Belgium Grand Prix Competition

Hello everyone!


I have recently entered a competition to win a fabulous trip to Belgium and to the SPA-Francorchamps on JAF1 (James Allen on Formula One). I have already received some great support from friends and family, however the competition is judged on who receives the most comments of support.


I now turn the the sim racing community for your support. I would like nothing more than to have the chance to attend the Belgian Grand Prix at some point in my life and considering how this year has gone for me, I figure now is as gooder time as any to go. I can't afford to go on my own funds, but to travel there as a competition winner I can indeed do.


Please vote for my short story which is #41 on the list under my name Roderick Grant. All you have to do is FOLLOW THIS LINK, find my comment (#41, Roderick Grant) and leave any words in my support for the competition with your name (it can just be your first name).


My short 150 word story is this : One of the longest journeys I took was with my family when I was 12 years old. We drove our simple Subaru from our modest home near Sydney down to Melbourne, then across the waves to the island state of Tasmania. I don't remember a great deal of what we saw and how long we were exploring the island for, though I do recall feeling sick often enough, largely due to my taste for butter menthols. What I now realise is that the long trip listening to my Mum and Dad's favourite band Abba and the arguments between the two was the last real family holiday we took together, and the best thing was that it was on the road together through the winding roads of the little state of Tasmania. Now 24 years old, I still own that Subaru and it is a constant reminder of my childhood travels.


I thank you all in advance for your support for me to be selected as one of the winners for this competition.


Rodrrico.

Brands Hatch 1950 - Update Released

As mentioned in my previous post about DLC, I have begun to work with two talented people. One a camera expert and the other a texture optimiser / renderer. The latter of which has done some amazing work on my Brands Hatch 1950 circuit, which is available for download now!

Many of you will also notice that I have again started to uploaded to RfactorCentral in recent times. I made a concious decision to do so to spread my work around. I do enjoy finding videos on the net of people have a good race around my circuits and while I think that NoGripRacing is the best community website for Rfactor. There is no deigning the gravitational pull of the much larger RfactorCentral.


I will however not be adding the links to my recent circuits on RfactorCrentral. I figure if you want to get there from there then you are probably willing to search for them in their close loop google search engine.


Now I do have an issue with this blog at Blogger. For some unknown reason to me, my last five or so posts have 'white' covering up my text. Why on earth is this?! I don't want the text that I write not visible! If you know how to fix this issue, please contact me via this post as I hate what is happening here. It makes this site  look sloppy!


Thanks.

The trouble with DLC

Downloadable Content is not a bad thing. It is a good thing, but I do struggle to find it always justified by the cost that we pay for new or fresh or updated content. For example, Saints Row: The Third. A great muck around sandbox game. However once you have blasted through the very short campaign / missions. There is nothing to do in the city. Back in the day, GTA: San Andreas had a tonne of user made content available for free all over the net. Obviously some was rubbish, but a good portion was top notch and fun.

Unreal Tournament is another example of a great game made better by the community efforts. The power of the various Unreal engines made user made content a must have 'add-on' to the base game. Chaos UT was a brilliant example of user made content that was free and extremely well polished. However while the Unreal Engine's have been accessible to those of us for free, recent incarnations are not any where near as accessible as the great engines of the past. It was as though the developers were trying to tell us something. and that something was - if you want it, you better be prepared to pay for it!

Now back to Saints Row 3. It had been released as a solid game, but far to short. That was for a very good reason, there was much more to be added to the game but not until we had forked out an extra $20 for a bunch of new costumes, some silly weapons and a car or two. Since the first DLC packs came on the 'Steam' market there have been more than a dozen new DLC packs. All of which cost between $2 - $20 to download and add to the game. Not a single trace of user content can be found on Steam (at time of writing).

The sad part is that most game developers have gone down this path. Perhaps it is to justify their worth in the industry. That only they can make excellent content. But I know that there are many great modders out there who have either not been fully discovered or who want to remain independent. Don't get me wrong, I believe that most game developers are sublime and have made the games that we love to play and modify, but it also seems clear that the reason most of us cannot create content for these games is because they don't want us so. So they can continue to make money off titles long after release.

There is nothing wrong with that at all! In fact I believe that it was Maxis and their game The Sims, which effectively wrote the book on developer created content post release of a game. It appears that all the additional 'expansion packs' for the Sims had been ready to go with the game at the time of it's release. But rather than release it as a massive game, it was broken down into cuts of meat that could be bought separately after the initial game had been bought.

Now as a mark of respect to the developers. As games become increasingly complex and incredibly detailed. It does indeed become difficult to allow access to these dense algorithms that are modern games. The Total War franchise is a great example of this. Shogun 2: Total War is a brilliant game. I love it so much that I have probably aged just sitting in my chair playing it. However it has become too complex that there is no simple way to create a Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the Creative Assembly's latest game. That doesn't mean they haven't tried though. The developers have gone to lengths to make their game more accessible to modders. In fact they have written labyrinthine mazes of text about how to go about opening up their file packs for tweaking.

That is one example of how games are too complex to modify. Alas, there will be a time when simple modders such as myself will no longer be able to create unique game content on their own. Project C.A.R.S looks like about the closest thing to user content on a grand scale in that their company is funded my the community. However modders like me will never be able to make the well polished tracks and cars that they offer. Fortunately I and hundreds like me still have Rfactor and Rfactor 2 which thrive on user created content. In recent times I have begun to work with other people to improve my tracks. All the best circuits for download out there are rarely created my one person and mine are beginning to head down this path.

I have started collaborating with two key and very talented people. One is a camera expert who has done such a good job that he now is paid to make circuit cameras for game companies. I am truly glad that he is willing to work for free with my circuits. The other key person who has only just started to work with me specialises in texture optimisation. None of my tracks have been for sale as I have not given commercial usage rights to anyone. I believe that community content should remain free. Otherwise great game content for Rfactor like many others will become DLC.

Darlington Park Progress - 0.8

It has been many weeks but I have began to continue my work on Darlington Park. I should be ready to release an initial 1.0 version in a week or two after I finish building the pit area and a few other bits and bobs.

 As you will be able to compare, I am indeed improving upon the circuit. My first attempt at creating wall kerbs for Zaluzani 2.0 (Grand Prix of Bosnia) was a success, so for Darlington Park I am building upon my new-found efforts. This track will feature an open hairpin taken in second gear where the car will be able to ride the kerbs and run onto the 'Bosch' kerbing. If this goes down well then many of my planned future projects may feature these 'drivable' walls.

As you can see from the top view of the circuit, I have plans for two other layouts that I may build after the initial release. The short course cuts through the wooded area to be roughly 3/5 the length of the current track. The second track will be the historic layout that was abandoned due to the unsafe drops and trees that are 'heritage' listed. Currently in the above screenshots I have not put these trees into the scene yet.

Darlington Park is based on an Australian industrial area in northern New South Wales, however since I am effectively creating my own circuit and terrain geography I think it should be set in another country. If you can think of a good country for it to be based in that suits the hills around the circuit, let me know and I might just make that country the track location.

Of course, you may think - what is the point of that? It is just a name - wrong! If I find that the country suits, then I shall modify the track data to have the light, climate and conditions expected of that country. So get your thinking caps on.

Look out for the initial release in the coming weeks. Cheers.