December 2003 in the Life of Ben (Blog)

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  12. December

Modding Projects (23rd December 2003)

I have been setting up an autotest/go-kart type track inside the dome in the Dexxland project by placing hundreds (literally) of the traffic cone objects in the dome via the IPL file. It is really challenging to drive round and will certainly test your knowledge of technical driving lines! c{8¬P

Xmas Eve Plans (23rd December 2003)

Family get-together will be tomorrow so I doubt I will do any modding at all. Having my sister and her girfriend over will prevent the day from being as dreary as it would if it were just me and my folks, so looking forward to that.

Possible Style Idea (19th December 2003)

I have been thinking that perhaps the best way to escape from the over-saturated colour schemes I have at the moment is to go totally monotone? You can see a preview page of the sort of design solution I am toying with. Something minimal and very understated, but with tasteful styling cues like the 3D-effect border colours. Do we like? c{B¬)

New Vehicles (19th December 2003)

I have added a few more cars to the Vice section over the last few days, both full releases and some new cars in development. I have also landed a big “contract” with DieselGT who will be making a whole new range of low-poly cars for Myriad Isle. You can see them in this thread, personally I am falling in love with his style. c{¦¬D

Car Adding Spree (13th December 2003)

I have been adding cars almost non-stop to the Vice page, so be sure to trundle over to it to see what is already released and what is yet to come.

Decide How this Site Changes! (11th December 2003)

As I am brimming with possible ideas to re-create this site, I have made a topic on GTAForums for people to say what they want, as there are a lot more visitors than just me. Check the stats if you do not believe me! You can access the topic here. You will need to be registered at the forum with a valid e-mail account to post your suggestion, but you can read it without registering.

More Site Jiggling (11th December 2003)

I have altered the layout for the entries in the Development section of the GTA Vice City page. Now the author name is displayed in large text at the top of the description. I have made this change after people were getting confused about what the car name was and who the author was.

WIP GTAForums Skin (10th December 2003)

I have now added three racing cars which Exige has collaborated on, including my handling setups for them. Find them in the Racing Cars for GTA Vice City.

I am gradually creeping towards the completion of the forum skin I am making. I have edited every template that Invision uses, removing needless indentation and un-layering the nested tables so typical of the big forum systems. These changes are incredibly tedious, but I have managed to reduce the file size of every page by about 25% which can only be good! You can preview the skin as I create it by visiting this forum, which I have been allowed loose on by Josh AKA Rufus.

Current Modifying Status (7th December 2003)

I have asked on GTAForums for any car makers to whom I promised a handling setup that they send me a PM there reminding me, along with a link to the latest version of the car. This way I will move those messages to a new virtual folder in my messenger controls and can simply view that folder to see which cars I have yet to finish. Once I confirm that I will do a handling setup for a car, I have decided that I will now immediately add it to the Development section of the GTA 3 or Vice page. This means that everyone can see which cars I am definitely working on – and gives me a second place to check what cars I have got to do!

Future Site Changes (7th December 2003)

I have noticed that this HTML page is getting really rather large. It is nearly 40kB! Because of that, for next year I will split this news area into separate pages, probably by the four seasons. Also, I will be re-making the colour scheme for much of the site ready for the new year – I know a lot of people are not keen on the current one.

Due to the success of the sub-menu bar things on the GTA 3 and Vice sections, I am considering other possible applications for them as well as testing numerous layouts. I might add some interactivity to the site along the lines of a simple comments page. I have always wanted to and now would be as good a time as any.

Small Site Changes (7th December 2003)

Since getting Service Pack 2 for Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP I have noticed that it assumes the colour for links is dark blue if you do not tell it otherwise, which has always been the case, but now it also assumes that the hover colour should be bright orange! This is not so good, as it means I shall have to add an entry into my CSS to prevent the thumbnail images from having bright orange borders when you hover the mouse over them. For now I have just forced the borders to black.

I am also in the process of neatening all the HTML in preparation for when I change the colour scheme. I am moving more of the styling to the CSS so that there is less HTML code which reduces the filesize of the pages and makes it easier to re-configure.

Computer Access Restored! (6th December 2003)

My dad brought back the power supply and internet connection lead today. My tactic of keeping a low profile and manipulating things from the background seems to have paid off! This means I will get back on to the vehicle backlog, check up on cars that were in development but are now probably released and will also get Curveshire back on track. Three cheers for patience! Hip-hip…Hooray! Hip-hip…oh fine, don’t join in then. c{¦¬\