[R]GARAGE Returns to Turbo Sliders! It's Project TSukuba! (no typo)

With Ramadan leaving a couple of days before 1st of Syawal in the Islamic calendar, which translates as Idl Fitr day (read: month of forgiveness), and also translates as the day where we are all back to our grandparents' hometown (in Indonesia, we call it "Mudik". It's like travelling, but with a meaning :) ), I have so little time to finish my project. All following projects must have to be finished before that day, and of course, it's about GeneRally. But that's not the focus for this post, rather a new Turbo Sliders track that's a remake from a track that's used in the SCARTS series.

Yup, if you're a SCARTS driver and are reading this, you know which track it is, otherwise, it's Tsukuba Circuit. This track is a racing track located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, with a length of 2,045km, and hosted some of Japan's motorsport events like D1 Grand Prix, All-Japan GT Championship (formerly), and Tuner Battles where tuned cars set best times possible with their tuned cars. The course is featured in many video games, with Gran Turismo 4 is one of them, and also gained popularity thanks to Best Motoring. The chicane is put there only for motorcycle racing purposes.

A moment after Tsukuba is posted in TS's Track Database, which is exactly 19th of February 2011, it found its debut in one of SCARTS's series, the 2011 Rising Star series, in which the race is titled as "Livestrong 150", with #22 racer Burnout claiming the victory. The track would be used once again in the same year, this time in the fourth race of Turbocharged series, joining Mexico City, formerly the only overseas race in the calendar. This also marked the first time SCARTS traveled outside the Americas and the crowds there enjoyed the battles of the stock car races. It appears again and again in subsequent seasons...

Comparison of the old one and new one. There sure WILL BE lots of differences.

The idea of making Tsukuba came because I loved the course since the first time I played Gran Turismo 4. The track, while it has high-speed sections, has some of the tightest turns as well. You can see there are three hairpins on the track, and the last corner requires a good speed management to keep yourself in the racing line. One mistake will definitely ruin your best run here.

Yet, the real reason for making the track is because I was spending lots of time racing against the AIs whose names are named after characters from some of the popular TV series, and to add the fact that this was done in 2010, I haven't raced Khaleesi back then... However, I occasionally raced the fangirling-imminent characters, from Rick Castle, Chuck Bass, the Winchesters, and Dr. McDreamy to Blair Waldorf, Allison Harvard, and Spencer Hastings. And I was thinking about how a race in a Japanese race course sounded like. The construction commenced moments later...

Comparing the old and new Tsukuba versions, there are sure lots of differences:

- Starting lines; the old version's starting grids are too far and the first place's grid position wasn't on the direction of the first turn (in this case, right side). It was to emulate the starting grids TSE tracks applied to all of its tracks featured in the TSE F1 competition. Plus, the start line is too far away from the actual position it is in real life. The new one will emulate the real Tsukuba starting lines, with corrected sides for the positions.
- Tire bridge; it wasn't spot-on, but granted I know how to work out asymetrical angles for a Level2Tile tile. Do remember the real Tsukuba has "Dunlop" tire bridge though. The new one can be considered as an enhancement.
- Pit lane; there aren't lines before and after the pit lane in the real Tsukuba. Plus, the pit in the real Tsukuba is somehow "quirky" in that it's got a much different shape than other tracks have which I couldn't figure out how to work it back then. Thanks to my experiences, the pit lane like that can be worked in the new version.
- Kerbs; there are some kerbs that are too long compared to its real-life counterpart in the old version. If you have driven Tsukuba, virtually or in person, you can see how the kerbs there are positioned. This will be fixed in the new version.
- Environment; the old version is a miss in that it is all desert. This because I was basing this on a Google Map finding, without looking at how the actual track looked like in other video games, especially GT4. This is also fixed extensively in the new version. HOWEVER, the old one had its point; if you read this Speedhunters article about Tsukuba Circuit, then you might know why it's all desert. That means the only problem was the "lake", which was actually a faux grass with vegetations in the old version, due to the fact that I haven't took Tsukuba full-force seriously.

