I've just been pointed in this general direction, as its a similar sort of topic to something ive just posted about elsewhere and have been planning for a considerably long time (2004-6 roughly) but obviously not done officially.
I have a test site with an LFS based version already, which im not really wanting to go public on even though its not going to get used now, but i do have screenies of it which i dont mind sharing:
Homepage
Drivers Area - Search (profile page looks similar to team page)
Example Teams Profile - Mercury Racing
Example Series page - LFS ProSeries area
Series Admin Area
Im now restarting the project from scratch with the help of a few capable assistants and anyone willing to lend a hand, and we'll be opening it up to all race sims which we can possibly cater for, LFS being one of my main priorities.
Teams & Driver pages, with a focus on self-updating & automated content, is something i'll be implementing as soon as the basic series management aspect is dealt with, if not at the same time. Things like displaying what events someone is signed up for, what a teams drivers latest results are. Because the site would be managing the events we can display event based info relevant to them, if a driver leaves a team he'd be removed from their current line-up (i plan to implement a 'past' drivers list too), and then the driver can approach another team and if both parties commit he'll be added to their team profile.
Having run successful events & teams, and built sites for both purposes, theres a lot of things i understand needs to be added, and we'll hopefully include them. If we dont, we should have a suggestion route and if its a no-brainer it'll get added np.
At the same time as being pointed to this thread, im also led to believe Victor might be doing something similar for LFS anyway, so chances are he'll implement a lot of the ideas above and a load i've not yet thought of or had suggested, but hopefully the community will be well supported in this department in the not too distant future.
Some info on the project im working on is here if anyones interested in reading more.
I have a test site with an LFS based version already, which im not really wanting to go public on even though its not going to get used now, but i do have screenies of it which i dont mind sharing:
Homepage
Drivers Area - Search (profile page looks similar to team page)
Example Teams Profile - Mercury Racing
Example Series page - LFS ProSeries area
Series Admin Area
Im now restarting the project from scratch with the help of a few capable assistants and anyone willing to lend a hand, and we'll be opening it up to all race sims which we can possibly cater for, LFS being one of my main priorities.
Teams & Driver pages, with a focus on self-updating & automated content, is something i'll be implementing as soon as the basic series management aspect is dealt with, if not at the same time. Things like displaying what events someone is signed up for, what a teams drivers latest results are. Because the site would be managing the events we can display event based info relevant to them, if a driver leaves a team he'd be removed from their current line-up (i plan to implement a 'past' drivers list too), and then the driver can approach another team and if both parties commit he'll be added to their team profile.
Having run successful events & teams, and built sites for both purposes, theres a lot of things i understand needs to be added, and we'll hopefully include them. If we dont, we should have a suggestion route and if its a no-brainer it'll get added np.
At the same time as being pointed to this thread, im also led to believe Victor might be doing something similar for LFS anyway, so chances are he'll implement a lot of the ideas above and a load i've not yet thought of or had suggested, but hopefully the community will be well supported in this department in the not too distant future.
Some info on the project im working on is here if anyones interested in reading more.
Cheers for the link Flame, hadnt seen that but i did head over to the spdo website straight after posting to try and see what Josh was upto, i'd spoke to him about the idea after the LFSPS series finished and my aim was to take that code, rebuild & refocus a lot of it, and end up with 'LFSEvents' as thats where the LFSPS code first came from.
He was suggesting going with a different build approach which was rather baffling for me at the time, he tried guiding me through it but was busy with his own stuff and i went back to my old inefficient method, and this new project is pretty much going to be how he'd suggested i did it back in the Spring of 2009.
I was hoping to have a chat with him about it, see if he fancied offering his wisdom and maybe getting his hands dirty, but i guess he's got bigger priorities as i cant imagine he'd let the spdo site slip without caring or looking for a solution.
As for the idea with Victor, thats certainly the ideal solution for a community, the devs over at pCARS are also saying they'll have event management, however it seems like its this horrible middle-ground where its a feature that isnt really sufficient enough for what the die-hard community are looking for, it'll do the basics fine, but anything more is tough.
The fact that you mention the things you've outlined, thats the sort of thing i'd want to be hearing, so thats good. We've been pretty fortunate with LFS that we've had pretty good support with competitive racing elements and features which simply arent stock features which all racing sims need, things like LFSWorld, Remote, Insim, pubstats, the skin downloader, driver changes... they've all been implemented, many way ahead of the competition, plenty still dont offer some of them let alone all of them.
The biggest shame is that the game, the fundamental part, feels like its been left behind.
Your last line, about hearing opinions & ideas from the people who'll ultimately be using it, thats pretty much what were looking for too, particularly for other sims infact, as I know LFS and what sort of events we had, limitations and things like that, its easy to build the site to LFS's requirements, but i dont know any others and what their communities are used to. We need coders & a couple designers, but we also need opinions, ideas & experience.
Vic, if you happen to read this and fancy getting involved without getting your hands dirty (or with), by offering ideas, solutions & guidance, or even just as a silent onlooker for ideas to implement on LFS World, let me know and i'll add you in. It obviously limits our impact on the LFS community if theres something that exists doing that job just like we are, especially via official routes, but this is for the communities out there and whether or not we're providing the tools or someone else is, the main thing is they're available to anyone who wants them.
If you dont read this, not interested, or whatever, if there ever is a get-together of ideas for this planned area, someone feel free to PM me and i'll see if theres anything i can suggest to consider implementing.
He was suggesting going with a different build approach which was rather baffling for me at the time, he tried guiding me through it but was busy with his own stuff and i went back to my old inefficient method, and this new project is pretty much going to be how he'd suggested i did it back in the Spring of 2009.
