Toban Raceway Coming to RF2

[Paul Jeffrey]

Following initial rumors in 2011, today the ISI Track Team have officially announced rFacor classic, Toban Raceway, is due to be released for premium simulator rFactor 2.

With numerous sneak peak teasers released in recent times, the team over at Image Space Incorporated have announced the track build is back on schedule again and promises to be the most detailed track released for the sim to date.

Unlike the Mills Metropark version that was brought over to rF2, this track wont have any updates and improvements of infrastructure to its original rF1 brother but in fact the ravages of time will show a circuit that has benefited from very little maintenance since its rFactor 1 days, showing a very different visual experience to what fans of the track are used to.

I'll hand over to ISI's Luc Van Camp to explain:

"So what can you expect in the not-so-distant future? As explained by Scott, the track owners are operating on a low budget and they haven't had a chance to modernize the infrastructure too much. But it definitely isn't an upgraded conversion brought to our latest standards. It is a scratch built track, made with modern techniques and populated with our finest props to date. Going for the scratch built option does require a lot more time and effort, but it was a necessity in order to address the oversized scaling of most original rF1 objects which were used to fill the scene with as few objects as possible -- in turn a necessity for the hardware requirements a decade ago."

Building on the original long and short version of the track will be an additional 2 layouts coming in the new release alongside a new location, the rF2 version of the track will now be based in California and will contain the appropriate scenery alongside the circuit.

I for one am very excited to try out this classic circuit updated in rF2 and look forward to seeing how much detail the team have managed to cram into this new release. No dates have been given for when we can expect to see this in game, keep an eye out at RaceDepartment.com in the coming weeks for updates as and when they become available.

With Mills and now Toban coming to rFactor 2 in recent times what other 'classic' tracks would you like to see brought to the sim? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[Emery]

Hmm, I actually thought they gave permission for that? I didn't pay close attention so I could be wrong.

The recent Portugal rip was killed off pretty quickly though.

ISI definitely gave permission to one of the Mills Metro Park ports to AC from rF1.

 

[Kevin Knorpp]

How do you know that?

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

The recent Portugal rip was killed off pretty quickly though.

I don't care if content is converted to an other platform. It's done and will be done. But atleast give credits or some information about the original track. Be honest. The original is always better...
To convert a track and to do it properly takes a lot of time and it's a good learning school to build your own track. Most textures and material settings, AIW things needs to be redone. Trees, billboard, needs to be replaced, etc, etc,...

But most are like: "Here is a track i've converted..." Or worse: "Here is a track i've made" and it's obviously not.

If it's a conversion, i like to know from who or what? Give credits to the original creator. Be honest about it. You won't go to jail or have to pay a penalty. The worst thing that could happen is, getting a mail from the original creator. It might be a thanks! Might be not... And time and effort is waisted. So best thing to do is ask if it's OK.

If @Lily Starfox wants to have Toban conversion to AC. No problem. It's pritty obvious who made it.

 

[Ari Antero]

The good old "Copyright" argument again
Tim Wheatley 2 nov. 2015 : "
We gave permission for some conversions to AC (we've seen 2 of the 3 so far).
If anyone ripped from AC, report the post if it's somewhere we can control, as I know they don't want their stuff converted (and that's fine). That's their decision, as giving OKs for conversions or scratch builds based on our content is ours.
We're fine saying OK to conversions when we feel like it... End of discussion really? "

 

[Colin Knowles]

there is life away from the console Colin

Yes my friend David. It's called Mobile phones

 

[Setron22]

Well i think the next one should be essington... all the three layouts

 

[Spinelli]

Yep or use different curb types that work both ways. I'll never be able to retire rF1 anyway because no reverse at Mills so meh I guess.

Yup. And at the very least, if the kerbs are bad for the other direction then let us drivers figure that out and we'll simply know which curbs to avoid or state it on the track description page or the track loading screen.

Kerbs are a terrible excuse for a dev not to make a reverse layout in my opinion. That's like saying walls shouldn't be around certain corners of tracks. Not only that, but there are lots of tracks in racing where some kerbs are strongly advised to stay off of (well, depends which cars are racing there) so their drivers simply stay away while usually trying to get as close as possible just like they do with walls - stay away from them but get as close as possible.

Reversing a track is, by far, the most efficient way of creating a new track. It's the least amount of work compared to A. creating a track from scratch, B. converting a track, C. creating a new layout for an already made track. Despite being the least amount of work, the final result is a brand new entire track because racing a track backwards has nothing to do with racing it forwards; they're basically two entirely different tracks. So you have the best work:new-track ratio (relatively hardly any work yet an entirely new track).

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

Why don't you do it?
- rename xsector2 <=>xsector1
- rename xpitin <=> xpitout
- Flip the Xplanes faces !!! (requires a 3d moddeling program and GJED)
- Make a new AIW file in dev mode. (there is almost nothing you can copy from the original AIW )

But these are just the basics. There might be other stuff to tweak and check.

I don't think any Dev from any game would dear to deliver a quick reversed version with a warning on the loading screen. But for a starter modder... Super thing to do...

BTW: Palm Beach has a complete ready to go Go-Karting track. It only needs the Xplanes and an AIW file. I don't understand why noboby did it.

 

[Spinelli]

What do you mean "quick". Were the reverse versions of Mills, Toban, etc. in rFactor 1 not "quick"?

I was thinking that the loading screen method could be presented as like tips/advice for the track, almost as if it was from your engineer or something. It wouldn't be done in a trashy, low-budget way.

Or we could even have something like in GTR 1 where each track had an audio description (sort of like from your engineer) explaining and giving general advice for different turns. This is a really cool yet super-simple feature from a game over 10 years ago but it seems most devs don't have the urge to put cool features like that in sims (another example, school/training like in GTR 2, Gran Turismo, F1 Championship Season 2000, or career mode to build up to faster cars and bigger tracks like in GT Legends, etc.).