Steps to course maker

Mods: Please note that this is NOT the same question as to when it is coming.

I want to know what PD would like to accomplish before the course creator (version 1 or 2) will come out.

I thought that community features might be the key, but we don't have sharing ability at the moment.

So, I can see sharing features as being key to tracks so we can share and use the tracks in our clubs.

Is there anything else wanted or needed in place before the course creator is given to us?

 

I don't see why it can't come out before sharing features - that way if and when sharing of tracks is introduced there will be some tracks ready to share.


I would like to see the best community made tracks being added to the game via a monthly update so that everyone can use them and also to give recognition to some of the great track makers - some of the tracks made on GT5 were fantastic.


I presume the delays with sharing features are due to security issues caused by the hacking community, but I see no reason to wait for sharing features to release the course maker. Personally it is not a big thing for me - I don't expect to use it as I didn't have the time, patience or skill to use the GT5 course creator, but for some of my friends with more talent they are desperate for this feature.

Some kind of event creator using cars from my garage is what would increase the playability / hours on the game for me, but that can come after the course creator.

 

Fully agree on all of that.

 

I would like to see sharing of course decoupled to the community features, since, like the last iteration, it (the tie between sharing maps and one's friends list) reduces the number of people with whom a player can share to a tiny handful.

In any case, there is no valid reason for forcing its release to some community feature tie-in, except to stall on release and of course, to continue PD's elitist relationship with certain groups at the cost of the far larger majority of loosely "individual" players.

 

.............All this longing for the course maker is "making" me worried; I got a funny feeling that this feature would very well be a rehash of what we saw on GT5 - aka course generator, not a maker. What a disappointment that would be. I'll probably die laughing...

 

Sharing of tracks should not really be an issue, I wouldn't treat it like car sharing it would all be done from within the course creator.
Make one you think is good
Upload it to the server.
Download any you like the look of from the server.

The ability to rate tracks, perhaps leave a small comment wouldn't go amiss.
Also should be able to sort tracks by say rating, length, creators name & twistiness (say based on corners per km)

Pretty much upload & download to a striped down forum.

Even letting you export it to PC & doing the above would work for most people or at least reach a far bigger audience than your friends list.

I hold little hope though as why we cant transfer cars freely between accounts on the same PlayStation is beyond me considering your forced to run multiple accounts unless you wish to waste hours messing with the stockyard once you get over 500 cars.

 

The two main features left to come are the course creator and BSpec. There are hints the latter will bring with it new AI, and for the former, locations such as Ronda won't run well with the current visibility methods used with the renderer in the game.

That is to say, both updates require changes to runtime (I mean, in-race) code, and code rebalancing has knock on effects. They'll probably issue both updates close to each other, because they'll need to be made to work together.

I wonder if the UI is causing them issue, too. As such, I expect the technology will appear first, then the feature.

 

I also don't understand why Course Maker can't come.

 

I have thought about this, and the thought has gone through my head that this might be waiting for Spring.

Think about it. If they put out a GPS tracker, then a LOT of people will want to get on the road.

If it's winter in the North, a lot of people could be put at risk.

If it's winter in the South, a lot of people could be put at risk.

That would be a lose-lose. So, we wait to see what happens in a couple of months when everyone is transitioning.

I hope I'm not being optimistic..... Grr.....

 

I stil convinced that Circuito de la Sierra is a full track as Apricot Hill, Barthust, etc.

I could be wrong but I think the course maker will be something else.

Concerning B-SPEC mode, it's possible that there will be a specific AI.

 

It was confirmed in an interview with Kaz, that Ronda is part of the course maker. If it isn't, they did a hell of a lot of modelling of the town of Ronda that is going to waste at the moment. Zahara is 20-25 kms from Ronda so it could easily be included. Last statement by Kaz was 20x20 but I doubt he meant a perfect square, so 25x16 could encompass both Zahara and Ronda. In fact, Google Earth tells me that you can draw a rectangle encompassing Ronda, Ascari Race Resort and Zahara in under 400 sq. kms. Connecting all three and allow us to make and save separate tracks or just free roam including driving on and off a fixed circruit, would be absolutely ground breaking in video gaming history if I'm not mistaken.

 

Having course maker themes linking the game's locations would be utterly golden, but I'm not expecting it. Perhaps more interestingly is that Ascari circuit is even closer to Ronda, but in the opposite direction almost.

The Sierra track is built just like GT5's course maker tracks, with an adaptive detailed ribbon overlaid on a low res "background", and lots of repeated trackside scenery elements. The purpose built courses show less immediate contrast between track and scenery, and they tend to have more (varied) incidental detail.

Ronda and Sierra / Zahara are potentially two different types of course maker location; both distinct also from the type used in GT5, in that they are real places, not generic backdrops.

