Europe In The Air
- Thread starter Zachary
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I found out something really interesting today from the old BGW blog. Control Engineer Fred Hackworth created a 1/8th scale model of the simulator and made the model mimic the movments of the film for the original settings of the ride.
They made that amazing method, then tossed it out. The program controls now could be compared to using an original Atari joystick while being blindfolded. Same goes for DarKastle. Who's idea was this? Why change such a good idea?
I imagine they changed it since the control engineer isn't part of the engineering team and was actually hired from outside of the park. Plus, the system is much more complicated compared to a simple joystick which would allow the park to change the settings at ease.
So, I know the idea of bringing back Corkscrew Hill has been thrown around a lot on here, but it seems like that would be one of the best (and easiest!) 40th anniversary gifts the park could do at this point. I won't pretend to know anything about ride programming but switching the movie couldn't possibly be that expensive.
They would have to update the ride's footage no doubt. The ride came out in 2001?, and hadn't really been updated. (maybe a few tweaks here or there to programming) So the video wouldn't even be in HD.
As much as I want to ditch EitA in favor of Corkscrew Hill. Video wise, it would not be good. I can't imagine it being easy on the programming side either. That's a huge downgrade in technology.
If they really wanted Corkscrew Hill back, they would have to completely redo it. Which would not be cheap.
As much as I want to ditch EitA in favor of Corkscrew Hill. Video wise, it would not be good. I can't imagine it being easy on the programming side either. That's a huge downgrade in technology.
If they really wanted Corkscrew Hill back, they would have to completely redo it. Which would not be cheap.
if you really wanted a throw back it should be Questor.
Ultimately they really need to shut the ride down and save the money.
Ultimately they really need to shut the ride down and save the money.
Applesauce said:
When BGW closed Corkscrew, the film was "syndicated," I guess you could say, to other attractions throughout the country. So the footage must be good enough for them to play it. And anything is a step up from EitA in terms of video quality.
Considering EitA's movements seem to have been completely changed more than once, it can't be that difficult to re-program. And simulator attractions change their films all the time; not that big of a deal. Also, it doesn't take much poking around the internet to see that the general opinion of the public is that they want Corkscrew Hill back. Since pretty much anything is better than EitA (pretty much every comment about it on Youtube is about how much the ride "sucks"), I think the public would be happy to see a return of Corkscrew. At the risk of angering some people in saying this, I don't think most people would care about a "downgrade" in technology. From a marketing standpoint, it could be a great opportunity to bring people in for a beloved attraction.
Maybe if Corkscrew were never at BGW, and they just threw it in for the first time as a replacement for EitA, then maybe it wouldn't be well received. But nostalgia plays a huge factor in how people receive things (read: singing mushrooms), and I think that because Corkscrew is superior in the minds of so many people, it could perhaps be an easy way to bring people to Killarney.
Let me stop you right there.Joe said:When BGW closed Corkscrew, the film was "syndicated," I guess you could say, to other attractions throughout the country. So the footage must be good enough for them to play it. And anything is a step up from EitA in terms of video quality.
This would be the equivalent of watching the original Toy Story on a movie theater sized screen. It was good for the time created. Of course Corkscrew Hill wasn't a total game changer in how animation is done. But, have you recently watched the original Toy Story in recent years?? It's terrible! The story may still be fantastic, but that animation is clunky, and it's absolutely painful to watch. (The characters are sliding all over the screen, sometimes they feel like they don't have the proper weight to their bodies, Not to mention the countless times fingers and feet go through things they shouldn't be going through.)
"Good Enough" is not something to aim for. When it comes to EitA and video quality, I'm talking pixel aspect ratio and how it was filmed. I'm not talking about shitty power point transitions and the fact that they can't make up their mind if they want to have a faster frame rate, or speed up the images.
You would be playing SD quality images on HD projectors. Things are going to look off. Not to mention the fact that you're gonna get black bars on the side of the images since it's only 480p max.
To get Corkscrew Hill to look good on the projectors we have for EitA, they would have to completely start from scratch. New models, new textures, completely new rigs, and they would have to reanimate every single scene over again. Probably the only thing salvageable from the original would be the audio clips, and even then it might be off. (Though let's face it, they'd probably MoCap the whole thing, like video games so it'd still look terrible.)
