Donington Park 1937 - Released

Donington Park was once a premier venue for Grand Prix racing during the 1930s. Over that period, the circuit underwent various changes to the layout. By 1937 the circuit was up to a 5.029km length which is what I have tried to recreate for Rfactor.

I have tried my best to bring the era of the 1930s Grand Prix racing to life for Rfactor with what I had available to me. However I have had to make a few compromises during the design process so that cars would actually be able to drive on the track. The real Donington of 1937 had some seriously rough bumps. In fact the approach to the hairpin was so steep that the cars took off and landed quite abrasively just before the braking zone. This was also the case on the run to the start / finish line. For Rfactor, I had to reduce the angle of these bumps as the AI would hit the bumps at almost full speed and the crash practically every time, thus I was one of very few cars to actually complete a lap during testing.

I then modified the bumps ever so slightly to reduce this change of annihilation of the AI cars, though now they brought their speeds right down to a crawl just before the bumps and thus, the following cars would crash into these near static objects in the middle of the road.
Ultimately, what I have done is modify the historical circuit just to a point that the AI can negotiate the circuit without a 100% chance of incident and be competitive. No doubt the purists out there will say this is no good as a result, but I believe it is a worthy compromise.

This is the first track in over two years that I have made multiple layouts for. The GP Course is that of 1937 as it was. While the Special Reverse is one that I found to be just as functional and fun during testing, so I decided to include it. I don't however believe that it was ever used in a reverse configuration during that period.

As per usual, you can download the track from Nogripracing HERE.

What do we have here?!

Can anyone guess what I am about to release from this screenshot?

Phoenix 1989 Proposal v2.5 - Released

I know that I stated that the latest version of Phoenix '89 would be ready over a week ago, though for what it is worth, I am releasing it today even without the camera updates.

Below are some pretty shots of the new and updated circuit. Be sure to head over HERE to NoGripRacing where you can download the latest version.

If you have the new old version v2.0 or v1.0, be sure to delete all the files and corresponding folders from your Rfactor/gamedata/locations directory before copying in the new v2.5 version to avoid any errors or hassles. Enjoy!

Coming Soon... in 1989

Coming very soon...

Phoenix 1989 Proposal v2.50. I have been meaning to change many of my street circuits from their initial releases now that I have learnt such a wealth about Rfactor track design. Phoenix 1989 is the first of what is sure to be many major updates to my existing tracks.

Most of my city tracks have very unrefined corners that are 90 degrees or more acute angles which look very rough. I have learnt much about how to improve surface materials for Rfactor that I feel it is time to go back and polish up many of my tracks to make them what I had envisaged they could have been but lacked the required skill set.

Phoenix 1989 is a good starting point for this process of cleaning up messy parts of my tracks. Now the circuit feels more real, more visceral, even though it is hardly a real world location!

I am now just in the process of some final adjustments to the circuit, but I am looking forward to a release on NoGripRacing in the coming days. In the meantime, here is a changelog of Phoenix 89' :


1.00 - Initial release

2.00 - entirely remodeled from scratch
     - new pit complex
     - new track layout / textures etc
     - new terrain elevation map

2.50 - reprofiled terrain and track
     - new cameras by Pycat
     - new walls / adboards
     - added new abrasive kerbs
     - added 4 more roads for a city feel
     - added more buildings / models
     - modified many buildings
     - modified track bumps
     - modified AI line
     - replaced / added all new Rodrrico advertising
   

Darlington Park GP 1992 - Released

It has been some time since my last post about my circuit building efforts. Finally after months of silence I have yet another circuit for you all to play in the form of a fictional Grand Prix of 1992, Darlington Park.

Set inland of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, Darlington Park is a high speed circuit that effectively runs down a hillside and the back up again through a wooded area. It's design, layout and other defining characteristics are similar to that of the real world (now long gone) Rouen-Les Essarts. However unlike Rouen, I have set my circuit in the early 1990s as though it were built in the 1980s.

The circuit is very fast with around 80-85% full throttle in a 1990s-onward Formula One car. However, even though the circuit is very fast, the walls are very close. At least three locations will catch out the sleepy driver with barely a car widths distance from what is a high speed corner and a hard and unforgiving wall.

