We are in the year 2007.
I am wasting my summer time and have just finished watching the Initial D anime series for the first time in my life.
I am keen to do something, everything I’ve seen in the anime, those cars, characters and DRIFTING! What is this jaw dropping experience? Of course, like a heavy burp looking for its way to escape on a drunken Friday night, all the ideas reached the surface immediately.
Let’s create something that nobody has ever done!
This is how I came up with the idea to create not actually a drifting mod but a complex addon package to my favorite game, CRC2005 and implement all the famous cars from the anime series.
So let’s jump into the concept.
Initial D First Stage MOD
Luckily I knew already my limits and made a wise decision to rather split the mod to different stages such as the creators did during the seasons. I knew that creating and modding all the cars from all the seasons will take like a decade to finish, so I focused on the cars of the main characters from the first season instead:
Takumi’s AE86
This was the original AE86 model, captured from a very early release of LEVEL-R, published by Invictus-Games Ltd when all their game files were not compressed yet. The car had very basic physics and was only completed and released many years later, based on a model from Juiced 2.
Itsuki’s AE85
This mod quickly became abandoned in the early stage of development due to the game’s engine can’t handle very well any low engine performance. For example the friction when steering the wheels, the car will slow down way too much at full throttle and ruin the whole experience of driving.
Iketani’s S13
Unfortunately this addon sourced from GTA SA has never been completed or released.
Kenji’s S13
A common 240SX model grabbed from GTA SA. Many years later this addon was redesigned and modified, also handling and physics were improved before release.
Keisuke’s FD3S
The original model was grabbed from GTA SA. Many years later the mod was completely remade based on a model from Juiced 2, including complete bodykits, physics, paintjobs and rotary engine sound. Still a masterpiece!
Ryosuke’s FC3S
Another lowpoly model from GTA SA. This car was abandoned in the early stage for some reason, however during development, an early BETA was released for testing purposes only.
Takahashi’s R32
Another low polygon model, grabbed from GTA SA. The car later was remade and redesigned based on a model from Juiced 2, however it has never been completed or released.
Shingo’s EG6
As usual, the original model was grabbed from GTA SA. This model was way less detailed to be enjoyable, so I decided to increase the polygon counter and add extra details to the interior. Later a different hi-poly model was captured from Project-Torque and used for the final release.
Sayuki and Mako’s Sil-Eighty
My own creation of the already existing addons such as Nissan did. I used two of the other car models, cut and welded the polygons together. Unfortunately the development stopped at this point and the car has never been released.
Kenta’s S14
This is a nice example of a good co-production. The original model was made by Crazy_Ivan, member of Promods and he was so kind to let me convert this beauty to the game.
Mountain of Akina
Of course, the dream couldn’t be complete without the famous touge on Mt Akina.
So the basic concept was to get and convert the track to CRC2005 but back in that time, there was not too many available options.
On the internet, there was already available maybe a few fan made layouts but those ones were far away from realistic and useful. Most of them as I remember, contained the basic road layout only, probably made by using the layout of Google maps, I don’t know. This habit was quite common back then in the map making/modding scene.
Converting a map like that to the game was definitely my first attempt and I started to add elements to the environment but I gave up very early thanks to the poor detail of the source track.
However, there was an another option, somebody has created an Akina model to GTA SA and located on the original map.
It wasn’t too great also, it used the generic textures, foliage and other models of Grand Theft Auto but seriously, who cares? The most famous mountain/drifting track is in the game.
I remember I tried to capture this model too but had to give up as I was still not satisfied with the results.
The original Mt Akina model from GTA SA, already converted to the game for testing
And then, every sim racer’s dream has became real. Somebody has just released a properly modeled, super high detailed Akina map to Rfactor. So I was thinking, why not to take the chance?
The original Mt Akina model from Rfactor, already converted to the game
And this is the saddest part of the whole project. After getting the permission from the original creator, Race King, I jumped straight into map making and converted this highly detailed and still popular addon map from Rfactor. Yes, this was supposed to be that famous map!
Unfortunately the game showed its limitations at the very early stage and thanks to the very high polygon count, the engine was not capable to run this map after a certain point.
I tried everything to optimize the map and reduce the visible and non-visible objects, textures, etc but I had to admit that this map will never be playable in this game…
Rest my effort in peace.
The original Mt Akina model from Rfactor, already converted to the game
Custom made GUI
From time to time, I was getting bored of working on the cars, so I also decided to change the frontend (Graphical User Interface) of the game completely and set every screen and button similar to the anime/manga’s looking.
I have to apologize many years later regarding to my english, back in that time, I barely had any knowledge about english grammar, so everything you’ll see on the screenshots, please, forgive me 😀
The ending
When I’m writing this post, the original concept and works nearly became 20 years old. It is very difficult to explain many years later, where and when all the things went wrong, everything it is as it is now.
I have never completed the First Stage MOD.
As a 15-16 years old guy, I was not able to understand my limits in general which could lead to good or bad also. Unfortunately this project went to the rubbish thanks to that I always found something more interesting or challenging such as other projects, sports, adrenalin, art, relationships or partying.
During the years I spent on developing this mod, I learnt that I must set proper targets and manage timekeeping in order to provide outstanding experience to my fans and even if this project has never had the chance to be completed, the experience I gained, I could implement all of them in other projects and create and publish high quality addons for the CRC community.
Thank you for reading, I hope you have already tried and liked the released cars from the mod!
Last but not least, please enjoy the gallery attached below, you will see some really old school stuff.
-CsuTy
