Well... I'm a bit pissed... I just don't understand how fucked up this whole world have gotten. What am I doing wrong? Ok, yeah, I'm taking stuff from a game, and make it available in another. But this game we are talking about is dead. I'm not charging anything for what I do, and even recommend to buy gtr evo, and know a few have bought it because of me. So those are extra sales they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
I even distribute the track to people owning gtr evo already, so what is the harm? Anyone are free to convert the track if they own it, right? For their own usage? So I'm doing it freely for all those people, how is that any different than if everyone went about and converted their own version?
What I'm gaining in the process? 0 donations so far, and a little visibility. And this is the main reason I'm doing this, I'd like to get noticed, but I doubt it will ever happen anyway, I just suck and can't create anything myself yet, and losing Nord also means I just lost all motivation to do this... cause I don't want to work on another track. I've been working on this track (well nordschleife) for more than 1 year, and I'm still loving it as much, if not more. My lap times are still improving regularly and no other tracks would offer me this level of replayability.
If I could sit with someone and go thru the process of creating something, I guess it would be enough for me to start something, but I just don't know where to start. I tried many times to take the google earth mesh and do something with it, and I just don't know.
In case you think I was lying when I said I had the okay from Jay, here what he wrote me on August 2nd, as you can see, it wasn't the I, hereby, grant you bla bla bla kind of permission, but it looked to me more like a permission than an order to stop.
"I will not ask you to call back copies, and its ok to share with these people as long as they dont spread it outside your little circle. As a favor I would like you to ask those people the following question: Would they buy the AC Nordschleife DLC when it comes out even though they could use that one for free! And when they answer no, don't send them the anything anymore!"
From there, I emailed him twice, asking if it was okay if I would add more people to the circle providing they send me proof they own gtr evo, and he wasn't replying. So I went ahead, and added the How to get access page.
On the 19, this is what he sent me:
"Sorry was away for a few days.
The thing i really want is to stop any and all conversions. I appreciate you take the effort of making things comfortable, but fact remains our content ends up in competitors games. And that to me is a chapter i want to close off as much as we can.
I hope you understand our stance in this all!
thank you in advance,
Best Regards,
Jay Ekkel"
So, yeah.... I'm fucking pissed. They were certainly gaining more than I ever would have doing this. SimBin started as a mod team, grew up on mods, as all their previous games were highly supported by the modding community, and yet, now they embrace the milk your customer model, or should I say free 2 play model, and turn their back to modding. Yet, the community accept this behavior, and many still support what they do.
Oh, and just a thought regarding conversion vs scratch. Why would someone make something from scratch for a company that doesn't give a fuck about you, and hardly ever acknowledge your work and at least thank you for it, let alone sending you a little something for it, knowing their game have more value because of the many things added from the community? Honestly, the more I see clearly into this, the less I think any of those deserve anything made from scratch. They get all the benefits, they sell more copies of their game, and what do people get? A few end up working somewhere, and just how many end up burning themselves in the process and end up with nothing.
If you don't share my point of view, I don't give a fuck, and don't even bother commenting. I'm out.
I will still go thru my emails and send out the BTSync keys to those who sent me their screenshots, and in a week or so, I'll stop my BTSync, letting time to everyone to sync one last time.
And my birthday is in 2 days.... happy birthday to me.
EDIT: I just sent the keys to those who emailed me, if I missed you, as google kindly groups up some emails from different persons together, let me know.
Very sorry to hear this. :( I guess two different worlds collided here and too bad game companies don't allow people to use content from old games - and even for only base of modding as it was in your project. I also thought SimBin would have been happy to get more publicity and some more sales too from old game. However why they want you to stop? IMHO they clearly recognize your work as high quality! Why else would they be concerned of it to affect their sales negatively? So by trying to prevent you from continuing they are at the same time giving credit to your work! ;) Too bad you probably can't feel good about it. But I can also understand SimBin's point of view too.
