10 Questions for David Pemberton

[gamer19]

Great interview.
I've noticed that, beside being a truly great modder, @Fat-Alfie is also a pretty pleasant dude to be around.
He's good with people and also quite funny.

Unless I'm very much mistaken that's it

Just kidding, like I said... all of the above.
Keep em coming FA, live long and prosper

 

[bsmooth]

Thanks David, I have to say I could really relate to what you said about pleasing others, and how getting lots of negative results can be very hard to understand.
I only say that as I really like Photography and used to post all my images on sites, only to have them picked to pieces. Its still difficult to read them, but just the satisfaction of taking them now is starting to be more meaningful than the comments.
Great to hear you play the guitar as well. Its almost like a time machine sometime.
Only wish you had some interest in american tracks, but since we already have Road America and Sebring there probably isn't much left that would be interesting anyways.

 

[Ballzer]

Thank you David for all your hard work! I still thoroughly enjoy driving your tracks especially and if I had to pick just one track in all of AC to drive it would be the Feldbergring! Racing around in my Maserati250F is an absolute gas! Thanks again and I hope you will continue your amazing work!

 

[daveclifton]

To be fair, his tracks are top notch. I have everyone in my collection, Apologies for any trolling on my part, it was tongue-in-cheek, though grossly misjudged.

 

[Fat-Alfie]

No offense taken. Your comment actually made me smile

And then when you wrote "... 3 tracks..." I thought "Gotcha!"

 

[daveclifton]

No offense taken. Your comment actually made me smile

And then when you wrote "... 3 tracks..." I thought "Gotcha!"

Thanks Mr. Pemberton. It's jealousy on my part. I always wanted to work freelance as a graphic designer, but ended up an accountant. It was a lack of balls on my part, to leave a very well paid job to go alone. It may change in the next ten years, but it is unlikely.

Keep up the great work you are doing.

 

[KittX]

btw shout out to @LilSki, his Riverside was mentioned in latest Donut podcast

 

[jepeto]

les gens de vedène ...

 

[Interslice]

One of my first online races was at deutchlandring in the singer porsche. An experience I won't forget is trying to get that thing up the hill through the hairpins! Thanks for all the builds

 

[HF2000]

One of my first online races was at deutchlandring in the singer porsche. An experience I won't forget is trying to get that thing up the hill through the hairpins! Thanks for all the builds

My best experience was with Group C on the Feldbergring: going 200+ through the forest and @Kek700 going 360 with the Longtail on the straight. Boy, I would love to do that again with a full grid!

 

[Interslice]

My best experience was with Group C on the Feldbergring: going 200+ through the forest and @Kek700 going 360 with the Longtail on the straight. Boy, I would love to do that again with a full grid!

That was excellent. Group C on cobbles

 

[HF2000]

That was excellent. Group C on cobbles

I've tipped the Deutschlandring to Andreas for his Group C events. He said he would look into that.
Feldbergring isn't available yet on s.gp but an hour race on Fonteny with Group C would also be great!

 

[ShredatorFIN]

Thanks for your great mods, FatAlfie. Provided me many hours of entertainment

Graphic designer... makes a lot of sense. Explains why these tracks are visually step above most.

Technical knowledge and studying reference photos/videos etc. hard can probably get you far in track modding, without special artistic talent. But for that next level, you need pro level artistic eye. Even if you have laser scan data, and know everything about 3D modeling, it only gets you so far.

I wouldn't be surprised if most track modders that do visually great stuff, like LilSki or the guy who did Aspertsham had a similar background

 

[Fat-Alfie]

Thanks very much.

I was saying on Discord just this morning, making tracks (or cars, or skins) is about seeing when something looks wrong just as much as when it looks right.

For me, the most important thing when working on a track is visual cohesion; that everything looks like it belongs together. When testing, I try to look out for textures that are too clean, or too saturated, or too bright. You almost don't want the user to notice things like marshal huts, or benches, or dead leaves, or even the trees. My objective is for the brain to simply accept everything that eye sees without questioning it, if that makes sense.

 

[AndreasFSC]

For me, the most important thing when working on a track is visual cohesion; that everything looks like it belongs together. When testing, I try to look out for textures that are too clean, or too saturated, or too bright. You almost don't want the user to notice things like marshal huts, or benches, or dead leaves, or even the trees. My objective is for the brain to simply accept everything that eye sees without questioning it, if that makes sense.

That is a good advice, a consistent level of detail is often more important than a very high level of detail, and to be able to see what doesn't look so good and fix that gives good results if you are persistent

 

[KittX]

I'd also add that apart from consistent and balanced detail all around it's best to think of accents in colors, brightness and shapes - controlling the player perception - what will catch his attention vs what will be going on somewhere "in the background". If you place the same level of accent on a track, tso, trackside vehicles, people etc - there will be just too much visual noise, so maybe the fences should go a few ticks darker, or receiving a little less spec, or maybe some color of tent/vehicle needs to go from that place of track. Also this is very dependant on game engine's strong and weak points, i.e. if there is some tendency to aliasing, those objects need to be a bit darkened/receive less spec etc.

Edit: oh, that's what David meant, my headache brain today didnt catch that.

 

[Assiduous]

Respect for Fat-Alfie. Superb visuals, well optimized, great fun. Thanks for sharing your master pieces.

 

[billyblaze13]

When you see the FAT logo, no thought is necessary - you simply press the download button with your trembling hand.