Darlington Park consists of 13 turns (15 total, though many are taken flat out and are hardly corners) and is 4.449km in length. The lap record in a 1992 Ferrari F1 car is 1:06.051 as set by me. I would like someone to beat this time, though only in the same car or at least an F1 from 1992. Naturally, more recent Formula One series will make this lap record look slow as I ran a Red Bull 2007 around the circuit in under 1 minute and 4 seconds.

Currently with its 1.00 release, I have not built a pit complex. This often takes a very long time and I have generally not built these complexes on many of my circuits as I do not believe I am a master of such construction. If you are interested in building a suitable pit complex, please contact me and we might be able to work together on this and other projects.

As always, my track is available at NoGripRacing here. If you would like a complete list of my tracks available at NoGripRacing then click here and you will see them all. A valid login is required to download my tracks from NoGripRacing. I believe they are the best community for Rfactor and other games, so I would recommend getting your Rfactor fix from them. Of course you can just click the desired link on the side bar to the left here.

Enjoy!

Belgium Grand Prix Competition

Hello everyone!


I have recently entered a competition to win a fabulous trip to Belgium and to the SPA-Francorchamps on JAF1 (James Allen on Formula One). I have already received some great support from friends and family, however the competition is judged on who receives the most comments of support.


I now turn the the sim racing community for your support. I would like nothing more than to have the chance to attend the Belgian Grand Prix at some point in my life and considering how this year has gone for me, I figure now is as gooder time as any to go. I can't afford to go on my own funds, but to travel there as a competition winner I can indeed do.


Please vote for my short story which is #41 on the list under my name Roderick Grant. All you have to do is FOLLOW THIS LINK, find my comment (#41, Roderick Grant) and leave any words in my support for the competition with your name (it can just be your first name).


My short 150 word story is this : One of the longest journeys I took was with my family when I was 12 years old. We drove our simple Subaru from our modest home near Sydney down to Melbourne, then across the waves to the island state of Tasmania. I don't remember a great deal of what we saw and how long we were exploring the island for, though I do recall feeling sick often enough, largely due to my taste for butter menthols. What I now realise is that the long trip listening to my Mum and Dad's favourite band Abba and the arguments between the two was the last real family holiday we took together, and the best thing was that it was on the road together through the winding roads of the little state of Tasmania. Now 24 years old, I still own that Subaru and it is a constant reminder of my childhood travels.


I thank you all in advance for your support for me to be selected as one of the winners for this competition.


Rodrrico.

Brands Hatch 1950 - Update Released

As mentioned in my previous post about DLC, I have begun to work with two talented people. One a camera expert and the other a texture optimiser / renderer. The latter of which has done some amazing work on my Brands Hatch 1950 circuit, which is available for download now!

Many of you will also notice that I have again started to uploaded to RfactorCentral in recent times. I made a concious decision to do so to spread my work around. I do enjoy finding videos on the net of people have a good race around my circuits and while I think that NoGripRacing is the best community website for Rfactor. There is no deigning the gravitational pull of the much larger RfactorCentral.


I will however not be adding the links to my recent circuits on RfactorCrentral. I figure if you want to get there from there then you are probably willing to search for them in their close loop google search engine.


Now I do have an issue with this blog at Blogger. For some unknown reason to me, my last five or so posts have 'white' covering up my text. Why on earth is this?! I don't want the text that I write not visible! If you know how to fix this issue, please contact me via this post as I hate what is happening here. It makes this site  look sloppy!


Thanks.

The trouble with DLC

Downloadable Content is not a bad thing. It is a good thing, but I do struggle to find it always justified by the cost that we pay for new or fresh or updated content. For example, Saints Row: The Third. A great muck around sandbox game. However once you have blasted through the very short campaign / missions. There is nothing to do in the city. Back in the day, GTA: San Andreas had a tonne of user made content available for free all over the net. Obviously some was rubbish, but a good portion was top notch and fun.

