room blocks past the ride line will need to be removed.
Medal Times / Faults- Setting medal times for your tracks can be a tough task sometimes. Its always best to get some friends to help out and see what kind of times are realistic and challenging. Medals can be set really hard, really easy, middle, depends on how challenging you want medals to be for the riders. Always take multiple runs and fault in spots. Its silly to allow 15 faults in 30 secs for silver. Always be fair in your medal times, riders like a good challenge. The more difficult the track, the more faults should be allowed for silver, gold. If you have an extreme and the silver is say 1:00 25 faults, but its a really tough track some might not want to try for that when they just got 8:00 and 350 faults. Set the medals so that riders have incentive to play your track again and again. If they get plat on the first run, most likely they won't be playing that track again. Play through the track a few times and set the time about .5-1 sec lower than your fastest time (unless you pulled out a really perfect flawless run) For harder tracks that you can't get 0 faults on your self, try to add up all the lost time on the track to figure out a good platinum time. Ride some slow runs on purpose to decide on a fair amount of faults for silver, gold, or plat.
Custom Cameras
Custom cameras love to be used by people sometimes, but they put them in awkward and weird spots making easy obstacles very difficult. This isn't fun and very annoying. Custom cameras should be used sparingly and only in very necessary spots. Example, if the rider is blocked by a large fall or object. Cameras could be used when you want to draw attention to something on a grander scale, or pull in close to make the track feel claustrophobic. (still writing in-progress)
Decorations
Decorations in a track I think go hand in hand with the drive line. It gives the track a feeling of completeness., so add something! Take a look at other customs and see how other creators decorate their tracks, or even better to look at the in-game tracks and get some good ideas what to throw around the level. The more tracks you make and the more time you spend in the editor, the better your tracks will be decorated. Decorating a track is as much a skill in custom creating as making a great driving line and creating that perfect atmosphere. Just think about what theme your track is and add things that pertain to it. Say you have a house theme and are doing a bathroom. You'll want to add a sink toilet, shower etc. Or a theme of metal. Just throw some other things around the level that fit in with metal. When I decorate, I like to take things that I build on the drive line and add to the side like the track is under construction in a way. Say I have metal plates and columns. Throw some in the corner on the side to look like it was still being built. Decorations although not necessary to a track (the driveline is the most important) it makes the level look more complete and that some time was put into the track. There's all sorts of decorating style, mine I like to throw random things all over to make the warehouse look cluttered. Or throw in a shipping container when there is some large empty space to fill up. Always try to max out the level, and make it more detailed. The result is a track that will be played a lot more than a track without the decorations typically for me. The reason for me is that its more appealing to me when I see a track filled with objects rather than a track of just floating ramps and a pile on the drive line. I also try to create a different feel to each track. I don't want the rider to realize they are still in the warehouse. It gives the game more to it than seeing the same old boring warehouse theme over and over. Try adding some wall and floor tile pieces, or throwing a stack of shipping containers for walling.
Testing & Feedback
Testing a track is the most important aspect of custom track building. Testing usually takes up 35%+ of the time it takes to complete a track. The more difficult/complex the track is, the more in depth testing will be needed. Testing from friends and feedback are also very crucial in becoming a better track maker. How will you know what you are doing wrong if you don't ask other players for input?
Here is some helpful tips to test from forum members & custom track creators o Paralyzer o, HEETSAUCE & lespritdelescalier who also runs another Trials HD Custom youtube channel TrialsHDfan:
Track is playable/not dependent on luck
Track can be completed without faults
Suitable amount of checkpoints
Have other people of different skills play the track
Try to fault everywhere a lot
Physics should be tested over and over and over and over.. even if they don't affect the driving line. Clean up the physics if they are a bit sketchy, cause it can be the difference between a bad track and a great track.
Use several different techniques to approach each obstacle
Make sure each obstacle works from the intended checkpoint, and from the prior checkpoint.
