Halifax GP - Streets of Aachen turned into a Race Track 1.5.2

Delete the old version, clean install the new one!

Sorry but I forgot to export the white line in the pitlane last hotpatch. The white line is on the ground again instead of in the air --> no jump in the pitlane anymore lol

Also reduced the replay file size by a lot!!!

So yeah, please download it again.

- New Ai spline. Ai doesn't crash much anymore and is about as fast as before (~3:38 in GT3, about 2-3s slower than myself). It took me two years but I finally delivered on my promise of updating it!

- Pitexit is now smooooth. Thanks for reminding me @brinki
- Changed some sound stuff around the lake
- Prepared everything for the next CSP version
- Extended the new tarmac in the woods to the hairpin since you guys seemed to enjoy it
- Fixed random bugs

Delete the old version, clean install the new one!

Many things got changed.
- BIG performance boost. Optimizations = more fps (even more fps once the new csp version releases)
- Improved loading times

- Houses light up at night (thanks Bendors)

- New and highly improved trackmesh with a new type of tarmac

- Ambient sounds completely reworked. New sounds, more and better sounds to avoid repitition, birds chirping in trees at day, etc..

- ParticlesFX added because that's fun!

- New textures and many new objects to improve immersion

- A lot of smaller stuff like spectators, hitboxes, internal stuff

- Added some easter eggs and blatantly put my own face on the start-finish straight sponsor

If you're reading this, you're awesome!
Leave a rating or comment if you like this update. I put a lot of work into this one and I'm very happy with the result. Have fun!

The grass next to the tarmac now also behaves like grass and is considered off-track by the game. You can still use the grass for some time gain but it's risky.

Also changed some smaller stuff. Pitlane is fixed. Moved some walls, fixed some floating objects, etc...

I tried fixing the Ai but got annoyed by bugs and gave up. Ai update will come at some point.

Nothing screenshotworthy was done.

Most changes are small but they stacked enough to warrant a new update.

Changelog:
- Up to 40% more FPS!!!! Performance babyyyyy!!
- smoother physical mesh for our DD wheel boiis
- "jump" after T1 is finally removed. I was being pushed by everyone to do it since v0.1 so yeah ^^
- More props like more marshalls, etc
- New trees.. AGAIN!

I still haven't fixed the pitlane bug as I have absolutely no clue what causes it in the first place. Working on it.

New AI coming soon.

Have fun

The days of accidental offroading are over.

Due to feedback and several testsessions with my league I decided to finally add some barriers where you would previously get stuck on a lantern and explode... or get banished to the shadowrealm, etc.

It's sad to see the deathtraps go and I do think that the track is a bit too easy now (compared to what it was supposed to be and was) but I do hope that this will increase accessibility and get more people to actually race on this track against AI.

Oh I also got off my lazy butt and finally added reworked the track map (minimap). It's wider, better and finally includes the pitlane... after almost 2 years.

You can also update through Content Manager with max bandwidth, as always!

Adjusted trackmesh, better treeFX performance and some more visual improvememts will be the focus of the next update for version 1.4.

Shoutout to @[x90] and their valuable feedback. You da real mvp!

From v1.3 onward you NEED csp 0.1.79+ and TreeFX enabled or you won't have any trees.
If you liked the old look better, get Halifax GP v1.2.

Anyways, we have a new pond now.
The more vibrant and fictional look is gone. I decided to change the overall aesthetics to a more realistic look.
TreeFX and new streetlamps are also pretty neat.

More comparison shots!
(Left new - Right old)

Get hyped for version 1.3!

Reworked LightFX with waaay better lamp models and implementation coming soon. The much needed TreeFX update is also on it's way, finally replacing those horrible X-tree models I used earlier.

I'm still working out the performance impact. Pretty sure that huge forest won't stay as it is in the screenshot so please be patient.

I'll just add pictures instead of writing a changelog:

As promised here's the new AI!
They are able to drive side by side in most places, Lap 1 is always chaotic though. In GT3 cars they are able to achieve 1:38.xx times in qualifying.
So while I wasn't able to make the AI as fast as myself it should still allow for fun AI racing!

I've also adjusted the lights.
Before:

After:

(Screenshots don't do it justice. Ingame it's very noticable!)

There it is, the full release.

The track is not completely done yet but the only things missing are gimmicks that are not gameplay-related so I decided to push the update.

Expect another update within the next days with a completely reworked AI! (So please bear with the old v0.4 AI which doesn't know the track changes yet)

Changelog:

• Reworked hairpin turn completely, much wider (and some other turns)
• Reworked reverb
• reworked physical mesh
• added pit markers (boxes)
• moved objects and lamps out of the way of racing
• some aesthetic work done
• some kerbs added

Todo:

• Add firework
• Add crowds on balconies, etc.
• Add TV screen
• Add animated Ads
• Add more easter eggs from my sim league for example
• Add .ksanim animations like geese, helicopters, animated marshals
• Add digital flag signs
• Add new start-finish line
• sBinalla while goofing aro- uuuh I mean testing the track
• Add more misc lighting like car lights, blinking crane lights, etc.
• Rework Lights
• Start building new original track

Hey hey everyone.

It has been a while, hasn't it? So I expect to be done with the full release around the end of the year. It won't be "finished" as I still have a large todo list with gimmicks but it will be at a point where I'm happy to start working on other projects while updating this one occasionally.. like once every few months.

So basically I will be adding more CSP functions to the track when I feel like it after the 1.0 release.