Unreal Tournament is another example of a great game made better by the community efforts. The power of the various Unreal engines made user made content a must have 'add-on' to the base game. Chaos UT was a brilliant example of user made content that was free and extremely well polished. However while the Unreal Engine's have been accessible to those of us for free, recent incarnations are not any where near as accessible as the great engines of the past. It was as though the developers were trying to tell us something. and that something was - if you want it, you better be prepared to pay for it!

Now back to Saints Row 3. It had been released as a solid game, but far to short. That was for a very good reason, there was much more to be added to the game but not until we had forked out an extra $20 for a bunch of new costumes, some silly weapons and a car or two. Since the first DLC packs came on the 'Steam' market there have been more than a dozen new DLC packs. All of which cost between $2 - $20 to download and add to the game. Not a single trace of user content can be found on Steam (at time of writing).

The sad part is that most game developers have gone down this path. Perhaps it is to justify their worth in the industry. That only they can make excellent content. But I know that there are many great modders out there who have either not been fully discovered or who want to remain independent. Don't get me wrong, I believe that most game developers are sublime and have made the games that we love to play and modify, but it also seems clear that the reason most of us cannot create content for these games is because they don't want us so. So they can continue to make money off titles long after release.

There is nothing wrong with that at all! In fact I believe that it was Maxis and their game The Sims, which effectively wrote the book on developer created content post release of a game. It appears that all the additional 'expansion packs' for the Sims had been ready to go with the game at the time of it's release. But rather than release it as a massive game, it was broken down into cuts of meat that could be bought separately after the initial game had been bought.

Now as a mark of respect to the developers. As games become increasingly complex and incredibly detailed. It does indeed become difficult to allow access to these dense algorithms that are modern games. The Total War franchise is a great example of this. Shogun 2: Total War is a brilliant game. I love it so much that I have probably aged just sitting in my chair playing it. However it has become too complex that there is no simple way to create a Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the Creative Assembly's latest game. That doesn't mean they haven't tried though. The developers have gone to lengths to make their game more accessible to modders. In fact they have written labyrinthine mazes of text about how to go about opening up their file packs for tweaking.

That is one example of how games are too complex to modify. Alas, there will be a time when simple modders such as myself will no longer be able to create unique game content on their own. Project C.A.R.S looks like about the closest thing to user content on a grand scale in that their company is funded my the community. However modders like me will never be able to make the well polished tracks and cars that they offer. Fortunately I and hundreds like me still have Rfactor and Rfactor 2 which thrive on user created content. In recent times I have begun to work with other people to improve my tracks. All the best circuits for download out there are rarely created my one person and mine are beginning to head down this path.

I have started collaborating with two key and very talented people. One is a camera expert who has done such a good job that he now is paid to make circuit cameras for game companies. I am truly glad that he is willing to work for free with my circuits. The other key person who has only just started to work with me specialises in texture optimisation. None of my tracks have been for sale as I have not given commercial usage rights to anyone. I believe that community content should remain free. Otherwise great game content for Rfactor like many others will become DLC.

Darlington Park Progress - 0.8

It has been many weeks but I have began to continue my work on Darlington Park. I should be ready to release an initial 1.0 version in a week or two after I finish building the pit area and a few other bits and bobs.

 As you will be able to compare, I am indeed improving upon the circuit. My first attempt at creating wall kerbs for Zaluzani 2.0 (Grand Prix of Bosnia) was a success, so for Darlington Park I am building upon my new-found efforts. This track will feature an open hairpin taken in second gear where the car will be able to ride the kerbs and run onto the 'Bosch' kerbing. If this goes down well then many of my planned future projects may feature these 'drivable' walls.

As you can see from the top view of the circuit, I have plans for two other layouts that I may build after the initial release. The short course cuts through the wooded area to be roughly 3/5 the length of the current track. The second track will be the historic layout that was abandoned due to the unsafe drops and trees that are 'heritage' listed. Currently in the above screenshots I have not put these trees into the scene yet.

Darlington Park is based on an Australian industrial area in northern New South Wales, however since I am effectively creating my own circuit and terrain geography I think it should be set in another country. If you can think of a good country for it to be based in that suits the hills around the circuit, let me know and I might just make that country the track location.

