Back to My Turbo Sliders Nonsense...

Don't worry, it's just a mockup. You need to calm down!

So apparently last month saw me suffering from what I may call as the Ramadan Blues, sort of like Monday Blues but in the fasting month, in which in this case I ended up spending more time on bed than on the computer, apart from break fasting with friends at some point, plus some near-Eid works like house cleaning and new clothes. Even despite promising myself doing a lot of stuffs like continuing my 3D works or stuff like that, the only finished product I managed to produce in the last fasting month is none other than the E!Online TV ship competition recap, analysis, and spreadsheet, and not even race car-related stuffs like, for instance, the Formula car I just did prior to the fasting month, or any of my Turbo Sliders projects.

No later than one week past Eid, I started to have an urge to return to the creator's desk, and I just did, simply by opening one of my existing references and tried a new approach at carmaking. It turns out doing a new approach on the carmaking, which I will explain later here, is actually fun and more hassle-free than the last time I did. Apparently, I restarted with a bang as I jot down three main cars as a new WIP of mine and actually completed one for my long-term project. Earlier before the fasting month, I did work on one new track which I was inspired after watching the first World Tour event of the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Sport Championship, of which one of the tracks used was the latest addition at that time, being the Autopolis Circuit in Oita Prefecture, Japan, and I did another car as well...

Rendy's Car Skinning Life: EP 05 - CRAZY CHICK WITH A GT3 SKIN!

"More Wayhaught horsepower than you can fit in"

FINALLY! After learning useful techniques such as Smart Objects and Reference Point when Free Transforming, I have finally crafted what could be my first TMUF skin! It's actually 90% completion, but it shaped up nicely after spending 2 days and a half figuring out how to work the skin despite the "pain-in-the-buns" template especially when talking about the front fascia part which somehow stretches and bends whatever you put there if you don't pay attention.

After series of WIP which led me to some cases of discontinuation due to template problems (Debenhams DBR9, back when I started to skin in TMUF), HDD problems (anything 2013 and below) and lack of motivation (the FTO, among others), this has to be the most completed skin I ever worked. I felt bad that I had to go AWOL from TMUF forums for almost a year (or is it already?) just to think about my re-entry with the FTO's update, but I know that I finally overcame my problems and can have something worth introducing on my WIP thread. Tell your mothers: TheRebirth is about to reborn once more!

2015 24 HOURS OF DUBAI - A Special Kind of Dubai

#2 Black Falcon SLS AMG piloted by Arab Abdulaziz Al Faisal, German Hubert Haupt, Dutch Yelmer Buurman and English Oliver Webb that took this year's outright victory in the 2015-running 24 Hours of Dubai. (Image: Autocar India)

Finally the first legitimate post of my blog in 2015! I know, it's technically the second post of 2015, I just put that for the sake of randomness. Randomness aside, though, the first wave of events have passed. You have the Dakar rally that has recently finished hours ago at the time of this post, and then there were award shows like People's Choice Awards and Golden Globe Awards, yet there also was the 2015 24 Hours of Dubai, the tenth running 24-hour race event involving grand tourers, touring cars and endurance specials, battling it out for class victory. The race was won by the #2 Black Falcon SLS AMG driven by Arab Abdulaziz Al Faisal, German Hubert Haupt, Dutch Yelmer Buurman and English Oliver Webb, with the team's other success is the 1-2 in the 997 class, with the lady luck weren't on last year's winner Stadler Motorsport's favor due to an accident that eventually ended their run with 61 laps of mileage.

Yet, the more I think about the Dubai 24-hour race, I felt that there's more to the competitors and cars than in the race alone. I mean, they almost had everything in screaming colors; fireworks? Check. Competitors with interesting traits? You can check this post. A Corvette? Check. A big number of starters? Check. Rather than posting the race recap since I didn't stay up for full 24 hours, following the good 'ol Rendy's Blog tradition, this post will be dedicated to some of the unique things present in this year's race.

Rendy's Car Skinning Life EP 03: A Skinner's Block and a Dive to rFactor

New month, new post. As promised, it's going to be a post about skinning. This Skinning Post marks the third episode of my Skinning Life post series. Previously, I did post about working the Citroën Trophée Xsara, which unfortunately sees a sabbatical (exactly for months) due to no feedbacks given. Alas, I quit skinning for a while but not until I dive into rFactor recently. Like how I dived into GTR2, there's one rFactor mod that motivated me to try this game: the ChoroQ mod, made by Aoitori. And then myriads of ideas flow like a landslide...

But in this post, I won't just talk about rFactor alone; this would also be the time where I spill TMUF WIPs that held up for a long time. When I was working the Trophée Xsara car and that I had other WIPs that are dormant, the thing that etched in my heart was "don't spill any of your WIPs before you finished your currently-working one". Since I "failed it" a.k.a can't get to work the current WIP in a short time, I think it's time to open all my cards before others claim any of mine.

FAST FORWARD: 4000 - Number of the Future

The upcoming Turbo Sliders version will now have a maximum track size of track width, which is double the normal. Even though that it is already employed in the current version (although it requires a working mod to play and edit 4000x4000 tracks), driving 4000x4000 tracks will have its own charm. Expect a working version of Nurburgring Nordschleife in TS or an ability to drive Circuit de la Sarthe (from GT3 Endurance Series mod) with default cars in a distant future as the new version is released. It's not just the 4000x4000 track size limit that's highlighted in the game's future release; don't forget that it will also have tire wear, drafting, and now a color change option which can change the red color's status in each car with a player's defined color or not, which is useful because some cars are not meant to have their red colors changeable, like GT3ES and SCARTS cars for example. Last but not least, cars with 360 rotation will now be usable in the game, allowing cars with more "dynamic" lighting to be playable.

