[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LD7rHgCIXo[/youtube]
If you were deep into rFactor a few years back, there’s no doubt you have heard the name “MadCowie”. Stuart Cowie, better known as “Madcowie” pumped out more tracks than just about anyone. He was best known 
for his off-road tracks but also had a very high ranking (rFactorcentral) asphalt track that was originally created in Gran Turismo, Autumn Ring. As a huge fan of the GT series and with the help of “Lasercutter” who was also a well known rFactor track builder and long time friend of Stuarts, they replicated Autumn Ring to perfection. To this day, it’s still one of the highest ranking mods at rFactorcentral.
Besides the tracks, he did vehicles as well that Shaun and I raced extensively . The ORR trucks were a blast and then you ran them on one of Stuarts many off road tracks.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whNTx9ad_JU[/youtube]
So what happened to MadCowie? After creating all those cool tracks in rFactor (more than 100) he took on a gig working for Simraceway as a track designer. Now.. What does he do ?? Design tracks for a real life racing series ! I caught up with Stuart and asked if he’d be willing to do an interview in writing and here it is.
First up Stuart, great to hear from you and thanks so much for taking the time out of your schedule to answer my questions. So our readers can find out a little more about you, tell us about where you are from, how old you are, etc.
Hi Darin and thank you for the opportunity to take part in this interview. I am 41 years old this month and I am from the Leeds in the UK.
Now onto some industry related questions… How did you get into sim racing ?
I’ve been into racing pretty much all my life when my dad started taking me to the Lombard RAC rally when I was about 6 years old. So having watched it for real I’ve been playing racing games since 1981 on a ZX81. My first proper sim game was Revs on the BBC and having played that for years I eventually moved onto Indy 500 on the Amiga and then onto Indycar and Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix series for the PC. Also other racing games like Monster Truck Madness and Motorbike Madness grabbed my attention and I started making tracks for both of those games.
Assuming part of it was a passion for motorsports, what is your favorite and have you done any real world racing or extreme driving ?
I’ve never driven a car at speed on a race track or done any extreme driving but have wanted to many times over. For me part of the thrill would be to sit alongside someone who is going to scare the hell out of me. If for example I did a track day in a Ferrari or something similar that wouldn’t really do it for me as I would look after it and not drive it to its max. So for me to sit alongside a rally driver on a forest stage would be the ultimate thrill.
What led you to start modding, or to become a developer?
My interest in modding came at a very early stage when games were released with track editors and I could design my own tracks in that game. But then other games came along with community track making programs so therefore the first sim I made tracks for was Grand Prix 2 by Geoff Crammond. I never released any of those tracks as I didn’t have internet back then. But I did manage to track down Paul Hoad who designed that program and one day gave him a call 🙂
You made a lot of really cool tracks for rFactor. Do you know how many ?
I really haven’t a clue but I guess 100+
Here’s a track he built of his hometown of “Pudsley”.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovV3ej6gdho[/youtube]
What was your first and what do you think was your best ?
Can’t honestly remember my first track for Rfactor. I think it was Harewood Hillclimb, but not sure. I remember making a track for Grand Prix Legends called UKUSas1. This track shortly came out after the 911 disaster and it had a theme about it to express how we would together to sort this world out. I dread to think what that track would actually look like now though! 🙂
Do you like doing dirt better or asphalt?
Having grown up around rallying you can’t beat watching a car going sideways. So yes dirt does it for me and when Rfactor came along my ultimate goal was to produce an off road truck mod
And he did !! (video above of ORR Trucks)
You also did some vehicles. Shaun and I had a blast with the ORR trucks back in the day.
Yeah I’ve done a few over the years but not to the greatest of standards. Just basically made them because nobody else was and they interested me. The only car I really enjoyed making was my radio control car as it was sat on my knee whilst modeling it. Therefore I could measure what I liked and get any angle I wanted. Car modeling does generally bore me as its not something you have fun with whilst your making it unlike a track.
If I wanted to find some of your tracks from the past, where would be the best place to look ?
I know some of my tracks appear still on rfactor central but not all of them and I haven’t released anything publically since Autumn Ring many years ago
MadCowies Profile @ rFactorCentral
Click on M, then Madcowie and you will see vehicles and tracks to download.
Also check out this version of my old home track that Stuart did, Willow Springs. Very accurate as I have personally driven on it more than once.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oJndmGXAxk[/youtube]
I have to ask. What the heck is up with this one and it has your Soapbox mod going down ..a Ski Slope ?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOmwEW6YC1Q[/youtube]
I always wanted to make that track as its my favourite downhill skiing track
I assume you ski ?
nope! … But I like extreme sports (watching)
Ok, lets move on to your first full time gig making tracks. After creating all of those, you took on a position with Simraceway,what was your role with SRW?
SimRaceWay came about after Autumn Ring was voted one of the best tracks of the year. Both Lasercutter and myself developed that track in a short amount of time and that track started the ball rolling with SRW. I started off on contract for 3 tracks which eventually ended up becoming full time for around 2 years. So yeah basically I was one of the track modelers at SRW and if they get round to releasing all of the tracks I think I made over 20 tracks for them.
Here’s some images from Cadwell Park and Brands that Stuart scratch built for SRW.
Did they acquire some or all of the tracks you had created for rFactor ?