All obstacles must be passable, no matter how hard. There must be no luck based obstacles
Must be as the track is planned it to be, if it doesn't work, it shouldn't be shared
Track must be smooth running, no sloppy connections or bumps in the drive line, unless designed that way
Medals set properly, not too easy and not too difficult
Go through your obstacles doing every technique/experiment you can think of a million times
If there's bombs, hit them a million times and see where the rider goes
Ride all speeds through the track a lot of times
Make sure there's nothing annoying (bumps, mis-aligned)
Test physics builds over and over (rider stopping/starting/different speeds/diff positions)
Test faults a lot
Will pop this into the level editor category jarr3tt
Senior Member
Thanks AK
Senior Member
Okay.. I've read through this whole thing more than once. Hahah.. I'm going to try not to be too picky. Here goes.
In the following, and throughout the text, I'm not a huge fan of separating creators into groups like "pro" or "amateur". Both words have several meanings, some which are inaccurate or inappropriate for the context of the tutorial. Not a huge deal, it's up to you how you want to present it.
I HATE the line "When I boot up a track that doesn't even have a tag.." because it is COMPLETELY untrue. I know of great tracks that didn't have tags in the past, or still don't have tags. That entire sentence is an assumption, and possibly offensive to some of the creators out there. Yes, we all like it when people tag their tracks, but be careful not to get caught stereotyping anything. I would re-word this entire section, and focus on the fact that taking a few minutes to tag your track and set a difficulty will give riders more confidence that you took time and care building your track.Originally Posted by Jarr3tt88
The following is very good information.Here is an example track of some of the most common occurrences I see in custom tracks from inexperienced creators. Can you see or point out all the occurrences? When I boot up a track that doesn't even have a tag in front of the track name, I know that its going to have no fog color change, no decorations, and floating ramps on the drive line. I almost immediately don't download these tracks. You can almost guess that when the track maker doesn't take the time to change the difficulty from beginner, or no tag and is named track aaaaaaa, that it will be a track that will be filled with these problems. Don't be discouraged though! Hopefully these simple guidelines to follow will help to create much better and more professional tracks. All of these problems are simple to avoid, you just gotta take the necessary time and care in making your track. There is no need to rush a work or art. If you make a track in about an hour, its going to show and some people won't take the time to play the track you worked hard to create. Making great tracks take time, some of my tracks having taken upwards to 50 hours to create (My DLC entry) my typical creation time takes roughly 15-20 hours between all the testing and adjusting. Custom track building takes along time to perfect. You are never done learning, because there is so much to know!But thats ok, because I'm here to help and hopefully get some beginner track makers up to par on making awesome tracks like the greats already out there! Will you be the next IRON WARLORD, or GENERAL RAM?
I agree that you should try to have some kind of plan, but a theme is not necessary. At least half of the in-game tracks have no theme, and while custom creating is a bit different as you'd like your track to stand out, it doesn't need to have a theme in order to be a fun track. A simple theme is a good place to start when you are first learning to create tracks if you are looking for ideas, but unnecessary.So where does it all begin? In the editor of course! This is the place where all the magic and wonder of custom track making happens. The first thing you want to do is open a new track and change the mode to advance mode. This mode will allow you to remove room blocks, rotate objects on 3 axis', and move the camera in anyway that you need to get better or closer view of what you are building. Once advance mode is chosen, immediately delete the ramps, rail, electric box and two wall lamps at the start. I prefer to move the driving line to the center of a room block, as it makes things easier for me. Find out where the drive line would be most convenient for what you are creating, and place it accordingly. After that is done save your track. It is VERY important to save your track as often as you can. I've lost a track awhile ago because of a console freeze, and its not a fun task recreating a track from scratch. A backup track might also be a good idea in case if you accidentally save over your hard work; could even be saved on a USB key for easy access. When saving your track, it is customary and courteous to add a tag to your tracks names. What exactly is a track tag? Simply it is a way to identify whos tracks are whos. My track tag is J88 with a dash and a set number that track is in. This keeps all your tracks together and makes it easier for the players to find your tracks instead of having to search through upwards of 600 tracks to find yours.
Additionally, if I were writing this, I would never mention my own tracks. Up to you though.
