Armory Digital 2023 Edition Now Released!
6 years have passed since the last version of Armory Digital SuperSpeedway (ADSS) released. Since the first version of the track came out in 2014 its been 9 years and the track continues to be one of the fictional favorites of the community. As promised when this track first came out this would be a track I update over time similar to how a track in real life would evolve in wear and facility upgrades. This version is the largest overhaul and also a landmark of my new track building methods when it comes to 3do creation and ultimate performance boost.
Major performance overhaul
After I released the ICR mod I learned a lot on how to create and compile true 3dos for NR2003. Making 3do models with 3DSimEd3 has a lot of drawbacks from unable to group multiple 3dos together, advanced scripting, and other native state switches in scripting NR2003 can utilize like animations. The biggest one is it decimates a model by every face thus tripling the vert count. This increases the memory usage a track needs and the more 3dos your track has and the larger the track is performance begins to take a major dip. In most cases you can get away with it, however when you factor in heavy performance mods like FCRD 22 or the ICR mod you can crash the game in replay mode at certain aggressive angles which forces the game to have the cars at high level of detail.
While ADSS 14′ and 17′ never had any major complaints of crashing I still underwent an entire overhaul of all the custom 3dos on the track for the 2023 version to ensure the track is as performance friendly as possible and prevents any great chance of crashing (especially replay mode). Through meticulous rework every custom 3do I made I re-imported and replaced on the track. Every model was compiled with make3do reducing the vert count. Also LODs (level of detail) was added to many of the models too so the farther away the player is the less memory the track is using. You may find that despite this track having so much detail and so large it will now outperform even smaller track’s performance. All my new tracks going forward will use the new 3do method with these performance standards and it made perfect sense that ADSS would lead the way on this performance endeavor.
Below you can see some side by side framerate examples of the ADSS 17′ version versus the ADSS 23′ version. These benchmarks were taken in sandbox and you will see this performance translation in the game regardless if you use the 4 GB patch and dx8to9 dll or not (recommended to use though).
2023 Edition changes
Along with the performance upgrade this was an opportune time to update the track in several ways cosmetically and gameplay wise. Here are some of the major changes to the 2023 edition:
Main track logo moved to the large apron with dark painted background
Grass logo decals updated around the track
Choose cone decal added after the S/F line
Track now supports up to 47 cars, the 3 empty stalls were added to be compatible with more cars. An additional stall for the 47th car was added also extending the entrance to pit road
All wall logos updated including new logos added to the inner walls in the turns
Billboards revamped with new designs
With 3dos compiled in the true method, buildings with reflections have proper dynamic lighting now
Night version track event logo update to Xbox Series X 500
Several logos updated to the modern version, for example the Pepsi 2023 logo coming in late 2023
Track surface lighter than previous version to display the asphalt aging more and more. Track.ini reflects this with a minor addition to tire wear.
2023 Edition changes
Amongst those top changes here is the full detailed changelist for everything adjusted and changed in the ADSS 2023 track:
– complete overhaul of every custom 3do on the track with proper 3do compile and LODs to give the greatest performance leap with the track
– pit road slightly extended to support 47 car stalls
– track surface asphalt faded, tire wear slightly higher as a result for the older surface
– large Armory Digital Superspeedway logo moved to the empty apron section, surface painted black as well
– multiple billboards include new sponsors. billboard mips now easily numbers so if users want to replace sponsors it is easier to identify their location
– multiple wall decals include new sponsors, new wall decals added to the inner walls in the turns as well
– several grass decal logos have been updated and/or changed
– night version has a new primary sponsor: Xbox Series X 500
– errors with 3dos that had transparent textures have been fixed with 2-sided textures so they appear more 3D when viewed
– a turn 2 camper slightly moved that was clipping into the fence
– a turn 4 camper slightly moved that was clipping into the fence
– fence out of turn 4 moved so it is not clipping into ambulance
– start/finish stand slightly moved so it no longer clips into the fence
– minor wall and softwall textures fixed around the track where the textures were stretched
– minor grass textures fixed around the track where the textures were stretched
– removed shadow on the large apron from the front stretch on the night version of the track that did not make sense with the night lighting
– fixed 2 gaps on the sides of the Six Estates hotel
– choose cone decal added on frontstretch
– commitment cone for pit entrance removed, replaced with the commitment box
– many 3dos replaced with a single 3do of the object grouped together (looks exactly the same in the track for the viewer)
– all 3dos that had reflections now have proper dynamic lighting as a result of the new 3do compiling
– speaker 3dos were missing for the backstretch grandstands, now added