In conclusion, the old version was one of my advanced-level tracks in terms of trackmaking skill with a layout based off of the same Tsukuba made in MiniRacingOnline by a Japanese player named asimo007 (you can find it here) for a purpose to quench a need to race against fandom faces with "Genki Racing Project" logo pasted on a chicane (this track isn't just Genki's anyway... :|), while the new version embodies the real Tsukuba so you have a feeling you're driving the real Tsukuba in Turbo Sliders. In fact, now you can drive an RDP-Antislider around the track!

Speaking of Antisliders, this car is made with an initial purpose of racing in Tsukuba. It is Antislider CT230R, which is heavily inspired by HKS CT230R as its name implied. The car looks like a Global GT Lights car, and has a near-simulation handling in which the car is tough to steer, which means you need a good braking judgement for taking on harder corners. You can get it here!



And to heat things up...

The course will also has two flavors with same layout; the normal version and SCARTS version, which the latter is not a public release, but for SCARTS purposes only. The latter also has a different pattern file than the normal one and has almost the same placing as the SCARTS-used one in which this pattern alteration would allow the SCARTS cars to handle better, talk about stock cars being hard to steer...

As this is finished, it'll give a new breath to the Tsukuba Circuit. This will increase excitement and realness of the circuit by massive percentages. :D

As promised, GeneRally updates. Some of my creations have received Track of Month and Car of Month nominations, though finishing in somehow "bad" places. This is certainly my first Track / Car of Month nominations throughout the course of GeneRally creations.

To remind you which ones that are "those", here they are:

Track of Month May 2013 nomination
Frappe Snowland - 13th place out of 13 with 2 votes

Track of Month July 2013 nomination
Cilandak Town Square - not yet running but it's nominated!

Car of Month May/June 2013 nominations
[R]GARAGE SST Sports Type R - 13th place out of 14 with no votes

Prospect.R ~Prototype Sportscar Project R~ - 9th place out of 14 with 2 votes

Track WIP: Monaco, part of New World Tour Tracks project

This is to be finished before Idl Fitr comes

This Monaco would be inspired by Sega Rally 2's Riviera stage. Since the project allows tracks no more than WS 180, the buildings will be limited to the outside parts only, allowing the track to have no objects that could block the view. However, this layout would change from this very WIP. At least, there's progress...

That means that building must be destroyed and worked once again...

GT Updates: GTs. SARD MC8-R, Honda NSX LM, and Panoz Esperante GTR-1 made, all cars refined

The refinements include the decrease of the "supposed ride height" of the models, in which with their old ride height on their models would make it less GT. You can compare previous screens of the cars with these screens. Granted, I put one of my made cars here so you can really see the difference :D

Compare this Skyline GTR LM with another one from this post :)

Hopefully everything is done within the deadline, both Tsukuba and Monaco... And don't forget, drive safely :)

~[R]

Cilandak Town Square GP, RIP Cory Monteith, and a new WIP

It's time to going three topics again like I did a long time ago in my old blog!
Many things happened during the fasting month of Ramadan, most of them are the loss of great figures. First, we lost Allan Simonsen, a Danish endurance racing driver whose life ended after a Le Mans crash, then following days we lost a Timezone Center at Citos and is to made into a boutique in light of its closing. Today, we lost another one: Cory Monteith, best known as Finn Hudson in Glee. If you happen to watch this series, I know what you feel and what you are going to feel: grief. Yup, this character has faced many things, including dates with that cheerio Quinn, the golden girl Rachel, and friends with Kurt Hummel.

Here's an article from New York Times about this...

Cory Monteith, who played an upbeat and outgoing young student and singing coach on the hit Fox musical comedy series “Glee,” but who battled substance abuse, was found dead in a hotel room in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Saturday. He was 31.

The police said that Mr. Monteith was found dead in his 21st-floor room at the Fairmont Pacific Rim hotel in Vancouver around noon after he missed his scheduled checkout time. They said that there was no indication of foul play and that people Mr. Monteith had been with earlier were being interviewed, but that they believe he was alone when he died. 

The coroner will try to establish the cause of death, a police statement said. 

Mr. Monteith, a 6-foot-3 performer with a youthful countenance and a soft-spoken demeanor who described himself on his personal Twitter page as a “tall, awkward, Canadian, actor, drummer, person,” gained worldwide attention when “Glee” made its debut on the Fox network in 2009. 