I was hoping to have a chat with him about it, see if he fancied offering his wisdom and maybe getting his hands dirty, but i guess he's got bigger priorities as i cant imagine he'd let the spdo site slip without caring or looking for a solution.
As for the idea with Victor, thats certainly the ideal solution for a community, the devs over at pCARS are also saying they'll have event management, however it seems like its this horrible middle-ground where its a feature that isnt really sufficient enough for what the die-hard community are looking for, it'll do the basics fine, but anything more is tough.
The fact that you mention the things you've outlined, thats the sort of thing i'd want to be hearing, so thats good. We've been pretty fortunate with LFS that we've had pretty good support with competitive racing elements and features which simply arent stock features which all racing sims need, things like LFSWorld, Remote, Insim, pubstats, the skin downloader, driver changes... they've all been implemented, many way ahead of the competition, plenty still dont offer some of them let alone all of them.
The biggest shame is that the game, the fundamental part, feels like its been left behind.
Your last line, about hearing opinions & ideas from the people who'll ultimately be using it, thats pretty much what were looking for too, particularly for other sims infact, as I know LFS and what sort of events we had, limitations and things like that, its easy to build the site to LFS's requirements, but i dont know any others and what their communities are used to. We need coders & a couple designers, but we also need opinions, ideas & experience.
Vic, if you happen to read this and fancy getting involved without getting your hands dirty (or with), by offering ideas, solutions & guidance, or even just as a silent onlooker for ideas to implement on LFS World, let me know and i'll add you in. It obviously limits our impact on the LFS community if theres something that exists doing that job just like we are, especially via official routes, but this is for the communities out there and whether or not we're providing the tools or someone else is, the main thing is they're available to anyone who wants them.
If you dont read this, not interested, or whatever, if there ever is a get-together of ideas for this planned area, someone feel free to PM me and i'll see if theres anything i can suggest to consider implementing.
Event Management Project
Hey guys,
Its been a while since i've posted on here, but im starting something new and yet quite old, and figured theres probably a handful of people on here who might be interested in getting involved.
The Idea
Years ago I started building a site for the LFS community to help manage and organise events. The intention was to make the whole task much easier to manage, eliminate all the monotonous tasks which are involved, automate things wherever possible, and generally make their jobs so much easier so a tedious 1 hour task becomes a 15 second one.
It's basically there to provide a solid platform for people to run events, manage them without effort, and just let them deal with the things that cant be automated, such as dealing with disputes, writing news, and running the races.
A simple, but key part of the site is calculating the standings each round, something ive seen events big & small screw up along the way. The site would take the race replay (and qual), pull the results, assign everyone their points for that session, then calculate the standings.
Thats all initiated by selecing a MPR file to upload and saying which session its for, and once its uploaded the file it's calculate everything for you. If you think about the manual alternative, writing out the results, tallying up the scores from that race, updating each drivers standings and re-sorting them, and writing it all up to present it. Assuming theres no distractions or mistakes, thats a 1hr task at best.
Throw in additional complications, team standings, or even multiple classes or divisions, its something i'd coded in 3yrs ago, you dont even have to think about it.
Theres also an automated email system, or 'Booking In' system, which contacts the drivers asking them to confirm their participation status (and remind them of that status incase its changed and they've forgotten), reminds them days beforehand, and then anyone who hasnt confirmed their places become available to the waiting list. 24h before the race (or whenever the organiser specifies) all participants are emailed the lineup, time-table, and the server password.
No more forum threads asking people, they can see what events are coming up and confirm them, and receive email reminders for any which are close to deadline and are unconfirmed. Organisers gain by having fuller grids and dont have to go chasing round for info, Drivers benefit by receiving reminders and details sent to them without them needing to go hunt it down, and backup drivers get advanced notice if they're racing.
The idea is to take what we've had for so long now, and do it better, by providing the tools to do precisely the job required, jobs most events do by posting in the forum, such as race calendar, results, rules, standings, race disputes... all these elements will be catered for in a professional & organised manner.
I had started working on a public site where anyone could sign up and build their event on there and manage it with the ease that i did with LFS ProSeries, they just wouldnt have the 9mo+ it took me to build it all.
Right now it already does everything and more thats outlined above (LFSPS had it all back in Feb 2009) its just missing a lot of the behind the scenes admin features for organisers and myself.
Unfortunately i stopped working on that a while back, i'd lost enthusiasm for it because the LFS community just isnt as strong as it was when i first started on it, and for a while nothing happened with it and it got harder to find the motivation for it.
However, i've met a few people after bringing up the idea of modifying this project for another sim community (project CARS) and after some feedback and their enthusiasm its brought my motivation back and we're starting the whole thing from scratch and building it for any racing sim community who wishes to use it. It made no sense to exclude communities, and considering it was the LFS community which has provided me with all my competitive racing experience, and its these organisers who'd given their time for other people to have fun, it just seemed stupid and pointless to exclude them. The whole point of the site is kinda like a 'Thank You' to those guys, and the people who'll run future events like them, as well as making something that greatly benefits the people participating in them as well.
I wanted to do this back in 2004-06, i just didnt have the knowledge to create something worth putting out there.
Where we're at
Right now were at the early planning stages, I obviously have a lot of experience and got about 75% of the way on my own, however were restarting with a stronger foundation, a better core-system which will power the site, and it'll be a considerably better website than i ever could have made it.
Its a community built project for the community, i've got half a dozen people with differing degrees of experience, from professional software developers to trainees who'll benefit from working on a project.
Because its a group project, everyone has ideas and these will help shape what we do, new features to implement which i hadnt considered or simply couldnt do myself which made it impossible. We'll go through each aspect of the site in detail, and discuss what users need, how to present it and how to build it. If theres a good idea, I want to see it implemented when appropriate, and hopefully this will be driven by the whole sim racing community.
