supertuxkart Track review thread

supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby fracture » 16 Apr 2021, 02:03

I couldn't find a thread to review tracks (both official and add-ons tracks) so I'm just going to make one. Feel free to review or critique any track in the game, whether it be a new one or some old add-ons track that hasn't been updated. I was originally just going to make this thread my thoughts on one specific add-ons track, but why not just make an entire review thread so we don't have to create more of them.

The track I'm talking about is Evergreen Forest by Sridhar. It was uploaded earlier this month. I don't know if he's on these forums or not but regardless I might as well put this on here since I already worked on this.
https://online.supertuxkart.net/addons. ... een-forest

Evergreen Forest is similar to an old addon, Around the Forest Lake, which is broken in 1.2. Both addons had a similar concept of a forest with a lake in the middle, but are poorly executed.

Graphics - The trees are okay but the road is not smooth at all, lots of polygonal curves. Textures are not good. 1/5.
Music - same as Black Forest, which I liked on Black Forest but on this track it just feels boring, and doesn't fit quite as well. I think it should have used the default track music or use it's own music. 3/5.
Gameplay - would be better if the path itself wasn't so polygonal to where the camera moves in an overly jumpy manner. Also there's an unnecessary wall of pots, I assume he wanted to add something, but it wasn't needed. There could have been a better balance between the two paths, as both are pretty much the same length and are easy though one of them is somewhat hidden and the jump is difficult to execute. 2/5.
Item Placement - decent item and nitro placements, banana placements aren't that good. Some of them were placed only on the edges that requires no skill to dodge, one section had a wall of bananas with a gap in the middle, though that might not be a bad thing. 3/5.
Concept - pretty much the same as the broken Around the Forest Lake. It takes place in a forest, has a lake in the middle, and that's about it. Not very creative, and doesn't work too well, but at least it could have not been so bad. 2/5.

Difficulty (does not affect overall rating) - the path itself isn't too hard though the shortcut is hard to execute, and one screwup and you find yourself in the water because another kart pushed you. Easy.

Overall rating - 2/5. It's the poor graphics which ruined this addon. He could have focused on the road and I would have given 1 more point.

Use this thread to post reviews of STK tracks (and if you want, other add-ons like karts and arenas).
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby tempAnon093 » 16 Apr 2021, 06:04

Linking to some previous review threads:

Reviews for the main official tracks.
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=14486

Here's one for soccer arenas:
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=14506

There's also a Top 10 add-ons thread which is relevant but less detailed.
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=11635
and Alayan's reviews of all official tracks.
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=11374
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby FabianF » 16 Apr 2021, 06:18

Giving Evergreen Forest 1/5 for graphics is just ridiculous. Certainly one of the best-looking addon tracks. Sure there are some parts where there is not more than trees, but it's quite detailed with flowers, the lake etc. Not just a plain background. On the other hand, I agree that the gameplay can be pretty boring (but not more boring than most standard tracks), but the zippers are a nice feature and the hidden alternate path is pretty difficult to do - I haven't exactly tested yet how much faster it is, but imo it should be ~1-1.5 seconds faster than the main path considering its difficulty. Probably I would give a rating of 7/10 (sorry, 5 points as overall ranking is way too little - at least you need to give half points). An important point is also that it is pretty laggy - however, that got better with the second revision.
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby theodorepringle » 16 Apr 2021, 07:06

I think that the graphics in Evergreen Forest are pretty good compared to most add-on tracks. There's way too much nitro though, and I don't think that the item boxes right at the start are well placed either. It seems that the alternate paths are about equally fast, which might not be ideal as one path is hidden and more difficult than the main path.

I had been intending for a long time to review all of the main tracks and maybe some of the better add-on tracks, maybe I'll finally get around to doing that here.
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby tempAnon093 » 16 Apr 2021, 08:36

FabianF {l Wrote}:Giving Evergreen Forest 1/5 for graphics is just ridiculous. Certainly one of the best-looking addon tracks. Sure there are some parts where there is not more than trees, but it's quite detailed with flowers, the lake etc.

[quote="theodorepringle"]I think that the graphics in Evergreen Forest are pretty good compared to most add-on tracks.
I absolutely agree. It's one of the better looking add-ons, especially good for a first time track! I don't think I can name five other add-ons with either good looking water, particle effects (waterfalls) or that amount of detail (boats, little castle, lilly pads and rocks around the river).
I couldn't give it anything less than a 4/5 for graphics. Sure, I can pick a few textures that can be fixed (most of them are good as of version 2, they're mostly STK assets so they end up going together really well), a few meshes that are too simple and don't meet properly, the 2D plants close to the track and the trees being the same colour, but seriously, this is an outstanding add-on. It's got better graphics than any of mine. With a little bit of polishing, it would be better than a couple of the existing core tracks.