On that series, Mr. Monteith played Finn Hudson, an Ohio high school student and football star who initially had no interest in joining his school’s struggling glee club for fear it would cost him his popularity and social standing. 

But once drawn into the singing squad, Finn became a crucial member, sharing vocal duties on its signature cover of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” and also sharing romantic tensions with his fellow students Rachel (Lea Michele) and Quinn (Dianna Agron). In recent episodes, Finn graduated from high school but returned to coach the glee squad of which he had once been a member. 

“Glee,” which recently finished its fourth season, is one of Fox’s biggest hits of recent years, especially with younger audiences, although its ratings have been dropping for the last two seasons. 

A press representative for Fox said on Sunday that production on the new season of “Glee” was not scheduled to begin until later this month or early August, and that no decision had yet been made about how the show might deal with Mr. Monteith’s death. 

In March, Mr. Monteith announced that he had checked himself into a treatment center for an unspecified substance addiction. He had acknowledged in an interview in 2011 that he also sought rehabilitation when he was 19. 

Cory Allan Michael Monteith was born on May 11, 1982, in Calgary, Alberta, and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, after his parents divorced. He dropped out of school at 16, having attended 16 different schools by that time, and worked at many jobs before winning his first professional acting roles in his early 20s. 

Mr. Monteith appeared on television shows like “Stargate Atlantis,” “Supernatural” and “Smallville,” then landed his role on “Glee” with the help of an audition tape on which he sang REO Speedwagon’s 1985 No. 1 hit, the love ballad “Can’t Fight This Feeling.” 

The news of Mr. Monteith’s death elicited an outpouring of grief and remembrances from friends and colleagues. 

Dot-Marie Jones, a “Glee” co-star, wrote on her Twitter account that Mr. Monteith “was not only a hell of a friend” but an “amazing” man “that I will hold close to my heart forever.” 

Mr. Monteith’s press representatives at Viewpoint Public Relations said in a brief statement: “We are so saddened to confirm that the reports on the death of Cory Monteith are accurate. We are in shock and mourning this tragic loss.” 

The Fox Broadcasting Company, 20th Century Fox Television and the executive producers of “Glee” said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened by this tragic news. Cory was an exceptional talent and an even more exceptional person. He was a true joy to work with and we will all miss him tremendously. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.” 

According to some news reports, Mr. Monteith is survived by his parents and a brother. In an interview in 2011, Mr. Monteith had said that he hoped his struggles with addiction would offer an example to others. “I don’t want kids to think it’s O.K.

Thankfully, out of this grief, I managed to post my thoughts on my LiveJournal post (aka my fandom blog) about what would happen after his loss. Will his character find a new portrayer or change the plot line. As I browsed on one of my joined forums, one user said that the show should stop in respect of him. The only thing I said was if Allan Simonsen's family willed to continue the race after he passed away, why not? There are actually more chances and choices coming, and we don't know what Glee producers and staffs would do...

Moving on to GeneRally because I can't post too much Glee in this blog and this blog is meant for updates for my game stuffs (the former purpose is better suited to my LiveJournal and Tumblr tbh...). After some refinements, new tracks are released. There are three of them: Citos GP, and two mini track project tracks Naitodori and Karbanks.

Just as I promised....

Cilandak Town Square GP is a track I made whose WIP and article I wrote and showed in the last post. The course is described as Norisring with flooring arts, semi-technical, has long straights but focus-demanding due to its hairpins, and exciting because the course runs through the Timezone center via a right hander, leading to another turn outside where diners can be seen before heading back to the Start/Finish straight that are filled with pricey restaurants and the like.

The course has two configurations: GP and short, with the short course having less technical parts, allowing for a high-speed race like AVUS does.

Course details follow:

Complete technical data of GP and Short courses

What you will see and what you will drive...

Get your mall racing fix in GR NOW!

Then there are two new Mini Track Remix Project tracks: Naitodori and Karbanks, both are #9 and #8 respectively. First up is Naitodori.

Described as a "Night Drifting Track" located in a parking space in Japan, Naitodori is an embodiment of what it exactly says on the tin; Two Katakana words Night (ナイト - Naito) and Drift (ドリフト) formed the track's name, complete with the fact that it TAKES PLACE in Japan. Wanna Drift at Night? DL.

