awclark

^Well I tried your idea and that didn't work. I don't feel like spending the cash for a program I already have that's just in a different coding format or whatever either. Sooo... I think I'm just going to zip it and send it to someone. I'd kinda like that person to test it too if they wouldn't mind writing a couple paragraphs or so on what they think about it. I MUCH prefer criticism over praise on my stuff just because it's details I can improve on for not only the current un-released ride, but for my future rides as well.

Alright here we go.... Most of you might already know, I'm running NL on a Mac. I have Windows Vista on here too run thru 'VMWare Fusion' so I can run both at the same time. Anyway, I have the Track Packager obviously on the windows end, but it says it can't find the "Root Folder" when I go to open up the Packager. I located the NL folder on my Mac going through the Windows Track Packager but it won't let me choose it. I have to open a file and I don't really know how I will since this is the Mac version of NL so it's all different apps and all. Anyone know anything about how to fix this situation. I just need to package the thing up and it would be RIDICULOUS to email ALL the files to someone because its a ton and it'll probably be over the size limit for my email at least. Thanks

Sorry to resurrect a dead topic but i just posted a POV of DF '92 on youtube. It's embedded below. Check it out! A POV of DF '98 is coming soon.

I have an appointment tomorrow at the Apple Genius Bar. I'm hoping everything can get squared away right there quickly so I can quickly get back to work and pump this thing out. EDIT: Went in today and everything is fixed! Bad news is I've got start basically packing up my life to head back out to college in LA now. Fly out Monday so I'll give you all a progress update when something substantial happens.

^^ Exactly what I was just about to say. That's why I think this ride is going to rock considering all the rave reviews from the standard Mega-Lites, and then you get this one that bypasses the 200' mark and skips right ahead to 300'+. I don't base anything the ride offers off of the animation. I mean the 2nd hill after the sweeping turn looks to be about 1/2 the height of the initial hill so I think it should be some sick airtime on this thing. Love how everything stays really close to the ground to give that insane sense of speed. It all seems non stop to me. If you aren't speeding around a curve or launching through a quick transitions, than you are getting tossed out of your seat with some great airtime. Something that is greatly lacking at this park it seems.

^ Nah. No testers yet. I'm not one of those NL people who have my usual testers so to speak. I'll let anyone do it just as long as they don't screw me over or provide constructed criticism. I've had some bad testers in the past that I don't really want to go into, but all I'm looking for in a tester is one that will give me a nitpicking-extreme-criticism review that really points out everything or anything you see wrong with it that I don't. But yea, I'll let everyone know when the Testing phase comes around though.

Sorry I haven't given a progress update in a while, but I think it's time to due so and this one is worthy enough of letting all of whom are interested know. Well basically, I fly back out to college in LA in about 8 days so I'm trying to near completion on this thing. And frankly, the ride has been sitting all done and finished for a couple weeks now in my NL folder. haha. The only problem is, I'm running on a Mac (Which anybody who has kept track of any of my previous projects might know) and recently ran into a problem with my Windows Partition/Bootcamp/VMWare Fusion. Actually the problem occurred a couple weeks ago when I brought it in when I had a problem with iTunes (Totally unrelated to NL I know, but its related to the story about the root of the problem at hand). Well the guy at the Genius Bar had to create a new account on my iMac and tranfer everything on my old account to my new account. In the process, after getting home and trying to open Windows/VMware, I realized that although my iTunes was now working, my Windows Partition had become corrucpted and thus I lost everything (Meaning all 3DS files that were works in progress, Tia's Obj Creator, textures, you name it). Luckily I DID keep backups of all of these, except Obj Creator and 3DS files, on my external HD. Well the good news is that I had already finished all the 3DS for Turaco so I wasn't all that distraught. Now the problem is I have to bring it in to the Genius Bar again sometime within the next 8 days so I can fix the windows issue and THEN finally Package this thing up in the NL packager and then send it out for a couple tests, make any needed changes, and then FINALLY release it. I could always bring it to a Genius Bar out in LA, but trust me, it'll be a lot easier to get it done BEFORE I head back into the stressful world of college courses and the totally distracting college social life and parties. Sorry this project has taken so long. I've been taking a bunch of difficult summer courses lately at some local universities near home so I haven't been totally focused on this, but clearly school work comes WELL before No Limits work! The good news here is that I just recently took my finals so the classes are all finished up so now I can focus on leisurely/spare time things such as this. Well that's the status as of now. Hopefully I can have this thing up, out, and released before my classes start at college the 31st. I'll give another status update in due time.