Of course, you may think - what is the point of that? It is just a name - wrong! If I find that the country suits, then I shall modify the track data to have the light, climate and conditions expected of that country. So get your thinking caps on.

Look out for the initial release in the coming weeks. Cheers.

Airport Terminal 1.5 Progress

Well I would love to start this post with lots of great screenshots of how I am modifying the circuit to improve it from its current 1.0 - 1.5 version. Of course, one would expect there to be many many changes for such a version leap forward, this is meant to be the case. I say 'meant to be' as it is not exactly working out the way I had planned. 

Originally I had planned to tighten up the circuit a bit, rebuild the pit lane from scratch, move walls / objects / S-objects closer, however this is all going pear shaped. I moved many track anchor points to tighten it up and make for an overall better racing experience. This ruins any terrain you have connected to the track itself, so it all had to be bulldozed to be added again. I did that, then I re-added it and moved all the anchors accordingly to hide any 'holes' in the circuit. Finally I moved all the walls, kerbs and what have you to realign with the track in its new configuration.

It was only after blasting around that I noticed that the track needed to be tighter again in parts, and more open in others. Repeat the same process and already most of the day is gone. I then notice that a rather large and notable issue has arisen. The second half of the track features a massive terminal with boarding gates hanging over the circuit. I have modified the overall height of some areas of the track which correspond with this particular area. Hmm, now I have a plane boarding gate effectively digging into the circuit just before the final turn. I raise the terminal building up a bit so that any car can clearly pass underneath, but now the circuit has a rather notable hole appearing on the opposite side where we can see under the object - thus breaking that 'wall' of believability.

I figure that by raising the terrain there I should be able to hide my error - oh wait - no. I have done too much and cannot go back as Bobs Track Builder often crashes when you undo changes (perhaps it is a windows 7 error with the software). Now I must remove all the terrain once more, fix the height of the track, then add the terrain back once again and move every object around the circuit! Ah how frustrating.

In fact I was so annoyed that I packed it in last night and went to bed. Today is another day, and I may look at fixing it up once more. It sure is a great deal of effort for some fairly tedious changes to the overall circuit!

Grand Prix of Bosnia - Zaluzani 2.0 released

As explained in the title more or less, I have released Zaluzani 2.0 on NoGripRacing here.

It is listed as an entirely new entry on NoGripRacing as I built it from scratch. There are a number of clearly notable differences between 2.0 and my last effort 1.10. The first and foremost being the flip from a clockwise circuit to a counter clockwise running. Now the circuit flows in the direction that it does in the real world. The next most notable change would have to be the GPS data used in the textures. Now as you race around the circuit you will see the remains of the once grand complex that was the Zaluzani circuit facility.

I have added a vast number of trees and bushes to the circuit as well as a few buildings to make it feel a little more alive. I also added many many walls around the circuit to confine cars to the road and not to exploration. I have reduced the grid size down to 38 cars as 40+ was probably too many for a relatively short simple course. The cameras have been built entirely by Pycat who is a fantastic camera mapper for rfactor and other sims.

So what are you doing, go and race on it now!

Zaluzani 2.0 progress

Since last updating Zaluzani 1.1 around a year and a half ago I have been keen to improve it to look more like a decent race track. I have learnt a lot about circuit building over the past year and a half...

As you can see, I have made a lot of progress with the new 2.0 version. I have finally been able to add GPS data and merge it into the materials / textures of the terrain. This means that the look and feel of the circuit will be better than ever.

For those of you who are familiar with the actual Zaluzani, you will notice that I have brushed over many of the built up areas with foliage. This is because I cannot model 3-5 dozen homes and even if I could, the cars race around here at a rate that would mean you would not be able to notice the details of the homes and other buildings. Therefore I have only added key buildings to the circuit.

For those of you who follow my blog, you will know that currently I am struggling to find decent employment in my field of speciality. While this is making life a little bit tougher, I have been able to work on my circuits that do not require unique models such as an updated Zaluzani.

Zaluzani 2.0 is still not very accurate of the actual Zaluzani circuit, however I believe that with my creative eye for details, that I have done it justice with the various changes I have made. As always it is not 100% real not entirely fictional, but a hybrid of the two.