Last but not least is Karbanks. Again, its name is a portmanteau, this time it's "Kart" and "Banks", implying that this is might be a kart track and it has a banked turn. However, the real purpose why it's named that is because its banked turn is heavily inspired by Mario Kart 64's Mario Circuit where the banked turn lies beneath the giant mushroom as you drive there.

DL Karbanks for an exhilarating drive through the banked right hander now!

Finally, I can show you what I'm working on: Classic GTs, as in GT cars in 90s era. 90s era GTs are considered as the best and most memorable era of GT racing. At that time, McLaren F1s, Porsche 911s, and Ferrari F40s colored almost every GT races available back then, from Le Mans to BPR Global Series, and so popular that Sega fit the three mentioned games into Scud Race with Dodge Viper and later Le Mans 24 with Porsche having 911 GT1 instead of its Scud Race-featured 911.

It's still a very long way since there are tad so many cars I'd like to make. To be honest I've never done a big project involving many cars like this before, but since this is 90s GT and I loved some McLarens and F40s thanks to Scud Race and BPR Global Series and Le Mans, I had to do it, and I have to tell you I have joy working these cars.

Currently made cars are...

Porsche 911 (Elf Haberthur Racing), Nismo GTR LM (Two Le Mans 1996 entrants), and Ferrari F40 (Works team in red and Pilot Pen Racing in blue)

Porsche 911 (Advan Racing) and Ferrari F40 (IGOL Racing)

Callaway C12 R (Team Agusta Racing), Marcos Mantaray GT2 (works team), and Venturi 600LM (works team)

Those are the ones that are made out of the following list:
- Porsche 911 GT2 x2
- Callaway C12 R
- Marcos Mantaray
- Venturi 660 LM
- Nismo Skyline LM x2
- Honda NSX
- Toyota Supra LM
- Aston Martin DB9 x3
- Porsche 911 GT1
- Chrysler Viper GTS x4
- Jaguar XJ220
- Chevrolet Corvette C5 R
- Lotus Esprit LM x2
- Ferrari F40 LM x3 +1
- McLaren F1 x5
- Panoz Esperante x2
- Lister Storm x2
- Alpine A310 GT x3

(bolded names signifies that they are already made)

Well, hopefully with this loss, we can assure that Glee continues as it is with a tribute episode to Finn if the producers are to write such plot, and hopefully I can manage to have new tracks and cars. [R]GARAGE is a Garage of Creations after all...

~[R]

The new phone

I know it's just yesterday that I wrote the previous post about taking you to a certain mall responsible to my career revival, but if you READ that post, you know that this post is the spiritual successor to that.

This is my old cellphone: Nokia 3110c. This cellphone is mine for years starting first grade of my Junior High, which means this cellphone has been on my pocket for more than six years. At my second grade of High School, I've got Nokia N95, a better phone running on S60v3 system, and it's a slide-phone. I used N95 for more advanced this like watching my downloaded videos, music player, and browsing at high definition, and the former two were thanks because of its "Memory Card Hot-swap" feature which you can swap your MC without having to remove the battery, unlike the 3110c I have.

However, its fate ended after a pushover happened when I watched a soccer game, causing my right foot to bleed, then receive stitches, and finally, the N95 that has to begone from this universe. It was a shameful moment for me, but months afterwards, I'm still with my old phone.

Which, until now, has to meet with my new cellphone.

We can assure that 0 Gundam, my first Gunpla, is the mascot of mine. Ironically, I wished for RX-78-2. Here, it makes my new phone's entrance look epic. It even doesn't care about what kind of cellphone it's going to demolish.

Yup, the cellphone that my Gunpla is riding is the new Nokia C7-00. It's far better than N95 in any way, yet it's no better than Nokia N8, which I wished but stopped wishing it because of its hefty price. A touch screen phone, social network-ready, USB On-the-Go support (which ironically didn't packed with C7-00, but I found one store that sells it, so not kinda disappointed), et cetera. It can even play my favorite Ovi Maps Racing (to be honest, I like the kind of game where you're racing a track that's location based and enables you to create a track from your location)! A lot of my friends and relatives once asked if I should use a BlackBerry phone, but that's an overrated choice. What's more, there are lots of teenagers misusing it for taking pics while they're posing inappropriate face expressions (no, not porn, damnit!), oh wait, that's also what teens misuse the 12MP cameras for. But the TRUE reason is, BBs have no broader feature than Nokias have.

