NH Pits Tutorial

VR Track

This guide is relatively advanced, and not a detailed tutorial (some trial and error, and lots of perseverence, will be required). You will need a solid knowledge of getting tracks into NH without the use of MultiGen (see tutorial at http://www.sim-editing.com/.) The most useful part of this tutorial is probably this zip, which includes a 3DSMax file showing all the pits components (note: textures not included, but you don't need them for the purposes of this tutorial), plus the corresponding mkflt source file.

Prerequisites

Same as tracks-without-multigen tutorial.

Overview

The basic process is:

Details

Pit Lane Path

  1. The pit lane must start at a point which is on your AI centreline path, end on a point on the AI path, and consist of an even number of verts.
  2. Export the path as ASE and convert it to mkflt format using Excel the same way as done for the AI path.

Pit Stalls Path

  1. This path must consist of 43 verts (evenly spaced and within the pit entry and exit lines, see example). It should be located just "inside" your pit lane path.
  2. Export the path as ASE and convert it to mkflt format using Excel the same way as done for the AI path.

Pit pre-entry, entry and exit Lines

These can be the trickiest things to get right - examining the example is probably the most helpful way of working out what is required. Each of the three lines are simple "two vert" splines. One of the key things is to make sure the lines are long enough. Also make sure that the pre-entry and entry lines are far enough apart. The entry and exit lines determine where the pit lane speed limit is enforced, so make sure the entry line doesn't touch the track, otherwise you'll get warnings and penalties for perfectly clean laps. These three lines must be converted to quad format as required in the mkflt source file (see the example). You can use Excel to do this (as you would for hidden walls), or just paste in the verts by hand (what I did as there are only six verts in total).

That's about it really - mkworld will choke with various unhelpful errors if you get any of the above wrong. Unfortunately it is usually trial and error working out exactly what is wrong, as the error messages mean nothing (to me anyway).

Unknowns

  1. Track physics file entries which relate to pits.
  2. What exactly is the pre-entry line for? (Just 35mph warning?)
  3. Do you have to have 43 pit stalls?

If you can answer any of the above, or make corrections/additions to this tutorial, please let me know (via the forum thread through which you found this page).

Downloads

Pits Example - includes a 3DSMax file showing all the pits components, plus the corresponding mkflt source file.