The bumpy road isn't a graphics problem and can be fixed in 10 seconds, I've made a new thread about it. If anyone sees the creator, please send them to that thread.

I liked the pots, simply because very few tracks (core or add-on) have objects you can move. I can understand if you think they are annoying though. The jump is easier now that the waterfall has particles... but I guess that doesn't count for people on low graphics settings!

I do agree with most of the other comments made. I don't see an issue with it being a generic forest track, I'm just glad it's not another Mario Kart clone track!

I gave it a 3 star as soon as I played it, but I suppose a 7 out of 10 is my rating. :)
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby fracture » 16 Apr 2021, 16:12

tempAnon093 {l Wrote}:Linking to some previous review threads:

Reviews for the main official tracks.
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=14486

Here's one for soccer arenas:
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=14506

There's also a Top 10 add-ons thread which is relevant but less detailed.
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=11635
and Alayan's reviews of all official tracks.
https://forum.freegamedev.net/viewtopic.php?t=11374


When I said I couldn't find a thread I meant a thread for all of us to review certain tracks, usually the newer ones. I didn't forget about that first thread you linked to. The original title for this thread was going to be "My thoughts on the track Evergreen Forest" but changed it so I wouldn't have to create more threads like this.

I think that the graphics in Evergreen Forest are pretty good compared to most add-on tracks. There's way too much nitro though, and I don't think that the item boxes right at the start are well placed either. It seems that the alternate paths are about equally fast, which might not be ideal as one path is hidden and more difficult than the main path.

I had been intending for a long time to review all of the main tracks and maybe some of the better add-on tracks, maybe I'll finally get around to doing that here.


That would be a good idea, and the people creating the tracks would benefit from your reviews. Alayan and I already did our own reviews a while ago.
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby tempAnon093 » 17 Apr 2021, 08:57

fracture {l Wrote}:When I said I couldn't find a thread I meant a thread for all of us to review certain tracks, usually the newer ones. I didn't forget about that first thread you linked to. The original title for this thread was going to be "My thoughts on the track Evergreen Forest" but changed it so I wouldn't have to create more threads like this.

Yeah, no problem. I just like having links in case someone wants to see the other reviews as well.
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby fracture » 16 Feb 2022, 17:55

It's been a while since i've been on this forum and I haven't played STK much recently.

I noticed CrystalDaEevee has been improving some of the addons tracks. Industry was already a good addons track but he fixed most of the poor textures and added a skybox and reverse mode. The new music is fine though I didn't have any problem with the old music (which was the default STK theme).

I feel like Lost Chasm, which is already one of the best addons tracks, could be improved a lot just by upscaling some of the textures (I remember there were a few low resolution textures), changing the item positions (one player could get all four nitro cans on one of the turns then the big nitro next to the barrels), and changing the music (which is kinda dated).
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby tempAnon093 » 17 Feb 2022, 01:15

fracture {l Wrote}:I noticed CrystalDaEevee has been improving some of the addons tracks.

It's great to see the old tracks getting attention.
I think a few of the textures in Industry like the road and coloured containers are very glossy/reflective in a way that looks wet or plastic, which I'm not sure if it fits the theme of the track. Also, it looks like the three wooden ramps have far too much slowdown.
I'm glad the normal map on Tollway was fixed, I was about to complain about it ;)
Apart from those, I like the improvements and hope to see more.
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Re: supertuxkart Track review thread

Postby fracture » 11 May 2022, 01:20

I noticed there's been a lot of Speed Dreams ports lately. I haven't played that game but it's nice to see some more realistic tracks in STK, though some of them are pretty long or ridiculously easy (by that I mean most of the track is straight with few turns), though to be fair, they're Speed Dreams tracks, which I think is supposed to be some realistic racing game like Gran Turismo, but like I said, I haven't played it so I can't really judge it.

Screwscraper by Skindoormimiz is one of my new favorite addons tracks. It's pretty much The Cube (another one of my favorite addons) on steroids. It's bigger, longer, has three branching paths, and even more difficult since the AI does well on the track and it's easy to fall off or screw up in some sections. It even uses similar music. My only complaint is the track does go on for too long (2 minutes to complete a lap, could have been 30 seconds less), but the track is more fun to drive on than say, Alpine-2 or N64 Rainbow Road with more variety, a few obstacles, and even a pipe section, and it doesn't get boring pretty easily. I usually like playing 3 laps to drive through each path once.

Also, has anyone heard anything from Sven Andreas Belting lately? I remember he posted a year ago some updates on track revamps/replacements. What happened to him?
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