 

Yep, it's sad, but, I want the course creator SO BAD!!!!

 

Humor me here:

Let's say that we end up with a square as small as about 10 miles. So, someone goes to NY,NY and does a track on Manhattan Island that ends up being about 100 miles long.

They take it to an online lobby, hop on in an LMP car, and do a lap.

Will they make it all the way around without running out of gas?

So, are we going to have the option of adding pit areas in strategic locations?

Thinking about this, it's no surprise that we don't have many tracks that are more than double digits in length in real life.... (outside of rally.... ) HAHA!

 

Most of the cars in this game are representative of (relatively) normal vehicles, each having a range of hundreds, not tens of miles, even when "abused" by rabbit starts, rapid braking, and general high speed use above their normal range calculations, so using a specific exception (if indeed LMP cars have such a limited range - idk or care) as a proof of failure is a bit specious. It's like obviating drifting because Jay Leno's tank car can't compete.

 

Or just turn fuel consumption off.

I'm not sure you'll even see course maker tracks online. I have a feeling that's one of the holdups is getting them to work with a single host having the track in their database and everyone else piggybacking off of them. They did that when Spa came out if you recall, in GT5, where the host could have the track and anyone could use it...for a while.

 

Well, let's look at the Indy 500. Since it is the one I have watched the most, I know about it.

As a general rule, one tank of fuel lasts 30-40 laps.

2.5 X 30= 75 miles
2.5 X 40= 100 miles

I don't think it's out there at ALL to say that a full on race car doesn't get much over 3 MPG while racing.

@Johnnypenso , I rather agree....

But it could still be fun to see who will make it to the pits in one lap....

 

Again, most cars in the game aren't racecars. And most players aren't into organized race clubs that worry about that sort of thing. I doubt most of us (that would be the hundreds of thousands, not the hundreds) even enable fuel consumption unless we are required to.

BTW, although a 20km square was originally promised back in 2013 when PDI was doing their presell of GT6, since then it was parsed to a 10km square, paraphrasing "due to limitations of the PS3". That's roughly a 6 mile square, not 10, ie, 36 square miles vs 100 square miles of space for containing such a layout, or said another way, only 36% of the available room you grossly over-estimate.

You: race car, significantly over-estimated maximum circuit length, and with fuel consumption on.

Reality: vast majority are far more "normal" cars, maximum coursemaker circuit lengths will be vastly shorter than what you contend, and most players don't enable fuel consumption unless forced.

Bottom line, for the tiny handful of PDI's customers who engage in routine, long duration racing with fuel consumption enabled in worst-case racecars, I'd suggest that you avoid designing courses that leave you sitting on the side of the road after less than a lap. Even a Monkey could figure that one out.

 

20km x 20km was the last I read from Kaz unless you saw something different.

 

I hope you're right. I'm afraid I can't cite the source, but I do recall something having been said about it being further reduced down to 10x10km, and I think it was some interview with Yamauchi that said it last spring or summer. If there's recent, official proof that I'm wrong, then I'll retract that portion of my reply.

In any case, I think the concern about coursemaker circuits being "too long" is overblown, over-stated, and/or easily ameliorated for the tiny fraction that feels a need to make noise about it, simply by choosing to make a smaller circuit. There's nothing that says anyone will be required to create courses at their maximum extents, presuming PDI actually delivers the paid content in the first place, which is looking less and less likely as time slips by.

it has now been over 13 months since official release of GT6 and quite possibly only 11 months or so until release of GT7 for Xmas season 2015.

 

But what about the Sunday cruise (for two hours per lap? )?

 

What Sunday cruise? The one I take without concern to fuel consumption, since I rarely if ever enable fuel consumption?
The one I won't be able to take in GT6 no matter what? (1 lap, avg speed 90-100mph, 2 hours... that's about 180-200 miles, well above even what you have already suggested), or the one I take in my real car on real roads?

My best guess, based on what little info that has been released so far, is that a maximum circuit will be about 25-30 miles in length, likely less than that, no matter the world size upon which it is overlaid.

PS> Don't get me wrong., I'd welcome the ability to design and drive a lengthy circuit, but from what I can infer from PDI's bits of info, that's just not going to happen for this console, and I'll bet it won't for the PS4 either. They'll simply bloatware the game with heavily detailed 3 model buildings, grandstands, etc, (with full interiors, of course, because who knows, they might come in handy some day) and obviate such features by proxy.

 

I'm still going by "tens of square kilometres", their first estimate. That's √20 by √20 km as a minimum, or roughly 5 km / 3 mi on a side.

That's a good point, although Spa was substantially different in that everyone (joining those ruins) had it installed to their hard drives in advance.

Still, automated custom content retrieval has been working since the days of Q3A, if not before. Then again, if Sony / PD's servers are anything like Ubi's (for example), I predict despair...