#Blocktober 2019 Race Track
During the month of October, I participated in #Blocktober, a month filled with game developers sharing their insight and previous works on levels they made. Typically these levels would be in their block mesh form hence the name Blocktober.
My dream is to become a professional game developer and I’ve been having a hard time figuring out what exactly I’m good at. I’m not the best programmer but I’m good with creating interactable systems (be it on paper). Neither am I the best artist but I sure do understand composition and direction from my experiences painting and photography.
So that really doesn’t leave me a lot of choices to focus on. I do have a book full of track layouts I can finally give a go(I must have over 50 sketches of track layouts just waiting to come alive).
I think becoming a Level Designer is a good direction for me. I loved building maps/levels on the Gamecube and PS3 when games gave you the tools such as LittleBigPlanet and Tony Hawk’s Underground 2. I love and read about architecture. Let’s give this a shot, why not!
Step 1: Sketches
I went back through my old sketchbook and found a couple layouts I liked but I settled on this one. So I already drew a circuit with 2 smaller circuits which is nice but we should ignore that for now. The Start/Finish line is just after a tight section followed by a long left turn which might be exciting.

Step 2: Blueprint
There’s a general idea for the track layout and now I need to draw out the details. These details should include: Grid positions, pit lane, kerbs, asphalt runoff, gravel runoff, barriers, marshall stands, stands, and barrier exits.
As you can see the layout is coming together! There’s a lot of references taken from Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the Lesmo section from Monza, and the final corner from Autopolis Circuit. Penciled in are the stands for later when I need to block for them.
From this stage, the pit lane might be a problem that needs to be address. For safety, the pit lane shouldn’t exit onto the racing line. However, if the braking point is far enough from the pit lane exit then it should be okay. Autopolis is a good example of exiting onto the racing line whereas Circuit Paul Ricard is not. So in the future I should move Turn 1 further out or change the pit lane altogether.
Step 3: Onto the Computer
With this blueprint, I need to make a precise image to use as reference in Blender. This is just tracing and adjusting some lines from the blueprint. From here, I also make the addition on extending the hairpin in the bottom right. The long curves would’ve been met by an abrupt braking zone so extending the straight would help cars straighten up before braking. This leads to a smoother experience for drivers.
Step 4: Bringing it All Together
After getting my references, it’s now making 3D models and importing them into Unity. Below was thefirst pass on making the terrain. I would later just cut vertices on a grid to make the track rather than making the track first then terrain. This stage was a big learning process for me.

After all the models were made, I imported everything into Unity and started putting the pieces together. I started with Unity’s new HDR setup to make the lighting and materials look realistic as opposed to standard setup.
In Unity, I was able to play out the track and make notes of things to be changed. As you can tell, I decided to change not only the pit lane but Turn 1 altogether by making a section similar to the first sector in Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The pit lane exit is on the outside of Turn 3 where no cars should be. The bottom hairpin was extended even further after realizing how short the braking zone was.

Overall, I’m happy with result and the errors I made along the way. Playing Gran Turismo Sport and iRacing and studying the track layouts and facilities really put me in the right direction. The biggest setback I had with this project would be the terrain building of the track. I still think the track isn’t smooth enough or has enough elevation change in the corners themselves. With that, I know I struggled with creating the kerbs and they feel off the track and not part of the ground. I would love to work with different types of kerbs as they bring different solutions to track limits.
From this entire month, I think becoming a Level Designer might be the profession I pursue. I’m planning to make another level for the month of December in Garry’s Mod. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Thanks for reading.
-Luke
