Course Maker/Track Path Editor: A "badly-executed good idea"?

Would you agree?

  • !! YES, TO HELL WITH IT !!

  • Not really. I can manage.

  • No, it's great!!


Results are only viewable after voting.
There's a few things that grind my gears about the new CM.

1. Once you choose a track width, you can't change it. I made a very good track with tight banked turns but it is much too narrow for how I want it (31 ft. width).
2. No elevation change
3. I can't pick and choose which corners I want banked or which straights I want widened.
4. Not the best or widest selection when it comes to locations and atmosphere around the track.

Overall though, I'm having an outstanding time tampering around with this thing. To be fair, the damn PS3 limitations probably prevented PD from doing what they had actually wanted to do most likely. Nevertheless, I'm enjoying it, and grateful we finally got it. The CM is definitely a step forward from GT5. Like somebody said earlier in one of these threads, PD probably had PS4 in mind while making this CM. Which might be why they took so long.
 
Adding the reference image feels wonky. The image constantly shakes when trying to get the legends to match up. I would like some controls for left right up down zoom and rotate. Maybe I should mock up this design idea. :)

Having the corner circumference determined by the track width is causing problems recreating the autodromo in Buenos Aires.
 
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After playing around with it yesterday I am reasonably happy with it, but it really could/should be better. At least they didn't charge for it, though some would argue the need for a tablet to access it, might make it the most expensive DLC addition ever. But i am having much fun with it thusfar. If i could change anything...Not asking for much but an update or two to tweak it, possibly, would be nice...

Cons:

Tablet only. Actually, for me, not the end of the world in the end haha. My Android tablet runs it perfectly well, even though the screen is a little on the small side. Luckily, I managed to run the app, thanks to a forum member on here kindly making the file available on his Dropbox account and me downloading the DuOS android emulator. The app runs perfectly in that and i have been making and testing out my tracks with zero issues since then. But still... tablet only is a bit of a shame. This should be something that is available to AT LEAST as many people as possible, so a Windows/Mac/Linux version should have been made too. If i am running ON Windows via an emulator...why can i not just run it in Windows ????

NO track width editing?
I am sure as many people have probably said already. You choose a track width from the off. Cool, great and thank you.....but that's it for the entire track. GT5 had the option to adjust every piece of track between nodes. Hopefully they can patch this in in future perhaps ? It just helps make things so much more interesting. As a side note, related to this one, manual elevation changes would have been nice too, rather than working out hills and valleys by trial and error. Something fundamental must be stopping this, but better people than me would have a more grounded theory about that.

Image import? Great. For Eiffel flat only? Bah! I am assuming that it has something to do with elevations???Maybe?? But it kinda sucks that i can trace Citta di Aria PERFECTLY with a tweaking of the source image, yet the best things about Citta di Aria are it's edge of your seat elevation drops through tight corners. It's a shame i can't, at least, attempt to try and recreate SOMEthing like them on the main Eiffel track, as that one has some really nice elevation changes indeed !

Bug? For some reason, headlights don't register on the user-created tracks ? Not for me, anyway. Even "premium" cars' headlights don't show up. The symbol is on, indicating that i have headlights ON and i can even change from single to full beam, but they don't shine on the track whatsoever. Maybe a small thing that might get patched in a ninja update soon ?

Pros:

SO easy to use. I love how, even in emulated mode - with a mouse no less, the editor runs smoothly and with no fussing. And that i can edit/transfer/test drive a track then tweak it and re-test drive it again in less than a minute ? Thankfully, kind people on the internet make available things that just make everything that little bit more convenient these days, so the fact it's not an in-game editor - for me personally - is not too much of an issue, despite what i stated above, as the time it takes to make and play a track is, again for me personally, seconds. I still think it should not just be a tablet app solely. My desktop PC and emulator make it more convenient for me.

