TRACK STUDIO INTRODUCTION
Track Studio is located in the Creation Station, which you can drive up to in the ModSpot or can be accessed through the Start menu.
To start building a track, you can choose to first Lay Track or Modify Terrain.
Lay Track allows you to drive out your track using the R2 button for acceleration and L2 to reverse. Press L1 to place your start line. The Auto Populate feature is a quick way to place props on and off the track - like trees, houses, road surface types, signs, boost pads and item pods. With one button press, the Auto Populate tool will do all the heavy lifting for you. Or you can choose to add all of these manually.
Modify Terrain lets you build mountains, valleys and lakes. Once you've made your terrain, then you can lay your track on or around it.
Lay Track Controls
L1- Places your Starting Line, and the point where you'll start building out your track from
R2- Accelerates the roller to drive your track
L2- Puts the roller in reverse
TRACK STUDIO BASIC TERRAIN
Let's take a look at the Terrain tools. By now you've already picked a theme, which sets the basic flavor for your world.
Bring up the Mod Terrain feature, located under the EDIT option on the Circle menu and presto! Now can sculpt scenery to make a great race and create cool landscapes. Pick from one of the many sculpting brushes and spray it out like an airbrush. You can also invert your brush by toggling L1 and now instead of building up terrain you're carving into it. Use this to make lakes and rivers. You can also quickly scale and rotate your brushes using the Directional Pad.
Almost all the modes in Track Studio have multiple undo functionality in case you make a mistake. Just press R1 and it's gone. Undo too much? Hold L3 and press R1 to Redo. Be sure to use the R-Stick to control your camera view and admire your track from every angle. Another useful way to see the world you're creating is Camera Tilt. Just hold down L3 and then move the R-Stick up and down. Like other item lists in Track Studio, your sculpting brushes are conveniently minimized on the right side of your screen, ready to be pulled up by pressing on the Square whenever you need them.
TRACK STUDIO ADVANCED TERRAIN
There are four terrain brush types in the editor on the right side of your screen: Sculpt Terrain, Paint Surface, Ground Cover, and Level Terrain.
First up are the Sculpt Terrain Brushes. These let you raise and lower the landscape of your world. Turn molehills into mountains quickly and easily. Paint Surface brushes allow you to paint alternate surfaces on your terrain such as dirt or gravel. Ground Cover lets you spray down different types of long grass - use the Eraser tool to clear out a path and make your shortcut a little more obvious. Last, we have the Level Terrain Brushes. You can set these to a particular height, allowing you to modify terrain consistently at that level. You can tilt level terrain brushes as well, creating some useful angles in the terrain that wouldn't otherwise be possible.
You can use sculpting brushes in two editing modes: Sculpt Anywhere and Sculpt Along Track. 'Sculpt Anywhere' is the most common way to alter the terrain. As the name suggests, in this mode you and your brushes go anywhere. Sculpt Along Track conforms your cursor to the track path and track side. In the Road Style section of Mod Track, one of the options you have is to make the main road surface invisible. Editing terrain using 'Sculpt Along Track' is a way to ensure your terrain still follows your track.
TRACK STUDIO MODIFY TRACK
In the circle menu, go to Edit and then Modify Track.
There are six categories here: Basic Modify, Sub-Theme Painting, Re-Pave, Advanced Modify, Shortcuts and Breadcrumbs. Basic Modify lets you quickly adjust three main components of your track: width, banking and the ups and downs referred to in Track Studio as Lift.
Sub-Theme lets you add or remove fences, tunnels and bridges. You can also swap between the many road surfaces available or even go with the 'no road surface'. (Its the grey sub-theme brush). In some of the modes, you can use the D Pad to choose which part of the track you want to modify: left or right side, the whole track or even just the run-offs.
Re-Pave is a mini version of the initial steamroller experience. Select start and end points on your track and re-drive that portion of the track.
For the hard-core track builder, Advanced Modify gives you finer control of your track's shape. You can pull entire corners out further or lift track sections. If you do a major change, you may find some props on your track. Use the Select Props option, hold the X button and you can draw a marquee or lassoo around a group of props. Just complete the loop and you can choose to move them as a group or delete them. (more details below)
Use Branches to create alternate routes along you main track. Select start and end points just like you do in Re-Pave. Track Studio will automatically offer you a branch route, but if you want you can hop back into the steamroller and customize it.
Breadcrumbs serve two major purposes and are a vital part of advanced track building. First, they tell the AI racers and weapons where they can leave the main track and take alternate routes. Second, they allow both you and AI racers to leave the main track without automatically resetting.