Look out for Zaluzani 2.0 at nogripracing in the coming week!

A difficult subject...

Hello folks,


I have been making circuits primarily for Rfactor since mid 2009. I enjoy building circuits and learning new techniques as well as overcoming challenges. 


I however find myself in a difficult position as I am currently unemployed and I am struggling greatly to find any sort of work in my media field that I can survive off. Sadly this is rapidly becoming such an issue that I may have to stop making circuits all together as I won't be able to afford the upgrades to software packages amongst other things. While I am confident that I will find work sooner or later, I am beginning to think seriously about selling some of my computer bits and bobs.


I hope that I will not become that desperate, however the horizon is not looking as rosy as I would like right now given the global economic climate. I am sure that others are in a far worse off position than I, but this is just my two cents.


I ask anyone who enjoys my tracks to please make any sort of donation they can to my PayPal so I can continue to make circuits for you all. I need around $80AU if I am to renew licences for software packages.


I will understand if there are those of you who are unable to donate and I am glad to continue sharing what circuits I have already made, though I may not be able to upgrade any more or build new ones without some money to buy these software licences.


Thank you for reading this post and indeed my blog. If you are in a position to donate anything then please make any donation you can on op left sidebar of this blog.


It is a difficult subject and I am not one to opt out as a charity case. I however cannot continue making circuits without a new licence to software packages.


Thank you guys.

Darlington Park (working title) progress

I have already moved to my next project, Darlington Park and as you can see, I am a busy bee lately.

I am not yet sold on the name 'Darlington Park. It is named after the basic circuit I found HERE at Gdecarli however I am an Australian and not a fan of circuits set around our landscape as a whole. Why, you might ask. Well I grew up in a very lush and beautiful area out of Sydney known as the Southern Highlands. Sadly not very much of Australia looks as this does. It is dry and the grass looks as cornflakes does if you were to put some in the oven. I prefer the greenery of Europe, which is why I have placed rolling farming hills around the circuit. It is much more appealing visually than the dry stuff Australia is known for.

Anyway, I am known for making circuits that while are based on actual real world locations, they do not resemble them down to a fine tooth and nail level. Darlington Park, will be just that. It will be a late 1980s early 1990s circuit with a 1960s and early 1970s feel. I do these sort of circuit predominately as I love the 1990s and 1980s Formula One eras more than any other and the Rfactor mods of this time are mostly outstanding and a joy every time you press 'race'.

Darlington Park is still a little while off. I am aiming to release it some time in the coming fortnight, however with my worldly commitments, time shall tell if I am able to stick to this plan.

Have a good look at the pictures, as even though it is likely to change a fair amount, the basic layout will not alter.

Thanks.

Bulgarian GP Course - Released

The Bulgarian GP was planned to first take place this year in 2012, however it has been shelved and will probably never see the light of day.

I took the initial design from the only know concept art and made this circuit. The Bulgarian GP Course is 5.993km in length as I estimated and found that it works quite well and doesn't have a 'tilke' feel in its current configuration.

None of this is intended to be accurate of the proposed circuit, but more of a 'ideal world' design.
Track design from start to finish 5 days, I had origianlly made a version of the track but due to various corruptions it was unusable and I started 100% from scratch just a few days ago and have now released it to NoGripRacing here.

Please download it and rate it for me.

Enjoy folks!

Bulgarian GP, this time tomorrow!

Yes, I have completed my Bulgarian GP Course and will be releasing it tomorrow at NoGripRacing.

I am just recording some flying laps for youtube and NGR. Then I need to pack the whole circuit into an online format and it should be up and ready for download tomorrow afternoon. If you can't wait that long then I have some screenshots for you all to look over.

Enjoy!

Bulgarian GP not far now

For those of you who have been following my circuit design for some time, you may notice in the various readme files that I have listed the Bulgarian GP as one of my planned releases for Rfactor. For many reasons my original riddled with corrupted files and to no anvil I did attempt to fix it.

Thanks to being made redundant from my photographic work at a museum I have a wealth of time in which I have set aside a good chunk of it to finally realising my plan and starting again from scratch, the Bulgarian GP at the proposed Sofia circuit.

