REDESIGNING [R]GARAGE AND THE BLOG
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| Yup, this is how the new [R]GARAGE will look! |
The first time I make [R]GARAGE, I felt that I need to merely provide links to my tracks and cars, be it Turbo Sliders or GeneRally, while the slide show galleries for both games featuring all cars and tracks available exist for a reason. The more I am conscious about the true path of site designing and designing in general, the more I hate such a design. The only thing that I do is to ditch that design ASAP and revamp the site with a better interface to correctly represent evolution of my site. That being said, I've done a revamp on the site in general starting from the Turbo Sliders section. As the grid photo gallery I use only fits 99 pictures and that I fear all my accumulated creations, both normal and photoshopped, would exceed the limit, separating those two types into two different pages is the only means of improving the site's design. The best feature of all is that I have the option to have those images redirect to a link, which means that if one were to click a picture of a track of mine, it would take one to go to the download page dedicated to the track. However, in return, I would have to write short description of all my tracks. This will be the staple of presenting my stuffs. Other than the design blah blahs, I am torn whether to change the background image, use a flat design style or keep the garage background intact.
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| Keeping it consistent with the trademark colors... |
Also note that in the same time I'm updating the site's looks, I also am trying to update my blog's looks and make it consistent with the site's theme. The only hurdle I face is the font face which Wix has but Blogger hasn't, but it's nothing serious due to the fact that I googled Blogger's answer to Helvetica Neue, which is the Arimo. They ARE different fonts, but Arimo is the closest thing to Helvetica Neue, at least from one of the forum discussions I read about it. Both my site and my blog are everything but finished products, but they are leaping towards better designs. However, one striking change that you would have noticed is the "Read More" thingy I have considered to use due to the feature allowing for a cleaner look. Previous posts before this one have no "Read More" cuts, but I might consider putting them their "Read More" cuts, but that would be a very long way as putting such a cut to every previous entry without the cut would take forever.
TURBO SLIDERS: MORE REALISTIC CAR PROPERTIES AND NISSAN R390 GT1
Recently, Turbo Sliders brought an update to its feature list for the upcoming version of the game, with most features allow for a more realistic car physics experience. Here are the new features according to its Facebook page:- Added car properties for more realistic cars:
* invertturningonreverse: if 1, left and right switched when reversing. Inverted reverse controls also work when accelerating while moving backwards
* fullturningspeed: if non-zero, turning is limited when speed below this
* smokelimitbraking: braking needs to be done this long (in sec) for smoke
* flyingsteeringfactor: steering multiplied by this when flying (0 to none)
- Showing best lap time and its maker in special HUD stats
- Not moving special HUD stats even if player car is on the left
- Autoserver is now calling PreRaceInit macro just before race init
- Join ok if an existing spectator has the same license (but not vice versa)
- Admin cannot crash the server by kicking oneself anymore
- Flags are now implemented: "I gave a honest try to have the flags included too. I made it work on local games before realizing that it is not that easy for network games. The problem is that only the server knows the checkpoint situation of each car. Clients can't easily keep track of that reliably as warping can get cars over checkpoint lines and only knowing the lap number is not enough (cars that have just started the next lap would be considered to be one lap ahead of cars just behind the finish line). If someone can think of a simple logic to recognize the situation reliably, feel free to tell me..." -Ande
While the new features revealed understand "realistic" in a form of inverted control when reverse and decreased turning radius in slower speeds, I created yet another "realistic" car in which I'm testing the all new physics that doesn't require an antislide value of 7 (cars won't slide at all unless when colliding to another car). The thing here is that I tried to emulate the challenging nature of control without Traction Control System and Antilock Braking System, and with such a test comes a new car:
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| "You've got a new car, ready to roll... yet" |
Nissan R390 GT1, better known as the Le Mans car of the late 90s that redefines "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing"; While it looks like a Le Mans Prototype at glance, the car indeed is under the GT1 class in its 1997 debut as the regulation back then stated that at least one production model is made for a car that were to enter the class and NOTHING ELSE about the engine, which in return allowed cars like Toyota GT-One, Porsche 911 GT1 EVO and Mercedes CLK LM to be another flock of "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" in the blue riband endurance racing. Its 1998 venture, its last before the GT1 regulation is revised to allow no more "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing", proved to be its best run albeit losing to Porsches, claiming the final podium spot of the outright standings.
