[Solved] Help me decide what to do (racing game design)

I think this is the right forum to post this question, since it isn't a very technical question.


Hi everyone,
I recently started working on a racing game and got stuck at some point. Since then the development on the project was paused (and it still is). But anyway, let me tell you the current situation.

Basically I wanted to create a prototype of an existing game. I have set up the basic stuff already. There's a car, AI cars, cool sounds, music, physics etc. The only thing left to do is creating the race track itself.
Below I'll show you a video which shows the kind of track I'm trying to recreate actually.

Skip to 0:34

But due to the lack of road designing tools, I don't think I can do this. At the beginning of this project it was my first idea to recreate this.
I know it may sound stupid but this looks nearly like a "Can I do this in Unity"-situation to me.

I hope you can understand what I'm trying to tell, so here's my final question.
If possible, should I continue recreating this race track? Or should I start from scratch, even tho there's no road design tool.

 

You model it, no road design tool needed. You model it in 3ds max, maya, blender, modo, whatever you use.

 

There's a whole section for game design, and this by your own title, is a game design oriented post. Please have this moved there.

In answer to your question, you need to model the track yourself in a 3D modelling program. I'd advise creating modular track pieces (straights, corners, chicanes) that you can later arrange to however you please.

 

Firstly, this question belongs in the Game Design forum

If you have modeling skills, go to 3D modeling software such as Blender, Maya, Sketchup and you can make the track there. However, if you're someone with no modeling skills like me, look into the Asset Store and Sketchup Warehouse for the models and materials.

The entire track can be played (but NOT created) in Unity, along with a lot more

I don't think you should copy the track; that's plagiarism and could even land some sort of copyright claim. Why not look into a bunch of racing games for ideas on tracks, and make something original?

 

A general purpose engine is rarely if ever going to have all of the purpose specific tools for a particular project. If something is easy or quick then you'll probably do it manually. For other things I'd suggest making custom tools - which is an important part of making most large games.

In short, consider making a track design tool for yourself. At its simplest you'll want to define a track as a line, and generate a textured mesh based on that line. Once you've got that you can add rules and properties about how the generated track should look for different parts of the track.

Alternatively, there's at least one specific track building tool on the Asset Store, and there's also at least one generic line-based mesh generation tool which would probably be applicable here.

 

Make it in Blender, it's not too hard. I've made a couple of racetracks for other people with this workflow:

 

Another approach is to build road sections that can be linked together in Unity to make a track.

Think of the old Scalextric style tracks you can make interesting designs with a modest subset of sections.

 

First of all I didn't know there were so many approaches, thank you.
I could possibly look into the workflow suggested by @Billy4184.
The other workaround of creating multiple roads ("the paper and glue system") could also work but the only concern I got is that I will be struggling with the sizes of the roads (especially a road curve).

But above all (because there are so many answers to 1 question) I definitely will be looking at a modelling-related solution. I'll try that and we'll see what happen.

Again, thank you very much guys.
Oh and yeah, maybe I should create a different track.