Road Atlanta! (now with both single and flying laps!)

[07CobaltGirl]

Reworked with the new TrackEdit v.13 from BitTwiddler, I present Road Atlanta! No more pesky 1m right to start out, this one has a proper start (this new track editor is easier than ever!!!!!). Measuring 4.08km (2.54 miles) and located in beautiful Braselton, Georgia, USA, this is a premier track on world road circuits and one of the most entertaining tracks in Forza 4.

Even more exciting, is the new flying lap! Below there are two files, the first is single lap only, while the second is a flying lap on Sector 3. Both versions include elevations which are as correct as I could make them using Google Earth data. In the TrackEdit v.13 image below it you can see my track's elevation data as well as what a double lap looks like. It isn't flawless, but it is really close. Enjoy!!

Road Atlanta! (single).zip

V3 with single lap only

(1.39 MiB) Downloaded 310 times

Road Atlanta! (flying).zip

V3 with flying lap on Sector 3

(1.39 MiB) Downloaded 297 times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ORIGINAL POST~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, This was a pretty hard track to make. As you can see, it starts in a downward direction. I had to cheat to achieve this. I know what you are all thinking...why don't you flip the track over on it's end? Right? Well, it is hard to work with at this size. It only got smaller when I flipped the track. So the first motion on the track is a right-hand 105* turn at 1m (you can't do smaller than 1m!). I started with the obvious...90*, but it didn't turn far enough and I was off the track in under 3s! This track path looks really odd, but it does work.

I also know the image is horrible. Someone who can actually make good images is more than welcome to make something more suitable. It would be greatly appreciated by me (and anyone else who has to suffer looking at my awful artwork). If interested, I can send you the GIMP file or save it in a PS file if you'd prefer. That way it is already in layers, making it easier to work with. The track itself was created by stroking a path in a google image and turning it. haha Just let me know with a quick PM!

So let's get it over with. I'm sure you're all thinking, "What is she on about now????" Here's the track in the editor.



Crazy, right? It does work though, I promise. It just isn't perfect. I made the track path without this angle, and the angle tossed the path off by just so much. And it looks really odd when it starts. Obviously it is single lap only. I might attempt a double lap later. We'll see. Track times are going to be in the 100s range. It also has no elevation changes or banking (or sportiness because Road Atlanta is funky as hell with the bumps). I will be adding those this weekend, as well as fine-tuning a couple of the esses. I just wanted to share. Also of note, there are no sectors yet. I've yet to find out where the time sectors are on this track. If anyone knows where they belong, post up the info here. Otherwise, this weekend I will make something up.

Road Atlanta v1.1.zip

Replication of Road Atlanta complete with slopes

(300.91 KiB) Downloaded 296 times

[07CobaltGirl]

Final track complete. Still not 100% satisfied with the last two curves coming into the front straight, but 90% satisfied. Time with my test car is 1:54.71. 3D length is 4072m. I hope y'all like it.

[strop]

Nice, I see you're building up quite the catalogue. This is a very good thing indeed.

I can appreciate that you laid the track in landscape format because it actually fits better, but... personally it does bother me a bit because having a car turn 105 degrees from a standing start obviously adds at least a second or so and different cars will take different lengths of time to do it. I'm in favour of starting going right and flipping the track even though it doesn't look as good on the map... otherwise the only thing you'd actually have to change would be the starting position, and the scale!

[07CobaltGirl]

Yes, it adds different times for different cars. I tried it with several cars, using a 1m sector time measurement and it varied from .54s to .61s. The problem with it standing on it's side was the size of the car vs size of the image, not to mention a LOT of wasted space on the screen. It just didn't look right to me. I suppose I could move the starting point elsewhere on the track so it would start right...

[strop]

As much as that would feel totally wrong, at least that way you could create a flying lap time with the sectors without making the car go an entire 2 laps around the circuit!

