cool racing game
Community Forums/Showcase/cool racing game
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| A while back after Leadfoot GT fell through Cygnus released a demo of his latest racing engine which blew me away :). Seemed like a great opportunity reuse the old art assets from LeadfootGT. A couple of days later we had everything up and running. For the next couple of months we refined the technology and came up with what has turned out to be a really nice racing demo. 8 player single player or 4 player multiplayer with up to 4 AI cars using the old Arkon ODE wrapper. We have both been itching to show everyone the game, so here's a 15mb video in WMV format. We may release screensaver a little like the old leadfoot GT one, not sure yet, but it would be good to test compatibility on older hardware.      here's the video: http://s93153354.onlinehome.us/newest.wmv Currently Cygnus is working on Engine 2 which uses JV-ODE wrapper which is far less CPU intensive. Currently we are forced to use a maximum of 8 vehicles in order to run the game on broad range of systems. The New wrapper will allow 48 cars running at the same speed as the current 8 with the Logic FPS locked down at 30fps... insane!!! :) Should be able to improve the graphics considerably then too. In tests with our debugging tool, on my computer with a geforce 3 we can render the entire track 3x at 60FPS and on Cygnus 6800 a whopping 11x. |
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| Really Good. keep the good work! |
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| Looks like fun, nice graphics. I remember Cygnus' original demo - it was pretty good, but the response just felt a bit too nippy. It didn't feel like the car carried any weight or had momentum on turning. It looks like it has been tweaked a bit, but still lacking that real physics feel. |
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| Actually its funny but that video doesn't really show the physics off all that well. Didn't realise till you pointed it out lol. Since I didn't have any way to edit the video, To get this video I played it about 12 times and picked the one that had the least c**kups in my driving. Kind of funny. I think we will be releasing a self running compatibility test demo soon that has the AI racing itself with various camera changes. That would be a better opportunity for people to see the physics in action, and for us to be sure that the graphics and engine are stable. So far we have only tested on a handful of machines. |
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| Can you tell me what you used to record the video clip? I tried using FRAPS but the end result was really jerky. |
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| I used fraps, had the same jerky problem with the captures no matter what I did, so I set the resolution to 320x240 with AA in the ini file, and that seemed to smooth things out a lot. Fraps seems to slow down when rescaling the video on my machine, I even tried a 500mb ram disk to write to instead of the HD with no luck. at 320x240 and capturing at that res I only lost about 3FPS capturing at 640x480 no AA (GF3's arent to good at AA) wasn't too bad but I wanted the best quality with a small download size. BTW, I loved the original Stunt Car racer, going to have to check the one in your sig :) |
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| Currently Cygnus is working on Engine 2 which uses Jedive's ODE wrapper which is far less CPU intensive. *cough* It's called JV-ODE these days Evak :) Those graphics look fantastic, great job. |
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| er heh, lol, sorry Viper :). I keep forgetting. My part in the game development process is mainly art, some gameplay design and engine technology concepts. I actualy corresponded with Jedive in the last couple of weeks and should hav known better ;) |
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| Hey! You're right.. you cant really see the physics that well... *wonders off to tinker* Well, I'm happy with the progress so far. Things are constantly changing, so watch out :) |
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| Thanks Evak - I'll try FRAPS again with those settings. BTW, I loved the original Stunt Car racer, going to have to check the one in your sig :) Cheers, but don't bother with the version in my sig, it's very old. I'm still plugging away at it and it looks totally different now (well, a bit different at any rate). I'll get around to a new demo or video clip soon. I've got a decent Tokamak driving model finally that's pretty smooth and has controllable power oversteer, which is good fun to drift around the long banked corners on the track. I need to build a few more test tracks and see how it copes with tracks like the SkiJump and Drawbridge, but I hope it'll be OK. I'd also like to get some AI racers in there, but I don't know how many Tokamak cars B3D can cope with before it slows down. I might just settle for multiplayer with each PC simulating a single car. Are you 'cheating' with your game and reducing the physics level on distant cars, or do they use full physics all the time? |
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| I should point out by the way, this is using Vorderman's ODE, not Aarkons :) It's using full physics all the time. the AI is controlled using what i just named "Virtual control pads" hehe. Makes for a very realistic feel, or... as real as it can be :/ I'm just not satisfied with the "fake" AI you see STILL in modern racing games. :D [Return of the EDIT] Just remembered playing Toca, looking in the rear mirror and seeing a super-sticky car turn almost on the spot to get back on the road. The AI involved here will use functions to determine which state each button of the cars "virtual" control pad was at, to get them back on the road. Eugh. When that happened on Toca i remember almost wanting a refund! (I'm picky, dont you know...) [Revenge of the EDIT] Oh, and Caff; it was pretty good, but the response just felt a bit too nippy Yeah. I remember, when i released it the FPS code was buggered and it ran a tad quick/slow or stupidly quick, depending on the machine and GFX card, and i think i had the friction up really high. This games been tweaked for fun, easy handling, and the FPS is consistent. |
