GeneRally Database

[Txizzle]

I'll try to have a look at it some time, might take a while though, have been very overstressed lately.

[Kikwik]

No pressure, no worries. Take your time and don't feel obliged to do so, it's fine.

[Kikwik]

I was searching and sorting some unknown tracks and was stumbling multiple times on tracks that share some similarities with CamrosX ones. And I have nowhere to see a comprehensive list of his tracks.

As an example, I stumbled across Iraq Race (07-2008) and Fastfood (09-2008) among others which have a strong CamrosX style and theme, with the good period of time and a "Player" time attack like many of his tracks, but I want to be more sure before sorting tracks blindly.

If you remember some of his and have a list or few names, it will help me much. You may also check the tracks in the "Unknown Trackmaker" folder on the GR Database and search around 2008 and 2007 if you want to check out by curiosity.

Also if someone have those .:spawnhypno:. tracks as stated by him :

- the Organizmus trackpack (a bunch of grungy-type tracks released after the first RSC blackout)
- Los Cascara. It won the TdM competition on the Italian boards in May '09 under my third screenname, //squeak\\.
- A track based in France with a figure eight in it and some very difficult corners. Don't remember it's name, it was my second or third last track.

Those are the only ones missing from him and known.

Any informations about Martyn's tracks (also known as Gibernau Fan or Fzzbcs) and Siki (a trackmaster but known for at least one track Nogaro, big mistery here) are appreciated too.

I updated the Real Life Tracks List to include a list of all the known missing tracks so if you have the luck to have them or recognise them in the Unknown Trackmaker folder, feel free to pm me. I'll credit you and thank you as such.

That's all for the moment but if you have other useful informations it will help much.

[BrianH]

I don't have anything to add to the conversation about unknown tracks, but I think it's fair to say that Kikwik's contribution shouldn't go unnoticed. I don't know what the process for a title similar to the Carmaker or Trackmaster ones is, but I reckon it shouldn't be a stretch to give Kikwik some title under his name such as 'the archivist'.
Thanks Kikwik for everything you've been doing!

[Kikwik]

It always warm my heart when someone is thankful for my work on the Database, a big hug for you BrianH !

Thanks to you also who's still hosting the GR Database and allowing everyone to check it freely and whenever they want.

"The archivist" sounds a really cool title, but the GR Awards are over since 2015 and were based on community votes. Like the community nowadays is as active as a koala (which sleeps nearly 23h by day) I really doubt anything will be made in this regard. Plus, there's many people who deserved an award after 2015 but never receive anything.

I think it's fair to say that Kikwik's contribution shouldn't go unnoticed.

Thank you for this, that's my feelings all the time I worked on it sadly. Only few people seems aware of it, only a few thanked/helped me, as this GR Database seems not so important. Only few gave me tips, opinions, critiques, whatever. I know there's not a lot of people active for GR though, and many more modern games is making GR obsolete and obscure, a relic from the past. (Thanks to TuomoH or Trigger Happy though to put this thread pinned)

But it's ok.

I did it for GR players and for me, by pleasure. Sometimes it was not a pleasure, was really hard and long and painful. Like a lot. And I'm happy and sad at the same times, that only few people appreciate the colossal work being made for this project. Those few people (they know who they are ) gave me strength and love to continue.

Like I said on my Generally changelog on the GR Database I'll make a salutary break because I'm really tired of it and have a lot of things going on in life at the moment. And I'm alone on this for so much time now it becomes painful to make more efforts.

And now time to relax.

[Kikwik]

Was working on the Database lately, and I was thinking and struggling to make a UI or User Interface to search for tracks and cars.

I only know about Excel to list all the content of the database so I tested with it, but it shows its limitations quite fast, as I can't sort tracks like I want, like selecting multiple research criterias (by precise years like 2006-2007-2008 only, with only [mic] tags, from author TuomoH for example) and I can't display pictures of the tracks as the Excel file size is growing fast, and the loading of the pictures are quite long even with few pictures so I can't imagine with more than 10 000 of pics.

So if anyone more skilled in computers than me could tell me some advices on how to do this properly, it would be really nice. I'm still unsure if I'll do it, as it's a monumental task, very long to do, but still I want to think about it and the possible ways to do this.

So what I want is :
. To sort and display a very big list of content and be able to sort them by selecting multiple research criterias.
. Have pictures displayed correctly and in a moderate size for each content.
. Users would only be able to search and download content, no upload from them.

I thought about a website for this, but if there's another easier solution it would be better.

Any tips is gladly welcome.