Mind you, this post tells the "joy" of making 4000x4000 tracks. Let this post be a "sneak peek" for you to make your own 4000x4000 track(s) whenever the new Turbo Sliders version is out.

DOUBLE THE LIMIT, DOUBLE THE WORK

When 2000x2000 isn't enough for you and you need to fill the grass on the 4000x4000 track... Wondering how much time would it take for filling the 4000x4000 track with grass using ONLY default tiles? Mind you.

Back then when default tiles were used, making default car tracks requires quite a time, especially if they're 2000x2000 in size. Even if it's a 640x400 track, you need to make sure that each width in each section and even each turn has consistent track width. At that time when I was making earlier tracks (in my RendyTUNED years, starting from Arashi), I somehow couldn't able to do such thing; some sections have inconsistent track widths which can make or break your pair of eyes. However, these tracks are a delight to drive, and puts the legacy in the game itself.

Everything has changed when Photoshop tracks started, with its trend ever growing for years since its first inception and eventually become the majorly-used track types in online racing; F1 servers are the most evident subjects for such type of tracks. Easier, quicker process and more detailed workaround are the main reasons why these tracks quickly stand out from default tracks. From some of Jazzyclub's real-world touring car race tracks, to Keppana's simplistic F1 race tracks, and the more modern, contemporary and innovative TSE tracks, utilizing bigger sizes to ensure a full F1 experience on Turbo Sliders. Despite that, it seems that everyone creates Photoshop tracks and no new normal tracks are being made, so to speak.

With the inception of 4000x4000 track size limit, the work is doubled, unless anyone ever wants to make a very big version of Trooper Speedway using normal tiles and the size of 4000x4000, it would take a long time to work on the track and of course requires great amount of patience. For the record, Trooper Speedway is a track created by Mouse known for its long length, and is used in GPOR Antislider competitions, with three tracks within the series. Due to length, Trooper Speedway is christened as the Nurburgring Nordschleife of Turbo Sliders. Unless there's a normal track that can contend Trooper Speedway, trackmaking using normal tiles is anything but alive.

MY TAKE ON 4000x4000 TRACKS

Tell me if it looks familiar to you.

On the other hand, it opens new possibilities to create even bigger tracks that can't be made with 2000x2000 limit, like the Shuto Circular Expressway track above, which consists of C1, New Belt Line, and Yaesu. I've worked this track since 2012, but in that year I just made up the layout based on the satellite map, and I didn't include Yaesu back then. The track's map is then reworked again this year after I haven't touch this track for almost two years using memories of the junctions and such thanks to me being a Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune player, adding details, junction details, and Yaesu. Take note that it is not the accurate replication of the Shutokou line, but at least I could port what can be considered as the house of the now-defunct MidNight Club. If I were to work the Shutokou with 2000x2000 limit, then the track width would be 30, which is not enough because that would only fit two cars, assuming that one Turbo Sliders car is sixteen pixels wide, unless you're making a Mount Haruna pass or a Rallye Monte Carlo stage for that matter, and that doesn't include the junctions, which have smaller pixel sizes.

Shuto Circular is just a part of my project; still in WMMT context, if this track is finished, I would continue making Wangan line, Minato Mirai, Fukuoka Expressway, Hanshin Expressway, and even Nagoya Speed Ring. The last two names are actually tracks that can even be worked in 2000x2000, so does Minato Mirai. For Wangan line, the thing that matters most is to fit both Wangan line and Yokohane line with 64-pixel road width within 4000x4000 track limit, and for Fukuoka, it's just the separator that matters me. For non-Wangan tracks, I could go for either Circuit de la Sarthe, Nurburgring Nordschleife, or even the Isle of Man track (a.k.a Snaefell Mountain Course). Although Endurance Series mod has got this circuit even before this new version is being worked, I'm not a fan of diagonal starts. I'd like to keep it "straight"...

Also with the bigger limit, it is possible to make bigger rally stages. With this, we could say goodbye to rally stages that use small track width in order to fit that one car that had to have half of the normal size sadly in favor of long stage length, enhancing the rallying experience even further. There apparently is a Rally server that consists of select stages of various environment and you can check out how good you are in those stages because the server will record your fastest time everytime you complete a stage and will eventually calculate your total time if you drive all the tracks in the server. If you'd like some rally section, download Turbo Sliders and search for "Rally server", but not before you download power79's rally tiles first (link above) and try for some runs to flesh out your lines. I remember that I would like to make Rally New Zealand pack, but my indecisiveness of what kind of texture I have to use detered me in putting even one stage in works. I guess I should work on tarmac rallies like Tour de Corse for example, or even Monte Carlo (sans snowy parts on track). I could try slapping some touge tracks and put it into one "Japanese Touge Tour" rally, but that means I had to implement staggered starts on start/finish parts of courses, and this might lose the exact touge feeling, but since it's only implemented on start/finish sections, it doesn't matter anyway.