Standouts for me are: - The Phoenix at Knoebels - Boulder Dash at LC - El Toro at SFGAdv - S:ROS/Bizarro at SFNE. - Storm Runner at Hershey (in front seat) - Phantoms Revenge at Kennywood

Boulder Dash. Rode it yesterday. It was also my #200 milestone.

Best: Boulder Dash. The replacement of the trick track with the extra ejector hills...... WOW!! Worst/Lamest: Every coaster with a lift hill back into the station, but if I must choose one.... hands down Adventure Express. Sorry, you will pay? Pay for what? For making fun of how anti climactic the ending to this coaster is? In the end I'm not paying for anything, except maybe for lunch afterwards. Are you just their to warn me incase I somehow feel empowered enough to stiff KI?

Rode it today also. Like everyone else is saying... it's pretty good for a kiddie coaster. I don't know if this was just me, but I was getting TOSSED out of my seat on the last hops.

I have to say I'm on a stint of being an official credit whore because I'm only 10 short of #200. It started when I rode Grovers express at BGE. Then drove down to Wildwood, NJ yesterday for 5 credits there. Tomorrow I'm off to Knoebels for those credits and on the way back making a pit stop at Dorney (after 5pm cause it's only $20 admission after then) for Possessed and any Kiddie coaster credits. Then next weekend I'm off to SF New England for 2 missed credits there and then on the way back, making a pit stop at Lake Compounce to add those and make Boulder Dash #200. Phew.

Well oddly enough, asking when it was coming out sent me into workaholic mode on this thing. I spent a few hours on it today and I 'THINK' I can say the majority of it is done. I just now have to go through the entire thing inch by inch to brush up and/or fine tune anything that needs to be.

...annnnd here's the answer! .... I don't know right now. haha. Hopefully sometime in the next few weeks before I head back out to college in LA. I'm sure if I hunker down, I can bang the rest out in a few hours cause its just some minor touch up work.

^ barely. haha. I've been distracted with other things going on so I haven't really been focused on getting this done as a top priority. Based on what is left to do... there are only 2 things: Fix up the supports, and do the last bit of track smoothing. After that... it's pretty much done.

Well now I'm REALLY glad I went back to Busch Gardens last weekend, after 13 years since my last visit, and got in 3 runs on it. One of the best night rides I think... EVER, for me.

Last Update!!!! This one is mainly focused on Griffon, but there is some (tear) oddly ghostly Drachen Fire pics at the end taken when the section opens up for the Summer Nights concerts. When we were there, the Commodores were playing. I personally had no clue who they were..... until they played "Brick House." And yes, that is the song that goes like "She's a Barick.... Ha-owse!" (haha. Tried to get the funky accent in there) Griffon anyway, was absolutely awesome. Loved it. I think it barely eeks by Sheikra IMO. It was the airtime I got on this that just adds that extra edge. I loved Sheikra for it's more forceful turn up into the MCBR, the tunnel, and for the fact that it seemed to be integrated better into the park than Griffon is. However Griffon IMO has a much better finale after the 2nd drop. Sheikra, while integrated better it seems with the tunnel, turn over restaurant, and splash that REALLY gets bystanders wet.... ride wise, it doesn't do all that much after the tunnel. I rode it when it still had the old trains and the round water scoops, but the water splash could really be felt braking the train before the air hill into the turn to the brakes. On griffon, I didn't feel it at all. Anway, I prefer Sheikra for its planning/design into the park, and Griffon for its more intense ride/finale. It's just weird thinking that a massive Arrow sat here. My mom and I ended up sitting for the concert RIGHT where the the cobra roll and helix sat. I've seen pictures of the empty field and boarded up station, but it totally didn't compare to being there in person knowing exactly what was here. Also a contributing factor was the fact that I had ridden it. Transfer building. Back side of the station. Taken from the train. All overgrown and boarded up. At least they put this area to good use in the summer and for halloween. GAH! Being my 1st time back since then.... this was a little weird in person. That newer looking pavement I knew immediately is where a couple footers sat for the turn in between the Cutback and corkscrew. Now... back to Drachen Fire. I at least had the pleasure (or pain) of riding it twice. At 7years old.... mostly pain because of where my head sat for perfect Arrow OTSR ricocheting! There's me again in the front row on the end seat. OMG! Did you here that water got into the wheels and made it super slick so that it went too fast for the brakes to stop the train and crashed!!!!!! Oh and everyone died too.... naturally! The money shot would be if their was an Alpengeist train on the drop or in the cobra roll. Omg. 2 trains in 1 shot. There's me in the front row in the seat closest to the camera with the arms up. This one... same thing. Cool stuff. I really liked how this turned out. Looks like 71mph did a number on the landscaping there. LOVED how this turned out. I like how it blurred out the back-round. Turned out well Close up! 1) Look at the girl in the pink tank top in the front row. 2) Look at all the girls in the back row. BAM! "OMG!!! AHHHH!!!!" holding.... holding... holding... And of course 1 for the lift enthusiasts. for the pre-lift enthusiasts...... if there are any at least. Loading station.... WITH a Griffon sign! WOW! I thought this was a nice shot of the queue. Overview of the entrance. Time for a slew of Griffon shots.

