The Course Editor

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I even can't image how track editor would look like. All the angles, surface, lines, grass, trees, objects, buildings ...

That sounds pretty hard.
 
Jordan
I'm surprised this hasn't raised more eyebrows since Amar first mentioned it. An "easy to use" track editor has the potential to change the GT series - and the racing genre - in absolutely incredible ways. The depth and scale of the game would become virtually endless, and I can only imagine the thousands of hours of creativity that many people here would invest in the feature. Perhaps I'm odd, but when out jogging or riding my bike in rural areas, I'm inspired by every turn and dip in the road, imaging how challenging it would be if taken at speed. To be able to implement those corners, drive them in the game, and then share them with the world is incredibly exciting to me.

It actually raised a lot eyebrows, but many people were too negative so the discussions died. :indiff:


Of course, the practical side of such a feature must also be considered. Track files would obviously have to be saved on the PS3's HDD, and I can only presume they would be large. It would be a shame if these files could not be shared with other players, but the technical infrastructure required to handle direct uploads from the game would be prohibitively expensive. I wouldn't be surprised to see Polyphony use the experience they've learned with the distributed download feature of Gran Turismo TV to decentralize the load. This opens the door for lots of reliability issues, however, and it may be difficult for non-technical players to understand why they can't download a track (e.g. if no seeds were available).

I would personally like to see track files which can be stored on external media and then uploaded to third party websites (like GTPlanet). It would seem to be the most practical and cost-effective solution for Polyphony to implement, and I seriously hope that's something they consider.

Think Little Big (GT)Planet
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I agree with you, i would spend endless hours with the track editor.

EDIT: Would be nice to see Gran Turismo in the, from Media Molecule and Sony invented genre, "Play, Create, Share".
 
I have to say I'm a bit sceptical about this. Of course, it would be great add to the already huge game experience. But can they really include that massive tool in the game? Maybe the whole idea is just moving cones, fences etc. in all those tracks we get. We'll see..
 
Jordan
Of course, the practical side of such a feature must also be considered. Track files would obviously have to be saved on the PS3's HDD, and I can only presume they would be large. It would be a shame if these files could not be shared with other players, but the technical infrastructure required to handle direct uploads from the game would be prohibitively expensive. I wouldn't be surprised to see Polyphony use the experience they've learned with the distributed download feature of Gran Turismo TV to decentralize the load. This opens the door for lots of reliability issues, however, and it may be difficult for non-technical players to understand why they can't download a track (e.g. if no seeds were available).
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Amar's criptic post sounded to me like this track editor would be almost like a glorified slot-car track. You have pre-rendered corners of varying radius as 'tiles' to which you can add straight sections, a simple, adjustable topographical layer would be used to give the track some height variation. If the 'tiles' are already rendered with grass, barriers, armco etc then any track created in the track editor would only need to reference which 'tiles' it uses in which order keeping the files size relatively small. I presume that with the suspected varying time of day and weather options probably available on every track in GT5 that a similar algorithm could be used to further personalize each custom track.
 
tlongman
There was a game for the Dreamcast called V-Rally 2 that released years ago. One of the most interesting and innovative features of the game was that you could completely design your own rally stage and then race it. .
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I still have that one somewhere for my Ps2.
Remember Stunts anybody? I spent countless hours on making my own tracks. Also on a Grand Prix game there was a track editor in the 90's. Very rough and very bad I recall.
It would be very cool.to make own tracks. I have some corners around my house that I would like to race with some LM prototypes myself :lol:
 
That mod-nation track editor is awesome... I could see something like that being easily tweaked to be more realistic than cartoony...
 
There was some kind of track creator in PGR3 you picked a city & used the roads you wanted to create your own tracks which could be saved & raced online & did not take much longer to load.
To get round any licenced track issues they would not need to refer to the corners name just change it very slightly in some way & rename it, but there has always been many fictitious tracks in the GT series all of those are available to use with no costs or issues.
 
Jordan
Of course, the practical side of such a feature must also be considered. Track files would obviously have to be saved on the PS3's HDD, and I can only presume they would be large. It would be a shame if these files could not be shared with other players, but the technical infrastructure required to handle direct uploads from the game would be prohibitively expensive. I wouldn't be surprised to see Polyphony use the experience they've learned with the distributed download feature of Gran Turismo TV to decentralize the load. This opens the door for lots of reliability issues, however, and it may be difficult for non-technical players to understand why they can't download a track (e.g. if no seeds were available).