MORE UPCOMING THINGS AND FEATURES AHEAD

Even though that this post points out the 4000x4000 track limit feature, the topic isn't limited to that. Turbo Sliders is now in a continuous phase of development, refinements, and additions as long as the game's creator, Ande, is active. Tire Wear and Drafting are self-explanatory, so I guess I'm going to point out the other new features.

Let's start with things that WILL also work in the new TS version aside from the tire wear and drafting, beginning with car rotations. In previous versions, a car can have 64 images to emulate its rotation, which can be found on all default cars you drive. That limit will change as the new version will slate 360 rotation images, which can increase the "realism" of the car. To demonstrate this rotation, below are two images: the left side is a 64-rotation GIF and the right side is the 360-rotation one. You can obviously tell the difference by looking at how realistic the rotation is.

Aside this, there's the "changecolor" feature that can be implemented on custom cars. Here's a short description of it:

"Changingcolor can be used to alter which color is changed for different players. By default, the value is 1, which means red pixels are converted to player colors. If the value is 0, nothing is changed. If the value is 2, green pixels are changed."

Sometimes there are things that can't fulfill its expectations.

Unfortunately, this thing faces a trouble of its own: stripes and gradients won't work when using this color. I've tested on one of my WIP cars and it's revealed that the green color does change, but without the stripes and gradients. The above image shows the should-be colors on the left side and the green color's result on the right side. Even though that this is far from perfect, it has done its job to simply change the green color. In case of putting a custom-colored car whose colors contain red and you don't want to change the red pixels, slapping it with a green windshield color plus using the changecolor parameter could work.

Another new feature is the free camera ability when being disabled by Pro Rules, watching race recordings or when spectating an online race. Simply activate it by pressing Player 2's fire key (Left Shift by default) and the control keys of the mentioned player can be used to toggle the free camera. You can also go back to change the camera's focus to the player once again by pressing the same key. Also when watching a race recording, Shift+Left rewinds the record by 20 seconds, and it can take up a long time if the recording is very long. And if you are tired by how painful it is to press up and down to focus to your favorite player in the recording, next and previous focused cars are now determined by latest race positions, so in case there's a race between A, B, C and D and the race positions go C-A-D-B, next and previous focused cars will all be based on the positions per lap and not the player order.

Finally, other fixes in the future version are following:

•  New track record format and directory, old records not valid any more
•  Fixed limit speed being less if accelerating compared to when decelerating
•  Added AutomaticFullRepairTime (set to get damage fixed automatically)
•  Lap record messages not given if no times before
•  Fixed some erroneous lap record messages in special situations
•  Fixed ghost images not working with certain cars
•  Exposed parameter -p <n> allowing n local players and added control support
•  Added /sayadminmono <msg>, sends an admin message with a monospaced font
•  Fixed /listtracks skipping some tracks in subfolders
•  /source now searches for scripts under sources/ directory if not in root
•  Added car parameter 'changingcolor', affects car coloring. Set to 2 to change green instead of red, set to 0 to not change anything
•  In-game stats show cars in the starting order in the beginning
•  Fixed Windows XP support and editor DLL issues introduced in 2.5.0
•  Cannot reduce damage when disabled, fixes AutomaticFullRepairTime issues
•  Fixed /listtracks showing some tracks two times
•  Fixed damage bars and fuel bars sometimes being on top of each other.

Hopefully with the new version coming out, Turbo Sliders will have more interest than it currently has. Also stay tuned to this blog for updates on Turbo Sliders add-ons as well as other games.

~[R]

Rendy's Car Skinning Life EP 02: The Rebirth and his Citroën

Believe it or not, my post about skinning deserved a second episode; I've reentered Trackmania Carpark forums as TheRebirth and already posted my comeback post in General section. However, this is NOT the first post I made; the first posts I made pertain to Carmania 5 Winners announcement as I am astonished that one made a Mooncraft Shiden, and I didn't have a courage to open myself that I actually am Rendy under a different name.

Nevertheless, even though my requests for Toyota Corolla WRC, Sauber C9, Porsche 911 GT1, and some others are gone so did the Lost Templates thread, it doesn't deter me. Like I said before, I've found a decent skinnable DBR9 on GTR2 thanks to WSGT mod and DBRS9 and Vantage V12 courtesy of EEC GT3 mod of the same game so I'm not all dead in skinning the Aston Martin (read: Debenhams AMR).

Entering the stage is my brand new skin WIP of mine! Fusing Citroen Xsara Kit Car and Citroen C-Elysee's WTCC livery, comes a fictional Works Trophy Car of Citroen Xsara!

While I cannot post things on Carpark forums using my modem, I thought that I can use this blog as a progress tracker alternative for my WIPs. Enter the fictional Citroën trophy car Citroën Racing Trophée Xsara RC! Using the 2009 WRC-spec body, I could integrate the livery found in Citroën's WTCC contender C-Elysee TC1 over actual Citroën Racing Trophy cars. But why Xsara you said? There's a good reason for that...