ReplyDeleteWhat comes to creating stuff from scratch; it's not that difficult. Of course something like Nords would require some kind of accurate reference mesh so one would get the track surface right/realistic. Also strongly believe you should create a small track first just for learning purposes to be able to build bigger track later on without getting a nervous breakdown within few weeks! :)
About 1,5 years ago had to learn some track modding to be able to show Feels3 exactly what kind of track profile I had in mind. If you're not familiar with our track project then check out this link:
http://virtualcircuits.wordpress.com/
There are few posts starting from January 2013. There's also a related thread at ISI forums:
http://isiforums.net/f/showthread.php/10747-Blackwater-Lake-TT-%28Track-Layout-Contest-2012-winner%29-WIP
So learned 3ds Max and rF2 track modding for few weeks and was able to create drivable track surface. Turned out it was so good Feels3 could use my track surface borders to create a mesh for his needs. Freew67 has great tutorial videos on YT:
https://www.youtube.com/user/freew67/videos
I just used this technique of drawing spline, cross sections and then using this tool called Loft (see Loft Compound Object at 3ds Max help) to make the cross section follow spline ending up creating a drivable track surface. It was almost like magic! :) Then you could alter the spline to add elevation changes. There was also this very handy tool or method where track tilting/banking was expressed as graph. You just modify the graph at desired point of the track; dragging graph below zero caused track to tilt left and vice versa. I found this method almost ridiculously powerful way of creating drivable track surface! Unfortunately can't remember where this tilt/bank graph was and how it was applied to the loft/spline thingy. Well I'm sure you'd find it out yourself in no-time (it was basic 3ds Max stuff - no need to buy anything).
At least give it a try and see how it goes? And by doing track mesh by this method no-one would prevent you from using some old tracks as a REFERENCE to your new work? I mean it's easy to lay down two meshes on top of each others and the other is just a visual reference object not interfering your own mesh? This way your mesh would be accurate enough without directly copying stuff from other games hence making it impossible for game companies to interfere with your work. Then you could use video material from YT and other places so to be able to create kurbs, fences, etc.
Just my two cents. :)
I am sorry Jay Ekkel was so inconsistent in his first mail and misled you, you spent lots of effort after that in this mid. It's not clear for me either what he wanted. The only logical interpretation of that phrase is that the AC guys pressured him to stop you, which is just as stupid as Simbin doing it. You requested proof of owning Evo. They could have doublechecked themselves these users, so no risk for Simbin really for an otherwise obsolete game. And AC bringing the laserscanned a d fearing to lose customers...which Nords lover would not buy that DLC anyway...
ReplyDeleteJust played the grassy Nords at 40 fps, thanks again Pierre, by far the best Nords mod today.
Bon anniversaire à toi !!!!
ReplyDeleteMerci pour ta création et tout ton travail, désolé de lire les soucis que tu as encore eu, je suis de tout coeur avec toi, et je trouve que tu as parfaitement raison de t'enerver quand des anciens moddeurs te donne des ordres alors qu'avant ils faisaient la meme chose....
bonne continuation pour la suite et tiens nous au courant si tu repars quand même sur un autre projet
Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!.
ReplyDeleteand Thanks for share the great Ring!
When I play AC,I have spending almost time in your Ring.
Wishing you lots of love and happiness.
Thanks!
Bonne fête P. !!!
ReplyDeleteJe te remerci pour tous tes efforts sur cette piste, incluant la version de rF2.
I've donated a few bucks; it's not much but hopefully enough to show my appreciation.
Lache-pas / Don't give up !
Merci
Alain
Man, I'm really sad to see it. You put an amazing effort bringing those two tracks to AC. Wish I could have half of the tallent you have to keep this project alive, even for a inner circle of known friends.
ReplyDeleteI hope only the best for you. You work has value, a lot for us.
I feel with you!My problem is that i will send you a email with a pic of my gtr evo but i cannot find your email.it was nice when you can contact me at
ReplyDeletepitone1975@googlemail.com
thanks and best regards!