I spoke to a gentleman recently who is involved in the game business and has actually tested RL. He said it was a scaled down version, not everything was there.. but the physics... he said it was the first time he has ever stepped into a sim and felt right at home. This coming from a guy who has driven open wheel race cars for the past 25 years..

The end of the day I met the designer of the Hypersimulater and talked to him for 45 minutes about GPL
and racing. He told me that he has driven a alpha version of the West Brothers Racing Legends and it is impressive.

Yes, the track is progressing well and so is RL. I have visted Chris and Tony a couple of times and it looked good then and will of course evolve and becomebetter as time goes on. They are really working hard on it so I have no doubts. If I had, I wouldn't spend 6-7 months of my spare time on a deadend project. That would be mad, wouldn't it? ;O)

Rumours. Damn rumours.
 
 
What can I say!! Not much.
 
BUT I can say this.  
Chris and Tony, are in my opinion, the most important people the sim world have ever seen. I have spent a lot of time with them over the past few years and I can say that they represent OUR future. Support them. Encourage them. Admire them. Because they have a dream. And unlike most people, they have the balls, and the skills, to make that dream happen. Yes, I've had a glimpse of the future and it's a beautiful place. But in the meantime be patient. Enjoy Nascar 2003. Spend some quality time with your lady. Plant a tree in your garden. And one day the Wests will finish one of the great works of our lifetimes. And we'll all be in heaven.

Spend some quality time with your lady. Plant a tree in your garden. And one day the Wests will finish one of the great works of our lifetimes. And we'll all be in heaven.

Hi all.
Some news of sorts and I'm sure the guys wont mind if I spill the beans a little  
I was lucky enough to meet Chris and Tony at Goodwood this year while on my holidays (I'm posting from a mates place in Suffolk until I get home) and after breifly reading a few other posts decided to let you know what I saw and found out after meeting the guys.
I was pleasantly surprised at their enthusiasm for not only what they are doing but also with the great enthusiam that they have for racing cars in general. I spent most of the 3 days with them because I organised it before I left Aus and they were nice enough to play host for me while I was there. We spent most of the time in the pits while Tony went mad with his digi camera and Chris was marvelling at my souvenier budget. I even had dinner shouted when I visited their house on Saturday night!!!!
They have a solid plan in place that will enable them to finish Racing Legends no matter how long it will take, and the very early alpha the guys let me have a drive of was equal to anything I've driven to date.
In all seriousness, they are two of the nicest guys I've met and while they take nearly all critisim on the chin, I get the feeling we could help their enthusiasm no bounds by continuing to post constructive posts about what you want to see in RL (rather than continuing to demand a release date). Just dont get too upset with the lack of evident attention as something as simple as browsing on the ****py connection they have takes far to long.
The reasons they have been inactive have been due to moving (made more complicated because Tony lives overseas) and a really shitty internet connection (which I can attest to). They did tell me that most of the problems in their way have been overcome and they will soon be in a position to get another large chunk of work done (within a couple of weeks they told me).
I believe them because they are, from my impressions, very nice and honourable blokes, and because that is what they told me.
If you choose to believe me then great.
BTW, I didnt press them for a release date is it looked like there was still a great deal to be done. Having said that, I would really have no clue as to how fast they can get through what they need to do as I know how feverishly you can work when you really love what your doing.
Cheers, Hyper_John_ASRG

They have a solid plan in place that will enable them to finish Racing Legends no matter how long it will take

Back after a break.
 7th August  2003
 

 
LATEST.
The long, enforced, break is over and we can now return to developing Racing Legends fulltime. The break has seen considerable changes in our personal and business lives and has resulted in a lot more security for both us and Racing Legends. We are now able to concentrate on developing Racing Legends free from all the stress we had before.
 
Can I also take this opportunity to restate a previous comment. There seem to be a number of people who, for whatever reason, take exception to what we are trying to do and take it all very seriously. We are absolutely the first people to say that Racing Legends should be taken for what it is currently and that is simply words, pictures and promises of what we hope to deliver. And words mean nothing, some of the pictures are quite nice I feel, but again mean nothing. Until there is something to try Racing Legends will continue to be words and pictures and should be taken that way.  
 
There are those who don't believe we can deliver what we say but the fact is we believe we can and with the sale of our house we have staked everything upon it. Unless we try we shall never know and the only people that stand to lose anything, at the end of the day, are ourselves.
 

 
 
So on to what we have been able to get done since the last update. The cockpit of the Lotus 49 is progressing well. Below we have an in-car shot showing how it looks at the moment. The dials still need individual textures. the battery needs to be connected, the dash has no back and there are currently no pedals but thanks to Goodwood I now have some excellent reference shots of all these features so they can soon be added.  
 
And whilst on the subject of Goodwood may I take this opportunity to thank all those who allowed myself to crawl all over their cars, and especially to Colin Banstead (I hope I have remembered that correctly!) who removed all sorts from the 312PB so I could get the shots I needed.  
 

 
The next image shows the entire 49 tub, make a nice controller don't you agree? The tub is about complete save for a few small details. The inspection hatches need to be finished, the roll hoop needs some mounting plates, more mounts required for the water pipe down the sides and some brackets are missing to which the rear suspension is attached.
 
The main jobs now on the 49 are the front suspension and cooling system.
 

 
More work has been done on the motion blur system. In a previous update I mentioned that we have a progressive motion blur in Racing Legends. We have added to this to allow us to blur not only the textures but the objects as well so we can have 3D rims that look correct as the car speeds up. Below are some stills that I hope demonstrate this. If you look closely at the spokes of the wheel you should be able to see that in the first frame they are modeled and have depth but as the wheel speeds up these spokes become less visible as motion blur takes over.
 
 
 
Chris and Gregor have also been progressing in their areas. Gregor has been working on 'chassis flex' which is an important and often overlooked part of the cars handling and has also been optimising the core physics engine.
 
Chris has been developing the lighting system to provide more realistic lighting and to permit real-time lighting so we can have time of day and weather effects.
 
In the upcoming weeks I am keen to do more on the 312PB. I love this car and as can be seen from previous updates a lot of work has already been done on this car but it came to a halt due to a lack of decent reference material. I now have all the reference I need to complete this car and think it will provide an interesting comparison for the Lotus 49B.
 
The test track is also calling and I hope to get some more done on this soon.
 
On a sadder note I must post that Spooky was run done and killed earlier this year. He was a great character and had become quite well known in the community.    
 
I think that is about it for now. Its nice to be back at work and doing what we enjoy. As promised normal service can now be resumed. Thank you for your patience.