The car is faithfully recreated in TS using the experimental physics, which I felt that it makes the car feel like something that's coming from GRID Autosport universe. This is how I envision an all-new physics that simulates how tricky a GT car is handled without TCS and Stability Control; turn too hard, you'll slide off track. This physics was actually used by some of Jazzyclub's cars before the 2.x.x era, and now that all of his creations are gone, I want to show the newer generations what kind of car that is both fun and use no antislide values whatsoever. Whenever the new TS version is released, I would like to make skins based off of all of its Le Mans entries throughout its years.
The car is still WIP despite the car's image. What it needs now is some physics tweaks and the real R390 GT1 sound. I have to use a software to record PC sounds to attain the best result, and of course thorough audio editing will take place too.
THE GENE-ROUNDUP ON MY JOINED COMPETITIONS
Before I unleash the paragraphs for this section, I would like to correct something. This post said that Team [R]GARAGE is GeneRally World Ranking's Team of the Month in August. The actual winner was GR Noobs, and details go here.GR Formula Cup and Endurance Series 2014 are both my joined competitions for GeneRally, not to forget that GR Touring Car Challenge S3's first round is on the horizon. The last time I blogged about these compos is when I gleefully took generous amount of points for myself and my team in the first round of Jaisalmer, and I drove my all to get the test race podium in Endurance Series 2014. I currently am taking a break in racing both competitions, but so far, I've been through 2 rounds of the Formula Cup and Endurance Series.
I'm going to start recapping the open wheel race first. The second race of Watchtower saw me missing the pointscoring placement for the first time. I was confident that I would be able to place myself on Top 10 once again but it was a vain attempt despite the fact that my lining was seemingly-perfect. It's that the AIs are a nuisance, and hitting them would kill yourself on your run considering the high damage percentage the competition has set. However, at the third round on Parla, I came back on form as I once again take some points. I had to say that I wasn't fast enough against the top runners, but my lining and my seamless AI overtaking sufficed my run. This, however, came with a price of Marcinho leaving the competition due to the level of difficulty the series created, which means that I have to drive alone for the reminder of the season.
In the Endurance Series 2014, the first round was the 30-minute race of Sebring. I thought that I used the right settings until I found out that the compo owner warned me that I used the wrong settings. Lol, what a fool am I, but despite that I was able to take the second place. It was a long race that requires little to no mistakes (duh) and to think that my slow pace took me the second place was surprising. Unfortunately in the next race, which is the 15-minute race of Silverstone, I wasn't able to find my strong lining albeit knowing the track well, which is due to both my nervousness / fear of late submit and fear of hitting the sunk tires. Good that Daniel Rosenberger drove well on both races to make sure Team [R]GARAGE is leading the GT3 class standings.
I unfortunately announced that I would take break from both this competition and GR Formula Cup for the sake of sorting my college stuffs and dedicating more of my time for establishing my site and blog, talk about being too overwhelmed for scheduling things out. I would return to both competitions and GRTCC S3 in an unspecified time while making sure that I don't have too much burden to carry. But meanwhile, I had to miss the 60-minute race of Circuit de la Sarthe.
COMING UP ON THE BLOG + BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT
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| "Ouch! That hurts! Wait, aren't they...?" |
For the next blog post, I would most likely post about the third "episode" of my car skinning as I recently am into another racing sim: rFactor. The difference is while I play GTR2 because of the BPR Global Series mod, I play rFactor because of the Choro Q mod. For those who didn't know already, Choro Q is a Japanese toy car line which sports "Chibi"-fied looks and has spanned lots of merchandises, including video games. Not only that, I would also post my continuation of skinning TMUF cars too on the mentioned topic. Another post I would also make is my return to MiniRacingOnline. Despite that I haven't continued my work, but I might try to write some paragraphs regarding my experience throughout my MRO days. So, it's either the former or the latter, but this time, I'll make sure they're posted in this month.
Also, as a motorsport fan, 5th October is where a tragic accident happened in a Formula 1 race: Jules Bianchi had an accident involving him going off the track and hit the trackside vehicle in process in which he couldn't escape and is now undergoing treatments at the time this post is posted. I didn't watch the race as I had a family affair but once I saw a sympathy post dedicated to Jules Bianchi on my Facebook timeline, I knew that something might happened, which I found out it IS the tragic accident in question.
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| We are with you, Jules... (source: marussiaf1team.com) |
#ForzaJules
~[R]
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