Thermalito 1.55

CIRCUIT THERMALITO V1.55 by Woffin

Foreword
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I would like to thank all of the people who have downloaded and rated Thermalito at rFactorCentral and got it into the Hall Of Fame. This is only my first track and to see the response it has recieved is absolutely amazing! This gave me motivation to tie up the loose ends with this track and get the things finished which I had been meaning to do for a while. So now I am releasing my third and final major update for Thermalito to bring you a few fixes and also a brand new layout (with a brand new starting area and pit/paddock complex) which I hope you will enjoy racing on. I've certainly enjoy making it! Thanks again :)

Description
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Circuit Thermalito is a fictional race track developed from a real life location in Thermalito, California. Based around a hydroelectric dam, the 5.229km main course races around the water's edge and through two tunnels inside the dam itself with a challenging selection of corners, plenty of overtaking opportunities and a wide variety of elevation changes. Also for lower category cars and events, there are an extra two configurations; the West configuration of the circuit which consists of the slower, more technical sections and the East configuration which makes use of the faster, sweeping sections and also features a brand new start and pit area. The paddock and main grid can support upto a maximum of 36 cars (only 30 cars for the East configuration) with immediate access to the podium and VIP conference centre outside of T1. Facilities also include a complete lighting system for night/endurance racing and main/backup tv cameras.

Installation
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Simply, copy the "ThermalitoV1_55" folder and all its contents to your "GamedataLocations" directory. In-game, it will show up as Thermalito V1.55 on the track selection menu. This name is different than previous verions and will help you to tell whether you have installed v1.55 correctly.

IMPORTANT: If you have a previous verion of Thermalito installed then you will need to remove this version prior to installing the new version. To do this, please delete the "thermalito" folder from "GamedataLocations" folder and the files "thermalito.hat" and "thermalitowest.hat" from your "UserDataLogHAT" folder. Failing to do so could stop the updates from working.

New for V1.55
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- Added another brand new layout! This time, the track has been configured into a new 2.420km layout known as 'Thermalito East' and makes use of the fast flowing series of corners from T2 to T6. Max 30 grid.
- Fixed timing issues that some people were having on the Thermalito West layout!
- Created a brand new start area, pit complex and paddock area to accomodate the new layout.
- Smoothed out the track surface at T12 (the exit of the 2nd tunnel). Although still bumpy, it's not as uneven as previous versions (IMPORTANT NOTE: for this to take effect, please make sure you follow the installation instructions by deleting any previous HAT data!)
- Minor tweaks to a few textures and objects.
- A whole new look with revamped loading screens and menu icons.

New for V1.22
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- Added a new layout! You can now race around the 3.268km 'Thermalito West' configuration of the track which utilises the technical series of corners from T6 to T1.
- Improved FPS. They're still not fantastic but they're definitely better than the initial release and probably as much as I can squeeze out of the track because of the way it doubles back on itself many times. Although there is still a slight slowdown in places, it's not much more than you would normally experience at other tracks. The simplest and quickest way to increase performance is to lower your shadow and track detail settings.
- Improved track surface by adding some 'wear-and-tear' in the form of small dips and bumps around the circuit (IMPORTANT NOTE: for these to take effect, please make sure you follow the installation instructions by deleting any previous HAT data!)
- Tweaked 'glistening' on road surface. Tarmac now looks more grainy and speckled.
- Added much more vis grouping so that detail levels have much more of an effect and now some objects will only show up where appropriate (i.e. crowds dont appear during testing sessions).
- Minor changes to the AI and camera angles.
- New loading screens and menu icons.

Thanks to
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- Piddy for creating and continually developing Bobs Track Builder. Without this tool I wouldnt have even considered starting this project!
- Madcowie for joining the project late on and helping to model the trackside structures and also teaching me all the tricks of the trade in track building
- JFerrell for explaining realistic circuit infrastructure and road markings
- Ennisfargis for the tarmac textures and template
- Guitarmaen for his AIW and CAM editor and also helping solve a few camera bugs
- Gilles Benoit/The Pits for the cameramen
- Guimengo (!), Duff, JFerrell, Loque, Turkey_Machine, LoveTruncheon, Chet and Paul_Snoop for their rigorous beta testing and ideas
- ISI for developing rFactor in the first place and providing a good starting point for textures and trackside objects
- The RaceSimCentral, rFactorCentral and GrandPrixGames communities for their knowledge and support

Known Bugs
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- AI during safety car conditions isn't perfect
- Lighting issues on some trackside terrain
- No transition textures between grass/gravel/road
- Slight FPS hit on Start/Finish straight (somewhat fixed now)
- Custom skies (such as Hudson Kerr's 24 hour skies) can cause a conflict and throw a "Horizon.gmt" error when loading

Please feel free to rate and leave comments :)

If you're having any problems running Thermalito or you want to contact me with feedback or support then please feel free to email me at:
woffin at hotmail dot co dot uk