I get the dead space issue, in fact I'm also starting to try my hand at building tracks (or rather, a catalogue of interesting little hill passes to be found locally). But in some cases, it's worth it, for example on Der Bayer's excellent Nordschleife. I would have difficulty accepting starting anywhere else on Nordschleife (like in Forza, where they insist on starting everybody at the Bridge, but on a closed road so it isn't even a Bridge to Gantry run... why can't they start at the actual starting line like in NFS Shift and Gran Turismo 5, it just feels a bit wrong to me haha).

[07CobaltGirl]

http://youtu.be/K16YnmJN0fc

This would make a good track. Here's what it looks like on a map.





From the south end, it is mostly downhill (~1.5miles uphill at start), so it is incredibly fast. There are no guard rails on this road, so it is dangerous, but the posted speed limit is only 35 mph. It is crowded as hell on weekends, so you can't really race it, but on weekdays it is only you and the local law enforcement.

It's actually part of a larger look, similar to the Ring. This section is just the most treacherous (and most famous) part.

I went with a pack of Cobalts (about 25 of us) on a Saturday and we ran it up and back down. Going up was slow, since it was my first time, but coming back down we made this run in just about 16 minutes start to finish. I know what you're thinking, 11.5 miles in 16 minutes? Psshhhh....

It isn't as easy as it looks! FYI, that is an average of about 43 mph. Let's just say my 9.5" brakes were toast when we got to the bottom because it was brakes or accelerator for the entire 16 minutes. (They were actually fine, but fading VERY hard at the bottom)

Anyway, this would be a fun track to make, but the elevations and 318 curves!!!!! Oh my! *faints*

[strop]

Oh no, that's not really that slow, I'm familiar with just how tight those tracks can be. We should possibly set up a separate thread for awesome mountain passes so we can eventually build some kind of International Touge League Here are a couple of examples from Australia. We don't have huge elevations (given the highest mountain we have barely tops 2km), but the roads can be every bit as tight and twisty and therefore fun:

Atherton Tablelands, Northern Queensland

About 22km of the windiest bits of road to be found on the Atherton Tablelands drive coming out of Cairns. Tiny lanes, also no guard rails, frequently sheer ravines into rainforest. Gain of elevation about 740m, from 20 to 760m. Going even at the speed limit is highly inadvisable most of the time, so a time of 26min is already pretty brisk.

Mount Hotham, Victoria

The road coming out of Harrietville immediately turns into a steep climb about 25km long with a gain of elevation of about 1350m to about 1870m. As Mount Hotham is a popular tourist destination, the roads are in uniformly excellent condition. Watch out for snow at the peak! This one can be driven a little faster, as there are much looser sections interspersing the tight twisty steep bits.

Also, a friend of mine helpfully pointed me to this handy site if you ever needed help with elevations.

[07CobaltGirl]

OK, that is an awesome page. Thanks!

And those two roads look like a lot of fun!

[Pleb]

I've been wanting to make the Isle of Man TT course for some time now in Automation, but I can't find any corner data for angles or anything like that. It's a shame really because I think it would be interesting so see what kind of times cars can do, on a circuit that superbikes manage to average a speed of 130+mph on. Also it's entirely comprised of 37 miles of pure roads

Here's some info for those who are interested:
http://www.iomtt.com/TT-Database/Courses.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snaefell_Mountain_Course

[RobtheFiend]

Can the game cope with such a long track?

The "Green Hell" is only 20.8km(12.9 miles).

[strop]

That's a good question and I've been wondering the same thing. This may not be a sufficient test, but I did run a 100km straight just by way of experimentation, and the game coped with that just fine (it just took a long time to calculate).

[Der Bayer]

The simulation will stop after 900 seconds (15 minutes). This value could be changed without causing trouble, but on slower PCs you really don't want longer tracks.

[strop]

LOL what a coincidence, it just so happens that I used my fastest car to test the 100km track and it managed the run in just under 900s, so I didn't discover that. Thanks for that info Der Bayer.

[07CobaltGirl]

Updated OP. Check it out!