Turbo Sliders Track Editor Manual
Sections in this manual:
See also the Game Manual.
Starting
To edit a track, either load an existing track or create a new one
(by default, they are put in the "tracks/new" directory). Navigate
in the menu using the arrow keys and enter. Advanced
users might prefer using
command line. When editing a track,
exiting is done by pressing Esc and confirming with 'y'.
A normal track consists of two files: a trk file and a pat.png file.
If you copy a track to another location, remember to copy both these
files. To rename a track, rename the trk file, load it with the editor
and save again.
Before you distribute your tracks...
It is fairly easy to make tracks with the editor but it may
be harder to make a track that is actually good. When you
master basics, be sure to understand everything in
the Making a Good Track section
before you distribute your tracks to anyone.
Making changes after the track has already gone to other
players causes problems as people may have different versions
of the track.
It is important to make good control lines so that it is not
possible to accidentally miss a line or have unintended shortcuts.
You should also check terrain mode (F10) to make sure there are
no unseen holes in tarmac or other oddities.
The editor has several modes which are selected with function keys:
The track is saved with F6.
Editor is exited by pressing Esc and confirming with 'y'.
Tile Mode (F1)
In the tile mode, tiles can be selected, rotated and added with
the arrow keys or s/d/f/e (with or without shift+ctrl) and mouse. Last
addition can be deleted with backspace. Space performs "add tile
before the last tile". That can be used in special cases, for example
when you want to add a straight track tile below a previously added
curve tile. Holding Alt when moving mouse keeps x or y coordinate fixed.
Many tiles have precalculated lighting which does not allow them to be
rotated.
You can fast-select certain tiles with number keys 0-9
(with or without Shift).
Control Point Mode (F2)
In the control point mode, new control lines can be added by
clicking two points in the track. The control lines are either
vertical or horizontal line segments which the cars must pass
in the correct order to complete a lap. The first control line
is also the starting line and marks the beginning of a new lap.
If track type is Single Lap Track, finish line is the the
last control line and races always have only one "lap".
Make sure that:
- There is enough space for the starting grid
(do not place any obstacles in it).
- There are not any shortcuts.
- You cannot accidentially miss a control line by going off-road or
driving curves too tightly. Remember this especially
with the starting line. Make it much wider than the road unless
there are obstacles near the road.
Object Mode (F3)
Object mode is like tile mode. Objects are bridges and such special
tiles which are drawn on top of other tiles. Objects have some overhead
during the game so do not overuse them.
Lightmap Mode (F4)
Lightmap mode can be used to modify the appearance of the track
by editing lightmap on the track. There are four parameters that
can be changed with keys s, f, d, e and arrows. Just experient with
the different settings to see what can be achieved or turn lightmap
off with 'o'.
Pit Mode (F5)
In pit mode you can add a pit to the track. This is optional but if
you want to have a race with pit stops, the track must have a pit.
Click two times to define the upper left and lower right corners of
the pit. To remove pit, press backspace.
Start Position Mode (F7)
Start position mode can be used to override default starting positions
of the track. You must define either none or all twenty starting positions.
To add a new starting position, click two times. First click defines
the position and second click the angle of the car which starts in that position.
Note that the position is the middle position of the car. If the second mouse
click is with left button, the angle is rounded so that it is easier to get
angles like 0 and 180. If you use right button, the angle is more exact.
Track Type Mode (F9)
In Track Type Mode, you can change the type of the track. If the type
is different from the default mode (Racing Track), it can also affect how
some other modes work. Read README-battle.txt
and README-punaball.txt for
more information.
Terrain Mode (F10)
You cannot edit anything in Terrain Mode but it should be used
when finalizing a track. In Terrain Mode, you can see for example
if there are holes in tarmac or other oddities which should be
fixed.
Full View (F11)
In Full View, you can view the whole track at once. You cannot edit
in this mode.
Use time and energy to finish your tracks before giving them
to anyone. It is easy to make an otherwise good track bad if
you forget some basic rules. So make sure you understand everything
in this chapter.
Make good control points (F2)
Place your control points so that there are not any shortcuts.
Shortcutters are clever, think hard to see all possibilities.
Try to make to control points such that it is not easy
to accidentially miss a control point. For example, put a solid
obstacle in the inner curve and make the line long enough so that
it is not possible to go around it. Make sure that it is only
not allowed to go around a U turn driving the wrong direction.
Also make sure that it is not
possible to miss the finish line which is the first control line
you insert. Make it wider than the road.
Check terrains
Use Terrain Mode (F10) to see that there are not any small areas
of grass or sand where there should be tarmac.
Do not make your track too far out
It is possible to make very odd tracks. This may seem funny
but no one probably wants to actually play such a track for a long
time. Creativity is of course good, but try not to make the rules
of your track too different from the other tracks.
- Normally, a track is made in several phases. First, make background
with different terrains. Then, build the track itself. After that,
add obstacles, control lines, possibly new starting positions and pit,
and finally, set lightmap.
- When you tile background terrains or the track tiles,
make them overlap slightly.
- If the track maker is not correct, you can edit it with any
text editor in the trk file. By default, the maker is made to be
the first player name you have entered in the game.
- To correct errors, it may be necessary to remove or change
tiles using a text editor. Each tile addition is on its own line in
the trk file.
- If you rename a track, you must open and save it with the editor
at least once. Otherwise, the pattern file is not used, since
the trk file has reference to the old name. This makes track profile
unavailable and may cause track record problems.
- To get curves look better, first add a curve tile, then add
straight track tiles below the curve tile by using spacebar.
- Use Alt key frequently to be able to put tiles on the same line.
Usage:
editor [-mod <mod name>] [-x <size>] [-y <size>]
[-maker <name>]
[-fullscreen 0|1] [-tx <track x size>] [-ty <track y size>]
[-save 1] <track name>
- -mod: mod to use (must be the first parameter)
- -x, -y: the window size.
- -maker: specify maker when creating a new track.
- -fullScreen: whether to be in full screen mode (also with -f).
- -tx, -ty: the track size when creating a new track.
- -mo: max objects, increase the number of objects supported.
- -save: if set, the loaded track is immediately saved and editor exists. This way, third party editors can generate hash and pattern information easily.
If the track name is an existing track, the editor opens it using its
size. Otherwise, a new track is created with the given name and track
size. If -tx and -ty options are not provided, default size is 640 x 400.
If you open an existing tracks, the tx and ty options have no effect. If
you want to change the track size afterwards, you will have to edit the
track file manually with a text editor.
Note that when you have a mod parameter, the file name is relative
to the mod directory. So, for example, to edit mod_example/tracks/track.trk,
jo must type "editor -mod example tracks/track.trk".