Alphaville

You are secret agent Lemmy Caution.  Disguised as Figaro Pravda reporter, Ivan Johnson, your mission is to travel to Alphaville where you must find and bring back Professor Vonbraun, who is really Leonard Nosferatu from the Outerlands.

Alphaville is a dangerous planet on which spies and murderers abound.  Nobody is safe, and no one is to be trusted.  You must avoid the authorities at all cost, steer clear of resident control, and stay aloof from the culture and customs as prescribed by Alpha 60.  Treachery and ambush await around every corner of this emotionless society in which the cold logic of computers rule and determine the human fate.

Upon arrival at your hotel you discover there'll be no rest in this place.  While there you meet Natasha Vonbraun who has been subjugated to a life of menial servitude within the alpha matrix by her father, the Professor, both of whom have fallen under the tyranical control of Alpha 60.  Recognizing the value of Natasha's relation with the Professor, you arrange to meet her for the Gala Reception after you seek out your contact, Henry Dickson, Agent X21 who is staying at the Red Star Hotel, near the mathematical park.

Traveling past the raw materials station and the central palace, the significance of which has not yet become known, you find Dickson in derelict condition at his hotel, which is no less seedy than your contact.  The forces of Alphaville have taken their toll on Dickson who is being urged to commit suicide so that his vacant room may be put to more profitable use.  Indeed, the weakened Dickson has become oblivious to everything around him and can no longer serve as assistant on your mission.  Tired of waiting, the hotel keeper has Dickson killed by devious means, but before he 'expires' you learn of a plan to destroy the outerlands (earth).

You meet Natasha at the Gala where you witness a bizarre rite of execution and learn just how insane Alphaville has become.  But there's no time for that, you persuade Natasha to arrange an interview with the Professor ...but he has no time for you.  So you force him away for a moment where you try to persuade him to return with you.  He refuses and hands you over to the police who take you to the control complex where you are interrogated by Alpha 5.

Your cover is blown.  The computers of Alphaville know who you are and why you came.  Professor Vonbraun recognizes your talents and invites you to join him.  You now realize that he will never return to the outerlands so there's nothing left to do but to kill him and destroy Alpha 60.  You escape the control complex and help Natasha break free of the repressive mechanisms  that hold her prisoner.  Together you pass through the Galactic Corridors where you head home along the Ring Road.  Your mission has not been completed but Alphaville no longer poses a threat to life in the Outerlands.  And you get the girl too :-P

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Expo 2003

This track's theme is rooted in the film version of Alphaville by Jean Luc Godard.  I first got the idea of doing this track when I saw "Black Magic" by Burn, which very cleverly manipulates the track palette in order to create a black and white terrain.  The film is also black and white and uses lighting to stark effect.  I immediately recognized the potential to exploit these two ideas into a new track.  Unfortunately, however, several technical and creative hold ups prevented its completion before the expo.  Chief among these were that a black and white terrain wasn't enough, in itself, to sustain the entire theme. It wasn't until I experimented with backdrops and lighting that I was able to conceive workable solutions.

The theme

A major obstacle to overcome was the fact that Alphaville looks pretty much the same as Earth. To create a course that stays strictly in Alphaville would be to create a track that is indistinguishable from any other city, and thereby deprive it of the uniqueness inherent in the film.  Therefore, in order to evoke an 'other worldness' it was necessary to have the trucks actually take the trip to Alphaville - something that does not happen in the film.  The problem with this is not so much that it strays from the movie (if it contributes to the theme, then so be it; and certainly there's room for artistic license), but rather it was only by resisting an enormous temptation to turn this into a sci-fi track - and Alphaville is anything but sci-fi in the Ed Wood sense of the term - only by resisting this temptation was it possible to hold true to the theme.  A second problem with this space trip is that what I really wanted to do was travel it one time only, then run the circuit around Alphaville.  But alas, that was not to happen either.  The map could not work with a long pre-course, the computer trucks could not drive it, and there would be short cuts everywhere.  So, now, not only must I include a space route, not only must I subordinate it to the theme, but now I must turn the track into a rally in which it is traveled each and every lap.  As you can imagine, coming to terms with these changes caused me no end of grief.

A second, but by no means negligible, obstacle to developing this track was the realization that despite the pleasantness of the film, it's brilliant script, it's artful filming, this is by and large a textual work.  It's highly stylized and, at the same time, hopelessly narrative.  So, even tho there are a few interesting visuals, how is one supposed to drive a course of words?  The solution, of course, was to rearrange Alphaville's geography to follow the unfolding of the story.  To that end, this is one thing, I'm happy to report, that worked out well.  I've managed to hit all the sites with only minor alterations to story and terrain.

