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Do you know how to make storage track, switches, merges, and transfer tracks?

-Ride_Op

The first release candidate is planned for the 20th of October. (https://code.blender.org/2018/06/beyond-the-code-quest/)

I think one should definitely wait, since many basics are currently under heavy change and some controversial discussions are also going on, especially affecting keyboard controls and menus.

I'm played a little bit more with the blender 2.8 alpha:

I know this might be a bit of a dumb question, but is there any sort of timeframe for when blender 2.8 comes out of beta? I had a little look around and it feels like it will be a lot easier to learn, but since its still in beta and stuff keeps changing there isnt a proper tutorial for the new UI and such yet

The shininess box was changed to the slider "override glossiness" after I wrote that tutorial, but its function is still the same. A low percentage for matte objects, a high for glossy ones.

Hello,
the first scenery object from blender is nearly finished (the saloon). But in Jack Kelly's tutorial there should be a parameter "shininess" in the material editor, but i cannot find it. i have selected ""Lighting" in "RGB Color" (there is no "Phong Lighting", but there is "Simple Lighting" as in tutorial, so "Lighting" should be "Phong Lighting"), but there is only in "Basic" "Override Glossiness" with a slider labeled with percentage. This cannot be the phong shininess because that is a number from 4 to 128. Has something changed in NoLimits since tutorial, is tutorial for NoLimits1? Exept Glossiness there is no other parameter, all other things needs additional texture files (bumpmap). I can select colors for color and specular but with glossiness i cannot regulate the size of specular, only intensity.

For the saloon and most other objects i do not need shininess, as wood, rusty metal etc has no or very little shininess. But for other objects in the future i want to know more about material files as written in doku.

Removing double texture files in blender was easier than i thought. It is sufficant to select object (mostly modified cubes), change to edit mode with face select, select all (key "A") and than select correct texture file. This selects texture file for all faces of object at once. At first i have selected each face one by one (necessary to tilt view for faces on rear side) that was much more work. But the problem remains, that for copies i get double texture files (texturename.jpg.001 etc.). The same is for adding other blender files with "File"->"Append", the textures are also copied. So if i append another blender file i have to reassign all texture files for all faces for this.

Best regards

a coaster i made for a contest. heavy collaboration with marvin who did all the scenery and supports !

download and more videos will come soon !

For the first time we are including a track length limit. I wonder why?

-Ride_Op

Copperhead by me

I'm so glad we're having a discussion about coaster theory!

When designing a roller coaster, there are two things designers keep in mind: Physiological effects and Psychological effects. Coaster enthusiasts tend to focus on the physiological effects, and NL2 only pushes us even further into the spectrum. We put a lot of emphasis on how the coaster manipulates G-forces since we ride a lot of them, and I don't need to emphasize it's importance. However, we tend to underestimate the psychological effects that real-world rides use. The most obvious example are the rides at the top of the Stratosphere tower; if they were on the ground, they would not be anywhere near as thrilling.

The key idea about this division is that one is not necessarily better than the other. People tend to agree that Lightning Rod is more thrilling at night solely because you can't see where you're going. Top Thrill Dragster's height is what made it famous, not it's intense launch. And for me, the best part about (old) Incredible Hulk was the pre-launch voice-over that warned the riders that something was going wrong. The most thrilling rides in the world take advantage of both types of effects to create a ride that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Lcucu3 : YES correct, needed a lot of hints to Guess the coaster, it took 10 days.
But u have 2 days remaining to place a new guess.

Lost Mine at Jungle Land

Hint #4 : Constructor : SBF Visa Group

Sorry Paradox I agree with him, force doesn't necessarily mean thrill. It can, but it's not a given. There are plenty of thrilling low-force elements and boring high force elements. Speed, visuals, theming, duration, surprises, direction changes, etc. can all make for a thrilling element/sequence/ride and none of those features necessarily equate to high force.

As someone with enough credits to hate the concept of credits, I'll say that you don't necessarily have to be an insider to have a valid opinion. That goes for a lot of things outside of coasters too.

Basically, here’s what I look for in my top coasters. My favorite rides will always give the sensation of being free and flying through the layout - I tend to love speed a good drop, and airtime. The pure sensation of speed, freedom and the drop is the only reason why Millennium Force maintains its #1 spot for me - it’s a surreal experience especially at sunset rising above the lake and speeding along throughout the park. Skyrush would easily be my #1 if it weren’t for the restraints - it has everything I look for in a coaster and does it all exceptionally well. i305 is an incredible coaster, yes, but its drop isn’t quite as good as those two for me (still amazing though), the restraints are more restrictive (less of a free sensation) and the location in a field just isn’t as good for me. Plus, it’s so intense is hard to marathon for me haha.

