Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Chernobyl NPP 1.1 - Released


It has been in the pipelines for some time, but I have finally finished up Chernobyl NPP with the 1.1 update. I have changed a number of things from the adboards around the circuit to the actual AI waypoints (AIW). A full list of changes can be found in the readme file included with the Zip of the circuit.

The most important part of this update is that it has been a collaboration between myself and Rockett_Man / Jimbob47. Rockett_Man has kindly created a new AIW for the circuit. This had been the major problem with NPP. The AI were uncompetitive compared with human players. I found they slowed through the top gear turns / kinks of 5 & 6 where a human player would ordinarily go flat (depending on what mod was being used). Now the AI goes flat also, thanks to the new AIW.

I have linked the updated version with Nogripracing and Rfactorcentral, however Rfactorcentral has been littered with errors for me lately. I will try again in the coming days, to get a version 1.1 to rfactorcentral, but we will see if it works correctly.

Please let me know if there should be other changes / updates for Chernobyl NPP and any of my other circuits.

Cheers.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Mod of the Week and other news

Ales GP - MOTW
I was completely surprised to find that my latest circuit Ales GP 1.0 achieved Mod of the Week from Rfactorcentral. I don't want this to be taken as arrogance, however I am very pleased to have finally cracked this achievement of Rfactorcentral.


Chernobyl NPP 1.1 - New AIW
I will soon be releasing Chernobyl NPP 1.1 with a new AIW made by Rockett_Man (Rfactorcentral Alias) or Jimbob47 (nogripracing alias). This circuit will feature Russian and Ukrainian advertisements as well as a number of minor tweaks and revisions to bump its overall quality up. Look out for this around the 28th-29th of January.

Real World Work
I have recently had an interview for a company in Brisbane to work as a video editor. As the competition is fierce I have had to neglect my involvement with the Rfactor community to focus on the job. I will definitely be continuing to make circuits for the community, however I will be unable to resume work on any projects until the end of January.

Temporary or Permanent
So everyone, I ask you all as to what should the basic design of my next Rfactor circuit be? A temporary street circuit, a temporary road circuit, or a purpose built racetrack?
Personally, I feel that my skills lie in temporary street circuits, however I am open to suggestions.

Rfactor Track Database
I have been building a track database over the last year of all the circuits I have downloaded and made. It is comprehensive (well ,enough for me anyway) and will release it for you all once I reach the massive 1000 mark. Currently, I have approximately 979 circuits on my machine that expand to around 26GB of HDD space. Look out for this in early February.

And that was my week in news.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

This is interesting...

I was browsing the net this morning on the more unique Rfactor download websites and came across my circuit Imola 1960s on Bockbierbude.

I was surprised that I could not access the file at first, but this was rectified quickly. I was also surprised that this very small market website (a niche if you like) had 530 downloads for Iomla 1960s. This was also surprising. Fortunately I was credited with the circuit (quite rightly so), however I have no idea who uploaded this file, and why I was not contacted about it.

I am perfectly happy if others want to share my circuits with other websites other than my favourties (Rfactorcentral & Nogripracing), however I do expect people to credit me and contact me via my email if they wish to do this. I say this as I don't want to find my circuits on websites where the community there has to 'pay' a tariff to either access the download section or individual files as a whole. I am 100% against paying for moder community stuff. This, in my opinion, would defeat the purpose of making content for free for everyone to enjoy.

This is what makes a racing simulation like Rfactor so good. Not only is the source code material free, but anyone with a sim editor can go and make new content. I alone have installed on my computer 948 different circuits (either layouts or versions).

If anyone would like a copy of the file where I have all the circuit info saved for each of these tracks (Microsoft Access needed to view), then please PM me and I will email it to you.

Finally, if anyone has found any of my circuits on websites other than Rfactorcentral & Nogripracing, please contact me with a link to the website / circuit page.

Thanks everyone.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Ales 1.0 Error

I posted a few days ago about the pending release of Ales GP 1.00 to both Rfactorcentral and Nogripracing. It would appear that both have suffered errors while trying to load my track and therefore will not release it until I fix these errors.

The problem is that I don't get these errors when I open Ales GP 1.0 on my computer. I believe they are grass texture / model errors due to the error code that Rfactorcentral has given me :

But as I say, I don't get this error, and therefore don't know how to fix it to correctly release the circuit. If anyone has an idea of how to fix this, please contact me through this blog or on Rfactorcentral.

Cheers.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Ales GP 1.00

It has been a while since I last posted about a circuit I have been working on. This has been due to the fact that my computer suffered a major failure in mid December of 2011, which was right before I went away for the holiday break.

Ales GP was ready to be released only 2 days before my computer died and therefore, I was unable to release the circuit back then. I am pleased to finally get it out there for the Rfactor community. You all will be able to find Ales GP on both Rfactorcentral and Nogripracing within the coming days. It all depends on how fast the servers approve my latest circuit.

I should say that my Ales is only remotely related to the real Circuit d'Ales in France. I took the basic 'outer' course and adapted it to be my own. My version does not mimic the camber and elevation changes that the real circuit has, but rather takes an enjoyable new approach to the circuit map.
I have added my own fast chicane towards the final turn that slows down Touring Cars a bit, but should not affect F1 open wheeler type cars. This is because I found it difficult arresting the speed from Porsche Carerra Cup cars going into the final fast Right / Left chicane / corners. This also helps to claim this version as my own.

Please check my

Rodrrico - The Circuits Thread


in the coming days for links to where you can download Ales GP 1.0.

As always, this circuit has been entirely created by me for the community as a 'funfactor' circuit. So please don't view this for its historical inaccuracies. I just don't care if it doesn't measure up to its real world counterpart. But thank you all once again for your positive comments on my other circuits. Those comments, likes and scores keep me interested in making circuits for you all.

Enjoy!