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| JV-ODE wrapper allows 48 cars running at the same speed as the 8 cars with Arkon's wrapper? |
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| Well, i dont know about that. :P The statement about it using Arkons wrapper is incorrect. It uses the first, original ODE wrapper 9by Vorderman i beleive). Now, the current engine is as optimised as i'm likely to get it, and in the ode version that the original wrapper used, there is only one StepWorld command, the slow one :) I originally converted this engine to Arkons, which was sadly Jerky and unusable. with JV-ODE, its the graphics card that causes the bottleneck not the CPU (on my machine anyway, AXP 1.91ghz) so we can have alot more cars. Not to mention that JV-ODE is alot more stable than the old wrapper. |
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| It's very spiffy! :D |
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| and i think i had the friction up really high Yeah it was very grippy... not a criticism as such, as it can make the gameplay more fun, but it just felt a bit too cartoony if that makes any sense. Still, look forward to a playable demo of this one :) |
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| @Ross C, Caff; Glad you like :) I ripped out the old frame code and actually tought myself how tweening worked.. lol. I think the cartoony feel is still there, as thats how we want/need it to handle. Its is all down to the setup of the cars though and they can be very different. |
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| Very nice. Id say that probably the AI looks way too easy. If your able to get from near last to first in a few seconds, why arn't the computer players able too ? You noticbily had to wait longer than it took you to get to first, with no acceleration, in order for the AI to catchup. Anyway looks superb! |
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| skn3; Yeah, I noticed and took care of that since the video. At least, now, *I* cant just jump to 1st place now, but have to try and will maybe finish 2nd or 3rd. Maybe time to update :) I'd say the AI, next to networking, is the hardest part, because it has to be different for every car, and if i tweak the car handling i need to tweek the AI to compensate. After updating, the AI cars can now see farther ahead and stand a much higher chance of avoiding you even when you drive at them, but theres always that *one* car that loses control or can't "decide" and rams you straight on. It's been great fun programming, but the AI has caused me Many 3am bedtimes... Oh and last night I got the game responding different when wheels touched grass. Looks pretty sweet in my oppinion. I would also like to add that Without Evak, this wouldnt look Half as good, His skill made an instant improvement to the game within hours of starting the project. Although I'm the programmer, Evak knew of techniques i have never used before to do things like shadows and Faster and more efficient collision. So, Here's to Evak. I officially owe him a pint. or, whatever you like to drink. [attack of the edit] Maybe this should be a blog, eh? |
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| ...but theres always that *one* car that loses control or can't "decide" and rams you straight on. Sounds pretty realistic to me. :) |
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| found out that california is 44th on list of states with the most competent drivers, and My town is the worst in all of California lol. can't say I'm surprised though :) |
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| Im nto surprised, If your car really does makes the sound my computer did yesterday. EEEEEEE. |
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| pretty nice demo what exactly is the aim of this project the engines sound more like f1 engines in terms of noise this virtual game pad thing that youre talking about, how exactly does it work, in terms of do you have waypoints that the ai knows about. |
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| the virtual control pads? well, there are waypoints, yes.. and how much "joyx" is for the player is figured out with maths along as weather the car should hit reverse or handbreak. The cars can also see walls and other cars, so even if there are no waypoints, if the cars are facing the right way they'l be able to complete a lap. This is mainly used to help them decide weather overtaking is a good idea or not (if theyre gona hit sand or grass). oh... you cant see sand or grass in that demo :) |
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| I might implement some AI cars for StuntCarRacer - how do your cars 'see' walls and sand/grass? (Not so much of an issue on a raised stunt track but I'd still like to know :) ) |
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| Bit of a trade secret ;) |
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| reading the map info from a colormap would make sense, red for no go areas, yellow sand, etc easy todo |
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| @{cYanide}, Close. Do it with meshes though..... |
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