Diary from first three weeks of May.
It's time, for some Spa-Volt update. 3 weeks passed since the last diary entry. I did not that much modelling since last time. Instead, I did really a lot of detail and optimization work.
- Finished new staircases
- Finished the shape of the technic room
- Added some technic room details
- Added a lot of details in the park-area
- Added details to the whirlpool-area
- Moved the starting line
- All-new 512x512 textures (Nearly no stock-textures anymore)
- Added a custom skybox (512x512)
- Changed the season! It's autumn now.
- Optimizing, Optimizing, Optimizing (saved about 10.000 polygons)
- Added TrackZones & PosNodes for raceline testing
- Lighting adjustments
New staircases:
I think I am finally finished with the staircases, after modelling them about 3 times from scratch. Now they fit the raceline very well, and they also work well with the alternate routes I've planned.
I also added some lights inside the staircases already. This will be optimized later on.
Park details:
New are some benches, grass, a handrail, and curbstones.
There are also some signs, which will warn careless drivers about the dangerous jump ahead.
► Show Spoiler
Here how it looks like in-game:
Here you can see also the ventilation tunnel (on the left), which is needed for the track to can be driven in reversed mode. BUT it also will be drivable as an alternate path in normal mode.
New starting line position
Alex gave me the hint, that the old starting line position is not very well positioned, because there was a tight corner right after the start. So I moved it a bit, so the first corner shouldn't be that big issue now. I like the new position much more.
Whirlpool adjustments
The Whirlpools have now a water surface, better textures, and some steam
I think this looks really cool.
(Shading is still missing)
New higher resolution textures
All the textures are now 512x512 instead of 256x256, so they are much sharper now. At the same step, I also replaced most of the textures, to new ones. Especially the stock-textures - like the floor tiling from Supermarket - are finally gone forever...
However, some textures are still not replaced, so I have some more work here.
Technic room details
I'm planning to add some details to the technic room, like pipes, valves, steam, and so on. Here I have experimented with a pipe (not final):
The rest will follow later.
New trees
The old trees was too heavyweighted regarding polygon amount. I use really a lot of trees in the outside area, so I had to optimize them. I was able to save 2/3 of the amount of polygons by making my very first own designed tree (~30 polies for each).
The needle trees in the background are just 1-face-planes, and I also have A LOT of them:
Autumn!
Yesterday I had the idea, that the outside area would be even more attractive, by changing the season from summer to autumn. So I colored the leaves from the broadleave trees to yellow/brown/red, and underneath the trees I also placed some leaves. I am pretty happy with the result!
The needle trees stay green for sure, because they keep their needled also in autumn/winter.
Custom Skybox
Finally I get rid of the Toytanic 2 skybox, and placed a custom one. It was not so easy to find a fitting one, because I needed one which can be used for night, with a lot of clouds. I was able to found a free one, and made it darker. Maybe I will add some more dark clouds later, so it fits the thunderstorm more.
That's it for now.
Next steps:
- Modelling the technic room details
- Modelling the toilet room details
- Replacing the rest of the stock-textures
- Adding more custom sounds (wind on the outside, technic room sounds,...)
- More technical optimizations (I care about your potato-PC's...)
If you have any suggestions, complaints, or comments please tell me. This always helps a lot.
Cheers! Kiwi
Right behind the restroom, there is the main Spa hall. 