I think we did some sort of deal on the rallycross mods but as it happens none of that made it into the game. I must admit at times its hard reading some of the users comments on SRW because when you actually know the truth its hard to keep quiet. For example when Mid Ohio was released for SRW everyone was saying its ripped from rfactor. The actual truth on this track is as follows:- I didn’t develop that track but I helped out a lot with it in its process. One day I got that track sent to me and asked my opinion. My reply was it looked great but was very inaccurate. The elevation was all over the place and many places didn’t represent the real life circuit. So with my input and help from looking at videos and I-Racing we recreated the elevation of the circuit. Now where the confusion appeared on the net and a mistake of SRW was the guy who created the track didn’t have much knowledge himself of rfactor and didn’t know how to get a track in game and therefore used Mid-Ohio rfactors file structure. I can definitely confirm that every little bit of it was created from scratch!
How many and which tracks did you do for SRW ?
20+ and helped out with many others along the way.
What happened to your position at SRW ?
Cant really say too much but one day many of us lost our jobs. Must admit was sad to see it go as I had a great time at SRW and got to visit many tracks including Brno, a track in Canada(LOL), a track in USA and many tracks in the UK. It was hard to read the comments on the net about SRW as the communities comments on my work and the amount of tracks I had created helped getting me the job at SRW but at the same time others peoples comments kind of stopped SRW becoming a big success. So its a double edge sword of thank you for getting me the job and thank you for loosing my job 🙁
Tell us about your new career path..
Once again I cant say too much but since leaving SRW I have been very lucky and I am now creating tracks for real life racing series and also tracks that are going to be developed in the future.
How did you find out about that position ?
I had plenty of work coming along before SRW but I took the job at SRW as it was a full time job with a constant income. I’m not a salesman and I don’t enjoy chasing money so therefore it was a no brainer for me. So since leaving I have re-contacted my contacts and got very lucky along the way.
Do you have drivers test the tracks in rFactor ?
I do yes but once again I cant say who as it would give away who I do work for and unfortunately life is full of secrets in this game.
Check this out ! Something he recently uploaded.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-EJ693e-y4[/youtube]
How many real world tracks have you designed and what are you currently working on?
At a rough guess I have worked on 30 to 40 real life locations and sorry cant answer the second part.
Any plans for a new generation track say for rFactor 2 or Assetto Corsa ?
For me Rfactor 2 is still being developed and has improved a lot since its initial release but still suffers with a lot of issues. For example when RF2 came out I think my frame rate was averaging around 15 FPS. To make this run smooth which was around 60 FPS it looked like a game from the 80’s. Since then I have purchased a very high spec machine so I can run it on max but many of the community don’t have PC that capable. As for Assetto Corsa Im looking forward to its release and especially how good its net code is.
Stuart also mentioned to me in chat that someone is working on converting some of his work to rF2
Have you been keeping tabs on the sim racing community ?
Yeah I raced a lot on Race2Play a few months ago when I had free time and recently have been racing at Elite League Racing as a lot of my friends hang out over there. I follow Brisca Stockcars a lot in the UK and therefore can go over to Elite and have a lot of fun when I have free time.
Check out a video from Elite League Racing where Stuart races.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXUJM8FLE1g[/youtube]
Have you considered applying for one of the developers out there ? If so, which would you like to work for ?
Yeah when I lost my job I asked at ISI but nothing as of yet has come from it. I would like to work for a games company but one of my goals would be to create a track for a console. PC games do not have the popularity of the console era and therefore I would like to think that I had developed a track/game for millions rather than thousands. Meanwhile I would like to develop Madcowie Productions into more than just track creation but also more advertising purposes. Having worked with many companies I do see many loop holes and I think I could do a lot more at times. But at the same time trying to find that time to grow currently doesn’t exist.
Which upcoming title do you think has the most potential?
Asseto Corsa I believe but I guess we will know more in the coming months. I hope Rfactor 2 myself but I can still make tracks look better in RF1 than I can in RF2 as they have taken away a few of the editing options. Project Cars looks fantastic but I do agree with alot of peoples opinions on the physics. Its a tough community to please. You have games for kids and for fun and also us Sim boys so I think many options are required.
Who would you like to thank for your success?
Oh a number of people for sure. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for MotoFX in the beginning on Rfactor and then eventually my good friend Lasercutter who still helps me out to this day. It’s still a big learning curve making tracks and every month we have to learn something new, even if we are using an old engine to play it on. Lots of different skills required to make things look better and better. Oh better not forget my other half. Thank you to Amanda who has to put up with my ranting and extremely long working hours. At times a job in this game can mean 12 to 16 hours days, 7 days a week so you need a special person alongside you who can understand why I am sat on the PC at 4am!
Thanks so much Stuart for taking time away from your new career to sit down and answer all my questions, great talking to you as well on Skype recently. Shaun and I both want to thank you for all the killer mods you made for rFactor and we hope to meet you on the virtual or track someday.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to show to the community I’m still alive and all them hours of learning paid off and it just goes to show that you don’t need qualifications to get somewhere in life.
Here’s two never before seen or released tracks by Stuart. They are unlisted on You Tube so click on the link below to view.
Mountain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U54JV7XqMcw
Fisca: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZqXq4VtNf4
Check out another cool feature on Stuart and how he built “Pudsley” the track mentioned above. HERE