Eiffel track ( not flat ). For me, personally, head and shoulders above the other map options, due to the possibility of huge - seat of your pants - moments, when tweaked to perfection. I LOVE how i can draw up a track and notice that a section of it now goes downhill - VERY fast - and i can go straight back in and put the odd turn or two into that previously mapped straight and make for a mega-exciting run downhill. You could kinda do this to a degree in GT5, i know, but this editor, having you manually be able to change the twists and turns, makes for some super fun races.

GTPlanet superstar forum members. Doing their absolute best, with the limited tools they have to hand, to try and recreate real world tracks and the suchlike. Even if it is impossible to make something authentic, the fact they're recreating real world layouts that have been meticulously designed over years, means that i can drive on user created maps that are fun and challenging, even if there is no way for it to LOOK like the actual track. And people sharing ideas and files that help everyone else out, for free, is a good thing without question.

Tarmac Rain effects. PD seriously need to patch this into every other, tarmac at least, track in the game. It looks 1000 times better than what we've ever had ( maybe with the exception of the wet tracks in GT4 ).

Image import. A BIG help. I state this, only as an unimaginative creator myself. But i traced Citta di Aria onto the Eiffel (normal) map and, despite it being nothing like that GT4 track, with elevations etc all wrong...it is double sweet to drive on! It shows, to me, that whoever designed that track originally, knew what constitutes a good racing experience and not just someone who makes a loopy - that'll do i guess - track. Tracing over world class/real world racing circuits, might not produce the results we'd all actually want, but they can still make for great fun races regardless. Again, a big help. Making something for the hell of it is fun for five minutes. Having the option to make something REALLY worthwhile will keep me going until GT7....(maybe).
 
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So the ‘famous’ GT6 Track Designer is finally out. Just hoping it will not become an infamous one…

As most of community members feel it’s lacking quite a few features like:
- Not being an in-game feature
- Having a need for a tablet
- Having a limit of just 30 tracks
- Having only 4 themes
- Not being able to make figure 8 tracks (this is maybe the biggest one for me)
- Not being able to make an incline on the curves (like the one in High Speed Ring)

Well it is what it is: we waited too long for this to allow being let down.

So my suggestion is let’s move on, taking all the positive things (which are, let’s be honest, quite a few compared to the GT5 Track Designer)
So I’m in favor of using the most of it and moving forward (with hope that PD will fix some of the above complains soon

I see what is going to happen:

Very soon community members will create mass of good tracks which generally can divided into four categories

a) Original Tracks (as the name suggest these tracks will be original one made by our community members. There will be vast number of the tracks however for some of them to stick out they will need to have something unique about them, a special personality, design, idea…\

b) Recreated World Tracks: This one will probably create the biggest number of useful tracks – all of those that we were hoping the game maker will introduce into the game and still hasn’t
Road America comes to mind among the first. I’m glad that PD included Silverstone in GT6 however there are numerous other tracks to be added like Catalunya, Estoril, Brno, Russia Sochi, Yas Marina, Interlagos, Sonoma, Hockenheimring, Imola, Donington, Sepang, Slovakia Ring etc… The list goes on and on and on

c) Recreated tracks from previous iterations of the game: This one will also be an interesting one
First one that I will try is Red Rock Valley Speedway however some others come to mind like Seattle or SSR11.

d) Other racing games tracks: remember all those other racing games that we enjoyed the tracks
Even those cartoonish ones from Super Mario, Didy Kong Racing and Crash Bandicoot
So looking at above categories I see lots of tracks that you might want to have in the game and how does the limit of 30 satisfy our hunger for having a variety of good tracks

To me we would need something between 100 and 150 slots for the new tracks (maybe 30 can be limit of favorite ones but preferably 50)

a) Original Tracks: 30-50
b) Recreated world tracks: 30-50
c) Recreated old GT tracks: 10-15
d) Tracks for other games: 20-30
 
The Death Valley theme is a step back to 1990's Need for Speed.

Why insult us with a glass walled corridor in a 2015 PS3 title?

The more I tinker with this editor more I realize it is a joke at our expense (literally).

Fired up GT5 and the ability to change width and banking per node overshadowed pretty much all the features of this GT6 edition.

