Berms (banked turns += wider & curved road) Pre-purchase query

[Arakade]

TL;DR Can one vary the cross-section of the extruded mesh (specifically to create banked, curved berms at corners)?

Hi,
I do hope you can forgive this rather cheeky and/or naiive question!

I'm looking for an asset to help me in a racing mode for my game.  Curvy seems a shoe-in and one I've been hoping to buy for a while.  However I want to ensure it does (or can be made to do) everything I need first!  To whit...

I want the road flat on the straights but curved at the turns (a bit like a quarter-pipe or some boarder-cross tracks).  However I wish to retain the flat bottom (as if the road hadn't banked at all).  Is this possible with Curvy?  What about dynamically/procedurally?

I hope I've described that clearly enough.  Sorry if not -- it feels a bit messy.  I'll post a picture if not.

So what does this require?  I guess varying the mesh extruded along the path?  I've seen mention of a programatic curve being used to extrude.  Can one vary that?  Can one (even by coding) instruct Corvy how to vary parameters to the extruded curve on the basis of the original curve (e.g. its orientation)?

I'm a programmer and quite happy to adapt and supply patches back.  Obviously I'd prefer not to have to.  I'm hoping I'll find you allow a delegate to be registered that takes curve parameters and returns the curve to use at a given extrustion point. [img]images/smilies/cool.gif[/img]

Thanks in advance!  Yours (a hopefully soon happy customer)
R.

p.s. I read the sticky post about updating the SplinePathMeshBuilder.  It seems relevant.  Is that work complete now?  The beta-testers sticky post hints maybe it's ongoing?  Is this something for that?  Happy to help there.

 

[Jake]

I want the road flat on the straights but curved at the turns (a bit like a quarter-pipe or some boarder-cross tracks).  However I wish to retain the flat bottom (as if the road hadn't banked at all).
 

If I understand you right, you want the tracks profile curved (rotating around the tracks' local Z axis), but the track itself should align to ground level (min. Y aligned to a plane), rigth? This would be tricky in the current release and you'll have to raise the curve/track manually then to fulfil this condition.

 

I read the sticky post about updating the SplinePathMeshBuilder.  It seems relevant.  Is that work complete now?  The beta-testers sticky post hints maybe it's ongoing?  Is this something for that?  Happy to help there.
 

I'm working hard on it, but it's still in dev. But indeed this would be much easier in 2.0: you would create your track and then use a comfort/align modifier to drop it onto a ground plane. This modifier might become part of the initital 2.0 release, but basically the new 2.0 system will make it very easy to create a modifier like this.


 

[Arakade]

I want the road flat on the straights but curved at the turns (a bit like a quarter-pipe or some boarder-cross tracks).  However I wish to retain the flat bottom (as if the road hadn't banked at all).



 

If I understand you right, you want the tracks profile curved (rotating around the tracks' local Z axis), but the track itself should align to ground level (min. Y aligned to a plane), rigth?



 

Not quite but I can totally see why you say that -- sorry for my poor explanation -- let me clarify.
I wish to vary cross-section based on some component of the curve.
Specifically (in this case) to vary cross-section based upon rotation (around the axis of extrustion -- the track's local Z axis as you said). (Position is irrelevant to the variation (since I wish to move that all over).)

Example:
 So at z-rot = 0, cross-section should be a horizontal line (on the x axis for example); at z-rot 45 degrees clockwise, I'd want something like the bezier curve you get from inputting a capital 'L' (i.e. a slope from flat bottom to bank on the left). Does that convey my hope better?

.

This would be tricky in the current release and you'll have to raise the curve/track manually then to fulfil this condition.



 

With this clarification, does your answer still stand? I wasn't sure if it was "that's tricky because of the requirement to stay flat" or "it's tricky to vary cross-section atm". ?

I read the sticky post about updating the SplinePathMeshBuilder.  It seems relevant.  Is that work complete now?  The beta-testers sticky post hints maybe it's ongoing?  Is this something for that?  Happy to help there.



 

I'm working hard on it, but it's still in dev. But indeed this would be much easier in 2.0: you would create your track and then use a comfort/align modifier to drop it onto a ground plane. This modifier might become part of the initital 2.0 release, but basically the new 2.0 system will make it very easy to create a modifier like this.



 

Well, if it /is/ possible with the new system, do you have rough time-frame and would I be able to try it, please?

Thanks

p.s. thanks for your reply!  Sorry about my delayed reply -- found in the spam folder = doh!
 
p.p.s. is it intentional irony that the forum button to insert the time is titled "Insert C*u*rrect time" ? ;-)
 

 

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I want the road flat on the straights but curved at the turns (a bit like a quarter-pipe or some boarder-cross tracks).  However I wish to retain the flat bottom (as if the road hadn't banked at all).




 

If I understand you right, you want the tracks profile curved (rotating around the tracks' local Z axis), but the track itself should align to ground level (min. Y aligned to a plane), rigth?




 

Not quite but I can totally see why you say that -- sorry for my poor explanation -- let me clarify.
I wish to vary cross-section based on some component of the curve.
Specifically (in this case) to vary cross-section based upon rotation (around the axis of extrustion -- the track's local Z axis as you said). (Position is irrelevant to the variation (since I wish to move that all over).)
 

p.p.p.s. Actually, it just ocurred to me that it'd also work to vary by the curve's curve if that's easier?

[Jake]

So, you want to "morph" the cross shape over the extrusion length and the morph's shape should be defined by the curve's angle? Hmm, that's tricky, but solvable with a custom module in 2.0's Curvy Generator, though I guess it's not trivial to do so. Regarding the 2.0 release, there's no timeline yet, but I'm working on it fulltime now and release is planned for summer.

You can apply for dev/beta access, see here.

PS: If I misunderstood you a second time you may want to post a scribble, a picture is worth a thousands words.