How you can help
Im here hoping to find a handful of people who might also be interested in getting involved, its not a full time job, its a bunch of people contributing whenever they can, no deadlines, no hurry to get it done.
Coding: We're looking for people who are comfortable with PHP, HTML, CSS & SQL, an understanding of PHP OOP would be handy too.
Graphics: Anyone handy with graphic design would be a plus, we dont have anything in this dept yet, we'll need a site layout, logos, icons, odds & ends etc.
Others: There might be people who have different skill-sets or other ways they can assist, get in touch and let us know. Im also okay with people who just want to be involved in part of the process and think they can offer assistance with ideas but arent able to help building it.
None of these tasks are intended to be the responsibility of 1 person, hopefully we'll have a few people for each dept chipping in and working together to create something better, bounce ideas of each other, and take the load off each other too.
We have a forum set up for the development: http://esports-online.eu/viewforum.php?f=1
This is where the whole project will be discussed and planned, it'll be a done private developer & contributer only areas, however we'll still be providing regular progress reports and examples of whats happening so that people can follow our progress.
There's some additional information on the forum about the project and helping, if you think you might be interested then get in touch, or if you know someone who might give them a nudge in the right direction.
The more people we have helping, the more opinions & experience we have, and the better the site becomes, which will hopefully benefit everyone.
Paul
p.s. Hopefully this thread will be allowed to stay within the LFS Programmers area, while its not exclusively relevant to LFS, it's of significant benefit to this community, and its the programming folks who this is going to largely speak to, and its not inappropriately dumped here for maximum attention (general area would be better for that).
Its been a while since i've posted on here, but im starting something new and yet quite old, and figured theres probably a handful of people on here who might be interested in getting involved.
The Idea
Years ago I started building a site for the LFS community to help manage and organise events. The intention was to make the whole task much easier to manage, eliminate all the monotonous tasks which are involved, automate things wherever possible, and generally make their jobs so much easier so a tedious 1 hour task becomes a 15 second one.
It's basically there to provide a solid platform for people to run events, manage them without effort, and just let them deal with the things that cant be automated, such as dealing with disputes, writing news, and running the races.
A simple, but key part of the site is calculating the standings each round, something ive seen events big & small screw up along the way. The site would take the race replay (and qual), pull the results, assign everyone their points for that session, then calculate the standings.
Thats all initiated by selecing a MPR file to upload and saying which session its for, and once its uploaded the file it's calculate everything for you. If you think about the manual alternative, writing out the results, tallying up the scores from that race, updating each drivers standings and re-sorting them, and writing it all up to present it. Assuming theres no distractions or mistakes, thats a 1hr task at best.
Throw in additional complications, team standings, or even multiple classes or divisions, its something i'd coded in 3yrs ago, you dont even have to think about it.
Theres also an automated email system, or 'Booking In' system, which contacts the drivers asking them to confirm their participation status (and remind them of that status incase its changed and they've forgotten), reminds them days beforehand, and then anyone who hasnt confirmed their places become available to the waiting list. 24h before the race (or whenever the organiser specifies) all participants are emailed the lineup, time-table, and the server password.
No more forum threads asking people, they can see what events are coming up and confirm them, and receive email reminders for any which are close to deadline and are unconfirmed. Organisers gain by having fuller grids and dont have to go chasing round for info, Drivers benefit by receiving reminders and details sent to them without them needing to go hunt it down, and backup drivers get advanced notice if they're racing.
The idea is to take what we've had for so long now, and do it better, by providing the tools to do precisely the job required, jobs most events do by posting in the forum, such as race calendar, results, rules, standings, race disputes... all these elements will be catered for in a professional & organised manner.
I had started working on a public site where anyone could sign up and build their event on there and manage it with the ease that i did with LFS ProSeries, they just wouldnt have the 9mo+ it took me to build it all.
Right now it already does everything and more thats outlined above (LFSPS had it all back in Feb 2009) its just missing a lot of the behind the scenes admin features for organisers and myself.
Unfortunately i stopped working on that a while back, i'd lost enthusiasm for it because the LFS community just isnt as strong as it was when i first started on it, and for a while nothing happened with it and it got harder to find the motivation for it.
However, i've met a few people after bringing up the idea of modifying this project for another sim community (project CARS) and after some feedback and their enthusiasm its brought my motivation back and we're starting the whole thing from scratch and building it for any racing sim community who wishes to use it. It made no sense to exclude communities, and considering it was the LFS community which has provided me with all my competitive racing experience, and its these organisers who'd given their time for other people to have fun, it just seemed stupid and pointless to exclude them. The whole point of the site is kinda like a 'Thank You' to those guys, and the people who'll run future events like them, as well as making something that greatly benefits the people participating in them as well.
I wanted to do this back in 2004-06, i just didnt have the knowledge to create something worth putting out there.
Where we're at
Right now were at the early planning stages, I obviously have a lot of experience and got about 75% of the way on my own, however were restarting with a stronger foundation, a better core-system which will power the site, and it'll be a considerably better website than i ever could have made it.
Its a community built project for the community, i've got half a dozen people with differing degrees of experience, from professional software developers to trainees who'll benefit from working on a project.
Because its a group project, everyone has ideas and these will help shape what we do, new features to implement which i hadnt considered or simply couldnt do myself which made it impossible. We'll go through each aspect of the site in detail, and discuss what users need, how to present it and how to build it. If theres a good idea, I want to see it implemented when appropriate, and hopefully this will be driven by the whole sim racing community.
How you can help
Im here hoping to find a handful of people who might also be interested in getting involved, its not a full time job, its a bunch of people contributing whenever they can, no deadlines, no hurry to get it done.
Coding: We're looking for people who are comfortable with PHP, HTML, CSS & SQL, an understanding of PHP OOP would be handy too.
