Tricky Tracks Demo

Community Forums/Showcase/Tricky Tracks Demo

Mark Judd(Posted 2005) [#1]
Following on from this :-

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=54075

A little Christmas gift (pretty poor really!), an interactive WIP of Tricky Tracks.

Unzip following (take care to maintain folder structure).


http://www.wildebeestgames.com/TrickyTracksDemo.zip (2.2Mb)

Pilot your car across the challenging technical course.

Two .exe files are included - one for playing, the other for watching a replay of your most recent effort.

Controls :-

SPACE - Re-set car to last checkpoint passed.
On the keypad - 4 and 6 to steer - 8 throttle - 5 brake and finally 2 to reverse.
[EDIT] New version now also has cursor keys for steering, throttle, reverse and either CTRL key for brake.[EDIT]
ESC to quit session (saves a replay if in play mode)

If you feel adventurous try editing the text file in the /tracks folder to create some new challenges - but be careful - its work in progress so back up the original first !

Thats me away until the new year - have fun and happy holidays to you all.

cheers

Mark

PS On the demo track a time of about 75 seconds is pretty good.......


Hummelpups(Posted 2005) [#2]
???
Looks good but i have no numpad. Notebook.

Can you change or add the control to the arrowkeys?

IMurDOOM

EDIT: Startet and played it on another PC now.



Mark Judd(Posted 2005) [#3]
Sorry IMurDOOM, never occurred to me.

New ZIP now uploaded with modified .exe including support for cursor key steering / throttle/ reverse.

Use either CTRL key for Brake.

Oh - and the times are in Milliseconds (still WIP) so divide by 1000 to get seconds.

cheers,

Mark


Hummelpups(Posted 2005) [#4]
Thanks, cool game. Hope hearing more from this game ^^



IMurDOOM


Banshee(Posted 2005) [#5]
It seems we have a lap record competition on the go, i'll have a play tonight when I get home :).


Geehawk(Posted 2005) [#6]
Great fun!

If a little twitchy in the handling dept. Also I hit the leading edge of one of the side barriers at a very low speed and it threw me backwards at a rather fast pace.

Diagonal parallel bar scan be driven straight over at speed to improve your time ;-)


degac(Posted 2005) [#7]
very very funny! It is a classic case of 'try-another-once-only!' games...I must go to work :P


Ferminho(Posted 2005) [#8]
too hard! but I can't stop playing! lol

104445 is my best time so far, but I can do better!
*continues playing*

(I should be working...)


Paul "Taiphoz"(Posted 2005) [#9]
Its that old ODE problem with the handling tho, if you turn to fast the car just flips onto its roof instead of slideing out a bit.

I recall playing with ODE in the past and the one thing I just could not get it to do was power slide handling for a car. this made it hard for me to really finish the racing game i had at the time, cos turning sharp corners either meant you were on your roof or you had to slow down..

You could get some dfast times on that course if it wasnt for the fact that if you turn to fast the car goes to @#!*.

Other than that tho, I think its a bloody awsome Idea. build in a level editor and it could take off like trak mania.


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#10]

I recall playing with ODE in the past and the one thing I just could not get it to do was power slide handling for a car. this made it hard for me to really finish the racing game i had at the time, cos turning sharp corners either meant you were on your roof or you had to slow down..



Took me ages to find the solution, which wasn't perfect. i effectively place the COG slightly below the car body. it enables you to slide :) I recently said drift too, although if i'm honest you can't hold a drift for more than a second or two, tweaking would fix that, but i dont want to tweak anymore :P


Stevie G(Posted 2005) [#11]
!@$$&^%% .. fell at the same bit 50 times .. sooo frustrating yet very addictive!!

Great stuff but a bit of respite wouldn't go a miss!!

Stevie


EOF(Posted 2005) [#12]
*EDIT

68950 after many attempts. I've only stopped so my keypad can cool down.

My replay - HERE


-------^ read it and weep


DarkMere(Posted 2005) [#13]
Really enjoy this game, I think it has the foundations for something extra special. I found 'Tricky Tracks' demo easier than the 'elevation' demo, I can only get over the jump in elevation once in every ten attempts. When you get to the end of Tricky Tracks, you can turn around and go all the way back again. The checkpoint system still works, but again you have to remember to turn around if you go back to the last checkpoint you passed.

Thanks for the demo's Mark


Braincell(Posted 2005) [#14]
We have a seller ladies and gentlement!


Bouncer(Posted 2005) [#15]
This is a nice one. Keep working on it!


sampyxis(Posted 2005) [#16]
Man - this is really fun and challenging.

Good work!


Bouncer(Posted 2005) [#17]
I want harder test level! give us something! ;)


Banshee(Posted 2005) [#18]
It's very good fun, I think i'd like stronger brakes and the armco rebound seems overtly strong but it is very good as is. I did a laptime of 88275 by not crashing (although coming close!) but when I went to watch the replay it showed a total dissaster (failed at the first jump). It was only 15kb filesize for the whole circuit, does this feature not work yet or did I do something wrong?


big10p(Posted 2005) [#19]
This is kinda fun. Well done. The overall feel of the car was a bit too light for my liking, but that's just a personal preference.

