Is Indonesia humiliating itself? CHAPTER II - Pointless Internet Censorship

So in the light of the 106th year of Indonesia's awakening (although it has passed days ago...) we were struck by some of the unsatisfying cases, one of them is the unsettling National Exam of this year that it used out-of-topic questions from every student's three-year education in either Junior High and High School on certain subjects. This has raised rage for all students, to the point that someone ended her life over her failure at doing the exam. Thankfully, an initiative intends to make the exam a benchmark tool for all schools nationwide, and hope that with changing its system, the education in Indonesia will see a better future. I also wanted to point out a case happened at one of the International schools in Jakarta on the last post too, but I realized that not only would it make the post a TL;DR one but also raping won't be included as one of the topics here in my blog.

However, if I were to do so, the only thing I would say is this: Have the International schools do intense checkings. Raping is outright pointless, especially at International schools.

POINTLESS INTERNET CENSORSHIP; WHY SHOULD THIS HAPPEN?

The second chapter of the series takes the topic of internet censorship in Indonesia which enrages everyone, because the site the Minister of Technology blocked are "innocent" sites that doesn't appear to contain porn. The minister's aim to eradicate porn is actually good, but did they went too far? We think so. Vimeo was blocked due to such circumstance, along with other sites like Reddit, Imgur, and others. Vimeo is actually a video-sharing site that offers high quality videos and is a site where content creators post their creations and video portfolios for everyone to see. The site also implements the rule of anti-porn contents, but sadly the implementation might be a bit loose from one of the local news I read (source forgotten).

The interface of Vimeo. This site is blocked by the Indonesian Minister of Technology due to a dirty twerk video shown in one of the political party's campaign. Some said that this is to discredit the party.

Founded in 2004 by Jake Lodwick and Zach Klein, it offers the same service as YouTube where it allows users to share and view their videos. The name is actually an anagram of "Movie", but is also a play on words "Video" and "Me". While Lodwick and Klein left in 2007 and 2008 respectively, Dae Mellencamp became the CEO of the site until March 19, 2012 with Kerry Trainor taking place. As of September 2013, its search feature requires Google Analytics to work properly and users of Firefox and Chrome web browsers cannot search on Vimeo without disabling privacy protection. As of the end of 2013, Vimeo attracted 100 million unique visitors per month and more than 22 million registered users worldwide, with 15% of its traffic came from mobile devices.

Vimeo in 2007 has its glory days due to support in high definition playbacks (1280 x 720 / 720p), which made it the first video sharing site to support consumer HD, with uploaded HD videos automatically converted to 720/30p VP6 flash video. Since August 2010, all videos are encoded into H.264 for HTML5 support. All videos uploaded before were re-encoded. Non-Plus users can upload up to 500 MB of videos per week, and up to one HD video per week (additional HD videos uploaded within the same week are encoded to SD).

In 2008 Vimeo unveiled its $60-per-year Vimeo Plus package, which allows users additional weekly uploads (up to 5 GB), unlimited HD videos, unlimited creation of channels, groups and albums, no ads, HD embeds, 2-pass video re-encoding that results in higher quality, priority encoding, and more. The arrival of Vimeo Plus also meant the downgrade of the free version, which up to that point also enjoyed unlimited HD re-encodings per week and unlimited creation of groups/albums/channels.

Since February 2010, Plus users can choose to re-encode their 1080p upload as either 1080p or 720p. As time goes on, the site offers unlimited HD embeds, and users can upload that are up to five gigabytes of footage. This makes it possible for full length, high-definition feature films to be uploaded to Vimeo by Vimeo Plus users. In 2011, it introduces Vimeo PRO for business and commercial use only, offering 50GB of storage, 250k plays, advanced analysis and third-party video player support.

CENSORSHIP BEFORE US

It turns out that Indonesia isn't the first to block Vimeo from our ISPs; India in 2012 did it under the orders of Department of Telecommunications without any stated reasons until it is stated that the copyright infringement of Indian films were the cause of this one-week ban. LH Harish Ram of Copyright Labs, Chennai, wrote on his Twitter account that he had not asked for the entire URLs to be blocked but only specific URLs where infringement was taking place. Contrary to what Ram claimed on Twitter, his letter about Dhammu clearly asks for 272 URLs to be blocked and these are complete URLs, not specific webpages. June 15 of the same year, the Madras high court took note of the controversy and clarified that only those URLs which are infringing copyright can be blocked, not entire websites, and the ban was lifted. As of May 2014, Vimeo is accessible in India.

