The F1 1994 project involves a lot of investigation and research, mainly on sponsors because high quality photos are rare to non-existent. A lot of guesswork is needed and often a little luck. During our research, we often stumble upon little anecdotes we like to share with you guys. For example, we talked about the various small logos on the Minardi that were quite hard to find.

One particular sponsor on the Simtek has been following us for over two years now. It’s been on the rear wing endplates only at the Pacific Grand Prix; we had numerous photos but none of them were good enough to decipher the company behind the logo. We contacted the former driver David Brabham about it and he couldn’t help us in this case. We even mentioned it in a devblog article and posted it on numerous forums but no one was able to help us.

Until last week.

The guys at F1 Rejects love everything that is bad, funny, mysterious or embarassing in the world of Formula One and one of the members contacted a Japanese friend of his about the matter – two years after we posted the request! And he came up with an incredible result: what we thought could be Eastside Roccs, Sastiana Pocos, Mastana Pocos etc. turned out to be Marutama Foods. And even better, we were provided with a good photo of the logo.

Well, it’s only a very small part of the mod that none of you guys would even pay attention to – I guess., but for us (especially for me as I’m painting the Simtek), it’s the story we will remember for a long long time I think.

… on May 1st 2010, we released the first version of rfDynHUD, a plugin for rFactor that allowed to display and customize your own on screen widgets. Today rfDynHUD is open source and can be extended by everyone. Later that month, we also released the first iteration of our DDS Utilities.

… in May 2009 we were in heavy discussions and lay some foundations about a new project, that was going to be the Superleague Formula Game 2009. The hot phase of development was August to October and it was released in late November.

… on May 1st 2009 we released the beta of Bahrain V2 for rFactor. Debs surprised us with this new version a few weeks earlier and gave us his legacy. We released this track as beta, but it was surprisingly bugfree and amazing to drive, so we never released a follow-up. Today we are lucking for talents who help to convert the track to rFactor2.

… in May 2008 we were at full speed to finish the F1-2006 mod. All cars were finished, Safety-Car was just being done and a long ordeal of testing and improving was about to begin. The mod was released in December that year. May was the last month in discussions about a proposed GP2 2007 mod, that never saw the light of day.

… in May 2007, we were working on cars such as RedBull and BMW for the F1-2006 mod. We discussed a Formula Nippon mod, but decided against it.

…on May 1st 2006, with Bahrain V1 for rFactor CTDP released their first featured track and the first CTDP release for rFactor. Meanwhile, first models for the F1-2006 mod were created and the rFactor conversion of the F1-2005 mod was being prepared. This would be the first major F1 mod for rFactor featuring multiple cars, physics in a state-of-the-art quality.

… in May 2005, the F1-2005 mod for F1Challenge was already at full steam. The mod would be released later that year in November 2005 and to this day would be the last F1 season mod to be finished within the same year.

… in May 2004 we have been working on the F1-2004 mod and F1-1998 mod for F1Challenge. Both would be released later that year. Gee, modding was a lot simpler back then.

…in May 2003, after several single car releases, somebody got the idea of creating a full-scale mod of F1-season 2003 for F1-2002, to be released later that year. The modding group TDG folded and members joined us, bringing with them the idea of the F1-1994 mod.

… in May 2002, preperations were done to create and release selected single cars and a 1995 mod for GrandPrix4.

…in May 2001 – CTDP was founded by some German modders with too much time on their hands, who liked F1 cars and decided to release some updates for games such as F1-2002 and GrandPrix4.
While many people came and went, some members in the core have been with the team for all this time and we are grateful to everyone who helped us in our endeavors and who enjoyed our work.

… on May 1st 2012, we present you some new screenshots of the upcoming International Formula Master 2009 mod for rFactor2.

CTDP has been very stable for the past few years, but even modding has costs, although they may not be as visible as for example running a league or a website. CTDP is not out here for profit, but since modding is increasingly more difficult, so are the expenses. This is an hobby for us, hobby usually are not cost-neutral, but since we take an active part in this community, have our share of impact and truely believe to do a good job in providing you with the means of good simracing entertainment, we’d like to believe our work is worth something to the community – to you.

We frequently discuss this and often the conversation revolves about same basic arguments and facts, I’d like to sum up here.

1. Against money

It appears money is a very wound point in this community, in that many many people react very defensive and even aggressive when it becomes a topic.
Over the years several individuals and organizations have tried to establish a commercial participation in the community. Two prime examples are Hudson Kerr back in 2006 and SimRaceWay back in 2009.

Hudson provided high quality texture updates for rFactor tracks for a few dollars. Now you could argue, based on the price of the textures a full-size mod would costs in the thousands, but this argument is missing the point, that he provided a service you could take or neglect. How many people took his offer personally and refuted him being a true Modder and attacked him for being greedy and missing the spirit of simracing and modding. Quite often the quality of the debate dropped way below the wasteline. And in meantime, everybody shared the textures behind his back. Earning money in this community is something you are not allowed to talk about and if you have plans, help god the shitstorm.
On the one hand, our community is in a constant state of surviving with very little means, we don’t have enough new modders starting and at the same time every chance is taken to put a knife in a modders back, if he poses a demand himself.

