Okay so this blog may look neglected and covered with dust. Let me tell you all now that it and I are far from over. Only on a break - why? You may ask...
I have like many of you out there devoted much of my spare time to Rfactor 2. However I have not forgotten nor lost my interest in creating circuits. In fact far from it. I have simply been playing other users wonderful creations lately rather than focusing on making my own. Yet this is changing. Already I have begun the preliminary work for Imola 1972. Yes that is right I will be making an all new Imola, and the last version without any chicanes. I have been researching to be sure that this could be ranked among my best releases. However it is at least two months off before I will release it and at least a full month before I will post up any screen shots.
Along with Imola 1972, I will release a much needed update to Imola 1960s to fill in some of the gaps that break the feeling of reality while flying around the circuit in top gear. Chernobyl NPP is also getting a much needed face lift and possibly a short course, possibly. Finally, Circuit d' Avignon will indeed get its much anticipated longer layout, however the modelling is difficult for the castle and rock faces so this is a while of yet folks.
There! Does that spell any doubt that I might be gone with the wind? I should hope so. In fact, I have only been more enthused to create new circuits and improve my older creations with the recent developments of Track Maker / Track Creator. If you have no idea what I am on about then click over to Youtube and look at this video about Track Maker / Track Creator. It looks stunning does it not?! I already am waiting with earnest for the program to come out. I have many circuit ideas in my head, but alas, many must be cropped down or culled completely due to their ambitious nature.
See the problem is not actually building the circuit, that part is relatively straightforward. Even the elevation changes, or track merging are issues for me. The actual hardest part of creating circuits is the ground. Or more to the point, the landscape or what I call the 'scene'. To create a vaguely believable scene is incredibly difficult. Certainly in my judgemental eyes. For example, if you are to drive around SPA, you expect to see the rolling tree filled hills as your car blasts up Eau Rouge. Hitting the 'look-back' key should give you the eye candy we seek from actually getting up the damn thing. Without the surrounding background of the trees, hills, and general scenery, it feels fake - for lack of a better word. Track Creator looks ambitious. In fact, ambitious enough to match my efficacious imagination.
So I am not over, just trying to contain my enthusiasm. I don't know if I will be a master track builder this year, but certainly 2012 is going to be a great year for sim track building!
