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maddog
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« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2011, 03:10:05 AM +0100 » |
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We are lucky indeed, to have those amongst us, with the talent, and artistry, to broaden the horizons of GPL. People like Paul Skingley, at Gplracer, and our own Tommie van Ostade, who have dedicated long hours, to the task of recreating racing history, for all our enjoyment. We have all seen more than our moneysworth from our Sim. Yet there is more to come, and hence follows the perpetual question of, when?
I quick thumb through SRMZ's pages, will show a wide range of cars being worked on. Frustratingly, many look to be fully roadworthy, and in many cases, there's even evidence of testing to back this up. It's true of the 55's, as the clip clearly shows.
The reason Gpl mods only appear in public, long after the rumors, the screenshots, and the video clips, is integrally connected to what keeps Gpl special. It happens because the cars we drive, don't just look right - they also work right! Many-a-weekend has to be spent in a highly skilled computer garage, laboriously developing, testing, and modify each individual car's physics, so they end up, mimicking their original counterpart's characteristics, as well as their laptimes at the tracks they originally ran on.
A large part of the illusion, that a wealth of new derivations, are poised to roll off the assembly line, stems from the order in which things are likely to be created. First, is likely to be the cars themselves. Creating/modifying these is a very complicated and time consuming business, not helped by the Sims ancient nature. Despite this, there now seem to be many more models, than physics models. So it's easy to infer a backlog of mods, awaiting only some final touches, to be completed. But, as already suggested, there's very much more to it, than just slapping a few cars down on a track.
That these are created at all, is down to the skill and determination of a talented few. But what's probably little known or considered, beyond their driveability, is the amazing depth of research that's done, to properly reproduce every car. And there's now the ability to bring them fully back to life, individually at each event, exactly as they appeared in life. This means finding, and verifying the correct details for every car and driver, throughout the Season. There are probably mod team members, consequently capable, of judging real cars they've hypothetically worked on, at concours level!
This and more, elevates our simple racing game, into a true representation of history. It separates ours, from the 'also rans' in a way that points to the future, as well as the past. So I hope most of us will agree - the past is worth waiting for. And there are signs at SRMZ, that a part of it, has almost arrived . . .
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