The Working Area (Grasping It's Size) So, just exactly how big is the grid? Well, the math is easy: it's 256x256 grid squares. Or we could say it's 16384x16384 pixels. Or we could try to translate the game's space into real space and say it's about a mile and a half square. I don't know about you, but none of this is very helpful for me. Instead, we need some practical measurements. For example, Objects further than about twenty grid squares apart are not visible to one another (even if you use some of the best graphics hardware currently available). To illustrate the point, look at Yeastman's Las Vegas SX. The track is contained within a completely enclosed stadium, but you cannot view it in its entirety. The stadium always keeps appearing before you and receding behind you. This effect is probably why the largest of TRI's arena.bins is only 18x18 grid squares (so it never vanishes from sight). Bear this in mind when you are making a track and you want something to be visible from a distance. Driving from one side of the grid all the way across in a straight line to the other side takes just under two minutes on a completely flat surface. You cover a lot of ground, but that is a long time. Using those numbers it would take you just under eight minutes to do one lap around the outer circumference of the grid. Eight minutes and you haven't even gone over a bump, or made any real curves, and the huge center area of the grid hasn't even been touched. So, what does that tell us? That besides being an incredibly boring drive, the grid is one huge place to truck around. That should be more than enough room for any track that you might want to make. It is conceivable to build a track that would take over thirty minutes to complete one lap. Zoon and Spider, for example, bill their ZS Rally as a twelve minute rally. But that is twelve minutes driven by an experienced pro driver. An average driver might consider between fifteen and twenty minutes a more valid time. And, rookies could go as long as twenty-five plus minutes. In short, the grid can accommodate incredibly long tracks. There is on occasion the need to know (especially when making bins) the size of one grid square in actual feet. The best I can figure is 32x32 feet. There are several ways you can calculate this figure. Here are a few of them. One method might be: 2 pixels = 1 foot I grid square = 64 pixels Therefore, 1 grid square = 32 feet Or In traxx a 32 x 32 x 2 object box fits one grid square exactly Or To span the entire grid at 60mph takes approximately 1 minute 30 seconds. Therefore, the grid is approximately one and a half miles across. Multiply 1.5 miles by 5280 feet then divided by 256 grid squares gives you 30.9375 feet. Close enough to thirty-two to account for my subjective stop watch. Or In binedit, a 32x32 foot bin covers one grid square. This can be calculated on a large scale and it still measures out. Lastly, Somebody told me 8-) Anyway, that's how I've been calculating things. Note: there have been objections that the size is actually only 16 feet. Charlie D. explains for us:
Well... though I understand your math.... I have to say when compared to the real world I think it's more like 16 x 16 feet per grid square .... It has been a couple of years since I built a track, when I laid out the road, the left side of the road texture fit in one grid square and the right side in the grid next to it... when looking at the trucks on the track you notice that they are close to each other as vehicles in the real world would look on a two lane road... the normal lane width on a road is 12 feet plus shoulder... two lanes would be 24 feet plus 8 feet for the two shoulders would come to 32 feet for the entire roadway, not the 64 feet that you are maintaining.... think about it!!! Charlie D.
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