Graphics: Anyone handy with graphic design would be a plus, we dont have anything in this dept yet, we'll need a site layout, logos, icons, odds & ends etc.
Others: There might be people who have different skill-sets or other ways they can assist, get in touch and let us know. Im also okay with people who just want to be involved in part of the process and think they can offer assistance with ideas but arent able to help building it.
None of these tasks are intended to be the responsibility of 1 person, hopefully we'll have a few people for each dept chipping in and working together to create something better, bounce ideas of each other, and take the load off each other too.
We have a forum set up for the development: http://esports-online.eu/viewforum.php?f=1
This is where the whole project will be discussed and planned, it'll be a done private developer & contributer only areas, however we'll still be providing regular progress reports and examples of whats happening so that people can follow our progress.
There's some additional information on the forum about the project and helping, if you think you might be interested then get in touch, or if you know someone who might give them a nudge in the right direction.
The more people we have helping, the more opinions & experience we have, and the better the site becomes, which will hopefully benefit everyone.
Paul
p.s. Hopefully this thread will be allowed to stay within the LFS Programmers area, while its not exclusively relevant to LFS, it's of significant benefit to this community, and its the programming folks who this is going to largely speak to, and its not inappropriately dumped here for maximum attention (general area would be better for that).
FullHD video from the GIF image, and a few more scenes added too, absolutely stunning.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmYsvRef964
The Imola cloud at the end looks rather low, not sure if thats because its a big cloud so its deceptive, but it looks odd
Its good that you can see the range which the clouds come into the game though, they're quite a distance away and at normal speed you'll just spot them on the horizon and probably be 10-15min or something before they're with you.
I know while racing, what the clouds are doing isnt that important, but it just looks and feels so much better seeing that. Couple it with weather, and decent length races should be so much fun, i keep thinking how amazing MoE would have been with these sort of features in LFS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmYsvRef964
The Imola cloud at the end looks rather low, not sure if thats because its a big cloud so its deceptive, but it looks odd
Its good that you can see the range which the clouds come into the game though, they're quite a distance away and at normal speed you'll just spot them on the horizon and probably be 10-15min or something before they're with you.
I know while racing, what the clouds are doing isnt that important, but it just looks and feels so much better seeing that. Couple it with weather, and decent length races should be so much fun, i keep thinking how amazing MoE would have been with these sort of features in LFS.
Very disappointed with the dynamic clouds, the ones outside look pathetic now 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PadOtVO3qpI
The 'pop-up' is a little odd, i guess i'd always considered that clouds would roll into the scene, but thats not exactly how it works, hopefully they'll fix it so its not so noticable that a cloud shape appears. Im not sure if the time-lapse makes it worse, it needs to fade into view, im guessing its just not been done yet.
Hell of a job so far anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PadOtVO3qpI
The 'pop-up' is a little odd, i guess i'd always considered that clouds would roll into the scene, but thats not exactly how it works, hopefully they'll fix it so its not so noticable that a cloud shape appears. Im not sure if the time-lapse makes it worse, it needs to fade into view, im guessing its just not been done yet.
Hell of a job so far anyway.
The assists would spoil it, but the devs have said that the server admins will be able to govern what will be allowed in their servers. Whats likely to happen is that the vast majority of servers will run with pretty much all aids removed, almost certainly any which give any advantage.
That doesnt bother me, it'll be a bit like LFS where you quickly get to know what peoples views are, and you know who to look for when you want some action. You just stay out of the 'n00b' servers, just like you'd try and avoid drift & cruise servers in LFS if thats not what your looking for.
I have to admit the driving aids do bother me, and IMO they should be tied into the simulation mode, if your on beginner then slap on all the aids you need to get around, but if your on Pro, then you should only get access to a couple of aids, like auto-clutch & auto-gears (mainly cos they're slower than manual, theres nothing to gain by being lame). Hopefully they'll address this, the problem is they dont want to alienate the casual market, or the die-hard market. They're trying to be considerate of everyone, and give them the game they want it to be, not force 1 opinion on everyone, and say take it or leave it. It just needs honing in.
That doesnt bother me, it'll be a bit like LFS where you quickly get to know what peoples views are, and you know who to look for when you want some action. You just stay out of the 'n00b' servers, just like you'd try and avoid drift & cruise servers in LFS if thats not what your looking for.
I have to admit the driving aids do bother me, and IMO they should be tied into the simulation mode, if your on beginner then slap on all the aids you need to get around, but if your on Pro, then you should only get access to a couple of aids, like auto-clutch & auto-gears (mainly cos they're slower than manual, theres nothing to gain by being lame). Hopefully they'll address this, the problem is they dont want to alienate the casual market, or the die-hard market. They're trying to be considerate of everyone, and give them the game they want it to be, not force 1 opinion on everyone, and say take it or leave it. It just needs honing in.
The forum isnt great, certainly for someone who isnt a paid up member trying to get a better understanding, but most of the information a non-member would need to know is in the public areas.
Not sure 'attitude' is the intended word, otherwise i'd very much disagree with you on that. But in terms of limiting access, if they made everything available at the €10 price point, there'd be little incentive to upgrade. As it is, €10 still gets you a lot, and in terms of access right now, your missing out on a couple of tracks & cars, and only 1 build a month, but your still getting access to the development process, and while not as frequent as the €25+ folk still getting updated features as they're implemented.
The fact that even if you decide you dont want to buy pCARS upon release, you've had a rare opportunity to see the industry working on a genre thats of real interest to you, and if thats not worth €10, theres a pretty good chance you'll get that €10 back from sales.
So whatever your investment, you stand to get a decent chunk of it back, not to mention its also knocked off the cost of the retail version (€45).