I would personally like to see track files which can be stored on external media and then uploaded to third party websites (like GTPlanet). It would seem to be the most practical and cost-effective solution for Polyphony to implement, and I seriously hope that's something they consider.
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There is a very easy way to fix this problem. What Pd could do is save the "gamedata" (how the track was made, all the texture and objects and their locations, a blueprint) and just send that over the internet instead of the whole model itself. Then when the recipient gets the file the game reads it and makes the track on his system using the "blueprint gamedata" from the other person. This file would be no more than a couple megabits. In order to play the game online all the participant would have to have gotten that file and made the track on their system. Its not as easy as I make it sound but it not unreasonably hard.
 
Jordan
I'm surprised this hasn't raised more eyebrows since Amar first mentioned it. An "easy to use" track editor has the potential to change the GT series - and the racing genre - in absolutely incredible ways. The depth and scale of the game would become virtually endless, and I can only imagine the thousands of hours of creativity that many people here would invest in the feature. Perhaps I'm odd, but when out jogging or riding my bike in rural areas, I'm inspired by every turn and dip in the road, imaging how challenging it would be if taken at speed. To be able to implement those corners, drive them in the game, and then share them with the world is incredibly exciting to me.

Of course, the practical side of such a feature must also be considered. Track files would obviously have to be saved on the PS3's HDD, and I can only presume they would be large. It would be a shame if these files could not be shared with other players, but the technical infrastructure required to handle direct uploads from the game would be prohibitively expensive. I wouldn't be surprised to see Polyphony use the experience they've learned with the distributed download feature of Gran Turismo TV to decentralize the load. This opens the door for lots of reliability issues, however, and it may be difficult for non-technical players to understand why they can't download a track (e.g. if no seeds were available).

I would personally like to see track files which can be stored on external media and then uploaded to third party websites (like GTPlanet). It would seem to be the most practical and cost-effective solution for Polyphony to implement, and I seriously hope that's something they consider.
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I think LBP has taught Sony a lot about UGC. If there is actually a track editor in GT5, Sony will have the technical know-how to implement a sharing system.
 
I personally think it's the ability to create tournaments.

one "skypath" into another
i.e. Suzuka (Round 1) into Fuji (Round 2) into the Nürb'.

Just my opinion, though.
 
I think it might allow you to make changes to extisting real life tracks. For example, being able to add or remove the Melbourne Loop in Donnington Park or the corner inbetween turns 5 and 6 at Tsukuba.

Twin Ring Motegi is a good example, but I don't know any of the layouts so i couldn't be sure of the possibilities.

However, this picture shows the potential a feature like this would have on the Motegi track:

Twin_Ring_Motegi.png
 
As I said before, we will not be able to modify real courses due to license issues. This is the same reason why they are not allowed to do reverse races on them.
 
But surely it wouldn't be abusing the licence? I can understand how track owners wouldn't want us to change corners etc., but this would only be using the tracks to their full potential by utilising existing parts of the track. Plus PD already change some tracks, such as Daytona. All this would be is the ability to do it ourselves.
 
Perhaps a track editor could be something similar to the editing interface of the roller coasters on RollerCoaster Tycoon by Atari. All the elements are modular and they can be strung together in a particular sequence to create a course. I think someone touched on this concept in this thread already--but this would eliminate the necessity of high-file sizes. I'm actually attracted to the prospect for some...peculiar, unexplainable reason.
 
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JDigital
That mod-nation track editor is awesome... I could see something like that being easily tweaked to be more realistic than cartoony...
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yes, i was thinking of that same thing. Having a track editor like modnation would be awesome.

How about just having a seperate game/app just for creating tracks and exporting it to other racing games?
 
RufusGonePunk
But surely it wouldn't be abusing the licence? I can understand how track owners wouldn't want us to change corners etc., but this would only be using the tracks to their full potential by utilising existing parts of the track. Plus PD already change some tracks, such as Daytona. All this would be is the ability to do it ourselves.
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What makes you think PD changed Daytona? The two versions are run in real life, and a third one with the shorter version of the bus stop aswell, PD haven't "changed" anything.
 
