Capturing a panorama for a track

Woodee

I have an oval speedway I am making and want to take a picture of the surrounding area for the background. Is it just a case of walking around the circuit pointing outwards and taking pics at intervals then stitching together?

Does anyone have any reliable methods of doing this?

After that... how do I apply it to the BTB track?

Thanks in advance
 
One method would be to go to the highest point of the track and take a few shots to cover the entire 360° area. 'Highest point' doesn't always have to be a piece of track, however, because any objects obstructing the background will have to be edited out (trees, buildings that have been modelled, ...). For that reason, it may be easier to get access to the roof of a relatively tall building nearby.
Since you're focussing on the key scenery elements, it doesn't really matter if the 'highest point' is located 100m from the ideal spot (being the absolute center of the track terrain), unless you're going for perfection, and a lot of editing.
So, the best piece of advice would be to look around for potential spots that will result in a clear view of the area BEYOND the track.
Oh, and you can always stitch sections of the 360° from different spots if you're handy with image editing tools ...

Hope that makes sense :) ...

I don't know anything about BTB, so I can't help there.
 
In BTB, you can do 3 things,
1 Replace the textures in the skybox
2 Make a static wall surrounding the track
3 make a wall and attach it to the skybox.

Here is how you can make a wall and attach it to the skybox. You can also use this method for a static wall by just ignoring the skybox bit.

To replace the textures in the skybox, there is a tutorial somewhere, I will post a link if I find it.
 
So I can't walk around the oval outside taking pics? Gotta stand in middle at high point and turn on the spot?
 
I didn't say that :) ... but it would probably be the most accurate solution.
A building or tall fence 'close by' could easily replace that 'absolute middle of the track' position. You won't feel the difference at all. Since the object you're slapping the textures onto is only an approximation (a cylinder in most cases), it won't hurt to take the shots from a slightly different position if that means saving you a lot of work to edit out obstructing elements suchs as trees, safety fences, etc. that would be present in shots taken from the 'middle of track position'.
 
Taking pics from the outside would mean I would not have the objects in the way... I'll see if I can find something to stand on without falling through and breaking my neck.

how does this background change with the light?
 
It can change any way you want, depending on the shader used for the material in question, or GMT export settings.
A suggestion would be to hope for a neutral day, without rain, snow or fog, so the art itself will be neutral, and the shaders (and SCN fog values) will do the rest.
 
What I am confused with is how does this blend with the texture for the ground leading up to the distance?
 
It blends based on texture skills. The background object itself is virtually almost detached from and not connected to the rest of the terrain.
Take a look at some other tracks in the Viewer to get an idea how everyone is doing this.
 
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