Part 3!!! (Resized pics too. I'll get to the 1st 2 updates after I upload the last update.) This one is mainly on Alpengeist, but there is a little extra at the end. Alpengeist is now my 2nd favorite invert right behind Montu. I loved the use of the terrain. It was forceful, fast, and just all around fun. While I do prefer B&M's snappy Cobra rolls, the entrance to this one was kinda too snappy. Whipped me more than any other I've been on. Oh yea, the entrance to the MCBR had a lovely snap, but the rest of the ride made up for those 2 parts. Anyway, onto the photos. speaking of bird like things..... we then (but not in actuality of how our trip went) went to GRIFFON!!!! Anyway, they had this owl out and about too. Well actually not really. We did this the 1st morning on the way to Griffon. I'm just ordering the photos in a way so Griffon is last. I mean isn't that like PTR standard?! Newest and/or most popular/best ride for last? We then checked out the eagles. Then we were off to France to eat here which was really good! It's not flat, but it does spin. GP moment: girl describing Alpie in line says, "Yea this ride totally flips you sideways and then goes like this!" (She then throws her hand around like a tornado through the air) WTF! I haven't even recovered from the awesomeness of the last tilted shot and I have to go do it again! GASP! There's a Griffon train in the same shot! Not that I knew that as i was taking the photo or anything. OMG! I have to recover again. Shot from the cable car again. More artsy farsty..... taken off the reflection in the uhhhh.... pristine water. WHOA! Everyone stop! I, yes...... TILTED the camera for this shot! So clever! It's like a whole new DIMENSION opened up! Give me a minute.... I have to let it awesome genius-ness sink in. WOO! A perfect shot for me would be: Minus the cable and add a Nessie train on the pre-drop curve. Done. Some nasty snappiness there, but kinda fun nonetheless. Now: "Vertical Loop!" What a nerd I've turned into Back then: "Mom look! A Loop-de-loop!" through..... an OPENING in the trees! Kinda sucks that it's cloudy for this one. Ugh. almost. Turned out nicely. Taken from the Cable car. Up they go. The skis on the back of the seats were a great detail. Well at least I'm glad it's "Now Running" A section of the queue. Blizzard? pfff, well bring it on! And my mom had some fun with this. I really loved the theme details too. Really liked the entrance.

^^ Then so should I resize them a bit and repost them? I guess they are a bit large, but then again I'm on a mondo 24" iMac so it's hard for me tell.

Part 2!!! So after all of that fun, we crossed the bridge over into the Germany section to ride BBW. BBW is clearly my favorite Arrow suspended. I'm know Eagle's Fortress kicks the crap out of this, but the only other suspended coasters I've been on is Ninja at SFMM, Top Gun/Flight Deck at KI, and Iron Dragon at CP. Anyway, I got 3 rides in on this thing. Once in the front and back during the day and once in the back at night. OMG! The back is crazy at night! I snuck away from my mom while we were at the Commodores concert in the Drachen Fire infield (More photos on that later) to snag a ride literally 2 minutes before the park closed and was totally thrilled! The back was great during the day, but I needed a night ride on this. The finale was unreal at night in the back. If the future is bleak for BBW, I'm glad I got some memorable last rides in then. Anyway, we now were leaving Germany and off to the next coaster on our agenda.... ALPENGEIST!!! siiighhh.... more on this in the final update. Here's the Festhaus... but it's what used to be behind it that I'm interested in..... While it did make me jump a ton with all the 3D effects, Spiderman still reins supreme. Next we did the Curse of DarKastle. My camera semi-decided to focus more on the potted flowers than the train. Whatever. Same woman behind me around this curve into the brakes says this "Man! That thang had some spade! It was sowa fayast! Scaray too!" Taken from the Cruise. Another sweet shot of the 2nd drop. A woman with a southern accent behind me in the back car's reaction to this drop... (Leaves lift) "Here wah go!" (car swings out as it simultaneously drops) "AW MAH GAWD! EEEEEEEEEE!!!!" 2nd drop from the Rhine River cruise. It was a panicked "omg the train is coming, I have to take a picture before the other cruise boat gets in the way of the shot" kind of photo. WOOOSHHH!!! TAKE THE.... arch? Swinging is fun.... Swinging on an Arrow suspended is MORE fun! Artsy farsty shot of the 1st drop. The other coaster birthday in the park.... this one is now a 1/4 century old. Me posing in front of the sign. A shot taken from the bridge heading into the Germany section.

