The quicksand problem

[gtrNL]

I started converting a track for personal use.
It's originally for rFactor, so I used a handy converting tutorial to convert it to GTR2, then using a handy converting tutorial (yes again) to get it in GTR Evo, which is my final goal.

Now all works fine, it shows up in both GTR2 and Evo, looks great bla bla bla, but I keep falling through the ground, the famous quicksand problem (happens in both games).

Is there anyone with tips, on how to get rid of it. I heard something about the naming of some textures which have to start with ROAD_ or something but I'm not sure.

Thanks in advance.

[gtrNL]

I've found out what the problem is, by reading my tutorial (can't remeber who made it, but he/she did a awesome job). Here's a quote:

STEP 3. EDITING MATERIALS
Now go to the Edit menu again click it and hit EDIT MATERIALS. You will now need to edit the materials so that they will now run according to the proper names in GTL and GTR2. In Simbin games all of the:

Grass has to start with GRAS
Gravel - GRVL or GRAV
Roads\Tarmac\Asphalt - ROAD

If these are mis-named you will have the quicksand effect that we are all fond of. Rfactor does not use this naming convention. Some of the scratch builders do. So every track that you are going to convert you have to check and make sure before hand. When you open the edit materials you will see a box open that say “ Material Dialogs”. This box is all of the textures that the games uses to skin the gmt.s. Push the box to the side so that you can see the model at the same time. When you click on a texture, you will see it light up in pale blue on the model. This is to show you what you are editing. (This depends on how big you have the model enlarged.

Now when you highlight one of the names a small picture of the texture will come up on the panel with the texture info so you can browse better. Some of the tracks have all of the grass textures in the same naming group, which makes it easy. You may have to click thru all of the textures to make sure you find all of the grass, gravel, sand and road textures. When you do here is what happens next.

EXPORTING TEXTURES
After you finish editing the materials you will need to dump the files in a temporary place to pack them. I use two empty folders. Ill illustrate this using the unzip and temp folders. Now when you finish editing the materials exit the material editing window. (WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T CLOSE 3DSIMED!) As long as the app is open it retains the new names for the materials until your finished. Now go to the file menu. At the center you will see a command that says “EXPORT TEXTURES”. Click that. When you do it will give you another window so that you can pick a file folder to dump the textures. Make sure both of the work folders are empty! We pick unzip. Hit ok. It will ask you do you want to rename textures, blah, blah. ... say ok. It will spit all of the textures into the unzip folder.

Now I understand this, but when I follow this step by step, my 'unzip' folder stays empty.

So what am i doing wrong here?

Thanks in advance.

[analogkid66]

GTL and GTR2 all have hard coded names for the Material Settings, so as long as the Gravel Trap has a Material name that begins with GRVL, it should work fine!

Load them up in 3dsimed and check by right clicking on the objects!

[gtrNL]

GTL and GTR2 all have hard coded names for the Material Settings, so as long as the Gravel Trap has a Material name that begins with GRVL, it should work fine!

Load them up in 3dsimed and check by right clicking on the objects!

Thanks! I'll try it out tomorrow...

*Edit: Thanks, it works...

[gtrNL]

Sorry to dig up the old thread, but I was wondering.

To convert tracks from GTR2 to Race07/GTR Evo you need the .HAT file.

So let's say I download a track for GTR2 from here.
I put the original track in GTR2's Locations.
I start GTR2, and do a lap around the to be converted track.
I go the folder that is suposed to contain my HAT file, but there we go, it doesn't.

So how exactly do I make the HAT file?

*Edit:
Also in my GTR Evo .plr (offline install) I found this;
Always Rebuild HAT="0" // Build HAT database everytime tracks are loaded (for development purposes)

Does putting this on 1 help (and in my GTR2 .plr it's already it's already on 1, but no .HAT is made).

Thanks in advance.

[sunalp2]

The HAT file is built when the track loads. That is why the first time you use a track the load time is longer.

That option to build the HAT every time is available in GTR2 as well. I have no idea why you would want to do that. If you have not made any changes to the track there is no need to re build the HAT file.

Why not try your own suggestion of using the GTR2 hat file and see if that works. You don't need to drive it, just load it, then exit.

[gtrNL]

The HAT file is built when the track loads. That is why the first time you use a track the load time is longer.

That option to build the HAT every time is available in GTR2 as well. I have no idea why you would want to do that. If you have not made any changes to the track there is no need to re build the HAT file.

Why not try your own suggestion of using the GTR2 hat file and see if that works. You don't need to drive it, just load it, then exit.

OK thanks,

I also found out my GTR2 doesn't save the HAT in the Username\...\LOG\HAT, but somewhere in C\Users\something\or\other.

Got it to work now...