To help speed up the development of Metric Racer, I implemented procedural mesh generation techniques to automatically create track geometry and environmental elements.

The Problem with Manual Mesh Creation

Initially when I started Metric, I was creating all of the track geometry by hand using external 3D modeling tools. This process was:

  • **Slow**: Each track section took hours to model
  • **Rigid**: Changes meant starting over from scratch
  • **Inefficient**: Lots of manual vertex and face creation
  • **Error-prone**: Easy to miss topology issues

The Solution: Procedural Generation

By implementing procedural generation within the engine, I could:

  • **Quickly prototype** different track layouts
  • **Iterate rapidly** on designs without reimporting
  • **Generate variations** from the same parameters
  • **Optimize geometry** on the fly

Implementation Pipeline

The mesh generation pipeline works as follows:

1. Define Parameters

- Track width, length, turn radius

- Surface properties and materials

- Environmental elements (walls, obstacles)

2. Generate Vertices

- Calculate bezier curves for track path

- Create vertex positions along the curve

- Generate normal vectors for lighting

3. Create Faces

- Build triangle indices for surface

- Optimize for GPU rendering

- Handle seams and transitions

4. Apply Materials

- Assign texture coordinates

- Set surface properties

- Configure lighting parameters

Benefits

The procedural approach:

  • Reduced track creation time from hours to minutes
  • Enabled real-time track modification
  • Improved performance through dynamic optimization
  • Allowed for complex track layouts that would be impractical to hand-model

This workflow significantly accelerated Metric Racer's development and remains a core part of the creation process.