Im particularly tight for cash, the amount of money ive spent (on anything, incl bills) this year wouldnt even make a 10yr old on pocket money jealous! I still think its a great thing to get involved in though.
If people want to try it for free, there'll be a demo for that, if you want to be involved, and help the project financially and with feedback, you can get involved. AFAIK I cant play iRacing without handing over money, and thats been out for years.
I think you get a lot for €10, even with a few cars & tracks missing along the way, its still a lot of game your seeing, and more. If you think you should have more then fair enough its a difference of opinions, i think its pretty good though, it was enough to get me to invest more and there wasnt any locked cars/tracks then. I wouldnt have paid €45 if that was the entry price.
Not sure 'attitude' is the intended word, otherwise i'd very much disagree with you on that. But in terms of limiting access, if they made everything available at the €10 price point, there'd be little incentive to upgrade. As it is, €10 still gets you a lot, and in terms of access right now, your missing out on a couple of tracks & cars, and only 1 build a month, but your still getting access to the development process, and while not as frequent as the €25+ folk still getting updated features as they're implemented.
The fact that even if you decide you dont want to buy pCARS upon release, you've had a rare opportunity to see the industry working on a genre thats of real interest to you, and if thats not worth €10, theres a pretty good chance you'll get that €10 back from sales.
So whatever your investment, you stand to get a decent chunk of it back, not to mention its also knocked off the cost of the retail version (€45).
Im particularly tight for cash, the amount of money ive spent (on anything, incl bills) this year wouldnt even make a 10yr old on pocket money jealous! I still think its a great thing to get involved in though.
If people want to try it for free, there'll be a demo for that, if you want to be involved, and help the project financially and with feedback, you can get involved. AFAIK I cant play iRacing without handing over money, and thats been out for years.
I think you get a lot for €10, even with a few cars & tracks missing along the way, its still a lot of game your seeing, and more. If you think you should have more then fair enough its a difference of opinions, i think its pretty good though, it was enough to get me to invest more and there wasnt any locked cars/tracks then. I wouldnt have paid €45 if that was the entry price.
As above, plus... if they were adding this new content with the intention of selling more copies now, why arent they advertising it on the homepage? They've announced Ford is coming, Formula Gulf & Raupuna, Mitsu, some more Lotus classics, and 4 British laser scanned tracks.
There was a handful of near finished *looking* tracks a few months back like Donington, Hock, Mugello, Brno, Catalunia etc but theres also been WIP ones like Suzuka & Laguna Seca which seemed to be near complete within weeks. Plus WIP ones that will probably take quite a while to get right, like Monaco, Nordschleife & Le Mans, because of the scale of the task to get it right.
I have to say though, if getting access to an very rough draft of a track, is enough to draw people in and contribute to the development, and they're not happy that its a rough draft and feel cheated... who's fault is that? Nobody is remotely suggesting its anything like finished, and if people dont understand the process and you paid your money anyway, maybe its a lesson to check what your spending money on before doing so.
To me, this is a lot like being in LFS from the beginning, seeing things unfold and come to life, except were getting to see a lot more than you typically see with any other game, you do see the good and the bad, but that also gives you faith in the product when the problems are quickly dealt with. Its the nature of the project, and IMO its worth €10 to see how it all happens, the whole process, and to have a small say in shaping its direction and implementing ideas that other games dont have.
For example - Im hoping to get them to implement racing number plates, where the game places a 'decal' onto your car in a set location, and puts your assigned race number onto it. On top of that, i've suggested adding driver name & flags, and even ident colours, which would essentially be a skin with fluorescent yellow/orange/green/blue etc pieces that would distinguish 1 identical car skin from another, like you see in F1 where one driver has a Yellow T-bar, the other has orange.
With all the above, you'd never need to create individual driver skins for a team, You'd make 1 design, and the skin would be customised by driver name, flag, and chosen number, plus the ident colour if desired (i'd have it as an RGB 256 colour slider or something).
Its nothing major, but its a good idea. Not only does it save time for skinners making duplicates, it also means everyone else only has to download 1 skin, not 6 because theres 6 variations of it in the server. Its also good for realism, customisation, and its a unique selling point (small USP, but they all add up).
There was a handful of near finished *looking* tracks a few months back like Donington, Hock, Mugello, Brno, Catalunia etc but theres also been WIP ones like Suzuka & Laguna Seca which seemed to be near complete within weeks. Plus WIP ones that will probably take quite a while to get right, like Monaco, Nordschleife & Le Mans, because of the scale of the task to get it right.
I have to say though, if getting access to an very rough draft of a track, is enough to draw people in and contribute to the development, and they're not happy that its a rough draft and feel cheated... who's fault is that? Nobody is remotely suggesting its anything like finished, and if people dont understand the process and you paid your money anyway, maybe its a lesson to check what your spending money on before doing so.
To me, this is a lot like being in LFS from the beginning, seeing things unfold and come to life, except were getting to see a lot more than you typically see with any other game, you do see the good and the bad, but that also gives you faith in the product when the problems are quickly dealt with. Its the nature of the project, and IMO its worth €10 to see how it all happens, the whole process, and to have a small say in shaping its direction and implementing ideas that other games dont have.
For example - Im hoping to get them to implement racing number plates, where the game places a 'decal' onto your car in a set location, and puts your assigned race number onto it. On top of that, i've suggested adding driver name & flags, and even ident colours, which would essentially be a skin with fluorescent yellow/orange/green/blue etc pieces that would distinguish 1 identical car skin from another, like you see in F1 where one driver has a Yellow T-bar, the other has orange.
With all the above, you'd never need to create individual driver skins for a team, You'd make 1 design, and the skin would be customised by driver name, flag, and chosen number, plus the ident colour if desired (i'd have it as an RGB 256 colour slider or something).