Technology has advanced a lot since the early 2000s when it comes to CG animation. And while most people can't tell what exactly is wrong, they will be able to notice something is off.
I don't think it'd be that difficult to reprogram a ride if you're tweaking it. I'm pretty sure to go back to Corkscrew Hill they would have to start over and decide "Okay, what exactly do we want this sim to do?"
Going with the general opinion doesn't exactly help. You also have to remember that this is now a nostalgic thing. It's no different than people complaining about the downgrade in HoS, because it "used to be scarier". Yeah, it was. You were also younger then, and your interests were different, you found different things scary. Lord knows I was a downright mess when I went to HoS when I was younger. Everything scared me. Does that mean I want it to go back to it's "original self"? Hell no. That's a huge, actual downgrade in attractions. The same applies to Corkscrew Hill.
Would the concept and idea of a revamped Corkscrew Hill be a good thing to the public? Yes, probably. I'd see it going over rather well, if done properly. However, the park does not have it in it's budget to do it right.
If you show the audience something that has been missing for years now, where they don't quite remember it properly. And show them exactly what it was, with the original ride motions, they're going to be disappointed. Why? Because it's not as good as their memory said it was. Bringing something back doesn't necessarily make it a good thing.
At the end of the day, I don't see any advantage in doing anything besides gutting the whole building and putting something else entirely in there. None of them were remarkable. It is just levels of meh.
I'd love a good wild mouse or spinner in there.
- Feb 17, 2014
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Thomas said:
Who remembers when there was a spinner in there? I am not sure what the official name was, but I always thought of it as the Scrambler. It was a great place to escape the heat. I swear they kept it 60 to 65 degrees down there!
Geo, the ride you are thinking of is called Catapult and it was located inside Castle O'Sullivan. The simulator building for Europe in the Air is right next to it though.
I love the idea of a flat ride in the room.
Frankly a darkened room with sleeping mats and boxes of fruit juice would be an improvement.
Frankly a darkened room with sleeping mats and boxes of fruit juice would be an improvement.
Just wondering, what is the deal with this simulator? I've heard so many negative things over the past year and a half, and I want to know why it's so mediocre in the eyes of ParkFans?
I love the music...but the ride itself just isn't for me...and motion sickness.
JBusch, It's not just a ParkFans thing. There is quite a bit of dislike from outside these forums for the ride.
As for what's wrong with it, there are quite a few videos on youtube that show the visuals if you want to see it from that point, to make your own judgements on that. I'm sure somewhere in this thread is a clearer video, with out a camera recording a screen. (For the record if you want a quick list, the problems are, the video footage is constantly sped up and then played in real time, then sped up again. And it's a constant stop and go feeling. Combined with PowerPoint transition between the various scenes.)
As for the motion itself, it's jerky. Too jerky. Combining with the stop and go theme of the visuals, it's an easy recipe for motion sickness. I'm not prone to motion sickness myself, and can withstand a lot. But EitA pushes that too far.
For me, there's also the issue of the screen it's being projected on too. Because it's a similar screen to Soarin'. While Soarin' doesn't make me motion sick, it does give me headaches because the screen is too large and too close to me. Plus it's curved, so it can really mess with a person.
As for what's wrong with it, there are quite a few videos on youtube that show the visuals if you want to see it from that point, to make your own judgements on that. I'm sure somewhere in this thread is a clearer video, with out a camera recording a screen. (For the record if you want a quick list, the problems are, the video footage is constantly sped up and then played in real time, then sped up again. And it's a constant stop and go feeling. Combined with PowerPoint transition between the various scenes.)
As for the motion itself, it's jerky. Too jerky. Combining with the stop and go theme of the visuals, it's an easy recipe for motion sickness. I'm not prone to motion sickness myself, and can withstand a lot. But EitA pushes that too far.
For me, there's also the issue of the screen it's being projected on too. Because it's a similar screen to Soarin'. While Soarin' doesn't make me motion sick, it does give me headaches because the screen is too large and too close to me. Plus it's curved, so it can really mess with a person.