Another challenge was the indoor/outdoor dichotomy.  Traditionally, mtm tracks have either been indoor or outdoor, not both.  True, there are a few, but in those cases perspective and proportion usually remain constant.  That would not be the case here.  I think it's safe to say it was this factor that consumed the majority of the time for this track - and apparently time well spent if I can gauge by the testers' total acceptance of incongruous elements placed in close proximity to one another.  For example, consider that the time in the hotel, the gala reception/swimming pool (by the way, that's an execution theatre not a recreation place), and the interrogation room are all inside.  They must be experienced indoors.  Now compare that to 9,000 kms of space travel, the central palace, red star hotel and the control complex (not to mention the Outerland's city).  These are all very much large expanses.  So what we end up with is our trucks becoming alternately monster trucks then toy-sized, then monster again, then toy again.  Of course, if you don't buy into the story or the proportions then you're probably not going to like this track.  But.  If the track succeeds, then I think it's due in part to deliberate design considerations combined with an intuitive sense of perspective - by the maker, me, and by the driver, you.  It is no accident that your time in Alphaville is either indoors or hemmed in by steep walls... both of which contribute to the claustophobia elicited by Alpha 60's despotical reign.  In short, the film addresses abstract concepts through ordinary objects presented in unique ways.  The track no less so.

Then, of course, are the limits of mtm.  This track is extremely ambitious for what it tries to do.  Consider, there are at least ten areas that are completely separate and distinct in appearance.

1. outerlands
2. space travel, broken down into "five" legs
3. alphaville, the planet
4. hotel
5. alphaville, the city
6. mathematical park
7. gala theatre
8. alpha 5's conference room
9. galatic corridors
10. ring road

And if you add the off track areas, we get two more.

11. intersidereal space
12. Grand Omega Minus

Undoutedly there are short comings that arise from the economy such diversity forces on us, but all in all I think the results are livable.  oop, I'm working ahead of myself.  A huge problem I had right at the very end was the discovery that the animated backdrop was incompatible with the pool.  It was the backdrop that made all this possible to begin with.  The trouble had always been how to get rid of the blue sky and weather mask (lens flare was an unexpected bonus) so as to create the dark, sinsiter atmosphere of the film - which was actually more important than just a black and white terrain.   But the pool was vital to convey the 'otherness' of alphaville and was key in determining the course - I had shaped everything before and after it just so it could take advantage of real water with no mtm resistence.  I didn't want to lose either.  The solution, it turned out, was to get rid of the real mtm water and make my own in a flat model.  Thus, no glitches, and the water appears acceptably like water, splash sounds and all.

Related to this was the last big problem.  Toward the end of the flim, there are scenes in which negative images are used.  This just doesn't work in mtm.  The galatic corridor was my fix.  The idea in the film is that the negative images are externalized expressions of Natasha's disorientation resulting from her psycho-emotional divergence from the tenets of alpha 60, so, in the track, the animated textures attempt to assimilate the dizzying effect she is experiencing by thrusting it on the racer.  True, I could've probably come up with something that might make a few people fall off their chair, but I figured if it was too bad then nobody would want to drive the track for the sake of that tunnel.  In both cases, if you can survive the ordeal, the drive along the Ring Road is serene by comparison.

The fun stuff

What can I say, sci-fi underlies the theme so I had to sneak in a little Matrix, Hal, and Star Trek.  A bit of computer imagery to pump up the motif was just for kicks.  And, who knows, Grand Omega Minus may turn into a track one day.  By the way, I've included two versions of the text as well as before and after diagrams in a NOTES folder in the pod.

Summary

I've tried to create a track that runs parallel to the film's narrative.  The track is maxed out on textures, fairly bloated with models and model textures, and it uses over a thousand ground boxes.  The theatre/pool ceiling and water are modeled.  And the animated backdrop gives the track a new look, and should open the door to more backdrop tricks.  And best of all, it hasn't kicked out any errors or caused major lag.  It was a lot of work; I hope you like it.

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Testers

Rep Fan
SLO_COPE
Malibu350
Winterkill
PDR28
My Dad ;-)

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Credits

BigDoGGe
	ZO Headquarters
	MTMG building
	Ceiling fan

Winterkill
	Modified hellbender textures
	Texture template
	People textures
	Track tracks mod file
	Suggestions when I needed them most

Malibu350
	Checkpoint markers and signs
	Space texture tweaks
	Diving board
	Enterprise model

Malibu349
	Binedit alpha

Rep Fan
	Garage
	GSX

MIYH
	Those great road textures

Enocell
	Animals power plant
	taxi

Andy
	hotel counter
	lobby seats
	phone booths

Hellbender & Fly! & evo & Cart & mtm & mtm2
	Models and textures

http://grsites.com/
	a boat load of background textures

Phineus
	Custom models and art
	This readme file, sorry

Anybody else
	Everything I forgot to mention

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Inspiration

Burn
Oliver Pieper
Winterkill
RB II & III
Everyone participating in the expo
Jean Luc Godard

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Phineus
16/06/03










