Track editor overview


The track editor will allow you to create and modify your own tracks. There are a few things you should keep in mind as you edit your tracks to insure that the track is a fun and playable course.
Mostly, if you use common sense, you will avoid problems with your tracks. For instance, you don't want to put a jump right before a curve, as the player would be in mid air as the curve starts.

The basics


When you first open the track editor, you will be prompted for a track name. I recommend keeping the name fairly short. Also, as much as possible, spell your trackname phonetically, as the only time the player will have to deal with the track name is when sapi speaks it.
After naming your track, the first thing you need to do is save the track, so the program can write data to the file as you create it.
Simply shift tab to the save button and name your track file. Make this name the same as your track name for obvious reasons.
Once you have saved the track, you can begin adding track items.
Tracks are made up of multiple sections. Each section will contain information about the length of the section, the curve at the end of the section, any jumps as well as any loops in the section.
All sections are followed by a curve. As you race, you will traverse a section, jump any jumps and go through any loops in the section, then at the end of the section, you will go through a curve. At the end of the curve, the next section will begin. If you don't want a curve at the end of a section, just enter 0 for curve length. This would be for instance if you wanted a long stretch of jumps, one after the other. You would have to do it this way, because you can only have one jump or loop per section.
To indicate the end of the track, enter all zeros for all section items. When the program sees a section distance of 0, it will begin a new lap.

Descriptionof track items


In the editor, you will notice 8 fields that are associated with each section. Each field will contain a number that gives the program details about your track.
Here are details of each field:
SectionDist: This field describes how long the section is in miles. Generally, this number is between the range of .1 to 1, but you can make it as long as you like, just remember driving along with nothing to do is kind of boring, so keep your lengths reasonable
CurveDist: This field indicates how long the curve at the end of the section is in degrees. If for example you want to create a 90 degree right turn, this number would be 90. If you don't want a curve at the end of a section, simply enter 0 for the curve length.
The higher the number, the longer the curve will be.

CurveSide: This number indicates which side your curve will turn, either left or right. Enter 0 for a left turn, and 1 for a right turn.
For example, if you wanted to create a 45 degree left, the curveDist would be 45 and the curveSide would be 0.

crowdDist: This field indicates at what distance you wish to place a stand of cheering fans. The volume builds as you approach the crowd, so I reccomend putting the crowd near the middle of the section.
For example, if you have a sectionDist of .50, then the crowd should be at .25.
Enter 0 in this field if you don't want a crowd in the section.

JumpDist: This field indicates at what point in the section a jump occurs.
Make sure the jump has plenty of distance before and after the jump so the racer will be able to build up enough speed to take the jump, as well as have enough clearance after the jump to land.
Simply put a jumpDist of 0 if you don't want a jump in a section.

JumpHeight: This indicates how tall the jump hurdle is. The racer jumps at a rate of 64 feet per second, and the game beeps 2 seconds before the hurdle, so this height should never be over 120 feet, and realistically, I wouldn't make it higher than 80 feet.
LoopDist: This indicates at what point in the section a loop will occur. This can be placed anywhere in the section you like.
LoopLength: This value indicates how long the loop is with the racer having to fight gravity during the first half of the loop and being pulled by gravity during the second half.
These numbers can be anything you like, but anything over .75will slow the racer to a crawl on the first half of the loop.
Important note: The loop length is subtracted from the section distance, so you cannot have a loop that takes more distance than what is left in the section itself.
For example, say you have a section distance of 1.25. If you start your loop at .5, the loop cannot be longer than .75, otherwise the section would end before you were out of the loop, and bad things would occur.

ForceDist
This field indicates at what part of the section a force shield is located.
The racer must slow to below 150 MPH at a shield, or their speed will be dropped to zero.

All of the fields will accept numbers with decimal places, except curveLength, curveSide, and JumpHeight. If you put a decimal place in these fields, the game will not process the track properly.

Creating your first track


Nothing teaches as well as actually doing, so let's create a track and race that bad boy.
Enter myFirstTrack in the track name field, then tab down to the save button. Enter the name again in the file name field and hit enter.
Now we have a track file to edit.
The section combo box is there to select sections to edit later on if we need to make changes, so don't worry about that right now.
Tab to the first field, sectionDist and enter .5 for the distance.
This will give our first section a distance of half a mile.
Now tab once to curveLength. Enter 90 here to create a curve of 90 degrees.
Next, tab to curveSide and enter 1. This will tell the program our curve will turn to the right.
Enter zeros in the rest of the fields, as we don't yet want to create a jump or loop.
Now tab to save section and hit enter.
We now have our first section, with a distance of half a mile and a 90 degree right turn at the end of the section.
Now, lets create a section with a jump in it.
Tab to "Add new section" and hit enter. This will clear the fields and put us in the sectionDist field for our new section.
Again, lets create a section half a mile long by entering .5 in this field.
We want a 45 degree left at the end of this section, so enter 45 for curveDist and 0 for curveSide.
We want a jump to be right in the center of the section, so enter .25 for the jumpDist.
Make the jump 30 feet high by entering 30 in the jumpHeight field.
We should put a crowd here that will cheer your successful jump, so in the crowdDist field, enter .30. This will locate the crowd just beyond the jump.
Enter zeros for the loopfields, and save the section.
Ok, finally, we want to build a section with a loop in it.
For our third section, enter a section dist of .4, a curveDist of 60 and a curveSide of 1.
Enter zeros for the jump fields, and .2 for the loopDist.
Finally, enter .15 for the loopLength and click save section.
We now have our third section with a distance of .4 miles and a loop located at .2 miles along the section with a length of .15.
Finally, to indicate the end of the track, add a new section with zeros in every field. When the program encounters a zero for sectionDist, it will begin a new lap.
Save this section, then save the track.
Congratulations, you have just built your first track.
Now start Rail Racer and load myFirstTrack under user created tracks.
If all goes well, you should be racing a three section track with a jump in section 2 and a loop in section 3.
Now, lets say we like the track, but we want to change where the jump is in the second section.
If you closed the editor, simply start it back up and click load track to bring your track back up.
Select the appropriate section in the combo box. Tab to the jumpDist field and change it to .20.
Click the save section button, then save track.
There ya go, the change is made.
One thing to note is that if you make any changes to your track, any current lap and course records will be wiped out, after all you are racing a new track, and new records will have to be set.

The other buttons in the editor are fairly self explanitory, click new to start a new track, and exit to leave the editor.
Well, that about covers it. You should now be ready to create your own racing masterpiece.
Send me your creations
If you think your track is a particularly good one, send it to me and I will integrate it into the game tracks if it is good enough so people can race it for money.
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Contact info

Your suggestions, questions and comments are welcome, please email me at Che@tridigitalbb.com and I will most definately read and respond to you as soon as possible. If you have an idea that would make the game better, feel free to send it on.

Copyright 2006 Blind Adrenaline Simulations