awclark

I agree with many of these responses. Working in a theme park for a summer season was a HUGE lesson for me in terms of patience (or lack there of) I have for the GP as well as respect I have for the employees and general park rules. But I swear, from what I have witnessed many GP's IQ's plummet the second they pass through those entry gates. Many don't follow rules, expect special treatment, blame you for problems that aren't your fault, and as such become combative when they are wrong in a given situation with a rideop/employee. If you are respectful of the park rules and understand that they are in place for a reason, then you aren't 1 of the many people who've gotten slammed up in this forum.

I agree. However, Great Adventure has had a habit of closing off many convenient pathways for some time now. They blocked the path between the carousel and circus tent shops through various methods over the years as a way to funnel people into the boardwalk games area (first it was a planter, then the 'jumping jack flash' flat ride installed in 1999, and now its I believe a paintball booth). The bridge between El Toro and Bizarro has been blocked a few times over the years either be it the Viper/El Toro transition, wood replacement, or just flat out closed off. After tearing down Chiller, Freefall, and Pendulum they shut down that ENTIRE zone and after a couple years eventually moved the 3 remaining flats there into "Adventure Alley". And lastly, the path connecting Ka and El Toro was closed when they closed down the Tiger exhibit and removed the kiddie ride zone. So from the park's business perspective, there's no point in having guests walk down barren pathways with nothing but the remnants of former attractions on them not only because it isn't a good look for the park to have guests to see those dilapidated attractions, but it doesn't earn them any business. Funnel the guests to where they are constantly bombarded with shops, food, and places to spend money. Inconvenient? Sure. But I'm sure those closed off areas will be re-developed in the future once management figures out a respective plan for each.

Viper at SFMM actually had its first drop reprofiled. Proof is in the video's below Here is the original drop (skip to 6:36) which you can see used to have a harsh snap as it leveled out at the bottom. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] And here is the current drop (skip to 2:29) which you can notice is snap free. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

I agree. Gimmicks just give the park an "advertisement trophy" to attempt to boost attendance and have a small claim to fame. It absolutely doesn't mean it's the best. I'm intrigued with this project though. If Robb's reaction was: VERY few projects throughout the history of the industry come to mind to make someone have that kind of reaction... those being like when the concept art for B:TR/Inverted coaster was previewed and allegedly met with laughter, or X's original announcement/computer animation was met with gasps (I remember watching a video someone filmed from some enthusiast event that depicted the final design of X and everyone gasped in disbelief as the animation showed the seat rotation during the 1st drop). So with his reaction, I'm seeing this as a major game changer.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.... Clearly Atari seems to have ignored this principle along with the entire fan base RCT has built up over the last 15 years with this trash though. What a waste of time and money on their part. Game sequels are supposed to take steps forward to improve upon what the previous version had, not ignore the entirety of the franchise and take 20 steps back. I mean looking at the history of the franchise in terms of sales, fan base, direction, look/graphics etc... who the hell would greenlight this garbage as the "triumphant return of 1 of the most popular franchises of all time"?!?! And I could care less about the supposed upcoming PC version as well. If Atari wanted to "wow" the fans with the long awaited sequel to one of the most beloved game franchises of all time, they would have announced something that looks worthy of a sequel first, not this diarrhea. It sets a REALLY low standard and expectation for what the PC version will be...

Possibly? I hadn't really thought of that, but now that you brought it up, it would be fun to recreate BBW right next to Drachen Fire. Waiting for a Mac release of NL2 is also 1 of the reasons why my other 2 finished designs (Turaco & Wildfire) that have been collecting dust haven't been released yet either. Figured that when NL2 came out, the release of new NL1 coasters would diminish as everyone upgraded so as such I figured I would just hold out on the release of both of those 2 and do a quickie update on them when the Mac release comes around and release them on NL2 and not NL1. Once those finally come out, doing a BBW recreation may be the next thing to do. Maybe I'd even do it minus the 2nd drop trims haha...

I'm waiting for them to release it for Mac as well. I downloaded the demo, but when I try and open it and it gives me a fatal error saying something along the lines of "no drivers found" and "Direct3D 9.0c" can't be located or loaded or something. I tried re-installing DirectX, as well as a couple other troubleshooting tips but to no avail. I had to dust off my old circa 2008 iMac, which happens to be running Windows Vista via a partition drive, to see if I could try the demo out. Dunno why it's not working as my old iMac meets all the minimum requirements so not sure why my Windows partitioned drive somehow can't locate "drivers" but whatever. If I've waited 8 years for this, I'm sure I won't mind waiting a little longer for a Mac release cause I KNOW it will for sure run perfectly on my brand new 27inch iMac I bought over this past summer

Hmmm. I want to say Drachen Fire, Loch Ness Monster, or Big Bad Wolf back in 1997 when I was 8 years old? So long ago that I can't really remember what my family and I rode first so it's 1 of those 3.