Extreme pop ups and tearing and aliasing on screen with most of the user created tracks.

The bottom line is that I would be embarrassed to show this to friends and family let alone actually publish it as a commercial product.
 
It's a real nice feature. I imagine PD was very limited in what they could do with the course creator because of the hardware limitations of the PS3. They did the best they could with a game that is almost 2 years old now. Really hope this feature transfers over to GT7 and has more features.
You seem to forget GT5 is also a PS3 title with more functional track maker already.

The fact they reduced features and function in the next version, is proof it was an extreme after thought with little attention given to feedback from the users of the first tool.

The fact YOU are now hoping it makes it into GT7 with MORE features proves my point. And also shows how much Koolaid you have drunk - your instinct is to defend the vendor that you already gave money to in the hope that you actually get what you paid for next time.

omgitsbees
What was promised that didn't make it into the final track creator that we got? As far as I can remember we got everything PD talked about.
The main promise was "better than GT5 track maker" - you already confirmed that promise was broken with your hope it is improved for GT7.

Don't hold your breath.
 
I've been having a lot of fun drifting on peoples' custom tracks online. Finally, no more Tsukuba/Suzuka/Deep Forest/Trial Mountain. It's a real breath of fresh air.
 
wouldn't Redrock Valley Speedway be a bit hard to make considering it crosses over itself?

Yes of course it would however I have an idea to work around that limitation:
It’s a bummer that we cannot make figure 8 tracks with this new Track Designer which makes this track impossible to make presently. I hope PD will fix this soon; however until then I suggest that we try the best iteration of the track.

My idea i:
- Copy the tracks original layout and make some minimal modifications just to avoid the track crossing over itself.
- Try to keep all the major corners which made this track what it is
Tonight I will make my first suggestion of proposed layout
Tonight as well, when I get a hold of a tablet, I will make a first track and post it for the Community
 
The main promise was "better than GT5 track maker" - you already confirmed that promise was broken with your hope it is improved for GT7.

Don't hold your breath.

What? I didn't confirm anything. The hope that it is continually improved is not the same as some sort of broken promise. I actually happen to think the editor is way better then what we got in GT5 because we have actual control over the layout of our tracks, which is really all I ever wanted in the first place. So, i'm gonna ask again because you didn't answer my question, what did Polyphony promise? What we got is exactly what I remember they originally said the track creator would have. Show me where they actually said "better than GT5 track maker." Where is that exact quote?
 
It's a real nice feature. I imagine PD was very limited in what they could do with the course creator because of the hardware limitations of the PS3. They did the best they could with a game that is almost 2 years old now. Really hope this feature transfers over to GT7 and has more features.



What was promised that didn't make it into the final track creator that we got? As far as I can remember we got everything PD talked about.
It doesn't have much to do with PS3. The design is done on the tablet as fairly simple parameters and uploaded to the servers. The server then downloads the basic track parameters to the PS3. If the PS3 can do a Zahara or Nurburgring then none of the designs allowable in this course make come close to exceeding those. PS3 only loads one track at a time into active RAM.
 
If they are sticking with this editor I do hope to see not only some functionality changes, but some usability improvements too.

- Ability to remove (and greatly reduce/increase) buffer space around tracks.
Let me do tight curves or place run-off areas.
- Multi-select/Drag sections.
Don't make me redo a whole part if I just want to reduce the straight that comes before.
- Height map display.
Current map visualization is useless without elevation measurements for any proper planning.
- Topography matching.
If I run a straight through a furrowed area, let me decide if the paviment straights over it or gains the bumps without having to place 100 anchors that will make mountains of mole-hills.
- Track section width.
Track section width.

I really don't mind not having manual elevation settings as long as they offer more maps with varied topographies presenting that info properly.
 
The track maker isn't that bad once you get used to it. Importing an image into "Eifel Flat" makes things really easy. A few issues with this is that you can't do extremely tight turns, like less than 90 degree angles, don't have overpass/underpass, can't change track width once the track is done (correct me if I'm wrong?), can't do elevations for seperate areas, no night tracks. Minor things like that, but if you want to go out and create some more real world circuits, I think it's pretty good!
 