I believe that it's a good idea to have an atmosphere in mind, but sometimes adjusting the levels of these things too early can make the actual construction of the track more difficult. If you are making a dark track, I would suggest frequently decreasing the light after adding decor to make sure it looks the way you want, but increasing the light for building. It's too easy to get texture glitching and stuff when working in the dark. Maybe add some lights in that you can take out afterwards.Theme/Atmosphere
Before even entering the editor it is good to have a plan of what you are going to create. I feel a well themed track is always a better track then just random obstacles that don't make any sense thrown together. Why is there a pile of rocks, then a line of barrels, followed by a pile of boxes? Make up your mind! If you are just starting out, why not try something simple for a theme: all wood, all metal or even just some scaffolding. So lets just start off with a wood theme for now. Once you're more experience with tools and knowing your way around the editor, try something more advance complex theme such as my track Welcome Home, or Storckens track Microtrials (which is an amazing track if you guys haven't seen or played it yet, there is a video on this channel of it check it out!)
My opinion to on your opinion: Leave your pet peeve out. I don't want to feel like someone is going to not like my track because I wanted yellowish or brownish sunlight. I think that's just petty.
Good information on making sure we can actually see the rider and the landing. Important stuff. I still run into it a lot, even with people who've made 20+ tracks sometimes.
As we discussed, I would remove all the names from this section. I don't think anyone wants to be categorized into a style, or styles.The first thing to do when getting started is pick out a nice atmosphere. Change the fog color (Side note: this is my biggest pet peeve from custom tracks, not necessary but highly suggested), set the sunlight and decide on a color scheme for your track. If you want to make a night or dark track, turn the fog brightness and saturation all the way down. It is best to do this when you are ready to share the track for others to try out. When doing this though, be sure to have enough lighting for the riders to see. Not being able to see an obstacle or landing doesn't make the track harder, it makes it annoying and most likely the rider will quit (which is what we want to avoid) The tracks we are creating should be fun, addicting, new and exciting! Seeing the same old thing over and over tends to get boring. So once you get into the groove of track making, try and come up with fresh new ideas and themes. Track building should be fun, so get creative!
Again, with the following part, I would remove your opinion. You could instead say that many riders find it frustrating if they expect easier obstacles than the track actually has. I also don't think it's necessarily a good idea for people to start off making a medium difficulty track. It will differ depending on the likes and skill level of that rider.In addition to the themes, a track maker will come into his own style. This is what defines you as a track maker. No two track makers are alike, we are all unique! For instance: My style of track making is flowing tracks. I like to have new original concept tracks and try to be original. I also like to have mostly static tracks, because I'm not that great with the physics haha. On the other hand, xIRON WARLORDx likes to make tracks that have a lot of physics, grand and big idea tracks! While o SKUMBAG o likes to make them extreme/ninja difficulty tracks. Or Murdoc Loch and Redrider686 who take random objects, put them together and it looks like it makes sense, where they differ is Red likes the fast flow tracks, where Murdoc likes the more technical hard tracks. They are all brilliant creators and different in their approaches. So find your style!
I agree with a lot of the following, but floating objects and non-realism are appropriate in certain themes. Some good information in here.Difficulty Setting
After you have your theme set up, you'll want to have a difficulty setting for the track in mind. Its important to design a track that is even throughout in difficulty. One thing you should never do is rate your track medium, easy or hard when it is extreme. Compare your track to the in game tracks and other customs when picking a difficulty. Nothing makes me more angry than opening a medium track and faulting a few times because of a hard obstacle or hard track and its really extreme. That's more annoying than the difficult obstacle itself, especially when I'm in the mood for something easy. Custom tracks tend to all be based around the hard difficulty, mostly 75% + I would suggest starting out with a medium difficulty track.
