Series Notes and Discussion

Just a place for me to keep you all updated....

Just a couple things to keep an eye on....

• Having a paint and tune (for track 1 at least) ready to go by Week 1 (August 5).  It will sneak up on you, and these cars LOVE to roll.  We are probably going to have some great wrecks as a result, but you can minimize the chances of that by at least knowing where the car likes to pop up off curbs and possibly tuning to improve that somewhat.  
  
  
• Making sure you understand all the rules... There are some different things in this series.  The pit window (smaller) and the way the races will be run is a little different.  Maximizing your points by posting a week summary and/or pic within the race thread after the race. (can be done anytime before the next race... Cannot be done for a previous week after that week passes).  
  
  
• Having the right mindset going into this... My expectations is that people enter this series looking to have fun, and not looking to "keep score" and "hold grudges" when things go their way.  Any series that attempts anything like realism is going to have to have penalties.  Those penalties might not always be agreeable to you but here is my take, I've always tried to view them as fun.  Without that, and without making the occasional mistake, then what fun is the series.  I obviously didn't mean to hit a guy, but I did, or I missed my qually time or whatever I did and now I have a little storyline twist to deal with.  That's fun to me.
  
  As long as you're not trying to cause accidents or doing something that's an OBVIOUS miscalculation then it will usually be a pretty small penalty, and I will be writing off a lot of things as "just racing."  Taking those penalties like a man is going to be important if and when they do come though.  I will put in the effort to make this a good series and I'm asking you guys to try to add to it to by being a good sport, racing hard and fair.  This was a very aggressive series in real life and I want to see some good hard racing, but at the same time, when wipeouts happen, if it's one guy's fault more than the other I will make one of the penalties listed and expect the person to realize this is for fun and it's not me trying to bag on them.
  

Good luck and thanks for signing up.

FYI.... I will start gifting the required series decals such as number boards, etc. out tonight... Need to make sure you're all on my friends list. If not, please add me or accept my request on Xbox Live.

I will be passing along some numbers in addition to the number boards. They are double outlined just like in the real series however that leads to relatively high layer counts for some numbers. You can take off the outline if you want. Also, number boards can be changed (color wise) based on your livery if need be.

Well thank you kind sir ---- those numbers can be a pain  

Tutorial: Posting Images on the message board

Note: I'm posting the easiest possible method that I know.  Sometimes I edit photos with Photofiltre, some really good free software (find it on CNET) but I'm not posting anything about that here.

To post an image on the message board, you need to

• 1) save the image as a jpeg to your hard drive from the Forza 4 website after uploading it to your storefront.  
  
  This can be a little tricky.  Log into the website with your same user name and password you use for Xbox Live.  Go to http://forzamotorsport.net/en-US/
  
  After you get logged in successfully and it says your name at the top right, hover your mouse arrow by "My Forza" and drop down to gallery.  Find the image, and click on it.  Be patient, the site is slow and shitty.  Once it opens, you can  click in the center of the image (very important) and click "save image as" - the default file type should be jpeg - find where you want to save it on your hard drive - where you can find it later - and create a file name such as 001, and hit enter/click save.  Now it's stored on y our hard drive.
  
  
  
• 2) host the image to an appropriate service online (I recommend imageshack) - http://imageshack.us/
  
  First of all you might be wondering "why imageshack and not the "host an image button" when I create a post?  Well for me it's important to go back to my old images later if I want..  This service lets you see all your old photos you've uploaded. IF that's not important to you, you can skip this step.....
  
  Go to the link above, and sign up and then get signed in.  You may need to confirm the membership via email or something - this should take 5 minutes.
  
  Now you have the photo on the hard drive, and want to host it online so you can post it on the forum.  Click "media upload" at the top left on imageshack.  Then click the "browse" button, navigate to your image, and on image resize select the 800x600 or 640x480 image resize so it's easy to see on the forum - I recommend 800x600.  Then "upload now."  
  
  
• 3) get the link to the actual picture - not forum shortcuts or thumbnails or anything like that.  Make sure it says .jpg or .jpeg at the end or it won't work.
  
  After uploading, it will show you a thumbnail.  Click on "Continue to Image Links" on the right.  It will open with some links to your image.  Click in the direct link, and copy that (CTRL-C) or right click and copy to accomplish this.  That gives you the link you need to upload successfully to the forum.
  
  Alternative - the forum has a link when you're posting called "host an image" in the line above where you post. If you don't want to sign up for imageshack just skip that and click there... select "choose file" find  your file and resize if you want right there.  Then click "host it."  Copy the "Image URL" link at the very bottom, that's the right one for your photo.
  
  
• 4) Post it to the board.
  
  On our forum, when you're posting your message, click on the "insert image" button in the line of images above the message.  Where it says URL, paste (CTRL-V, or right click there and hit paste) your link into the window.  No width or height is necessary since you already re-sized it.   IF you skipped the imageshack step then you can type in 800 and 600 here and the forum will display it in the desired size.
  
  

I've sent out series number boards, numbers, official racing logo, and Realistic Racing League sponsor logo (for the back / license plate area or wherever it will fit on the front... feel free to resize or make small edits).  

These were sent to everyone but staceunited - I sent you a friend request, or at least tried to. Please send me one if you didn't get one.

For the numbers, if the layer count is too high, take off the outline layers if necessary.  Remember, making changes to the color of the number boards, numbers, etc. is fine if it fits the livery you're painting / running.

Appropriate location of series decals

Number Board and Numbers: Wherever found on your replica or realistic location if you've created a paint.

Circular Realistic Racing official logo - Wherever is clever, generally on each side of the car somewhere.

rectangular Realistic Racing series sponsor plate.  This is essentially to replace the "Baumler Mens fashion" plate that was often sponsoring the series and is to be applied on the front and rear of the car if possible.  You can modify slightly if necessary - for instance on the Beamer due to the black plastic mid-bumper I took out the bottom text and just made it say Realistic Racing in the font at the top.  But regardless this needs to be on the front and rear of the car if at all possible.



on the back: in a similar location as the ITR plate on this one.

Please note it was called to my attention that some things in the rules were inaccurate.... Part of a series wide points and penalty system that had to be overhauled and partly changed for this series, and some of which was not used for realism purposes i.e. giving points to a wrecked driver is not being done in this series.  I apologize for not catching / updating it all but it has been updated.

Well, it's looking like I just have two penalties to dole out for this week.  I want you guys to understand that I cannot see all the racing, simple math would clearly equate to well over 8 hours to see the available footage from all drivers.  I rely on you all to report things.  You have until the end of Friday to report anything, self-reported or otherwise.  

Otherwise, I assume everybody is happy as a clam and we go forth.

Also, Del has decided to quit out the series.

looks like this is pretty mch the only currently running series that was not interrupted by recent events. Props to you Helli

Guys I'm going to be forced to withdraw from this awesome series. work and other commitments mean I can't make the majority of the races and don't want to spoil the tight races with others. good luck to all in this series.

Last night was fun !! Lets do it again soon  

I just found out that Helli pulled out of this...

My apologies for Monday night guys. We will pick up racing again next week and finish this series.

I take it were racing tonight then.

Yes but laps will be reduced.

After last night 3 person race I am considering closing the series early. We will need a vote to make it fair. I vote that we end it as people have certainly lost interest.

I feel like that is the best option.

Well with one reply in 4 days I think that sums it up. The DTM series will end early. Shane I'll send you the results I have and then we can close this one out.

yeah think it's best to kill it off