It is a different story in Turkey though as the site is blocked by the court order on January 9 2014 without any reason.

WHAT ABOUT INDONESIA'S WAY OF BLOCKING VIMEO?

This meme was made popular to make fun of Minister of Communications's action of banning innocent sites; Vimeo is one of them. My only question: Is Tifatul Sembiring ever a smart "object"? I don't think so...

Tifatul Sembiring, Indonesia's Communications Minister tweeted from his personal account that video sharing site Vimeo would be banned. Citing Indonesia’s controversial anti-pornography law, passed in 2008, the miniister said the site included displays of "nudity or nudity-like features". The ban came at a moment when films made in Indonesia had begun to attract attention on the world stage, with Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing joining the ranks of the most acclaimed documentaries of all time. It might look as a your run-of-the-mill ban but the stupidity lied in the process of the banning, even the reason for the blocking.

The ban took place when the Minister of Communication witnessed that there is a video showcasing a female singer's twerk at a campaign for one of Indonesia's political parties: the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS - "Partai Keadilan Sejahtera"). The problem lied on the see-through wardrobe the singer wore and the twerk she did, and as the minister spotted the video, the video-sharing site's ban took place where it ordered the Trust+ (Trust Positive) team to order all ISPs to block it, but only some who really did it. This ban caught the anger of the Indonesian netizens as they criticize the illability to ban just the video, and only capable to ban the site as a whole. Other sites the minister claimed as sources of porn are Reddit and Imgur, among others unlisted here.

In the light of this turn of events, the Ministry of Communications wrote a letter to Vimeo requesting that pornographic contents on the site is deleted. A day after Vimeo denied that the site contains pornography. Vimeo's Director of Communications Jessica Casano-Antonellis stated that it does not allow pornographic contents and only accepts artistic nudity (read: non-sexual nudity), and not pornographic contents. She also stated that she is investigating the fact that the site is blocked due to pornography and hope that she could fix the service soon.

On 14th May, Vimeo received the letter from the Ministry of Communications, and seven days later it sent a letter to the Ministry saying that the Ministry should re-deliberate their decision and that, as mentioned, it doesn't allow pornographic contents, as stated in its two page-long letter. Also stated is the history of its service and the fact that the site is praised for its design and video player qualities and not a pornography site.

This is how Indonesia's Ministry of Communication played its WTF factor, just like the Ministry of Education did to the students in this year's National Exam. As predicted, the blockage has taken the rage of Indonesian netizens and is a form of the Minister's greedy act and that he (the Minister Tifatul Sembiring) has brought the Ministry back to the lighting department era. Also, the blockage is not fair knowing that not only is it snubs other sites that has more pornography than Vimeo has (example: YouTube. YT is not blocked because it has its Indonesian representatives to report abusive contents) but also is the Ministry focused to only one category involving artistic nudity; "art of nakedness" is one of them. Michael A Cheah stated that such category is made by users and because of that, it doesn't show Vimeo's approval.

The controversial Anti-Pornography laws has finally taken its toll, to an extent that it blocked innocent sites as its target, even artistic nudity is subject to this. As @donnybu said on Twitter, the transparent, accountable, feasible and professional internet governance in Indonesia is very needed knowing the fact that everyone could block anything as they see fit. Indonesia's creative field has seemed to be burnt away. Where in the world content creators can post their visual portfolios? When in the world Indonesian fandom fanatics would post their fan fictions of their OTPs and other shippings? Where Indonesians can get a swift, no-bullshit image hosting? And why Indonesians can't get a taste of Reddit?

As of this writing, "innocent" sites other than Vimeo like Reddit, Imgur, and FanFiction.Net has been blocked, and whenever one is to access the site, it will redirect them to Internet Filtering page.

AND THE MOST REASONABLE ACTION IF YOU WERE A MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS IS...

...of course to just block the video and warn the uploader, easy as that, but deliberate the video whether it's a pornography or not beforehand. There's no need to block the whole site as it brings the rage to those who knew that the site doesn't contain porn. That's as the same as if you would burn someone's house for a school bullying. The Minister has to know more about the sites so if he were to block the site he does it in a reasonable way, not by brute force that eventually is pointless.

Indonesia also need to understand what artistic nudity is, and how it is different from pornography that its purpose is simply for artistic purposes, as its name suggests. In conclusion, just like Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Communications has a mental of an "Indon". No offense, but the netizens including me have already seen it, and they are responsible for having Indonesian internet being laughable by other countries.

