It turns out that my zip files for Gran Canaria and Frappe Snowland (evidence not pictured) tracks contain corrupted files.
It has caught my attention that some certain files whose links I had provided in several places, including my site (granted it's still in construction) and my blog here contain faulty elements, including corrupted ZIPs, missing tiles et cetera. I just found out last night as I tried to drive my old tracks just for fun and it petrified me that two custom tracks were problematic as soon as I extract all the track ZIPs. They are Frappe Snowland and Gran Canaria, of which they each had one corrupted file, and the file in question is the custom track's image. Additionally, I also found out that I forgot to put additional custom tiles for Templedore as the underpass tile is missing. Despite it is not much a problem as Sliderpoint has the underpass tile, I can't condone such a behavior as the tileset is less than 1 MB and I just need to include it all along. Even my second version of Tsukuba and Snow Complex has the same missing tiles problem too.
It also turns out that this kind of "rushed" behavior also the same behavior that affected how my tracks were before my trackmaking skills matured, same with my writing in which I had vocabulary issues too, resulting in either Engrish-y writing, erroneous grammar structures and vocabularies or a hybrid of both. Yet, when I don't rush in trackmaking, I did rush in releasing the track, which is what I didn't do until recently. Those who have downloaded both corrupted tracks and those with missing tiles, my apologizes to you.
Looking at the title, you know that Project TSukuba is still running. Unfortunately I couldn't finish both projects before Eid'l Fitr day as I visited so many places, all are family places (relatives' house, grandparents' house, you name it...), celebrating the spirit of aforementioned day; the day of the glory, brotherhood, and forgiveness that is... :)
Despite late by WEEKS that I just get ahold of my laptop once again after days without it at night after I got home from my grandparents' house, which is very far away from Jakarta, and worked a little bit on my Monaco track. Sadly, I thought to myself that I won't be able to finish it within hours given that it's far from complete and I have doubts of what kind of Landmap texture that can replace those white placeholder terrains and Height map that fits Monaco well...
Working on the Height Map and finding the suitable textures for the cliffs, as well as taking the "accurate" layout but horrible pit lane into account. Trigger Happy (formerly Ivo Porc if you remember from RSC forums era) suggested that I would need to either move pit crews closer to the tarmacs paved pit lane or to make walls bordering pits diagonal instead of 90 degrees. However, I worked another layout and understood that with this accurate layout and small world size (Remember! This is a New World Tour Track Project which required me to have a track no more than WS 180!), it'll look too horrible to be driven, even against AIs...
Still, depressions about HMaps and LMaps aren't over. I've tried to think how to make the track have a Monaco Street Circuit feel albeit the fictitious layout whose inspiration came from the last championship track of Sega Rally 2. Until weeks later, I played with some existing textures and played a bit with the WIP until I get this:
Unfortunately, because it is long overdue, and I have had too many difficulties on how I could work it after all those depressions... Sorry puttz, but this track has past its deadline... However, this last state of my Monaco will make sure you won't cry with nothing...
Sadly, after a long time, I have decided to call quits on my Monaco.
It's just that I've been in too many depressions as to how I could make
it look like a proper Monaco, with all those Hmaps, cliff textures,
objects, etc. The thing is that as I'm hit by numerous depressions and a
number of family matters and other projects, I don't have passion to
continue this track anymore. Plus, it's totally way OVERDUE...
Meanwhile for Tsukuba, the construction had to get hold for awhile. Not that it was unfinished, but after I added a parking lot, I was considering about adding tiles like TS cars and persons tiles. Yet, since it was 90% complete, I thought that I lower its construction priority a bit so to give way for my Monaco to be finished.
Japan's Temple of Speed is finally reborn on Turbo Sliders!
And now I've filled more than 85% of the parking lot throughout the track with default TS cars, and there are dby's "Persons" tiles even though they aren't that dense. And now, the track is set and ready to drive after weeks of waiting! Though I'd like to point out that it's kinda hard to have variety when putting different TS cars tiles adjacent to each other, which you need to consider the color and the model. You may not want a different car with one color being a majority on one parking spot, so does not want different colors but the same model (example: assorted colors of Antislider in one spot). TS Trackmaking is pretty easy, but you need to live up things to your expectations to achieve great tracks.
Download the new Tsukuba Circuit now! (1,77 MB) - SCARTS version will be made in a SCARTS race upon discussion with the organizer(s). Take note that I don't bother to upload it to TS's Tracks Database since I was experiencing errors back then when I tried to upload a track... :v
Back to a GeneRally-related topic, I've returned to the GR Competitions scene where I joined Lukeno94's GR Touring Car World Cup, a competition pitting AWD, FWD, and RWD tourers of different background. Team [R]GARAGE is formed with me driving the mighty, my favorite, Peugeot 306 Maxi Kit Car. It turns out that as I posted my application, my countrymate resir014 hops in the team's seat, driving the same car, and repeating what could be named as an "All-Indonesian Racing Team" campaign in a season of GeneRally Rookie Cup dated years ago...
That is before I read Bird's post which is posted AFTER resir014's. Talk about forgetting a new teammate... D'oh! Although not "All-Indonesian", Team [R]GARAGE suddenly becomes an "Indonesian-based International Race Team", with motto "International Team, Indonesian Taste."
...or another way around like... "Indonesian Team, International Taste"?
All Team [R]GARAGE drivers drive the 306 Maxi with a livery base shown
aside of red-painted polies, allowing for custom driver colors for all
drivers including me. Shown here are my player colors.
Well, this "GR Touring Car World Cup" thingy will be posted in the next blog post(s) as I have to drive the whole season first. :)
And for what will come in the next posts are:
Something that's new since the last time I do it...
Something that every Indonesian has waited for, literally, a long time...
And something that's really new to me...
As well as something that's... not really new but first time I posted this online...
Whichever comes first actually :p
Meanwhile check my Fandom-loving self in both my tumblr and LJ as you wait for me to talk about those things! And don't forget, visit [R]GARAGE's site!
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.
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:
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 :)