A piece of legend; based on the road-going Xsara hatchback, the car was one of the most successful cars ever to compete in the World Rally Championship. Being one of the best F2 kit cars after Peugeot 306 Maxi, the car won Rallye Catalunya and Tour de Corse in 1999 and being driven by some of the sport's big names, including the late Philippe Bugalski and Sebastien Loeb. It continued its path to glory although raced in a WRC spec as a result of F2 category's death in 2001 until it's replaced by C4 WRC in 2007, though Petter Solberg drove a 2006-spec Xsara for the majority of the 2009 season. (x)

The main answer is because Citroën Xsara is one of my favorite F2 Kit Cars ever existed in the world of rallying after Peugeot 306 Maxi. Sadly, because I don't find any 306 Maxi in works for TMUF, this pretty much replaces its existence. This is where you can resort on your second option if your first does not exist in TMUF, let alone being a WIP. So far, 3D WIPs are pretty much focused on road cars of variety types, from American muscles to JDMs (Japanese Domestic Market - read: import Japanese cars), and even European road cars are not exempt from this list even though it's not as frequent as the other two, not to mention some fictional cars. Other than that, the fact that there's a skin based on its F2 Kit Car specs driven by the late Philippe Bugalski in 2002 (by pj059) brought my desire to skin the car and appreciate it more.

You're the inspiration; the Citroën C-Elysee is Citroën Racing's first advent to the world of touring cars. At the time of this post, it dominates this year's competition. Its grey, white and red livery becomes a muse for the skin's creation.

While I understand that white, grey, and red are Citroën's dominant colors, I have to be able to find a distinctive livery that really describes Citroën best and trying to stay in the 2014 trend. Citroën Racing's WTCC contender's livery is the one that describes Citroën the best, especially seeing the fact that I also need to tribute the best men behind Citroën; you can see the late Bugalski for the car used (albeit different spec), you can see the magical Sebastien Loeb for the brand overall, and you can even see both Yvan Muller and Jose Maria Lopez for the colors.

Deviating from the SUPREME CHALLENGE theme, Trophée Xsara is a fictional one-make racing series aimed for advance-level drivers and entry-level ones alike. What makes it unique is that Trophée Xsara has Rally rounds, Rallycross rounds and circuit rounds, making it a multi-disciplinary series. Thanks to the fact that its performances on tarmac and on gravel are balanced, this car GOES with everything, and marginally beats the crap out from the R-class rally cars thanks to its interesting car design and brand legacy.

A big merci to Halogaland de France to make this piece of rallying legend! Even though either the templates' shading or wireframes are out of proportions, the 3D is well-modeled.

I can say that Halogaland de France has done a great job with creating this 3D model. It's a well-made model everyone must enjoy when playing TMUF. The templates are nice sweeters; there are three different templates representing different specs inside the 20 MB-zip file, and it also comes with a lining detail too. However, the only facepalm-er for the templates is that you shouldn't trust the wireframes too much as the left side is out of proportion, meaning that you should take really good care if you want to work on the other side's lining. I worked this with the 2009 WRC-spec one and I didn't know that the wireframes are misaligned after following it.

So, it's just a matter of time for TMUF enthusiasts to be able to enjoy the blast of the past, with semi-recent specifications and most-recent works colors. Who said that older-spec cars can't follow present-day trends?

Get the Xsara here for TMUF, other 2D skins are available for download! (Requires full copy of TrackMania United Forever to be able to use add-on cars)

~[R]

[R]GARAGE site unmaintained... D'Oh!

Believe it or not, it's been awhile since I updated my site with new stuffs, but not including newer stuffs you've seen in this blog. I've been very busy in real life and it pretty much dumps my time to maintain my site and update all sections with new downloads. Yup, you don't see Grupard on my site yet... I've been showing disinterest in updating the site because I have no idea when I can update the site. The only thing that grows my disinterest is how my internet load the Site Editor and time constraints. Even my 1GB midday quota always run out for less than one week, and Wi-Fi connections... Well, they don't do justice for me, even if they're fast. :(

[R]GARAGE still in its natrual life form... Not really updated -_-

I also don't feel good with the site's style. Sure that HTML5 is the best, but somehow the way my site looks and the interaction overall somehow doesn't fully suit me 100%. It's not that I hate my own site, but somehow I need something which design and interaction overall suit me. Plus, I'm still thinking of how to put a picture without it being a gallery. If there's such option on Wix, I can work it out and that means it'll undergo a total revamp.

One thing that I want to have in my site is the same layout like this official site of Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune series. From its first installment to the most recent WMMT5 (in Japan and some parts of Asia. Indonesia still has MT4), it keeps its layout like that, and I'm considering my site to follow such layout. But didn't my old site RendyTUNED also had such layout? I thought this will go down as a consistency to-die-for, especially when I found out that each brand has a consistency of layouts between its print ads and its websites (if they have one).

But there were things that have been past prior to this post, and I've experienced them all. There were also projects and some to-bes that are in their WIP phase.

SINCE I'VE BEEN GONE, ish...

Despite all the bombshell, the Kickstarter Alpha demo of GeneRally 2 is out already! Now you can taste all the sweets GR2 has promised, including cars with more polies, day/night cycle, and new looks on objects. I can say that the team has done great job in doing this game, and am really looking forward for the finished product. Or, if I have a mean to "Pledge" this game, I could pledge as many as 20+ plays of Maximum Tune 4, Indonesian server, where a game is worth IDR 8.750 the cheapest.

Ladies and GENEtlemen, the moment you've been waiting for has arrived!

Although the demo they served a long time ago isn't perfect, they have an all-out effort to perfect the game to not only give a new life to a game with humble beginnings in the hands of Rabina brothers, but also retain what the first GR had: simple, no-nonsense, in-your-face, gameplay. There's no need for car setups yet you could make your own car and model it by yourself, and trackmaking in this game is progressively addictive as you play with Landmaps first and then Objects, Height maps, and to some extent, Landmap arts. You could even make your own object just by combining several objects at once, just like how the Track of Month-winning authors!