This also brings up the second chapter's conclusion that the minister should be capable of knowing the sites first and the issues that are in the site, especially regarding a "porn" video hosted on an innocent video-sharing site due to the site's loose implementation of no-nudity Terms of Service. With the Indonesian presidential election on the horizon, following the changes in every ministry structures, we hope that the next Minister of Communication is the more IT-capable person who knows what he does and what he is doing. The next Minister of Education also has one job: to improve Indonesia's education, eradicating stress on students due to final exam and making way for a better, distributed, education system that can cater student's abilities and morals more, because for these two chapters I fleshed out what mistakes these two ministers had and what should have been done to make a win-win situation for everyone.

In the final chapter, we will cover the Indonesian people's mental's fault. Lately, certain Indonesians acted in an unsettling manner in different ocassions, including blaming an innocent person and destructing maintained parks. The two Ministries featured throughout the series has already had a mental of an "Indon" for your information due to their misconducts. Meanwhile it's encouraged to post your "HUEHUEHUE"s in the comments, regardless of who you are and where are you from, whenever you want to laugh at Indonesia's internet governance or just point out your thoughts. If this site were to be closed by the Minister, then I had to kill myself...

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimeo
Various news on Suara.com

~[R]

Is Indonesia humiliating itself already? - CHAPTER I: National Exam

Wondering why this post has this irrelevant title? Well, before I tell you the reason why, here's a quick recap of what happened to my life...

So you remember the Trophee Xsara car I've showcased in the last blogpost right? Well, it's hard to find a feedback of your WIP skin ASAP, especially if you're new to this kind of business. However, after days of waiting, there's just one feedback given to me in order to make this skin good: making the red stripes on the hood span to the mirrors, at least that's what one of the respected Carpark members GKRacer told me.

I knew that I had to work the skin once again immediately after this is posted. But oh wow, I had "small" problems with my laptop as ~on the Sunday morning, exactly on 18th this month~ it cannot access the E:/ drive, one of the three partitions and the MOST IMPORTANT! partition EVER! due to it consisting of my downloaded files, series, games, etc, not to mention the college stuffs there. That was on my Windows 8, while after using Windows 7 and with the automatically-triggered chkdsk function, there are no bad sectors and no bad things on HDD, nothing. Hours later, I escaped another bad luck. Not for long though as the second this happened, it compromised my HDD.

Days later, I tried to figure out what GKRacer referred to. I thought he referred to the side mirrors but now I know that he was referring to the windshield, and that was what on my mind. A simple fix, and here what I came up with after some time...

Well, that's it. That IS the progress it has made, which concludes the four-wheeled paragraphs in this post. Let's face it, you have seen me blogging about how I created my Turbo Sliders creations, how I make the 40-polygon racers for GeneRally, and how I am making it in the Maximum Tune world, which is THE point of why the blog is titled as "Is Indonesia humiliating itself already?"

"But you're Indonesian, what kind of things it's done that it humiliates itself?" you wondered. There are three things that I would like to flesh out for the next posts: The issue of how "distorted" this year's National Exam is, the issue of how the Ministry of IT blocked an "innocent" video-sharing site due to a "small" issue and a series of how the mental of most Indonesians made up all the cray cray-ness, all with one purpose: to see how much us Indonesians have evolved for the past 106 years of Indonesia's awakening. If you now realized how I bring up these issues, I would like to welcome you to the three-part non-racing blogpost! :)

Beginning with the first chapter...

HOW DISTORTED THIS YEAR'S NATIONAL EXAM IS?

SUPER FALCON PUNCH once told me that "this habit should be [stopped]. Why [you don't] give that old uniform to the people who [can't go to] school because of their financial probs?" These things only happen if you passed the National Exam that is... -_- (Source: Viva.co.id)

Recently, the 2014 National Exam has brought up tensions not only because it, as always, gave stress to the guys and girls who are about to graduate Junior High and High School with style, but also the questions featured in the test are... other-worldly. And we ARE talking about how this year's questions are outside what's taught in their three-year education, both Junior High and High school. Even in when Mathematics subject came to play, one student even suicided SHORTLY after she did it. But why you die sooner even before you know the results? -_-,

The nightmare doesn't stop there; one of the questions featured in the Junior High one COPIED one of PISA's questions. And this comes from a no-surprise, self-explanatory subject, I mean, like...