Its nothing major, but its a good idea. Not only does it save time for skinners making duplicates, it also means everyone else only has to download 1 skin, not 6 because theres 6 variations of it in the server. Its also good for realism, customisation, and its a unique selling point (small USP, but they all add up).
Theres some updated weather pics on the forum, with the rooster-tail spray.
http://forum.wmdportal.com/att ... id=32221&d=1342000149 (members only)
Obviously WIP, and thats all thats implemented, but it looks nice.
http://forum.wmdportal.com/att ... id=32221&d=1342000149 (members only)
Obviously WIP, and thats all thats implemented, but it looks nice.
It gets said over and over on the pCARS forum, and i dont quite get how people get confused by it.
The people who build tracks and vehicles will NEVER be involved in coding FFB, Physics, MP, or similar areas. Its not their area of expertise.
They release early revisions of tracks because thats what they have and sometimes they need input. The Nordschleife isnt exactly a piece of cake, and just because theres no trees, hills, and the odd building along the way, doesnt mean it cant be driven. A few people who know the track well enough have already made comments about elements which arent quite right with their GPS data, and it can only make it more accurate with feedback from people with the right knowledge.
The other areas are already being worked on separately, and they'll continue to get better and more realistic. I just take heart from work they've done in other areas to believe they'll go to the same extent to do these areas properly, and in good time, not rush it and take shortcuts because people want launch quality elements a year ahead of its release.
Ive been impressed with it for the 4-5 months ive been on there, it brings back all the good memories from 10 years ago when LFS was starting up, the fact that it felt like every day something new was being implemented and there was some community involvement. Its easy to have regular progress when its so early in the development (so was LFS) but the whole things brings back positive memories, memories which sadly had been replaced by those of waiting years for any sign of progress, 6 months for any kind of indication that there was progress.
I cant judge FFB and physics, i drive what feels drivable. I didnt like the feel of rFactor or iRacing, yet i like LFS and pCARS (not to say they feel similar), so ive enjoyed it from day 1 to be honest.
What really makes my jaw drop is the effort they've put into the weather & lighting system, its amazing. Being able to pick any day of the year, and a time of day, and know the sun will set at the realistic location as it would that day IRL. Its silly, and wont make that much difference to racing, just like individually rendered clouds on different layers, but i still find it amazing. They could use a dome, instead they created something as realistic as is feasible. If they make the same effort with the FFB, Phys, MP code etc, as they have with the lighting & weather, it should be something special. The cars & tracks are certainly stunning.
Also, havent seen it mentioned, but the Nordschleife/Eifelwald track isnt available to the Junior license, its Team Members+ same as the 2 country road tracks. Dont want people signing up for the €10 account only to find they cant try it unless they pay more again.
I cant judge FFB and physics, i drive what feels drivable. I didnt like the feel of rFactor or iRacing, yet i like LFS and pCARS (not to say they feel similar), so ive enjoyed it from day 1 to be honest.
What really makes my jaw drop is the effort they've put into the weather & lighting system, its amazing. Being able to pick any day of the year, and a time of day, and know the sun will set at the realistic location as it would that day IRL. Its silly, and wont make that much difference to racing, just like individually rendered clouds on different layers, but i still find it amazing. They could use a dome, instead they created something as realistic as is feasible. If they make the same effort with the FFB, Phys, MP code etc, as they have with the lighting & weather, it should be something special. The cars & tracks are certainly stunning.
Also, havent seen it mentioned, but the Nordschleife/Eifelwald track isnt available to the Junior license, its Team Members+ same as the 2 country road tracks. Dont want people signing up for the €10 account only to find they cant try it unless they pay more again.
blimey, an old thread
I ended up winning a nice Sony Vaio laptop from the beta test they ran too. Topped both the competitions (Most $$ won, £17k with £100 starting pot over 7 days, and i dont do the horses or even gamble!, and betting in the most races, could only claim 1 prize, which meant the other main prize went to Widdowmaker who's been on here since the beginning too, iirc he won a Wii.).
One fun part of it all was meeting Widdow and going down to Kingsgate upon Thames with him where Harino (the beta) was being run from, and seeing a lot of familar scenery, including a recently built Odeon cinema
Harino were based directly behind the train station which was more prominant before the S2 update (new pitlane).
Nice to see someone got a job from this thread too
I ended up winning a nice Sony Vaio laptop from the beta test they ran too. Topped both the competitions (Most $$ won, £17k with £100 starting pot over 7 days, and i dont do the horses or even gamble!
, and betting in the most races, could only claim 1 prize, which meant the other main prize went to Widdowmaker who's been on here since the beginning too, iirc he won a Wii.).One fun part of it all was meeting Widdow and going down to Kingsgate upon Thames with him where Harino (the beta) was being run from, and seeing a lot of familar scenery, including a recently built Odeon cinema
Harino were based directly behind the train station which was more prominant before the S2 update (new pitlane).Nice to see someone got a job from this thread too
The open tracks should have been done years ago, always wanted them, never actually thought of there being an issue with all the enviroment being built/displayed.
Not fussed about new race track layouts, i just think it'll be great fun for Cops & Robbers, its always been pretty limited in its options in the past, all but KY would make for excelent C&R venues.
SO & AS will have tons of routes, BL & FE will have offroad sections which should be fun, KY's overlap of layouts will lead to sections with no route option for 2min stretches, whereas the others should have lots of frequent route changes, hence more open gameplay.
Could get pretty chaotic, hopefully some servers will pop up like Cruise ones offering C&R mode, but i always found C&R fun but sadly too restricted to make it more enjoyable, but one of those fun past times which LFS was open to, which you just dont get in any other racing sim... the freedom to do as you please.