Haven't posted here in a while. Here are 2 new pics of me. Holding my fresh bottle of wine I had just purchased at a vineyard up in the Santa Cruz mountains near San Francisco. The 3 outfits/costumes that I designed and made for the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) in Las Vegas. A 3 day festival of electronic dance music, rides, and art that hosts upwards of 345,000 attendees.

I feel as though when ride signs state something along the lines of "g-forces", the GP barely even know what that means. To them they think of it as "getting pressed in your seat" and "getting tossed out of your seat"... reading "Positive and negative g-forces" on a sign doesn't register in most of their brains, but the park isn't going to put something as moronic and uneducated as that on their signs... but then again, this is America. Rides getting "tamed down" because of complaints of rider discomfort is nothing new in the states. El Toro (with the slowed down lift as well), Goliath (SFMM), i305, the list goes on. Trims or lifts that reduce speed at the top are the bane of all enthusiasts existence because most/all of us want to ride the coaster in its original unedited, untamed form. But we are only a tiny fraction of a population compared the GP. Their voice gets more say than ours. Although, taming down or re-profiling a ride is sometimes the parks decision as well. Could be as a way to reduce maintenance costs or to fix a design flaw. It's difficult to tell in high intensity attractions that not only puts stress on its riders, but also more wear & tear on the ride system as well

You're right, they aren't the in-game ones. To make those trees/bushes, I just created a 3DS object with 4 surfaces rotated equally about its center to create a fan/windmill type shape and then applied a .TGA texture to it instead of a .JPEG. This way the blank background surrounding the shape of the bush/tree texture would be invisible once rendered in the simulator. Download link will be available soon. Need to fine-tune some last details and then just package it on up into an .nlpack file. I have Windows on my old iMac (which is how I was able to complete this project through the use of a couple 3rd party programs) but the track packager is corrupt somehow despite spending a few hours trying to work it out. I can't even open .nlpack files anymore due to the fact that I just upgraded to a brand new iMac, which no longer supports PowerPC programs. Luckily some guy has been working on a Mac version of the No limits Track Packager/Unpackager for OSX 10.7+ which should be available soon according to him. That will make it much easier for me to get this uploaded versus sending off all the files to someone to package it for me. I should probably get my flying coaster 'Turaco' out eventually too. That video of mine on youtube has been there for 4 years saying "coming soon" LOL... oops?

[youtu_be] [/youtu_be]Here's my latest roller coaster design WILDFIRE! This is the most extensive design I have completed to date featuring an immersive environment that flows seamlessly with the main attraction that coils and dives through and around it. While it may not be the tallest, fastest, nor longest coaster around, it makes up for it in excitement with unique features such as a launched lift hill (reminiscent of that featured on the Hulk Coaster at Islands Of Adventure), 3 fog-engulffed underground tunnels, 2 trenches, and 6 dizzying inversions. Hope you enjoy! ..::RIDE FACTS::.. Height: 96 ft Elevation Change: 131 ft Track Length: 2,735 ft Top Speed: 66 mph Inversions: 6 Max Positive G Force: +4.6g Max Negative G Force: -1.0g Elements (In Order): - Launched Lift Hill - Zero-G-Roll - Immelmann - Vertical Loop - Cobra Roll - Zero-G-Roll

I wouldn't call Arrow "lazy" as they revolutionized the coaster industry in so many ways. I just think that their time had come and gone. Once other firms began to engineer smoother, more innovative, and state of the art coasters they failed to play catch up with all these other blossoming companies, which resulted in their design/engineering process becoming a bit antiquated and a thing of the past. Drachen Fire attempted to break new ground with a radically new design in terms of track elements and structure but ultimately failed because rider comfort was given a back seat ride to coat hanger type transitions. We then didn't see any innovations from them until 1999 and 2002 with Tennessee Tornado and X... with X being the catalyst that ultimately killed them off. I just think they didn't take advantage of new technology as it arose to improve their designs because they simply just stayed with what I view as their "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. I mean when new, better, and more innovative competition steps into the ball game, you have to find a way to compete with them, otherwise you stand no chance just riding on the coattails of your previous successes.

The backside of the park (Goliath, LL:DOD, Scream, GL:FF) was pretty dead in the morning. Was able to nail all those rides before noon. After 1pm though, there was no escaping the lines. Riddler was an hour, Apocalypse was filled, Tatsu was snaking down the hill, from what I saw Superman snaked beyond the YOLOCoaster element, Viper was 10 mins, X2 was about 90 mins, and Revolution had quite a line. Still a fun day despite the crowds.