Contrary to livery editor, where I would spend little to no time, this would be great for the GT series. I'm also amazed at the fact no one made a thread about this, when it is one of amar212's famous winds.

I wouldn't be so worried about the real life tracks matter. Keep in mind that there's a difference between Course Editor and Course Builder. It's open up to imagination. A course editor would be more limited, to a course builder would offer a lot more. Let's hope for a combination of the both, but let us not hope too much. ;)
 
Every game that has had a "create mode" has simplistic or cartoony graphics. I don't know if it's possible to have a create mode on a game that's so technically taxing like GT.

It just seems too advanced to be on the game in this generation.

I'm still on the skeptical side, thinking that somehow Amar's clue got lost on the translation, or maybe he couldn't "code" the message the way he wanted.

His lack of replies (even with Jordan discussing the subject) means that his NDA is so strict he can even say yes, no, or maybe to any of the question, because if he could, i'm sure he would already clarifyed the issue.

Such feature would also made it into the leaked press release around gamescon right? Or maybe it was a feature that only TGS would reveal us anyway, so the point is, 11 days to go.
 
I expect something like an Scalextric track, and backgrounds should be taken from existing locations. You design the road, and then choose the enviroment, like High Speed Ring, El Capitan, Tuscany, Chamonix, Appricot Hill. However, i think it shouldnt be used to alter real-world circuits.

If they allow on-line races to take on user-created circuits, i guess we can expect someone here at GTP makes something that could beat the Nordschleife or La Sarthe :sly:. Oh my, did i just said that Sarthe is unbeatable? :dunce:.
 
fasj6418
Every game that has had a "create mode" has simplistic or cartoony graphics. I don't know if it's possible to have a create mode on a game that's so technically taxing like GT.It just seems too advanced to be on the game in this generation.

I'm still on the skeptical side, thinking that somehow Amar's clue got lost on the translation, or maybe he couldn't "code" the message the way he wanted.

His lack of replies (even with Jordan discussing the subject) means that his NDA is so strict he can even say yes, no, or maybe to any of the question, because if he could, i'm sure he would already clarifyed the issue.

Such feature would also made it into the leaked press release around gamescon right? Or maybe it was a feature that only TGS would reveal us anyway, so the point is, 11 days to go.
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Not really, there are dozens of games that offer map/mod making tools which I use all the time, and the maps I create are alot more detailed and complicated that what you'd find on a racing track, fantasy or otherwise.

As a few people have mentioned something like the scaletrix type track builder would be possible but I image we would get a more extensive course creator with more abilities that simple cut and paste corners and straights. Realatively speaking it'd be very simple for PD to give us a blank canvas, some tools for the details and surroundings and the tarmac itself could be created by a 'paintbrush' style tool.

The only awkward thing would be if we have to create it with a pad on the PS3, in which case a keyboard and mouse would be far superior. One of my more far fetched and wishful thinkings are they give us the tools to use on a PC platform, but I imagine thats unlikely.

Tracks would not be hard to create, see worldbuilder (youtube) as an easy example of a powerful tool suite.

Preach
 
I could only imagine this being done on a big concrete slab or airfield like bit, where you can set a couple of cones, but anything more than this isn't just going to cut it on the PS3.
 
If PD does include a course editor I think it would be along the lines of PGR3 & only applicable to street courses, something like
New York, Seattle, George V etc., this would be the easiest way for PD to implement this. Modeling a street course, just requires putting up barriers.
and of course that does require modeling parts of the street not seen before.

Of course if it's that easy to for users to create their own courses, then PD should be have hundreds of their own courses created by now. :)
 
fasj6418
Every game that has had a "create mode" has simplistic or cartoony graphics. I don't know if it's possible to have a create mode on a game that's so technically taxing like GT.
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Not every game!:

Back then it was "the sh.. thing"! ;)

I don't prepare myself for a track editor, since it's not easy to implement and it doesn't struck me as something essential or even a priority for GT series. But who am I to be sure?
 
Maggot666PL
I don't prepare myself for a track editor, since it's not easy to implement and it doesn't struck me as something essential or even a priority for GT series.
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It's not a priority of course. We have lived before without it, and we can live on without it too. It's just something nice to have. However, I would like everything else to be done correctly before we move on with other things.
 

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