I'm writing this update for two reasons:
1. I am still alive and the track is still being worked on.
2. As some of you are actually reading these update logs, you might also be interested in contributing. If you have any suggestions or wishes then please go ahead and comment in the discussion tab!

So yeah, look forward to a better version this month with reworked AI and hopefully another set of cams.

Ok I get the reverb might've been a tad too much. I reaaally enjoyed the indoor sound but the spectator cams sounded like a big factory or a maaassive tunnel so yeah, unrealistic and out of question.

I've adjusted the reverb to be waay more subtle. The difference is noticable but it's not completely overshadowing everything else anymore.

Some feedback is always appreciated!!

Buildings and walls now reflect the sound as you'd expect.
The focus was on interior sound. I do realize the spectator cams sound a lot worse now...
I'm still playing around with it so expect another update in a week or two.


I'm desperately looking for feedback on this update so please leave some remarks in the discussion tab!

If you don't like the reverb:

Delete this file in the data folder!

Thanks to Ilja you can now update the track directly from Content Manager! Just download the track here once and you'll receive direct update notifications and a download button inside of CM!

THE FUTURE IS NOW OLD MAN!

NEW VAO PATCH BOIIIIS!!!

Before:

After:

It's baked in ambient occlusion. The biggest differences are below trees, balconies, objects, etc. where it should be darker due to shadows. Note the darker ground below the trees on the left behind the barrier.

Honestly, this took 6min. I should've done this a long time ago!

So guys we did it, new track mesh!

Before this update you drove on the visible, textured mesh which means you were driving on a relatively low-poly mesh which is also why the track felt so smooth and unrealistic. (visual track is always low-poly for performance reasons btw)

Well no more! Introducing an actual mesh with bumps and feel behind the asphalt! Your force feedback experience and immersion should be waay more enjoyable now!

If you prefer the old mesh, I've left it as a separate layout for you to enjoy but yeah, not a big fan of that unrealisting feeling.

Changelog:

• Added high-poly track mesh with realistic road feeling (main reason for updating)
• Fixed a looot of visible walls which were flying
• Outside walls a lot higher (height x10) so @Federico Testa can't play Flightsim anymore
• Added collision/FFB to the dotted middle line
• Fixed some cams
• Adjusted audio volume
• Fixed some textures
• Various CSP FX adjustments
• Various bugfixes

So I've seen some complaints about the track crashing on launch with the message "track not found".

This means that your CSP version is too outdated.
I don't know which feature exactly is causing this but it's not something I'll bother to fix as I am of the opinion that everyone should run the latest CSP version anyways.

Thanks to Federico Testa and pandadoudou for testing and reporting back. Without you I wouldn't have figured it out!

Minor update. Just shortened the pitlength so the pitlimiter activates later. (between the red markings above)
Also added some pitmarkings. Nothing special.

Delete the old version, clean install the new one!

Aight fellas, we've got a lot to cover.
Most of the changes are technical stuff which is why you should reinstall the track cleanly. You don't have to but that would waste 550mb or so on your hard drive and leave you with the v0.7.1 layout forever.

It had to be done, sry. A lot of new possibilities have opened up now though so it's worth it. Now the good stuff:

Changelog:

• Added reverse layout (no AI, no changes to the map, just reverse sectors and timing gates)
• Added crowds and spectators. More to come, this is the beginning
• Added background sfx: People cheer for you, announcer is talking on start-finish straight speakers
• Added two blimps cause every good track has animated blimps!!
• Bushes are now affected by ambient light:
  They are not that bright and scuffed anymore
• A lot of small positioning fixes: Flying walls, missaligned objects, clipping objects, etc.
• Fixed a lot of collision boxes
• Small lighting tweaks
• DRS zone which should end at the end of the start-finish straight but it goes on till the Halifax bridge. Scuffed but better than free for all DRS ^^
• Split all .kn5 files: The assets, objects, track, terrain, etc are now all split up in several files instead of one for the whole track.
  -> Way faster loading times, multiple layouts possible, a looot of new assets, changes and possibilities which are found in this and future updates
• Minor framerate improvement
• Removed some assets which were in the way of racing
• LODs tweaked slightly but the framerate is unaffected so I wont tweak this further and accept the framerate we get (no one complained yet so why bother)
  

Now I do get that this update is not as insane as the last one and changes like these....

...hardly impress drivers but it was necessary. While it took a lot of work, I can now call this a proper track.

Todo:

• Add firework
• Add crowds on balconies, etc.
• Add TV screen
• Add animated Ads
• Add more easter eggs from my sim league for example
• Add reverb (gave up bugfixing errors, might try it again but it's scuffed)
• Add .ksanim animations like geese, helicopters, animated marshals
• Add digital flag signs
• Add new start-finish line
• sBinalla while goofing aro- uuuh I mean testing the track
• Add more misc lighting like car lights, blinking crane lights, etc.
• Material work to make stuff like windows more realistic
• Smooth the terrain even more
• New, faster AI made for the current version instead of v0.4 :I
  (AI is still based on a hotlap I threw together at 5am on another track mesh lul)
• Add more high quality assets through blender (this is an RTB map btw)
• Add grid box markings
• Add more street markings
• Add a damn box line, I forget that each time
• Setting up a server for everyone
• Maaaaybe add a 2nd fun layout after v1.0 release, the infield of the track has a looot of space
• 2-Way traffic layout (which is reeeaally complicated but I think I can manage)
• Add more stuff I'll think of while driving other tracks
• Start building new original track

The options and possibilities are literally endless now (withing AC and CSP limitation) so yeah, thanks for reading up til here!