Course Maker: how big is it and when can we expect it?
- Thread starter kogunenjou
- 519 comments
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- 1,029
- Ohio
- jimmyfoxhound
I'd really like to know what Kaz thinks of the game being advertised (STILL) on Amazon with the course maker as if it's available in game. There is no asterisk or anything telling the consumer that the feature is not implemented yet (actually a few of the features listed there still aren't available). I'm not mad at him or PD about this, I'd really like to get a straight answer from them about it just out of sheer morbid curiosity at this point. What happened to this feature?
- 2,007
- WNC
- TRLWNC
- 7,830
- U S A
- Tetsumura
- Nigel Fox
I have a feeling that this is a matter that some things worked better on dev kits, and then issues began to crop up when things were squeezed into the PS3. Then they had to deal with the actual Cell architecture and not an emulation. This would also explain why the scope of Course Maker II kept shrinking over the months. Streaming well on dev kits. On PS3, not so much.
- 614
- Orange County, CA
- stuff1138
@Tenacious D dude stop making so much sense you're bumming the rest of us out lol
Sorry but that makes zero sense. Game development does not work like that, if it did nobody would ever get anything working. Dev kits are certainly not emulators for a start, they obviously contain a CELL processor along with all the same hardware as PS3, it'd be madness if they didn't.
- 171
- England
- MLP_Lyra
PS3 tool "kits"/units for the PlayStation 3 have double the RAM, actually.
- 7,830
- U S A
- Tetsumura
- Nigel Fox
No, it does work like that. I've watched a few interviews of people stating that things worked well on their dev kits, and then things would occasionally crash on the console, and they'd have to carefully map out the processes going on until they found a line of code that was causing an SPU collision. I don't have a specific video to share because this was back in 2007-08 when devs were getting more adventurous in their demands on the Cell architecture. The dev kit itself is one thing I'm not all that familiar with, though from remarks made in early days, it did sound more like an emulation rather than a PS3 expanded into a PC kit. Though that would be fascinating to google up...
Besides, if you have some ideas, I'm sure we'd be all eyes. Ba-dum-bum.
And now ITwiSparkle has me on the hunt, darn you.
Ideas for what? All i'm saying is your understanding of PS3 dev kit is wrong, at least today. To think it doesn't have a CELL is madness.Therefore it certainly isn't a valid answer to my original question.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/ps3-dev-kits-arrive/
Even if your understanding was correct it's still only a guess, just as much thinking they were simply miles away from being finished.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/ps3-dev-kits-arrive/
Even if your understanding was correct it's still only a guess, just as much thinking they were simply miles away from being finished.
Yes in order to run dev stuff alongside the game. They still develop games with the actual PS3 spec in mind. They don't develop for double the RAM then try to squash it into half.
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- 171
- England
- MLP_Lyra
Indeed, I just wanted to ensure people knew that there are differences, even if said differences shouldn't have any real effect on development. Sorry x:
And now ITwiSparkle has me on the hunt, darn you.
So sorry, Ten D. Just doing my bit ;P
- 8,721
It's always nice to have a bit of a buffer when testing. Rather than optimise something that might not work, it's probably better to have that headroom to play with until everything's closer to being finalised.
My prototypes are always heavy, brute force monstrosities. Even in research, you start with the languages that allow you to turn tests around quickly, then port to something a bit more sprightly once you've eliminated the dead-ends.
And yes, another axis to optimise on is time; I'm sure you've heard about games not running quite so well pre-release, getting framerate dips and the like. What that means is you're exceeding your per-frame processing budget, and is a direct analogy of running out of memory for some other hack in, say, texture formats or sloppy cleanup or something.
TenD's analysis probably isn't far off the money, for my money. That is, optimisation and integration of different systems is causing a bit of a headache. After all, the course maker isn't the only thing we're waiting for.
- 8,721
The website says that's for the community app.
I'd suspect it'd be a daft move anyway since "Windows" has gained a bit of traction recently; this is all assuming they actually decide to make an "app" specifically for the course maker, of course.
The only related app hinted at so far is a GPS data capture one (for import to the course maker...), but it's not clear if it means one specifically made by PD, or just any old capture device. It shouldn't matter too much either way, once you factor in community-made tools.
- 302
- West Virginia
700 likes! 
I think we're a shoe-in for Kaz to notice us. Thanks for the support, guys and gals.
I think we're a shoe-in for Kaz to notice us. Thanks for the support, guys and gals.
I really hope this "Course Maker" has far more features than the one in GT5. If we get another "track generator" with numbers as values to make corners more difficult (or should I say weird) then I might as well sell GT5.5 on eBay.
And having the option to add trees, stands, track markers and guard rails does not qualify as a course maker. We want to be able to fully create any generic track we want, not given some locked features that we can't change!
And having the option to add trees, stands, track markers and guard rails does not qualify as a course maker. We want to be able to fully create any generic track we want, not given some locked features that we can't change!
- 104
- England
- VST1G
The GT5 style track generator worked really well. So well it felt like it had been tried out before. It couldn't possibly be a clone of the RECS system from Lotus II on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis)...
Anyhow, Race Driver Create & Race on the DS has a fairly good, if basic and limited, course creater on a flat plane. And that was on a low powered handheld. Although arcadey in race style, Trackmania on the Wii (assumably similar on the PC versions) seems quite detailed for such a game, incorporating elevation and camber.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say that it worked really well. You would just change values and the game would generate a corner, a straight or a bank.
By Course Maker, we want the tools to re-create any track we would like, more or less.
For example:
- Able to create a straight that is 50, 100, 150 or "custom" meters in length.
- Able to create a chicane.
- Able to create a corner to the left or to the right, not have the game decide.
There are many corners on tracks worldwide that we can't have because of "licensing". So, we want to create and combine those to make a really good track, that way we ease off PD's back asking for DLC. I would.
By Course Maker, we want the tools to re-create any track we would like, more or less.
For example:
- Able to create a straight that is 50, 100, 150 or "custom" meters in length.
- Able to create a chicane.
- Able to create a corner to the left or to the right, not have the game decide.
There are many corners on tracks worldwide that we can't have because of "licensing". So, we want to create and combine those to make a really good track, that way we ease off PD's back asking for DLC. I would.
- 7,830
- U S A
- Tetsumura
- Nigel Fox
By "really well," we mean that it's not hard at all to make a nice, curvy, fun to throw a car around track. I wish we had more than 50 save slots on GT5 for them, because I hit the limit in two days.
Now, I would indeed like a Course Maker tool as detailed as your proposal, in fact I'd like something like they have in ModNation Racers. And maybe it's like yours or that one, but we'll just have to see. But if we get something like CM1 but supersized in GT6, it would be much easier to wait for that monster track maker in GT7.
- 10,956
- Canada
Kaz must know we need the Course Maker, he must! Keep bringing in those 'likes' people!700 likes!
I think we're a shoe-in for Kaz to notice us. Thanks for the support, guys and gals.