It's got two cameras, both 8 Megapixels, social networking, e-mail checking, GPS, FM transmitter that enables you to play your music on radio (Don't be jealous, BB users!), and many more. Marginally better, like a boss.

So, as the rite of passage...

We can assure that the old 3110c is done for.

And that my Gunpla has done its job...

Inside Mal Parung - The one responsible for my 3DX+ career's revival

Hey guys, it's Rendy again. I guess it's been a long time since my last post due to less interest + lack of views. I was trying to resist the Rule XXX of "If you want your X to be seen, don't hound" I learned from my experience at a pixel car RP forum. Guess looking at the condition, I couldn't have any choice. And considering I'm posting this at a fasting month aka Ramadan, this post should be 3 times cooler (oh wait, that's Char's Rule, not mine)

And now celebrating my first Ramadan post and the revival of my Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3DX+ career, now I'll take you INSIDE Mal Parung, a new shopping center that's opened at 29 July. There are interesting things that got my attention: The 3DX+ Cabinet. "Will I see MT cabinets at that place?" is my top-priority question, considering that I'm depressed of MT cabinets being located at shopping malls far from my home that I quitted for awhile.

At first, at the time of its construction, I don't have a thought about this place being a shopping mall. But now, it IS a shopping mall, and it's opened on 29 July. Days after its grand opening, I went there to see the amusement center which is located at the underground floor. And then I found this...

Yes, that's MAXIMUM TUNE, bitches!

A little info about this game: This game's based on the anime and manga Wangan Midnight by Michiharu Kusunoki which is about racing in the highways of Tokyo, particularly C1 and its surrounding areas. It's about Akio Asakura's adventures with his Devil Z (a dark blue Nissan Fairlady 240Z with aeros) he found at a junkyard, and it's known for its numerous accidents. The game takes you and your car (that you choose) into the WM storylines and you get a tuning of either Power or Handling everytime you win. You can also win Dress-Up Parts by playing Ghost Battle Mode against the cabinet's resident "ghosts" of other players. This game is popular due to its physics, its Dress-Ups, and its use of magnetic cards. It even kicks Initial D Arcade Stage's ass in terms of popularity.

I've started my MT career back then when it was in its second installment, and it was at Supermall Karawaci, the first place where I played MT. Days after days, Maximum Tune evolves, and so does my card: the loyal Bayside Blue Nissan Skyline GTR R34 that has been my MT partner until this day of the posting. The game is very great, but what I can't stand is that I want to be the best like hundreds of the players whose cards reached 800HP+ DG full tune. Thank goodness, I've reached 800HP a long time ago, and I did my return to this MT world by the time I went to Mall Cinere.

The 3DX+ cabinet here was worth 2 COINS at the time of its opening days. The cabinets were crowded with little kids of elementary age, yet none of them, including the teens of the same age as mine, have cards, leaving me with the "Bojongsari's Fastest" title (Actually I made that up, but hey, I played it for 6 years and running!). I might not as fast as the players from Jakarta, or even other malls far from downtown Jakarta (such as Cinere, Depok, etc), but hey, I'm returning! Now the cabinets are worth 3 COINS, just like other malls do, except that it's a little bit pricier than some areas'.

Other cabinets found in this mall are two popular Cardass games, Animal Kaiser and Hero of Robots. Both are known for their hefty price a play (6 coins) and in the Cardass universe, is competing against the likes of Gacchu Guts, Elemental Lords, and Naruto Ultimate Ninja where available. I will not pertain to Cardass game in this post, but expect me to do it in future.

Its price's a bitch, but it's so damn popular. A fighting game with real-life animals that sets them afar from other Cardass games

 

 Hero of Robots, the newcomer to the Cardass market by game developer IGS is in its second version. Notice that the other Cardass game on the right is the Naruto Ultimate Ninja game, which I forgot to take the picture of.

But wait, do those pictures are clearer than the other pictures you saw on the previous posts?

Do I sense a new development here?

Or it's just one of those borrowed things I'm using?

The next post would surprise you...