I had very little to go off. In fact, I had but only one known concept drawing of the proposed circuit that even featured in F1 Racing magazine some years ago now. I do not know how long the circuit is (as in Metres / Kilometres) so I had to guess to the best of my ability as to its length and even the various elevation changes - assuming there are any at all!

Above is the conceptual photograph of the Bulgarian GP circuit situated just out of Sofia.

Above is my rendition of the circuit.

As you can see, it is not 100% accurate. Arguably, it might not even be 50% accurate, however since the whole thing has not gone ahead in reality, I feel I can have some more 'creative' freedom with the circuit design.

I have tried to remove as much 'Tilke' from the equation by making the corners a little more open then perhaps the concept art had originally suggested. Turn 14 (I am yet to finalise names of the various corners), which is the second last sweeping right hander before the start finish straight, is much shorter and tighter in the concept for example. I also lengthened the straights of turn 7 & 9 as I found with the concept version I was barely maxing 4th gear in a 1991 F1 car. Now it is certainly a 4th flat or I found that I can get it fairly high in the revs in 5th.

Have a good look at both pictures and see what you think. As always, my circuits are never meant to be 100% accurate, as I lack the skills, time, software and all that sort of thing that some truly brilliant game level / map makers have. I am however very happy that I have finally got it and almost ready for public release.

Just to put you in the picture as to how my skills have perhaps progressed since starting circuit building way back in mid 2009, below is a picture of my original 'Sofia GP' design as based on the same concept art shot as my version I a about to release - and this was my third (originally) track editing effort back in the end of 2009.

I sure have come a fair way! Look out for the Bulgarian GP circuit to be release to NoGripRacing in the coming days.

Enjoy!

Chernobyl NPP v1.3 released

I have released my latest update to the Chernobyl NPP circuit. It is available here at nogripracing and as always you will need a member's account to access the download link.

Unfortunately the release was not the 1.5 or even 2.0 version I had been aiming towards for a release. I struck yet again the same problems with converting my models into files for BTB and rfactor to use. The .png files were being compressed so much that the alpha channels simply turned black, thus the detail on reactor no. 4 cooling tower are very low still. In fact, any scaffolding on the circuit that is my own has the 'negative space' filled with a black texture. This is truly frustrating as it does not reflect my efforts in circuit design, it seems to be a bug in the Xpacker program that ruins the .png files.

I naturally want this fixed some how and am absolutely open to advise and help from anyone in the Rfactor and BTB community who can help me fix this problem that has plagued many of my circuits. I am however happy enough with the current build of the track to classify it as a v1.3 and released it.

So what are the changes you might ask? Well they are mostly cosmetic, but valuable changes that improve the overall circuit design and aesthetics. The most notable are :

1. Sand traps. I have watched a few videos online of people setting blisteringly fast laps around NPP, however all the lightning laps use a little more than the circuit I had designed. Generally people are using the run-off areas as a means to generate more speed or not need to break as hard. The main offending area was turn's 1,3 6 and 7. Using the run-off areas in these places can quite literally take seconds off the lap times. Now the AI don't do this so I have changed all the run-off areas to be tighter with closer walls and populated the circuit with sand traps. While you can drive through the sand traps relatively fast, they do hinder blistering speed and thus from version 1.3, we should see more realistic lap times within the confines of the track itself.

2. Crisp, sharp and smooth track corners. I have set the 'panels per metre' much lower in all the corners, and the tight corners now have 1.0m panels. This means that the corners now look more as though they were drawn with protractors in stead of a ruler. While this is mostly cosmetic, the track surface is where the 'heat' and 'grip' are, so now utilising the whole track surface should mean that my record in a 1992 March F1 will be beaten soon. For what it is worth, I am only interested in lap times in the same machinery. Naturally a 2012 F1 will smash the 1992 record, so I don't care about them or even regard them as new records.

That is pretty much it. I have added some trees here and there and boosted the shadow quality of many areas around the track, but for the time being, these changes will do for now.

Okay off to my next project, enjoy folks!

New NPP on the way!

Hello! Is this thing on?! Well I am finally back in business and creating circuits for Rfactor once more!

