We posted a complete status report on the Mod’s progress on our website. This also includes the first two pictures of the Ligier ingame. Obviously the car is also still work in progress.
Another article in the series of anecdotes and stories we find around the year 1994, while researching for the mod. We all know that Honda has a certain relationship to Formula 1 Racing, but people only know about the rise and fall of Honda F1 Racing in the last couple of years and perhaps also the phase in the 1960s when they have already been involved in Formula 1.
However, Honda has been on the verge of joining the sport more often than they actually did. In 1999, they bought a chassis from Dallara and made some first tests under the direction of Harvey Postlethwaite. Nevertheless, the project never got beyond that test drive, which was performed by Jos Verstappen, as Postlethwaite died from a heart attack. Honda instead decided to rejoin Formula 1 as engine supplier, joined BAR and you all know about the rest.
Today, though, I stumbled over the story of the Honda RC100, which was supposed to enter F1 in 1993 after Honda’s withdrawal as engine supplier. It was developed without official Honda-backing, but with acknowledged by the company. The first car was completed at the end of 1992 and was due to enter in the next season, but unfortunately, the car didn’t survive the crash test. This is why the car was evolved and they eventually did succeed to do some testing in Suzuka with Saturo Nakajima as their driver. However, he destroyed the car in the crash, so no further testing was possible.
What has this got to do with our mod? Honda still developed the car and the RC101B was ready for the first public test session at Suzuka in – you guessed it – 1994. After the test, though, Honda decided to concentrate on their CART program and it’s not known what actually happened to the car afterwards.
Now just imagine what kind of effect it would have on today’s Formula One world where one of the most important topics is whether manufacturers are good F1 or not.
Thanks to Nuppiz for bringing this story to my attention.
Sources:
Wikipedia: Honda RC100
Forix: Honda’s After-Hours project
F1Review Blog: A Honda ama a F1 e vai voltar, ô se vai
Several months ago, when SimRaceway was just announced, many Modders, including CTDP withdrew their support of the platform due to a lack of communication from SRW. It’s predecessor rFactorCentral was dying a slow death and something new was required. However with SRW knocking themselves out of the picture, the question arose, what kind of replacement could possibly come up. This was before rF-Planet or any other ideas were begun.
At that time, early august, I was discussing with many people about such a new Mod Database. I elaborated on some of the ideas we pitched in my post the other day. We weren’t sure if somebody in the community would step up and deliver such a system. Often I felt the community kind of worships the guy working out a community homepage, rightfully as far as he had a great idea to start with. But sometimes the community acts as a gatekeeper, locking out people with other ideas. A homepage is not a big deal and a system like rFactorCentral is quite simple with some planing .
So my base theories were, that such a system could be implemented fast, using the right tools, that it could be easy to maintain.
I kinda felt motivated to proof the point, that such a website is nothing to be in awe about. It’s an application the important thing is the quality and the planing that goes into it.
(more…)
The other day we talked about some technical solutions to implement an Alternative Mod Database similar to the late rFactorCentral. While the technology is important and makes or breaks a projects, there are other aspects, which to have be kept in mind when considering such a project. I’d call it the philosophy or the spirit behind the project. (more…)
Work on Ferrari is continueing. This is one of the last cars. It was originally painted by Mike Seymour and his work was recently picked up by James ‘Juluka’ Bendy.
Actually there is a story. When we were reassigning the car both Juluka and Raül ‘Raülongo’ wanted to paint the car. Juluka described the tough negotiations this way:
After a hard bargain and exchange of goods, Raül has graceously allowed me to continue with he upscale of the red car …
I get his friend’s black and white cat, … he gets my Blackberry, I get his iPhone, … he gets my 1995 Jeep Wrangler (he has to get it across the Atlantic though) … and he gets My Chicago Blackhawks Hockey Jersey … I could not get his guitar from him …
Cheers Raül … thanks
Now for the car 
As elaborated in the last post, CTDP had a few reasonable doubts when SimRaceWay opened and we took the cautious way. This post is not about SRW, but about ideas it inspired. Today I will focus on some technical starting points, tomorrow we take a look at some philosophies involved in such a Modding platform and the day after tomorrow I will present a starting concept I worked on last year, but didn’t continue.
rFactorCentral rightfully was a great site for browsing through the vast amounts of Mods this community has to offer. It was great to search for the series you like, to browse, to stay informed, to find surprises. As rFc is a living zombie today and SRW not being able to fill the void left behind. Me and many others wondered, what could possibly fill this position. The rFactor Community is in a stale situation right now, as everybody is waiting for news about the successor rFactor2, so the loss isn’t big right now. Rob provides great news with his VirtualR.net blog. Still the need and the benefits from an extensive Mod Database are still there and so I’d like to present some ideas I collected talking with people from various Modding teams, from the community and some outsiders.
Personally, we decided not pursue these ideas, as we are focused on Modding and the community needs more people than us to step up and realize good ideas. So even though we know we don’t want to be the one implementing them, I thing it’s worth spreading those ideas.
Obviously many of my considerations in this and the upcoming articles are centered very much on the perspective of Modders. Excuse this subjectivity, but as this is a blog about Modding this is all too natural.