TRACK STUDIO BREADCRUMBS
Breadcrumb Paths allow racers to leave the main track path without resetting and tell AI Racers and weapons where they can do the same. When in Breadcrumbs mode, scrub along the main track until you find the spot where you want to start and then hold down the X-button and draw your desired path away from the track. When you've finished drawing out your path, simply return to the main track and release the X-button. You'll see a series of dots or "breadcrumbs" laid out now on your track - but don't worry, you don't see them when you race the track. Breadcrumb Paths will always want to move in a forward, so if you make a path that ends further back on the track than where you started, the path direction will automatically flip. Also, a Breadcrumb Path cannot overlap itself, and it can't cut completely across the main track. (Breadcrumb paths can also mess with the driving logic AI racers.)
So to make a breadcrumb path easier for AI racers to follow, try to remove obstacles and fences that would otherwise block their path. It's usually a good idea to use Breadcrumbs in combination with Terrain Surface Brushes. Paint out a path with your Surface Brushes and then lay down a Breadcrumb Path along it. This makes your alternate path a lot more obvoius, so consider adding Props and road signs as other visual clues.
TRACK STUDIO TESTING AND PREVIEWING
Track Studio offers three different preview options: Test Drive, Preview Mode and Test Race. Test Drive puts you in your Kart close to where you are working, allowing you to quickly jump between editing and testing. Preview Mode gives you full control of your camera for that 'bird's eyes view' of your track. This is essential when you want to see how different areas of your track are coming along. Test Race is the full-meal-deal, offering you the total race experience complete with HUD, timers and weapons. Test Race always places you at the starting line so you can see how your track plays from start to finish. All three modes will also drop in AI Racers so you can see how the karts will handle the bumps and turns. You can reach the testing modes from the Main Circle Menu, but you can also use a shortcut by hitting R3 to launch the Quick Menu. The Quick Menu lets you instantly jump to either Preview Mode or Test Drive. When you back out of either mode (press Circle) you'll return automatically to the last place you were editing.
TRACK STUDIO BASIC PROP EDITING
There are piles of Props in Track Studio and each one serves a different purpose. Some spruce up scenery and add distinctive style to the world you create. Others, such as Jumps, Boost Pads and Item Pods have specific gameplay functionality. Some props called 'Smackables' like barrels or road signs break or explode on contact. More advanced Dynamic Props hold special properties and can be turned on and off with pressure pads or triggers.
All Prop types are accessible in Place Props located under the Edit option on your trusty Circle Menu. Placing Props and Selecting Props are the two main modes for Prop Placement. You always start in Place Prop mode, where you can choose from list the prop you'd like to place. As with other item lists in Track Studio, all your Props are conveniently minimized on the right side of your screen. Press the Square button to maximize the full list. Press X to place a prop. With some props, holding the X button down will cause it to spray multiple copies. Experiment with different props to see which ones spray.
You can also quickly scale or rotate a prop with the Directional Pad. If you want to select a Prop that is already in the world, press L1 to toggle to the Select Props mode and your cursor will snap to objects as you get close to them. And remember, everything in Track Studio can be undone. Press R1 to undo. If you undo too far, hold L3 and press R1 to redo.
Remember to use your camera view to check out your handywork. Use the R stick to control your camera. Hold L3 and move the R stick up and down to use Camera tilt and really get the bird's eye view. The last photo you take will be the one that is saved as your track's thumbnail image.
TRACK STUDIO SETTING PROP HEIGHT
Select the prop, scale or rotate it however you like, and move it into position. If you want to set a Props' height however, two more advanced options are available that involve what we refer to in Track Studio as 'Pinning'. Notice that if you raise a mountain, the trees raise with it. The majority of Props in Track Studio start out being pinned to the terrain. Any Prop can be unpinned by holding the Triangle button and pressing the Directional Pad up and down. The one special case to keep in mind is Smackable Props. While you can unpin them and set their height, once the race begins they'll automatically fall to the ground.
There are three surfaces that a Prop will pin to: the Road Surface, the Ground Surface or the Water Surface. As you move an object around it will try and make the best decision as to what it should pin itself to. You can manually override the Prop's choice by holding Triangle and pressing the Directional Pad right/ left to toggle through the possibilities at that current location. Incidentally, this is a handy way to jump between levels in some cases, for instance if your Road overlaps with an overpass.