Get it now? The only problem now is is it a derivation or a plagiarism... (Source)

Despite all these psychological rollercoaster rails 9th and 12th grade students must go through every year, it doesn't change the fact that Indonesia's education isn't the best, it even is regarded as one of the worst. It doesn't change its worst status even with the higher standards set this year. Even the Ministry of Education pulled the "Late-hour blindside" where it tells EVERYONE with his tweet (can't find one but I remember he posted it, sorry) that the questions will be outside of what's taught prior their 3-year education (WHY CAN'T I HAVE A SHORTER, APPROPRIATE WORD FOR THAT?). Look, the Minister can even blindside everyone, but why can't he be a Survivor contestant?

The result of the blindside is a series of shocker (NEVER. PUT. "combatmen" behind the word "shocker", please...): the late Leony Alvionita died after doing the Mathematics test, which the Minister "hack" the test with other-worldly questions that plagiarized PISA's. What the late Leony did was studying, studying, and studying as normal students did, but it was the Blindside Minister's fault. After her death is posted by her friends via BBM and then online, the Twitter world is flooded with #RIPLeonyAlvionita and #TolakUN (read: Indonesian for "Boycott the National Exam"). Responding to the news, the Blindside Minister "cried". #TolakUN's actual purpose isn't boycotting the national exam, but if you want to see its real purpose, read on.

With his fault of Blindsiding everyone, his tears should've been consisted of diamonds. What the Minister should have done is to not doing anything to the questions, and the overtly-despised plan of his doesn't improve the quality; it even made it worse. (Source: watermarked)

If you think that this is bad enough, let's throwback to 2004-2007 where there were 16 students killed themselves. In 2008, 2010, and 2013, the average suicide number for these years are 2, while the data for unmentioned years are non-existent. In total, if this year's number also makes the count, there are already 23 students who suicided, which equals to one small class. Has there been suicides in exams overseas? I don't think so, only Indonesia that has this... (sources: Kompas.com, Okezone news, Tribunnews.com, Vivanews, Tempo.co).

A Pretty little lie; "The Minister of Education and Culture responded to the students who complain that topics used in the National Exam are irrelevant to those that are taught. He stated that the difficulty of those topics can be a challenge to the students. We don't want them to be spoiled." Cool story... (source: visible)

It is true that it does haunt students and give them stress at the same time every year, but this time it is a different environment, and now that the questions and topics were International standard, not the normal standard where topics featured for each subject are purely those that are taught. And another thing to remember: There were lots of "fixes" to tests from other subjects, particularly Indonesian Language one. From what I read. I remember that the Minister vowed to recall the papers with a question that "contains" political reference.

Other than that, how does it feel entering the battlefield that's steps higher than you and you only have first-level weapons? The analogy for this year's test's imbalance is very simple as that...

LEAKED ANSWERS

For a price of roughly 20 bucks, you can have all the answers to your test package of a subject for the exam. (Image source: @ffadhila on Twitter)

So you think that questions for National Exam is secure? You are wrong, outright wrong. The problem is that every year, these can be leaked, even with the over-the-top security. How it is leaked is totally out of my business and of course a mystery in the same time, and whenever the answers for most questions in every packet are "on sale", everyone gets mental, every. single. time.

Most students who are fighting for their graduation will depend on one of these because in their minds these are 100% accurate. But do you know that NOT every question's answer leaked are always right? Yup, you can't be too much dependent on these, except that this year, like I said, pretty much plagiarized PISA and tests of same purpose. And what happened before the tests go? Those who sell the leaked answers raised the price so that it can give profit to them.

This issue always come as the exam goes, and it is always on repeat...

SO LOOKING AT THIS POST, ARE YOU GOING TO GO AGAINST THE NATIONAL EXAM, TO THE POINT THAT YOU WANT IT TO BE NON-EXISTENT?

Sure this post highlighted the dark sides that happened in this year's national exam, but trust me, what I was doing was initially true (referring to the statement of the above question) but then my heart changed as I dug deeper to this issue and came up with a new answer: National Exam should be fixed; As someone who tasted two National exams before, all I can say is just make the exam a benchmark for all schools nationwide (read: reposition). The over-the-top difficulty this year has been despised by most students, and not all regions received certain topics of particular subjects due to resources. With this, lesser stress levels should be achieved and pointless answer leaks should be gone. Fair things like these will lead into a detailed benchmark results and each school will have a good portion of enlightenment of particular topics by looking at the benchmark results. This will lead into every student's success in graduating from Junior High and High School.

