So I've finally managed to use the Course Maker feature (or the "Track Path Editor", to be more precise), and I have to say, I'm a bit of a mixed bag on how I feel towards it. While it was a step back on a few areas compared to the old Course Maker, it is leaps and bounds improved on the remaining other areas. I'm just going to add on from my initial thoughts as seen in the original post.
First off, accessibility. Yes, that is a big issue on my end, but thankfully I have managed to properly set up Bluestacks on my laptop and get the app working. My only problem is that I'm using quite an old laptop which is really only meant for office work, and so its CPU always peaks whenever the app is open (by peak I mean 100% CPU Usage
). I might need a new laptop for this app, as well as my PS3 video recording equipment. Anyway, once in the app, I chose the Death Valley theme just to test what the app has to offer, and I finally got to tracing the outline of the sample track I had in mind.
That right there, was the moment where the brand Course Maker's amazing level of sophistication really shined. While the old Course Maker really should have been labeled as a "Course Generator" instead, in the new one you have full control on the outline of your dream race track (well, fine, 90% control). In the Layout Mode, you're able to make a straight as long as you want, as long as it's within the confines of the layout map, and having control of the tightness of the corners is really amazing. I like how the app displays info on each section of the map, like length for the straights and even the turn radii for the corners. And since that information is being displayed, this in turn allows you to create a sequence of corners that have the same turning radius, allowing the track to have a degree of consistency that was really not possible in the old Course Maker. What I noticed however, is that you can't make incredibly tight turn because the app doesn't allow you to, it says the pieces of the road would bump into each other. I didn't quite get this at first
, maybe because the app doesn't have a more sophisticated algorithm that would allow you to do so. But I didn't mind much anyway, I just wanted to see how much and how far the app can get.
What I've made is a fairly high-speed course that's reminiscent of the Speed-type races in NFS: Prostreet. Earlier before getting to use the app, I went into a few lobbies using custom tracks, and I joined this lobby which had a course set in Death Valley. It was a very wide patch of road that stretched really long and has high-speed corners wherein you can just mash the throttle and go flat out. So okay, after taking inspiration from that and from Prostreet, I made sure I captured the essence of those, and that is where the Item Mode comes in. I really like how the game allows you to place items alongside the track, something the old Course Maker didn't have. And because the new Course Maker had this feature, it gives your custom tracks a sort of "life" into them. Kind of like decorating a room in your house, to make the place a little more lively.
Once finished, I encountered a small problem when transferring the track. It kept saying "Transfer failed", and so I looked up here to find possible solutions to address this problem. What worked for me is logging my PSN ID out of the Course Maker, restarting Bluestacks, logging in my PSN ID again and boom, transfer successful. Needless to say, I was really excited on trying out my first-ever custom track in GT6.
It wasn't bad, and I think it could use some adjustments, and so I went back to the app to change some portions of the track.
Downsides of the app would be of course, not being able to set the track width on individual sections of the track. And you can't change it once you're on drawing the layout, either, so you'll have to start over again if you want a different track with. Being able to create super tight corners isn't possible, moreso if your track width is set to maximum. A 30 track limit would prove to be an inconvenience to others, as they would like to either copy as much real-life tracks as possible, or let their imaginations go wild. But so far, I personally have no qualms with it. And perhaps the biggest downside of the app, is that you only have a maximum of 10 kilometers of a stretch of road. Again, some would find this troublesome, and I think they should have allowed it up to 12-15 kilometers or so. a 15km-long track is pretty long, frankly. Another bad thing I experienced was that, because I am using an emulator to use the app, I can't exactly zoom in or zoom out freely. If anyone knows how to do so, please, do share it.
Overall my experience with the new Course Maker has been amazing. It's great, but just like the game which it supports, it has flaws in areas you wouldn't think of. And so my vote goes to "Not really, I can manage."
