25 replies to this topic

[Pawgy]

I have been letting GPL sit for quite a some time while I have been flying ROF and OFF ( two great games for WW1 ).  I am now back to the GPL again and have started a little project.
I realized there were quite a few tracks that I never used for one reason or another. I don't care for flat trees with square ends and I don't care for tracks with noticable POP UPs.

So I am starting at "A" and running in training mode for each track. If the track does not suit my fancy I move it to a "not used" folder.
I have about 120 tracks installed so this is a lengthy proceedure. I know every one has there favorites but I wonder how many of you have tracks that you never use or have not looked at for years. Also , do you have some things that may make you leave a track alone?

I will never critize any track because I am sure it took a lot of work no matter how it looks and i congratulate anyone who has completed a track or tried to make one.

My question is. not which track you have moved to a "not used" folder of deleted, but how many tracks do you have in the folders you use all the time?

[Michkov]

I have all my installed tracks in the main tracks folder. I dont see the need for using a not used folder as I can switch tracks in and out with GEM easily. Coincidentally I´m just about to do the same with all tracks but I´m still stuck at Adelaide. In the end all tracks I dont use will be deleted or back up in a rar file.

On a side note what is OFF?

[jgf]

I've whittled my track directory down to 220.  Some of these I don't particularly like (usually because I just don't enjoy driving on them rather than unimpressive graphics) but retain because they were part of the '59-'71 F1 seasons.  Many graphically uninteresting tracks were recently removed when I decided promised updates would never materialize; a shame really, since several of these were enjoyable drives (but the desolate feeling of a few scattered trees and one forlorn grandstand negate that enjoyment).

While the unending wall of "paper doll" trees can be ignored at some tracks, especially when interrupted with a few well placed individual trees or buildings, I can't abide the distraction of the view distance set so short that this tree wall, and frequently the armco, "grow" a couple of hundred yards ahead of you as you drive along the track (it's like they're part of the car instead of the landscape).  I've abandoned several otherwise nice tracks due to this.

OTOH, I can think of three "essential" tracks I've kept even though I can't find a version of any of them that I like.

[isamu]

jgf, on Feb 03 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

I've whittled my track directory down to 220...

Damn.....and i thought *I* was ballin' out of control with my paltry 33 tracks

And yeah, scenery and overall object placement is everything. Oh how I regret grabbing those boring slotcar tracks.

[DHosein]

My current tracks directory sits at a healthy 650!

As a driver, I'm very much a TotalRank chaser (probably the first). I like to drive pretty much any track I can find time to, so as long as it's in a TotalRank, it'll get driven. Maybe not that often, but more because there are so many rather than through lack of desire to do so.

Any that aren't in TotalRank do get missed - the long string of betas... but I keep hoping that some of these will eventually be made final and added to the list. Some of them deserve to be there already (Hockenheim 98 or Suzuka come to mind).

[Pedro]

DHosein, on Feb 04 2012 - 03:29 AM, said:

My current tracks directory sits at a healthy 650!

As a driver, I'm very much a TotalRank chaser (probably the first). I like to drive pretty much any track I can find time to, so as long as it's in a TotalRank, it'll get driven. Maybe not that often, but more because there are so many rather than through lack of desire to do so.

I am with Darren here!

It is not the looks of a track that counts, its the battle that makes you driving it.
Battle between other drivers, ranking or myself.

But its truth, there are tracks were I dont go if there is no need for.

Greetings Pedro.

[Saiph]

My GPL\Tracks directory has 508 subdirectories, and that's the way it's staying! (Unless it increases, of course!) Every track ever made for GPL has at least one interesting and unique feature about it, whether it's a particularly challenging corner, a nice piece of scenery, or maybe a link to real-life motor racing history. I enjoy going through TotalRanks with all the cars (I'm currently working on ones for the '67 Lotus 49, the '65 cars and the '69 cars), and each time I return to a track after a break of maybe a few months, it feels fresh and interesting again.

I've tried building a track myself, and it isn't easy. I got as far as getting the track surface, cambers and banking sorted out, but I started having clipping problems when placing buildings and other objects, so I gave up. I respect the effort that all track builders have put in, so I would never uninstall a track.