TRACK STUDIO PLACING PROPS ALONG THE TRACK
As with editing terrain, there are two different ways you can drop Props: Place Anywhere or Place along Track. Each mode has its advantages depending on what you want to do. Place Anywhere is the most common way to place Props and allows you the freedom to move anywhere in the world. Need to quickly place Props alongside your track, like a row of houses and trees? Then select Place Along Track. Your cursor conforms to the track path and trackside so you can easily scrub along the track and place objects on or beside it. Because the cursor is constrained to the track, pushing up on the L-Stick will always move you forward along the track, pushing Down will move you backwards and Left and Right will move you side to side, relative to the track and regardless of the camera position. What this means is that sometimes, depending on your camera angle, the cursor won't appear to go where you were expecting.
Push Up when you want to move forward on the track and you'll get the hang of it in no time. Also, if you want to quickly scrub along the track you can change speeds by toggling the Triangle button.
TRACK STUDIO DYNAMIC PROPS
There are two parts to a Dynamic Prop: a Dynamic Object and a Trigger. Think of it like a light. The bulb is the dynamic object, the light switch is the trigger that turns it on. In Track Studio we like to make things ever simpler than a light switch, so all Dynamic Objects can just be dropped into the world even if you do nothing else they'll work as soon as the race begins. But if you want a Dynamic Object to activate on a specific event, for instance when someone drives over a pressure pad, then you're going to want to hook your objects up to Triggers.
You have multiple triggers to choose from: Pressure Pads activate when you drive over them; Invisible Regions activate when you drive through them (in gameplay you won't see them and they won't affect the speed or handling of your kart), and Shootable Triggers activate when a weapon hits them. Once you've placed a Trigger and Dynamic Object in the world, connecting them requires only a few simple steps. First, make sure you're in Prop Selection mode. A common mistake is to place a prop and while you're still in Prop Placement mode wonder why you can't lock onto it. Press L1 to toggle between Prop Placement and Prop Selection. From Prop Selection mode you can easily lock-on to the Trigger you want. Now press Square to launch the properties panel. Press Square again to enter Connection Mode. When you move the cursor in this mode you will see the connection line. Simply move the cursor to the Dynamic Object you want and lock-on to it. Press X to accept the connection and you're done.
Play around with the properties of both the Trigger and the Dynamic Object to get various results. Keep in mind that a single Trigger can be connected to multiple Dynamic Objects and, equally, a single Dynamic Object could be activated by several different Triggers. Also take note that Jumps and Wanderers cannot be connected to Triggers.
TRACK STUDIO THEME MIXING
The props on a given track are automatically tailored to match the theme you chose at the start, such as jungle, desert, seaside, etc. To get started, maximize the prop list by pressing Square and press L1 or R1 to switch themes. Then place props just like you normally would. What if you reached the 3 theme limit per track and there's a sheep from another theme you want to still add? You're going to have to dump one of the other themes to get Bo Peep in there. Go to the Currently Used list, which is the last tab on the Prop List Menu. This shows you all of the props you have for that particular theme. You can use this list to select and delete props in your world by pressing the Triangle button. Every copy of that particular prop is instantly deleted. This is a great shortcut!
You can also change the entire theme of a world if you like. Go to the Main Circle Menu and look for theme switching under Track Management. But once you change a theme, you can't undo it. You can always choose that initial theme again, but not all of your props will be in the same place.
TRACK STUDIO BEST PRACTICES
Let's go through a checklist of things you can add to your track.
Item Pods: These are essential if your track is designed for face-melting action races.
Boost Pads: Boost Pads are another key element to a great race, however don't go 'boost crazy' or you might find that your track doesn't handle very well. They're great for long straight aways or at the base of hills.
Directional Arrows and Road Signs: A few well placed Directional Arrows or Road Signs can ensure your racers are worrying about the opposition rather than the direction they're going or the blind upcoming corner.
Track Variation: A well-stocked track needs to have a good balance of twists, turns, eye-watering straight-aways, elevation changes, jumps and ramps. Also, make sure to include at least one truly killer moment that racers can look forward to on every lap and something they'll remember your track by.
Branches, Breadcrumbs and Shortcuts: Give racers choices, ideally ones that offer high risk and high reward. Up the ante and see who has the courage to push their luck.
Dynamic Props: These can really energize a race by adding surprise and a hint of danger. So go ahead, challenge your racers' skills while adding luck and timing as factors as well.
