Hey guys. My Track is called Home Run my GT is BONKERS HTID as the title informs it's my 1st published track. Made it for players that like levels that dont take forever to go round and don't like when its not over after 30 seconds. Its hard and at the moment even I haven't got round without a fault but that's cause i suck lol. No Faults and 2:45 for a platinum just to give you and idea of what to aim for. So give it a go and let me know what you think gonna see if can do video on a flip hd camera but if any 1 can help me out before then let me know thanks in advance.
PS I know the about the squares that appear due to frame rate I think towards the end not sure what causes any tips on that would be great.
Senior Community Manager
Too many lights or too large of a lighting area/intensity.
Check out http://www.Youtube.com/RedLynxTV for tons of tutorials.
Senior Member
I just played your track and there's a lot of room to improve. Here are a few things that really stuck out to me:
1. Inconsistent checkpoint placement. One spot, you have a checkpoint then hop a concrete pipe and immediately afterwards, there's another checkpoint. Later on in the track, you go a good 25 yards without a checkpoint. Also, the checkpoints themselves seem poorly placed at times, like they're suspended in mid-air or hanging halfway off a cliff.
2. The camera angle made moderate obstacles terrible. The overhead angle made it very difficult to properly gauge distance and angle. If you want to use unusual camera angles, please make them only temporary for cinematic effect.
3. Random obstacles. There doesn't seem to be any common theme for your track (other than it takes place on a baseball field). The whole track just feels like random objects placed on the driving line and there is no real "flow" to speak of.
4. Stay away from using sharp turns in the driving line, especially during jumps. They look very unnatural and ruin the feel of the track.
5. The blocks of darkness that appear randomly are the result of using too many light sources too close to each other (as mentioned by ShiftySamurai). The editor warns you of this in red letters in the upper right corner of the screen when building the track.
6. Maybe this is just personal opinion, but driving on thin surfaces (like fences) just seems tacky and unpolished.
7. Obstacles that require you to build up enough speed so that you can land on the next platform, but not too much that you fly over it are just not that fun unless you can clearly see them coming and you know how to hit it.
Keep at it and your tracks will get better and better. My first track is definitely not my best (that's why I went back and tweaked it 3 times lol). The 2 most important things to remember are:
1. Pick a theme for your track and stick with it. You have to make a track that's special and stands out among the hundreds uploaded every day.
2. When you're making/ testing the track, always ask yourself "If I had downloaded this track from someone else, would I rate it 5*?" If not, why?
Senior Member
I know kal said some of these things already, but I'll just input my own thoughts as well.
I've played through Home Run and the track could use a ton of work. It is better than the average track out there, so that you should be proud of! The good, which isn't too much but its a first track. We all have to start somewhere. And we all get better with time and experience, hopefully! Take the feedback and improve on your next track. Always remember, quality over quantity! In addition check out my tips thread in my signature, which I'll prob highlight most of the topics anyway.
The good:
-Has some nice flowing parts. You always want a nice flowing track you can ride fast though. Obstacles that set up nicely from one to the next. Never want to wait for fancy physics or have "brick walls" in your way. The first half was good then went down hill.
-Good checkpoints, you can never have too many! Unless its over 20 which the game doesn't allow! haha Always a rule of thumb is 1cp per obstacle. Its never fun to ride and then get stuck trying to do really hard obstacles back to back without cps. I'll usually just rage quit. cps are there for the rider first learning the track. After wards aren't going to use them.
-I wish I had more good points, I'm sorry
The Bad:
-Difficulty inconsistency. When you make a track, you want to know the difficulty ahead of time you you can make all the obstacles of an even difficulty. It makes a well balanced track, no one likes an easy track with an extremely hard obstacle thrown in randomly.
-Curved drive lines. If these are going to be used, they should be thoroughly tested. You want to make all curves as smooth as possible. Also note that the less spline points the better! ie, if you're making a complete circle, you only want to use 4 spline points (one in each quadrant) Several of your curves has a few spline points close together you can tell when the rider wiggles back and forth quickly. Use the triggers on the spline point to make broad wide curves, which adjusts the curvature of the spline point.
-Custom cameras. You want to avoid these 95% of the time. They just become annoying to people and artificially make easier tracks more difficult. I suggest only using them when the rider becomes blocked or necessary at a specific obstacle when landing view is blocked. Better to use interpolate vs cut which makes it harder for the rider in that case.
-Theme. I always like a track that is realistic and has obstacles that fit nicely together. Random obstacles just look unprofessional.
-Object placement. Some spots you have objects sticking through each other (noticeably in the start when there basketball hoop is sticking through the picnic table. Use objects to hide when this must occur. Also be careful to not overlap objects, this produces texture glitching, slightly offset object planes to avoid this.
-Track length. Most people like shorter tracks, 30-45 secs. This makes it easier to make nice densely decorated tracks! Eye candy is always nice. Longer tracks become tedious, and less likely to have replay value. Esp with a more difficult track where it might get frustrating faulting 2 mins into the run.
-Rough spots. Try to use custom collisions to smooth out ramp surfaces.
-Light blocking/lag. Always try to avoid this, use less effects, trigger effect off when not in sight
-Realism. Was lacking alot, ties into having a theme.
-Unmarked driveline. Always show where the rider is going. You have lots of twists and turns and don't know where you are going next.
-Weather condition. This changed super fast, and looked a bit silly. Would have been nicer to tie this to the drive line distance and if it was slowly changed over the course of the track. Could be simply tied to a data source counter, or drive line distance operator.
Theres more things that can be improved upon, but start with these things. Hopefully this feedback will help for your next track. You got some potential! See what your future tracks bring with this feedback/advice.
I'm glad you said this cause KaliniuS said I had inconsistency with lots in some places and not many in others I agree with you checkpoints happen after obstacles so when you pass you know you don't have to do it again till you go for the next medal.Originally Posted by Jarr3tt88
theme wise i sort of tried to use like lockers and bins and tables things you'd find around that sort of environment at least i didn't shove a car or train in the middle (the tires bad choice and the pipe thing) lol plus theres not much baseball stuff on there lol. the plan was to start in the day then go night then go to the top of the lighting tower connect the wire and to turn the stadium lights on, if they turned off as went around wouldn't be realistic cause they stay on all the time ( I know I messed up with that idea well executed it wrong) but other than that yeah i agree and the camera I didn't know I'd changed it might have done it and not realised. theme wise i find it really difficult to come up with them and if I do I know I cant do it justice like you can and I know practice makes perfect. But when most of me free time is at night and early hours in the morning as shown last night chatting with you till 3:30am lol, making backgrounds and stuff I cant figure out how to do it. Cause you start in a world that's pre made and I know there's the area clear but that don't flatten ground and stuff and when I use the terrain editor flatten don't flatten like you expect unless I do it wrong. The annoying thing is I really want to be good at this and produce crap like you know who Mr 200 tracks.
hope I catch you online again it was amazing.
