Building

One of the things that makes dashcraft unique is that it is easy to build and share tracks. Making tracks is very easy, at the bottom of the screen there is a menu full of prebuilt track pieces.

**Controls**

You can move pieces around using arrow keys or WASD. You can also rotate pieces using R, lower pieces with CTRL, and raise with shift. Other controls include c for copying track pieces and x for deleting a track piece.

\* *Be careful with some shortcuts on google chrome. Clicking ctrl and w at the same time will close the tab deleting your progress.*

**Building Your Track**

To build or edit a track, find the Build menu from the in-game home screen. To create a new track, press the New Track button in the top right. To edit an existing track, click the pencil under that track.

There are 11 different sections of blocks you can choose from while building. These are Essential, Straight, Turns, Snakes, Climbs, Ramps, Inclined, Platforms, Single Border, Prebuilt, and Props. These and their modifiers will each be explained in depth below.

* Essential- Essential track pieces category is composed of only the Finish block. The Finish block is necessary to finish any run on the map unless it is a lapped map. In this case, the start would act like the finish block. Ostensibly, the Start block is also a piece of the essential category but cannot be placed due to issues if 2 start blocks coexist on the same map.
* Straight- Straight track pieces are an essential part of map building. There are 4 different lengths of straight tracks, tiny, short, medium, and long. Straight track pieces can be modified: short, medium, and long tracks can add boosters, checkpoints, pilons, and ramps, while tiny track pieces can only use checkpoint and ramp.
* Turns- Track pieces that turn 90 degrees, over varying lengths/angles. These include small, medium, big, and large, which can all have pilons and checkpoints. The turns category also includes both a Left Climb and a Right Climb block, which turn 90 degrees and also elevate over the turn. These can both have checkpoints. Usage of Left and Right Climb are advised to be limited, especially keeping away from stacking multiple climb turns after another, as it is easy to slide on landing and crash into the wall.
* Snakes- Snakes track category is composed of the left and right versions of 3 lengths of snake: small, medium, and big. Snakes are similar to straight track pieces except they move over by 1 full block over the course of their length. Snakes can hold checkpoints and pilons.
* Climbs- Available in 3 lengths (XS, Short, and Medium), Climbs rise vertically but are straight horizontally. They can have checkpoints positioned on their up-slope.
* Ramps- Similar to Climbs but end upwards. Available in small, medium, and big, and can hold a checkpoint on their up-slope.
* Inclined- Turn your world sideways! Inclined blocks consist of straight-to-incline transitions, incline extensions, and incline turns. These are usually used to retain speed around corners or up/down slopes. Inclined blocks are turned to 45 degrees.
* Platforms- Any way you can think of it, it's here! Flat options, straight up options, slopes, ramps, and curbs. Some can be equipped with boosters and most can be equipped with checkpoints and pilons. Be careful, these blocks don't have any edges to keep you on the track! Jump into build mode to discover all of these pieces!
* Single Border- Similar to platforms! The category which brings track pieces that don't take up a full block. Single border track pieces are exactly that, and only have 1 side of their track bordered. In this category you can also find no border options.
* Prebuilt- The prebuilt section consists of loops, with options for a loop with wall borders and an option for a loop without wall borders (be careful with these because people can preform skips by jumping off the edge - use checkpoints on the loop to avoid this). Loops will always be angled towards the right.
* Props- Anything that isn't intended to be driven on? Find it here! Includes pipes, booths, arrow signs, water blocks, trees, and hill pieces. Props are super useful for decorating tracks, but come with the trade-off of being more difficult to render.

Good luck on your track creating adventure! Follow the steps below to save and publish your track!

**Saving Your Track**

Save your track by pressing the button in the upper right corner of the screen while building. You will be greeted with a screen appearing like the one to the right.

At the top of the screen, there is a place to input a name for the track. Track names are not public even when shared, so this feature is best to be used to organize your tracks in your built tracks. One way to create a name for your track visible in-game is to create block letters with certain decorative blocks, including Platform Middle (seen in the picture to the right).

Below the name, there is a place to select the screenshot shared as the face of your track. There are 14 default camera options, and another option for setting your own (accessed in the 3 horizontal dot menu on the left of the screen while building the track).

At the bottom of the screen, there are options to either save your track or to cancel your saving of the track. Saving your track includes saving the track, the name, the face screenshot, and whether or not your track is public. See below for information on verifying and sharing your track.

**Sharing Your Track**

To share your track to the public, you first have to verify that it is possible. To do this, you have to finish your track. To start testing or verifying your track, press the Play button in the top right, next to the saving button described in the earlier section.

Before attempting to finish your track, make sure you are in C mode (short for checkpoint). This will make sure you play the track as other players would experience it. Drive your track from start to finish, making sure to collect every checkpoint along the way.

After you finish your track, you are able to make it public! After you are sure you are happy with your track, go to the save menu, click the "Public track" button, and save. Congrats, your map is now public! You can now share it with your friends, the discord, or the squirrel family in your yard. Just press the button that looks like a <, and share that link. All that's left to do is let others play your map and compete for the world record!

**Verifying tracks**

In the past, the only way to verify a track was if the game developer or game mod decided to verify it. There was also a chance that the game developer would see your track in the #track-verification channel. Many of the old tracks are made by the same builders like Zingman, B4CON, and others.

Currently, tracks are verified by a team of track testers in the Dashcraft discord server. Track builders rate tracks based on aesthetics (1-5), transitions/flow (1-5), innovation/creativity (1-5), and enjoyability (1-10). You can lose points by making the track too easy or too hard and if the FPS on your track drops below 40 (-1), 30 (-2), 20 (-3), or 10 (-4). Tracks should also be between 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length and avoid having flickering blocks and too little checkpoints. For more info, check this document: Dashcraft.io Track Testing

You can submit tracks to be considered for review in the Discord server (https://discord.gg/6YanbAnXw2). You can do this by going to the #tracks channel and using the *!suggest* command. Each week 10 tracks are chosen to be tested from the Discord server. On top of that, 10 tracks from "global" will be chosen as well. Usually tracks that look good and are fun to play will be verified.

Active testers (new system): spat, Nothing2, CHEZZISH, RegretfulBard, and Zingman.

Inactive testers (new system): W\_Eli, Nebu1aTM, Peenuut, and Dusty.

Original testers (old system): therealae, Zingman, CHEZZISH, Hypnosis, and 2QUIK.