VSC DB #9 – Wheel traction, Game-pad configuration, collision geometry and more.
(Retrospective November 2015) Hello everyone, we haven't done a blog update for a while, oh the shame! But we are back in the saddle with more updates for you so sit back, relax, and enjoy the read :)
Off Track traction loss: More work was done to refine the driving characteristics of the cars, among the many updates was the addition “per wheel traction”. When any wheel loses connection with the track the traction is also lost, resulting in less thrust. Any thrust that is applied is only where the other wheel remains in contact, resulting in very realistic behaviour. This change made a big difference between tracks with safety kerbs and those without.
Car part labels: We realised that even if we knew what each motor RPM value was, and that the number next to the gears was the number of teeth, you guys might not, so we added new labels and made the existing ones a bit clearer in the store/inventory, more labels to come.
Initial Game start-up: We thought it was wise to add some of the basic configuration options to the initial start-up of the game for the player, so we added language as well as player name for starters, more settings to come
Collision geometry: Until this point we had been using the higher fidelity collision geometry with no options to the player for a less CPU expensive bounding box solution, so we added it. The results are quite good in fact. The collision geometry is automatically created by our Asset Builder so there is no need for a LOD to be made in the model in either case.
AI Driving tweaks: The AI in VSC is designed to be adaptive for handling any car type, parts configuration such as gears, tyres, motors, and all tracks. With so many things to consider the best way was to employ a real time tweaking solution where we could adjust the AI sensors and rate of iteration in game. This really helped speed up the process in debug mode.
Game-pad thrust configuration: Since we now had successfully implemented Game-pad functionality, and we knew different players have different driving styles, we also wanted to offer the player a way to refine and better control their rate of thrust when using the Game-pad trigger, so the options menu was updated to include 3 new types of curves. Square root, square, and linear. Square root offers quicker initial thrust that levels out more as the trigger is pressed, square offers a slower rate of thrust at the beginning which quickly increases as the trigger is pressed more, and linear which offers 1 to 1, 50% trigger pressed = 50% thrust. Later on we intended to provide a similar option for the keyboard controller.
Experience gained: We made a new update to how you gain experience in the that now takes into consideration how many crashes you made during your race, less crashes = more experience ;)
Repair All: The Garage now has a Repair All button, for those of you who might be in a hurry during a race to quickly repair all your items at once. Quite handy if you have plenty of money to spare for the repairs.
Updated AI opponent options: Until now VSC AI were always matching their car parts to your experience level, in that they would always choose the best car parts that were also available to you, even though you may not have bought them or be using them. With the latest option for the AI, you can stipulate for the AI to match your currently selected car parts that you are using or you can allow them to freely choose their best options from the class you have reached, this offers a much wider spectrum of challenge and enjoyment for all we think. You can race against the top of that level with a lower class car, meet them at the same top level of your class, or play at a lower level altogether if you prefer.
Virtual SlotCars URL: Since we plan on making a demo of the game and getting as much feedback as possible, we wanted to make it easy for people to be able to contact us, so we added our website URL in small text to the bottom right of the main menu. Clicking it opens your browser and takes you to http://www.virtualslotcars.com , what could be easier :)
Stay tuned for more updates coming your way soon!
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