Testing a Track

Before a release, the author must make a little test series. Simple errors like freezes or very bad respawn point sucks much. Here is a little test list:

Testing

Test your track on the Wii

Many ct developers use Dolphin (Wii Emulator) to create and test tracks. Running the tracks on the Wii may change the behavior of textures and game play, and sometimes a freeze will be found.

Test in time trial, VS and online

Time trial and versus races are different. So some items like item boxes or wood boxes have a different behavior. Also make tests with 2 player offline on the split screen with enabled enemies to detect a Slow Motion Bug.

If possible, test the track online with some friend. There is for example a well known positioning bug, which only appears online.

If you have jumps over an abyss, test them in 50cc and also if you are small after a cloud. Also try with many different characters and vehicles, at least with a bike and kart of each weight class. Many tracks fail here.

Check the minimap

Is the minimap fully visible and centered in its view area? If not, fix the minimap positions. Wiimms SZS Tools can adjust the minimap automatically.

Test all possible routes of your track

Testing only the main road is a bad decision. Try to leave the main road and to find positioning and lap not counting bugs.

Test the item routes

Test all possible routes of your track, also all possible short cuts using mushrooms or other boost items. Use an item cheat for a long usage of Red shells and Bullet Bill. If you use a short cut, start Bullet Bill direct after entering the short cut to verify, if it follows the route. If this fails, your item routes are defined badly.

Verify the enemy routes

Verify, that all enemies reach the finish line. Very often bad respawn points and especially their directions are the reason for enemy problems. Look on the minimap to find out, if the enemies use all defined routes.

Check all respawn points

Check the position and direction of all respawn points. Fall down on every place you can. Use mushrooms to fall down far away from the main route.

Think about face down roads

Triangles (faces) are directed and have only impact in one direction (keyword culling). If your roads (and also boost and other drivable KCL types) have triangles for the top and the bottom side, different glitches and bugs may appear:

• Unwanted jump while driving over the road.
• Hard changing of the driving direction if jumping down to the road.
• Barrel rolling.
• Curious camera jumping effects.
• Underground views of cameras.

If you have some of these effects, try to remove the face down road triangles. Face down roads can be selected by the KCL Flag and its first normal (y value <0.0). Wiimms SZS Tools can remove such triangles automatically; see »KCL Tutorial (Wiimms Tools)« for details.

Think about item box places

Think about the item boxes groups (or rows). Use 3-5 groups with 4-6 item boxes in each group for a 3 lap round. There are 3 problems, if you do not so:

1. If a driver gets 18 or more items in an online race, all following items are mushrooms. This contradict the main idea of Mario Kart: Bad items for the first and good items for the last.
2. If a row have less than 4 items, only the first 2 players in a group get an item. And this is also bad for the game play.
3. Sometimes it may be tempting to place them just after a sharp turn, however if this is the case then going for the outside item boxes may cause a vehicle to crash into a wall or otherwise lose too much time for collecting the box to actually be worthwhile. Thus creating a problem very similar to that discussed in point number 2, above.

Chose a wise version number

A version number of your track (preview, alpha, beta, RC, v) reflects its status. Read »Version number« and select a good version number.

Bugs Found?

If you found bugs or glitches in your track, read this first:

• Category:Bug
• Category:Tutorials