I do not agree with "If a player faults, starting from the checkpoint should be easier." as that is absolutely not true. It is often easier to navigate an obstacle with flow than it is from a standstill. However, the rider should not be put at a disadvantage by starting at the checkpoint. A very subtle but important difference.Aesthetics
When it comes to the aesthetics of your track, the way it looks, you want the track to be appealing and professional. Some common things you'll want to avoid are: Texture glitching, lack of structure/floating objects, and non-realism. Texture glitching is some of the most common occurrences in custom tracks. What is texture glitching? It is as shown here. When two objects (usually of the same type) try and “fight” to be seen; the result is this. It looks very sloppy and unprofessional, it is also VERY distracting in some cases. Its very simple to fix and should be looked out for. Most common places this happens is with metal plates and tile pieces, walls and floors. Simple fixes include not overlapping the pieces to begin with. But for some cases this will have to happen. So in those cases, just slightly shift one object up or down like this and its barely noticeable. Floating ramps, platforms and objects in general don't look very good. Add some sort of structure as in a pile of boxes and pallets, or some beams to hold up those floating scaffolding. As for non-realism, try to avoid having barrels, tires, or other objects sticking in each other and at weird angles. Everything should look like its supported.
It is also okay if an obstacle is more difficult from a previous checkpoint. The purpose of this is to either slow the rider down, or to force them to find the flow. When we were all learning the game, a track like Technique would have had obstacles like this. It was easy to come to a stop and tackle the obstacle than to do it quickly from the previous obstacle. Not a bad thing.
Odd choice to start the following part off with a specific example. Maybe start with an overview and then focus on specifics. Recommend that people search in the Level Editor forum or for youtube tutorials for specific questions they might have.Misc.
Checkpoints- These are VERY crucial to a track. Riders that are going for 0 faults won't be using them, they are mostly for people first learning the track, and for riders who need them. A checkpoint should be after every single obstacle. You can have up to 30 checkpoints (including the start and finish) so theres no excuse not to have them. When using a checkpoint, try to avoid the rider starting in an object or at a spot where the rider will have to back up. Checkpoints are rewards, if there is a hard obstacle, give the player a checkpoint right after. If a player faults, starting from the checkpoint should be easier. When making a rider start from a checkpoint, it should never be more difficult from the checkpoint then have never faulting there to begin with. Also test the checkpoint obstacle, & it is also very important to test the checkpoint prior to the checkpoint being tested & after as well for consistency. The reason for this is it might be possible from the checkpoint, but more difficult from the prior checkpoint.
Good info!Triggers- When using triggers for glass, try to put the trigger as close to the glass as possible and set the trigger to break/explode and physics. This ensures the glass will break before the rider goes though it and is the most realistic. Triggers in general are very useful for having physical objects fall in or out of the way, and to break or explode objects at an opportune time. Triggers can also be used to turn on/off lights and activate pistons. It's important that if a trigger is needed to move something onto the driving path of the rider whether it drop, explode, etc that the trigger be used early enough so the rider doesn't have to stop and wait for it. Riders tend to not like to have to wait for fancy physics objects no matter how pretty they may be. This slows down the action and feels like forever in Trials time.
I'm not experienced enough to add anything of value to this. I would just refer people to tutorials and the Level Editor forum.Signs- Signs are important to riders to give an idea of what is need to be done in confusing situations. If a flip is needed, try putting 4 arrow signs in a circle, or the rider is speeding along and will need to slow down? Place a turtle or 10 sign. How about a section that needs to be done really fast? 150 will help here. In addition to aiding in confusing places, they also notify the rider of what might be ahead in the track.
Jar, I'll have to give feedback on the rest later. Hopefully the feedback in chat has been helpful as well.Physics- If you are going to have physics obstacles in your tracks, you want them to be 100% consistent. Physics obstacles take the longest to test, depending on how complex they are. Physics obstacles should not be based on luck, and if they are should be changed.
[ quote ] We've all seen tracks made by KatamariUK, Storcken, o SKUMBAG o, HEETSAUCE, DrittesAuge, Redrider686 and a multitude of other epic custom pros. Like us all, we gotta start from the bottom up. [ quote ]
If their new they might not know any of these creators, just a thought.