For what it is, it's waaaay better than GT5's track editor. I only wish that you could make tight corners, because now the stadium section of my Old Hockenheim replica has been....Tilke'd. I would love to see a feature where you can add more outside the tracks you make so that they don't look so barren, especially with Eifel Flat, which I is going to be the main one for track recreations.

Also, these 'Transfer Failed' messages that keep coming up with no error code or instructions to fix is getting on my nerves. That should be fixed as well.
 
The other thing that sucks is that you cannot cross the track with a track piece, by using a tunnel or a bridge.
 
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For me, its fundamentally flawed on a few levels : tablet app only restricts it to those who can afford / be bothered to have one, an app actually on the PS3 would have been the most logical option.
Track width fixed for the whole course is a step back from GT5's as is individual banking on turns. Back on GT5 I played on many custom tracks that had some fantastic off camber corners and different width sections, sadly this is no longer possible.
The biggest bug bear though is lack of elevation adjustment. Last night I had a couple of hours online, trying out some of the communities tracks and one was a pretty faithful recreation of a section of Pikes Peak (was on Death Valley template) and the lack of elevation was painfully apparent.
I would have thought, and hoped, after almost a two year wait the CM would have been a significant step forward from GT5, but at the moment its a bit 'MEH'. If it gets updated with new features that others here have mentioned, then maybe it will be a useful tool, but as it stands right now, I'm afraid it falls way short of my expectations.
 
What a pointless waste of money that Kaz has put into this virtually non productive piece of technology. And to think I have a Sony Z which is 5.1.1 version and yet when I try to download it, it tells me that it is not compatible with my device. So a Sony product that is not compatible with another Sony product is very redundant on their part. We're lucky that they are not asking for a payment because it would be over for them. I am no longer going to even try with this Track Editor because I think they just should have waited until GT7. Promises are made with every launch of a GT title since GT3 and only GT5 has delivered on those promises in full to an extent of having to wait for it. I wish they have just left the GT5 servers active so we could enjoy our own made tracks. Oh the possibilities!!! :cheers: for nothing PD! 👎
 
I've bought and paid my version of GT6 expecting it to be a complete game. Once again PD proved me wrong, so I waited and downloaded all the updates and DLCs and so on. But I don't own, or have a use for a tablet, and after two smartphones gave up on life in a really short while, I'm using and old mobile. So how am I supposed to enjoy the all-hailed and long awaited Course maker? PS and PD, I guess that versiones 3 and 6 of your products will be the last in my possesion.
 
Maybe I should mock up this design idea. :)

What every GT programmer has said to Kaz since GT5. Unfortunately, since then, Kaz then puts said mock ups in-game. There's thinking outside the box (with respect to tablet use) but PD should make sure they have a completed box first.

Seriously unimpressed. GT's getting a rep for introducing a feature in one game then limiting or removing them in the next... photo editor/B-spec/course maker - not improved. Glad I wasn't waiting for this as I haven't played GT since August 2014
 
I am over the tablet only thing - although I still find finger painting rather clumsy and fatiguing on my hands and wrists, but am otherwise accepting the tablet thing and less stress on my thumbs from not using the controller.

What is not acceptable is the "once and done" track width, no editing segments and zero runoff - I can even live with the fixed length start finish but the wall riding is disappointing.

Oh, and bring back Mt Aso. That was nice country road like scenery and had a little runoff so you could put a wheel in the grass without hitting a glass wall.
 
What the app does I think it does pretty well. Being able to edit the route on your tablet while driving the recent upload on your ps3 is pretty cool. I must have uploaded 30+ revisions over a two hour period last night. There are some things I'd like changed/upgraded, but as someone who has an android tablet, this feels like a good start.
 
Is anyone getting a glitch where you can't actually make a pitstop on these tracks?

Personally, I think the track editor is OK, but seriously limited by the PS3.
 