Not fussed about new race track layouts, i just think it'll be great fun for Cops & Robbers, its always been pretty limited in its options in the past, all but KY would make for excelent C&R venues.
SO & AS will have tons of routes, BL & FE will have offroad sections which should be fun, KY's overlap of layouts will lead to sections with no route option for 2min stretches, whereas the others should have lots of frequent route changes, hence more open gameplay.
Could get pretty chaotic, hopefully some servers will pop up like Cruise ones offering C&R mode, but i always found C&R fun but sadly too restricted to make it more enjoyable, but one of those fun past times which LFS was open to, which you just dont get in any other racing sim... the freedom to do as you please.
Gran Turismo Platinum Trophy
Gran Turismo 5
Earn every single Gran Turismo 5 trophy.
January 30, 2011, 11:49 pm
http://www.yourgamercards.net/profiles/paulc2k/2
I've got Gold Standard, so all events in 'Spec', License and Special events.
Monza is easy peasy, Nurburgring is a bit of a ballache and Suzuka is one tough cookie.
My advice: Get used to the car with auto gears, 1-2 TC, 1 ABS, steering/stability based aids on. You should be able to silver with that, but once you've got to grips with the car take the 3 stability aids off because they're limiting your steering and/or speed a bit.
Completed the LeMans 24h in A-Spec yesterday, did it over 4 days and although it does drag a little it was still a lot of fun, first few hours were probably the worst, by about 12hr in i'd kinda got into the mood better and stopped looking at it as being a boring grind and enjoyed it, which helped otherwise your just watching the clock and it'll feel longer. B-Spec was completed before Xmas, hope they extend that cos it was a lot of fun IMO, watched the majority of all races while still being able to get some work done at the same time, 787B was my fav for watching endurances with and gave some great close races too. X1 was only used lightly when i knew i wouldnt be able to put much time into bossing Bob about.
Just need to do the 24h race another 4 times and should hear the ping of a platinum. Had hoped the XP for winning the 24h LeMans would require less repeats, but hey-ho, doubt i'll be completing it by the end of this month now.
oh yeah, and the X1 is one hell of a car, it can do 90mph around the Carousell for goodness sake! Around Nordschliefe 130mph is the slowest it gets for the most part, probably average is around 200mph, and its just one hell of a ride.
Here it is gents... 3 release dates, not one of them making any sense, not one of them even remotely accurate is my guess
They've listed 4 sets of dates in that story:
Black Friday is the 26th, so its hardly for Black Friday is it. Its AFTER black friday. Oh well, whatever.
Italy on the 30th though, thats also weird, given that Europe release on Wedesdays.
So EU ('included Italy'!?) is the 26th now, a Friday... normally they release on Wednesdays as already pointed out.
US on Saturday.... what nonsense (usually Tuesdays)
UK on Tuesday (normally Friday)
4 different dates for 1 rumour, the only matching date confirming US for a Saturday release!
However IGN UK unsatisfied with apparently stating those 3 dates have also triple tweeted the following (http://twitter.com/IGN_UK in readable order, not most recent first)
So which is it IGN UK?? Friday, Saturday, Tuesday??? They've stated 3 dates, one which is it right now? Thursday?
Put like that its a bit boring, but ive always played GT for its single player aspect. Technically i never bought GT5P so it'd be harder to play the previous versions for there online aspects, but i've always played GT for offline fun, LFS for online. If LFS had an offline mode which was similar to GT then GT wouldnt be as important to me, likewise if GT was as good as LFS for most things then i wouldnt care so much about LFS. GT satisfies one area, LFS used to do that for the other.
GT4 got boring quick for me when my 2nd or 3rd purchase was an Merc SLR, after that it unlocked the gateway to any car, any competition... money was just a case of doing whatever event.
Older versions needed some slogging to just buy an upgrade which barely made a difference except helped you finish 3rd more frequently than 4th-5th, then you'd move up from sunday cup and a shopping trolly of a car, to something a bit more credable and eventually you'd be able to pick up a cheap racey car like a Lotus. I miss those days of slogging, it meant working hard to get the top cars, rather than taking the easy route of winning a few races and hording the cash to buy a supercar and removing any challenge the game had from it.
I understand different people have different wants, but an easy free-for-all isnt what i'd want personally, and this level thing sounds like that might be what holds me back with the slower cars till ive actually earned the right to drive the supercars. I want to play out a career, not win the lottery buying anything, racing anywhere. Hopefully the game allows people to play it how they want.
Playing GT5 B-Spec via web browser on PC while at work/school, possibly on mobile browser on the go... Running a team of upto 6 drivers, training them, using their specific abilities to select a line-up for endurance events, and watching the races unfold... I say it sounds like fun to me.
The non-PS3 aspect of B-Spec seems really clever, being able to control things away from the console etc. But i would assume the console needs to be running and obviously online, and while there may be 24hr events which are run at real time and being able to check in and see how things are going whilst working, shopping, and the rest of the stuff that stops you from playing does seem kinda handy, but it would equally seem a bit of a shame if you spent a lot of the GT5 gametime playing it from the office on some browser based app, even if it was like LFS Remote or live tracker, rather than playing it in person, just to complete races to win events and finish the game faster as opposed to finishing the game properly.
The integration of it does sound very impressive though, and it'd be great if we started to see more games do something similar and it pushed developers to go one step further each time. It certainly beats games having integration for Facebook just so on your page pops "SadBastard has just done something on some crap game, and he's so lonely he needs to tell people he's never met about it" just so they can spam social networking sites with their game.