My own review for the GR2 should come soon after this blog!

Winners of the Karawaci Tourney on 22nd March. Once again, Infamous dominated, yet MVI's Aulia broke their dominance by placing second. (Image courtesy of Indonesian WMMT Community @ FB)

Days back, I've also participated in another Maximum Tune 4 tournament, this time held at Supermall Karawaci. The result is pretty much the same; me being phased out in the second round and Infamous once again took the domination. No surprise indeed, except that one of the Infamous guys handled the commentary duty instead of myself. I guess he handled it well even though one of his friends said that my way of commentary is still better, and the part that he funnily counted down the final meters of every race he commentated (read: wrong counts) was very hilarious and entertaining.

Yet there's another catch to be happening at Supermall Karawaci: tag team tournament. Yup, there's a plan about an MT4 tag team tournament in works, and now they are seeking sponsors, collecting prize pools, etc. Malaysia also had their own MT4 tag team tournament that claimed to be a "Tournament that concludes all tournaments".

Taken from an MT4-related FB page: Hi everyone! KL , Malaysia will be having a tag team competition on June 7 and 8.
64 teams draw lots to 4 teams per group. Play C1 against each other. Top 2 advances to stage 32.
32 teams draw again and play same format as 64.
Best of 16 onwards will play knockout on C1 , Osaka , Hakone until finals
Finals will play 5 maps
Prizes:
1st - RM 3000 (Cash) + Trophy + Cert + Other goodies TBD
2nd - RM 1000 (cash) + Trophy + Cert + Other Goodies TBD
3rd - RM 200 (In game credits) + Cert + Other Goodies TBD

Registration:RM50

GAH! Why can't Maximum Tune 4 be an international e-sport already and spread the game around the world now? How about a The International-styled MT tournament between teams from around the world? Seeing Asia-Pacific competitors is sure exciting, but more exciting with more parts of the world able to enjoy MT4, but is it really possible? I don't think so; will they accept the way of... *cough* Networked Arcade?

STUFFS PROGRESS

While I have dumped Al Dasein 2013 due to the fact that I disliked how the Height map made one of the corners "bumpy" and that I can't think of the decent parking space at the bottom of the track, plus the fact that GRHmEdie (GR Hmap Editor by Mlynki) hates tracks version 1.20 above, PLUS I'm too lazy to do it all over again, I'm working on a WS 120 temporary street course, with finally a rapid WIP progress never achieved by any WIP of mine! I've never, ever, enjoyed playing with environments for this track \\:D//

The course you're seeing here is set in a park which has a circuit section of its own. The course traverses from the circuit to the streets, which actually are one-way roads. There's a chicane when you drive the second road and left hairpin follows after. The rest of the track is full of hairpins.

One thing I enjoyed from making this track however is the fact that I emphasized the environment on the right side before I can further my progress. You see, the buildings are inspired by buildings you'll be familiar with if you're living in New York, and so does the park. But does that mean that it's set in New York? Hmm...

Things left to do are persons on the paddock area and the road lines, with everything done except for AI lines. Learning to what Haruna did with the AI line to my Grupard via Skype, I will also try to make the decent AI line so that racers will be given a tough time trying to overtake a full field of cars! Hopefully this track will be finished if the condition permits me :)

From above to below: Okayama Circuit, Nippon Highlands V2, and a Sarthe-Inspired track

Meanwhile there's more Japanese goodness for Turbo Sliders as I have planned on making two more tracks set in Japan; the second version of Nippon Highlands, and Okayama Circuit. As I disliked the flow of the first Highlands, I decided to create another one that would have a better flow than the first version had, having experienced helping Lanz on making the Show Event course for PTM's second season. Despite not using my version, at least he knew how the checkpoints for this Show Even work, the same for Okayama. Only this time, as Okayama is a real-life track, I think it's safe to say that it's going to be my second real-life circuit after Tsukuba. I thought I could do Circuit of The Americas for SCARTS races but, well...

Under the two Japanese tracks is yet another track: a TSE-styled track inspired by Circuit de la Sarthe! I guess that the TSE style will be the standard for most tracks whose layouts are done in Photoshop. Other than that, the tracks are still WIP, with all of their kerbs are being worked by the time of this post.

Also, take note that I still owe myself a blog post about how I make skins for various games, including for TrackMania United Forever and GTR 2. I've been making so many skins yet I haven't show the world how they look like. The one you're seeing here is a TMUF representation of an FD RX-7 made by ..., with a skin that you should recognize from Gran Turismo series, especially first two installments. Know what that is? Yup! RX-7 FD LM Edition! Even though that they might won't be totally following the actual livery, I guess this should be a good representation of the old style LM Edition livery. :D

Until next time, folks! Will be posting about my GR2 experience after this! :)


~[R]

INSIDE THE MALL: Puri Indah Mall - The First Mall to Have Maximum Tune 4!

It's time for the third edition of the INSIDE THE MALL Series! Previously I've visited Mal Parung and Cilandak Town Square, and now it's time to write another location with an interesting story! And as the title said, it's time to gear yourself up for Puri Indah Mall! I know I should've posted this a long time ago since my first visit there but nevertheless, it's better to be late than not at all.

Outskirts of Puri Indah Mall (Image courtesy of www.direktorijakarta.com)

This is the farthest mall I've ever been, due to the fact that it is located in West Jakarta. Hell, even going there takes approximately 40 minutes from my college (which is UIN Syarif Hidayatullah State University), that is if you're not stuck in the traffic as you make your way there... And apparently, taking the Bintaro route would be the fastest route you could take, whether if you're living in the Ciputat area or not.

Located in Puri Agung Street, Puri Indah, Kembangan, it was initially a mall with a modern "Puri" concept, but such concept nowadays no longer reflects the current state of the mall. Its construction and opening years are still a mystery to be solved, but Puri is quite a hangout place. You can find myriads of fashion stores and eateries, and there's a cool Big Ben clock on the mall's roof...

Feel like British? No worries, the sky doesn't lie; Puri Indah Mall's Big Ben clock visible from the ground floor.

With the presence of a certain arcade game being a drive to visit the mall, I decided to check the condition of the game albeit it was yet activated. On my way there, I had to tackle so many turns, ride along the narrow roads, pass through the sleeping policemen, and endure it for almost an hour. In the end, as I saw the shape of Puri Indah, my mind went boggle and couldn't wait to reach the parking lot for motorcycles. If you make your trip to this mall using a car, you might face no problems as you could just take the toll roads, with motorcycles however... well.

WHAT'S IN STORE?

The underground floor is comprised of 80% parking lot and 20% stores. In fact, these stores are all electronic / gadget stores where you can buy stuffs related to gadgets / computers, such as USB and wireless mice, keyboards, laptops, laptop fans, speakers, and much more. Going up, the ground floor comprises of mostly, if not all, fashion stores (we're talking clothes store here), a coffee lounge whose brand you should know if you've gone there once or more, and several eateries outside the mall, where the eateries on the ground floor, exactly outside the mall, are given a "cafe" feel thanks to the bushes across. The first floor is pretty much the same except there are less clothes stores but in return there are a good sum of accessories store, a bookstore, and such.

To your right is the entrance to the underground floor

Finally on the top (third) floor, you can find a food court with lots of brand-name eateries, local or international, to tickle your tastebuds, and the food court is adjacent with the mall's Fun World game center. It can be considered as one of the biggest Fun World centers due to its rollercoaster and fun fair-like playgrounds. But our focus isn't that; While its Fun World center is all glitz and glamour in terms of arcade centers, having a rollercoaster and all that fun fair element you can stumble onto, all its glitters aren't gold. Its XXI cinema, however, puts one thing that crazed Indonesian arcade enthusiasts...

THE FIRST PLACE WHERE MAXIMUM TUNE 4 CABS LANDED

ALL HAIL MAXIMUM TUNE 4 BITCHESSS!!! (Image courtesy of Matthew N)

If you have read one of my previous blog posts before, Puri Indah Mall's XXI is the first location to have a set of Maximum Tune 4 cabs complete with Wangan Terminal (wait, isn't it a standard that each set of 4 cabs comes with Wangan Terminal?) and have it activated the next couple of days. Lots of MaxTune enthusiasts who are able to reach this mall would die to play games for their progression to quench their MT thirsts.

Prior to this posting, there are now eight cabs in the Puri XXI, and this is to anticipate the long queue. As for 3DX+ cabs, there were 12 cabs in XXI and four in Fun World, but that isn't enough to beat Pondok Indah Mall's record of 18 cabs (4 in Fun World, 4 in Timezone, 6 in XXI PIM1, and 4 in XXI PIM2). Unsurprisingly, both Pondok Indah and Puri Indah have same initials, so we know which one should change its callname: PurIndah. Well, the first five letters sounded like a cat's name, but it's for the sake of unique names. As MT4 cabinet sets are added until there are three sets of them (meaning that they now have 12 cabs there), there's a good reason why PurIndah's XXI played an elimination game with some of its 3DX+ cabs and a less-played arcade game too to pave a way for these MT4 cabs.

(Image courtesy of Matthew N)

SOME RANDOM PICS

 

The Map of all the three floors

I thought there would be another fashion store opening here judging by the banner used. It turned out that the mall put one of Emma Watson's pictures as a banner just for fun. The second time when I went there, the Emma Watson banner was gone and replaced by a new one.

My first visit had the mall having Mini exhibition

A French brand-name supermarket can be found across the mall, unlike most malls. Though a local brand supermarket can still be found inside.

A small Starbucks outlet can be found there on the ground floor. If you want to take some sips of coffee, they welcome you.

More eateries...

TURNING IT INTO A RACE TRACK?

Usually when I posted an "Inside The Mall" article and it involves a mall potential enough to be it, I port it to a certain game called GeneRally to signify that I visited the mall and am willing to commemorate it in a form of a race track. Here, PurIndah's circuit form is characterized as a fast, semi-technical course with 45-degree and 90-degree corners around the ground floor, and two outside sections. If you split the course section from the coffee stall (don't split the S/F section though), you will notice that this part looks like Sentul International Circuit run counter-clockwise, only with a chicane. Three long straights inside the mall (with the last one being the true high speed section due to high speed corners) are perfect places to maximize your slipstreaming technique and / or even overtaking your rivals here.