Edit : I finally found something satisfying, using only Google Drive research and renaming every file and picture along. Using grid layout feature would allow users to see instantaneously tracks pictures. It would be possible to search something with multiple criterias like TuomoH + 2006 + [stu]. Sure thing, it will ask some time to do, but it's the best way to make rewarding researches. But that's really really ask time and Google Drive search is a bit uneffective when large groups of results are in, you can't sort by alphabetical order too.

[Emil Patanen]

Hi, Kikwik

I've now had a good look at this database and I've got to say that you (and your helpers) have done big work with this Database. It's great especially that there's some place, where one can download those palettes, sounds, fonts etc. now, when Longbow's GR Archives website isn't working


I also checked the folder of my tracks to see everything is okay there and I noticed following things:

1. There's two tracks called "omega" and "oval city", which aren't my creations. I downloaded both and checked them out. The track called "omega" has someone called "hj" marked as its author and this probably has confused since I had "HJ" once as my username. The track called "oval city" didn't have anything written in its author field.

2. My released tracks from Throughston onwards aren't included in the folder. This means Throughston, Vaaner Raceway, Xandom, Yeavy and Riabete are missing from there.

If you update the database at any point, these are the changes you could do to my folder. Especially the first point is important, because those two tracks are somebody else's work.

[Kikwik]

Hi Emil !

Thanks a lot to have checked the Database ! I only have Longbow's ski sounds missing from his website but well, all the other content and more is here.

And thanks to have checked your folder. Weird that I forgot your latest creations as I like them and have a dedicated Emil Patanen folder among others. But now thanks to you , it's clean and tidy.

[Emil Patanen]

Oh hey, great! Thanks for fixing these things so quickly

[Kikwik]

I added a "Trackmakers worth to check list" to the Database, to provides a decent and reasonable list of track creators names for an easier and better research in the Database, putting aside too old/crappy/outdated tracks at most. Link is in the first post.

[Txizzle]

Wow, how about a late response here. (sarcasm alert) Had a bit of (self-censhorship) of a life over the last few years, long story.

I've put all the track-folders I have into 1 file now, so not much sorting yet. Most of the folders are either like they were in the download back then, keeping the theme for those tracks together, there were a whole bunch I once reshuffled once to folder holding exclusively real life tracks for example, but there are also some folders of tracks yet to be determined in what themed folder they could go. So kinda messy. These last kind of folders I've renamed to indicate that they still need to be figured out.

Still interested in receiving the file? Otherwise maybe I can already send files of which I know they are real life tracks, or folders coherent in trackmaker and theme.

[Kikwik]

Oh hello Txizzle, long time no see !

Sure, share it with me if you want. I'm not as active as before, but I may have a look at it, sort it and add it to the database if there's something new.

I'm always curious of what people have in their GR Folders as there's sometimes some golden nuggets.

So yes please ! Gimme gimme !

Thanks !

[Txizzle]

Where do I send it? It's a winrar file of roughly 130MB

[Kikwik]

You can upload your file on Google Drive and share the link with me by PM.

Or you may use an online website like easyupload or anything like this.

[Kikwik]

Alright Txizzle. I didn't sorted all your trackpack yet (there's quite a lot in "Real World" and "Rest" folders) but yet I have some good news that I want to share with you :

. I was able to retrieve some lost Errorman's tracks, really happy about this as they are quite old and quite impossible to retrieve anywhere else.

. Lot of old real world tracks were retrieved, or I fixed some entries that were missing. Again really happy to complete the list there.

. I rediscovered some tracks that were pretty good or discover some authors that I wasn't aware or missed completely, so it's more of a personal point there, but important for me.

So it don't seems much written like this, but you really helped me and the Database with this trackpack as I was really surprised to retrieve lost/missing tracks. I don't know how you got them, but thank you to have shared it with me, and to anyone who still playing GR in 2024 !

I added you in the appropriate credits and thanks section in the Database.

I'll keep sorting little by little and if I have some other news I'll tell you.

Good day Txizzle, see you !

[Txizzle]

Glad to contribute, and if I can help in figuring some more out about the who/what I'll help.

[Kikwik]

Hi everyone !

I just added a link to my personal GR Best Of folder on the GR Database, so if you want to check it, please feel free to do so by going to the GR Database, "GR Best Of folder Link"'s text file. Link is there, copy it in your search bar, download and enjoy. ^c^

See you !

01/06/2024 : Updated folder. Will probably keep tweaking it and upload it regularly, my goal being to create the most complete and up to date GR folder. I still have to tweak some cars and sort some folders though.

[Kikwik]

Don't know if still some will read this but anyway...

