Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The latest and not the greatest news

Well I have had a fantastic day - oh wait, no I haven't. Its been terrible.

This morning I had planed to publicly release my latest track 'Ales GP Course 1.0'. This was not to be.

Once I turned my computer on, it would not boot. Nor would it post. It has died an untimely death. the motherboard has packed it in. Or so I believe. In the process it killed one of my internal drives that was full of all my old Rfactor track backups and Bobs Track Builder files. Therefore, old versions of tracks I made before June this year are now gone forever.

On top of this, while trying to take my computer to a repair shop in town a stone flicked up and now I am up for a new windscreen. But that was not the end of my enigmatic day. Finally, I received an email from an important job I had applied. I dreaded the outcome, which with words to the same effect, stated that I was doomed today and did not get the job.

This all will pass for sure, but right now I am furious with the way today, which weather wise, is the best I've seen in a round about's a week. Such a shame.

So I come to you all live from a Mac, which is not my machine of choice no doubt. But once my computer is faithfully restored to its former glory, I will continue to make tracks for the community.

To another note, I have been talking with another modder out there who wants to team up to work on the AIW aspects of my circuits. He has already modified the AIW for Chernobyl NPP and I look forward to releasing his name - as soon as I know it!

If you out there have some skills with circuit design for rfactor, with any aspects. Or track conversions for other sims, then please PM me here or on Nogripracing, or rfactorcentral and we shall talk.

All the best for the Holidays & the New Year, and you will see more content from me soon.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Imola 1960s 1.0


After much deliberation, I decided that this was unique enough to class it as a totally new track for rfactor. Imola 1960s 1.0 should be arriving at Nogripracing and Rfactorcentral very soon (hopefully as soon as the 15th of December) for all of you to play.

I have been working on Imola 1960s on and off for 2 months. It is based on my original track Imola 1963, but since I deleted everything (including height-maps) I consider this an entirely new track.
Not to mention the poor ratings and screenshots at rfactorcentral of my old circuit (1963). Hopefully the sim racing community will like this one.

If I get strong ratings then I will have enough motivation to make my second Manhattan circuit, which I am currently dubbing "Midtown Manhattan GP". Currently I am playing around with google maps to see just where I want the circuit to run and for how long. Look out for this if Imola 1960s goes well!

If you have Imola 1963 in your collection, you will not have to delete it as Imola 1960s takes its own directory in your Locations folder.

You may note that my 1963 version had a special reverse version which is not included in 1960s. This is because it never recieved favourable ratings, and therefore was was waste of time to remake this for my '1960s' version (2.0 in lamence terms).

Imola is my favourite F1 circuit even though it was butchered after the tragic deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger. I wish F1 will return there, but I know that Bernie focuses on money more than heritage and we will never see it host an F1 race again.

Thank you for supporting my circuits and my Imola live on the way it should!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Imola 1963 1.5 or 2.0?


It has been a while since my last post, I have been away helping my girlfriend move off campus as now she has complete university also. But now I'm back and getting on with my next tracks.

I am currently working on two circuits : Ales (heavily modified real world circuit)
and more importantly Imola 1963 update.

I released Imola 1963 1.00 on RfactorCentral over a year ago, and it has received mixed reviews and ratings since then. The screenshots and 'track map' picture are inaccurate of its current release state and even now I have remodelled the entire track for its upcoming re release just before Christmas.

I decided to update Imola 1963 1.0 as it was my first publicly released circuit for rfactor and in all honestly it looks somewhat crappy compared to my more recent releases including Lower Manhattan GP 1.0 and Airport Terminal GP 1.0.

The main issue I have is whether my current progress level is good enough to re brand it as Imola 1960s 1.5 or 2.0? I have changed everything. I deleted all objects (which took a very long time), removed the walls (trees and actual walls) and modified the track to fit the 1963 layout as closely as I can get it. As you look through the screenshots, you can see that it is a great improvement off my initial release from 2009.

Watch THIS VIDEO on youtube that someone has made from Imola 1963 1.0 and compare sections to the screenshots in this blog.


So what do you think, is my update worthy of a 2.0 status or only a 1.5?
Comments are welcome!