This track's construction was started in a very long time, exactly after my first visit, but, screenshot-wise, ditched due to myriads of WIPs in my mind. At the moment, it looks anything but pretty, but when I have time, I would love to remake this course and refine its object placings, like where should the tall buildings be placed WITHOUT having them to block the cars. At the same time I also thought about making more configurations where the course would also have upper (where you drive straight and go right past the coffee stall instead of crossing the third long straight, which could cross as a counter-clockwise Sentul) and lower (still counter-clockwise, but this time the S / F placing would be different than the upper and GP configs), but having such thought, I realized that I should care about how narrow the course would look if those configurations are made, and how horrible the pitstop access would be (the pitstop access is already horrible and needs a proper makeover), so I might stick to the original configuration for that matter.

USEFUL LINKS
Puri Indah Mall's Wikipedia article (in Indonesian)
PurIn's Official Site

~[R]

I present you... GENERALLY 2! GR Spirit has Re-Awaken!

This post should've been one of the most off-topic blessings ever had. The very reason why is that this is November, and you know what kind of month November is? Writing Month! YES, that's why there's National Novel Writing Month a.k.a NaNoWriMo that's still running until the end of November. The goal there is to write a 50,000 words-long (and above) novel, simple as that if you're into writing. Though "National" might have a narrow connotation of "United States", there are international buddies who are interested and challenge themselves to write 50,000, and that international buddy includes yours truly, though my target is 25,000 which is half of the expected number, and what I write would be a fan fiction.

Sadly, due to preparations for a college event that I had to work my city miniature for such event, I had to skip days even though I promised myself to be a part of it. The more saddening moment is that I'm writing a fan fiction (yes, FAN fiction) meaning I would take a fandom to write, and the worst of all is that it is a CROSSOVER fic. And in order to not turning this crossover as failure (e.g., OOC characters, no planning), I still have to plan which characters and which fandoms and what their intentions are. And of course, what's a crossover without original characters? My idea is to make a Super Robot Wars-esque fan fiction with TV series characters in place of mechas. So, Blair Waldorf with Beam Spam anyone?

Thank goodness the city miniature turned out to be a success, albeit didn't win an award and looked a bit horrible IMO. -_-

But while this is a writing month, one person dares to STILL create game stuffs, especially for GeneRally. Though, this is not without reason, as the game, if you're following the developer blog of GeneRally sequel, will evolve to a even more addicting game than before. Here's a wet dream-worthy trailer showing the game's new graphics and an announcement for its Kickstarter's open date. O_O

New graphics might mean new features, but we don't know any of them yet other than the new tiles exclusive for the sequel (did you see those pit stop garages?), improvements of the old tiles (a concrete wall with a catchfence? Modern-looking city building? New lamps?), and all those additions (10 cars max on the grid? *o*). Furthermore, one dev member also said that the poly count for the cars in the sequel will be ten times the current version and perhaps the game would allow custom-made graphics for cars (read: skin) instead coloring the polies one by one. Did anyone imagining a tribal sticker on Maximum Tune games being put on a General car? Ehm...

Return to Trackmaking and Carmaking

Talk about GR Trackmaking, I'm currently doing a remake and an evolution at the same time on my first track released on GRIF: Al Dasein. The course is a racing circuit that's set in the middle of a desert somewhere in Middle East. Previously the track is pretty much empty with just desert and nothing else (take a note that I WAS a beginner at that time), and this time the remake will evolve the track to be better. Taking inspiration of Areen's Dubai Autodrome (and Dubai Autodrome itself in real life), the track will be promised a Dubai-styled environment that should fit Al Dasein the best. Yet somehow does anyone see the outer layout's resemblance to Laguna Seca (Mazda Raceway)?

While the past Dasein has two layouts, (which doesn't make any difference in driving anyway albeit its shape...) this Dasein will have four: Outer layout, short layout, and two other layouts with both of them carry their own difficulty levels. The inner section of the evolved course is totally revamped to compensate a different level of difficulty from the outer layout one, and of course that change comes with another idea of making a variety of interconnecting layouts, which also comes with a shorter layout fit for racing slower cars. While this is far from finish, the track would have palm trees and elevations in the future, but let's hope there's no such thing as depression so my WIP will not end up like my Monaco track. (Although I would redo Monaco with WS 200 in the near future)

While I'm making a new track for GR, I did posted on my Twitter some of my finished car models via my Twitpic and GRIF too. Shown cars on your left side (clockwise from left) were Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, Mazda RX-8 Type-S, and Mooncraft Shiden RT/16. While I made those models out of boredom, thus defined no physics of their own as I still am curious as to how would I portray them in game, there's one car I quickly made at the time of this post:

Remember me? Your friendly electric front wheel drive friend, Prospect.R!

Yup, that's Prospect.R, also known as Prototype Sports Car Project R if you read my previous blog posts. Yet, this is no special Prospect.R as the one whose picture you see is its road spec. The Prospect.R was actually going to be a purpose-built electric-powered FWD coupe only as it was used as one of the cars for Rally The Master project (which is actually Fandom March Madness meets Race of Champions), but seeing the good reception of the car even though it had only two votes in Car of the Month, a road-friendly spec of the car is made available to the public. The performance of this car matches the ones found in road variants of F2 kit cars, preferrably Citroen Xsara and Peugeot 306 Maxi, with an electric engine exclusively-tailored to the car, branding it as one of the powerful electric-powered cars out there.

