SpaghettiKart/docs/custom-track.md

Custom Tracks

This guide is

• Hastily written
• Made for advanced users
• A work-in-progress

This guide is not all encompassing and may be missing important information. A better manual will be drafted in the future.

Dependencies

• Blender v4.3 (older should work fine too).
• Harbour Masters Fast64 https://github.com/HarbourMasters/fast64

How to use

• Add an empty <-- All of your meshes and path will go here. Place it at coordinate 0,0,0
• Add a bezier curve <-- This will be the track path. Place it at coordinate 0,0,0
• Add some mesh <-- The drivable surface should be a flat-plane, not a box.
  • Goto the object menu and select a surface type (asphalt, grass, etc.)
  • Stuff like buildings or walls should be separate meshes to not mess with the collision generator.
  • The track/pavement should be a separate mesh from the rest of the scene.

Materials

• Youtube tutorials discuss how materials work.
• Fast64 often defaults to a CI8 palette texture, always change Format to RGBA-16 bit or RGBA-32 bit The Colour Index (CI8) format can cause issues if not used correctly. It's easy to confuse this as directly below this box it says RGBA 16-bit Example of incorrect texture format:

Example of correct texture format

Export

• Check Ignore Textures Restrictions failing to do so may result in errors

• FAST64 MUST BE SET TO F3DEX MODE (The others should work but they don't)

• Select the empty and click the SpaghettiKart and Harbour Masters profiles

• Name: Track name here

• internal_game_path: must have tracks/your_track_name_here

• export_path: Choose an export location

• decomp_path: Leave blank

• Click Export

Preparation

• Place files in folder tracks/your_track_name_here/the_files_here
• Right click on the folder tracks, and turn into stored zip archive.
  • This file should not be compressed.
• If you wish, you may rename this file to mod_name.o2r or mod_name.zip

Import

• Place mod in mods folder beside game executable.
• Launch the game
• Enable HM64 Labs in the ESC enhancements menu
• Enable Debug Mode in the ESC Developer menu (only required if using the debug menu to play tracks)
  • If you are at the start screen, navigate away and come back, the debug menu will appear.
• In the Content Browser click Tracks
• Your track should be in here with an exclamation mark. Your track needs to be initialized.

Track Initialization

• An initialized track has a scene.json file in it. The game creates this file automatically.
• In the Track Properties window setup how you want and then click on your track in the Content Browser.
• The scene file should now be generated. If the game crashes, just restart.
• If the track no longer has the exclamation mark, your scene file has successfully been created.
• The track should now show up in the debug track list.
  • You can use the debug menu to play your track.
  • You can click on your track in the Content Browser under Tracks to play your track.

Playing Your Custom Track

• If the game crashes when you select it. Issue with track path or mesh is most common cause.
  • The game generates collision mesh automatically.
• Adjust the settings in the track properties to whatever.
• Add actors or more mesh using the Content Browser
• Actors/Objects and Lighting changes are not currently saving to the scene file yet.
  • You can place stuff. But it will not save.

Tips

The Laws of SpaghettiKart

• Track geography must be a plane, not a box
  • A flat track with a basic plane (square), needs to be turned into triangules and/or subdivided a few times, otherwise the collision generation will 'wig out', placing the racers incorrectly
• The starting line must face north
  • In Blender: Positive Green Y Axis
  • In game: Negative Z axis
• The meshes anchor needs to be center of mass or at 0,0,0
  • Otherwise the mesh will have a weird offset.
• Don't draw your path backwards (In blender turn on normals on the bezier curve to see the direction)
• The first path point is set at 0,0,0
• Recommend a scaling of 20 in the F3D Exporter window
• Must be 10 path points behind the starting line

Minimap

• Must be named: minimap.png

Two options for making minimap textures:

• Make the background full black (this will be transparent in-game). Use White for the track.
  • This option is easiest to see the track.
• Use FULL alpha for the background. Use white for the track. Extra details:
• Save .png as 32bit. 32x32 (other resolutions should work if needed, but recommend no bigger than 128x128)
• Turn off brush anti-aliasing.
  • Semi-transparent pixels will be rendered full white. So your lines will end up thicker.

Extra information that may be helpful

https://github.com/DeadHamster35/Tarmac64/wiki/Troubleshooting

Applicable only to Overkart 64, but some concepts may transfer to SpaghettiKart https://github.com/DeadHamster35/Tarmac64/wiki/Blender-Reference-Guide