[cir] [roa] North Star Road

[.:spawnhypno:.]

Well, here it is. The first GR track I've made in over 2 years. A lot of things have happened since then. (I mean, movable road cones?!? WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT?!?)

I started playing this game when I was only 13, in a Canadian middle school. Now, I'm 19 and in university, but this game has always been a constant for me. I've always had a copy of it on my hard drive. I might not have played it a lot at times, but it's always been there.

One of the first projects I ever wanted to do when I started making tracks was to remake an old road near my hometown. It's called the North Star Road, and it winds, bumps, and bends its way for about 23 kilometres through the bush east of my hometown, from Big Island Lake to Lake Athapapuskow. (say that five times fast) Since I was a little boy, I loved this road. The scenery was beautiful, the curves were challenging; sometimes, one of the road's many bumps would send the car airborne!

However, since it covered such a large area, and rendering the track proved very difficult, I never was able to make a decent version of my favorite road growing up.

Until now.

The real road is bordered by trees or lakes on each side: no shoulders. It's tight, bumpy and tough, and that's the way I wanted to make this track. Most of the corners are totally blind too, so to add to that feeling, I used the tree line to obscure the track in certain areas.

I also added little details that make it seem more like the real road: old, cracked pavement once the road turns off the main highway to the south; the tight causeways on the main highway, over White and Schist lakes; the power lines, all the little gravel roads going to cabins and camps, whitecaps on every little lake and creek, the graffiti that locals and visitors have sprayed on the road-side cliffs, etc.

Today, the North Star Road, which was once the main highway into my beloved hometown of Flin Flon, has been bypassed by the new #10 Hwy, using the two causeways to give drivers a straight shot towards town. It's now more or less abandoned.

But the North Star Road will always be a great drive. And even though it might someday be overgrown or torn up, now we all can drive it forever.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

[Lukeno94]

Welcome back, and it's clear to see that you haven't lost your touch - although a little more variation in the trees certainly wouldn't go amiss! Also, you've forgotten that you need to put a space between track tags.

[Trigger Happy]

In fact it looks much better in game than on screenshot (maybe due palette), in any case the layout and hmap is absolutely great, so fast and flowing, perfect road circuit! I was just disturbed by some invisible walls (e.g. inside bend with pits) and also I'd avoid of using oil on the wires, it looks bit ugly and too wide for this huge WS (e.g. 1px is width of line on road, wires are much narrower in reality), in smaller WS the effect may work better.

[Crowella]

Very difficult circuit to get right but once you've found the line, it is so fast and feels brilliant. The HMap feels superb in the sense that you know it's there but it's not going to throw you off the circuit unfairly. It really makes every corner a challenge and genuinely surprised me. I also like the water texturing you've done. It really makes the circuit feel and look massive.

Can probably agree with TH about the wires and I think the trees could have been thinned out a tiny but. Also the moving tyres work well to prevent you from hitting walls but after a while you end up hitting quite a few on the circuit (the AI have a habit of hitting them too, understandably) so it becomes a little frustrating. Aside that, I recommend this circuit heaps, it's really a challenge to get right and a lot of fun to race.

[.:spawnhypno:.]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm working on a "wire-less" version of the track, and it will be out soon. I might also thin out the forest a bit, but I'm hesitant to because the forest around the real road is actually almost impenetrable in real life.

Anymore comments/criticisms/ideas?

[Scholl]

I actually like the dense forest!
In combination wit the Lmap-lakes it gives the track a very special and grat look.

The wire was a good idea. Maybe you should try it with just one line. And let the wire "hang" between the telephone poles.
This should look more realistic.

Maybe you could add some more dittering on the off-road-gravel paths through the forest.
And those white or icy patches on the track in some spaces don´t looktoo good...

[DuklaLiberec]

In fact it looks much better in game than on screenshot (maybe due palette)

It essentially looks fantastic on any palette. With that said, it is a brilliant work aside from some minor points that were mentioned previously and the fact that the AI hits the cones and then scatter them over the road which I noticed while I was testing this track, yet it is not much of a problem actually.

However, since it covered such a large area, and rendering the track proved very difficult, I never was able to make a decent version of my favorite road growing up.

Despite this, this tribute of your favorite road turns out to be worth the effort, considering how much time you spent on it and how difficult it was to make.