[Pawgy]

Michkov, on Feb 03 2012 - 05:25 PM, said:

I have all my installed tracks in the main tracks folder. I dont see the need for using a not used folder as I can switch tracks in and out with GEM easily. Coincidentally I´m just about to do the same with all tracks but I´m still stuck at Adelaide. In the end all tracks I dont use will be deleted or back up in a rar file.

On a side note what is OFF?      

http://www.overfland....com//info.htm. Over flanders field. A great ww1 flying sim but an absolute bugger to install correctly and get running because of the need for Microsofts combat flight sim as a basis for the game..

Thanks for all the good replys. I find my self going back to the ALTERNATE GPL TRACK DATA BASE, looking for tracks I have missed. First though I am going to sort thru what I have and hopefully end up with just the very good ones that i like the best.

[JMF]

Pawgy, on Feb 03 2012 - 03:20 PM, said:

Also , do you have some things that may make you leave a track alone?

I don't drive Monaco very much because I can't get a good lap time and I wreck all the time. I've been able to run decent times on all the other tracks used in 67 but I really suck at Monaco so I don't get much enjoyment racing there. It's one the the few real race tracks that I neglect.

[Bob Simpson]

JMF, on Feb 19 2012 - 02:20 AM, said:

I don't drive Monaco very much because I can't get a good lap time and I wreck all the time. I've been able to run decent times on all the other tracks used in 67 but I really suck at Monaco so I don't get much enjoyment racing there. It's one the the few real race tracks that I neglect.

I've found that Monaco is a lot of fun in the F2 mod cars.  Give that a try to really appreciate Monaco.

[jgf]

Bob Simpson, on Feb 19 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

JMF, on Feb 19 2012 - 02:20 AM, said:

I don't drive Monaco very much because I can't get a good lap time and I wreck all the time. I've been able to run decent times on all the other tracks used in 67 but I really suck at Monaco so I don't get much enjoyment racing there. It's one the the few real race tracks that I neglect.

I've found that Monaco is a lot of fun in the F2 mod cars.  Give that a try to really appreciate Monaco.

Good point.  As in real life, the car must match the track;  Roskilde in the '67 F1s is an exercise in frustration, Wegberg in an F3 is a bore.

[JMF]

Bob Simpson, on Feb 19 2012 - 06:31 AM, said:

I've found that Monaco is a lot of fun in the F2 mod cars.  Give that a try to really appreciate Monaco.

That's a good suggestion. Thanks, I'll try that. I used the Porsche 910 to learn the Nurburging (I'm now running 8:26 there in a 312 and I know there's still alot of room for improvement), and I've been using the 65 F1 cars to learn Clermont-Ferrand.

[Rudy Dingemans]

jgf, on Feb 19 2012 - 12:13 PM, said:

Good point.  As in real life, the car must match the track;  Roskilde in the '67 F1s is an exercise in frustration, Wegberg in an F3 is a bore.

Sooooo true, this. It's really the combination of car and track that makes driving fun (or a pain in the proverbial). In GPL there are several tracks that feel 'hairy' and rather cramped in the 67's, but quite ok in the 65s (Mexico comes to mind    ).

Even more 'extreme', a lot of tracks out there in the sim world are club tracks, smaller tracks as opposed to the big venues like Spa or Monza. (Even made a few of these myself.) Often these are boatloads of fun in smaller formula cars (FFord, Formula Vee, F3, etc) but make you feel 'squeezed' mentally if you drive them in more powerful rigs (Pau, Macau, or the recently-released Kicevo and Usce - nice club venues with less than 150 BHP but cramped in almost anything higher up).

Conversely, classic chicaneless Monza becomes a bit boring of course when you're not in a 3L-F1 or something similar. It's all down to the right combo...

Regards, Rudy
(GPLRank: -40)

[Pablo_Fernandez]

When you learn to tame Monaco is a pleasure to drive in it with any mod!  

[Rudy Dingemans]

No it's not. It just doesn't suit the Thundercars, for example.
Besides, regular GPL's Monaco layout is wrong, too easy to straightline the chicane, in GPL only Monacane can be called 'driving it properly' (chicane part was *way* different from GPL's original - personally, I still think there should be a Monaco Rocks update to rectify this once & for all).

Regards, Rudy
(GPLRank: -40)