TL:DR My point is I agree force does not equal a better ride necessarily - I look for many other things in a roller coaster besides forces and high intensity.

^^Thanks! Go to preferences then overlay, there you can insert image files into the view port, it's a bit fiddly getting the scale right though.

Actually blender should not copy the textures when you copy objects, I don't know why this happened in your project, I was not able to get blender into doing this, but now you can at least fix it when it happens again. ;-)

Yes, putting nl2mat files into subfolders actually should work without problems, for example like that:

No Limits object 0.nl2sco
No Limits object 1.nl2sco
/resources
	/models
		mymodel_0.dae
		mymodel_1.dae
	/materials
		mymaterial_0.nl2mat
		mymaterial_1.nl2mat
		/textures
			mytexture_0.jpg
			mytexture_1.jpg

In this case you probably do not want to enable "copy" when exporting the object for the texture and just use the save as function in the UV / Image editor to save a copy of your source image at a destination of your choice. I would recommend this anyway to avoid some hassle that might come up when exporting the material directly like it just happened and you can also change the image with the inbuilt image editing / drawing capabilities of blender without accidentally destroying the original source texture.

Hello,
the problem was visible in the UV-editor as in your 2nd screenshot. When i select texture file, suddenly i got more than one texture file for the same texture. But now i have an idea: i have made copies of a lot of parts after i have assigned textures to the first (e.g. some beams, complete windows etc.), i think here blender has made the copies of the texture files. The objects i have made first (not as copy) have assigned the original texture files. The only way to change back is to select each face and assign the original texture file as in your 2nd screenshot.

But for the future i want to know if it is possible to make copies of parts with already made textures so that these parts use the same texture file? Perhaps a link will do but sometimes i have made copies and changed the copy, e.g. change the length a little bit. I have only textures, no materials because for exporting dae-files i have to select between them, it seems that it is not possible to use both. Also i have no bump maps etc., just diffuse maps. I have understood from you, that this has to be made with NoLimits nl2mat-files.

So first i have a lot of work to reassign a lot of faces to the same texture files. Is it possible in NoLimits to use nl2mat-files in a subfolder relative to the nl2sco-file? I have tried this without sucess, with nl2mat-file in same folder it works, but it is possible that i have made a mistake. It is best, when i have all files exept nl2sco-file and dae-file in the folder for objects (e.g. named "buildings"), if i have more than one building, the folder itself is not full of other files and i see in "Scenery"->"Choose" only one subfolder (inside it subfolders for each building subfolders with all texture files, nl2mat-files etc.) and a list of buildings like the other folders coming from the NoLimits library. I have found some additional objects for NoLimits (some trees, stones and a lot of flatrides) that are organized this way.

Momentary i am on another PC without blender. Screenshots are possible, but it is a lot of work because the PC with NoLimits and blender has no internet connection. I have to copy the screenshots to an USB-stick and copy it to the internet-PC (Mini-PC running with ubuntu). Also i have no server for uploading images to post it here. Most upload server has too much java script and advertising so they are difficult to use with uBlock origin and noscript...

Best regards

I'm assuming that the fixed speed is for the lift hill? If the segment before the force section is set to 22 mph then that will definetley affect the forces of the ride once you import to nl2. Any negative Gs will most likely become light positives, there will be more lats than intended and pacing is sure to be impacted by the slower speed. It would be better just to start fresh with the correct speed.

Is fix speed in FVD++ important? I mean, I feel like I got to where it's late to fix the transitions if I fix the fix speed because fix speed has been on, the values are 22.369mph (10.000 m/s), except for force sections, they're turned off. Curve and straight sections has a fix speed, and thought from watching tutorials the person speaking said it won't really affect the track at all but then forgot to take note he said (except after).

And inserting an element into NL2, well as NL1, it's just one big track that hasn't have any finishing touch, like no dividers and such, with that said. I don't have to worry? It's a bit iffy for me to get a hold what they meant, now it's like ugh, I spent more than 2 weeks working on the track. It shouldn't matter though, right? I mean what is fix speed exactly, why does it drastically change the track shaping? Sorry for typing so much.

Also, how do I safely imported into NL2? It's a mess when I do so.