Thanks for picking this up guys, good to see a discussion starting
Maybe it has been a bit quiet here lately, but it's always nice to have a debate going where we can point out to Ruud what we think and what we would like to see and do with Racer.
For me it's actually not a simple matter to point out a single vehicle as a candidate for a default slot - I could push some of the work I've been involved with myself recently because I know it's up to date, decent stuff, but also there are vehicles out there or about to be released that have a really solid selection of features and overall quality.
Should we perhaps each nominate one, two or three vehicles with a bit of an explanation why we think they would be suited, then a poll after a week or two maybe?
Tracks are at least as difficult, but I would definitely agree with Boomer in saying that the default location would be best to include a number of vehicle dynamics test sections. In that regard Carlswood isn't too bad, but in the current condition it's more of a mess of random updates over the past few years.
Too much default content would make it more tedious to keep everything updated of course. There would after all be little sense in having lot's of new content that is then a hassle to maintain at a high level, which is why I would say that two vehicles and one or two tracks would be fair. At the moment we have two very different vehicle types in the Murcielago and the Baja - that's great because it shows the technicalities of movables and various shaders and so on, but also represents the wide range of vehicle types we enjoy in Racer overall. Similarly, the garage default location can be nice for screenshots and menu background, but you need something like Carlswood to do any driving. Cleaning up the shader, special.ini, TOD curves and textures on Carlswood can lift it up a good bit, but I understand we might want something new after all those years.
Dave is nearly done with his Elvington airfield, which offers a lot of room for all kinds of testing as well as a ~1min lap layout. It might be a bit short for top speed runs even on the long runway, but the area is flexible and movables can be placed to form figure eight tests, slaloms, evasion tests etc (would be even easier if we got a separate file to put various cone layouts in, rather than having to work in geometry.ini). It's not very hardware hungry either, as long as we avoid running too many movables for now, but looks fresh and alive. On the downside, it's by the nature of an airfield a bit flat and doesn't have that much scenery or "interesting" objects scattered around.
Bringing out old tracks like Schuchter is probably not the best way - I remember them fondly too, but they're simply not up to our current expectations regarding road mesh detail alone, which is the most important thing before any glitzy textures or animated objects come into play, in my opinion.
I'll just put up a few tracks that I use regularly for fun and development work: Carlswood, Elvington, Factory Test Track, Fernstone, Gyral Trophy, Ring2002, Polish Roads, RedRock, Sounds'n'Surfaces, SwissStrollSnow - and a few more specific locations like Chaseyertail and Lunghezza, which were never incorporated into other tracks. Of these, realistically only Carlswood, Elvington and S'n'S offer proper acceleration, slalom, skidpad etc, areas on top of a regular track layout of some sort.
There are many more nice locations, like Gizmo's Trail, Greentown's GoKartTrack or TheRiver... but for one or more reasons they aren't very well suited for a default choice I think.
In terms of cars, the Murcielago isn't "bad" as such - but I don't know if it's a nice and easily accessible car for a newcomer. As a showcase of methodology and specific code, techniques, it's actually fine. Dave's a bit busy these days, so I went over the version Ruud included in the last beta and polished it up a bit with some changes to make the handling a little more predictable and communicative, so it would be ready for some action again.
The 458 is a lovely car, takes a certain amount of concentration to enjoy it properly, since it's quite direct in steering response and offers a lot of power on demand ^^ I don't have the latest version I think, it was quite framerate hungry though in what state I tested it. In any case, I would see this as a possible replacement for the Lamborghini for sure, we don't need two modern supercars with electronic nannies that are impossible to get working right at the moment, I think.
Similarly, if endo ever gets around to finishing the R35 GT-R's exterior, I'd love to share that as well - lot's of customization, accessible handling, very fast, fully up to date, fun to drive (for me anyway XD ) and so on.
I've also gotten positive feedback on the Tatra 613 francomk and I released a while back - since it's been a few months now, a bit of dust already collected, but it's quite complete in terms of showing features and being an interesting, unique to Racer kind of vehicle. Speaking of which, the 813 8x8 truck would be even more special, but Ruud hasn't had an open ear for multi-axles, multi-differential 20 tonners lately ^^
I can also mention skybh's releases (which he doesn't publish on the forum here), which are just loaded with attention to details like working wipers, indicator icons, original manufacturer option packages and model grade choices...
As a replacement for the suspension movables vehicle, a modern version of FSR's Swift Formula Ford racer seems perfect - compact, light, no slicks or aerodynamic aids, it would complement a bigger, more complicated road vehicle very well.
Bumper was working on a Citroen BX GTi which is one of the most lovely looking vehicles ever in Racer and again, simple, but high quality fun that would be right for demonstrating what Racer is about and how to use it. Would need a fresh set of car.ini and related bits though.
Alright, that was a bit more than two or three mentions, but I said it initially, hard to make choice like that, because on the one hand you have to say which one of your kids is the prettiest, the other thing is that I'm never fully happy for more than a day, so ...XD
Some1: maybe we should open up a thread for this racer.ini stuff specifically? It would be good for everyone if we shared common or not so common settings we use, for what reason and so on. With your example of default fullscreen, I wouldn't really benefit from that specifically since I run in near fullscreen window, having my .ini files and spreadsheets open for developement, jumping around
A new version of Raven would be fantastic for that, since the day I downloaded that I only used the Racer menu for accessing multiplayer really. A tool like Raven can store your general personal info like screen resolution, driver name, live env. mapping on/off, mirrors on/off by default...