Everyone who is disgusted with this year's National Exam wanted bring back the system that is called EBTANAS, acronym of "National-Scale Final Level of Study Evaluation" in Indonesian. This test emphasizes on every student's evaluation of their study, and evaluation here refers to the whole study process the students had with all related components inside from the beginning to the end of their study, and whether the study process in question has the student reached their goal or not nationally. The result will be used as a mean to control and rate the function and the performance of all components in order to achieve a spot-on quality. Also from this result, if the result is good enough then the enhancement will take place, otherwise there will be improvement to attain the spot-on quality, all this makes up for a benchmark where it evaluates all of the school's components, including those involved in the student's studying process. In other words, it IS a benchmark tool, and that has summed what #TolakUN's actual purpose is.

Unfortunately due to the fact that the minister wanted to show the world that Indonesia's education is one of the best the world has to offer, the National Exam is born, and EBTANAS is killed (sort of...). Sadly it is far from that; even an extravagant result in the National Exam doesn't make them aces in state university selection tests.

CHAPTER 1 CONCLUSION

The National Exam this year has been everything but usual, only this time International-level questions are used, and it doubled the stress of every student. There even existed suicide after doing exams because the person in question knew that the person couldn't do his/her best, but she/he didn't even know what his/her result is. The sudden statement of the Minister of Education has led to this year's outrage, and leaked answers were also now a highly sought-after solution for this year's exam due to difficulty, although that it always happen every year in National Exam. The only thing that they wanted to is to make everything as normal as EBTANAS, where everything they would have can be a reference to make it to the next level of education.

Special thanks to http://tolakujiannasional.com/ (an Indonesian site), a movement to stop all the blatant psychological madness that is National Exam. The movement will hopefully fix the exam to make it act as a "benchmark" for schools and will promise a better way to measure everyone's education. This is what they envision a normal final exam held by school in which the questions all pertain to what everyone has taught for three years of their education, both Junior High and High School, and a true reference measure for their future education. You guys are a great bunch!

With the conclusion of the first chapter, the second chapter will come up. This post will expose more acts that humiliates Indonesia in the world, and expect hotter wordings as we will play in the online scope!

~[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]

Rendy's Car Skinning Life

A skin is defined as "a texture for a 3D object / model". A skin is also what makes an object look good and real, which depends on the skin's quality. Usually, skins come in variety types: JPEG, PNG, TGA, and, even to an extent, DDS. The process of making the texture for an object is called skinning, and for every skinning for your object requires an image-editing program. For DDS, this would take up to eleven as you would need a special tool for your image-editing program to be able to open those types.

"In computing, a skin is a custom graphical appearance preset package achieved by the use of a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be applied to specific computer software, operating system, and websites to suit the purpose, topic, or tastes of different users. As such a skin can completely change look and feel and navigation interface of a piece of application software or operating system. A skin may also be associated with themes, which usually only implies part changes and smaller differences, such as colors and similar." -Wikipedia (Image source)

As expected, the scope of this Skinning talk is skins for racing games, and this post has been planned months back, but never realized. Now that this post is finally online, here goes my saga of car skinning... :D

SKINNING LIFE: THE ORIGINS

I remember that I make skins for a game called Live For Speed but they are never posted online; I just did it just for fun, and it was years back, exactly in 2008 where I still use PC and I had LFS there. If you'd like to know, skinning in Live For Speed is simple; there's no shading in every car's skins, and all you have to do is to just skin to your heart's content. Skinning in this game is pretty straightforward due to this, and there's no need for extra tools because the skins aren't even DDSs. The game even comes with a Livery Preview program (forgot the name) that can preview your skin and see how good it looks.

As the time goes by, I don't play LFS anymore. All I was doing is just mindlessly driving the only demo track: Blackwood (both Circuit and Rallycross configurations), and my selection of cars weren't varied enough. Talk about transitioning, I started again my interest of skinning, this time in a better and cooler environment: TrackMania United Forever.

ATTACK ON TRACKMANIA UNITED FOREVER MODELS

Mazda RX-7 FD LM Edition livery, inspired by the same car from PSX installments of Gran Turismo series with slight changes skin-wise. (Model by Codemasters, converted to TMUF by MinituX - page)

As you could see on my previous blog post, I'm recreating the Mazda RX-7 FD LM Edition shown in early installments of Gran Turismo, all for PSX. I chose to do this because of its simplicity; it doesn't need to be all flashy with all those lines, and only needs one color. However, in the game, there's a variety: The FD3S LM also comes in Green and Black in conjunction with Red. Later installments (the PS2 ones) has FD3S LM depicted as Super GT FD3S-lookalike with all-new looks livery-wise, and not to forget putting the shiny Gran Turismo and Polyphony Digital logos, and has more colors like Yellow and Dark blue to name a few in addition to the three aformentioned colors. Oh, and did I mention that this is TrackMania United Forever?

