I’m trying to create an F-Zero inspired track. The video below showcases procedurally generated track tool someone made in Houdini, with hot-swappable track elements, supports, width adjusting, etc. How can I achieve something similar using geometry nodes?
Hello and welcome to the forum !
Unfortunately your question is a bit too broad.
Since ones can probably spend a few days/week on such asset, I don’t know where to begin.
Maybe taking this course might help since they build a roller coaster : https://cgcookie.com/courses/assemble-introduction-to-procedural-modeling-with-geometry-nodes-in-blender
Keep in mind that something that is missing in blender right now is to be able to add attributes to curve points, which would be a good way to say “this part of the curve is a tunnel” , “on this point there is a ring around the track”. So making variations might not be as straightforward as it could be.
On the overall it looks like a intermediate level project, it’s not super complex since there is a lot of repetition and shapes aren’t that difficult to make. But since it’s an accumulation of rather simple problems to solve, being able to address all of them without being stuck every time requires some experiences for sure.
Maybe start to look into similar tutorials, like making a road from a curve ( seems that there isn’t a lot of learning material about it sadly) , maybe looking into this :
And if you really new to geometry nodes I advice to not start with that, and try simple exercises really focused on learning without a particular goal in mind.
Good Luck !
Hello! Thanks very much for you reply!
Indeed, I guessed that my question was likely too broad to be fully answered, but I was hoping to find some potential resources to get me started, like the ones you gave me. Thanks! I am definitely a noob when it comes to geometry nodes, though I’m not completely new with them.
As with many things in 3D one of the key is to be able to broke down one asset into several little problem to solve. With procedural modeling this is super important.
So maybe start to do a lot of little tests that represents one part of what you want to do, make sure that eventually they could combine with each other, and once you get a better idea of every little parts try to actually make the final asset.
Good luck and have fun !
Maybe one way to get around that is to store which points I need a specific type of track on in the modifier itself and simply use a comparison in the geometry nodes to generate that type of track:
Thanks for the advice and the help!
Yes, that would work, the only downside obviously is the more variation or list of point you need to add , the more inconvenient to use it gets.
But other solutions aren’t great anyway, for the tunnels you might use another mesh, like if the curve pass trough ( raycast) or next to ( proximity) say a cube, then the track is turned into a tunnel.
You need to design how the interaction with the tools will look like. And for that it requires a solid idea of the result you’re after.
Planning is the key in these kind of projects, since complexity and constraints piles up quickly , but it’s fun to do !