Here's an update taken a few mins ago. Loop structure going up.

Park is now open daily after this weekend. Pretty sure I'm going with a friend this coming Thursday so I'd be happy to snap a couple quick pics then.

Hmmm... I don't play video games as often as I used to at all, but these come to mind as my favorites over the years. I tried my best to put them in order... 1. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 2. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception 3. Riven: The Sequel to Myst 4. Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2 5. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 6. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 7. Myst 3: Exile 8. Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening 9. The Sims 10. Burnout 3: Takedown

I did a search and couldn't find anything related so I figure I'd post my issue here. I am on an iMac, but run VMWare Fusion in order to run Windows as well. My issue is with the Object Creator program. I never had this issue up until now, but for some reason ever since I upgraded my Mac to the latest OSX (And was then forced to upgrade to the latest VMWare), I can no longer select an object (or "brush" if you want to talk in technical object creator terms) as well as any face of that said object in the 3D view. How it worked before was that I would hit the right Control key (or Command key. I really can't remember as it had just become habit of not looking at the keyboard) and click and that would select whatever object or face I so desired. Now it just assumes that I am right clicking and the pointer simply disappears when I click and it puts me in a fly-around view. I have an extra Windows based keyboard and mouse and tried using those to see if that would resolve the issue being that Mac and Windows keyboards are slightly different in in terms of the functions of certain keys, but I only experienced the same issues. If anyone can fill me in on how to resolve this issue or how you yourself select individual brushes and faces on their computer would be of great help. Thanks!

Armin Van Buuren at the Hollywood Palladium. Absolutely amazing 3 hour set from 1 of the best DJ/Producers in the world. It's kind of hard to see him through the face-melting laser show haha Lasers O.o

I don't really pay attention to the "themed" areas because I don't necessarily ever go to a Six Flags park for the theming. I go for the high intensity thrills. Besides, Six Flags just has a history of naming a ride, placing it where it fits within the land they own, adding some decorations that fit the name, and calling it a day. Rarely/if ever will you find the GP b*tching that S:EFK doesn't blend with the japanese atmosphere on Samurai Summit, why the "ancient greek temple" of Goliath sits in the middle of Colossus County Fair, or what X2 has anything to do with Baja Ridge. I mean hell, they didn't even try and Scream! seems fits the county fair "theme" by sitting on a vacant parking lot. Regardless of their inconsistency with the surrounding areas though, all those rides serve their purpose of thrilling its guests so to me thats fine.

Yes, I will be creating a tunnel around the launch hill of the ride. It may be the last major 3ds structure I create because I want to keep within the rustic Montana type theme of architecture I'm going for and not some futuristic look ala the Hulk Coaster launch tunnel so I may spend some time trying to come up with a decent sketch/concept for that specific part. Thanks! I nearly abandoned this entire project, but I'm glad I picked it back up again. Gladly enjoying the process of designing and creating the rest of the 3DS and such Here are a couple more pics of some recent progress. Some progress on the various buildings and structures has begun. So far, you're looking at the Restrooms on the right, the main entrance/locker building, and then a couple of the queue house/structures on the left. Gotta include some toilets haha So I've named this design of mine 'WildFire' as it was the only name I was satisfied with after what felt like days of research and deliberation on various name ideas and such.

I haven't touched No Limits in a long time (almost 2 years it seems), but long story short, I decided to start back up work again on 1 of my unfinished designs and here are some recent pics of it. Just some quick details I guess I should touch on: - Track was designed in Newton2. - I'm using the Object Creator for the 3DS theme elements. - And there are 2 trenches, 3 tunnels, 3 moments of airtime, and 6 inversions.

Not surprising. The ride has been around for 30+ years. Got my credit on it back in '05 so whatevs. I'm always open up for change... even when it comes to the event of removing a major attraction.

Here's mine. One of the very first raves I ever went to nearly 3.5 years ago. The annual Monster Massive festival, which took place at the LA Sports Arena on October 25th, 2008 with nearly 65,000 people in attendance. Quite the epic night! After going to various EDM (Electronic Dance Music) festival (or raves) for about 4 or so years now, this one still ranks as one of the best I've ever been to.

Went to Coachella weekend 1 a couple weeks ago. Blew my mind! Car camped with a few friends as well and so much more of an experience doing that versus previous times when we just stayed at a hotel. So many great performances, but my favs would def have to be Dre & Snoop by a million miles and then Flying Lotus, Bon Iver, Radiohead, Kaskade, DJ Shadow, and Beats Antique in no particular order. Next up.... Roger Waters performing The Wall live at the LA Coliseum!!!