It has been some time since I genuinly got stuck into circuit making but I am now pleased to announce that I have started working nice and hard away on some creations. The first to come out to the big wide world will be Chernobyl NPP 1.5 / 2.0. I have not yet decided if the major updates to Chernobyl NPP are worthy of a v1.5 or a fresh 2.0 status. It is the same circuit, but (should) have major improvements to everything other than the actual track itself.

These include the wall data, sand traps, new and better objects, better cameras and a bunch more tweeks. The most notable will certainly be the new and much higher resolution Reactor No. 4 which effectively takes up around 1/3 of the viewable space for objects. Originally I had created a model that (at the time) was not convertible to an Rfactor image reading format. Therefore the scaffolding surrounding the main reactor 4 looked dodgy and the iconic cooling tower had such a low resolution poligon output that it looked like one solid black structure. Hopefully with my hard work, the new model(s) will look vastly better without compromising frame rate in game.

As you can see in the screenshot, it looks much better than the current model in game in Chernobyl NPP v1.1.

Progress is going so quickly that I aim to have the new version of the track available from the end of next week (the first week of May). So look out for it at NoGripRacing as always.

Once I have completed my new version of Chernobyl NPP I will begin working on my 1970 Imola version as again this should be a quick turn around project before moving on to a fully new and fresh project that I am still um'n and ah'n over.

UPDATE 28/04/12:
It would appear that BTB is not playing ball and I still have to heavily compress the models including the one above in the screenshot. I will however still continue my work on NPP v1.5.

Cheers.

I'm not over!

Okay so this blog may look neglected and covered with dust. Let me tell you all now that it and I are far from over. Only on a break - why? You may ask...

I have like many of you out there devoted much of my spare time to Rfactor 2. However I have not forgotten nor lost my interest in creating circuits. In fact far from it. I have simply been playing other users wonderful creations lately rather than focusing on making my own. Yet this is changing. Already I have begun the preliminary work for Imola 1972. Yes that is right I will be making an all new Imola, and the last version without any chicanes. I have been researching to be sure that this could be ranked among my best releases. However it is at least two months off before I will release it and at least a full month before I will post up any screen shots.

Along with Imola 1972, I will release a much needed update to Imola 1960s to fill in some of the gaps that break the feeling of reality while flying around the circuit in top gear. Chernobyl NPP is also getting a much needed face lift and possibly a short course, possibly. Finally, Circuit d' Avignon will indeed get its much anticipated longer layout, however the modelling is difficult for the castle and rock faces so this is a while of yet folks.

There! Does that spell any doubt that I might be gone with the wind? I should hope so. In fact, I have only been more enthused to create new circuits and improve my older creations with the recent developments of Track Maker / Track Creator. If you have no idea what I am on about then click over to Youtube and look at this video about Track Maker / Track Creator. It looks stunning does it not?! I already am waiting with earnest for the program to come out. I have many circuit ideas in my head, but alas, many must be cropped down or culled completely due to their ambitious nature.

See the problem is not actually building the circuit, that part is relatively straightforward. Even the elevation changes, or track merging are issues for me. The actual hardest part of creating circuits is the ground. Or more to the point, the landscape or what I call the 'scene'. To create a vaguely believable scene is incredibly difficult. Certainly in my judgemental eyes. For example, if you are to drive around SPA, you expect to see the rolling tree filled hills as your car blasts up Eau Rouge. Hitting the 'look-back' key should give you the eye candy we seek from actually getting up the damn thing. Without the surrounding background of the trees, hills, and general scenery, it feels fake - for lack of a better word. Track Creator looks ambitious. In fact, ambitious enough to match my efficacious imagination.

So I am not over, just trying to contain my enthusiasm. I don't know if I will be a master track builder this year, but certainly 2012 is going to be a great year for sim track building!

Megaupload.com Closed

Yes they have sadly cracked down on excellent share site meggaupload.com. I had Rfactor content on there as had quite literally thousands of other sim racing users.