Surfaces: Want to keep each leg of the race feeling springtime fresh? Vary your road & terrain surface types. There are plenty to choose from, and each theme has a few of its own.
*There's a few things I shouldn't have to tell you, but I'm going to do it anyway. Can you race it yourself? Can the AI? If Yes, good. If No, then you may need to change some things - like remove props that completely block the road, or narrow the cavernous pit that's currently so wide that no one can cross it. Too much water on the track will cause players to reset as well.
TRACK STUDIO BUDGETS AND CLEAN-UP
Most of the time you won't have to worry about maxing out the items in your world. There's plenty of room for you to work with. But, like most things in life, there is a ceiling for how much stuff you can play with. There are four types of Budgets in Track Studio: Track Budget, Prop Budget, Terrain Budget and the Theme Mixing Limit. You can only make your track so long, so if you plan on adding alternate routes after your first drive with your steamroller, be sure to set aside some budget for that.
When it comes to Props there are actually two budgets: Total Props and Unique Props. The first time you place a Prop, it uses more budget space than all the subsequent copies. Kind of like business cards: setting up the first one costs a lot. The second one costs almost nothing. So you can have thousands of the same tree in your world because all but one are actually copies. If they were all Unique Props you'd run out of Budget at lot sooner. As well, you can only have so many things showing up on-screen at once. If a lot of props are clustered together they may start to pop in and out.
If you want to delete multiple Props, there are three ways to do it, depending on your needs. One way is to use the Select Multiple Props in Prop Placement, to lasso and delete a group of props. Another is to go to the Currently Used Tab in the Props List, where you can delete all of a particular prop. Finally, if you want to easily remove all the Props in the world you can go to the Clean Props option located under Reset in the Track Management Section of the circle menu.
If you find you're maxing out your terrain budget, it may be because instead of deleting unwanted terrain you're painting over it. Suppose you build a mighty mountain, then change your mind and flatten it with a Level Terrain Brush. You haven't deleted the mountain, just added a layer on top of it that flattened it out or lowered it. It's like sweeping dirt under a rug; the dirt's still there, it's just out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind is a fine mantra if you've got Budget to burn, but if not, you may want to reclaim terrain budget by deleting terrain. To do this, go into the Terrain Cleanup option located in the Mod Terrain section of the Circle Menu.
The last thing to remember is that while you can pull props from other themes, you can only mix Props from the theme you're in and two additional themes (for a total of three). So if you're planning to mix and match, choose your three themes well.
MODS AND KARTS MODIFYING
Before you can modify a part, you first have to put it on your Creation. Do this by highlighting a part in a list and then Pressing X to add it. Press X again to remove the part. Bear in mind that a few parts, like the wheels for instance, can't be removed. If you try, ModNation will default to something workable. If you want a "live preview" on your character/kart of each part, simply Hold X and move the L-Stick to navigate the list. It'll apply each item as it comes up so you can see what it would look like quickly and easily. Once you've placed a part that you like, press Triangle to color or modify it. Most parts can be more than just colored, so pressing Triangle will put you into Modify Mode. Here you can scale, rotate or position the item any way you choose. Press L1 to go into Advanced Modify mode and you can Non-Uniform Scale, Skew, Flip and adjust Height.
MODS AND KARTS COLORS AND MATERIALS
Many parts of your Mods and Karts can be colored, so generally all you have to do is select the part you want to color and press the Triangle button to access the Color Picker. While you can change up to three colors on most parts, some will only allow you to change one or two. When you have the Color Picker up, Press L1 or R1 to scroll through all the colors of the rainbow and then move the L stick to select the shade and hue you want. If you can change more than one color on that part, press L2 or R2 to tab between the color channels. Want more options? The Color Picker gives you access to three other cool features: Swatches, Material Properties and Match Colors.
Swatches give you quick access to colors that are already on your Mod and Kart. They're invaluable for making sure you match exact colors from one part to another. And UFG suggests some Mod-friendly colors as well.
Material Properties let you change the 'material' of a part, for instance making something look more metallic. Not all parts can use material properties, though, so keep your eyes peeled for when the option is available.
And finally, Match Color automatically copies the current color across many other parts of your Mod or kart. This is especially useful when you're trying to make costumes and uniforms, because you can make all parts match with a single press of the button.
Here's another secret that makes color matching easier. Color Swatches carry over from Mod to kart, which is great for ensuring your Character and kart are coordinated. Since Match Color does not pass between Mod and kart, you'll want to use the Swatches to ensure your Mod and kart hit that identical shade of hot pink.