What a pointless waste of money that Kaz has put into this virtually non productive piece of technology. And to think I have a Sony Z which is 5.1.1 version and yet when I try to download it, it tells me that it is not compatible with my device. So a Sony product that is not compatible with another Sony product is very redundant on their part. We're lucky that they are not asking for a payment because it would be over for them. I am no longer going to even try with this Track Editor because I think they just should have waited until GT7. Promises are made with every launch of a GT title since GT3 and only GT5 has delivered on those promises in full to an extent of having to wait for it. I wish they have just left the GT5 servers active so we could enjoy our own made tracks. Oh the possibilities!!! :cheers: for nothing PD! 👎
Maybe if you just could stop moaning, you would have been able too read that you can just side-download the apk and install it on any android device effectively. It takes literally 2 minutes.
Jesus.
 
Maybe if you just could stop moaning, you would have been able too read that you can just side-download the apk and install it on any android device effectively. It takes literally 2 minutes.
Jesus.

You and all the other bootlicking fanboys need to learn how to be a bit tougher to please.

Been at GT since inception, and this is not only par for the course, this is my last straw.

I purchase sony playstation for only one game. this game.

I have a iPad, but who cares. I'm with all the other folks. This should have been offered MUCH MUCH earlier, and without all the needless hardware attachments.

A simple website running a silly little program (that's apparently small enough to run on a phone) AND the actual game loaded version on your playstation gt6 is not only easy, it's beyond easy. Yes, I am a computer literate person, and I'm here to tell you, it's tougher to do it the way they've done it, than to simply attach it in an update to your console, AND set a site up so a user could use a mouse and keyboard to manipulate the software.

Silly...beyond silly. Again, par for the course when it comes to a software group that has been bent on controlling every aspect of the gameplay to the point of taking away any and all creativity. If you can't evolve inside of the ever-shrinking tiny little box polyphony has created, tough...you're hooked (that's been their motto for the last three revisions).

Continue to excuse them if you are one of the aforementioned bootlickers or fanboys. Otherwise, join the growing group of angry customers who have purchased the game.

No doubt about it. You're not whining if you are upset at this latest catastrophe. You've simply been pushed too far, and it's time to spend your money elsewhere.
 
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I can understand while some people feel cheated but at the same time this is 2015 and virtually everybody i know, young and old has a tablet, i think it's a case of very loud angry users who do not have one, filling up the forum. I personally side loaded the APK into my Nexus 7 here in France as it wasn't available in the Google Play store. After 2 days, it is now. I have no patience though! Today i even side loaded it into my Galaxy Grand Prime phone and although you have to do a bit of pinch zooming, it works just fine for me, even at 4.5inches. And where did i test this out? In my car, waiting to pick my kids up outside of school. And i think that might be a big part of this whole saga. Sure, the PS3 lacks RAM etc etc, but maybe all along, a mobile release was the plan. We do EVERYTHING on our phones/tablets now, always connected. I personally love the idea of being able to create tracks anywhere i go. As this is V1 i think it's a great start but an even greater stepping stone. I'm super pleased to see how fast the track building community has shot up. It's about time we had some positivity around here. If PD decide to add to this with extra locations, and maybe terrain lowering or highering, i'll be super happy. Looking ahead to GT7, this will transform into something immense. It's also really great how one of us figured out how to simply share our tracks to anyone on the PSN, regardless of friend requests. You might not have a tablet, but i can tell you now that you have access to (i'm guessing from what i've seen here already) 100+ new race tracks, and rising by the minute. I think it's time to stop with the moaning and start racing again.
 
silicon1138 first of all...nice handle. Second you're probably right about it always being a mobile ap. The original plan was to be able to make courses with your GPS enabled smart phone/tablet so I can't see why the whole shebang wouldn't be on a mobile device from the start.
 
You and all the other bootlicking fanboys
I see you're new here...do not address other users in this way again. Play the ball, not the man.

Maybe if you just could stop moaning, you would have been able too read that you can just side-download the apk and install it on any android device effectively. It takes literally 2 minutes.
Jesus.
You need to calm down as well.
 
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