It looks like we now have far less channels to get out our perfectly legal content to the wonderful world. In my eyes, this may be the beginning of the end to the illusion of freedom that we have with the internet. This is truly a sad day for the USA and the rest of us across the globe. Fortunately, my tracks I have posted here are local content of NoGirpRacing and you can all still access my content for download and play. I found this out reading on Virtualr.net

That's it guys. I will keep making tracks, but perhaps in years to come we will be forced to share our own private content privately via emails - sad.

Rfactor 2 - First Impressions

Well it finally saw some light earlier this month. Rfactor 2 'Open' Beta was released for the world.

I say 'Open' as it was not quite that simple for me and as it turns out, many many people across the globe. Okay so we all knew that it was going to cost us about $40 to play the 'open beta'. But we all expected it to work more or less straight away. I certainly didn't have my up and running as soon as I paid for 12months to the game. In fact I didn't have it running for about a day and a half after downloading and installing the thing. I did expect the servers to be slow or have minor breaks for the first 48 hours after release as there was always going to be a mad rush to get the game. So I backed off and waited patiently for the third day after release before tearing open my wallet to locate my credit card to the punch in the numbers and details to get my hands on a game many of us have been drooling over for the past couple of years.

Sadly the game didn't just 'ping!' open up. In fact it felt like an eternity before my issues with online payment were resolved. So this is why I am being a bit harsh on the game. They made me wait for it and then charged us not exactly 'mates rates' for a 'beta' with little actual content in it. All the money issues aside, I might as well go on and get talking about the actual game.

I have only tested single-player thus far and therefore can really only comment on that aspect of the new game system. Okay so the menu feels much cleaner and neater than that of Rfactor 1 (yes we can call it that now). I do enjoy the flashing 'cards' that present the various racing cars, tracks and race systems to us. It is a nice touch to the format. The introduction of weather was very intriguing and I couldnt help but fiddle to be sure that my first racing weekend was boiling hot before bucketing down with a monsoon of a shower before drying out at the end of the weekend to some afternoon sun again. This system looks brilliant!

It takes me aback to that of Grand Prix 4, which in my eyes was the definitive sim until Rfacor found its feet in mid to late 2007. GP4 had a fabulous weather system for its time and still today makes Need-For-Speed and other shiny games look rather stupid. I feel as though Rfactor 2's weather system may be based on GP4's model. No matter, it does the job well. That is to say that there are obviously still some minor bugs in the system as it rains in the Monaco tunnel. I have no doubt that the full version of the game will fix small issues such as these. Yes I am well aware that it is still a beta.

Okay, actual racing time. I maxed out the settings with only AA and ASF set slightly below full (8x each). I did a very crude car setup to my F1-1968 car and clicked race. The first thing I am greeted with is a low polygon model of a man standing in front of a wall. Hmm, ok. Oh wait, he can walk and move his arms - cool! So he is not the best looking pit model, but already I can see that this is not Rfactor as we have all played before. The car blasts to life and I engage first gear and slightly squeeze the accelerator. Stall. Woops, I forgot to use the clutch. Esc, Esc and 'race' once more. Okay, this time I have my left foot flat on the clutch and I sheepishly select first gear and feather my foot onto the power to get her moving. Already I can see the sun bounces off the suspension of my car as I try to figure out where I am in Monaco yet continue to follow the man who points to the left. Ah! I see now. I never knew that cars were parks back there when not racing (interesting).

I drive out of the makeshift pits and already I can see the circuit ahead. I shift to second and then up to third all while admiring the high polygon trees, buildings, road, signs and OH WAIT! I need to turn! Crunch. Well I got to the first corner, I just didn't slow down that much. My car comes to a rest on the opposite side of the circuit slightly up on the footpath (yes footpath). I don't click esc and return to the pits this time. No I am still admiring the ambience of the circuit. Marshals who stand with next to no protection from a road barrier wave yellow flags to warn the AI that I have cocked it up at Sainte Devote.

The game looks fabulous. It already is streets above that of Rfactor 1. The ambience of the game environment while racing makes it feel more like a racing sim than Rfactor 1 ever was. I did indeed get going and drive a good thrash around Monaco all while trying to come to grips with the handling of the beast I was trying to tame. The tire models are spectacular to say the least as is the potential for modders and track builders alike. I think this game has a really bight future in front. Bring on the full game!