The highway track is a very fast track, but it also need to slow down, & some very tight & fast coner.
There is some Inner Circular Route (Shuto Expressway) Mod in Racer & GPL.
The Wangan Expressway (in Japan) is not a race venue and I wouldn't expect anything like it to be featured in LFS ever. Street racers use it for high speed runs, it's the sort of thing you could expect to see in NFS or some other fun arcade games.
You can't say no to street tracks when we already have South City
Likewise, it's mainly fictional tracks except that parts of them are borrowed heavily from the odd real life location (Kyoto anyone?).
I'm pretty sure the bottom line will always be cost.
Maybe not, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with being in a sim. It'd just be a faster version of a road track, a cross between oval and circuit.
Technically the Autobahn's shouldn't be raced on either, but they've made it into plenty of games
The biggest reason is that Eric could spend more time on making fictional tracks, than trying to model a stupid street? Yes I'd like more tracks in LFS (it's actually the one thing that LFS needs badly atm), but I certainly do NOT want a street course such as this. Shows the least bit of creativity IMO.
Agree.
Would be more interesting to see a big and elevated track out in a desert theme rather than city theme. I just don`t like racing that is in the city, allways loved when it`s outside on the countryside or on a circut.
It really depends on how they're designed. Spending countless hours planning each and every vertex to recreate any track is complex and whether it's real or fake makes no difference to me - let's be honest here, I'm never going to know what it's like to drive round Silverstone at 200mph any more than I am Blackwood.
But if it was possible to just import and convert telemetry data, the process would be much faster and therefor tracks based on pieces of road from real places would be entirely possible and far more practical then hoping Eric has an infinite supply of good ideas
I do agree about the reverse tracks sometimes being more interesting though.
There was a track made for Racer by doing just that - a python script was used to import GPS data into blender, if I remember rightly. Was a great track to drive, though I think it needed a little smoothing, since the sample rate for the GPS data was a bit too low. Might search out a link to it later...
You're awfully misinterpreting this anyways. Have you ever seen this "Wangan" expressway?
Tell me something, would you REALLY want that in LFS? Gimme a break. Last I want to hear is something about tracks being too "linear" or some god awful attempt to review a fictional track. And lastly be spiked by some snobby "you said 'real' " policeman.
Any talented track designer can make what he pleases, it doesn't have to be "real"... especially in Live for Speed's case. I understand people really want to drive around on a "real" track in LFS (hell I'd like Laguna Seca), but I find a lot more pleasure in driving a track that nobody else knows... one that a designer takes the time in making, and creating something new for everyone. It feels very rewarding to be driving on a quality fictional track. I'd do anything to have ANY kind of track in LFS, but note.... TRACK.
This subject has gone through enough discussion from "sim scholars" (especially those who are ignorant "artists" slash critics who think they can do better and believe extremely planar GPL recreations suffice), that it just gets put down every time you try and fight it. Eric has said himself that he'd prefer leaving it to his own imagination, as it would take a lot of time and money to make a "real" location accurate.
I could come up with plenty of new and fictional track ideas, but the last thing I'd think of making is a bloody expressway to race on . That is all my point really is.
I have to agree with part of what you're saying. Motorways aren't exactly thrilling and interesting to drive on.
But then I feel the same way about ovals and plenty of people drive on them 24/7, so I think there'd be a demand for this kind of thing too (and no I've never seen the Wangan road).
My point was more about tracks like South City, which could very easily be based on a part of a real city (and I'm sure I found a map that could've been it). What's the difference between that and an actual GPS telemetry-created track with a similar theme? Pretty much nothing, except it's a lot easier to smooth of parts than to design it from scratch. So development time decreases.
And even otuside of city environments it'd be good. Pick a spot on a map, find a handful of roads that all join up to form a circuit and yoink the data from wherever on the web you get it. I imagine license fees from older public roads are probably pretty reasonable too.
Yeah, I've seen it - would be great for Auto X layouts...
Anyway, I don't see it as my place to tell other people what should or should not be in the game... This forum is full of 'snobs' (your word) who are constantly telling other people what they should desire. You want tracks (underline it again for me please.... put it in bold just so those of us who are really stupid can understand your perfectly refined taste...) - well great. Whatever....
My opinion is really about how the tracks are created. Sorry, I don't think the great god 'developer' is really hitting the nail on the head. I would like to see a little of reality infecting his perfect world. It would make for better TRACKS
Ooops, I meant to say critics that call themselves artists.
(bold and underlined for you)
We are left with what Eric can come up with, that is what we have to live with, and based on that notion he is just about the only 'holy' developer we can rely on for our tracks. I think the S2 tracks are his worst works to date, and S1 tracks still the only worthwhile tracks to race on.
Still doesn't mean he can't make something nice that feels "real". Either way, any track he makes is added value to LFS, even if it sucks... because LFS needs more tracks --- BAD. Just as long as it isn't a new config
Listen, whatever I call myself, at least I'm prepared to volunteer a reason when I criticise something. If you think they are the worst to date, don't you think it'd be a good idea to analyse why? And chance your arm at offering a solution.
Letting an artist get on with things is fine enough, but believe me, they don't produce anything of value unless you prod them every now and again... That is the function of criticism, to raise an artists eyes up, away from the work, so s/he can return to it refreshed.
Yeah, the reality of expressway race events is really sinking in now mate.
At least all of da naws dawgs would have lotsa lawlz ricing along in der RB4 Supra replicaz way kewl & fully sick bro. Hey Scawn, wen j00 gunna add da traffix dawg? We Wanganing iz so broing wif no obstackulz dude. Wen joo gunna put da ramps on da Wangan trak an we need sum way tu chang da turbo boost, I bin playin dis trax fro 3 weeks solid and me iz broed out of my hed.
What we need is a few thousand more FnF kiddies cruising and drifting their way into LFS asking for spinners and body kits.
. That is all my point really is.