I'm still working on my GR Best Of Folder and focusing currently on F1 physics based on Lorenzo's physics calculations (thanks to him for such great system ! ), from 1935 to nowadays. Currently finished from 1935 to 1958. It's quite long to retrieve real specs from the internet as few are missing but generally I replace it with ficitonal but believable stats and it works great. It's quite long too to put it in the Car Editor for each car, but trust me it's delightful to drive with them once it's tweaked.

I already tweaked all rally cars from Masa from 1960 to 1986 where it was missing from Hormous great collection. Also Autocross now have buggy categories, all tweaked, some bmx and dirt motorbikes are tweaked too. There's always some work on Endurance, GT, Fictional - Chibi, Ovals and few others, from cars. Tracks wise there's still some work to "update" some by adding dithering or people instead of those yellow and red dots representing people back in the days, so it'll take some time but it will be a great all-in-one folder. I'm totally enjoying it, playing and tweaking it to death.

Once F1 physics are updated I will update the pack on my GDrive, link to download it in the GR Database, changelog.

Hope some are still playing the game in 2024 !

Cheers !

PS : Why I'm posting this in this GR Database topic would you say ? Because I feel it's strongly linked to it as it's the result of all my work on the GR Database, as after sorting every track and car and addons from it, retrieving the best ones (from my point of view) and making a folder where everything is neatly sorted, easily accessible, with all the best content from years and years for instant playing, while still heavily moddable with ressources provided inside. Take a look !

[Kikwik]

Hi fellow GR players !

A little update on my GR Best Of folder.

I'm on my way in the F1 90s still tweaking physics but it's really long to do as I have a car pack of each year from there, and there's so many cars for each year. Though I have found a way to make it a little faster to retrieve informations, I don't have all of them unfortunately, and sometimes you have to check twice to make sure those informations are not false, but I replace the missing data by believable ones and if there's a problem I try to fix it ; for example for the 80s with the turbocharged engines, the car had difficulty to turn and stay on track while having a heavy acceleration, so I increased downforce and grip appropriately to make it more pleasant to drive those F1 beasts.

Also for the 1990 there was a decrease of tires size, so grip lowered accordingly. I try to reflect some details like that in the physics, still based on Lorenzo's system.

You learn a lot of things in the process too, super interesting to see the evolution of cars and parts along the years, and what have been accomplished which was impressive at that time.

I also tweaked some Autocross buggies again ; found a great model from Xmilek from the early years of GR. Again cars can be old, they're still up to modern standards for some, even if sometimes the physics have to be changed.

I just love to tweak those GR folders. It takes some time though. But little by little I will land on the F1 2020s and will upload my folder again.

Also all of this is possible thanks to all who created something there. I could not build anything if I don't have bricks. But there's so much material that I needed to be nitpicky, and I didn't discovered everything in details, especially in cars where I find a golden nugget from time to time.

I really want to promote the game also, by sharing this folder to anyone who loves retro games. I can't find anywhere another game that is heavily moddable with so much content thanks to the generous and talented community and such great physics, all of this for free.
I already looked on retro games forum but it's mostly old console games and not freeware like GR.

Well, just for you to know that someone is still working on and playing GR in 2024. Hope some people are in too.

[CraapyTracks]

Autocross buggies? GIIIIMMEE THEM! GIIIMEE THEEEM NOOOWW

I used to post some videos of me playing this game in F1, Rally, Rallycross foruns, on the real life tracks. People would go nuts asking for the game. I'd always tell them to get all here on the forum, expecting to increase the fans here building and sharing new stuff but I dont think people like to engage thaat much. I bet they all loved the game tho! haha The old Formula 2 commentator once posted the game on his twitter (2019, I think?) but I dont even remember his name.

Best game ever

[Kikwik]

Autocross buggies? GIIIIMMEE THEM! GIIIMEE THEEEM NOOOWW

Hahaha

Please check your PM, I send it to you in different versions.

I used to post some videos of me playing this game in F1, Rally, Rallycross foruns, on the real life tracks. People would go nuts asking for the game. I'd always tell them to get all here on the forum, expecting to increase the fans here building and sharing new stuff but I dont think people like to engage thaat much. I bet they all loved the game tho! haha The old Formula 2 commentator once posted the game on his twitter (2019, I think?) but I dont even remember his name.

Best game ever

Oh that's great ! No problems if they don't create anything, but that they are aware of such a good retro game around here !
Didn't knew this funny fact about the F2 commentator !

Ah I don't care if it's old or don't have multiplayer. I'm just having fun with it and see the potential it can still have after all those years. Thanks for sharing !

Cheers !