Yup, this is one of the RX-7 FD models you can play as on TMUF simply by downloading the model via the Carpark. In TrackMania Carpark, you can choose your desired car model to be download and for most models there's also a template download too. Not only the 3D, there are lots of skins as well for certain cars you desire. Thanks to creativity and Photoshop, there are now 1000+ skins in total, and that includes skins for all default cars in TMUF, ranging from Drift car-inspired skins, to well-known-in-motorsport livery depictions, and finally shameless energy drink skins!

Debenhams AMR DBR9 for TrackMania United Forever. This was the first skin whose progress I publicized, but then its progress was halted due to no shading and ultimately died. See below for the reason

Sadly, speaking of skinning in TMUF, I had to swallow the stupidest and most unfair decision Trackmania Carpark forum moderators have done: deleting an account for spamming while the account in question DOES NOT do it. A long time ago, I had an intention to skin an Aston Martin DBR9 (by Chupa) and found out that there's no Templates link available (usually there is), and the link to the Templates download (provided in the model's thread) is dead already. This was where I decided to do the extreme action: To open the thread titled "The Lost Templates Thread" where its purpose was obvious: to have someone upload lost Templates link on some models' download page. The next day the thread was made, I couldn't find my thread and all of the sudden all of my posts were gone, even on the model request section where I requested vast number of cars like Toyota Corolla WRC and Porsche 911 GT1. To make things worse, I cannot log in even though my login credentials were right. Even if it was right, it redirected me to the log in page again and again until I saw a staggering warning said "This IP has been permanently banned". The worst part of all is, when I e-mailed the admin regarding to my reason why my account is deleted, the only words that he asked me about "Who are you?". But, didn't I registered my account with the same e-mail I used for doing the mentioned action?

It´s quite a while ago that this happens, and as far i can see this was for spamming. Not for a thread that is said for templates or things like that. But as said, i can´t remember to that. it´s quite a while ago..

I was totally enraged knowing that I cannot freely post my progress of my skins due to that. I blamed the moderators for doing the action without even investigating further whether I spammed or not (or perhaps gave me a first warning instead so I can let them know that I didn't do the spamming thing). And no, it was not because the Lost Templates thread, as you saw it...

Fast forward to the time of this blog post, I created another account via a Wi-Fi connection (because my modem connection is already hated by Carpark mods) but not yet post a progress. But one thing's for sure, I continued skinning TMUF cars. One of my projects is to create a skin for Mooncraft Shiden (by GKRacer), but that's not the only car I focus too. There's still the FD, and the JGTC-kit R34 (by QtoR) in queue. Other than the three, there are lots more to skin. (read: moving on)

Yet, I feel Carpark yet has so much variety of available models. I can understand that making 3D isn't an easy job, not to forget converting another game's car to be playable on TMUF is also this. So, there's a second option to this skinning biz...

FINDING A FORTUNE IN GTR 2

BPR Global Series mod for GTR 2 - 90s Grand Touring Goodness! + My first target mod

At first, I bought GTR 2 at a game shop for the sake of trying the BPR mod. As time progresses, I've been digging mods that interests me, most recently the EEC GT3 mod where it includes all FIA GT3 cars, and the best thing is that it also comes with skins based on Blancpain Endurance Series 2012 as a separate download! Also worth a download is the WSGT mod for GTR 2, which is a convert of the rFactor mod of the same name (and the original WSGT). This way, the DBR9 skinning work originally planned to be made on TMUF was transitioned to GTR2 with newer look, same main sponsorship.

GT3 Goodness: Shephard Racing Team Pretty Little Liars F430  at Mount Panorama Circuit. It's just a matter of redoing the striping and the numberplate... Didn't I also said that Anime promotions in motorsport are too mainstream? This is the answer for such question

Both EEC GT3 and WSGT mods are the ones I recommend to skin for everyone, the BPR mod skins are also worth to try in case if 90s GT runners are your thing, and you have interests in making their skins. There are lots of other race cars out there, but you should find them by yourself as most cars cannot be mentioned here due to a couple of reasons. Other than that, NoGripRacing and e-Sport Racing can be your first choices :).

WSGT saved my life: even better version of Debenhams AMR DBR9. Now that's more like it :)

Overall, GTR 2 skinning workaround is much different than in TMUF. While in TMUF you simply skin the "diffuse" of the car (or you can do the same for the "details") while not forgetting the Alpha layer and put them in your custom car's zip file, GTR 2 has you dealing with *.gtr files which are series of *.dds files of the car's skin comprising of the skin's "Body" and "Windows", among other things. You don't need to make their Alpha layer but you need a special tool to view *.gtr files like GEditor. The work doesn't stop there; the *.car file in your skin's folder defines your car's properties, from parts used (via Genstring options) to the skin's team name and the skin's drivers' name. Mind you, there are some tutorials for that. :D

TMUF x GTR2 Project: SUPREME CHALLENGE

It took me long enough to make a logo for this series. There were lots of drafts, and I tried too hard in making a logo that can conceive the "racing" message for this series. It's yet finished as it needs colors

There are TMUF models not available in GTR2 (either the model in general or just the templates for skinning's sake) and vice versa. SUPREME CHALLENGE is basically just a fictional "racing" series showcasing different cars. The cars in SUPREME CHALLENGE will utilize several tuning cars such as Lancer Evolution IX, Mazda RX-7 (third generation a.k.a the FD), and Mazda RX-8 to name a few, to a series of GT3 cars like Nissan GT-R, McLaren MP4-12C, and Mercedes Benz SLS AMG. Think of it as Super GT, Super Taikyu, and any FIA GT3-spec endurance series you can imagine set to "liquefy".

Specialized numberplate for the SUPREME CHALLENGE skins. Skins without this numberplate is not part of the series. I took the Super GT approach for this numberplate, and is actually a different take to my previous numberplate (see illustrations below). Shameless promotion included in it.

While I've made several skins, I've yet to share the world how they look like. The plan was to be finished in 2013 but then it's 2014 already and that I had to follow the 2014 "standards". Confirmed entries are, including the Team Pretty Little Liars...

Drafted for many times: TRESemme Team Taisan 911 GT3. Owned by the racing team "Team Luxe", whose drivers are all working fashion models. Let's say that they do this as a hobby...

Taking inspiration from a team from another game: Croatia Racing Team Z4 GT3 Coupe. To be honest I was a little short on finding a perfect title sponsor for the team until I thought that "promoting Croatia" is a good thing.

Why you shouldn't be idoling: Taylor Swift Racing 911 GT3. I knew Juan Pablo Montoya in NASCAR had Taylor Swift livery on his car, and this is the TaySwift livery taken up to eleven.

One of the returning Indonesian teams: DRTV Racing Team Solite MP4-12C. It's uncommon to see a TV Shopping brand become a sponsor in motorsport, but one can dream, right? Last year they used GT300-spec NSX as their weapon, but this year... The regulations have changed.

...and these are the "Recurring" entries (they're not technically 'recurring' entries as this is the first time I share these skins. However, let's imagine that SUPREME CHALLENGE already started long before this blog post). These entries use the old numberplate whose template I lost prior to my re-installation of my Windows 7 OS (damn you TetraCopy for skipping my backups when I try to copy them -_-).

Some of the recurring ones are Team Luxe, Team Pretty Little Liars, Croatia Racing Team, and DRTS, plus...:

Champions of the past: George Richards Racing entered SUPREME CHALLENGE since its 2009 season, won two years after joining, and used this car until 2013: GRC Giordano Supra (with adjustments to match FIA GT3/JAF GT300 cars). This year, they're rumored to use a Gallardo due to the change of regulations.

Inspired by an e-Sport team: STP Frantic.Intl Viper SRT GT3. By the looks of it, it emulates Fnatic. Other e-Sports team-inspired skins I would make would be those inspired by Natus Vincere, Alliance, and mousesports to name a few.

French counterpart: TOTAL Frantic France Viper SRT GT3. Compared to its SUPREME CHALLENGE counterpart, Fnatic has no French counterpart whatsoever...

Older drafts, old skins, and not-going-to-compete skins are:

Older look of the GRC Giordano Supra. Compared to this, this has more lines and a British flag but not the frog logo (which is a brand logo for Giordano btw)

Buffy Racing Team LiveJournal 911 GT1. For obvious reasons, this car doesn't make the cut.

Older draft of Taylor Swift Racing. This RX-8 version of Taylor Swift Racing follows the style of JPM's Taylor Swift livery although this car's main sponsor is iTunes and his was Target.

Pirtletech ULTA Beauty Z4 Coupe. One of the cars that utilize the older nameplate layout. They won't be returning this year...

Honda Racing x DRTS NSX GT300. This is DRTS's contender last year.

One of my TMUF creations: Desigual Silvia GT300. Another JAF GT300-spec car and is owned by a Spanish team called "Colores". This year, they're going to use the GT3-spec GT-R.