Well, this will be my 1st PTR here so I'm kinda excited. My birthday was July 14th, but my mom and I ended up going this past weekend and spending 2 days at the park on the 18th and 19th. I'm from Jersey so it was sort of a haul, but WAY worth it. The last time I was here was 13 years ago when I was 7. Back then, Drachen Fire was still running, Wild Maus was still there, and Alpengeist had only been open a couple months. It was then that I managed to nab rides on Nessie, BBW, Wild Maus, and Drachen Fire. Despite my enthusiasm to get on Alpie, I was sadly too short that time around. Now flash forward 13 years to about a month ago. I really wanted to go to a park for a weekend, and my mom agreed (since she also is into coasters and all) because she wanted a mini vacation as well. I had been dying to get back to Busch Gardens for a while and with the recent rumors about the future of the BBW, I naturally wanted to go here most. Well based on the topic, we obviously DID go here. haha. And it was an amazing trip! This time I would be adding Alpie, Griffon, Apollo's Chariot, and of course as any credit-ho would do... also be adding the new Grovers Alpine Express to my count. Anyway, I've organized this PTR to seem like I only spent a single day here just because the 2 days were extremely similar. I've also split it up into 4 updates just because there are a TON of photos, for a PTR at least. (Who wouldn't take a ton of a park that's been voted most beautiful 18 years in a row!?). Well, Update 1 is below featuring the entrance, Nessie, Grover, Pompeii, and Apollo. Next Update will follow shortly after. Just some quick notes on the coasters here: - Loch Ness Monster - Still smooth as I remember it, although the back was a bunch rougher than the front. The triple helix wasn't all that smooth, but we're talking about a 31 year old Arrow here! I'd say it's held up well for it's age. - Apollo's Chariot - This was great! My 2nd B&M Mega (the other being Nitro). I'm a little split on whether I like the Back row or the front row better. The front was great for the speed, air on the 1st few hills, and more force it felt like in the turnaround helix. The back was great for the air on the 1st drop, and the more air it seemed in the final hills after the MCBR. To me Apollo and Nitro seem like a close match. Apollo is a little shorter in length and lacks a decent finale, but utilizes the terrain well and seems to have better air over the initial hills. Nitro on the other hand is longer, taller, and faster, but sits on flat ground and the air on each hill seems on a more gentler scale compared to what I experienced on Apollo. Nitro wins however if I ride it in the back row. While the 2 dudes posing for the photo in the 3rd car kind of catch your eye.... move back to the last car and you see the couple grasping each other in fear.... or are they posing for the photo too? It could go either way. While everything through the turnaround seemed great, it seemed to me like after the MCBR, the ride kind of fizzled. Mainly because the MCBR was on hard. Still had good air, but it wasn't as 'grand' so to speak as the beginning. Anyway, the guy in the red shirt seems to be enjoying his ride a lot. Also taken from the Rhine River Cruise. The turnaround was exceptionally forceful IMO. Enough to make me grey out a little. Loved it! Basically every hill dished out some great air. The 2nd hill taken from the Rhine River Cruise. The air was great on this hill too. 210' feet down. I must say the airtime in the back was great on the drop. Photo explains itself. turnaround... minus the train because we were screeching into the lot in anticipation to get into the park. Length shot from the parking lot. It's celebrating its 10th anniversary.... clearly since its advertised right there in the photo. Then off to Festa Italia so I can take a ride on the Chariot! OMFG!!! OMG!!!! I'm now officially a credit-whore. 'twas fun. After Nessie, we hit up Pompeii. The girl in the front doesn't really seem to be enjoying her ride... If you're sitting in the front, you get a nice "whomp" there. haha. Shooting up out of the ravine. 1st drop from the land of the dragons area of the park. I thought this was good timing. the obligatory interlocking loops photo. For the lift enthusiasts. I loved that Nessie opens at 9:30 before the rest of the park does. I loved this fountain! ..... Hence why I took the photo. Haha. Mom thought the flowers looked cool in the backround.... Even the ticket building is awesomely landscaped. Welcome to Busch Gardens!