Banshee: I think the replay thing only shows your very first attemp - did for me, anyways. Needless to say, My first attempt was pathetic and I hardly needed reminding of that fact by watching a replay of it. :P


Banshee(Posted 2005) [#20]
I had another go, determined to post a reply file of a sub 90 second time but just missed it because of one mistake - however the replay file worked fine, I just I must have overwrote the 88s replay by accident :/

http://www.bansheestudios.com/ftp/replay.ttr


Braincell(Posted 2005) [#21]
Hah! We have a competition then! I managed 72s in my 3rd complete attempt today. I practiced yesterday tho. Here's a replay:

http://www.johnmanyverse.net/blitz/Lenn72replay.ttr
(remember to rename the file)

Once i nearly got to 66 but i fell out at the last diagonal crossing (i was too excited).

I find it too frustrating to keep trying. Maybe make some corners wider and those fences harder to hit. It gets difficult thinking in 3D all the time, sometimes you should make easier sections (wider, longer, gentler) so we can relax the brain for a moment or two.


Banshee(Posted 2005) [#22]
OK I'm down to 80seconds, only another 8 seconds to find...


Mark Judd(Posted 2005) [#23]
Just fired my laptop up at home (don't normally connect much outside of work) and couldn't resist taking a look to see if anyone had tried the demo.

Thanks for all the comments, but i should point out that this is very much work in progress and it has progressed quite a bit since this version.

There is a much wider variety of track pieces now (some wider, some physics affected, etc) so that adds some depth - also working on a car editor so you can adjust the suspension settings drive, etc

Thanks again for taking the time,

cheers

Mark


Geehawk(Posted 2005) [#24]
Managed an 88, but wasted a lot of time getting stuck on the last angled beams section before the finish.

I reckon I could go much faster if the down arrow was the brake like in the first demo. As it is I keep hitting reverse instead of brake...


Damien Sturdy(Posted 2005) [#25]
Mark,

This is great! You are already in this demo able to hold the car balanced on its front wheels.

Love it!


Genexi2(Posted 2005) [#26]
Anyone else here havin just as much fun as I am making their own tracks for this?

Only thing I find is that the physics are a bit "floaty", the car doesn't have that solid feel for me, makes things like jumps & heading up a slant @ full-speed w/o control issues a nuisance.


EOF(Posted 2005) [#27]



Mark Judd(Posted 2005) [#28]
Thank you all for the positive feedback,

Just a quick update - The track creator is almost complete, there are around fifty pieces in the library at the moment.

Also there is a 'garage' where the cars settings can be adjusted to suit.

A friend has agreed to host a dedicated site where you will be able to swap tracks and replays, should be up after Christmas.

Will post some more demos after the holiday, have a good break everyone (would love to see some of your custom tracks and replays posted).

oh - it might be an idea to name the replay / track the same so that other people can view them...

cheers,

Mark


EOF(Posted 2005) [#29]
Sounds fantastic Mark.

You might want to examine your track peices though.
I see lots of vertex fighting going on in the peices.
Have a look at these shots:

The cracks show up very often.

As you can see from the wireframe shot it seems there are duplicate or overlapping parts of the polygons. The dotted lines in particular show this clash.

Just thought I'd let you know considering you are already up to an impressive '50 track parts'

Q: Are you planning on adding analogue joypad/joystick support. It will work well with this game.

Merry Xmas Mark - Good luck with TT!


Braincell(Posted 2005) [#30]
Jim Brown, youre gonna have to show us a replay of your best time if we are to beleive you ;)

I'm sure he's improving the track peices, this is just a prototype of sorts.


Diablo(Posted 2005) [#31]
owend


have no place to upload replay tho. But if you want to see it give me your email


Pete Rigz(Posted 2005) [#32]
lol diablo, u beat me by 1 millisec!

Replay here

Good fun.


Braincell(Posted 2005) [#33]
Wow pete, i'm not gonna try beat that. Not yet at least.


Pete Rigz(Posted 2005) [#34]
ok one last time hehe...


Replay here


Diablo(Posted 2005) [#35]
i did get a time around that but the replay showed me fulling of the track at the beging , probaly cause its not a true replay.

saw ur replay and i think i must be the only person who goes full power at the start taking the jump from the first ramp. But i'll try and beat this one.


Perturbatio(Posted 2005) [#36]
This is looking good, I agree about the floaty feel of the car, but it's still playable.

I just played around with editing my own track, it's an extension of the original one:



Braincell(Posted 2005) [#37]
Pete. You don't have money to buy real games or something?


polygoon(Posted 2005) [#38]
Biggest thing I'd like to see is support for a logitech momo racing wheel. ForceFeedback would be nice, but I know blitz is a bit lacking in this area, however basic support without the FF would be a most welcome addition. I mentioned this on the other thread, but that is a very old thread now and you may not have seen it.


Mark Judd(Posted 2005) [#39]
Ian,

Yup, wheel support is in, the analogue input makes a huge difference, as does a new on-board camera position.

Look out for a new spangly demo shortly after the new year - physics puzzles (rotating platforms, swinging weights, etc) on board camera, joystick / wheel support and built in track editor.

Mark

Happy new year to everyone.


polygoon(Posted 2005) [#40]
Nice one Mark! Thank you.

Would it be possible to explore having it eat DirectX 7 or 8 models too?

Basically I'm looking to make nice models for it and use it as a skilled "control over speed" type thing. I know it's probably not everyone's thing, but it IS different! ;O)

[edit]
Mark, just mailed you - check inbox for more details.
[edit]