rec.autos.simulators

I've completed the Bristol track re-texture job.  I should have it up to Jan
at the US Pits sometime today (hopefully in time for you guys running RASCAR
to use it for your race on Saturday, if you would like).

Quick screen shot is at:

www.pabst-racing.com/webscreens/bristol.gif

Most of the work on this track was spent correcting Papy's rather sad crowd
textures.  I also corrected/updated the signage to current year....and
worked on the track surface to bring out a little more character in it.
I've been to Bristol, and this papy track now "feels" more like what I
remember it being like at night (I was in the pits, not driving).

If you send me an email I'll send you a direct link for the zip
file.........in case you have a dire need to"practice" for the RASCAR race?
....lol....

Have fun.....

Tom

Just got an email from Jan Kohl (US Pits).....this Bristol_Night re-texture
patch is now posted at the US Pits.

Go get it......

TP

     Thanks Tom..
dave henrie(oh all right,....and Jan too!)

I thought this track would only take me a couple hours, was planning on only
changing/updating the signage.  But then, I'm looking at the pics of the
real Bristol and saying, "Hmmm....what's wrong here?  This papy track
doesn't look anything like the real pics.  Why not?"  Then it hit me....it
was the crowd in the stands.  Papy used the same texture overlay for the
night track as they did they day version of Bristol (mostly pure white with
lots of red dots...almost no other colors).  Wrong.  Now it bugged me....so
I had to fix it.  Problem with that was, I couldn't just color tone and
balance....I had to draw/create the crowd textures completely from scratch.
So much for the "couple hours".....that turned into18 hours!  Then with the
night-crowd textures correct....now the track surface looked wrong (didn't
have enough yellow...and was too light).   Hmmm...another 2 hours on that
one.

But, the resultant Bristol_Night....is now rather stunning compared to the
original Papy track - IMHO.  And, as you can tell somewhat from the screen
shot comparison to the real pic...its pretty close to accurate.  I was
pleased how it turned out.

Now, I have to go fix the day version Bristol track.

And, Oh....did I mention that papy used that stupid crowd texture at just
about every track?  Now they are all bugging me so I have to do new crowds
in the stands at every track!  Crap!  The first thing I'm going to do is go
back and redo Sears, WG and Pocono (I'll repost them on the Pits....and have
Jan notify you guys).  Then I'll probably work on each week's real-world WC
track.....until the end of the season (then back track to the others).

Oh well, its my "fun time"......now I have tons of it on my
hands.....lol....

TP

Cheers,

Mark
Reading, UK

Looks nice Tom.

Are there any other screenshots of the Bristol re-texturing or the
Pocono/WG/SP ones?  I'm on a modem and it would be great just to be
able to preview this stuff before I download it.  I don't mean to
question the quality, I'm sure it's amazing, I just want to make sure
it suits my taste. =)

Jason

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Mark
Reading, UK

You know, I was thinking of asking Jan Kohl if he would like me to come up
with a set of screen shots for each track of mine that he posts.....maybe a
screenshot and a comparative "real world" photo set like I did for Bristol
Night.  That way, someone visiting the US Pits...could check the screenshots
quickly to see if they want the re-texture job bad enough to take the
download time for it.  I will mention this post from you.....when I ask Jan
about that.

In the meantime, "no" there aren't any screenshots for the other tracks.

TP