I want to add that i LOL'd at that, pity he never saw the sarcasm first time round really
The non-PS3 aspect of B-Spec seems really clever, being able to control things away from the console etc. But i would assume the console needs to be running and obviously online, and while there may be 24hr events which are run at real time and being able to check in and see how things are going whilst working, shopping, and the rest of the stuff that stops you from playing does seem kinda handy, but it would equally seem a bit of a shame if you spent a lot of the GT5 gametime playing it from the office on some browser based app, even if it was like LFS Remote or live tracker, rather than playing it in person, just to complete races to win events and finish the game faster as opposed to finishing the game properly.
The integration of it does sound very impressive though, and it'd be great if we started to see more games do something similar and it pushed developers to go one step further each time. It certainly beats games having integration for Facebook just so on your page pops "SadBastard has just done something on some crap game, and he's so lonely he needs to tell people he's never met about it" just so they can spam social networking sites with their game.
I want to add that i LOL'd at that, pity he never saw the sarcasm first time round really
Yeah, i realised the issue the next day or something, i just couldnt quite work out what i was supposed to be looking out for at the time.
I havent kept up with things in here, but has anyone mentioned the F1 sites technical report on the Red Bull wing done almost immediately after Hungary?
http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2010/835/780.html
Surely that last bit is absolute nonsense? The same weekend the FIA came out with the following:
So the FIA have now change the rules to allow them to test upto 100kg, the F1 site claims RB have had their wings tested at 200kg and it cleared, and yet everyone can see with their own eyes how much that front wing bows under load.
Surely the F1 site is talking out of its rectum? I dont see why they'd test it at 4x the limit, or how the hell it'd pass either. If it was and did, then whats the point of the F1 going to 100kg when clearly 200kg isnt enough to highlight what the RB wing is doing?? It all seems odd.
http://www.gtplanet.net/gamesc ... out-session-full-details/
Its all on there, theres quite a lot said about it, infact it sounds f*cking epic, so read it from there (amongst all the other info from Tuesdays chat) as the photos explain some things.
They've got by far the best write-up of it all by a country mile, and didnt go leaking everything while everyone else around them was.
Its the opinion of someone who proclaims it as fact and then later proves that he hasnt even bothered to spend 5min reading about what he's preaching about!
How can you make statements saying its not what GT5 needs when you havent got a bloody clue what your talking about because your too ignorant to go read about it, thats not an opinion, that just pulling pre-determined crap out of thin air. Its impossible to have a valued opinion on anything you know nothing about, and your comments proved that.
Some new photos released on GTPlanet, including kart renders:
http://www.gtplanet.net/63-stu ... ns-classics-zonda-r-more/
Last one is Toscana btw. Those classic cars just look amazing, theres a couple more on there and they look jawdroppingly good. Not really bothered about historical cars, but cant help but admit how good an image they make around there.
http://www.gtplanet.net/63-stu ... ns-classics-zonda-r-more/
Last one is Toscana btw. Those classic cars just look amazing, theres a couple more on there and they look jawdroppingly good. Not really bothered about historical cars, but cant help but admit how good an image they make around there.
They had 2 locations available to demo the creation tool, and i've yet to read anyone comment on Toscana.
The Belgian Fens is basically the Spa region, and as we all know from the many races around Spa its a lot like Vegas you cant move for things! Its certainly not tree after tree after tree, with a pokey little hut every few miles
As for Toscana, its a very open countryside venue, as seen in the Rally clips and most notably the day-night cycle videos.
The main benefit for the course maker is probably going to be for the folks who love rallying, because the tool isnt a full blown editor but a bunch of features which the user has control over, things like frequency of corners, how aggresive they are, altitude changes... stuff like that, and each stage can be customised in that respect (so you can have twisty sectors, and high speed sectors, a lot like Nordschleife). It doesnt sound like you can customise each corner, or populate areas, its basically a track generator (course maker), rather than a track editor/creator.
A full blown editor would have been great, and a lot like in LBP there will be some absolute rubbish, but the great content will find its way to the top, but sadly it a largely automated tool, which is why i think its going to be the rallying folks, and people who crave mountain courses to cruise around. But as you say, Westhill isnt exactly Monaco, nor is Aston, but it doesnt stop them from being challenging tracks. They've had thought put into the layout, which a auto-generated track wont have, but im sure they'll be fun for many people. Some folks will do lap after lap of the green hell, some will want a constant supply of new tracks.
Then if you havent bothered reading to understand what it is, how the hell can you come in here and start telling people its not what GT5 needs??
Go bloody read about something your going to mindlessly slag off, then come back and moan, dont just be lazy and decide your going to insult it based on your own ignorance.
And why is a track editor not what GT5 needs? and who are you to decide anyway? I couldnt give a crap about driving go karts, nor NASCAR, but i happen to think there are plenty of people who do care and they'll appreciate that. Just because something isnt to your taste doesnt mean it is devoid of value to others.
Attitudes like yours really piss me off.
yeah, they must have something similar in Madrid too as its in the opening scene of Vantage Point iirc.
Very odd though, its hardly a track and makes nascar look a challenge
I think most tracks have kart circuits on the land, so hopefully these will be included on a couple of them, and maybe 1 international standard venue like the one i thought it might be. But as long as there are tracks intended for karts then it'll be fine, it'd be daft if they're just town squares with a barrier in the middle, or driving round London, Rome, Madrid etc with a 100cc kart. It'd be like having NASCAR cars and not having an oval or 2 which is where they operate at their best.
Very odd though, its hardly a track and makes nascar look a challenge
I think most tracks have kart circuits on the land, so hopefully these will be included on a couple of them, and maybe 1 international standard venue like the one i thought it might be. But as long as there are tracks intended for karts then it'll be fine, it'd be daft if they're just town squares with a barrier in the middle, or driving round London, Rome, Madrid etc with a 100cc kart. It'd be like having NASCAR cars and not having an oval or 2 which is where they operate at their best.
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG