Cynosure Race Track
Credits for Star Atlas:
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Art Director - Marcel Van Vuuren
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LD - Dane Kubicka
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ENV Art Lead - Ed Denton
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3d Art - Ainsley Langford
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3d Art/ ENV Art - Ethan Pflugh
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Tech Art - Alexander Kovyazin
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Tech Art - Ivan Leon
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Houdini - Oleksandr Kratinov
01
Cynosure
This track is set directly beneath the Uru Arena, winding through a series of caves that cut deep into the surrounding rock formations. Racers navigate tight tunnels, sharp turns, and massive jumps across wide crevasses, creating a fast and technical course. A full lap takes approximately one minute, delivering a short but intense racing experience designed for quick, high-energy competition.
02
Starting ideas and problem solving
The first version of the track had players driving down into the cave from above. As nice as it would’ve been to get a quick breath of fresh air mid-race, we decided to keep the whole track underground. This way, we could save resources and avoid building two separate areas—especially since the surface section would’ve only been on screen for a few seconds anyway.
03
Jumps
Heavily inspired by TrackMania, the jumps use rolling transitions that naturally position the ship for angled landings. In this section, players can either smoothly drive up the wall—reaching an incline of up to 60 degrees—or take an angled ramp that launches them onto the wall at the same 60-degree angle.
04
Large open cave
Designing a track of this scale entirely underground was definitely a challenge. Our ships reach speeds of around 300 mph, so creating an area large enough to support that kind of movement wasn’t easy. The track includes multiple routes—some featuring jumps and others offering a smoother, jump-free path.
05
Test blockouts
During the very early stages of development for this level, I experimented with a few blockout concepts to explore different routes and smooth, banked jumps.
06
Still a work in progress
This map is still in its level design (LD) phase and hasn’t been approved for final art yet. It’s currently approaching its final whitebox stage, with some areas transitioning into greybox.