The only alternative developed so far is rFactorPlanet. Frank is nice guy and did a good job recreating the basics you would expect from such a site. He doesn’t necessarily envisions the same things I’d expect from such software. This is fine, pluralism is great and there is room for others.
I spoke with several people about the technical site and the expectations in such a system. The latter are a different topic, but about the technical realization, we found several solutions, which could deliver good results in a reasonable amount of time. The first step would be deciding on the software and see what possibilities there are to implement a Modding Database.
In my discussions I found there are three approaches, which could be used. Each has different requirements, for example in required technical skills ranging from either program something on your own, or to see if you can use something of the shelf.
Each approach has it’s own merits and advantages. This only takes a look at the technical realization, not about the way it is run. The philosophy of such a project – the range, the spirit and the ethics are a whole different story.
I will leave with just this rough overview for the technical directions you can take, I will elaborate on one solution in more depth later. Tomorrow we continue looking at the philosophies you can pursue on such a platform. This covers a look at the interest groups, interaction with the community and some commercial considerations.
So far CTDP never used this Development Blog to discuss the politics of the SimRacing community. One of the big examples in the past year was SimRaceWay. We would have liked to close the file by now, but unfortunately SRW keeps hitting us on the nose.
CTDP on SRW in Nov 2009
Let’s rewind to summer last year. SimRaceWay was announced as commercial replacement for the aging rFactorCentral. Being barely moderated and discontinued, it could have been a nice restart, however the commercial aspects of the site raised questions. Were Mods driven in commercial Races? What is the business model of SRW? And most simple question, do they make money on Modders free work? Direct contact failed and the responses in their forums were often only vague formulaic answers. CTDP among other Modders were cautious and decided to withdraw their Mods from the upcoming site. We wanted to wait till the thing is launched and the site is running before participating. After all SRW had many good ideas and quite some potential if done right.
After our withdrawal, more Modding groups joined and it escalated in a boycott of the new website. I can’t say how many Modders actually went through with it. SRW didn’t make it easy.
CTDP on SRW in Jan 2010
The new site was supposed to launch in early September, but apparently technical problems postponed it and the powers that be decided to only invite a fraction of the user base. Even if not intentionally, it was a great move, because no Modder could log in to see if his wish of removal of his Mods could be checked. Once CTDP had access it was clear, that our mods have not been taken down as requested (and are even available in the HTML-source to this day).
This is were the annoying part begins. Modders wanted to get a clear picture of what is to be expected of the new SRW. Their free work will be integrated on the website in a commercial context and driven in events, so I think this is a valid question. Instead of embracing the question in a respectable manner, SRW locked down and to this day prefers to act behind the Modders back. By having our Mods on their website, and by readding them every couple of weeks, after we request to take them down, SRW brought themself in a position where CTDP is fed up. As I said we were cautious when the site launched and we wanted to give it a chance to proof itself and its potential. We were not malevolent, and we did not have outrageous demands except for knowing how our work is being used. By ignoring our request to remove the mod from the platform, SRW keeps opening this issue over and over again. I could imagine we would have found an agreement by now, however by repeatedly hitting us over the head this way, SRW is obstructing any chance by their own hand.
CTDP on SRW in Feb 2010
Browsing SRW is not a bad experience. Despite some technical issues and the slow speed, they incorporated many good ideas. The site is not bad and I’m sure there is common ground. We always said we would revise our decision once the picture is clear, but the way SRW keeps disrespecting the decision we have taken so far, they don’t make it easy to reconsider. This is not a way to make us change our mind and certainly don’t make us friends. On the contrary it is disrespecting our work, downright annoying and legal steps are already being considered.
Is a little respect towards each other to much to ask?
Update 27 Feb 2010 – 12:36 GMT: SRW has reacted by taking down the linked Mods. The open question is for how long…
This is a short one as I’m still during my exams (next one in 2 hours). Marco doesn’t give me the chance to post WIPs of his work very often, but as every car is pretty much done by him anyway, that’s fine. Here is a small WIP-shot of Ferrari who just got modeled grills on the sidepod. Ferrari is one of the last cars, that are being worked on, most others are stuck in review quere, which is on hold as long as I have to learn Math.
Last chance to take a look at the Ligier before the car goes ingame. Andy has been working, among other things on the details of the Ligier. Since the last WIP-shot all jointlines and holes have been added to the car. Note the fully modeled engine, which can be spotted through the cooling of the sidepod. The textures still sport some of the guides I lay out for Andy to make some positioning easier for him. One example is the fuel-opening.
Next station will be ingame.
Small status update. I get lost in my exams the next few weeks while Andy continues preparing cars for ingame.
Andy worked on Ligier last week and worked on some changes as we reported. These changes required some texture updates to continue. As I’m a bit out of the picture at the moment these changes are postponed for 1-2 weeks. In the meantime Andy picked up Jordan, which I reviewed and cleared last week.
Andy’s procedure is roughly this: He gets the models, which were done by Marco in zModeler and ports them to Maya, where he reworks all necessary parts to optimize the car for rFactor. This includes smoothing some edges and reworking all normals to improve the surface lighting on the cars. This is very important to get proper lighting and especially reflections on the car ingame later.
Here is a small animation showing the differences in the model before and after his tweaks. Often this requires some small remapping afterwards, this hasn’t been done yet and will follow the next few days.
This is the raw car so far without any joint lines, more work for Andy.