I think this looks exciting. I mean just the thrill of being in the front seat getting hurtled down a track at 134mph sounds great. I read a few of the other posts, and yea I am going to be that person right now to touch on the complaints even more. I hope I'm not killing it. Haha. 1st off, this isn't getting installed in a theme park so why would they install something über insane and twisted? It's at a race track so respectably, you'd install something to simulate a race which is exactly what this thing does: extreme acceleration to cheek-flapping speeds while staying relatively flat and close to the ground.... for the most part. Also, yea there is some lost potential that this ride has, but again, the objective clearly was speed and they did that. ^^^ And if you watch that video right at 00:22 there is an aerial shot of the turnaround section. I'm sorry, but it doesn't look like the ride had a huge footprint to work with in that small square shaped plot. If it didn't have those brakes after the launch, I see it would have been very difficult to design something to turnaround in that small footprint. I doubt they wanted a TTD kind of situation, meaning using all that speed to go up a 500' tophat and shoot down. Just cause the ride has truckloads of speed does not mean the track has to shoot up into the stratosphere. Also on the brakes after to the launch... is it just me or does it just seem all to similar to Maverick's situation? Launched to 72mph only to hit the brakes on the following hill? That situation seems almost exact. It makes you ask the question: Why not just launch it to the speed where the brakes aren't required? I don't know Mavericks reasoning on the "launch into brakes", but for this, we once again come back to high speed. In the speed chart on pg 34 of this topic, it hits the turnaround at what looks to be 110km/h or roughly 68mph..... hmmm, I think having an F1 themed ride get to a max speed of about 70mph to hit the turnaround would cause a whole bunch more debate than this. I just don't see what the epic failure of this attraction is either. The thing barely has even opened. And by comparing this new launched coaster to either Dodonpa or Hypersonic (which mind you both opened 8 years ago) makes no sense. Yes Hypersonic was a failure and Dodonpa apparently isn't that great either, but I think now 8 years later when they were asked to build the ring-racer (which has been the 1st time they were asked to install another air-thrust launch coaster since those other 2) that's plenty of time to work out the kinks. You can see the differences already: Different track style, no rubber tires for wheels, and I'm sure they might've worked out what kinks there were in the launch system. Also, yea capacity sucks, but again, we're not in a theme park here. I don't know how busy the Nürburgring gets, but the guests are there to watch the races, not to get in line for the coaster. I'm sure that now its a "don't miss" attraction, but if I were there, I would watch the races/do whatever and then ride the coaster, not the other way around. The same probably goes for the other guests there. Well, I think I touched on everything I wanted to say. At this length, I better have. Haha

I can totally understand where the owner is coming from in shutting this down. While it IS slightly disappointing because I won't be able to keep complete track of many peoples projects I was interested in, it will just make it more surprising when I see a track from a certain designer pop up now and again. It does seem like NL is falling apart on the fan-base level though. It seems like all that's left now is Coaster Crazy and various forums to post progress updates and downloads. It is what it is though.

^ That's what I've been doing. Splitting segments until I get a similar length. It's tedious, but it's getting the job done. I just had to COMPLETELY reconstruct the vertical loop because I had been tinkering with it for a couple days and just couldn't get it so I deleted the whole element and rebuilt it and now have it. Now I have to move on to the helix and after that, just have to work on a couple nodes here and there that have had ongoing issues.

Quick progress update. If you've visited the NLDC page for this ride anytime in the last 10 days, I'm sure you might've read the little fiasco I ran into. Everything's going great now though. I'm calling the 3DS officially done. I had some ideas, but they would not have an affect on the ride experience and I didn't feel like going overboard, like what I did with Serenity. It's detailed, but MUCH more simplistic than Serenity. To finish it up, I just added benches and lamp posts around the area. A couple pics are below to show you. Track wise..... I'm going through and smoothing it out. I've had to do numerous reprofiles from scratch to get the result I wanted. I can't stand it when a node on continuous roll with different handle lengths creates that slight "kink" in the track. UGH! Anyway, slowly working through that. Only have a few more problem spots to work out and then the track is done. After that, I just have to work on the supports some. Then I guess send it to some testers before finally working out the last kinks.