It is also implied that the car excels on acceleration due to its ability to reach a maximum of 10,000 rpm in the aforementioned exclusive "eco-friendly" engine, reaches 0-100 kmh in 4,1 seconds, has a four-speed transmission, and 580 kg of curb weight. The competition spec has PROSPECT-XXXG01 (sounds familiar?) engine inside its hood, while the road spec would have a normal road-level engine of RG-EXL39 thanks to the coordination with [R]GARAGE who are also responsible for what they did to the SST Sports. The car also has one-speed transmission and has 2K rpm lesser, thus having a lower top speed.

Rumors of Rallycross specification of Prospect.R circulates as one tuning house (name supplied) showed an interest to make a Rallycross-spec model based on the Prospect.R . Also recently a leaked hand-drawn image is shown, showing how a Rallycross specification would look like:

The roadgoing Prospect.R is available both here and on GRIF (for registered members there).

Other Non-GR Stuffs To Know

Two Turbo Sliders tracks' WIPs have evolved. Nippon Highlands is set to be released the same time as Monsoon is finished (making this release a "Double Bill" release). While Nippon Highlands is finished, all that's left for Monsoon is the lighthouse and the configurations. However, I kinda sad about how short Nippon Highlands' full course layout is judging by the 33,xxx" laptime using F1 Premium, the official Turbo Sliders F1 car. I thought it would be longer considering the layout but whatever...

Recently I've created a Google Plus account to complete my collection of social media accounts. The current matter now is whether I should open deviantART and Instagram accounts in the near future or save it for later. If you'd like to add me to my G+ network, feel free to do it, just make sure you don't do anything suspicious to my account, okay?

You may notice that the blog has a new template here. Right, I'm experimenting with the new layout so this blog would look better than it was before this template is installed. The problem is that I'm editing some of the elements inside this template, and that includes deleting things that doesn't seem fit so it still looks like a supplement for [R]GARAGE site. Speaking of the site, I'll try to update the site as I have difficulties finding time to edit such HTML5 site. Am I the only one who has fears of some GR / TS players' computers too weak for HTML5? Oh... orz

Posts about skinning would come up next. And I'm considering to post a third Inside The Mall post. The mall that I will be writing for is still a guesswork, so do wait until it's posted :p

And as a consolation prize to what could be one of the "too long" posts:

Soap opera plots are scandalous, but what happens when you focus to the bottom right of the pic?

~[R]

Another Update Before the Dawn of Mid-Semester Test Comes!

After a long time without an update, here's a series of quick round-up of what I am/was doing. The problem here is I can't let my blog dead... :p

TURBO SLIDERS: NEW TSE-STYLE TRACKS ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

While plans of testing the new Tsukuba Course with the SCARTS course is still under discussion, I've made two new tracks: Two of them are of TSE's quality, two of them are set in Asia, and two of them have a variety of layouts.

Monsoon International Raceway

A course that passes the coastal beach's lighthouse, something TSE has never been done before...

Monsoon International is a race course situated in a tropical beach of Indonesia, located near the lighthouse. The course features a series of turns and a chance to drive past the coast's lighthouse at the hairpin. The course would have three or four configurations however I see fit. The idea to make this track comes as I wanted to make a TSE-style track and try to make something different. Furthermore, the lighthouse IS the track's mascot like some TSE tracks have like in Roaring for example with its "Lion" mascot.


Nippon Highlands 

 

East and West!

While the name already hints the Japanese race course theme, the course is anything but finished. There are lots of things to do to the track like kerbs, objects, terrains, runoffs, etc. Other than that, the course is heavily inspired by numerous Japanese tracks like Suzuka and Tsukuba,

MAXIMUM TUNE: FINALLY ABLE TO TRANSFER IT TO MT4!

With yesterday being a bitch due to no lecturers present at my university, it turned out to be a luck of my answer of some of mainstream, mostly rename with SSS, rally cars SF-RL as it underwent 10 more stories in the chase of the Full Tune. This also marks the end of my 3DX+ days as I move on to MT4.

So long 3DX+! Vielen Danke for everything!

That means due to the nature of the mall's location being TOO FAR from my home, and Pondok Indah Mall, my nearest place for MT-ing, would get MT4 in a couple of months, I decided to stop playing MT for awhile and focus on several projects. Though if you (Indonesian readers only!) are reading this, my ghosts are available for revenges. And no, by "Revenge", I say no relation to Emily Thorne, not even the Graysons. VICTORIA GRAYSON CAN'T SPEED FOR GOD'S SAKE~!!!

For your information, I got lost when I went to Puri Indah from PIM. Yeah, seriously, I'm not lying. I relied on GPS until I found out that, while there IS a faster way to get there from PIM to Puri Indah, the GPS kept picking routes that are... false. Sometimes it leads to unexpected locations, but no matter how fishy the ride there, I finally managed to get my both cars to MT4. Both are Nissans, and probably those who read this might suggest me to do R35. :lol:

Compared to how it looks on 3DX+, the red color is noticeably fitter for S30. Looks like it IS truly a Safari Rally Car jejeje

Available Ghost Search Codes: MAAB8E (R34) and MKXF4J (this car, S30)

And now the only thing that would keep me away from this blog is the upcoming mid-semester test. Hopefully I could slay the mid-term without flaws.

~[R]

Project TSukuba EPISODE 2: Yes, it's late. But not too late!

It's Rendy again! Yup, the [R]GARAGE Rendy :)

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!

~[R]