Birmingham Motorplex released

[smoke]

Birmingham Motorplex, located in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, is now available for Heat.

This a conversion from rFactor by Scott Juliano.
Track facts: 2.3 miles long, 45’ wide, 16 turns, 80’ of elevation change

There are no penalty traps in this track. I have tried to find a balance of forcing drivers to stay on the track without the annoyance of accidently running offtrack. There is rougher grass, deep sand, and slick grass in key areas where an advantage could be gained in laptimes by short cutting, and with the intent to try and make the racing more realistic.

The way the sky is handled has been changed from previous tracks to try to give a more realistic feel. The entire pit entry/exit areas has been rebuilt from the original track to meet some of the limitations of Heat.

known issues: a slight imperfection in a very small area of the sky if conditions are just right, but will probably not even be noticed. Needs further research and corrections in future tracks.

texasspeedracing.com/tracks/Birmingham.exe

I like the way this one turned out.
Enjoy...Smoke


Related sites
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www.barbermotorsports.com/
barbermuseum.org/

History
********
The park opened in the Fall of 2003.

The first major event to take place at the park was the American Sports Car Series, May 17-18, 2003.

Roger Edmundson, Grand American President, (in 2003 about the facility) said, "Even before construction is complete, it is clear that this track is a world-class facility. Grand American has been given a very unique and special opportunity to be the first event there. I know that all of our competitors and fans are in for a truly great experience when they get here."

Five-time Rolex 24 At Daytona winner Hurley Haywood said, "BMP combines natural beauty and technical complexity to create a unique motorsports experience. It is without a doubt one of the finest racing facilities in the world, user friendly to both competitors and spectators."

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum began life in 1988 as a private collection of George W. Barber, owner of Barber Dairies. Mr. Barber, always an automobile enthusiast, raced, modified and maintained Porsches in the 1970's (63 first place wins). He started collecting and restoring classic sports cars in 1989.

[Sennheiserl_NZ]

cheers smoke just downloaded it going to go for a spin now

[cooknl]

;DHEHEHEHEH ;D

Smoke you did it AGAIN superb track man woweeee.

I just couldnt resist and had to run some V8 SuperCars on here geewizz beautiful get the right setup and you can really haul ass here .
Just turned a 1:25.656 after about 3 setup changes damn this track is as nice as in rfactor. Grip is just right not to much and not too little great ballance in the grip smoke.

AND most of all no matter where u go on the track no MENTION of any PENALTY's just great!!!! The sand pits and various slowdown methods work superb, you just have to be ON the black stuff to go fast, yep I my opinion the best track for heat sofar from anyone.

Job well done smoke you made my dreams for heat come true, nifty man!!!!!

Hey mabe we can get some people together and upgrade all tracks for heat to be this good


Rob

[Administrator]

Yeeeeehaa !

Damn - I'm at work and now have to wait for 8h to get a grip on this beauty.

[DaveO]

Smoke you have outdone yourself with this beautiful track. ;D

I just took out a porsche for a quick test drive. Even with running around in the Advanced setup, I was flying and drifting in the turns!! This track is a blast to run on!! The scenery, clouds everything about this track is awesome...

Thank you for giving all of us such a beautiful track to have fun on!! ;D

[raybee1970]

Yes...as I said over at The Mod Squad....awesome track, Smoke.

I never knew it by that name...but I had heard of Barber Motorsports Park before.I love the elevation changes and the graphics look great.

Also....I'm just curious as to what you guys think about the skybox (as opposed to the old way Heat skies are done - eg: low resolution).

Do you guys like the new way this sky was done?....your thoughts?

[smoke]

Thanks for the comments!! ok, so it wasn't just me that thought this was good, I had to keep reminding myself that I might be partial to it since I was doing the work. ;D This happens to be the kind of layout I like, just flows right, besides the the rest of the goodies, scenery, etc

I had said in my initial comments when starting the "next project" thread back in early January: "I normally don't make comments like this, but this one is going to be good, real good! ". Glad I wasn't off base with that comment.

I wanted to thank Blaxman, Sucahyo, and the initial work by Oleg in the area of the surface types that are implemented in this, and to Raybee at TMS for making me aware of this, and also suggesting to dig deeper into the skybox dome usage in Heat.

I am also curious what everyone thinks about the sky that Raybee mentioned? As a comparison, look at the pics that I posted when starting the "next project" thread, those were how I originally did this track using the old way I have always used.

All mods I tested seem to run great here, e.g. try starting at the back of the pack in GroupC and working your way through that.

Also, stay tuned, I have a few variations that will be coming out soon, we ain't done with this Birmingham thing yet.

[cooknl]

Hey Smoke,

As far as the sky is concerned I am sorry but you cant compare apples to oranges.

So this skybox thing u r using now is the greatest like i said u cant compare it with the old because the old dont come anywhere near this, except in the fact that its supposed to be a sky too ;D

Rob

[slick]

Wow this is cool.
That sky is awesome,layout of the track is fun.
Yes best track yet,and what was that other thing,different layouts ;D.
Best news since the financial break down.

[Administrator]

You have truly outdone yourself with that track !!
Amazing, absolutely amazing.

Watched a couple of AI races in various mods - it just looks right
The sky box is fantastic. Running below the clouds adds to the feeling of moving and thus increases the image of reality with that track. It's simply great Best ever seen in Heat and IMO a really big step ahead in NHeat track making

Guess the GT Masters series will have a quick change in the schedule ;D

[raybee1970]

I'm glad my suggestion of a skybox to Smoke pleases you guys.

I'm not for sure if that is an rFactor skybox or a NR2003 skybox...as I never asked which he used...but if he ever gets around to using a NR2003 skybox, he'll have all kinds of options for various times of day and looks for the weather.

I didn't mess with rFactor long enough to remember what its skies had...but I do remember the best looking sky textures came from Hudson Kerr...who now does texture work for Iracing.

I may still have Hudson's rFactor sky textures around here on a cd or DVD somewhere.

[smoke]

Here is what I mean by my "variations" comment above, like I said, this ain't all done yet, the Dusk version samples. ;D

Hey Raybee...check your email, and send what you can find.

[Administrator]

Really nice banners on the right railing on the top screenie ;D ;D Love it.

The clouds on the lower one make the weather look like it's going to get wet within next hour or so

[Administrator]

Just ran a couple of laps ... wow
I have to second Rob - grip is perfect. On the track and offtrack ;D

That track is fun like hell. Great elevation changes, blind turns - all what a racer's heart desires ;D And it's looking perfect too. It really is a blast to drive on and to watch at

LOVE IT !!

[Mustangman]

cholerix read my mind looks like its gonna storm! Probably gonna be showering my car parts hehe. Looks beeee-uuu-tttt-iii--fff---uuu-llll!!!!!!!