While there are more skins than what you can see here, I still have to think the concepts for each competing team's livery, and the number of the teams competing in the SUPREME CHALLENGE is still in the question mark. Other than that, skinning in GTR2 and TMUF has their own ways, but enjoy doing it is part of the process. Whether you try to replicate your favorite racing team or create an original skin of yours, it sharpens your creativity and Graphic Designing skills altogether.

Neither is the car mine nor is the skin. I just toy the Mediatracker a little bit...

~[R]

GENERALLY 2 Kickstarter Demo Finally Online!

Everyone's been waiting to test out GeneRally 2, the successor of GeneRally. And on April 1st, they proved that their Kickstarter Demo is no April Fools' by getting the demo playable online for everyone, regardless if they're new to GR or veterans who are no strangers to the game.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

GeneRally 2 has the same simple premise like the first one has: you drive your car from start to finish as fast as possible. However, in the demo, you can have either an unlimited lap time trial or a race with up to six friends: Two keyboard players and four who use controllers.

As you're done choosing your car for your time trial / race, the game will load its only playable track, somehow Brunel Park by James Burgess. The race is done in a usual manner except the fact that you drive unlimited number of laps when driving alone. As expected, there are notable new features such as new cars, split times, new object shapes, and most importantly, day/night cycle! Reenacting round-the-clock endurance racing will be possible as soon as this game is finished!

THE CARS

The GR2 fam. You can notice which ones are newcomers here... :)

There are two new cars in the sequel, among the selection of five other returnees like Mini, Monster Truck, Yankee, Rallycar, and Formula (although it's named Formula GR09). These cars are Buggy and Group C! While Buggy is fun to drive due to its drifty physics, Group C is... well, a disappointment. Once you drive the Group C car, you'll realize that it brakes too quick and its handling is equal to trying to steer a rock, for a car that's too fast. Other than that, the rest feel the same as their first GR counterparts. Still, we're dying for a modern-day 200-poly take of General, Onewheeler, Truck, et al.

Take note that you should also notice how Rallycar is fun to be driven on dirt, how hard Yankee's physics is for you, how you shouldn't stuck yourself when driving Monster Truck, how fragile Formula is when bumping into walls and its behavior of "flying" when you run the sunken tires. Other than that, every car has their own distinctive sounds, with certain cars sounded like a buzzing bee and also certain ones that sound like a truck. Others retain their original engine sound from GR.

THE DRIVE

The best part of this game has always been racing. Here, you drive, depending on how many players you have, alone or with your rivals for a predetermined number of laps (only apply to the latter, the former has unlimited laps). As you drive the track, you'll notice that there are new shapes for objects, and new objects too. Notice how big office buildings create smoke from top, concrete walls have an option with fencing, a garage object, and how every stand has a roof. Also worth noting is that the hay bales are now movable as you bump them, among other things.

Also visible are more realistic smoke and dust effects. Taking up to eleven from the first game, the smoke now looks realistic than they were, even when you drive the sand run offs, it generates realistic dust effects too. So, if anyone were to make a drift car or a rally track when this game is released, BE. MESMERIZED.

Split times are also not exempt from GR2. Everytime you pass certain points on this demo track, you will notice that above you is a gap from your best time of your car. There are three sections where the gap will be shown, and that includes the start/finish line. If you are aiming for a fast time, let this gap above your car "motivate" you so that you know if you do well in certain sections.

But the most awaited feature of GR2 is this one:

As the night comes via predefined time scale, the lights from light posts illuminate as the track goes dark, adding a challenge to the racers of driving in the dark. Your car will also light its headlights automatically as the race enters its night time, and not only that, your car will also shine even if it's dark on the track for visibility's sake. This is what everyone has been waiting for; an addictive game with simple premise and a day/night cycle, so that everyone can consider having an endurance race, either with AIs or in a conventional login competition way.

THE VERDICT

Even though that the game is not bug-free due to it being an Alpha, we knew that this is yet perfect, but it gives enough sneak peek of what's going to come in GR2. The gameplay doesn't change from its predecessor, the 200-poly take on cars look amazing, and the day/night cycle succeed to deliver. It is a game worth the wait for its full release and is a perfect time waster if you'd like to set up a race with friends, although you have warn them that the steering is a bit delayed, the FPS is a little bit slow, and that they don't need to drive a Group C car due to its disappointing physics.

We're looking forward for the Kickstarter campaign! Remember! Check out GeneRally 2's developer blog, GeneRally International Forums, and while you're at it, try the Kickstarter demo now, alone or with friends with four controllers and another keyboard player using another part of keyboard!

~[R]