New blog layout

This blogs layout slighty changed. It's looking a little bit better now. The glow effects might be able to lower your browsers FPS (actually, they are not intended to be lens flares). The Special FX is only visible to Chrome browsers atm. Beware slow PCs (like my Laptop). Enjoy and read a bit – new contents have been added, too. While I still need to go back in time to resolve some misspellings you may find some good readings in here. Downloadable stuff will be added in case this blog will not suffer at this nerdy corner of special interest. Oh, the new background image is a long time experiment on JPEG-compression – will it blend? Hint: Check the poll on the right side. And BTW: Bring back SG-1, SG-A and most of all MGM Studios.

McKay to Shepard: Will there be a aftershow?

Shepard: More Online Marketing, McKay, now!

Status Report: My Modding Projects

Right now in real life: Working on the Punt Boat
(Season begins soon)
[Image Source: sxc.hu]

I've been busy recently. There are a lot of things I would have shared with you that I allready forgot. Never mind, let's face the important things at least. Real life goes first and I wouldn't be the first blogger to fail and this would be my number #Iduno construction zone. But I'm still in the game working on some Mods. In general, the things I like to play with are:

– Product Design (means concept drafting)
– Skinning
– Mesh-importing
– Map-editing
– Playing with config files

The Universal Cargo Box is one of it (I missed to do anything for it recently). The MagShield UVW-Textures is another. Meanwhile I do one or two Delta Glider EX and Arrow Freighter skin jobs. Seems Orbiter is my game of choice. But theres some Mod evaluation going on with Vehicle Sim. And I'm still creating a huge Scenario for IL-2 (but I wonder if it will be compatible with the newest Patches). For IL-2 I plan to create another dozen of Skins. And the BSG Diaspora game also awaits my long time ago promised Flight Skills Test map. I don't want to talk about other things since most things never get finished and some are too heavy to do anyway. Big fun could be the scenario creation within the Map Editor of WC Saga (placing cat's in space).

The idea to create my very own vehicle leads me to research good looking shapes since years and I'm now about the enter the dimension of cockpit design / texturings. Let's see, maybe I start from inside-out instead of drawing exterior concepts first. In the end, I'm trying to match polycount, once I have done the all the research and experimenting, aswell as finding the right plattform-game. But oh wait I was dreaming, just saying, the vehicle would be a space, air, deepsea and floating thing with feets, skids and wheels in one. ;)

Little by little I try to do my part. While I crashplay vehicles and things all the time, I always enjoy Open Source Mods and I wish I could do more to provide others with my little creations. This way I want to shout a BIG THANKS to all modders of vehicle Sims, be it by scripting awesome things or just adding mixed vegetation to the games. Every good Mod makes a game more immersive and theres a huge lack of that thing in every detail... when speaking of virtual games.

Oh and by the way, improving this Blogs look and feel is another thing written down on my task list. This Blog is a free time thing, now highly ranked at search engines but still almost without visitors or feedback. I don't have the time for playing games these days and my PC is a waste since I needed to change it's cooler. Anyhow there should be some releases coming up in the matter of sooner or later. And of course, I will write about the one or other topic on my mind as soon as they appear or whenever I have the muse and time for it.

Times are changing – How a game led to a real car

I'm no console player since I prefer PC's. However this catched my attention.

I'm talking about Gran Tourismo (GT) which is known to most people as a PlayStation merchandise. Ever since GT1 this game features the biggest amount of playable cars in history and now also takes a closer look at future developments and the need to create real world cars which gamers can relate to in best case (since they are a lucrative targeting group). Said simple, in order to stay on top – this is a perfect marketing strategy for car companies: For the upcoming GT6 the goal is to create unique concept cars by companies like Mercedes Benz, Audi, BMW, Nissan, VW, Zagato or Giugiaro. The first one got finished is the Mercedes AMG Vision – looks futuristic and elegant with a touch of speed and retro. In conclusion this car was built and recently showed at the Los Angeles Motor Show 2013. IMO Great design and great game idea. Keep up the path, I wanna see gamer cars drive around. I will update this post when some new GT6 concept cars get "press released" or built.

See how the real Mercedes looks like:
Mercedes AMG Vision Image Gallery Los Angeles Motor Show 2013

Heres even more detailed info and specs on this car:
http://www.caradvice.com.au/260207

And now let's take a look at the whole story as a sketch:

As usual I hope I didn't touch any copyrights.