SimRaceWay was another example although a very different situation. SimRaceWay was to provide a simple service for downloading and installing mods, with a solid server infrastructure and attached league community for selected high quality mods. Financing was supposed to be by optional premium membership. The criticism SRW received by the community and first and foremost by the Modding community (including us being quite verbal about it) was, that SRW developed a business plan based on free available community work, that was regarded as exploiting. While modders don’t release their work under solid-proven licenses (either copyright or copyleft), they usually state what can be done with their mods and how they may be used. Mods don’t have official licenses, the legal aspects are very much in the grey and Modders have no interest in provoke more infringement than necessary to release their mod. For this reason a silent consensus developed over many years about what is deemed “acceptable” use of mods. When in doubt ask the author and usually everything can be sorted out. SRW went over the Modders heads, included their work in a commercial environment that made Modders feel uncomfortable as it exposed their work to legal trepidations. SRW failed due to large community boycotts. The way they approached the community was stupid.

Yet another company may come with an idea that commercialises aspects of the community. Many services require money to work effectively. Right now the only company “allowed” to earn something are the simracing developer studios. They create the environment, the community revolves around their games, but in the wake a there is potential. Biting of heads because somebody sees this potential and tries to push his ideas in a commercial endevour is a waste of opportunities – for the community.

2. Donations

Donations are a great way to say thank you. Usually when the discussion about commercial projects in the community arises, there is a large group of people arguing, that donations are a great way to support modders and that they would donate x amount of money.

The issue is: they don’t – nobody does.

The last time CTDP got a donation was in 2009. We are well-known, we have high-regards in the community – I don’t want to say we are entitled to, but I wonder – if we don’t receive donations, do any other less-established and lesser known modders?

Personally, donations are fine given two requirements are met:

1. It is easy for me to do.
2. I trust the donee invests it well (and at best is transparent about it.)

Both points are hard for me to determine if this is given for CTDP and all in general for this community I could say, there is room for improvement.
This could be a point for discussion, does CTDP accomplish these two requirements? Are we missing something?

Regarding point 1, the regular way for donations by now is PayPal. It’s widespread and – for customers – easy to use.
My personal favourite is flattr. This is a micropayment service that makes it very easy to donate small amounts of money. Think a facebook-like button that pays a dollar per click. I will write more about flattr some other time. Where are the modders with flattr-accounts, I have money to throw at you!
In the end PayPal and flattr are just two tools with different approaches: Paypal is better for larger amounts, flattr, for the quick easy click.

I feel here is a chicken-egg-problem, because too few modders provide good means for donations, the community doesn’t demand any and doesn’t try those available, because no modders use them.

3. Gratitude

After looking at the current situation so far some food for thought and let’s start wondering, what do we want? In what community do we want to be? And what kinds of gratitude may Modders expect and ask for?

Should modders seek gratification just by the amount of people driving their mods? Seek motivation from cheering comments in forums and blogs?
Or are we allowed to ask for more? At what point is it ok to expect some more material return in the investment the modders do?

What do modders do you ask? I couldn’t begin to count the time we invest, just infrastructure, servers and research material comes easily at 300€ per year for a team. Not counting personal investments like steering wheels and hardware to develop, test and drive our mods. Simracing can be an expensive hobby and we are certainly not excluded from the expenses. However in the end, it’s not about the individual sum, but how many people have a share.

Donations can’t be mandatory and they are supposed to be voluntary. However donations are a great expression of gratitude and support for our work.
If you like the work and you want them to continue, think about how you can help them. Money is an easy and certainly valuable way.

Discuss!

4. Kickstarter and Fund-raising

Crowd-sourcing has become a major topic in the independent game industry in the past year. Especially the last month has seen some very interesting developments with several game-related projects kicking of at kickstarters. Kickstarters is a platform similar to what Project CARS did initially to get started. You pledge to invest to a proposed project and if a defined sum is exceeded within a deadline, the money pays out to the project and they have secured financing. Especially for games that do not have a large market anymore this may become very important. By estimations in March alone 9mio US$ were invested by individuals into various game projects. How much did you invest into your games community apart of the game purchase?

Tim Schäfer (Grim Fandango) and Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry) announced new titles of their adventure games. What would you say if Geoff Crammond proposed to kick off a new GrandPrix5 given enough people help to invest? What if a Modding group proposes a mod and details its financing through kickstarter?

This is similar to fund-raising, to collect a required amount of money. Do we need an angry looking Jimmy Wales to collect the cash?
pCars has started it, before switching to a publisher. More kickstarter projects will come and surely it’s only a matter of time until a project from the community arises and seeks for support. Will you help? How do you determine if you want to support it?