[ quote ] When I boot up a track that doesn't even have a tag in front of the track name, I know that its going to have no fog color change, no decorations, and floating ramps on the drive line. I almost immediately don't download these tracks. You can almost guess that when the track maker doesn't take the time to change the difficulty from beginner, or no tag and is named track aaaaaaa, that it will be a track that will be filled with these problems. [ quote ]
Nova dark storm only tagged redlynx hellzone, and his maps are pretty good, a little bit of a generalization, but i agree with the aaaaaa thing because not changing the name is very amateur like
[ quote ]There is no need to rush a work or art. If you make a track in about an hour, its going to show and some people won't take the time to play the track you worked hard to create. Making great tracks take time, some of my tracks having taken upwards to 50 hours to create (My DLC entry) my typical creation time takes roughly 15-20 hours between all the testing and adjusting. Custom track building takes along time to perfect. You are never done learning, because there is so much to know![ quote ]
this isnt true, most trials riders dont care as long as the track is fun, my usual track creating time is around 4 hours, and my short tracks maybe take an hour, but they dont suck and are just shorter. That being said if someone makes a track look awesome but isnt fun, then they will most likely not play it.
[ quote ]No climbing stairs- Yes sure its a hard obstacle, but its very annoying & slow[quote]
I dont agree, i think it takes skill and is useful for ninjas or extremes but for mediums i kind of agree
[ quote ]Go through your obstacles doing every technique/experiment you can think of a million times
If there's bombs, hit them a million times and see where the rider goes
Ride all speeds through the track a lot of times
Make sure there's nothing annoying (bumps, mis-aligned)
Test physics builds over and over (rider stopping/starting/different speeds/diff positions)
Test faults a lot[ quote ]
good info i only had a few complaints the rest is good and one more thing to add. If youre track has amazing decor,atmosphere and is an awesome idea if it is not fun then no one is going to play it. Also just keepaking maps and taking feedback
Senior Member
Zoid - first off, to manually quote, the opening quote tag should be:
[ quote ] without spaces. You can see an example if you hover over the Quote button when you go to post a message.
Different riders will always be looking for different things. I believe that Jarr3tt's approach is to make sure you are targeting the biggest audience possible by emphasizing that both the decor and the track playability are important.Originally Posted by Zoidberg747
I think the main clarification here is that for different track creators, it will take different amounts of time. The key is not to rush it, and to be open to the feedback you are being given. Some people might be able to bang out a great track in 10 hours. Some people might take 40 hours.
Zoid - I'm also not sure if you've allocated for testing time. My usual testing time for a 10 checkpoint track would probably be close to 10 hours on its own, just to make sure that the obstacles work, can be executed well in a clean run or from each individual checkpoint, and to set medal times. That's not even counting the little adjustments that I make as I am creating the obstacle. That might be a little excessive for many creators, but if the entire track creating process is taking 4 hours, I'm not sure if the track is being thoroughly tested, especially if someone is making more difficult tracks.
This is, and always will be, a matter of opinion. Climbing stairs usually interrupts any kind of flow that someone tries to maintain during a run. I'm pretty sure that even most of the best riders agree with that. If they do, you can imagine the headache that it gives the rest of us. Therefore, it is good practice (if trying to appeal to the largest audience) not to slow people with a stair climb.Originally Posted by Zoidberg747
Senior Member
I feel that most beginning track makers miss this point. Sure you can make as many tracks as you want, but when I see people putting out 2 or 3 tracks a week, I don't even bother checking their maps out. I feel that it is a waist of my time to even play there track when there are hundreds of tracks out there where people put hard work into them. I also noticed that I like my own maps a lot more when I spend the time decorate and test the track. Last point, if your track size isn't maxed out then your not done. Keep adding decorations and lights and stuff until it is full. I don't think I have ever played a track I liked that didn't max out.Originally Posted by Jarr3tt88
As an avid track collector, there are tracks I play, then there are tracks I keep. The track I keep have a replayability factor because of the aesthetics and attention to detail. Make a challenging level is easy. Making a challenging level that looks good isn't. If you want to make tracks that people will keep on the hard drive forever and play over and over, it is going to take a lot of hard work. Personally Zoid, I think you have the motivation to become a great track maker. Your tacks are getting better and better. Just keep making maps and working with others.Originally Posted by Zoidberg747
Senior Member
I'm thinking of finishing this project up, anyone else have some input?
Senior Member
i think its all been said, thats definitive work there jarrett. well played sir
Senior Member
I think you should make an updated version for Evolution.