Technology emerges – while many things get easier, time and effort is always an issue and bundles resources. At one point money is an issue, fact. Right now, as a community we try to hide and ignore this as much as possible. Until somebody comes along, testing the waters and gets his head ripped off. Do we want to neglect new ideas out of hand? Ignore potential at the root? Or see and embrace the brave new world?
The community is at a point, where it becomes very hard and impossible to improve and grow without some financial involvement. The choice is between stagnation and decreasing quality or opening up new opportunities.

A last few words. Being a member of a well-known Modding team, it is obvious why I propagate for a more open-minded approach. However I do believe, that we are not the only mod team who would benefit from donations, but everybody in the the community. For this to happen, first all of us have to become more open-minded and respectful towards commercial ideas in the community. For good ideas to rise we need mature discussions. Thank you for your attention.

The livery on the car is one of the Jenzer Motorsport cars driven by Pal Varhaug and was painted by juluka.

There is still much work to do but we’re on track. Stay tuned for more ingame pictures in the near future and some making-of tutorials.

During the development of the IFM mod for rFactor2 we stumbled upon a problem that looked like some messed up normals on a few places of the car. So we looked again at the car and its normals. Re-smoothened them over and over again and still got this nasty normals on the car. We were clueless what could cause the problem. Then we noticed that those normal issues only appeared on one half of the car and together with the fact, that we didn't have this issue with the unmapped model we came to the conclusion, that something on our mapping has to cause these normals issues.

CTDP maps its cars differently to most or all(?) other modders out there. For the 2006 mod there were three textures: one for the top of the car, one for the right and one for the left side of the car. Right and left had exactly the same mapping which has the following reason: While painting the design of a car you don't have to adjust it for the opposing side of the car. You just copy it over and mirror the sponsor logos and save memory as both drivers share the same textures. Ingame everyhting looks like it should and it saved our painters a lot of time.

We did the same style we used for 2006 with 1994. Just for IFM we experimented with a slightly different approach. We now have 2 instead of 3 textures for the car. Left and right aren't seperated textures anymore. They're both distributed over these 2 textures. But still one side is mirrored for easier painting so that our painters just have to move their design up/down and mirror the sponsor logos.

The aftermath of the normal issue

While this mapping style worked well with rF1 it does not with rF2. Something must have changed during development of rF2 and as soon as you'll have a bump tex stage in your shader those normal issues will appear on the mirror-mapped parts of the car. First we thought that we would have to redo the mapping and therefore the templates and of course all of the liveries that were already done. That would have been a real timekiller, but Andy came up with an idea: what if we use our old mapping and create a new mapping channel with a fixed mapping just for the normal map only? As our normal map is almost completely empty due to modelled body lines it was worth a try and just a tiny setback compared to redoing all liveries.

The workaround

So we created a second map channel with the fixed mapping and told the bump tex tage to use our channel 2 instead of 1. All other tex stages are still using channel 1. And it worked. The normal issues are gone and we're able to continue our work.

While our mapping method is different from other game producers or modders, using mirror mapped parts is a very common "tool" in game industry. If you know where to look, you can even recognize these normal issues on ISI stock content in rF2.

The aftermath part II

The sad part is that a 2006 convertion isn't possible anymore as we would have to redo the mapping of each car including all LODs plus creating new normal maps for those mappings. That is just way too time consuming. So until ISI doesn't fix this shader issue there's no chance for a 2006 revival for rF2.When we started modeling the cars for F1 2006 back in early 2006, we didn't even think about modeled bodylines or holes. These parts are all on our normal maps what makes a CTDP 2006 normal map much more complex compared to IFM and 1994.

Tips for the rF2 community

Also if you're doing your mapping CTDP style remember to create a clean mapping channel for your bump tex stage to avoid these problems. Even if you're doing your livery mapping without mirrored parts you may still encounter this problem on other parts of the car. Two parts (with one on the left and the other on the right side of the car) share the same texture mapping and most likely one of them has a mirrored mapping. As soon as you're using a shader with a bump tex stage those normal issues will occur, too. So either use a shader without bump tex stage - if thats possible - or fix your mapping for the bump tex stage.

We still hope ISI will fix that bug sooner or later (hopefully before they're going gold), but for now we have to live with this situation and have to make the best out of it.

Update 10 April 2012: Added another illustration of our mapping.

So this helmet has quite a history. Back then in 2006/2007 it was top notch quality. But for our current project we revised the model to bring it up to our current quality standards. The result can be seen below. We will post another blogpost with an interactive comparison as soon as (CTDP)Dahie is back from his well deserved holiday.

Also most of 3D work is finished. We’re currently making some minor tweaks here and there and are working on the LOD objects. So stay tuned for more IFM news in the near future.